Interview : Kathy Kale
#MEDICAL #THRILLER
Bio: Kathy T. Kale is a member of
the Mystery Writers of America. Her first novel won a Royal Palm Literary Award
in 2004. She has worked as a science editor and writer and lived in Africa for
eleven years. She has a PhD in Toxicology and did postdoctoral research in
Infectious Immunology. She is the author of Black Death in a New Age: A
Novel; Gold Street; and Harm
.
.
Book:
Research scientist and single mother
Cory Montclair gets embroiled in a battle with a powerful pharmaceutical company when her infant daughter recovers from
cancer after taking a drug that is banned in the United States. When Cory tries
to describe the benefit of the cheap harmless drug in a medical journal, she
incurs the wrath of the most profitable and powerful industry in America. A
large pharmaceutical company, backed with the authority of the FDA and AMA,who
will stop at nothing to silence her. Threatened with losing everything—her
reputation, career, ancestral home and more, Cory wrestles with a difficult
choice and its consequences.
Artemis: Kathy
what book is on your nightstand right now?
Kathy: The Miracle at
Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith, a book The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (Book 1)
.
.
Artemis: What books did you read in your formative years?
Kathy: As a kid I read
and reread all the Nancy Drew mysteries, The Bobbsey Twins, and the Adventure
Books. One of my early favorite thrillers was Airport
, which I read when
I was about 12.
, which I read when
I was about 12.
Artemis: Tell us a
little about your writing process.
Kathy: Writing is
my job and I’m a professional. I like to get up early in the morning, which for
me is 5:00, when the house and the world around me is pretty quiet. I write in
my journal for 30 minutes about anything I please. Real ‘work’ starts around
7:30 and with a number of breaks, I go until about 3:00. Then I read for
1-2 hours and call it a day. The next morning at 5:00 it starts all over again.
I love my life.
Kathy's other books
Artemis: Will your
characters change through the story?
Kathy: My characters
always change in the story. I look at life as though we are all on a hero’s
journey and staring in our own production. As in life, so in fiction, and my
people simultaneously battle outside forces on their path to achieve a goal;
but the bigger fight is always on the inside against the nearly invisible
monsters of the unconscious and the past that drive behavior.
Artemis: What
other influences are part of your life?
Kathy: I lived in Kenya for over a decade when my
kids were young. Like Karen Blixon, I had a farm in Africa—well, not quite, but
close. We spent a lot of our weekends in game parks, watching the wildlife, and
observing nature up close. I saw newborn cheetah cubs in the Serengeti, and a
giraffe give birth while nearby lions copulated. But then I also saw a herd of
organized hyenas chase down a bush pig, and a fish eagle stomp a small plover
to death. To me, the beauty and terror of life were on display, which is
something I try to capture in each of my books.
Kathy you have some page turning books!
Thanks for doing the interview, best of luck. AJJ
Thanks for doing the interview, best of luck. AJJ
