Episode 68: Washington Post bestselling author, Kerry Anne King
Washington Post and Amazon charts bestselling author Kerry Anne King chats about her latest novel, Other People’s Things
Kerry shares secrets on the inspiration behind the story, her writing and editing process, and awesome wisdom for other writers.
Books Mentioned:
Other People’s Things by Kerry Anne King
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis
The Exit Strategy by Lainey Cameron
Also mentioned Maddie Dawson, Heather Webb.
Connect with the author:
Transcript:
** Transcript created using AI (so please forgive typos!)
Lainey 0:00
I am here with my friend Kerry Anne King. And we're going to be talking about her latest novel that just came out this week. Other People's Things. Congratulations, Kerry.
Kerry 0:09
Thank you. I am totally super excited. Like every time, it doesn't ever get any,
Lainey 0:16
How many times, what is this number?
Kerry 0:19
Um, for me as an author completely, it's like, I think number 12. Maybe like, considering my Kerry Schafer self. It's number six for my Kerry Anne King.
Lainey 0:31
Wow, this book is fabulous five stars. It is so unique and memorable. Like you created the main character that stuck in my head for like two weeks after I read the book. So Wow. I'm impressed that that happened. Thank you. So let's start by telling people you want to tell folks a little bit about the lightest one, tell them about other people's things. It's getting such great reviews already. I have one to share. But tell us more. Tell us you haven't seen it yet?
Kerry 0:58
Sure. Absolutely. This book really was just I called it the gift book. Initially, it was so much fun to write. And really this main character, I'd like to take credit for her. But she kind of just showed up, she told me her name was Nicole. And that, really, it's Nicole, but her friends call her Nicole. And that's just a thing. And I don't need to worry about too much about where that came from. She explained that she has this problem. She takes things she's been called a thief, she has a record. But she doesn't really steal things in her mind. It's an object relocation program things are not where they belong, and they need to be moved. So this has caused her all kinds of trouble in her life. As you can imagine, as we start the book, Nicole is turning 30 she has been in and out of jail. She's a high school dropout, she doesn't have any real marketable skills her marriage is about to be over because she moved Well, a whole lot of money that belonged to her lawyer husband, he just not very understanding of her problem. And she's on the outs with her family as well. So she really is in a not good spot. But her sister gives her a job in the family cleaning business. And as you can imagine, this is not a good match to have somebody who moves things working as a house cleaner. Now, Nicole is well aware of this, and she swears she's going to behave yourself but an opportunity presents on the very first day. And it's a book, it's only a book. It's an old paperback novel, who's even going to notice who's going to care. So she moves the book. And it just starts this whole chain of events and discoveries and breaks open secrets. And there's mysteries and romance and all kinds of things that happen in there.
Lainey 2:41
And the reviews are appreciating that there's also a touch of magic to this book. I don't know if you would call it magical realism, but like this objects are moving for a reason. Right? Like, I'm not gonna tell you why. But like, I love that concept. Like I love the kind of the touch of magic to it as well.
Kerry 2:56
Yeah, I love touching magic, too. It's one of my favorite things in one of my favorite things in books. And I'm really delighted to discover that there seems to be a little trend in women's fiction, where we have a lot of books that are set in the real world and just have that little bit of magic attached. It's not I don't know that it's magical realism. But there's that little dose of magic.
Lainey 3:18
And we need that right now, right? Like in this weird world where the things the way it was three years ago, I don't know like I love books like this, that get me out of my head and get me just like thinking about the world differently.
Kerry 3:30
Absolutely. Well, we just want to know that everything's really going to be okay. And honestly, that is one of my life philosophies is that even if you can't see it, things are always working out for me. And I tried to I got to play with that. And this book with my character, even when things look really, really, really bad. Maybe they'll still gonna work out. Okay.
Lainey 3:51
I love that. And it's such an uplifting book that way. Let's take a quick peek at a review. This one is from someone we both admire. I know Barbara Davis, who's the best selling author of The Last of the Moon Girls, and maybe we can talk later she actually has a new one that
Kerry 4:04
She's coming out which we should talk about that later because it is number one in the Kindle store has been for days. late anyway, like you
Lainey 4:14
She writes books that just touch people so much that they become instant bestsellers. I love that about both of you. And here's what she said woven with suspense, family drama, magic, and just the right touch of romance, an utterly compulsive read. With a compelling cast of characters and a delightfully imaginative plot. readers are taken on a journey of self discovery as a young woman struggles to embrace her unique gift and find her place in the world but has already made up its mind about her. What a beautiful way to summarize the entire concept of this book. Yeah, it might have made me cry when that review came in. I'm going to be honest, that doesn't surprise me and also, she is such a great writer as well. I mean, both of you just touch readers in the way you put things and the uniqueness of your concepts. Thank you. I appreciate that. So topping of which I actually really want to know, this is so unique, right? Like, it's got so many different elements to it that I'm like, wow, I wish I had thought of that. So like, Where the heck, like you just woke up one day and Nickle spoke to you? Like, how did it all come together?
Kerry 5:18
Not quite, but close. So I'm okay. It happened like this, it was time to propose a new book. And I really didn't have any ideas. So I sat down in my office one day, and I literally pulled out a journal and opened it to a blank place. And page place page somewhere in the book, you know, those things that we write on, I opened it up, I got out a pen, and I wrote at the top, auditioning for new ideas. No idea too small or too stupid to apply. And then I started writing so I just was brainstorming right so I did idea number one idea number two, I can't remember what they were in a can't find this freaking notebook. I know this happened. I didn't dream it got to number three. And that was it. It was something about it was nickel started talking to me right up, like kinda here I am. I'm Nicole. I work as a house cleaner. I move things but you know, they have energy. And I know they need to be moved. And then I made a little note that was something mystery with woowoo elements.
Lainey 6:25
I love that mystery with woowoo elements.
Kerry 6:29
And then I came up with the gift book for ages Lainey and kind of wrote itself for a long time until I mean, I say that. I mean, obviously I was showing up. But it was it was just being easy to write. And then about three quarters of the way I got totally stuck. And I didn't know it was dragging. I was like, Oh my God. Now it's gonna be awful. But I always figure it out. I know. This Sunday, I was in the shower where my muse lives. And then Huck showed up now Hawk had not been in the book at all He is by the way, our leading man he's a private investigator, I adore Hawk. He's one of my favorite male characters that I've ever created. Anyway, he shows up in the freakin shower and says, Hi, I'm Hawk. I'm a private investigator, and I'm here to solve your problems. And I said, Hey, cool, Bring it on, buddy son had to go back to the beginning and rewrite the whole book and put him in because
Lainey 7:24
I'm wondering how the Viking feels with you know, strange men turning up in your shower. He has no problem with that. He's, he's cool that way. So what does your process look like? I'm fascinated because you have written so many books, so many of them bestsellers? Like, is it consistent each time? Is it totally different? Was this one very different to the others? Like, how does that all work for you? What does editing look like? I'm intrigued.
Kerry 7:48
Yeah, they're, they're all different in in some ways, in that, um, every book I write, you know, you sit down to write and you think, Okay, I know how to do this. I've done this before. But every book is different. And so it requires a bit of a different process. As far as pulling everything together, this one had a lot of mystery and a lot of moving parts in it. So it required a little more plotting than I usually do. I do am required by my publisher like union these days to send them a synopsis before they buy a book. So I sit down and make up of a whole bunch of stuff that me and my editor both know probably isn't going to be in the final draft, because I'm a pantser. Let's be honest, and I'm very character driven, very character driven. So I like to start with a character and a premise. And the thing, the better the more at odds they are, the more fun it is, right? So you know, in this one, it was very obvious, I have a very big problem for my character, and then who's going to be in it with her. And then I don't know, people just kind of download, like, I really just sit down and start writing. And I'm like, Okay, I need a character here. Who's it going to be? what's probably her sister, where are they they're in a car, they're going to the job. And then the conversation happens. And that's what I do my first draft, I kind of try and follow some plot, things that I know are important. There's timing, pacing, plot, character, arcs, all that kind of stuff. I'm aware of them, and I pay attention in my head as I go. But then when I come to edit, I like to give it a couple of days. And I don't call it editing. It's major, revising, revising as in seeing over again, which is really what revising means. So I sit down with a clean manuscript, and I try and read it like it's a book. And I make myself notes as I go, I lost some interest here, the character arc is broken here. There needs to be more drama here. The high point isn't in the middle, and then I go back and I'd start fixing things. So and
Lainey 9:51
How many revisions are reviewing from the beginning do you do for the average, but I know they're all different, but yeah,
Kerry 9:58
it totally depends. Usually, there's at least, it almost always happens that I get three quarters of the way through. And I have to go back to the beginning, I just almost always happens that way. So there's at least two to the three quarter point. And it just depends. And then I'll get an idea. And it's a complete reset. And then I started a whole new draft. And I call it something different because I just in case, I need to go back. Quite trust, I never throw anything away completely. I have what I call the graveyard files, where Stephen King said, kill your darlings. So when I used to call it the darling files, but now it's just the graveyard so for every book, I just everything I caught I put in there usually there's at least half of what the book ends up in, in word count in the in the throwaway file. So
Lainey 10:50
It's brave to call calling it graveyard. I think mine is called for later because I'm not quite brave enough to click crazy.
Kerry 10:57
Yeah, well, it's, you know, it's one of those jobs. So and I do pull things out of there. Sometimes I can go back and take it out, I like to revise, it's really my favorite part, drafting is the hardest for me. And so I kind of lose track of how many revisions there are, because I really do just kinda like to go in and change stuff up. So revisions, usually three or four, probably, and maybe five, and then that's before I ever turned it in. And then my editor is really good, she comes up, she always has awesome ideas. And that's my acquiring editors. So then I make those changes. And then it goes to my developmental editor. And then she has a whole bunch of ideas. And I really want to hurt her for a couple days after I read her comments. This is this is a thing when you get your developmental editor stop, you don't answer right away you give it?
Lainey 11:50
Well, that actually bridges into my favorite question to ask writers because we do have a lot of other writers who listen to the podcast as well. So what advice do you give, and you're so good at this, you've given me so much good advice, and coaching and creativity, coaching and everything along the way. But like, if you had to pick one piece of advice, right, for prior carry, or for someone who wants to be like you, like, what's the biggest thing you're most often or like to tell people?
Kerry 12:15
You know, usually when I'm talking to other people, it's about calming down your inner critic and not listening to it because it gets in the way. And that's really the biggest thing. And I guess it kind of fits into what I am thinking about my biggest advice right now, which is Do not be afraid to revise, revise, revise, don't be attached to that first draft, just you know, be if it wants to shift, the story wants to tell you something, I kind of I've come to believe that it actually kind of knows what it is and wants to be, but we don't listen very well. So it's almost more like Michelangelo would look at a piece of marble and figure out what's in there and then chip away that what didn't need to be. And it's kind of like that. So you have to just trust that it's all gonna work out. You have to trust your process, and just keep listening and being willing to let go of those things that don't serve the story, and which is really hard sometimes to let them go. Yeah,
Lainey 13:15
yeah, it is. And, you know, it's actually as writers were almost like, it's easier than Michelangelo in some ways in that you can put stuff back and like, I can't imagine like carving a piece of stone. And like once you chunk a piece off. I did it that character.
Kerry 13:34
Yeah, yeah, that would be Yeah, so I'm a word girl. I'll stick with what I do.
Lainey 13:41
So reading I know we talked earlier, but Barbara Davis and she's got a new one, which I'd love to hear a little bit your thoughts on if you have time? What do you like to read? What kind of things like tell us more about your reading world?
Kerry 13:53
My reading world. I'm very eclectic. To be honest, I love a good mystery and a good thriller. And I think I've been reading lately that I adored I did an article Actually, I am gonna I wasn't gonna talk about this. But I am I've written an article that I'm hoping is going to come out somewhere about crime books, because there's really a crossover with this book about characters who do things that cross the line and maybe break the law like my character, Nicole, but you know, it was a really good heart or for really good reasons. And so a couple of the books that really came up for me that I adored that have that one is called the Thursday Murder Club, which is just one of my favorite murder mystery books that I've read in ages this book is it's about a bunch of septuagenarians in a retirement community who get together on Thursdays to solve cold cases and then an actual murder happens and stop at nothing to get access to the evidence and be involved in it. Just absolutely brilliant. Loved it. And on that note, actually Anxious People also just absolutely adored that book. Yeah, I can't talk about it too much because it was so good at the twists that any commentary about it just gives them away of it. So there's there's those I love those kinds of books mysteries and then things like Barbara Davis and women's fiction with magical elements is one of my favorite things right now it's one of my favorite things to write one of my favorite things to read. So Barbara Davis new book is very different from The Last of the Moon Girls, and yet, in some ways the same because Barbara wrote it. So it's called The Keeper of Happy Endings. And it is a dual timeline book, we have a character who's some of her story is set in Paris during the Nazi invasion, and she's part of the resistance movement at that time. She's a dressmaker and the magic in the book comes in that her family of wedding dress makers have this magic that if one of them sews your dress for you, you will have a happy ending to your romance. And so that's the that's the cool little magical part.
Lainey 16:10
Yeah, that's very fun. Well, let's take a quick peek at how people can connect with you because I know you love to hear from readers, you're at Kerry_anne_king on Instagram and www.allthingskerry.com is your website, and everyone can find all your different social media and hopefully that article if it gets published, yeah, find there as well. I always like to wrap up by asking people, what don't you want to say that haven't asked you like anything high in your mind that you wanted to talk about? And I haven't asked the question.
Kerry 16:41
Oh, my goodness, I know. Um, let's see, we could talk about you know, your awesome book and all of your rewards, rewards awards. Wow,
Lainey 16:51
I was rewards because actually, it's like, so nerve wracking, bringing a debut novel into the world. And so it is rewarding when you're like, Okay, some people like to some people. Like, okay, I could keep doing this.
Kerry 17:05
Absolutely. Well, the other thing about that, that I really do love about Lainey's novel. And a lot of the books that I love about there is the women empowering women theme of this, it took me a lot of years in my life to come to that place. my teenage years were not not like that, um, it took me a long time to learn to trust women, actually, which has been something that's been much in my later years, really the writing community, in many ways taught me that writing authors, other authors been so brilliant, Maddie Dawson and Lainey Cameron and Barbara Davis. And you know, Heather Webb actually is another one. There's these amazing women who just lift up other women and are out there and inspiring and helping and writing books that do the same that he does the happy thing,
Lainey 17:56
That is a happy thing. And I feel this exact same way, having come from the corporate world, like the writing world is so uplifting, and there is not that same sense of being in competition. And it's kind of funny that everybody you mentioned there has been on the podcast with the excetera section of Barbara, who is definitely on my hit list for the future because she's definitely also among the best out there. But I love getting people on who uplift other writers, that's one of the things that makes me happy is to rely on people who get that, that this is not a competition that, you know, readers don't read one book a year like and we don't write 12 books a year unless you're I don't know some amazing romance writer that somehow pulls that off. So like our readers want to hear about other books, because we're not gonna have a book to give them every month.
Kerry 18:35
Well, sure, everyone what an amazing life. I wake up every day and I'm so incredibly grateful that I get to live a life that is just filled with books surrounded by books, I write books, I read books, I talk about books, I help coach people, we're writing books. it this is a dream come true. Really it is.
Lainey 18:56
Well thank you for taking time especially read your book launch here and to remind people it's out. It came out this week, so you can get your hands on it. Right?
Kerry 19:04
Yeah.
Lainey 19:05
Yeah, other people's things. Read it. Five Star read. It's fabulous. I have to go write my own review. It's so good. Thanks so much for joining me today, Kerry.