When Georgiana Neverall’s hectic high-tech lifestyle goes down the drain, she dumps it all and heads back to Oregon and a change of career – she becomes an apprentice plumber. When she finds a distinctive brooch lodged in a drainpipe, she’s convinced there’s more to the problem than a stopped-up drain. Now it’s up to this plumber’s apprentice to flush out a killer.

Christy is giving away a pair of hand-knit fingerless gloves to one lucky commenter today. Just the thing to keep your hands warm while reading, typing, etc. To enter her drawing, simply answer this question: What is the title of the second book in the Lady Plumber mystery series, and when is it due out?

Welcome, Christy!

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Can we talk? I’ll start!

When I sat down to write SINK TRAP, I knew a little bit about Georgiana Neverall. I knew she was an apprentice plumber, I knew she had a troublesome relationship with her mother, I knew she had owned a high-tech company and that it had ended badly.
What I didn’t know was that I was setting out to write about the changing roles of women in the workplace and the world – but I was.

Georgie is, for me, the epitome of the modern woman: smart, capable of taking care of herself, and not hampered by last-century notions of what roles are acceptable for women. By way of contrast, her mother Sandra embodied all those notions, yet was forced to break the conventions she cherished.

Sandra, raised in a small town where change comes slowly, truly believes in the mid-century model of stay-at-home-mom and devoted wife. Her daughter has a different worldview, and her determination to follow her own compass alternately irritates and baffles her mother.

For Sandra work is a practical necessity, but at the end of the day she still gets her greatest fulfillment from catering to the man in her life. Georgiana isn’t sure she wants a man in her life – bad experiences have made her cautious – but she derives immense satisfaction from her work.

That was one of the delights of writing this book and the two that follow: exploring the relationship between these two women, bound by blood and love, separated by the yawning chasm of expectations.

I am clearly a fan of strong, independent women. After writing two books in the ALIAS series featuring Syndey Bristow, one of the original “kick-ass” heroines, I find myself cheering for any heroine who can do “a man’s job” with style. (Or, like Ginger Rogers, backwards and in high heels.)

But I would love to know how readers feel. Do you like to read about a female character doing an unusual job? Or do you prefer your heroines a bit more on the traditional side? Is a non-traditional job an interesting character trait, or merely a distraction? Or does it even matter to the modern reader?

Your turn – tell me what you think!