An Interview with Kelley Kaye





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.
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·        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.






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