Ask the Author: Kate White
Answered Questions (17)
Kate White
Oh, Jennifer, you clearly looked inside my mind. Because Bailey really is my alter ego in so many ways. I appreciate you saying that
Kate White
Yes, I swear Bailey will be back one day. Thanks for asking, Ricki
Kate White
I do love all my books, but I especially relate to Bailey Weggins in my series, and also, I have to say, to Emma Hawke in my latest, The Second Husband. Emma is a trend forecaster and I borrowed a lot I learned about that field in my years running Cosmopolitan. Also, I was a very unhappy in my short-lived first marriage, and I know what it’s like to get a fresh chance with a second husband and to hope for the best. Unfortunately for Emma, there are a bunch of things that start to get in her way, big time.
Kate White
Bethany, thanks for that question, but I don’t dare say because, ha, the other books will be mad. But I’m really excited about The Second Husband, out on June ’28. I think the premise is intriguing (the police investigating the death of a first husband while the protagonist is now in her second marriage) and it has some really delicious twists.
Kate White
They are all currently available as e-books. Are you having a hard time finding them? Let me know at kate[at]katewhite.com and I can try to help you.
Kate White
Great question. Yes, there is one. My father told me years ago that when his father, my grandfather, was 18, his own father didn’t come home one day after work and they found his car abandoned. They never heard from him again. Much later, they heard rumors that he was alive but had simply abandoned the family, too, but they never knew for sure. I thought that could be the basis for an incredible mystery. It haunts me a little.
Kate White
It IS hard. Maybe not for every author but certainly for me now that I’ve written a dozen mysteries and thrillers. Unfortunately I’ve already used up a bunch of ideas that were in reserve over the years. I’ve found two strategies really help. One is input. An idea needs to spark off something, so I just try to fill my brain with a lot of new stuff. I go through the big clipping file I have. I spend hours online reading about cold cases. I also just go to lots of museums and art galleries to stimulate my thinking. I once actually got an idea for a plot while at a exhibition about the route Marco Polo traveled to the Far East! The other strategy sounds kind of weird, but it really works. It’s something I heard the writer Laura Day say when she was discussing her book on intuition: “Put the question out there to the universe.” Just something as simple as, “What the heck is my next book going to be about?” It seems to get the subconscious working big time so that your mind takes the hint of an idea when you see something like a single glove lying in the street and then starts to run with it. I got the idea for my next Bailey Weggins mystery after I asked the universe and then saw one word in a news story—though if I told you the word, I’d give away the plot.
Kate White
Often I can point to a specific headline or story or situation that inspired an idea. But for The Wrong Man, my newest suspense novel (June), the concept just literally came to me one day when I was sitting there with a pad and pen. I think giving yourself quiet time each day to noodle over stuff is a great way to make ideas happen.
Kate White
Writing is a great stress reliever for me and so that keeps me interested in pursuing it. For ideas, I keep a fat folder of fascinating crime articles and I turn to it often for ideas. And then there's just life and travel, the greatest sources of inspiration
Kate White
I'm working on a new suspense novel that I hope to have done by the fall, and my new romantic suspense, The Wrong Man, which I'm really excited about, comes out in June. I'm also working on another Bailey Weggins novel.
Kate White
Find your writer's cocktail, the ingredients that will really make you do it. What time of day puts you in the zone (i.e, I write early in the day because I'm useless at night)? What type of desk or workspace makes writing easier for you? What rituals make the words flow (like certain music or lighting a candle). I know it sounds kind of weird, but once I got those things right, the writing came much easier. Also, I'm a big believer in writing every day, even for 10 minutes. It makes it harder to avoid.
Kate White
Now that I've left my full-time job in the magazine business, the best thing about being a writer is the wonderful freedom of working on my own and having no boundaries. As someone I know says, "I guess I've really always been an outdoor cat."
Kate White
Thanks to having worked in the magazine business for years, which doesn't allow for writer's block, I rarely suffer from it. The trick, which I learned at work, is to just get something down even if it stinks, and then go back later and make it better. I interviewed Lee Child (or should I say The Awesome Lee Child) at an event lately and he put it brilliantly: Don't get it right. Get it written."
Kate White
I actually never wrote for the New York Times. Maybe there's another writer you have me confused with.
Kate White
I think so, yes. Some more dangerous than others, for sure!
Kate White
haha. I never base characters on people I know, but I often base them on people I see in restaurants and hotel lobbies and places like that. Then I'll layer in certain traits that are in people I've actually met in life. The trick is to be sure all those traits would work in one person. But over time you begin to see that certain types of people have certain characteristics. Like narcissists.
Kate White
Oh, dear Rose, thanks for asking. I got a bit waylaid but I'm working on another Bailey now. I love that girl and she still lives in my head (I know, sounds kind of crazy).
Best,
Kate
Best,
Kate
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