Finding her form, at last
Before turning her attention to writing mystery novels, Annette Dashofy tried her hand at a variety of professions – she trained horses, taught yoga and was an emergency medical technician, just one step down from being a paramedic, which she did not long after graduating from Burgettstown High School in 1977.
Decades after the fact, Dashofy’s work as an EMT provided grist for her creative endeavors. While conceding it was a memorable experience “holding someone’s brains in your hands,” she hasn’t drawn upon specific cases for her books. Instead, “the behind-the-scenes life at the ambulance garage is drawn directly from my experience, as well as the emotions that arise from the work.”
And it’s not just the adrenaline rush and the wail of sirens that have made their way into the three “Zoe Chambers” mysteries Dashofy has published over the last two years. In her novels “Circle of Influence,” “Lost Legacy” and “Bridges Burned,” the 30-something Chambers has carried out her duties as a paramedic and deputy coroner in “Vance Township,” a rural outpost teeming with secrets and brimming with skullduggery. Subtract the intrigue, and Vance Township bears a certain resemblance to Smith Township, where the 56-year-old Dashofy has lived her entire life.
“I didn’t want to use the ‘real’ Smith Township because I wanted to move places around and have aspects of other municipalities in it,” she explained. “So Vance Township is a fictionalized combination of Smith, Hanover and Cross Creek townships.”
There’s also a small town, Dillard, that figures into Dashofy’s tales, and that “is a mashup of Slovan and Atlasburg,” she added.
The third in the series, “Bridges Burned,” just earned Dashofy an Agatha Award nomination from the group Malice Domestic, which celebrates traditional mystery novels like those penned by Agatha Christie that sidestep gore, gratuitous violence and explicit sex. It’s the second time Dashofy has been nominated for an Agatha award, the first time being in 2014 when her debut, “Circle of Influence,” was nominated in the Best First Mystery category.
“I was totally shocked and thrilled when I got the phone call,” Dashofy said. “Last year, when I learned I’d been nominated for Best First Mystery, I squealed and danced around the house. This time, I wept happy tears. It’s such a huge honor to be nominated alongside four of my absolute favorite authors.”
But before she ventures to Washington, D.C., this weekend to see if she wins an Agatha, she’ll be preparing for the publication of her fourth Zoe Chambers mystery, “With a Vengeance.” It will arrive next week. The fifth, as-yet untitled entry is in the works and is slated for publication in early 2017.
Chambers works alongside a police chief, Pete Adams, with whom she is frequently in conflict. Chambers first appeared in a short story Dashofy wrote in 2006, and “I decided to flesh out Zoe and Pete from that story. I liked Zoe’s character because of the paramedic and deputy coroner aspect being something I hadn’t really seen in the mystery genre before.”
There are still more Zoe Chambers tales to tell, Dashofy said, so she doesn’t foresee fashioning new protagonists or dabbling in other genres anytime soon, at least when it comes to book-length works. She does occasionally write short stories, and said that she would create more of them “if I had the time.”
And given that many writers consider putting pen to paper – or, more likely, hammering away at the keyboard for hours on end – such a source of torment and frustration, what does Dashofy like about the process?
“I love everything about it. Writing is something I’ve always done in one form or another. I guess I most enjoy getting inside my characters’ heads. It’s an escape from the drudgery of reality. And my mind stirs up all these adventures and complications. I need to write the story to find out how it all works out.”