by Alex Kava
My readers. I feed off of their input. When someone comes to a book talk and tells me how much they love my books, it makes me anxious to run home and start the next. I try to answer all the emails from my readers and sometimes we talk about the characters or plots. I love hearing how they can’t put them down or how they just discovered my series and read their way through all eight titles in two weeks.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
When I was a very young girl I wrote stories but the adults always figured out the endings. That made me sad. I wrote my first book in the series in 2003 as a favor to a screenplay writer friend. After that I was hooked and have written thirteen books in several genres.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing?
Think about writing. No, I also raise dogs and have done so for over thirty years. I love living in the country and all the animals that go along with that. I used to play tennis and golf but no longer have the time. I am always writing or editing or marketing a new book. In the past twelve months I’ve written four books, so I’ve been very busy with my life as an author. You can read more about that on my blog at www.patriciabremmerblog.com.
An excerpt from DAMAGED by Alex Kava
(Maggie O’Dell travels down to Pensacola, Florida, with Charlie Wurth, deputy director of DHS (Department of Homeland Security).
Maggie shrugged and leaned back in the leather captain seat.
“Will I be able to visit the crime scene?”
“I was told that wouldn’t be a problem. You won’t find much resistance. If anything, you might find a lack of interest. With this hurricane coming, the local law enforcement has more important things to worry about.”
“A storm is more important than a killer on the loose?”
Wurth glanced over at her. “You’ve never been in a hurricane before, huh?”
“That obvious?”
“Your killers carve up, what? Six bodies? A dozen over several months? Maybe several years? [Hurricane] Isaac has already killed sixty-seven in forty-eight hours. This time, O’Dell, I think my killer trumps your killer.”
FBI PROFILE: Special Agent Maggie O’Dell
Name: Margaret O’Dell
Eyes: brown
Hair: short, auburn
Height: 5’5”
Distinguishing marks: scar above abdomen
Birth place: Green Bay, Wisconsin
Current residence: Neburgh Heights, Virginia
Martial status: divorced from Greg Stewart, a corporate attorney
Education: BA and MS in psychology, the University of Virginia; Forensic Fellowship at Quanico
Father: Thomas O’Dell, a firefighter killed on duty when Maggie was twelve
Mother: Kathleen O’Dell
Half-brother: Patrick Murphy, a student at University of New Haven, Connecticut, studying fire science
Pets: Harvey, a white Labrador rescue dog
FBI partner: R.J. Tully
Best friend: Gwen Patterson
Favorite food: pizza with Italian sausage and Romano cheese
Favorite beverage: Diet Pepsi (although she’d rather have Scotch)
Fears: flying and claustrophobia
A conversation with Alex Kava
(WARNING: there may be spoilers.)
Where did the inspiration for DAMAGED come from?
In spring of 2004 I bought a house on the bay just outside of Pensacola. Six months later Hurricane Ivan hit. Nine months after that, it was Dennis. I’ve lived most of my life in tornado country so I thought I was prepared for hurricanes. The anxiety and anticipation is excruciating. Nothing prepares you for the aftermath. It’s hard to explain. It may sound a bit clichéd but there’s a transformation that takes place when you experience something like that, especially as a community.
I’ve wanted to throw Maggie into the path of a hurricane ever since. So she’s not just faced with stopping a killer but doing it while a monster storm approaches. This gave me a chance to really put Maggie in a situation that was way out of her league.
Do you see similarities between an impending hurricane and a killer on the loose?
Absolutely! And the title has a two-pronged effect because “damaged” comes from what the hurricane is about to do, and because the killer is someone who can't use damaged bodies.
You write in great detail about FBI processes and forensic investigations. How did you do research in these areas?
Real experts are still the best sources of information. I've been very fortunate to have contacts in a variety of law enforcement and forensic fields, people I can call or email with questions. Some have become close friends who share details of their cases with me over dinner. I’ve also had the privilege of visiting Quantico, and was able to spend some time down in the Behavioral Science Unit talking to special agents who do every day what I only write about.
What I don’t know, I read, constantly. I now have an extensive library of my own and anyone who checked my laptop’s cache would probably be shocked to see the types of websites I surf on a regular basis. I’m also a bit of a news junkie. Can’t stay away from it.
Would you ever consider, or have you ever considered being an FBI agent?
I don’t think I could be in law enforcement or in forensics. I sit and listen to my detective and CSI friends over dinner and I can barely eat as they describe the details of their cases. I admire them tremendously but I could never do what they do.
Where did the idea come from to use the underground cadaver business?
Several years ago I read a special report in USA Today about the illegal body parts business. It mentioned a case in Brooklyn involving a body broker and several funeral homes that were stealing tissue and bone from corpses, in some instances, replacing the bones with PVC piping and hiding the theft by sewing the bodies back up. Sometimes entire bodies were stolen instead of being sent to the crematory. The indictment charged that as many as 1,000 bodies may have been stolen by this one group.
It fascinated me how greed could literally eviscerate a solemn practice that we take for granted and expect to be treated with dignity and respect.
From then on I started searching for and saving anything I could find on the subject. I read several books including Annie Cheney’s BODY BROKERS and Kathy Braidhill’s CHOP SHOP.
And how about the idea of an epidemic-threatening infection?
I love the character of Col. Benjamin Platt (who made his debut in EXPOSED) and I wanted to bring him into the story. Pensacola has several military ties so it made sense to find a connection. In the meantime I had read an article about staph infections in soldiers who had lost limbs. The article mentioned a new bone paste that was being used to preempt these infections because they could add antibiotics directly to the paste which was added directly to the wound.
But what if the bone came from a donor stolen by an underground body broker? What if it was contaminated? As strange as it sounds, it was almost like kismet, because Benjamin Platt works at USAMRIID (United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases – pronounced U-SAM-RID) and specializes in viruses, infections and contaminations.
What about Coast Guard rescue swimmer, Liz Bailey? Will we see her again in a future novel?
I hope so. She certainly won me over. I ended up giving her a much more prominent role than she initially had.
DAMAGED uses Pensacola, Florida, for the backdrop. Previous novels have also had subplots in Pensacola and in Nebraska. You have homes in both places. Is it simply easier to use cities you’re familiar with?
I do like to use familiar territory, but that’s not the only reason I choose them. There are a lot of misperceptions about “fly-over country,” which is what Nebraska is, to many people. And outside of the sugar-white beaches, the Panhandle of Florida is a bit unknown as well. Both are remarkable places and I love introducing them to readers.
Critics and fans alike have found your heroine, Special Agent Maggie O’Dell, very
appealing. What is it about her that readers can’t get enough of?
I have to admit I’m not sure what it is, because sometimes Maggie drives me crazy. What I hear from readers is they like that Maggie’s not a superhero. They can relate to her. Yes, she might be an excellent profiler but she failed at her marriage and struggles with her personal relationships. She has flaws. She makes mistakes. But the bottom line is that Maggie does the right thing even when it’s not the easy thing, even when it gets her in trouble or puts her in danger. I think readers admire that about her.
She seems fearless. Entirely calm and collected under pressure. What would it take to rattle Maggie?
Put her in an airplane or helicopter and you’ll see a rattled Maggie O’Dell. She’s also claustrophobic. And when it comes to personal relationships – she can’t run away fast enough.
Is she anything like you?
Close friends have told me they see similarities between us, but it’s the annoying traits, like how we’re both very stubborn and slow to trust. She does share my irreverence for fine leather shoes, my love of college football, and she has a soft spot for dogs. But that’s about it.
DAMAGED is the eighth novel you’ve written featuring Maggie. Was there anything you discovered about her or anything new that surprised you about her in DAMAGED that you didn’t know or realize before now?
Each novel Maggie reveals a bit more to me and the readers. It’s been an interesting journey. She protects herself from being hurt emotionally almost more than she protects herself from physical injury. Put a gun in her hand and send her into a dark tunnel to hunt for a killer – no problem. But put her across the table from someone who truly wants to have a heart-to-heart talk and Maggie squirms to get away. In DAMAGED she actually lets her personal armor down long enough to get close to and trust Liz Bailey and to Benjamin Platt.
Your journey from struggling writer to published author is a Cinderella story. Can you tell us about that?
I received 116 rejections for a novel that remains unpublished. In 1996 I quit my job as a director of public relations. I was burned out and needed a change. I decided while I was looking for a different career I’d try writing another novel. In the year and a half that it took me to write A PERFECT EVIL my savings account depleted quickly. I taught part-time and even had a newspaper delivery route. My roof started to leak. I maxed out my credit cards to pay bills. My dog – my companion of fifteen years – had to be put to sleep.
Yes, it was a bit of a struggle. In fact, I joke at speaking engagements that it now sounds like a really bad country western song. But at the time, I told myself that if I wasn’t published before I was forty years old, I’d put aside my dream, get a job and go on with the rest of my life. Fortunately, three days before my fortieth birthday I was at Book Expo America signing advance copies of A PERFECT EVIL.
Biggest influences – who would you say has made the greatest impact on you and your writing?
I know this is a strange combination but the biggest ones are Harper Lee’s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (how better to learn character development) and Alfred Hitchcock (how better to learn pacing and psychological suspense).
Many authors say they just don’t have time to read or they don’t want others work to interrupt or influence their own writing. Do you read and if so, what?
I don’t quite understand authors who say they have no time for reading. That’s like a gourmet chef saying he/she no longer has time to eat gourmet food. For most of us, reading was what made us want to be writers. And yes, other novels and authors’ works will influence our own, but as writers, everything we see, observe, hear or read will influence us and hopefully make us better writers.
That said, I’m always reading three or four books at one time for research. I read anything and everything: histories, biographies, true crime and forensic manuals. And not just books, I read newspapers, court testimonies, Popular Mechanics and Discovery magazines. For HOTWIRE, I realized I was even reading food labels.
Believe it or not, I wasn’t a mystery/thriller reader before I wrote A PERFECT EVIL and discovered I had accidentally written a thriller. Now I can’t get enough of them. I read for pleasure, almost every night before I go to sleep and while I’m on the treadmill. My dream vacation – which I haven’t taken in years – includes a beach, a comfy lounge chair, plenty of something cold to drink and a stack of books to read.
How long does it take you to research and write a Maggie O’Dell novel?
I love the research and I’m constantly taking notes and digging up information for more than one book at a time. I usually fill two 150-page spiral notebooks and one file folder for each novel. After two or three months I have to tell myself to stop researching and start writing, but oftentimes the research continues all the way through the editing process, honing details or adding something I may have just discovered. Actual writing time? Another two to three months with an additional month for fine tuning.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
In sixth grade Mrs. Powers read to us after lunch, books like Charlie the Lonesome Cougar and Harriet the Spy. I didn't know I wanted to be a writer, yet, but I loved how words could trigger the imagination and evoke such incredible emotion. In junior high I still remember Mr. Meyers reading Poe’s “The Telltale Heart,” and how his deep voice made it sound like the beating of a heart under the floor boards. It was amazing to me how mere words could evoke such emotion.
By thirteen I was writing “stories” on the backs of outdated Co-op Grain calendars. They were spiral-bound and 52 pages, and because they had been discarded, no one cared what I did with them. But I didn’t think you could make a living making up stories and writing them down. So it wasn't until 25 years later that I decided to sit down and give it a try. I mentioned earlier that my first attempt received 116 rejections. That manuscript has never been published, but it taught me something very important—I really did want to be a writer.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not writing?
In spring and summer you’ll find me gardening. Fall, it’s college football. Winter, it’s walks along Pensacola Beach or reading in front of the fireplace in Omaha. And wherever I am you’ll find my pack of dog there with me.
Creating Maggie O’Dell
I never intended to write a series. Maggie O’Dell happened accidentally. Take a look at my first novel, A PERFECT EVIL, and you’ll see that she doesn’t enter the scene until Chapter Seven. The novel was a bigger success than I ever dreamed. Readers seemed to connect with Maggie. They rallied behind her and wanted to see more. My publisher believed we had a commodity on our hands and demanded a second novel with Maggie as the lead.
I must confess, I didn’t have a single paragraph written for another Maggie O’Dell novel. In fact, I had handed in the proposal for an entirely different novel. My publisher had already accepted it. I was about two-thirds of the way through when I was asked to put that novel aside and write a sequel to A PERFECT EVIL instead.
You might say it was the perfect tribute to readers that an author would stop and redirect her career to what her readers were asking for. There was one problem – I really had no idea how to write a series. I didn’t even read mystery series. I also never intended to write a crime procedure novel. A PERFECT EVIL was loosely based on several crimes that took place in Nebraska during the 1980s. When I wrote it, I was more fascinated and concerned with how those crimes affected the characters and the community, not so much with the actual crimes and the killer. But shortly after the novel was published, someone called me the “newest serial killer lady,” and suddenly I was expected to write another and then another.
I had a lot to learn and learn quickly – sort of by the seat of my pants.
Each book became a challenge. When I started I didn’t know a single person in law enforcement. I met people at my book signings who offered their expertise or their friends’ expertise, giving me email addresses and contact information. Suddenly I was
talking to forensic psychologists, homicide detectives, crime scene techs, and prosecutors. A friend even managed to get me a tour of the Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico where I spent an entire afternoon talking to real-life FBI profilers.
Now years later, many of these experts have become friends and are my most prized resources. I get the best ideas and some of my most bizarre pieces of crime evidence from them. It’s become one of my trademarks to include bits of real life crimes in each novel. And it was also through these experts that I came to understand Maggie O’Dell.
It was one of these experts who told me I needed Maggie to lighten up, not take things so seriously. She told me I needed to let Maggie have a sense of humor because many times that’s what helps the real crime scene investigators cope with what they see on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. That piece of advice helped me like Maggie. Yes, I know, it sounds odd but in the beginning Maggie and I butted heads. And I didn’t always like her. She’s stubborn and has an independent streak that often pushes friends and loved ones away. Her passion to do the right thing drives her to be impulsive, to go out on her own, to break rules.
In A PERFECT EVIL Maggie’s marriage had begun to fall apart, her mother was a suicidal alcoholic who depended on Maggie to prop her up. Maggie had no one she trusted, other than her best friend, Gwen Patterson. She was – is – brilliant in her professional life, but her personal life is sometimes a disaster.
What made things worse, I started to realize that there were unwritten rules for female protagonists in thriller novels that didn’t apply to male protagonists. Female protagonists are expected to be tough, but feminine. They shouldn’t swear or cry or sleep around. For instance, Maggie would never be allowed as many one-night stands as Lee Child’s Jack Reacher.
The first time I discovered this double standard was during my second book tour. A bookseller (who I respect tremendously) took me aside and told me that I really needed to get Maggie’s drinking problem under control.