Behind the story of The Influencer by Frankie Bow

Like Professor Molly, Frankie Bow teaches at a public university. That, however, is about where the similarities end. The author of The Professor Molly Mysteries, Frankie believes if life isn’t fair, at least it can be entertaining. The Influencer is the tenth Professor Molly Mystery.

Poking fun at higher education

“The Professor Molly Mysteries poke gentle fun at higher education,” Frankie said. “The budget-cut dance in particular is an endless source of bleak comedy. Your typical state university is getting its appropriations from the legislature reduced every year and they’re not allowed to raise tuition. So universities have to dig down and take less-prepared students in order to keep seats filled and tuition dollars flowing. But the universities can’t afford the academic and financial support those students need. They put off maintenance. And they can’t afford to hire faculty. So they cancel course sections, eliminate small majors, and increase class sizes. So now you have a bunch of students suddenly finding themselves not being able to get the classes or the academic support they need, they look around and see the buildings are falling apart and smell like mold, and all their professors are temporary lecturers so there’s no one who will be around to write them recommendation letters when they graduate and look for a job.”

The good news is that, at least in fiction, Frankie has come up with a way to handle the problem. “In my series, Mahina State University decides that what it really needs is to invest in a Student Retention Office, whose job is to badger the faculty until graduation rates go up. Fortunately, that’s just fiction and it would never happen in real life.”

The Influencer dives into social media

“The Influencer is about social media fame and how it distorts people’s behavior. Professor Molly builds an ‘ohana (a small rental unit) on her property. A social media influencer, looking for somewhere quiet to stay, rents it out. Chaos ensues. The social media influencer phenomenon is new, but the desire for attention is a timeless topic. Aesop’s fable of the mischievous dog reminds us that notoriety is not fame.”

Reality is stranger than fiction

“One thing that always surprises me is that the things in my books that are borrowed from real life are the things that readers are least likely to believe. For example, there are college professors who speak Pidgin. I know one or two. People in Hawaii do sometimes wear stockings, or hoodies, or other things that you might think would be uncomfortable to wear in warm weather. People experience the climate differently. And the tuition-paying-customer-is-always-right approach that I describe in the books is not an exaggeration. I thought the ‘Student Retention Office’ was my own mischievous invention, and in fact I was afraid that it was a little too on-the-nose. But no, go online and search “Office of Student Retention.” It’s real.”

Frankie went to jail…sort of

In researching a scene for one of the Professor Molly Mysteries, Frankie realized she didn’t know enough about the local jail. Determined to fix that, she went to the local police station. “I hung out in the little auxiliary building where they have the holding cells. I was writing a character who had to spend time there and I wanted to get a sense of it. There wasn’t much to see, just a really tiny waiting room with a vending machine, a reinforced door, and a service desk with bulletproof glass. It was not a happy vibe in there. I was glad to leave and walk out into the sunshine.”

Learn more about Frankie Bow at mahinastate.org. Did you like this interview? If so, click here to read more Behind the Story interviews from your favorite authors.