Interview: Kate Brady, author of 'Where Angels Rest'

"Write what you know," the saying goes. But if that were the only way to produce great fiction, then a lot of authors would have to be murderers. Take author Kate Brady, for example. She wouldn't just be a murderer. Based on her books, she'd be a sick and twisted serial killer. Instead, she's an associate professor of musicology and directs a church choir, juggling the demands of motherhood, numerous pets and her fiction writing. She began writing in secret, thinking this strange new hobby would work its way out of her system. But it didn't — and it's a good thing. Brady is now the author of three romantic thrillers, one of them a RITA award winner (One Scream Away). We managed to connect with Brady to ask her how it felt to come out of the closet, as it were, to learn more about Where Angels Rest, her new release, and to find out how such a nice woman can write such horrifying serial killers.

Pamela: It's extremely rare for me to come across an author who hadn't planned since the age of 3 to write fiction. How surprised are you to find yourself working as a published novelist?

Kate: Flabbergasted. This wasn't on my radar screen at all. I never even read novels, so the idea of writing one never crossed my mind. It just goes to show that you never know what direction life might take. One day I was immersed so deep in my career that I was buried in professional journals and research articles, and "pleasure reading" wasn't a concept I understood. How could I take the time to do that when I was four chapters behind in some textbook? But I consider myself lucky that somewhere in those years of one-dimensionalism, a friend convinced me to take a moment and read a novel. What a gift to oneself is reading for pleasure. The writing part is still weird to me; I really have no answer to why the bug to write bit me. I can only guess that writing dry, scholarly stuff took some unknown toll on my creative side. Because from that very first sentence of fiction I wrote (I still remember it; it was AWFUL), I was hooked.

Pamela: You're an assistant professor of music in addition to being a RITA-winning writer of romantic thrillers. I find that to be a fascinating combination. Music, while extremely creative, is also very structured with aspects that can be described as mathematical. And yet you are a pantser. How can this be? Does fiction offer your creative self a place to rebel against structure? Or do music and writing fit together in some way I, as someone who bailed from music theory class, don't perceive?

Kate: Yes, music is a highly creative endeavor, but it also has technical/mathematical components. Oddly enough, I'm probably more a "technical" musician than a creative one; that is, I'm heavily guided by my knowledge of music literacy and theory and by my training and experience as a musician. The answer to why I fly by the seat of my pants in writing, then, is clear: I don't know anything about it, so I can't rely on knowledge to guide me. Now that I'm a few years into it, I've learned the basics about story structure and sequence, character arc, voice, etc. But the truth is, those are tools I find more useful after I've finished a story than when I'm creating it. In fact, I've finally learned to stop trying to use them early in the process, as there's nothing that stalls me more completely than knowing what I'm supposed to write next and how I'm supposed to write it. I can't really explain that beyond acknowledging that it takes a degree of knowledge and skill that I don't possess to write a story according to an organized plan, to craft characters thoughtfully, and to sequence it all correctly. So I just have to create the characters, then sit back and see what they do. I'm not talented enough to control them!

Pamela: Is music important to you when you write? Do you have playlists for different books, or do you need silence?

Kate: I need silence. But that's not just true of writing for me. People are always surprised to find out that I never listen to anything. Not in the car, not when I'm cooking, never. The reason? Music isn't a background thing for me. When I listen to music, I really listen. I mean, I like to have the score in front of me and sit down and really focus on it. It's foreground, not background, and having music playing is always a terrible distraction to me. Going through the mall or having dinner at a restaurant, I'm always aware of what's playing; I'm always analyzing what I'm hearing while trying to pay attention to what I'm doing or to the conversation at hand. So, no, I would never put music on while trying to write! I would never get a word in.

Pamela: Who are your favorite composers and why?

Kate: People ask me this all time, and I've never been able to come up with a satisfactory answer. Same with "Who's your favorite author?" There are so many, and for many different reasons. It's easier to name a handful of composers I don't like so much: Tchaikovsky. Purcell. Monteverdi. Otherwise, I love most all of the greats. I will always go out of my way to hear the choral music of Benjamin Britten, William Walton, and Samuel Barber, but gosh, there are literally hundreds more. I'm very fickle: I love whatever I'm listening to or rehearsing!

Pamela: Raising two teenagers, holding down a teaching job, and fomenting fictional murder and mayhem makes for a busy schedule. What do you do to keep from feeling overwhelmed and going nuts?

Kate: Well, let's be fair. A) My teaching job is now part time, and so is my church job. So in theory, I'm not working full time outside the writing. And B) I do feel overwhelmed and going nuts a good part of the time! But here's the thing: While the big projects routinely overwhelm, the little things keep me grounded. The floors need to be mopped or the family needs dinner or the kids need a ride or the orthodontist needs a phone call or the cat needs a trip to the vet … The list goes on and on. While it would seem to the sane mind that the little, never-ending hassles could send a busy person over the edge, for me, they're the things that are most important. Having to drop everything to drive my son to paintball gives me precious time with him. Setting aside a book project to go shopping for a homecoming dress with my daughter gives us a few hours together neither of us will forget. Making a dinner that we can sit down to as a foursome — that matters to me. Even being sure to take the dog for a walk or let the birds out of their cage every day rates right up there.

No matter how overwhelming the work schedule can be, life goes on. The pesky little life tasks are my touchstones.

Pamela: What a great way to keep things in perspective! You write some pretty sick and twisted serial murderers. How can you be such a nice person on the outside and have these guys living in your head? Or are you secretly planning our gruesome deaths?

Kate: I have no answer for this. I really AM a nice person. I have a loving relationship with my husband and healthy relationships with my kids. My husband and I both love our parents and every one of our siblings and the extended family members all get along. I live in a wonderful little neighborhood with neighbors I adore, and work with talented and diligent colleagues I respect. I can't think of a single soul toward whom I feel ill will, so except on paper, there are no gruesome deaths in the works! I don't know where this dark side came from. I can only chalk it up to wanting to give my hero and heroine something truly harrowing to deal with. I've always said that no one wants to read about a heroine who overcomes a bad hair day. So I guess I just like to make sure she has something substantial to overcome — like a reeeeally awful villain. Likewise, the inner demons. My heroes and heroines usually have some pretty deep wounds torturing them. To me, it just makes for a richer growth arc.

That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Pamela: You direct a church choir. Have your books ever raised eyebrows there?

Kate: You don't know my church! We're a very open-minded bunch. That said, I imagine that behind my back, there probably have been some raised eyebrows, but they would mostly be, "Wow, who knew Kathy was so dark and twisted?" and not any sort of judgment. Mostly, I get "When's the next book coming out?" They're very proud and supportive.

Pamela: That's fantastic. And those kind of raised eyebrows are the best kind. The storyline for Where Angels Rest — a sister fighting to keep her brother from being executed for a crime he didn't commit — grabbed my sympathy right away. What was the inspiration for the story? What can you tell us about it?

Kate: In most cases, I can't identify a specific moment of inspiration for a story. But in the case of Angels, I can. I saw a trailer on TV for a talk show — I don't remember which one — in which a woman had been following her child's molester wherever he moved. She took it upon herself to be sure everyone in the community knew what he had done, basically raising hell everywhere he went. I never did see the show itself — only the trailer — so I don't know any details or even if she was right or wrong. But that was the seedling of the idea for Erin Sims, the heroine in this book, chasing down the man responsible for a murder for which her brother is sentenced to death. In the end analysis, I'm not sure the book still bears much resemblance to the original idea; nonetheless, that's how it started.

Pamela: What can we expect next for the Mann family?

Kate: In Where Angels Rest, Nick Mann is the hero — a small-town sheriff enraged by Erin's audacity in suggesting that his community is hiding a murderer.

Next up, is Nick's brother, undercover FBI Agent Luke Mann. Posing as a drug cartel hit man, he gets thrown for a loop when a beautiful assistant district attorney secretly hires him to commit a murder: hers.

After that comes a third Mann sibling, Alayna, the little sister of Luke and Nick. Looking for a fresh start in life, she uncovers a body buried on the beach and becomes a target for the most Machiavellian serial killer I've ever written: The Sandman.

Pamela: Oh, I get chills just from the name! Thanks for spending time with us today!

Kate: My treat! Thank you so much.

To find out more about Kate and her books, you can visit her website, KateBrady.net.

Pamela Clare is an award-winning journalist and nationally best-selling author of both historical romance and contemporary romantic suspense. She loves coffee, the Colorado mountains, and her two grown sons. Her website is PamelaClare.com.