Interview with Kate Flora
by Jon Jordan
Kate's Web Sites #1 and #2

October 17, 2001

Jon:  Why do you write under two names?

Kate:  The answer, a familiar one to mystery writers, is marketing. When Ballantine bought Steal Away, which is a suspense novel rather than a mystery, they were trying to create an opportunity for it to be a “break out” book, which the Thea Kozak mysteries hadn’t been. The usual marketing solution is to create a “brand new author” to promote to bookstores, and that author gets a new name. That being said, I rather like the idea of being Katharine Clark, and she’s working on a new suspense novel right now.

Jon:  How would you describe the Thea Kozak series to someone who hasn’t read it?

Kate:  Sometimes it’s fun to let readers and reviews speak for me, since they have a distance on the series that I don’t have, so once I’ve said, “strong, amateur, female PI,” I like to hand the mike to others. Heidi Johnson-Wright, in the Columbus, Ohio paper, The Dispatch, had this to say about Thea: “She’s witty, an excellent judge of character and takes no guff from anyone. She’s acutely aware of the roles women sometimes get caught up in-girlfriend, wife, pleaser, fixer-and she struggles with them… Thea has the complexity of a real woman. We can’t help but care about her.”

I’m trying to make the series one which appeal to readers who like a character with a strong voice and personality, who matures and grows wiser as she handles the situations life throws at her. I think Thea’s relationship with Andre is complicated and real, and so is her relationship with her mother. (Though I do hear from readers who want me to kill her off.) Some of the choices I’ve made about Thea’s character are the result of my objections to things other writers do-so she has a job which really requires her to work, with clients and co-workers and deadlines and demands, and she has a family and all the issues that entails. And her dirty laundry in the trunk of her car, because she never gets to the cleaners. Things in her refrigerator grow green mold, just like ours do. I know it’s working because I hear from readers all the time, from 14 to 84, who appreciate Thea because she seems real to them.

Jon:  How much of Thea is based on you? Are you as tough as she is?

Kate:  People who know me say that Thea speaks with my voice and has my sense of humor. I used to wonder where she came from, but over the course of six books, I’ve realized that she’s probably the daughter I never had, mixed with a bit of wishful thinking. I always wanted to be tall and have curly hair. (People who don’t believe I’m old enough to have a 32 year old daughter ought to see that portrait in my attic.) Even though I used to be a trial lawyer, I don’t think I’m nearly as tough as she is. For one thing, she’s a big strong woman and I’m a smallish person, so she’s a fixer and an advocate in much more physical ways than I am. She genuinely believes she has a duty to help people more helpless than herself. She’s also far more impulsive. Sometimes, when I’m working on a book, I’ll watch her gear up to go do something reckless or dangerous, and, just like a mother, I’ll wring my hands. But she is who she is. I think most series writers come to discover that about their characters-that even though we create them and set them in motion, they have definite, sometimes surprising and unmalleable personalities.


Jon:  Do you find it easier to publish writing non-series books?

Kate:  I might as well get my writerly angst out on the table right up front, Jon. I’m finding it hard to publish anything these days, series or non-series. And not because I’m not writing. I’m tempted to wear one of those “rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated” tee shirts. (On the days when I’m not wearing my Unknown Author shirt.) The last three “block busters” have fallen on deaf ears and blind eyes and the 6th Thea has been tragically stalled on my editor’s desk for years. But a writer has to be an incredible (foolish?) optimist to survive in this business, and so I believe the renaissance of Kate Flora, or her evil twin, Katharine Clark, is just around the corner. I try, when I’m not in the tarpit of black despair, to look at these days as an opportunity to explore my craft, take chances, become a better writer. I’ve really enjoyed mixing it up, writing a series book and then a stand-alone. I enjoy the challenge of sustaining an existing character, and I also like that of trying to get into an entirely new head and new world and struggle to render that new reality.

Jon:  At one time, you worked for the Attorney General in Maine. What other jobs have you had?

Kate:  Well… I’ve been writing for a long time, and it makes me lose track of the other things I’ve done. Who really wants to brag about upstairs-downstairs maid for an eccentric millionairess, or college alumni officer? I oversaw the computer contracting process for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Was in private law practice for a few years, becoming a generalist. Wrote the long range housing plan for the Town of Concord, Massachusetts. And I do a lot of teaching and workshops about the writing process.

Jon:  What made you start writing?

Kate:  Probably, being a reader. I was always in awe of books and the people who created them. I thought it was the most magical thing in the world to be able to create a credible world, then draw people into it and enthrall them. I used to have a hard time coming back to reality from a really good book. When I was a kid, I dreamed of writing, and wrote the usual plays, stories and epic poems, but I was afraid of seriously trying to write for fear I’d discover I couldn’t do it and the world would end. Then I got caught up in early feminism, and ended up going to law school. It was only years later, when I’d decided to stay at home with my sons for a few years, that I finally had the time and the courage to sit down and start writing. I wrote a mystery in nine months, and it was awful. Undaunted, I wrote a second. That took a year and a half, and was worse. But I still wasn’t daunted, so I went on writing, and gradually the books got better.

Jon:  Who are some of your favorite writers?

Kate:  In the mystery world, I can’t wait to get my hands on any new Tony Hillerman or Dick Francis. I like Anne Perry’s Monk series. Think Elizabeth George is a wonderful plotter and love the way she handles her ensemble of characters. I enjoy S.J. Rozan’s series and thing Laura Lippman’s Tess would enjoy meeting Thea. (Who’d whack her upside the head and say grow-up. But that’s what caretakers do.) Dennis Lehane is a hell of a writer. On my short list of favorite books, non-mystery, John Casey’s Spartina, Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, A.S. Byatt’s Possession, Alice Hoffman’s Turtle Moon, Sebastien Japrisot’s A Very Long Engagement, and anything by Jane Austen. And of course, Robertson Davies walks on water.

Jon:  When you write, do you have a schedule I follow?

Kate:  My normal schedule is about 5 hours a day, starting at 7 or 8 in the morning. Then coming back to the book in the evening if I haven’t gotten enough done. When a book is really cooking, I’ll write 10 or 12 hours a day sometimes. Once, just for fun, I decided to respond to all those ninnies who say, “I’ve always wanted to write a book, and sometime when I have a free weekend, I will,” by seeing just how fast I could write a book. I worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day, and in just four short months (not a weekend) I had the first draft of a 450 page book. It was a fascinating, grueling process. At the end of the day, I was too burned out to write a grocery list, never mind converse, but I learn a great deal about myself as a writer and the writing process, and it was fantastic.

Jon:  Do you follow an outline or just “let the book happen”?

Kate:  In the beginning, I followed an outline because I didn’t know how to get from Chapter One to The End. Eventually, I found that trying to follow an outline seemed to make the books feel flat, and I began to let them happen more naturally. I also learned to trust my characters when they wanted to do something that wasn’t what I’d planned. This is something that characters do all the time, and usually results in a better book than what I’ve got planned. However, I do believe in knowing the story before starting a book. Before I type one word on the page, I’ll at least know who the victim is, why and how he was killed, who did it, and who my red herrings are going to be. And I will have spent a month or two planning and plotting the scenes of the book, even if they’re not recorded in an outline. I call this “cooking the plot.”

Jon:  Do you do a lot of research?

Kate:  The amount of research always depends on what the book is about, but all books require some, and “research breaks” can be wonderfully restorative when I reach a plot glitch, or what a friend of mine calls story block. Or when I just need to get away from the desk for a while and have some human contact. Some of the background research is done while I’m in the plotting stage. Then, while I’m writing, I keep a running list of questions which the story raises which will need to be answered before the book is finished. At one point in a book, I was doing research on American sign, on autopsy procedure, and on how to cook Methamphetamine. It made for some very interesting conversations. I think we all realize, as writers, how important it is to try and get it right, and how often it is the small details that make the work feel authentic.

Jon:  How important is a good editor?

Kate:  These days, the author has to practically present a finished book from the beginning, as the slimming down of publishing houses has resulted in less and less editing. However, I’ve had a lot of good advice from my editor at TOR over the course of five books, and much as I hate to see my subplots end up on the cutting room floor (or the author’s outtake file, sometimes even the author’s purple prose file), I know an editor can make a different. I worked with Leona Nevler on Steal Away and it was a wonderful experience. She’s tough and scary and we argued about things, but she’s a great story editor and could often see the forest when I could only see trees.


Jon:  Do you enjoy doing signings and conventions? How important is it to get out there?

Kate:  I don’t enjoy doing signings very much, because they don’t seem to have much value for writers or readers, despite their purpose of selling books. I much prefer the event where there is a workshop or author talk or panel involved, with time for conversation afterwards. Not that I mind going anywhere where’s there’s a pile of my books to sign, I just am much happier when it’s more interactive. Conventions are another matter. I really like the chance to hang out with people who care about mystery writing. It’s no secret that I spend a lot of time in the bar, and it’s not for the alcohol, it’s the company. When I first started coming to conventions, it was a miraculous surprise to discover so many people who shared my life. The writer’s life is essentially a solitary one. I like to say we’re manic depressives. Mostly alone in our rooms, in our heads, and then suddenly,
they let us out and let us talk….and we go wild. I don’t know how important it really is, from a promotions point of view. I do it for the colleagues, and in this group I include writers and readers. As you know, Jon, the people in the mystery world are an awfully nice bunch.

Jon:  If you could take a whole year and do whatever you wanted, what would that be?

Kate:  Since I’m already doing exactly what I always dreamed of doing, and often reach the point it the writing process where I’m truly ecstatic, it’s hard to imagine something else I’d like more. My dream year would just involve some modifications. I’d do my writing in a few different places, lovely, peaceful places, interspersed with vacations, some of which were challenging and physical. And when I was at home, someone else would do the laundry and chores and fix dinner. If I had to make the choice to do something completely different, I’d spend a year learning to write non-fiction, riding a motorcycle, and kickboxing.

Jon:  Steal Away is a very emotional book. When you’re writing something like this, how does it affect me?

Kate:  Great question, Jon. Steal Away made me cry when I wrote it. In order to get the immediacy I wanted for Rachel’s feelings about her missing son, I gave him my own son’s name in the draft stage and then changed it later. When I finished, I reread the book and cried again in all the same places. Then I was talking with another writer who said, “if you read your own work and it makes you cry, you’ve overdone it…..” So I read it again. Had the same reaction. And decided that was exactly right. I feel the scenes very strongly when I’m working. I can see them very vividly and sometimes, when I've finished something highly emotional, sexy or violent, I have to walk away and calm down before I can go on working. Occasionally, I’ll be shaken for days. It’s also difficult to gear up to write those scenes. It’s very important to me to try to get as close as I can to the feelings of my characters.

Jon:  How important is location in your books?

Kate:  One of the very first panels I was on was one about geography in mystery fiction, the effects of location and climate and weather on the story. Until then, I hadn’t really reflected on it much. I’d been doing what they always tell us to do-write what we know. I knew New England. After the panel, I realized how much influence the climate and character of the land has on character in the book, and how differently a character in Southern California may prepare for a drive in January than one in Portland, Maine. I also think that location doesn’t feel authentic unless you know it, or have worked at knowing it, and I know this area. For Death in Paradise, I had to draw on trips to Hawaii and sources on Maui to help me get it right. I think that Thea and her family are New England types. I don’t know if she’d work if I relocated her.

Jon:  There is a real camaraderie in the mystery writers community. Why is this?

Kate:  I don’t know why this is, Jon, but it certainly is true. I’ve always thought it was because we’re all looked down on by the rest of the writing world (the literary fiction world) as “GENRE” writers, so we’ve been driven to stick together. There are few of us who haven’t been asked by someone, often a close friend, and usually in total seriousness, when we’re going to write a REAL book. It is awfully non-hierarchical, and this is one of its charms. At my second conference, I talked with Tony Hillerman, Mary Higgins Clark and Sue Grafton. I still can’t believe that happened, but it was a wonderful introduction into a world which has continued to be generous and kind.

Jon:  What do you think is more important, plotting or good characters?

Kate:  Well, as a character-driven writer, I’d have to say character. But what I really believe is that the two are inextricably linked. That is, if you’re looking for a simple definition of plot, plot is what happens to the characters that matters. One of the most irritating things to me, in a book, is when a character seems to morph in inconsistent ways to fit the demands of the plot. Plot is what grows out of the conflicts between different character’s desires or goals. Over the course of the 17 years I’ve been writing, I’ve changed a lot through the demands of creating character. I used to believe that writers stayed in their rooms, writing, and it all came out of the imagination. But years of trying to get characters write, and of wondering what makes people tick, has made me much more curious, and that curiosity has driven me out of my room to start asking questions. Despite being a lawyer, I used to be very timid and shy. Now the questions drive me beyond that. I need to know so much more so that I can see, and accurately render, the worlds that my characters see.

Jon:  Do you have any thoughts on the new forms of publishing being bandied about? E- books, Publishing on demand and the like?

Kate:  Not really, Jon. I think they offer exciting possibilities. Worry that they lack any sort of gateway function, despite my cynicism about the gatekeeper function performed by the publishing industry. Wonder if anyone ever makes any money, given that the costs of the books is usually so high. And yet, when Willetta Heising talks about how exciting it is to be in control of the whole process yourself, able to apply your own standards and having ownership of the whole thing… and by ownership, I mean a sense of being invested… I find that very exciting. Expect someday soon I’ll try it. After all, I’ve got some books I love that New York seems indifferent to. And I do believe that writers know what their readers like. We’re the ones who’ve been taling to our readers all these years.

Jon:  Do you think the large chain stores have too large of a say on publishing?

Kate:  See my answer to 1. above. It’s clear that the market is too driven by the chain stores. On the bright side, it appears that part of the correction for that is the large number of small presses that have grown up to fill the mid-list gap and keep authors alive that the “BIG” publishers disdain despite a readership. Here in New England, a very brave mystery writer/essayist/pioneer, Susan Oleksiw, and her partner, have started The Larcom Press and are publishing mysteries. And hopefully, the mystery community will continue to function as a community, and recognize and support that.

Jon:  What are some of your favorite movies?

Kate:  I have awful taste in movies. Ask anyone. I love Witness, Black Orpheus, the incredibly trite King of Hearts (I think I’ve seen it 30 times), Silverado and The Princess Bride.

Jon:  Did you do any race car driving to help you with Death Behind the Wheel?

Kate:  Not exactly. I interviewed people who had, and combined that with the experiences of the teenage madmad. (Madwoman?) You can do some pretty crazy things on slick fall leaves on a wet New England night.

Jon:  What’s the one thing always in your refrigerator?

Kate:  Green mold. Closely seconded by securely wrapped chocolate. I’m a chocoholic, so I have to play those games. Lock the chocolate in a box. Put the box in another box, etc. But as anyone with this disability will tell you…there are days when I’d crawl naked through hot coals to get at chocolate-covered rat poison.