Sydney Katt is the new indie author of the thriller,
Agents
of Deceit. After publishing her first book in February, she's already preparing to release the sequel. Let's learn more about Sydney and her writing...
Q: How long have you been
writing and when did you decide to indie publish? What was the biggest hurdle
in going it alone?
A: I don’t remember a time
when I wasn’t writing, but it didn’t occur to me to try doing anything with it
until maybe 2005-ish. Even then, I never thought anything would happen with my
work because being picked up by the Big 6 is a bit like winning the lottery. I
decided to go indie in late 2012 and started working on it at the beginning of
this year. Typesetting is, by far, the biggest challenge I’ve encountered.
After getting a book ready for paperback, I totally get why everyone hates MS
Word.
Q: You recently
published Agents of Deceit. Can you explain the idea behind the book? Where did
the inspiration come from?
A: Basically, the FBI gets
word that a suspected bio-terrorist is going to be in town for his high school
reunion. Since they don’t have enough to go on to bring him in for questioning
or holding, Patriot Act and all, they place an undercover agent across the hall
from a woman the would-be terrorist was friends with in school. His mission is
simple: Get into her life by any means necessary.
I’d been playing around with
the undercover aspect of the plot for several months by the time I went on
vacation. I’m not exactly one of those Zen flyers, so my mind started wandering
to what would be going on if someone was trying to attack the airport or my
plane. Well, clearly, that’s not a smart thing to think about during an
eight-hour flight, so I backed it up about three weeks and focused on the
aspects of the plot that didn’t make me break out in a cold sweat. Did I mention
I’m not good with planes?
Q: How many books do you
envision in the series? How soon can we look forward to the sequel?
A: I’m kind of weird about
the number 13, so that’s what I’m looking at for the series at this point. It’s
already plotted out and the first four books are complete. The second book in
the series, The Shattered Alliance, should be out in May.
Q: What drew you to suspense
as a genre? Do you plan to branch out to other genres as your career
progresses?
A: It’s primarily what I
read. Even when I read other genres, it’s always the suspense in the books that
keeps me interested, not the other genre elements. I already have works in
varying stages of completeness underway in other genres. This year is about
suspense for me, but I’m hoping to have a romantic comedy, a paranormal
suspense/romance and a thriller ready to go next year or early 2015.
Q: Can you tell us about FBI Special Agent Jackson Caldwell? Where did the
inspiration for his character come from?
A: I wish I could remember
the exact inspiration for his character, but I developed him back in 1999 or
2000. I’ve always hated reading books where the men were perfect and sexy and
completely unlike any man out there in the real world. Yes, I wanted Jackson to be sexy and
pretty good at his job, but I also wanted him to be believable as a person.
So I piled on the flaws. When
we first meet him, he still hasn’t quite reconciled himself to this new reality
where his ex-wife is married to his ex-partner and he’s been stuck behind a
desk. He doesn’t expect to fall in love when he’s sent to Dallas for an undercover assignment. He
expects a paperwork nightmare.
Q: How about Jenna Monroe? What makes her tick?
A: Originally, she was
supposed to be the primary character, not Jackson.
But then I started writing and he had a more natural narration voice. He was
more pivotal to the action anyway.
I wanted to stick with the
broken, flawed character concept instead of just making her awesome just
because she was important to the story. On the surface, her life doesn’t make a
lot of sense. She’s an orphan who went off to Harvard to study law, yet blew
off the Bar and moved home to write children’s books about cats. She doesn’t
date, barely leaves the house and never would’ve noticed the handsome new
tenant moving into the condo across the hall if her best friend hadn’t gone
into matchmaker mode.
Q: How do you come up with the names for your characters?
A: It depends on what type of
story I’m writing. For some of my works outside of the suspense series, I’ve
selected names based on their meaning or symbolism because it matters in the
context of the story. For these books…names just sort of come to me out of the clear
blue sky and rarely need tweaking. I think I picked Jenna’s name after I
watched a movie with a character of that name. I liked it so I borrowed it.
Q: Chicken or the egg question. Do you create a character and build around
him/her? Or do you imagine a concept and create characters which fit the idea?
A: A little of both, but my
ideas most often include a main character and a plot when they come to me. For
instance, I used to work at a major international pharmaceutical company in the
clinical research department. Since our department reported to the VP in the UK, I would
have to start my day at six in the morning to accommodate video conferences
with the half of the team hanging out across the pond. As I was walking across
a pre-sunrise dark parking garage one morning, I wondered what I would do if
someone was trying to kill me. Then I wondered why anyone would want to kill me
since I was a nobody in the company. Ta-da! Plot and character…once I made the
character a little more interesting, of course. I was a touch too boring to
advance through the main character auditions.
Q: How do you avoid writing a Mary Sue or Marty Stu when most writers can’t
help falling desperately in love with their creations?
A: I honestly don’t get that
impulse. When I write, I immerse myself in the character so that I can get
their perspective dead-on. So, wouldn’t that be a bit like falling desperately
in love with myself since I’m spending so much time living in Jackson’s head? Kind of creepy. Besides, Jackson’s a little too arrogant
for my taste.
That said, I’m really a fan
of the ex-partner that stole Jackson’s
wife. He’s a fun guy to write in later books in the series.
Q: Do you use anything to inspire you while you’re writing? Music, visual aids,
etc? Also have you found ideas come to you more freely in particular places or
at certain times of the day?
A: Unfortunately, I have one
of those “hey look, a squirrel just ran over…ooh shiny” attention spans. Visual
aids are out for me. I do typically create a playlist of songs that I feel
capture the emotion I’m trying to get on the page, I don’t usually listen to it
while I write. It’s more to keep me inspired and engaged with the plot when I’m
not writing. You know, because a new shiny plot is always just a thought away,
ready to distract me.
Without fail, I come up with
some of my best dialogue and interior monologues when I’m in the shower. I have
hair that’s long and thick so it takes a mini-lifetime to get the conditioner
out of it. Since there are few distractions in a shower, I can focus on
plotting. Still haven’t figured out how to take good notes in there though…
Q: When an idea hits you, do you start writing immediately or plot it out
first?
A: Unfortunately, my schedule
is typically so packed that I don’t have the luxury of writing right away. I’ve
also got a supermassive backlog of fully-plotted ideas that I need to get down
on the page, so any idea I come up with is probably going to the back of the
line. But I’m one of those people with a near-photographic memory for things I
care about. I can write down the working title, a character’s name, a sentence
of what it’s about and I’ll remember all the plot details and dialogue snippets
I created as soon as I see it in the idea file.
So, basically, all my stories
get extensive plotting before I ever get to put a single word on the page.
Q: When you read less than fawning reviews, how do you know when to use the
critique to improve your future writing and when do you chalk up the criticism
as different strokes for different folks?
A: I’m not going to be
everyone’s particular brand of vodka. I don’t want to be, either. Let’s be
really for real for a second here. People are going to HATE that most of my
series books end with a cliffhanger that gets resolved in future books instead
of just wrapping everything up in a cute little bow. But sometimes it has to be
that way. Killers aren’t always going to magically fall into your trap or start
revealing all their plans just because the book’s about out of pages. Nope.
Some bad guys are the gifts of evilry that keep on giving.
Oh, I’m sorry…that wasn’t the
question. I just roll with it, using helpful bits of critique and discarding
the rest. I once had a guy tell me (after reading a VERY early version of this
book) that it was totally devoid of all description because I didn’t describe
every brick of the alley in the opening scene with loving care. Dude,
seriously…if you can’t tell that the guy bleeding out on the ground is more
important to the main character than what the alley looks like, I really can’t
help you.
Q: I’ve read criticism from particular bloggers (Fangs for the Fantasy being
one) about the lack of people of color and different sexual orientations in
fiction. Do you take this lack of diversity into consideration when creating
plots and characters?
A: No. People will either be
annoyed that I didn’t include someone of color or they’ll be annoyed because
they don’t feel I – a person who’s so pale that she makes notebook paper appear
beige – could adequately write a person of color. I’m not going to make
everyone happy, so I write the characters the story demands. Besides, sexual
orientation is often irrelevant to what I’m writing. I mean…come on. “Jackson, this guy saw
everything that went down in the convenience store. Oh, and he sleeps with
men.”
Most of the time, I don’t
know whether a character is gay or straight until they become important to the
story and they tell me. I’m not going to force diversity on characters when I’m
still learning about them just for the sake of adding diversity.
Q: Do word counts mean anything to you? Do you find your books top out at
around the same lengths?
A: I’ve never set out to
write books of a certain word count, but I find my plotting sweet spot is
between 85,000 and 125,000 words. If I end up with a book that’s only at 55,000
words, it usually means I didn’t fully develop an aspect of the plot. So, I
look at the word count as a guide, but when the story’s done, it’s done.
Q: How big a deal is writer’s block for you and what do you do to shake it off?
A: Like I mentioned before, I
have major time constraints that keep me from writing as much as I’d like. By
the time I get to sit down at the computer, I typically don’t have an issue
because I know exactly what’s going to happen and when in the story. If I do
encounter a difficult chapter, I usually just go on to a part of the story
that’s fresher in my mind. Since I know the plot backwards and forwards, I
don’t always have to write linearly; I just prefer to.
It also helps that I’m a
professional ghostwriter of corporate and social media content by day. I have
daily content deadlines, whether I’m feeling inspired or not. When your ability
to eat hinges on your ability to force creativity, you tend to look at writer’s
block a bit differently.
Q: What books did you enjoy most in 2012?
A: 2012 was an unreasonably
busy year for me, so I didn’t get a chance to read as much as I would’ve liked.
There were some paranormal reads and some romance books, maybe a thriller or
two, but nothing that really bears mention. I was able to finally read Angels
and Demons by Dan Brown. I enjoyed it, but it’s one of the few books I thought
was better as a movie.
Q: What trends do you hope die in 2013? Are there any you hope take off?
A: I don’t think I’m familiar
with any of the trends. That said, I would like for paranormal writers to
actually do some research on the paranormal prior to writing their books. As
someone who’s done extensive research on the paranormal, it’s frustrating when
writers make up new definitions of what an incubus is, confuse vampires with
fairies or write from an empath’s perspective when it’s clear they don’t know
what an empath is or how they experience life. I’m cool with writers putting
their own slant on things to create a new imagining of a well-known
supernatural creature, but co-opting established terminology when you’d be
better off creating a new term for your creature doesn’t fly with me.
I know, I know…I feel that
strongly about paranormal concepts and yet it’s not my primary genre. But of
course, motivations and actions only have to make sense in fiction, not the
real world, so I get a pass on that one.
Q: What are you plans for 2013 as an indie writer?
A: I’m focusing on my
suspense works this year. I’ll be releasing a total of four books in the
suspense series and one or two non-series short stories.
Find Agents of Deceit at Amazon.
Follow Sydney on Facebook, Twitter, and her website.
AGENTS OF DECEIT