About Katy King
Katy King lives in Portland, Oregon, and is the author of City of Suspects, a mystery novel featuring Jane Lanier, a sassy former journalist-turned-private eye. Dan Hayes, a book reviewer for the Statesman Journal, has called it the “best first mystery in the last five years or so.”
Katy is President of the Harriet Vane Chapter of Sisters in Crime and is currently writing her next Jane Lanier adventure which takes place in the city of suspects—and Venice, Italy!
Questions for Katy
In this brief interview, Katy is questioned by Carolyn Wood, of Pixelingo, a Portland website design studio.
1. What questions are you asked most frequently at book signings?
1) When do we eat?
2) What's your writing schedule?
3) Are you going to be rich now?
4) Who sets up your events?
5) Is there a lot of sex in your book?
6) Where can I get a used copy for free?
2. Have you always wanted to be a writer?
I was asked this question at a book signing at the King's English Bookstore (delightful place!) in Salt Lake City. I said that I didn't attempt to write a book until I was nearly thirty years old. My sister piped up from the audience and said: "I have to correct you because you're WRONG. I used to snoop through your room and I found a really wonderful story you wrote when you were a freshman in high school." And then, she went on to quote parts of it. I had no idea she snooped through my room. but she was right. I remember I stayed up all night to write the story she mentioned.
3. Was this the first book idea you had—and then you just sat down and wrote it, or did you work on several ideas?
My private eye has always been Jane Lanier and in every single variation of the story it opens with the body on the desk in her office. That said, the book was rewritten more than once.
4. Do you have formal training in writing or are you primarily self-taught?
I majored in English at the University of Oregon and read the classics. My favorites are Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and Jane Austen. But my favorite class of all time was one on private eyes. We read Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Ross McDonald. I was hooked!
5. Are you a fan of mysteries? If not, why did you choose this genre for your first book?
Love 'em! I decided to write a hardboiled American female private eye novel because I was so taken with mysteries written by Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton. I zoomed through all of their books. Rather than pine for their next ones, I decided to write my own.
6. Has anything surprising happened as a result of publishing this book?
Everything surprises me! There were over two hundred people at my book launch party at the Borders store in downtown Portland to cheer me on. They snapped up 241 copies that night. (If you missed the event, I was the one in the black satin evening dress. We also had waiters on hand to serve cake and champagne. To this day, the launch is referred to as my "wedding"). I had several other signings where people packed the stores and I am so grateful. Every signing is a party and every single party has been fantastic!
7. Do you hope to write many more Jane Lanier books?
I've got a thousand Jane Lanier books in me—but not the time to write all of them.
8. Writing, public speaking, and promoting sales—typically one person isn't comfortable with all 3 of these very different activities. For example, writing tends to be a very solitary pursuit. There's a question in there somewhere, and I'd love to know the answer to it.
I find that I'm very different from most authors because I'd rather be sitting at a card table meeting people and signing books than at home writing them. I relish the marketing aspect of publishing and dream of being a best-selling author!
9. While working on the book, did friends and family suggest Portland locales?
Nope! But everyone wants to be in the book. My Dad has always said he'd rather be a private eye than an insurance man. So I made him one since I'm in charge of the universe in my books. While I'm writing, characters and places sometimes just pop up and it shocks the hell out of me. That's part of the fun—and the mystery.
10. Do you receive fan mail?
Since I'm at an undisclosed location in Portland (Elvis says "hi") most of my correspondence has been by e-mail. I've received several hundred of them and not a single one of them was negative. The closest I got was a friendly e-mail from a person who said that Jane Lanier's four door Volkswagen didn't exist. (Another side note: my sister Jane is willing to sell rides in the "cab", as she calls it, for five bucks.)
11. Any advice to people who dream of becoming an author?
I've always known I would be published, I just didn't know when. My advice to writers is not to give up. It took me years to write City of Suspects and years to go through the publishing process. I took a class from Elizabeth Engstrom on the publishing process and she said there are a few things that separate the people who get published from those who don't. The number one thing is persistence. When she wrote it on the chalkboard, I knew then that I would be one of those people who got published.
12. Have you met any famous or well-known people as a result of writing your book?
I'm just back from a Bouchercon conference in Toronto and I had the chance to chat with Sara Paretsky. (Name dropping is such fun!) The best way to meet authors though, is to go to book signings or join organizations like Sisters in Crime.
13. Do you outline first or sort of discover the book as you write it?
My first writing teacher encouraged all of us to discover the book as we wrote it. I discovered that I need an outline.
14. If City of Suspects was made into a movie, who do you picture playing Jane Lanier?
The character looks like my younger sister, Jane, so I always picture the character as her. But Jane is not an actress so I suppose we would need to hire Jennifer Garner.
15. What is your writing schedule?
I work with a writing partner so I always furiously write the night before we meet. That's why the chapters are so short -I like to end on a cliffhanger. Normally, I write a few nights a week and then take up the story again on Sundays. I spend most of my time on rewrites. And that's what I plan to do once we conclude this interview!
16. The last sentence of the book—well, really, the last 3 sentences are great. How early in the writing process did this perfect ending occur to you?
The last few sentences are my favorite, too! And they came to me at the very end of my last rewrite.
17. Any final words?
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of the people who have read my book and attended my events. It is a thrill to meet readers and to convert new people to the mystery genre. And to answer the question I get asked the most: I'm writing just as fast as I can!
