Kelley Kaye
Death by Diploma 2016
Ms. Kaye,
Thank you for
taking your time for my blog ~
Who are your influences?
My biggest influence is most definitely my dad. He was this
obsessive reader and adventurer who ended up opening the first-ever used
bookstore. He traveled back and forth to that store—Salt Lake to Grand Junction
and back—usually with his knees gripping the steering wheel and a book splayed
across it, for years (true story), and he brought us any books we wanted. He
also brought books HE liked, and shared those as well. My love for YA started
with Madeline L’Engel (our books), and for mysteries started with cozies by
Nancy Pickard, Jill Churchill and Julie Smth (his books) and graduating to more
hard-boiled fare by James Lee Burke and Harlan Coben (also his). He died in
2012, and I found out he, himself, had always wanted to write. I was
heartbroken to hear of this unrealized dream. I hope I can do justice to those
dreams, in memory and in honor of him.
When did you begin writing?
I have always loved writing, the way words can be combined
in so many ways to create so many feelings. Stories can go anywhere I want them
to go. Unlike life, which is much harder to control. I’ve always liked messing
around with words—stories for my Barbie dolls, captions for my yearbook—but I
didn’t really start working on fictional stories and poems until my college
Creative Writing class. I wrote a Sci-Fi story while listening to “Unforgiven”
by Metallica (betcha didn’t know I was a Headbanger from way back…), and my
professor, Charles Clerc, thought it was good enough to enter it into an L. Ron
Hubbard short story contest. I didn’t win, but the process of letting the story
in the song inspire me to write a totally unrelated story was intoxicating.
How do you come up with your
stories, characters, character names, POV, etc.?
I people-watch and eavesdrop. A lot.
Emma was my college roommate and current friend, and Leslie
is one of my closest friends and colleagues from Colorado. The other names are
just random ones I pulled out of my…hat.
The storylines can come from anywhere, I guess—news,
television, myths. I taught high school English and Drama for twenty years,
including Mythology—one of my favorite classes to teach. You can get a lot of
ideas from mythologies and fairy tales, plus it’s SO fun to tell those stories
in the classroom.
POV is tough to decide. I experiment with it all the
time—the Chalkboard Outlines series is Third Person Attached, but the
Foundation series (YA Paranormal) alters between 1st and 3rd
person. And the YA standalone is 1st Person Past Tense, but I think
I want to rewrite it in 1st Person Present.
If you could actually meet one
of your characters, who would it be? Why?
Oh, geez. That’s a tough one. They all contain aspects of me, anyway, right?
Even the killer. So they’d all be like meeting an old friend, kinda. I’d really
like to have lunch with Emma and Leslie, both, so I can see if I can keep up
with their banter and maybe figure out which Shakespeare play they’re quoting.
Oh, and I’d like to have Mrs. Albert be the one who makes our lunch.
Do you work from an
outline?
Ha. I WISH I were
organized like that. No, I take whatever my basic story premise is, combine it
with whichever characters I pick, and then we’re off to the races. It goes
where it wants to. I bought this pretty pink three-ring binder. With pockets.
My intention was (is) to have a section and a pocket for each of my characters,
with journal entries, magazine pictures, objects, anything that would
contribute to my knowledge of the story. Isn’t that a great idea? Another
mystery writer, Michele Scott, gave me that idea. It’s still sitting on the
shelf next to the computer—pretty, pink, and empty. I’m lucky if I can find
pockets of time to do both marketing and writing, much less organizing my life
that way.
Tell me about your favorite
scene in your novel(s).
I like
the before, during and after of any scene where Emma and Leslie are in danger.
They react with much more humor and aplomb than I ever would be able to. I know this because the only time I’ve really
felt like I could possibly be in legitimate danger, I reacted like a scared
little mousie. No heroics. For sure no humor.
Can you tell us a little about
your writing philosophy?
I don’t
know that I have a philosophy, per se. I have a compulsion to write stories or
observations which expand ujpon people and situations. I hope to find an
audience who likes the stories, but I will continue writing them no matter
what, because if I don’t my head will explode.
Have you ever tried writing in
any other genres?
Oh, yes. I have a gazillion projects in the works
right now—a YA Paranormal stand-alone, a first in a YA Paranormal series, and
I’m also trying to finish a first draft of a Humorous Self-Help Memoir. I know
that is not a genre. Yet. This is great for writer’s block, because if one
story is stalled, I just pick up another one.
Do you have any interesting
writing-related anecdotes to share?
The door to publication was opened
to me originally because of a disease. I have MS, was diagnosed in 1994, and I
traveled around Colorado in the mid to late 90’s speaking about my struggles. I
was the local speaker at a WAMS (Women Against MS) luncheon, and the keynoter
was a woman named Jackie Waldman who produced a series of inspirational
anthologies called “The Courage to Give.” I wrote a story for the “Teachers
With the Courage to Give” edition, and that was, as they say, all she wrote!
I’ve been obsessed ever since, although I couldn’t do it full time until
October of 2013, AKA The Time My Youngest Son Transitioned Into Full-day
Kindergarten.
Do you listen to music as you
write?
I have this recording I picked up at a “Write your book in a
weekend” conference. It’s sort of a beach-y, meditative type track with music
and ocean sounds—also coyotes howling in the background. I know, right?
Coyotes? But it puts me in a mind space that helps the words come out, for
sure.
·
·
The benefits of your book for the
reader ?
My goal is for the reader to enjoy all the time (s)he spent
reading the story. I’d like the reader to be unable to put the book down but
then sad when it’s over and also completely satisfied with the way it ended.
Those are my best benefits as a reader, and that’s what I’m aiming for with my
books.
·
Any personal related story compared
with the world of your book ?
The rumor about Martha Bonaventure was inspired by s rumor
that dogged a colleague of mine for thirty years—hers was completely unfounded
(she picked up some drunk teachers from The Flamingo as a favor to drive them
home, and it turned into a rumor that she used to strip there. The rumor never
went away.) Is there any truth to MARTHA’S rumor? Hm…you’ll just have to read
the book to find out!
On the behalf of my readers, I would like to thank you Kelley for your time with us.
On the behalf of my readers, I would like to thank you Kelley for your time with us.
Connect with Kelley Kaye:
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