Current Issue

Interview with Kathleen O'Connor

Q. How long have you been writing?

A. I've been writing short stories since college and sold the second story I ever wrote to Seventeen Magazine. I was hooked and have been writing short stories and novels ever since. I have three published novels and my stories have appeared in many women’s magazines including, Good Housekeeping and Woman’s World.

Q. How did having a story in Seventeen impact your writing career?

A. It was huge! I got the courage to leave my job and go out to the University of Iowa and study for an MFA degree in Creative Writing. While I was there I was awarded a Michener Fellowship.

Q. What do you write for Good Housekeeping and Woman’s World? Are they mostly non-fiction articles, or do you send them fiction?

A. All fiction.

Q. Do you have any tips you’d like to share with other writers who are interested in breaking into those markets?

A. Unfortunately Good Housekeeping now only accepts work from literary agents but Woman’s World is a well-paying market open to all writers of short fiction. I'd suggest studying the magazine, writing tight (their stories are all under 1,000 words) and being attentive to any advice or comments the editors offer.

Q. For those of us interested in reading your first published story, where can we find it?

A. Unless you have a stack of twenty-five-year-old Seventeen Magazines in your attic, you probably can’t. But my first published mystery short story is in the Fall 2006 issue of The Great Mystery and Suspense Magazine. That can be ordered from their website.

Q. I've read nothing but good things about Great Mystery and Suspense Magazine. I’ve been to their website and am very impressed with what they’re doing. Can you tell us about your experience with them?

A. It was terrific. Vicki Lipira, the editor, is a very warm individual with a clear idea of what works for the magazine.

Q. What first inspired you to begin writing?

A. Reading Saul Bellow and John Updike in college made me want to be a writer.

Q. What types of books do you most like to read?

A. Mysteries -- all types. I really admire Michael Connelly for his gritty realism, Dick Francis for his elegant prose and Anne Perry for the way she makes her Victorian settings so vivid to the reader. I read and studied mysteries for a decade before I tried writing one.

Q. Would it be safe to assume that Michael Connelly and Anne Perry are among your favorite mystery writers?

A. They are. I like Elizabeth George a lot, too.

Q. Have you ever found yourself involved in a real-life mystery?

A. My husband and I once hired a private investigator to find a lost family member. He wasn't successful though.

Q. How many hours per day do you devote to writing?

A. From two to four.

Q. Do you have a writing schedule?

A. I write in the morning and use my afternoons for revising and correspondence. Often I’ll read my morning’s work to my husband before I quit for the day.

Q. How instrumental is your husband in your writing?

A. Very. He understands how important it is to me and often draws on his military intelligence experience to help me with research.

Q. Do you work on one story at a time, or multiple?

A. I generally write one at a time in a three-day adrenaline rush and then spend weeks revising it.

Q. Do you plot your stories, or do you create your characters and then allow them to take control--to lead you through the story?

A. My characters come first and dictate the events.

Q. What's your personal favorite Kathleen O’Connor story?

A. I don’t have a favorite, but I’m very fond of With Harry’s Help, which is in this issue of MFOB.

Q. I’m very fond of that story, as well. What inspired it?

A. Reading Michael Connelly's novel, Lost Light and wondering how a young reader would react to the book.

Q. What is it that you like most about that story?

A. I’m intrigued by David, the twelve-year-old narrator, because he selects Harry Bosch to be his fictional hero when most of his contemporaries are hooked on Harry Potter. I think a lot of us draw on fictional characters to become braver and stronger than we naturally are.

Q. Outside of reading and writing, do you have any other hobbies or interests?

A. I write country & western music. Some of the lyrics are in my new novel, No Doubt. One of the secondary characters in the book is a country singer called Newton Moody. A few readers thought he was real and tried to buy his CD's.

Q. That's the mark of a well-written story. Can you tell us more about your novel?

A. In No Doubt, Joanne Gallagher finds out how perilous attending a Friends of The Library meeting can be. When Library Director Ian Fisher is found dead, her fingerprints are on the murder weapon and her fingernails have scratched the victim’s face. Detective Royal Sun (Sunny) Cloud comes off disability leave to investigate what looks like an open-and-shut case. Complicating his investigation are Joanne's son, also a policeman, her crumbling marriage and the fact that she is an alcoholic in the very early stages of recovery. The New Mystery Reader described it as "Lots of well-drawn characters in a well-told tale."

Q. How does one go about ordering a copy of your book?

A. No Doubt is available as both an e-book and paperback at www.whiskeypress.com or as an e-book at fictionwise.com.

Q. Do you have any marketing tips you'd like to share with aspiring writers?

A. I’ve gotten a lot of help from my critique groups. And I’d suggest joining a national organization for your genre. Belonging to Sisters in Crime has been beneficial to me.