It’s a cold winter night in Minneapolis and Ellen Hart, mystery writer is taking a break from writing about murder and mayhem. I caught up with her at a coffee shop in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis. Looking just like her picture on the dusk jacket of her novel, Hart has a generous smile and clear blue eyes. She talks easily about her passions: Kathy, her partner of nearly thirty years, her children and grandchildren, and writing. As a child, Hart loved to read mysteries. In 1987 she decided to write one herself. She got about two hundred pages written and realized she didn’t know what she was doing. She immersed herself in the genre by reading the best mystery writers like P.D. James. She took the books apart and learned their structure and pacing. When she read Barbara Wilson’s Murder in the Collective Hart said she felt like she had permission to write the book she wanted to write and not write her own life out of her book. Luckily for mystery readers she pursued her craft. Twenty-four novels later Hart is entertaining mystery readers with two series. The Sophie Greenway series is a culinary mystery and the Jane Lawless series is niche marketed as a gay mystery.

You have won five Lambda Literary Awards for Best Lesbian Mystery, three Minnesota Book Awards for Best Popular Fiction, and two Golden Crown Literary Awards, but you didn’t take a direct route to being an award-winning author. Is it true that you have a B.A. in Theology?
Yes. I have a B.A. in Theology from Ambassador University. What’s a woman to do with a degree in theology from a fundamentalist church? She marries a minister. Since that wasn’t an option for me, I finally decided to go to school to become a chef. I worked as a professional chef for fourteen years before beginning my writing career.

You left that church. Have you experienced backlash being an out lesbian and featuring a lesbian sleuth?
I receive notes from some people who want to argue. When I am on the radio and introduced as a lesbian mystery writer who used to be in a fundamentalist church that seems to be a magnet to the crazies so that they have to call and vent about those issues and say nothing about books. Church is a logical place to find community and I lost that when I left. Becoming a writer has given me one of the greatest gifts in my life, my friends and the writing community.

The Jane Lawless series has a lesbian sleuth. For those of us who have a crush on Jane Lawless tell how you are like Jane?
Jane Lawless is younger, thinner, richer! I’m most like Jane in that I am an introvert, not a loner. I have friends but like Jane not a lot of intimates. Jane is more judgmental than I am. She is not an easy person; she’s driven. Jane ages better. In the series even though we started out about the same age, Jane is now only in her forties and I am in my fifties.

Cordelia Thorn is divine. Where did she come from and how do you compare to Cordelia?
Cordelia Thorn is patterned after my oldest friend, Maureen Wells. She is like family to me. We have known each other since we were getting in trouble talking in class in seventh grade. Cordelia is vivid to me. She has instant friends. She does a quick screening of people not so slow and plodding like Jane. I’m like Cordelia in that we are not quiet and both love to have good party.

Tell us a little about your process for writing a book. I read that you write to title. What does that mean?
Ever since my first book, I’ve written to a title. They always come first. I need to know certain things before I can write the book. I need to know the central crime. I cast the book based on that crime. I need to know each character’s connection to the central crime and to each other. I never know how it will end—I know who did it and why, but not how it will all pull together. I write to find out what happens.

What are the pros and cons of doing a mystery series?
Everything in a mystery must relate to the central plot. There isn’t space for extra information that may develop a character more but doesn’t relate to a plot point. A series is a great way to develop characters over time without distracting readers from the central crime in each book. While the character can develop over time in the series, be careful what you put in your first book. You become bound by those perimeters. Doing two series has given me two sets of friends. At the same time, doing two series makes it difficult to work on anything else.

Can you describe your primary audience?
Anyone who loves a good, traditional mystery. Mysteries are essentially social documents. They reflect the society in which they are written. Today, we have far more diversity within the mystery genre—African American sleuths, hard-boiled women P.I.’s and police detectives, Chinese American sleuths, Native American sleuths, and yes, gay and lesbian sleuths—which reflects an opening up of our society. With the advent of the strong female character in the 1980’s a new Golden Age of mystery fiction was born. We now have much stronger emphasis on characterization. In fact, a case can be made that many of our crime novels have moved from the realm of the Whodunit into new territory—the Whydunit. We’re all fascinated by human motivation. In a sense, mysteries have become our modern morality plays.

As far as my books go, the gay community has been starving to see itself reflected in popular culture. In the past, gays appeared in crime fiction, but they were usually closeted, twisted souls—either the criminal or victim. Today, we have gay and lesbian heroes. That’s important. Because mysteries fall into the category of popular commercial fiction, because they tell great stories that grip the reader, and because they’re entertaining and fun to read, I believe that mystery novels will become some of the most important bridges over which society can walk toward a more complex and mature understanding of what it’s like to be something other than mainstream.

You sometimes get flack from some parts of the lesbian community for not having more sex and romance in your Jane Lawless books. How do you respond to that feedback?
Romance is a fine genre. That being said, I have no plans to write a romance. Whether a person is writing mysteries or romance the writing must be good. I want my characters to be real so they have to have a real life including a love life. And, I want my books to be mysteries. Again, everything in a mystery needs to relate to the central plot. Nobody wants to find Miss Marple in the bushes! There are romances out there for those who want that specific genre. I could recommend Karin Kallmaker’s beautifully written novels.

The Sophie Greenway series has ended. What’s up next?
Night Vision came out December 2006 and I am busy promoting that. Mortal Groove is due out sometime in 2007 and I am finishing the final work with my editor on that. I am also working on a “stand alone” mystery that has nothing to do with either series. I recently completed a screenplay for my novel, An Intimate Ghost. I’m writing more short stories. There are plans for a Lyme House Cookbook too.