Hello, Callers! Thanks for being here.
We’re excited to welcome back M.E. Proctor to celebrate the publication of her new novel, Catch Me on a Blue Day, out today from Shotgun Honey Press. We talk about the return of protagonist P.I. Declan Shaw, her approach to plotting out mysteries, and why the definition of “hardboiled” might depend on what’s in the pot.
Welcome back! And congratulations on Catch Me on a Blue Day. This is your latest novel featuring Declan Shaw, but the two books don’t necessarily need to be read in order. What should new readers know?
Declan Shaw is a private investigator based in Houston, Texas. In the first book, Love You Till Tuesday, I kept him close to home. Familiar streets, familiar vibes. This time, he’s in New England and he doesn’t know anybody. The only recurrent character who makes an appearance (on the phone or email) is his agency partner, Moira Perkins. She’s running their 2-person shop single-handed while he’s out of town. This isn’t unusual. Declan does his best work in the field, while Moira is great at computer research, background checks, and keeping the enterprise afloat. The two are not romantically involved. Moira’s husband is a Houston PD officer; they have two kids.
Declan has a few quirks: high-heeled cowboy boots and cigarillos. It’s a swagger thing. He never carries a gun. He likes to say that the cases that interest him don’t require one. In the first book, readers learned why he doesn’t like guns. He killed two people in self-defense when he was fifteen. This is not common knowledge (even Moira doesn’t know) and he doesn’t have a record, which is lucky considering all the shit he got mixed up with. Let’s just say that he’s good with cards, locks, and safes. Hectic teenage years. Orphaned at eleven, sent to live with his grandma in New Orleans—really bad stuff happened there—and he got out of town as fast as he could after college. Each book reveals a little bit of his past. He’s a complicated guy.
What was it about Shaw’s story that drew you back to the character? Did you plan on writing a second novel when you finished the first, or was this something that developed later?
I came up with the character ten years ago, out of the blue, and from the get-go I knew he had the shoulders for a series. Don’t ask why I was so sure. Detectives are a dime a dozen out there. I just had too much fun playing in the sandbox with him, and I didn’t care about markets, trends, what was in and what was out. I doubt the first Declan book will ever be published. It was an exploration of the character, a deep dive into what made him the restless, impatient, borderline arrogant guy he is. After three hundred pages, I knew who I was dealing with, he can be a pain in the neck! I sent the manuscript out, not expecting much, and while I waited for answers (or non-answers), I wrote another book, and another … Love You Till Tuesday, now released as Declan Shaw Book 1, is actually Number 4, and Catch Me on a Blue Day is really Number 5. Not that it matters one bit. All it proves is that I’m damn hard-headed.
How did writing this book change your perspective on the character? Were there any surprises to you along the way?
I don’t know if my perspective has changed, it’s what I’m prepared to say about the character that has evolved. In the first book, Declan is mostly heroic, consistent with the Chandlerian canon of the PI as a modern knight in the pitiless city. We can all picture it, in black and white with gorgeous shadows. In Catch Me on a Blue Day, I flipped the script. We’re on the seaside, in a small town, with sailboats bobbing in the harbor. I don’t know if it qualifies as hardboiled, but lobsters cook at 140°F. So the tone is different, looser. And Declan is looser too. He lets himself be bowled over. For a guy who hates losing control, he’s on the wrong foot from beginning to end, and some of it is self-inflicted. I found it interesting to lean into that.
How do you construct your novels? Do you have a good sense going in how the mystery will unfold, or do you discover it alongside your characters?
I usually have a starting set-up. Like this for what I hope will be Declan Book 3: Woman engineers her own disappearance. Declan is hired to find her. She doesn’t want to be found.
That gives me enough to start, a couple of chapters maybe, and I let the characters drive the plot. Around midway, I pause to consider where I’m going and I write a rough outline: what happens next, who does what, a possible ending. I rarely finish where I expect the end to be.
Catch Me on a Blue Day didn’t unfold that way because of the connection to El Salvador that was there from the beginning. I read articles, reports from commissions … to get the dates and the protagonists right. You can’t do this kind of research while you’re writing, I gathered prep material before typing the first line. I had a robust narrative thread going in. There were still surprises on the way. New characters popping up, but I knew what I was after. I had the antagonist and the motive. The climactic ending still came out of left field.
After your last interview with Cold Caller, I got a couple messages from people who resonated with what you said about deciding to “wrestle this writing thing to the ground.” It seems like you’ve done that successfully! I’d love to hear more about that decision—what brought you to that point, and what helped you turn the corner?
Focus. Luke aiming for that pinpoint in the Death Star. Deciding, finally, what I really wanted to do with my life, instead of shooting in every direction. Writing has been a constant in my life, but it only took first place when I decided to put the effort in to get the writing out there. Let’s be frank, that’s the part that sucks to high heaven (the queries, the subs, the rejections, the soul-crushing grind of it), but it’s also the part that gives me the confidence to respond, when somebody asks me what I do: ‘I’m a writer.’ I’m still a bit self-conscious about it, but I’m getting over it.
I write a lot, maybe not every day but it’s pretty close. When I’m not deep in a book—I take a long pause after a first draft, and more pauses between editing stints, to get my head out of the story and stop obsessing about it—I write short stories (different genres, different characters, different time periods), the Substack newsletter every two weeks, guest posts, reviews … I tend to pile deadlines. I have a calendar in my head. This is due in a week, in 2 weeks. Damn there’s a Cold Caller interview that dropped, gotta squeeze it in. I’m kidding, thanks for the invite!
What’s next for you and Declan Shaw? Do you think he has more stories to tell?
Oh, about Declan, I think I answered that … Book 3, next year, maybe …
I also have a beginning of a story that takes place in the West Texas desert. They say it’s a dry heat, right! I also have something brewing with a less than law-abiding family in the Piney Woods. And, at some point, Declan will have to deal with his lousy relatives in New Orleans. I’ll keep him busy.
Me, myself, when I’m taking a break from Mr. Shaw? Some cool short stories coming out soon. A collection of my science-fiction, horror and fantasy tales scheduled for early next year. Maybe another retro-noir written in collaboration with Russel Thayer. We had so much fun in 1950s San Francisco in Bop City Swing, that we’re going for another round on the dance floor. I keep people informed on my Stack, at the Roll Top Desk.
Where can readers order a copy of the book?
Catch Me on a Blue Day releases on September 16 (published by Shotgun Honey Books) and is available in eBook and Paperback. The publisher’s page lists all the options here.
M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. She’s the author of the Declan Shaw detective mysteries. The first book, Love You Till Tuesday, came out from Shotgun Honey. Catch Me on a Blue Day is the next installment in the series. She’s the author of a short story collection, Family and Other Ailments, and the co-author of a retro-noir novella, Bop City Swing. Her fiction has appeared in Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Reckon Review, and Black Cat Weekly among others. She’s a Shamus and Derringer short story nominee.
Sounds like a great hard-boiled series!
Thank you for inviting me back... it was a pleasure to be here!