What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?
I was an anthropology PhD student at Columbia University trying to get funding to do field research. I still am – an anthropology PhD student, trying to get funding, but now I’m in a lot of trouble with my PhD committee because things went south when I went north.
What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?
My curiosity, though it can get me in trouble.
What do you like least about yourself?
My lack of self-confidence. I don’t trust my intuition as much as I should. We grad students suffer from imposter syndrome and it’s worse if you have learning disabilities like I do. I have ADHD and dyslexia.
What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?
She has a thing for geology and snow. She made me ski through boiling fumaroles in Yellowstone National Park, and I don’t ski. Currently she has me dangling from the edge of a glacier in Norway where I am presumably recording the sound of its demise, without meeting my own demise. I’m an anthropologist, I study urban culture and yet somehow, I keep ending up in the proverbial wild.
Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?
She’s a bit obsessed with the idea I’m solving mysteries by using my anthropology training, but it’s neurodiversity that allows me to see the world differently and drives my curiosity. My dyslexia is how I make connections and find trajectories others don’t. My dyslexia is my superpower. I keep reminding her Agatha Christie had dyslexia…it takes her kind of mind to think up these kinds of mysteries, and to solve them.
What is your greatest fear?
Being alone. Not like on or in a glacier alone, but in life, alone. I was the only child of a single mother, and she died when I was in high school, so I have had to create family along the way. I have a best friend, Kit, who is like a sister, but I have a fear of abandonment. See lack of confidence above.
What makes you happy?
A good mystery, a compelling research question, a problem I can solve. I love being deep into a puzzle. And if it involves human behavior, all the better.
If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?
My love life. I am very good at reading signs and people but maybe again it’s this lack of self-confidence, but I cannot read potential love interests.
Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?
Pete, he is so utterly arrogant. Maybe I’m jealous of his self-confidence, his chutzpah and entitlement. I am a visual anthropologist, and I live by a code of ethics when it comes to taking and showing pictures, he’s a photojournalist and flouts those rules.
Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?
Kit. She is intelligent, glamourous, funny, has a great family and is kind.
Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?
She’s an anthropologist. She practices multi-modal anthropology which means she outputs her research in eccentric forms for a scientist: as plays, films, sound art, fiction and even a cozy murder mystery. Her tagline is: In an era of fake news, a little anthropology goes a long way. Learn more about her and her books at her website.
What's next for you?
Montana where you first met me didn’t go so well. Currently, I am writing to you from Oslo, and I'll be honest things aren't going so well here either. Let's just say there's another dead body. You might think it an unfortunate coincidence, but I don't believe in coincidences. Dead bodies repeatedly popping up in my field sites is not exactly auspicious. Maybe the message is to stop going to cold climates, or, to give-up on anthropology. When I was in Montana, I promised Kit I would go somewhere warm next. But we grad students go where the money is. And my author wanted to write a Nordic non-noir. I’m just trying to do some ethnographic fieldwork. I can promise you I will be in a very hot desert the next time you hear from me – Joshua Tree California to be exact.
An Armchair Anthropology Whodunit
Alex is on the verge of dismissal from her anthropology doctoral program when her luck turns, and she lands a fellowship with a dioramist at the Museum of the Rockies. The only problem is, Alex hasn’t a clue about dioramas or dinosaurs, and, as she will soon find out, she’s not the only one faking it in this frozen landscape. From New York City to Yellowstone National Park, we follow Alex, a whip-smart student with dyslexia and ADHD, a Margaret Mead cum Ms. Marple, as she explores friendship, identity, globalization and a murder against the stunning backdrop of the Rockies in winter.
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