SUE GRAFTON SPEAKS
...on what her father was like [475k WAV] or [2.8Mb QuickTime] ...on how she'd like to be remembered [300k WAV] or [1.8Mb QuickTime]

November 3, 1999
Web posted at: 1:00 p.m. EST (1800 GMT)

By Jamie Allen
CNN Interactive Senior Writer

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Sue Grafton is so darn modest. When she finished her latest mystery, "'O' Is for Outlaw," she says she thought, 'Well, here's a book with no action and no humor. This is going to go over well. This is a book filled with Kinsey Millhone's personal life. Who's gonna give a rat's butt?'. I thought, 'Oh well, they've been waiting for me to fail. Let them have it. Maybe I'll go ahead and fail and get it over with.'"

"They" are book critics, and it turns out Grafton doesn't know them well at all. She's far from failing. In fact, after having written 22 books, including her wildly popular alphabet mystery series starring Millhone (which started on "'A' is for Alibi" in 1982), it seems Grafton is just getting warmed up.

"'O' Is for Outlaw," published in October, is currently resting at No. 4 on the Wall Street Journal's best-seller list. It's also receiving strong praise from critics.

'My evil twin'

The plot centers around Millhone, the hero investigator in Grafton's mysteries. In this case, Millhone resurrects ghosts of her past when she hunts for answers in the shooting of her first ex-husband, Mickey Magruder. To make matters interesting, Macgruder was shot with a gun registered to Millhone.

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Grafton says she came up with the plot by performing a shakedown on Millhone's past -- not an easy task.

"I had been aware who Kinsey's first husband was," says Grafton. "I knew his name was Mickey Magruder, I knew he was a police officer, that he was 15 years older than she, and she had left the relationship. Kinsey was quick to assure me that the rest of it was none of my business."

Grafton, 59, often does this: She refers to Millhone as if she's living, breathing. That happens when you've been hanging out with a character for over 20 years. Grafton first started writing "Alibi" in 1977, so she considers Millhone to be part of her family.

"I'm her spokesperson," says Grafton, who is quick to point out the similarities between her and Millhone. "We are alike in that we've been married and divorced twice. We're different in that I'm married for a third time and have been for 21 years. I have three kids, two grandchildren, she has none of the above. She doesn't have a plant, she doesn't own a live sponge. She has no pets."

But Millhone does have Grafton's attention.

"I refer to her as my evil twin," says Grafton. "I don't know everything about her. It's sort of a need-to-know basis. If I don't need to know, she doesn't tell me what it is. But I do speak of her in quite personal terms. It sounds a little like mental illness. It is profitable, I'll tell you that."

'I am home'

Fiction wasn't always profitable for Grafton, but her hard work paid off. She says she first started writing -- "short stories and tortured poetry" -- in college. She completed her first novel at 22, but found no publisher. Same with novels two and three.

Novel number four, "Kezia Dane," was published when Grafton was 27. Five, "The Lolly-Madonna War," was published, too, but six and seven weren't.

"So I had a long career of what they call mainstream fiction," she says, "which really just means a book with no plot -- lots of style, no content. So when I got to mystery fiction, I thought, 'I am home.'"

Novel eight was "Alibi." Grafton had finished 65 pages when she sold it, and she had no idea how it would end.

She says, "When they handed me the money, I thought, 'Dang, I better figure it out.'"

Hollywood? No chance

By this time, Grafton was enduring an unsatisfying career in Hollywood, writing television movies. She says it was an experience she would care not to repeat.

In fact, since leaving the Land of Dreams and becoming a successful author (currently printed in 28 countries and 26 languages), she has refused to sell any of her alphabet mysteries to productions companies. Hollywood types try to convince her all the time, which only makes her more determined to stay away.

"They say, 'Oh hon, wouldn't you do it if you could have complete creative control?'" Grafton laughs. "And I go, 'Which planet are you from? In Hollywood, writers never get creative control.'

"I've got 11 books to go," she says, referring to her goal to write a book for every letter in the alphabet. "I can't afford to have them screw me over, which they would be happy to do.

"I have also told my children that when I've gone to the Great Beyond, if they so much as sell one sentence of mine to Hollywood, I'm coming back from my grave," she says. "And they know I can do it. I'm gonna start working on the grandkids, too. They have to understand, blood oaths will be signed on this score."

This is Grafton at her best. She's caustically funny, yet relaxed in front of the camera, a Southern belle whose graying hair still hangs in girlish fashion, implying that the battles of life have not worn her down.

'So far, I'm happy'

When she's not touring her latest book, Grafton splits her time between her homes in Louisville and Santa Barbara, California (which is the inspiration for Santa Teresa, where Millhone lives). Grafton keeps in close touch with her three kids -- ages 39, 38, and 33. She has four cats -- three in California, counting a feral cat, and one in Louisville that she shares with her sister.

She says she writes every day, including weekends, rising at 6 a.m., walking three miles, sitting down in front of her computer at 9 a.m., breaking for lunch at noon, writing more, before breaking for more exercise around 2 p.m.

"I love immersing myself in it," she says of the writing life. "I love it when it works, and what I understand about writing is if you don't do it every day of your life, you are not present when the good moments come along.

"I have to trust that if I do my best work every single say of my life, it will begin to come together," she says.

Currently, her "P" book is coming together. Five chapters are complete, but the title hasn't been chosen. Grafton says she will finish the alphabet series, but only if she remains happy writing about Kinsey Millhone.

"I have vowed that if I ever get bored or burned out, I'll do something else until I get my feet under me again," she says. "So far, I'm happy, which is to say I'm working as hard as I can. I'm really struggling to keep the quality of prose and keep the storylines fresh and original.

"I'm scared all the time, which is always good," she says. "You have to be scared or you're not working hard enough. So for the time being, I am where I belong."