I had the desire to write a novel and leaned toward thrillers but struggled with exactly what I wanted to do. People say, ‘write what you know’ and I would think ‘I really don’t know much, at least anything interesting enough for a novel.’ An addendum to that advice should be ‘write what you love.’ While reading through the Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin series by author M.C. Beaton, I had my epiphany. I love reading mysteries, especially series where we get to know and love the characters. Hamish Macbeth is based in the Scottish Highlands and Agatha Raisin in based in the English Cotswolds because those are the areas where MC Beaton lived and knew well. I have spent my life in small-town Montana. It made sense to base my novels here.
All four books are based in a small western Montana town called Anderson. Land Grab opens with the body of the local dairy man found in a grisly murder scene in the bakery and the baker is missing. Later that day, a beloved town patriarch and sapphire dealer is found hanging from his balcony. Eventually, valuable sapphires are found missing from his inventory. In the middle of all that, the Russian mob is in town trying to gain control of prime real estate with a plan of building a high-end resort. The dairy man had been receiving threatening notes and was being harassed by a neighboring rancher in a land dispute. Sheriff Elliott and his deputies struggle to solve both cases as well as find a connection between them.
In Nefarious Intent, an older couple, Frank and Alice, are found tied to kitchen chairs in their home on the mountain and left to freeze to death. Later, their son and his wife are found missing from their home with nothing but a pool of blood left as a clue. There are several possible motives for the murders. Frank was a bus driver blamed for an accident that resulted in the death of three young boys. Alice was accused of embezzling money from the church coffers. Their son Tony seems to be an innocent, but his wife is a greedy social climber. Would she have killed her in-laws for money?
There’s such an aura of romance and mystery surrounding the west, especially in the mountains. So many secrets of days gone by can lay hidden in abandoned mines, and under the ruins of mountain cabins. Outlaws and lawmen, cowboys and Indians, even the women of the west were tough and resourceful. I’ve personally been told stories of bodies that were never found, and murderers who are never caught. In my own family, there’s a true story of multiple murders committed by family members. My great-great grandmother and her sons were arrested but eventually set free. They got away with murder. In one case the body was never found. The only proof to the murder was that my great-great uncle admitted to it while drinking heavily in a local bar.
Life in a small town is so much more intimate than in a city. If you’re one person in a 1,000 people versus one person in 200,000 or even 2 million, it’s harder to stay under the radar. There’s a country song with a line that says, “Everyone dies famous in a small town.” It could say “Everyone lives famous in a small town.” Our paparazzi is everyone in town. Law enforcement is also handled differently in a small town. The local sheriff will often know a criminal personally and be able to deal with a situation before it escalates.
People play a part in society, but no one really knows what goes on behind closed doors. A well-respected leader in a community may go home every night and beat his wife. Children are sexually abused. I knew a woman once who was a closet alcoholic. She was so ashamed of her addiction; she would hide in her basement to drink. Not even her closest friends knew until one day she fell down the stairs and someone eventually found her.
Secrets can also be positive. People may live as paupers and when they die, you find out they have millions in the bank. Or others may do endless charity work, but only behind the scenes and don’t take credit for it.
Yes, although people close to me have been telling me for decades that I should write a book, so there must have been clues of a not-so-hidden talent. In my home as a child, there was a plaque on the wall that said, ‘A singer can always find a song.’ In the same sense, a writer can always find a story to tell, and the words just naturally flow. I love to write and feel the words coming together and falling into place. I don’t think that is something that can be taught and trained so much as a natural inclination. I’ve had to learn some of the rules of writing, but those fill-in as I go along.
I’ve been an avid reader for as far back as I can remember so, in a sense, have been in training studying other author storytellers most of my life. I’ve also been writing real-life short stories for family and friends for years, so it was a natural progression into fiction. Writing short stories taught me to pace the narrative and lead to the surprise ending. For fiction, I have an active imagination. I’m able to play out scenes in my head and sometimes act out physical action so I know the scenes are realistic. I read the dialog out loud to make sure it sounds legitimate.
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Email Kit directly at kit_karson_books@outlook.com.