Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.
Today: Patricia Loofbourrow is the NY Times and USA Today best selling author of the Red Dog Conspiracy steampunk noir crime fiction series. She has been a professional blogger, author, and editor since 2000 and began writing novels in 2005. Her first published novel, The Jacq of Spades, released in 2015 and has sold over 20,000 copies worldwide. A native of southern California, Patricia Loofbourrow has lived in Moore, Oklahoma since 2005. You can see all her books at pattyloof.com
Thanks so much, Patricia, for joining me!
J. Scott Coatsworth: What do you do when you get writer’s block?
Patricia Loofbourrow: I go do something else. Usually it’s another project, but even just watching Netflix will help.
A block usually means there’s something about the story I’m not seeing, or it’s bringing out something inside me. When I detach from the story, it eventually gets figured out.
JSC: Do you use a pseudonym? If so, why? If not, why not?
PCL: I use my real name for Red Dog Conspiracy, but I have a cozy mystery series under a pen name, mainly because the cozies are a sequel to Red Dog Conspiracy, with people who survive it. Spoilers!!
JSC: Are there underrepresented groups or ideas featured if your book? If so, discuss them.
PCL: Of course. Red Dog Conspiracy’s MC, Jacqueline Spadros, is bi/poly and mixed race. Although race isn’t as much of an issue in my world as here, she’d be seen as Black on any street in America. She’s also an alcoholic, and has PTSD from some bad stuff that happened in her childhood, which involved her being sold to the Spadros crime family at 12.
I also have a diverse side cast – there are very few that are actually white/straight. One of my main side characters has a serious chronic medical condition; another seems to be bipolar. Even though this is set in the far future, I just draw from real life. And real life has colors in it.
JSC: Do your books spring to life from a character first or an idea?
PCL: An idea.
JSC: What inspired you to write this particular story? What were the challenges in bringing it to life?
PCL: I got started writing novels through NaNoWriMo back in 2005. In the summer of 2013, I was trying to figure out what to write when the idea for a genderflipped detective noir came to me. On further examination, I decided this was best done as a series, set in a future society similar to Gilded Age America. So steampunkish!
Trouble was I didn’t know much about film noir, much less noir fiction. So I took an excellent online class in film noir. I’ve seen probably fifty of these movies now, but it really has helped in understanding them.
Marketing has been the biggest challenge. I’m introverted and had no marketing background (or budget), so it’s been a lot of trial and error.
JSC: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
PCL: An archaeologist! I had a fascination with dinosaurs as a kid, but the idea of finding lost civilizations and buried treasure was even more exciting. I still have that love of history and ancient mysteries today.
JSC: What other artistic pursuits (it any) do you indulge in apart from writing?
PCL: I spin yarn, and occasionally do other fiber arts like crocheting and knitting. I used to do a lot of costuming and steampunk cosplay. I also really like photomanipulation, which has come in handy for making my own cover and banners.
JSC: What qualities do you and your characters share? How much are you like them, or how different are they from you?
PCL: I really try to make my characters different from me. I suppose I’m like Jacqui in that I’m multi-ethnic (although because of how pale I am, not many would say I’m Black). But her feelings of not fitting into any of the various worlds she’s part of is something I can relate to.
One theme that comes up in the story is memory. Jacqui has a very good memory, which is not me at all!
JSC: Would you visit the future or the past, and why?
PCL: The future. I want to see what happens.
JSC: What are you working on now, and what’s coming out next? Tell us about it!
PCL: I’m working on book 11 of the Red Dog Conspiracy, which is titled The Jack of Diamonds and releases the end of October.
I do Red Dog Conspiracy differently than most. It’s a 13-part serial novel, not a series of standalones. So you really need to read the first ten before this one.
The overall series is about Jacqueline Spadros, an unwilling mafia wife who lives in a rigid patriarchy – a neo-Victorian city controlled by four crime families: Spadros, Clubb, Diamond, and Hart.
Jacqui has this double life as a private investigator in order to earn enough on her own to escape from her mob boss husband. But in book 1 (The Jacq of Spades) she gets pulled into her first major case, a child abduction, and learns that the situation is much bigger than she ever imagined.
By book 11 (The Jack of Diamonds), Jacqui has undergone some major life changes. It’s become clearer who’s against her, what the stakes are. Her goal right now is to gather enough evidence to both discredit the cabal plotting against her and to exonerate two of her friends who are being scapegoated.
But there are some city-wide problems – infrastructure being the biggest at the moment – that must be solved if the Four Families are going to stay in power.
And now for Patricia’s new book: The Jack of Diamonds:
An unprecedented heat and humidity has fallen upon the city of Bridges. People are dying. Crops are failing. And the Inventors can’t find the cause.
With all she’s learned in our previous chapter, though, Jacqui has what she needs to unravel the conspiracy against the Four Families.
The plans that her old nemesis Jack Diamond has set into motion are all that stands in her way. She’s ready to stop him.
This is the eleventh chapter of a 13-part serial novel:
- The Jacq of Spades
- The Queen of Diamonds
- The Ace of Clubs
- The King of Hearts
- The Ten of Spades
- The Five of Diamonds
- The Two of Hearts
- The Three of Spades
- The Knave of Hearts
- The Four of Clubs
- The Jack of Diamonds <– you are here
- Book 12 coming March 2026
- Book 13 scheduled for March 2028
Warning: gun violence, smoking, harsh language, sexual situations, on-screen murder … same as usual.
Universal Buy Link
Excerpt
His study was in the middle of the downstairs hall, so I went around the upper back hall, and went down the back staircase. The gray-white marble felt cool against my bare fingers, the one bit of comfort in this great lonely house.
Of course, in all this heat, the fireplace and electric lights lay quiet; only a few candles lit the edges of the room.
Tony sat in his chair beside the unlit fire, and when I entered, he gestured to the chair across from him.
A figure hooded and cloaked sat in that chair, head bowed, face hidden.
I laughed, despite how awful I felt. “Is this some test?”
Tony smiled. “It’s good to see you laugh. It’s been far too long.”
When was the last time I’d laughed?
Ah, it didn’t matter. First, the puzzle before me.
The figure was of an adult, but hunched a bit, smaller. A woman?
The cloak was of a thin dark linen that I’d thought was black, but upon moving closer, I saw it was actually a very dark brown. Gold embroidery lay upon the medium brown cloth peeking through the opening of the cloak, far down at the hem. More embroidery, dark brown, covered the cloak’s edges.
The skirts, the embroidery, the cloth … all were of very fine make.
I took a step back. “This can’t be.”
A wry laugh came from the cloak, and I knew.