Lynn Slaughter Novelist
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I loved interviewing K.L. Borges and discovering that I am not the only “Accidental Author” around! Below, Kathy talks about her debut cozy mystery and her writing journey.

First off, congratulations on the release of your debut cozy mystery, MURDER IN THE CRAZY MOUNTAINS, the first in your Montana Animal Rescue Mystery series. Can you share with our readers a bit about the novel?

As the title suggests, this is a murder mystery set in Montana where the action swirls around an animal rescue. A wounded dog is brought into the rescue where he is found to be suffering from multiple gunshots. The dog is recognized as belonging to a woman who has disappeared from Missoula. Two rescue operators, Betty Mills and Kelly Boyd, join forces with the best friend of the missing woman, ex-Army Cici Vargas, and start to investigate. They wind up embroiled in a murder investigation, ultimately in jeopardy themselves.

It’s a suspenseful story but is also laced with a lot of humor to keep things from becoming dark.

I noticed that one of your major characters, Kelly Boyd, is a former high school math teacher who joins a rescue animal shelter. You have also been a math teacher and are active in the animal rescue community. In what ways are you and Kelly similar and/or different?

Kelly and I match up on several points: we both retired from teaching math, have been married long-term to our husbands, and each joined an animal rescue at retirement. Lastly, we share our households with two wild and crazy blue heelers.

Kelly, though, differs from myself in significant ways. Kelly was born and raised in Billings, attended college in her hometown, and taught math in a local high school for her entire career. She was an only child and doesn’t have any children. When she and her husband moved from Billings to Helena upon retirement, Kelly is at sea and flounders somewhat, needing to redefine herself when everything except her husband is now new and different.

Both of us have a good sense of humor and are often both bouncy and corny in our interactions with others!         

You have worked both as an environmental engineer and later a math teacher. What inspired you to decide to write a cozy mystery?

You know, Lynn, I really should call myself the Accidental Author. Writing a book had never even crossed my mind when my husband and I climbed into our car to set off on a 3,000-mile car trip the first fall that I wasn’t in the classroom.

The day before we left on the trip, I saw a post on PetFinder about a hound dog who had been brought into a shelter with multiple gunshot wounds. The poor guy needed several surgeries, and the shelter was hoping to place him in a medical foster home where he could recover quietly. That dog’s story stuck in my mind and became the kernel of a tale that I began to spin as I daydreamed out the car window. Pretty soon, the story had grown into a book length epic and I decided I should write it down!

Have you always written fiction, or is this a more recent interest?

The only writing I have done, prior to Murder in the Crazy Mountains has been professional technical writing for engineering projects, or lesson plans, so definitely writing fiction is a recent interest!

I have to say, though, I always enjoyed writing for work- a trait not shared with co-workers, most of whom would rather have emergency dental work without Novocain than be tasked with a writing assignment.

What steps did you take to hone your mystery writing skills?

I am a voracious reader and a huge mystery fan. When I sat down to write my own, I knew I wanted to write a book that was fun (and funny), easy to read, and hard to put down. I picked a few of my favorite authors whose work fit the bill and did some hard-core re-reading of their books, studying how they use dialogue, backstory, chapter length, pacing, humor, etc. 

I took some classes on crime-scene investigation for writers and joined an eight-week Citizens Police Academy class put on by my town’s police department to become better informed and more able to write reality-based fiction.

And the question most frequently asked of fiction writers: Where do you get your ideas?

My stories all start with a problem that I can get my characters tangled up in, with a murder somewhere in the midst. The backstory to the problem and how the characters solve it flesh out the rest of the story.

The ideas for those central events and my characters’ responses to them are pulled out of real-life happenings that I stumble across in the newspaper, or through research for a different manuscript, or are based on personal experiences. Anything and everything is fair game for a story!  Fortunately for me as a writer, the world of animal rescue, is chock-full of interesting problems, happening on a daily basis.

Ideas that I’m not going to use right away go into a catch-all folder and simmer in there, awaiting future use.

What is your writing process like?

I spend a lot of time writing in my head, essentially daydreaming about a storyline. Once I have a variety of scenes juggling around in my noggin, I will jot them down on index cards, so I don’t forget anything. Then comes time with the keyboard; changing the “movie” that I watch in my mind into written words for the manuscript. Oftentimes, the characters in the “movie” surprise me, doing or saying things that I hadn’t thought of beforehand, or maybe a new character shows up on the scene and demands to be in the book. This makes me laugh when it happens; it’s one of the most fun parts about writing for me.

What surprised you the most about becoming a published author?

The biggest surprise about becoming a published author was that it actually happened. Landing a contract and getting the book through the editing process to the release date has been like a fantastic fairy-tale to me. I had a hard time believing it would really happen, secretly fearing that my book deal would turn into pumpkin before Murder in the Crazy Mountains published.

Publishing day arrived and the book was released though! I am now a real life published author!

What’s next for you writing-wise?

Murder in the Crazy Mountains is the first book in a series, the Montana Animal Rescue Mysteries. The first three books are under contract with Epicenter Press and writing the sequels to Murder in the Crazy Mountains is my focus for the foreseeable future.

I have actually finished the second in the series; it is in the pipeline for publication next fall. I’m sporadically working on the third book but find it’s harder to find time to write, now that promotional engagements are happening for Murder in the Crazy Mountains.

Anything else you’d like to add, or wish I’d asked that I didn’t?

A huge Thank You! to everyone reading this, and to you, Lynn, for hosting me on your blog. I would love to hear from you; please drop me a line at klborgesauthor@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557406862657

My author website is:

https://www.klborgesauthor.com

BIO

Born and raised in Idaho, K.L. Borges moved to Montana in her twenties, where she and her husband raised their three children alongside a series of herding dogs. K.L. Borges was a math teacher at a private Billings high school (Go, Rams!) for a decade, following an earlier career as an environmental engineer. Borges is an active volunteer in the animal rescue community of south-central Montana, a member of the Billings Gem and Mineral Society and is a member of Sisters in Crime. Murder in the Crazy Mountains is her first book.

Purchase links

Bookshop.org 

https://bookshop.org/p/books/murder-in-the-crazy-mountains-k-l-borges/0398b64042a7641f?ean=9781684922567&next=t

BarnesandNoble.org 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-in-the-crazy-mountains-k-l-borges/1147834368?ean=9781684922567

Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=murder+in+the+crazy+mountains