Maggie-Beth Rees
asked
Kate Thornton:
I was fascinated by all the bee information. What drew you to the bee motif as the main mystery? When I was a little girl, I spent summers in Oklahoma. My Great Uncle Clyde raised bees. I learned a lot, but was always a bit afraid they'd turn on me. That's why the whole "killer bee" motif really resonated with me!
Kate Thornton
When I first started writing BUZZ KILL, I lived in a part of Los Angeles County that did not allow beekeeping, so naturally I wanted to do it. I settled for chickens instead and my husband and I raised backyard chickens for several years. But the bees fascinated me. My husband worked at Cal Poly University and I used to go there and explore the hives and talk to the beekeepers and buy the freshly-slung honey. I came to love the little critters, so when I wrote BUZZ KILL, I did a lot of hands-on research. I was delighted - when we moved to Tucson - to discover that the world-renowned Carl Hayden Bee Research Center is right here in my backyard. That sort of clinched the story for me.
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