Lisa Wright with her book ‘Past Secrets.’
MATT CHAPMAN
Staff Writer
Local author Lisa Wright has always wished to share the depths of her imagination with the rest of the world. A lifetime obsession of deciphering clues to solve whodunit investigations has culminated with the nationwide release of her first published murder-mystery novel, “Past Secrets.”
“I was elated,” Wright said. “I actually didn’t believe it when they told me they wanted to publish my story. Something that came from my imagination, that I put on paper thinking no one else was going to read it, and now it’s available nationwide at Barnes and Noble and on Amazon. People are actually reading it. The thought of somebody reading my imagination is amazing. I’m really excited about it and I still can’t believe it.”
Wright, a Salisbury native who grew up in Wilmington and now resides in Vale with her husband, has been an avid reader since a young age. The timeless escapades of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew piqued her interest as a child, but the gripping mysteries woven by Agatha Christie have had the most significant influence on her writing.
“No one can compare to Agatha Christie,” Wright said. “Her technique is second to none. The fact that she throws you off once you think you’ve got it figured out. That’s what I try to portray in my stories, I’ll throw a character in there to keep you guessing. I don’t try to mimic her technique, but I always try to keep it in mind. You want to capture the reader’s imagination so they’ll continue to turn that page.”
Wright, a former academic advisor at the University of Mount Olive, had been gathering ideas for her debut novel for quite some time. However, once she sat down and put those ideas to paper, it only took her three weeks to write the book.
“You have the ending in mind when you begin writing,” Wright said. “Everything else you just build on and you try to capture the reader’s imagination as you do that. I thought about this book for over a year and a half and I always keep a journal so I can make notes if I hear or see something that will help me develop my plot … Publishing was the hard part. I could have self-published, but I’m such a traditionalist I wanted to have someone pick me up and publish me. I thought I would be good enough if someone actually published me.”
“Past Secrets” revolves around a woman living the American dream in a quaint town located along the coast. Wright draws much of her inspiration from her travels and the setting of this story in particular was developed following a trip to the city of Southport near the mouth of the Cape Fear River.
“I absolutely love Southport,” Wright said. “It’s such a quiet town and I have a sick imagination I think. When I went there I’m thinking nothing ever happens in Southport. It’s the kind of town you can leave your doors unlocked and everybody knows everybody. It’s just like the perfect town so I thought it would be a great place to have a murder-mystery take place. I was there for lunch one day and I just got the idea for this character who has lived this perfect life and then gets caught up in this murder.”
The dust has yet to settle on “Past Secrets” and Wright is already contemplating improvements that she can make for her next novel. She says her next release will go much more in-depth, further developing the personalities of her characters now that she has cut her teeth in the business.
“Past Secrets” was released nationwide on Aug. 2. The novel was published by Tate Publishing and Enterprises.
Image courtesy of Matt Chapman
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