Bay Area author Ellen Kirschman is combining her passion for storytelling with her lifelong work as a police psychologist.
The result: a semi-autobiographical mystery series.
On Nov. 26, Kirschman released “Call Me Carmella,” the fifth installment in “The Dot Meyerhoff Mysteries” series. The novel follows protagonist Dot Meyerhoff, a police psychologist, as she helps an adopted teenager find her birth parents.
Silicon Valley is the setting for the Dot Meyerhoff Mysteries, which takes inspiration from Kirschman’s volunteer work with the First Responder Support Network (FRSN) in Napa.
“I can think of a couple of books where the motivation came directly from what I heard from some clients,” Kirschman said.
The series also borrows aspects of Kirschman’s identity. Both Kirschman and Meyerhoff are psychologists, and they experience gender inequality directly. The issue of gender inequality is particularly evident in policing, where only 12% of police officers in the US are women, according to the National Policing Institute.
Kirschman began her writing career with several nonfiction books, including her critically acclaimed debut “I Love a Cop,” written in 2018.
The book is based on Kirschman’s 30-plus years working with cops. Police psychologists like Kirschamn work with departments to assess candidate officers, treat trauma, and teach stress management, according to the American Psychological Association.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What do you want to convey in the Dot Meyerhoff Mysteries about police psychology and police psychologists?
I want to tell my readers what it’s like to be a psychologist working with people who aren’t sure they trust you. Police officers are often not trusting of outsiders, and in particular, a psychologist who might get them fired as unfit for duty. They’re always very concerned about that.
I also want to tell my readers a little bit about what it’s like to be a cop or to be married to one — what the wear and tear of the job is on the officer, the person who wears the badge.
My protagonist is a psychologist, and I do talk about things I understand as a psychologist. I want people to understand what it’s like to wear a badge or be married to somebody who does this dangerous job.
Particularly in my fiction books, people can hear my voice, so I would say the series is semi-autobiographical. I’ve been working with cops for 40 years. As you can imagine, I’ve seen a lot, I’ve heard a lot, and I’ve got a lot of experience.
How do you make your writing accessible to those with little to no knowledge of police psychology while still letting your professional experience guide your work?
In the same way that I write my nonfiction books, I use plain English. I don’t use psychobabble. I don’t use academic terms, and I don’t like writing academic chapters or pieces of work.
You mentioned that you began your writing career with nonfiction. Was writing fiction something you always wanted to do, and what led to the change?
Yes, I think writing fiction has always been what I wanted to do since I was a little kid.
As a kid, I was always acting out stories. Actually, I think my love of stories is why I became a psychologist, because you get to hear a lot of stories from people. My first nonfiction book, “I Love a Cop,” is filled with stories that illustrate points I wanted to make as a psychologist. Telling people stories really makes a book more readable, as opposed to being academic and stuffy.
I got tired of the research involved with writing nonfiction and thought to myself, “Oh, it’s going to be easier to make stuff up.” And it turns out, it isn’t at all. Nonetheless, I was able to learn, and I think my writing has gotten tighter.
Writing my first novel, I had no idea what was going to happen in the end. I think many writers are like that. I’m doing a little bit more plotting ahead now than I used to because it makes it easier when you know where you’re going. You can’t make a touchdown unless you know where the goalposts are, right?
Given your experience working in the area, do you see yourself as a uniquely Bay Area writer? If so, why?
I’m from New York originally, but I’m definitely a Californian. I’ve been out here for close to 60 years. My mystery series is set in the Silicon Valley. It’s set here, but I don’t use this name because I don’t want to identify particular places, so I make up new city names.
I get to take jabs out of the excesses of Silicon Valley. I get to take jabs at the fact that in one book, there is a police officer who can’t get a computer that works and is in the middle of Silicon Valley. I get to take jabs at this department which can’t get a decent computer.
In this last book, “Call Me Carmela,” they do a lot of walking over in what I think of as Half Moon Bay, but I don’t call it that in the book. I call it Moss Point.
What do you think is the role of a fiction writer in turbulent times like these?
Our role is really important.
Now is the time for us to speak our minds about issues, and we can do that using a vehicle of fiction, not to rant or rave. Nobody wants to read a political diatribe. They still want to read the story, but there is a time to address those issues.
In one of my books, I addressed the issue of being a female in a largely male-oriented population, a male-dominated population. In that same book, a white officer kills a black teenager, mistaking a cell phone in the dark for a weapon. I wanted to talk about social unrest. I weave those things in just because they interest me.
We should not allow ourselves to be shut up, and we shouldn’t be banning books. That’s a ludicrous idea. We should be supporting each other.
What advice would you give to young writers?
Read extensively. Read everything you can get your hands on because you learn from the good stuff and you learn from the bad stuff. Find a writer you really like, take notes, and underline.
You’ve got to take people’s advice and have trusted people around you whose advice you like.
For example, I wrote “Call Me Carmela” as a standalone. I didn’t think it would be part of “The Dot Meyerhoff Mysteries.” I gave it to one of my beta readers, who read my rough drafts, and they said to me, “Ellen, this is not a standalone. I think this is another Dot Meyerhoff Mystery.”
I told her she’d ruined my entire life. I had 80,000-something words that I’d written, but she was right. When I went back, I salvaged what I could salvage from the original manuscript and then rewrote the book.
Not all advice is good. So you have to both listen to other people and your own gut.
I think people your age have lots of things that you could be writing about. If I remember, it’s like emotional chaos.
