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Katherine Sutcliffe has spent her life bringing entertainment to people. She began singing to patrons in her grandmother's cafe in
preschool and then began writing. Her first efforts on the backs of napkins led to a prolific, sparkling career of best selling historical
novels that now turns to contemporary romantic suspense with DARKLING I LISTEN. Set in the East Texas woods where she and her family and
assorted pets live, it promises to be a dark, gritty thriller that I look forward to, and know you will also.
Amanda - In your bio, it says you wrote your first book at 13. What was it about?
KS - The "book" (never titled) was a romance--the heroine was my best friend and the hero was her favorite rock star. I wrote in spiral notebooks for 5
years. When I threw the book away--which was never finished, by the way, it was 4,000 handwritten pages!
Amanda - Where do you find inspiration?
KS - Anything can inspire me. I'm always watching and listening-- details filed away in my brain to be plucked out and dusted off. Everyday life
inspires me. Reading, movies, newspapers.
Amanda - After writing so long and so successfully in historical romance, what made you decide to branch out?
KS - I've always wanted to write contemporaries. But with my dark, gritty edge, until the last few years, there wasn't a niche where I could fit. I
felt I could pull it off after having the opportunity to write for daytime television. I was consultant head writer for As The World Turns and Another
World--my job being writing the long document (6 month story lines) for the show--which was the story, plotting, characters, etc. and overseeing the 5
breakdown writers to insure they kept the story moving in the right direction. I always felt that I would have more freedom in the contemps, and
I was right. The characters came more naturally to me. I loved every minute of it!
Amanda - Was it a scary choice?
KS - Not at all! I'll now have an opportunity to reach a much broader audience--those readers who expect and appreciate more plot and conflict and
raw edge. The package that Jove has given DARKLING I LISTEN is superb! Very eerie and mysterious. It won't turn off the more mainstream reader.
Amanda - DARKLING I LISTEN looks like a very different book. Since Stephen King is one of your favorite writers, did he influence your writing for this one?
KS - I'm sure he must have influenced me in some way. I love his building of suspense--something is going to happen, but when. That unseen threat that
hangs over the character's head. He has a way of getting into the very guts of the characters' psyches that I love, and I managed to go there with
Darkling. So, yes, I've learned a great deal from reading King. I find his characterization the very best in the business.
Amanda - You have a very interesting past. Did you ever consider the singing career you started out with in the truck stop cafe?
KS - Oh lord, I sound like a fog horn when I sing! Remember I was only 4 or 5 when I gyrated to Elvis on the jukebox. I suspect the coins those truckers
were dropping into a can for me was suppose to be an incentive to stop already!!
Amanda - How much of your real life can be found in your novels?
KS - Not so much in the historical, but Darkling was different. I placed the book in East Texas. Ticky Creek is a compilation of the small East Texas
towns where I grew up. I gave the heroine my own past--fatherless, pretty much motherless, raised by a truck stop hamburger flipping granny. She's a
writer looking for her place in the world. The hero, an actor whose career has crashed and burned, deals with the fickle part of the entertainment
business--how basically we're all simply a commodity and the actual human aspect is meaningless. The almighty dollar is all that matters.
Amanda - What can your readers look forward to in the future?
KS - I'm working on another historical romance, out in August, 2002, a sequel to my 1996 DEVOTION. I've just signed another contract for another contemp
suspense thriller, and I'm working on the screenplay for Darkling, which has been optioned for film. I'm doing a great deal of promotion for Darkling.
The book has been taken by Doubleday and Rhapsody book clubs as a featured alternate selection. They're promoting the book in a way they've never done
before. They're having me up to their warehouse in Pennsylvania to autograph ALL 5000 copies of the book. For the first time EVER their membership will
have the opportunity to get an autographed book. I'm very excited about this.
Amanda - What advice would you give a new writer?
KS - Write what is in your heart. Write what you know about. Don't be afraid to take chances, and never take no for an answer. Grow a thick hide, and
keep your head up. Don't go into this business for the purpose of accolades and $$$$$$. Write because it's in your heart and soul to do so, and be proud
and grateful for ANY success you achieve.
Thanks so much to Ms. Sutcliffe for her time. TRRC and myself wish her all the best!
Amanda Killgore
(Click here for a review of Darkling I Listen)
(Click here for a review of Fever)
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