The Ordinary Grace of William Kent Krueger

 

Bestselling author William Kent Krueger's novels have won the Minnesota Book Award, Friends of America Writers Prize, Barry Award, Dilys Award and back-to-back Anthony Awards for best novel, among other honors. Although known primarily for his novels featuring part-Ojibwe, part-Irish Cork O'Connor, a former Chicago cop turned private investigator living in the backwoods of Minnesota, Krueger's latest novel, Ordinary Grace, is a departure for him.

Krueger notes it's a different story from any in the Cork O'Connor series, focused on creating a particular time (the summer of 1961) and a particular small town deep in the heart of the Minnesota River valley that allowed him to examine memories, emotions and themes arising from his own adolescence. 

Ordinary Grace has its official release today, and in honor of the book launch, Krueger stopped by In Reference to Murder for some Q&A:

IRTM: You've described Ordinary Grace as really the story of what tragedy does to a man's faith, his family and ultimately, the whole fabric of the small town in which he lives. You also noted it was inspired in part by memories and emotions arising from your own adolescence and uses themes important to you through the years. How much of this book is fiction and how much is a window into your own soul?

WKK: “A window into my own soul” may be a bit strong, but it’s certainly a story for which I mined a good deal of memories, emotions, and experiences from my own adolescence.  One of the initial seeds for Ordinary Grace was the desire to recreate a time and place that I knew well.  I spent a lot of my formative years living either on farms or in small towns, and I wanted to capture—for myself and, I’m hoping, for readers—the essence of those years.  For a boy, thirteen is an important age.  It’s a threshold.  You stand with one foot in childhood and the other poised to step into manhood, and because of the confusion, the constant assessing of who you are and wonderment about who you are becoming, what happens in that time stays with you in a dramatic way.  That’s what I wanted at the heart of the story. 

IRTM:You've said the story for Ordinary Grace haunted you for a few years, and it was the most amazing period of writing you've ever experienced. What was your favorite part of the book to write?

WKK: There are so many scenes I love in this book.  But maybe my absolute favorite is the post-funeral scene in which the title—Ordinary Grace—takes on a very specific and special meaning in the story.  Another favorite is the scene at the quarry in which Frank, the story’s thirteen-year-old narrator, gets into it with an older, bigger, meaner kid named Morris Engdahl.  It’s a scene full of conflict and comedy and, because of the presence of a stunning young woman in a revealing bathing suit, rife with sexual tension as well.  I love the fact that Frank acts from his gut, without particular regard for the consequences, and I love the result.  Overall, perhaps, what I liked best was creating the tight relationship between Frank and his younger brother Jake.  A lot of love is exchanged there.

IRTM: Marilyn Stasio, writing for the New York Times, said that "For someone who writes such muscular prose, Krueger has a light touch that humanizes his characters." Muscular prose is a phrase often associated with Hemingway, who happens to be one of your writing influences. Do you feel that some of Hemingway's literary genes have become part of your writing DNA?

WKK: In my early years, I used to try to write like Papa Hemingway.  Eventually I realized how pointless that was, turned away from struggling to write the great American novel, and embraced the mystery genre.  I hoped I might finally write something that a publisher would buy and readers would enjoy.  Best decision ever.  But I didn’t abandon Hemingway completely.  Trying to write like a master taught me the power of language, and always, when I write, it’s with an understanding that words, rhythm, cadence matter in a good piece of writing.  Honestly, I’ve never been certain what was meant by “muscular prose.”

IRTM: In researching your other books, you've studied the Ojibwe and Arapaho, you've traveled to remote locations, interviewed various primary sources such as people in involved with the Secret Service, hospitals, the military, psychology, weapons technology. Was there anything new or unusual you had to research for the writing of Ordinary Grace?

WKK: In my very early thinking, I considered having Frank’s father, Nathan Drum, be a high school English teacher in a small town, because that was my father.  But because I also wanted to deal with the larger question of the spiritual journey, a minister seemed a better choice.  Growing up, I knew a number of PKs (preacher’s kids), but what it means to be a minister in a small community was completely outside my own experience.  I’m fortunate to know a couple of retired Methodist ministers, so I spent a good long time talking to both of them about their own time as ministers in rural Minnesota.  Fascinating material, and I’m sure their insights helped breathe life into Nathan Drum.

IRTM: What does your writing process look like? Do you aim for daily or weekly word counts? And how are you and Cork and your other characters handling the move from the St. Clair Broiler coffee shop? Any withdrawal symptoms?

WKK: Unless I have a deadline looming, I try to be relaxed in what I expect from any writing session.  That said, I’m very disciplined in my approach.  I write every day, twice.  The first round begins in a local coffee shop about 6:00 A.M. and lasts for a couple of hours.  Then I return to the coffee shop in the afternoon for another couple of hours.  This used to take place at the St. Clair Broiler, a Saint Paul landmark café.  I wrote there for a good twenty years.  For reasons I won’t go into, we parted ways a while back, but it was an amicable separation.  No withdrawal symptoms, but a lot of wonderful memories of my time in booth #4.

IRTM: Have you written a book (or short story) you love that you haven't been able to get published?

WKK: The manuscript that preceded Iron Lake (my first published novel and the first in the Cork O’Connor series) was a horribly written piece of work.  It was called The Demon Hunter and was about the ultimate battle between good and evil fought, I kid you not, in the cornfields of Nebraska.  I still like the story—go figure—and someday, if I have the time, I might return to that piece to see if I can do it justice.

IRTM: Are there certain characters you'd like to revisit, or is there a new theme or idea you'd love to work with?

WKK: I’m at work on a second novel set in southern Minnesota, titled This Tender Land.  Although still in its infancy, the story, when fleshed out, should deal with how we shape the land in which we live and how the land, in turn, shapes us.  It’s about those things we love enough to die for and love enough to kill for.  I like the fact that it’s another novel set in the agrarian southern part of our state, which has a beauty very different but no less remarkable than the great north woods I write about in the Cork O’Connor series.

IRTM: Every writer has to deal with rejection at some point. What was the toughest criticism you've been given as an author, and alternatively, what was the best compliment?

WKK: The toughest criticism early on was from an agent who’d asked to read that first manuscript of mine, The Demon Hunter.  She told me it was one of the worst pieces of fiction she’d ever read.  Though she tried to be gentle, her reaction devastated me.  Of course, she was right, and I learned a great deal from the experience.  As for compliments, one of the best I ever got came from my son.  He was pretty young when Iron Lake came out, and I wasn’t certain if he really understood what all the hoopla was about.  Then one day, as I was chauffeuring him somewhere, from the backseat of our car he said simply, “Dad, I’m really proud of you.”  Made me cry.

IRTM: Last year, you and three other authors (John Connolly, Liza Marklund, MJ Rose) embarked on the Atria Great Mystery Bus Tour. What was the highlight and "lowlight" of the tour and do you think you'd do it again?

WKK: Without a doubt, the highlight was the company on the bus.  John and Liza and MJ and all the folks who accompanied us were great, entertaining companions.  The low point was when the toilet on the bus plugged up.  Don’t get me started on that one.

IRTM: Although Ordinary Grace is a standalone novel, Cork O'Connor fans will be thrilled to know the thirteenth book in the series, Tamarack County, is scheduled for release in August 2013. Can you tell us about that and the further adventures of the O'Connor clan?

WKK: Tamarack County was inspired by a true event.  A couple of years ago, I read a newspaper account of man who’d been convicted of murder and sent to death row, where he spent nearly twenty years.  Then a group who takes on the cases of these kinds of individuals to be certain that justice has been done began looking into his situation.  In the course of their investigation, they discovered that, at the time of this man’s trial, the prosecution had in its possession information that basically proved his innocence, but they never shared this information with the defense.  On being released from prison, the man said he wasn’t bitter about all those years he’d spent behind bars.  His only wish was that those who’d put him there knowing he was innocent would somehow have to pay for their trespass of justice.

Which got me to thinking.  What if an Ojibwe in Tamarack County, Minnesota, was convicted of murder and spent many years in jail.  And what if information eventually comes to light proving his innocence, information the prosecution had at the time of trial but never shared.  And what if, as soon as this situation becomes public, the people responsible for the man’s unjust incarceration—the judge, the prosecutor, the law enforcement officers—begin to be murdered.  And what if it was Cork O’Connor who’d headed up the investigation that put the man behind bars.  So Cork is in the cross hairs.

IRTM: And finally: lutefisk or Minnesota hotdish?

WKK: Although I consider myself Minnesotan, I’ve never tasted lutefisk.  But top anything with tater tots and it becomes Minnesota hotdish, and what’s not to love?

Author R&R with Joshua Alan Parry

 

Joshua Alan Parry is a medical resident at the Mayo Clinic and and holds a B.S. in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Texas at Austin. Over the years, he has worked as a guide for at-risk youth in the Utah wilderness, a metal worker in Montreal, a salmon canner in Alaska, and a molecular genetics intern.

Joshua puts that background to good use In his debut novel, Virus Thirteen, in which scientists James Logan and his wife, Linda, have their dream careers at the world's leading biotech company, GeneFirm, Inc. But their happiness is interrupted by a devastating bioterrorist attack: a deadly superflu that quickly becomes a global pandemic. Linda's research team is sent to underground labs to develop a vaccine, but security is soon breached and Linda is in danger. To save her, James must confront a desperate terrorist, armed government agents, and an invisible killer: Virus Thirteen.

Joshua stopped by In Reference to Murder to take some "Author R&R (Reference and Research)," although his research apples don't fall very far from the tree:

 

Little did I know at the time, between my undergraduate degree in molecular and cellular biology and my medical degree, I had spent the last eight years incidentally researching the novel Virus Thirteen. I have spent an extraordinary amount of time sitting in lecture halls, passively listening to the drone of higher education. Even the best students, and I am not including myself in this category, will have minds that eventually wonder in such a setting. My own brain, always teetering on the precipice of full-blown attention deficit hyper activity disorder (ADHD), has had plenty of opportunities in these scenarios to dream of a future where all of this wonderful science and potential technology has become established.

Immediately after I graduated college I went on a personal journey, driving across the country by myself. There in the silence of the individual, my mind did wander yet again, with its newfound knowledge base and cathartic desire to vent itself. What would the world be like in a future where scientists have the ability to tinker with mankind’s genome as easily as an artist at a blank canvas? What would be the repercussions of this science if completely unrestricted? Judging by history, it would be only a matter of time before the less scrupulous among us took it too far, and quite literally created a monster. Forget about humanoid monstrosities though, when this technology is applied to man’s last great predators, microscopic bacteria and viruses, you have the potential to create the Frankenstein of the year 2200 A.D., a sinister creation whose miniscule size is inversely proportion to its ability to do harm. At the end of my journey, these questions had become the seeds of a story. In order to realize their potential these seeds would need plentiful amounts of metaphorical water and sunlight.

So in summary, education will build the knowledge base needed to write coherently on a subject, this is no different from anyone, intense mental isolation will provide the spark of ideas, and most importantly, like a nurturing gardener, countless tedious hours must be spent cultivating the story in order to develop it into a finished product.

--Joshua Alan Perry

Virus Thirteen is officially launched next Tuesday by Tor, but available for pre-orders. You can find Joshua on the publisher website or via Facebook.

 

Author R&R with Roberta Gately

 

Author Roberta Gately has served as a nurse and humanitarian aid worker in third-world war zones, ranging from Afghanistan to Africa, and prepared a series of articles on the subject of refugees for the Journal of Emergency Nursing and the BBC World News Online. Her first novel, Lipstick in Afghanistan, dealt with the plight of women in the male-dominated culture of the Taliban.

Roberta's follow-up novel, The Bracelet, tells the story of Abby Monroe, a young nurse determined to make her mark as a UN worker in one of the world's most unstable cities, Peshawar, Pakistan. But her plans are disrupted when she witnesses the brutal murder of a woman thrown from a building in Geneva. Haunted by the memory of an intricate and sparkling bracelet that adorned the victim's wrist, Abby struggles to make a difference for the refugees and trafficking victims she meets. When the mysterious bracelet reappears, she and New York Times reporter Nick Sinclair must work together to unravel the mystery that threatens them both.

Roberta stopped by In Reference to Murder to take some "Author R&R" (Reference and Research) about her preparations for writing The Bracelet, supplementing her own first-hand experiences with real-life accounts from people around the globe via the Internet:

Both of my novels, Lipstick in Afghanistan and The Bracelet, were created from my own experiences as a nurse and aid worker, and my often vivid imagination. But research was still a necessary ingredient to be sure that my facts and figures supported the fabric of my stories.

The backstory of The Bracelet involved the gritty real life drama of human trafficking, a hideous and little known business that required intensive and sometimes strange research into the dark world of trafficking in India. I turned to PBS, CNN and even YouTube to get a feel for the victims' experiences, and through their documentaries and videos, I was able to look into a victim's eyes without blurring the lines of myth and reality.

Once I'd seen the stories and gained a tentative understanding of the ordeals the victims had suffered, I turn to Google to investigate the sex trades in India, another integral part of my story. I vaguely wondered if my search using phrases like buying sex in Mumbai, murder in Delhi and a prostitute's life in India might not trigger some kind of red flag somewhere, and I half expected to get a notice barring me from Google. But undaunted, I persisted and my research, bizarre though it might have seemed to anyone who keeps an eye on those things, provided me with a wealth of hideous facts and figures, numbers that numbed my brain, but enriched my story. And, I'm happy to report, that even if there is a red flag hovering over my name on some internet watch-dog site, I'm still researching away.

My third novel, Next Of Kin, is set in Chicago, and though I've visited the windy city, I have nowhere near the experience there that my characters do, and I've turned to the Internet to supplement my story with authentic locations, events and traditions.  I've even found the brand new lakefront condo for one of my characters and I've chosen his apartment, complete with floor plan and layout. I've plotted another character's walk from the courthouse to her car, and I've consulted on-line menus to choose possible evening out meals.

I can't imagine trying to research a novel without the immediacy of the Internet, and my admiration goes to all of those authors who labored for years collecting their facts and backgrounds the old fashioned way, by pounding the pavement. And though I intend to pound a little pavement myself in Chicago, I'll have the benefit of Google maps and Internet searches to guide me along.

© 2013 Roberta Gately, author of The Bracelet

 

The Bracelet is available in paperback and digital versions, and you can follow Roberta via her website, Facebook page and Twitter.

Author R&R With Charles Brokaw

 

I can't give you much in the way of biographical details about Charles Brokaw, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlantis Code, The Lucifer Code and The Temple Mount Code, because Charles Brokaw is a pseudonym for an anonynous author. We do know he's an academic and college educator living in the Midwest, who is fascinated by history and archeology. He was also a friend of the late Martin H. Greenburg, the prolific editor of anthologies, and there's a Q&A between the two men on Brokaw's web site about the author's first book and the research behind it.

What I can tell you is that Brokaw's latest novel, The Oracle Code, is the fourth in the series featuring brilliant archaeologist, Thomas Lourdes, who is dispatched to Afghanistan to decipher the code found in a tomb associated with Alexander the Great, potentially leading to a lost trove of powerful weapons. But the Russians are also desperate to get their hands on the code and have sent a dangerous assassin to hunt down Lourdes.

Brokaw stopped by IRTM to discuss some of the research behind this book:

Researching the Ancient World

Saying you want to tackle such a vast genre as the mythology of the ancient Greeks and the life of Alexander the Great in a novel is a daunting task, to say the least. This is especially true since there are so many different stories floating around about what actually happened to Alexander the Great’s after his death. But that is what made this book so intriguing to write. There is just enough information out there to make a concrete story, and enough unknowns to leave certain elements open to interpretation.

The specific “unknown” that led me to write The Oracle Code was that pesky question that so many have tried to answer over the ages and no one ever could: where is the tomb of Alexander the Great?

Some Ancient Scrolls

The disappearance of the tomb of Alexander the Great is one of the greatest archaeological mysteries. And as was the case with The Atlantis Code, the “what if” question that has hung in the air was the perfect opportunity for Thomas Lourdes to step in and find some answers.

I began by reading and reviewing each historical document pronouncing the mishaps of Alexander’s early death and the ensuing burial. His tomb stood for centuries, untouched, in a sacred area of ancient Greece. However, it is also said to have occupied two different cities in Egypt as well as various other sites. I also spend quite a bit of time delving into the nature of the relationship between Alexander the Great and Aristotle, which was quite unique. Not many people know that Aristotle was actually Alexander’s mentor and worked quite hard to engender a sympathetic attitude in his protégé for the Greek culture since Alexander was actually Macedonian.

Traveling the World

An ancient scroll holding the location of Alexander’s tomb was said to materialize in Afghanistan. So I decided to take my research there. With a dear friend of mine along for the ride with a crew of researchers, we traveled to gain a deeper understanding of the Afghan culture—the food, clothing, trade routes and location where each scene took place. I didn’t just want to go to Afghanistan and start digging in the desert—I wanted this beautiful country to play a major role in the book, almost as a character in and of itself.

Herat, Afghanistan—the location of the dig and one of the main cities in which the book takes place, has an extensive history, dating back to ancient times. Heart’s location on the ancient trade routes of the Middle East, and Central and South Asia made Herat a vital city to research, especially when looking into the disappearance of Alexander the Great. We spent quite a bit of time in the major cities in the area researching primary sources and speaking with archaeologists who are experts on the subject.

The next obvious stop after Afghanistan was Greece. As I began shaping my own hypotheses on where the tomb of Alexander might lie, it seemed like the next logical step, particularly because of the nature of Alexander and Aristotle’s relationship. Also, there are so many links between the major trade routes that ran through Herat and Greece, so the connection was plain and simple.

I could probably write a whole series about archaeological adventures that take place in Greece. I spent quite a bit of time on the island of Delos, an island where Aristotle purportedly took Alexander the Great when he was a child. This island was seen as a holy sanctuary for a millennium before the Greeks proclaimed it the birthplace of some of their most revered gods. During the Greek empire, no one was allowed to live there. It was an island specifically for temples and offerings to the gods. So as you can imagine, there is quite a bit of history there as well and the perfect background for an archaeological adventure.

If you go there now, Delos is completely covered with ancient artifacts and the remains of countless Greek temples. The number of stories about the Greek gods could make your head spin, especially since there are so many variations passed down through the ages. To be honest, it took me quite a bit of time to wrap my mind around it. Although Alexander’s connection to the Greeks made the perfect backdrop for The Oracle Code and a hypothesis about his whereabouts that, in my opinion, might not be too far off.

--Charles Brokaw

The Oracle Code is available on Amazon as a Kindle special and has its own book trailer on YouTube. You can also find Brokaw via his website and on Facebook.

Author R&R with Maureen Johnson

 

Author Maureen Johnson has written several young adult novels, including The Name of the Star, nominated for an Edgar Award in 2012 for the Best Young Adult title. She's also worked with Electronic Arts as the screenwriter for the handheld versions of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince video game and earned an MFA in Writing  from Columbia University. The Name of the Star was the first in her Shades of London series and followed the exploits of Rory Devereaux, an American girl in London who crosses paths with a band of ghost hunters and gets involved in a string of a brutal murders breaking out over the city that mimick Jack the Ripper.

The second book in the series, The Madness Underneath, was just released and continues the exploits of Rory and the Shades—the city’s secret ghost-fighting police—as Rory tries to recover from the trauma she suffered in the first book (one reason you may want to read it first). Using the same mix of historical, contemporary and paranormal elements as in the first book, The Madness Underneath plunges Rory into a string of new inexplicable deaths threatening London.

Maureen stopped by IRTM to take some "Author R&R" about how she researched and developed the plots, characters and settings for The Madness Underneath:

The Shades of London books are really about London, in many ways. The city is a character, of sorts. Much of the books are about the London that can’t always be seen: the past, the underground, the secret services. Getting it right was vital.

I spend a lot of time in London, and I made sure I knew the East London neighborhood where the story mostly takes place. I did Ripper tours, then I worked on my own with maps and books. I researched underground tunnels—everything from the actual Underground, to sewers, to shelters, to graveyards and escape routes and (now known) secret bunkers. I walked miles and miles. I took pictures of walls and doorknobs and tiles. I watched footage of what it’s like to drive a Tube train, and I traced the development of the sewer system on foot.

And, for the first book, I did a lot of research on Jack the Ripper. I was trying to think of the person you would least want to return from the grave and roam London, unseen. And the person that sprang directly to mind was Jack the Ripper.

Jack the Ripper. The name means Victorian England. It means foggy streets, and carriages, and the glint of a silver knife. It was a story I was fascinated by as a child. It was a real life mystery, like in the books. There’s something almost romantic about Jack.

This, when you think about it, is one of the most disturbing things possible. It would be exactly like saying there’s something romantic about Ted Bundy or Charles Manson.

The fifth murder of the Ripper series, the murder of Mary Kelly, is still considered one of the worst crime scenes in English history.

The real mystery is---why is this man famous? He murdered prostitutes, women who barely registered on the Victorian social scale. He worked in East London, a place that was rife with murder. It genuinely does not make sense that this man should be an object of interest for over a hundred years.

So that’s where the mystery started for me—why Jack? Why do we care?

The answer might be found in an incredibly boring fact. Up until 1855, there was a stamp tax on newspapers in England, making them far to expensive for many people to buy. Once that tax was abolished in that year, there was a surge in activity. Now everyone could afford a paper. One of the papers that popped up was called The Star, and the Star knew a good story when it saw one. Jack the Ripper was a creation of the media. Yes, there was a Whitechapel murderer, but truth be told, no one quite knows how many people he killed. It could have been four, or six, or more. (The canonical five are the five most likely victims, bearing certain signature injuries.) The publishers of The Star newspaper first saw the huge potential in the story, pumping it daily, adding frightening drawings. They were likely the ones who coined the name Jack the Ripper (this is one of the reasons my book is called The Name of the Star).

Jack the Ripper is a story based on fact, but the lines between fiction and reality are blurry. The Scotland Yard case files are surprisingly paltry. Almost no evidence is still available for examination. The culprit is most assuredly dead. But what we have left is the fear, so carefully cultivated by the editors of that newspaper. The fear is so well drawn, it doesn’t die. Jack the Ripper became part of a collective imagination.

After 123 years, people are still trying to catch Jack the Ripper. The investigation has never stopped, not once. Even though this guy is clearly dead, people are still trying to find him. Jack the Ripper has armies of people investigating his case, filling in the gaps in the files, recreating the scenes. And since someone solves the case every year or so, there’s always a documentary to watch, another story to tell. People have been giving Jack the Ripper the Wikipedia treatment since 1888. And it was from this point of fact that I started my story, and put the killer back on the streets of East London.

I started to look at things like the London CCTV network, which is one of the most extensive in the world, with an estimated 1-4 million cameras, a number that grows all the time. It’s difficult to do anything in London without being seen, if only by a camera eye. Mostly, though, I thought about how we would cover the event now. Imagine the frenzy if Jack was back and we knew what to expect, but not where. London would be prisoner.  The media would cover ever second, and the murder searches would be broadcast live. There would be Ripper Parties, where people gathered indoors together because you couldn’t be on the streets. At home, people would be in front of their televisions or computers, watching and waiting.

So to nail these details, there was a lot of reading. The main Ripper case file isn’t that extensive. But pretty much all the press is also available, and you could read that for a week. And that, in many ways, is where the Ripper legend can be found.

By the end of all of this, I was a walking, talking database of random facts about trains and sewers and murders—and normally that makes you a weirdo. Luckily, though, I can do this sort of thing for my job.

 

For more information on Maureen visit her at www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com or follow her on Twitter via @maureenjohnson. (FYI, Maureen was named one of Time magazine¹s top 140 people to follow on Twitter.)