We are delighted to welcome author Kennedy Quinn to Omnimystery News today.
Kennedy's new first in series mystery is The Last, Best Lie (Five Star; February 2016 hardcover and ebook formats) and we recently had the opportunity to spend some time with her talking about it.
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Omnimystery News: Introduce us to the recurring characters in your new series. What is it about them that appeals to you as a writer?
Photo provided courtesy of
Kennedy Quinn;
Photo credit Jessica MOnte
Kennedy Quinn: My protagonist's name is Madison McKenna, and she could best be described as MacGyver meets Stephanie Plum. On the one hand she's a brilliant young graduate student with mad skills in physics, chemistry and engineering who loves being a science geek. But she's also incredibly restless, always looking for adventure and utterly determined not to end up as some staid university professor or researches like the rest of her family. After the sudden death of her father, she decides to follow in the footsteps of a famous ancestor, the first woman detective hired by The Pinkerton Detective Agency, and become a private investigator. Sadly, while science-smart she is, street-savvy she isn't, and she ends up making naïve and often very painful mistakes. At her side is her boss, hard-bitten ex-New Orleans cop with serious family issues of his own, his much younger and worldly-wise mistress and a couple of bickering beat cops. And there have to be competing love interests. What fun would it be otherwise? There is the handsome bull-rider with a pet bull named Spinal Snap whom they are hiding from local animal authorities. Then there is her love/hate relationship with her boss's rich and powerful ex-partner, who is determined to freeze her out of the investigation and would be happy to have her thrown in jail to do so. And to add another, unusual dimension to her life is her own subconscious that comes to her aid by infusing her dreams with tantalizing and surreal clues.
With respect to what makes these characters interesting to me, first there is Madison. Primarily, I love that she's so feisty. Even when she's at her lowest and most uncertain, she never stops sassing back at whoever tries to limit her or put her down. Along with that she has a dogged determination to succeed; no matter what happens to set her back, she'll find a way around (under or over, if need be) any obstacle she faces. But there was an incident when her stubbornness created real problem for me. I'd originally intended her boss's ex-partner to be a one-off character, only serving as a red herring in the first book. But in a scene that I wrote a scene where she was supposed to be essentially blackmailing him into helping her find her boss's assailant, they suddenly started groping each other. This was totally against my plan. Yet no matter how many times I tried to rewrite the scene they ended up in the same place. I finally gave in and had to re-conceptualize that entire story arc to accommodate their unplanned attraction for each other. But the relationship now is one of the strongest elements in the book. So, I suppose it's not such a bad thing that my protagonist decided to run away with my story, after all.
Last, with respect to Madison, I would also say that I love how completely unashamed she is of being herself. She's a science nerd and is perfectly fine with that. Although sometimes it occurs to her that she's not the coolest person in the room, she just shrugs it off, sasses back at whoever is trying to put her in her place, and generally manages to get the upper hand anyway. In sum, she has strengths and flaws, but, to me, is just another human being trying to get by in a confusing world.
Most of the other main characters in my book were a kind of homage to both other writers, people or even animals that I admire. Madison's boss, Jake, was meant to be a character that could walk right out of the pages of one of my favorite mystery writers, Raymond Chandler or Dasheill Hammett or any film noir. On the outside he's hard-drinking, wisecracking and rough, but he's fiercely protective and a push over for the right kind of woman.
Jake's much younger mistress was a reflection of the kind of women I grew up with: raised in a world of poverty and cynicism, once been beautiful and vibrant they grew old far too quickly. Yet they somehow hold on to the grit and courage needed to take whatever life throws at them.
Finally, Madison's second love interest, Zach, is a mash-up of some of my favorite bull-riders. (Yes, I'm a bull riding fan and that's a story unto itself.) His hardworking, down-to-earth, God-fearing ethics can be both complimentary and at odds with Madison's liberal, academic New England up-bringing. He really challenges her and is the one character that can knock her off her high horse when she indulges in the intellectual elitism to which she was raised.
Last, being an animal lover, I just had to have some four legged friends thrown into the mix. And I could not resist creating a pet bull, Spinal Snap, for Zach who was based on my two favorite bucking bulls, Booger Butt and Little Yellow Jacket. He's more than a minor character too. The consequences of his addiction to waffles end up saving Madison's life in a future novel.
OMN: How do you seem them developing over the course of the series?
KQ: From the moment I conceptualized Madison I meant her to be a character that grows and changes. And it's not just that I want my characters to grow; I think it's absolutely essential, especially in a series that characters evolve. I hate to say it, but there are quite a few of my favorite authors whose series are now onto double-digits and the characters have not really matured or changed since the first book. I can't tell you the numbers of times I've heard once-fellow fans say they've stopped reading a series because the books have just gotten too predictable. That's not the kind of series that I want to write. As such, I have several character arcs planned for Madison that will take her from her an amateur sleuth to a very accomplished and even dangerous private investigator. I even have an apprentice waiting in the wings several books down the road who will have to pull her back to herself when she strays too far from her own center as a person.
And, even though my books are meant to have a very humorous side, there are always deeper, serious themes underlying all my plots that I plant to use as story arcs. In the first book, I explore the deadly consequences of guilt and self-delusion. In fact, the title of the book, The Last, Best Lie refers to the killer turning an internal pity-party into justification for murder. Other future arcs include dealing with life changes that are disorienting (become a step parent to someone your own age), heart wrenching (watching someone you love struggle through cancer) and even esoteric (the tension between science and religion).
Of course, at the same time, there has to be some continuity in the characters as well. One of the greatest tragedies that can befall a marriage is for one person to change so greatly that it utterly destroys the relationship. The same thing can happen in a series. So, while I want my characters to evolve as real people do, I don't ever want them to change so drastically that the reader decides to "divorce" my series. Maintaining a balance between letting the characters grow as real people, without their becoming so different that they lose what about them attracted readers in the first place, is going to be a real challenge.
OMN: Tell us something about The Last, Best Lie that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.
KQ: I draw my inspiration for the gadgets that my "female MacGyver" uses in the series from real experience. (Although I don't always give complete details as some of the devices could be quite dangerous). This practice has proven a bit problematic on occasion. For example, in order for Madison to save the life of one of her love interests, I had her make a weapon out of what was in his pockets, which happened to be car keys and condoms. I had to make certain that the device would actually hold together when thrown. So I made it and decided to throw it at the calendar on the wall, across from my desk. Unfortunately, as I'm prone to say, I throw like a girl and catch like a blind girl. I missed the calendar. And it happens, the lubricant from the condoms wouldn't wash off the wall and I had to repaint the room. But, I was sick of the color anyway, so I suppose it was no real loss.
OMN: Describe your writing process for us.
KQ: Being that I have a very busy day job, I write wherever, whenever and however I can. I dictate my book into a digital recorder while I'm exercising in the morning and upload it to my voice recognition software. I edit and refine the book at every opportunity available. I've worked on my book on my laptop while waiting in the doctor's office, getting a pedicure, on airplanes and in hotel rooms. I even finished a chapter once while sitting on my luggage outside the airport in Bangkok. My ride had to circle the airport three times because I had my head down over my iPad and wasn't watching for her.
OMN: And if you weren't traveling, where might we find you writing?
KQ: In a perfect world, it would be in my office, with the cat purring at the end of the desk, the dog snoozing in her bed under the desk and a nice glass of Bourbon and plate of fine Swiss chocolate at my elbow. That said, recently my cat hacked up a hairball near my feet which my sent my puppy into a flurry of barking. I cleaned the mess up, took a swig of the reasonably nice merlot I was given at Christmas and finished a Hershey bar. Not perfect maybe, but it's my life and I'm good with it.
OMN: What are some of your outside interests?
KQ: My major interest is actually my "day job." I am a scientist by profession and I, frankly, love it. This joy at being a scientist is something that Madison and I share, of course. But becoming a scientist wasn't easy for me. I grew up in the early years of women's lib, when society still treated women as intellectually inferior to men. I also grew up in poverty, spending much of my childhood on welfare. I was frequently told that as "poor white trash" I would never amount to anything, much less become a scientist. While I've proven them wrong, I've never forgotten the sting of rejection or my frustration and anger at people trying to limit me based on their narrow-minded outlook on life. While things have changed, the sad truth is that many barriers still exist that stand in the way of young women, minorities and the economically disadvantaged pursuing science careers. It aggravates me that there remains a general perception, especially among young women, that female scientists are lame, unfeminine, unattractive and uncool. With my protagonist, Madison McKenna, I'm trying to create a new stereotype of a young female scientist; someone who is fun, cool, sexy and sassy. She's clever and can stand up for herself. And she actually has a love life. But I'm not trying to make her perfect either. She's someone who takes risks, but doesn't always succeed. At the same time she doesn't let that stop her. I wanted her to be put in situations where people tried to stereotype and limit her and she succeeds despite their doubts and hers. I hope that's what I've done and I hope that's a message that other women scientists and would-be scientists will resonate with.
I also want to add that as part of my work to encourage women, minorities and the economically disadvantaged, I am creating a small ($200/month) scholarship for high-school and college students in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. It will begin in May of 2016 and it will be advertised on my author's website at KennedyQuinn.com.
Outside of my "day job" as a director of research and my writing, I garden, knit, quilt and play piano, guitar and violin (although I'm pretty rusty at the latter).
I live with my granddaughter and between us we have four cats, a miniature dachshund puppy and a beta fish. This means that we humans are constantly feeding, walking, brushing or cleaning up after one member of the animal kingdom or another. Again, it's my life and I'm good with it.
OMN: Tell us about one of your favorite series to read?
KQ: I really want to give credit to Jim Butcher for his Dresden Files series. I am so impressed with expertly he imbued his character Harry Dresden with such complexity, vulnerability and depth. And yet while he manages to convey to the reader this very dimensional character, he equally skillfully portrays a different side of Harry to other characters in his series, such that he's almost writing two different characters into one. That's really masterful.
OMN: And what about television series?
KQ: I've been enjoying the TV series Sleepy Hollow of late. Maybe I'm just a have a real soft spot for people out of step with their surroundings, but Tom Mison's rendition of Ichabod Crane, a man resurrected from a two hundred plus year sleep, is exquisite. He manages to convey the character's struggle to adapt to modern times while still refusing to give up his core principles. This is a character I would actually like to meet.
OMN: Suppose your series were to be adapted for television or film, who do you see playing the key roles?
KQ: Although she's not an actress, I patterned the looks of my protagonist, Madison McKenna, after the Irish singer Enya. But in terms of acting style, I think Amy Adams would be ideal. She has a genuine likeability and intelligence about her, and can carry off "sassy" with the best of them.
I think John Goodman could carry off Jake Thibodaux, the hard-bitten boss very well.
Last, the perfect actor for Madison's older lover interest, Maxwell Hunter, would be Gerard Butler. In fact, I re-watched several of his movies when I was struggling with Hunter's character on occasion.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.
KQ: My Top 5 Favorite Books:
Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and Other Stories (or pretty much anything by Shirley Jackson);
Raymond Chandler's The High Window (ditto: pretty much anything by Raymond Chandler);
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik's The Little Lame Prince (it basically got me through childhood);
George Greenstein's Frozen Star: Of Pulsars, Black Holes and Fate of Stars (a truly masterful combination of fundamental astrophysics principles and stunning literary imagery. Chapter 7, "Fire and Ice, A Time Machine", paints on of the most haunting — and scientifically accurate — end of the world scenes that I've ever read); and
Jim Butcher's Ghost Story (or, again, any of the books of the Dresden files, which along with the works of Shirley Jackson and Raymond Chandler I re-read every year).
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Kennedy Quinn has a Ph.D. in Physics and Master's in Nuclear Science and is a director of research by day. But this scientist-turned-administrator didn't get there the easy way. She enlisted in the Air Force immediately after high school and served as an aircraft mechanic before achieving an officer's commission and earning her multiple degrees. After a diverse military career, she retired to federal service where she continues to lead research on a wide array of science and technologies. By night, she grows roses in Northern Virginia with her family; they're owned by two rescue cats.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at KennedyQuinn.com, or find her on Facebook.
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The Last, Best Lie by Kennedy Quinn
A Madison McKenna Mystery
Publisher: Five Star
Not many people could save a man's life with lip gloss, car keys and three cinnamon-flavored condoms while under gunfire. But Madison McKenna can. And it's not the least of the talents of this sexy physicist-turned-detective.
Blending wit, sensuality and science, Madison uses counter-top technology and fierce determination to solve the attempted murder of her boss, Jake Thibodaux. It won't be easy; science-savvy she is, streetsmart she isn't. Worse, Jake's powerful ex-partner, Hunter, is determined to freeze her out of the investigation, and the local police would happily toss her in jail to keep her out of their hair. As Jake clings to life, Madison and her helpers — a charming bull-rider and his prize calf, Spinal Snap, a pair of bickering cops, and Jake's hard-bitten mistress — delve into Jake's past, revealing a man very different from the one Madison thought she knew. Even her subconscious comes to her aid, infusing her dreams with tantalizing, surreal, clues.
Driven by need, Madison and Hunter form a steamy, antagonistic partnership; until she learns that he has his own motives for murder …
— The Last, Best Lie by Kennedy Quinn. Click here to take a Look Inside the book.
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