An Interview With Kait Carson

by Grace Topping

Anyone who has entered the world of writing and publishing can speak of the highs and lows of living in that world. Kait Carson, a member of our Writers Who Kill group, has gained a wealth of experience writing and publishing novels, short stories, and magazine articles. It was a pleasure interviewing her about her breadth of experience both as a writer and publisher. Her Hayden Kent Mystery Series also incorporates her adventures as a certified scuba diver.

Death by Blue Water: Underwater, no one hears your screams 

Paralegal Hayden Kent knows first-hand that life in the Florida Keys can change from perfect to perilous in a heartbeat. When she discovers a man’s body tangled in an anchor line one hundred and twenty feet beneath the sea, she thinks she is witness to a tragic accident. When the victim is revealed to be the brother of the man who recently jilted her, she becomes the prime suspect, and she has no alibi. As the evidence against her mounts, she joins forces with Officer Janice Kirby. Together, they uncover long hidden secrets, a web of lies, and criminal activity at the highest levels. Trapped in a deadly chase, Hayden follows clues underwater and through gorgeous tropical settings, desperately fighting for her life and freedom.

                                                                        www.kaitcarson.com

 

Welcome, Kait. 

 

 

How long have you been writing, and have you always written mysteries?

 

This is actually a more difficult question than it should be. I have to say all my life. My earliest writing memories are in the second grade. We were assigned to write a poem to teach us rhymes. The two lines I remember foreshadowed my career as a mystery writer. They were "Pop, Pop, Pop. Here comes a cop." 

 

I somehow snagged an agent when I was thirteen and wrote teen drama stories. Back then, magazines like Ingenue and Seventeen published fiction. Life got in the way after high school, and I paused my writing career until the 1990s when I began writing novels. The earliest were romances, set in the Caribbean and Florida. I pull them out from under my bed occasionally. Since then, it’s been mysteries all the way. 

 

Your books have been published traditionally and you have also self-published. Please tell us about your experience with traditional publishing. Would you go that route again?

 

Interesting question, as I am currently querying small presses with the first book in the Maine Lodge series. 

 

I was fortunate to sign with a small press during their start-up years. It was a heady experience, and I learned a lot. Editing, cover design, proofing, printing, and production are all handled by the publisher. That’s an amazing benefit. Marketing, however, is left to the author. That surprised me. I wasn’t prepared for it. It was quite the learning curve, but paid dividends for my self-publishing journey. It was an interesting experience, and I miss the deadlines!

 

What has your experience with self-publishing been like?

 

I enjoy it. There’s a sense of satisfaction in personally handling all aspects of your publishing life. Self-publishing also gives you the freedom to pivot, which you don’t have in traditional publishing. It’s a lot more work, but I’m fortunate to have a great team to assist me. 

 

What would you recommend to a writer who is considering self-publishing?

 

Learn everything you can about the process before you attempt it. There are multiple classes available online, and some of the best are available through Sisters in Crime and Guppies. When you self-publish, writing’s the easy part. It’s more than loading an epub or print file to Amazon or Draft2Digital. 

 

The short story market seems to be growing. Have you written many? Do you find writing short easier or harder?

 

I love to see the short story market growing. It’s fun to take a break from the marathon of writing a novel with a short story sprint. It’s almost as if shorts use a different part of the creative brain. I’m always on the lookout for themed anthologies. It’s fun to experiment with different voices and subgenres and see where they take you. As for easy or hard, it depends. The long form is easier, but the short is very satisfying. 

 

You’ve written for magazines. Please tell us about that. Is there still a market for writers wanting to submit to magazines?

 

Oh, I miss the "Trues." True Confessions, True Experience, True Story. They were wonderful venues for a writer and a great way to break into the market. Alas, they have been gone for more than ten years now. Paid markets are scarce, but they do exist. Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen magazines are two of the best known. There’s also Woman’s World, which buys both short mysteries and romances. Anyone who is interested in writing for magazines might consider joining the Short Mystery Fiction Society on groups.io. They sponsor the annual Derringer Awards. Guppies also has an active short mystery subgroup. 

 

In your Hayden Kent series, Hayden is a scuba diver. The diving scenes are so realistic. Are you an experienced diver yourself?

 

Thank you, Grace. I certified as a diver in 1971. Hard to believe, but true. Diving has been a major influence on the Hayden Kent books. The premise for Death by Blue Water came to me during a dive on a deep wreck near Marathon, Florida. The wreck sits upright in 130 feet of water. I was looking into the wheelhouse when I heard the bong of a goliath grouper, and a plastic bag floated in front of me. My heart stuttered. For a brief instant, the floating bag looked like a hand, and Death by Blue Water was born.

 

You’ve lived in a number of locations, including Florida and Maine. Does where you live influence what you write?

 

Great question. I thought it did, but it doesn’t. When I moved to Maine, I immediately changed writing venues to pay homage to my woodland home and wrote the first of the Maine Lodge Mysteries. Then the tropics called me home, and I’m hard at work writing the Southernmost Secrets Mysteries and continuing the Hayden Kent series.

 

Are any of your characters a bit like you?

 

Yes. Hayden Kent is clearly a case of write what you know. She’s an avid scuba diver and a paralegal. The first of the Kent books was written in 2007/2008. That was the year that my part of Maine experienced snowfall totals in excess of two hundred inches. I was definitely Florida dreaming, and I wrote parts of myself into the story.

 

What is happening to your Catherine Swope series? Anything?

 

Ah, that’s a cautionary tale. The Swope series was not quite ready for prime time, but I wasn’t a seasoned enough writer to realize that. I have removed them from sale with the intention of rewriting and releasing them in the future. There’s much to be said for experience. 

 

Do you plot or just wing it?

 

LOL. I so try to be a plotter. I even bought Plotrr software. I envy plotters. They have a roadmap. As for me, I’m a bit of both. I sketch what I consider to be the five key scenes, often write the full climax scene, and then it’s off to the races. I use a program called Scrivener for drafting. It has a sidebar for notes which I use to bullet point the key points of each chapter. It helps keep me from falling down too many rabbit holes.

 

Living in a remote section of Maine, how do you stay connected to other writers? Or is that important?

 

Oh, yes. Very important. I call it the blessing of the Internet. My key connections have come from Sisters in Crime. Especially the Guppy chapter. It’s important to find your group and to develop a trusted team. 

 

What do you wish you could tell your younger self starting out as a writer?

 

Don’t be in such a rush. Slow down, get it right. 

 

What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned since you started writing?

 

The value of a team. Without trusted feedback, it’s impossible to learn or grow. 

 

What are you working on now?

 

Death by Deception, the fourth of the Hayden Kent series. It’s a bit of a change for Hayden as it introduces her love interest. We’ll see where it goes. I’m also knee deep in querying small presses for No Return, the first of the Maine Lodge series.

 

Thanks so much for interviewing me, Grace. It’s been both fun and insightful. 

 

Thank you, Kait. 

 

 

To learn more about Kait Carson and her books, visit www.kaitcarson.com

 

Bio:

Kait Carson writes the Hayden Kent Mysteries set in the Fabulous Florida Keys and is at work on a new mystery set in her adopted state of Maine. Her short fiction has been nationally published in True Romance, True Confessions, True Story, True Experience, and Woman’s World magazines, and in the Falchion Finalist Seventh Guppy Anthology Hook, Line, and Sinker. She is a former President of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime, a member of Sisters in Crime, Guppies, and of Sisters in Crime New England. Visit her website at www.kaitcarson.com. While you’re there, sign up for her newsletter and receive a yummy, authentic, key lime pie recipe.

 

Like her protagonists, Kait is an accomplished SCUBA diver, hiker, and critter lover. She lives with her husband, four rescue cats and flock of conures in the Crown of Maine where long, dark, nights give birth to flights of fictional fantasies. Oh, yes, Kait loves the color blue!

 

 

An Interview with Kait Carson By E. B. Davis

 

A family scuba vacation. A dropped bit of equipment. Has the famous Blue Hole of Belize claimed another life?

Hayden Kent has more riding on the answer to the mystery than curiosity. She believes the diver faked his death. As a paralegal and newly minted claims investigator, it’s her job to decide if her company pays out the thirty-million-dollar policy. When her trip to Belize uncovers evidence of fraud, she returns to her beloved Florida Keys and digs deeper into the dead man’s affairs. Her boss’s advice to follow the money sends her to the Cayman Islands where privacy is king, and secrets can be deadly. Hayden’s inquiries put her in the cross-hairs of a killer who will stop at nothing to claim the thirty million. Can she prove the dead man lives before she ends up as shark bait?

Death Dive is the third book in the Hayden Kent mystery series. If you like fast-paced suspense that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go, then you’ll love this series. Underwater, no one hears you scream.

Amazon.com 

WWK’s Kait Carson released the third book in the Hayden Kent mystery series yesterday. The first two books in this series, Death By Blue Water and Death By Sunken Treasure, can be downloaded from Kindle Unlimited. Although the third book, Death Dive, is a great stand alone, reading the previous two books will show major changes main character Hayden Kent has undergone in her immediate past.

 

By the end of the book, I knew two things. Hayden can trust her two female friends in law enforcement and her cat, Tiger, who literally has her back!

 

Welcome to the flip side of WWK, Kait!                                                              E. B. Davis

 

What’s a dive computer? How often do they get tested?

Besides being one of my favorite things, a dive computer is similar to a one-stop-shop visual record of your dive. Mine is air integrated, so it attaches to my tank via an air hose. That feature allows the computer to keep track of the air in my tank, my dive time, how much longer I can stay submerged within the recreational limits and other items. It also records my depth, and my rate of ascent. After my dive it will let me know my surface interval (the time between dives). A very handy gadget. Divers must remember that it is a gadget. For true dive safety, never rely on your computer, but refer to the dive tables for safety.

 

Computers should be serviced annually at an authorized dive shop.

 

What did Jacques Cousteau do to the Belize Blue Hole? Who allowed him to do it? In 1971 Cousteau and his team brought the Calypso to Belize. The limestone “wall” that surrounded the Blue Hole had openings too small to admit the Calypso. Cousteau used dynamite to widen the opening. History is silent about permission, but Cousteau later claimed it was one of his ten favorite dives.

 

Why are inexperienced divers air hogs? Excitement. It’s a gorgeous and breathtaking world under the sea!

 

How hard is it to get a person declared dead by the courts without a body? I thought there was a seven-year waiting period. Not hard, but it is a court process. The statutory wait in Florida is five years. That gap can create additional hardship for loved ones who are already grappling with their loss. If there is good reason to believe a missing person is dead, a suggestion of death can be filed. The court will look at the evidence and can declare the person dead. This not only provides closure to the family, but allows insurance claims to proceed and begins the probate process.

Why would Mallory ask Hayden to stay for a meeting with the deceased family? Wouldn’t that be a conflict of interest especially now that Hayden thinks the man faked his death? Why did Hayden stay? Mallory hoped Hayden would be able to answer any questions the family might have about the dive and knew her friend would keep an open mind. Hayden understood that without further investigation, her belief that Joe was alive was little more than a “gut” feeling.

 

How did Hayden get the job with Luis, her boss, who is an attorney for the insurance company? What does Hayden do there? Hayden is a paralegal. In her previous job, she handled probate – the process of settling decedent’s estates. At her new job, Hayden is training as an investigator, and she is a working paralegal responsible for the drafting and filing of legal pleadings, and reviewing policies and claims.

 

I found myself questioning Hayden and Mallory’s friendship. Mallory and her boss, Ed, tried to use Hayden. Then Mallory becomes angry with Hayden for doing her job. Why does Hayden put up with that behavior? Hayden and Mallory have been best friends forever. They are also each other’s devil’s advocates. They’ve worked together in the past. Now that Hayden’s role has changed and they are on different sides of the same case, they need to find their footing. As Hayden tells Luis, “We’ve known each other forever. We argue, don’t talk for a while, but we always have each other’s back. No matter what.”

 

What is well-known diver and author Kurt Milan doing in Belize? He’s been hired by clients to shoot a documentary of the Blue Hole. For all that is known about the Hole, there are many unanswered questions. Cousteau and his men did not get to the bottom, but they did determine that much of the structure was formed above ground and gradually submerged. The bottom of the Hole was not reached until 2018. The information discovered changed much of what we thought we knew about the Hole, and required a significant rewrite of Death Dive.

 

What is bad air? Air that is somehow contaminated with something, often carbon dioxide. It can occur innocently, the fill station too near a source of engine exhaust, but can be fatal. In specialty diving, it can be a poorly prepared gas mix that creates a safety hazard.

 

Hayden is almost left behind by the boat while she is still diving. Does that happen often? What system do they use to prevent that from happening? Not often, but unfortunately, it does happen. One of the most famous cases was depicted in the 2004 film Open Water. Dive boats use various methods to try to prevent a missing diver. Most common are sign in boards and roll calls. Less common are token boards where the diver takes a token before the dive and replaces it on the board when they return.

 

What is a safety sausage? Ah, ye olde safety sausage! They are three to six foot plastic tubes, usually bright orange, that the diver can inflate from their air supply or by blowing it up manually. I have often thought if the diver could manually inflate a safety sausage, they had the lung capacity to get back to shore! When not in use, the sausage rolls up and is secured by a clip to a dive vest. When a diver surfaces far from the dive boat, the best thing to do is get that sausage in the air. It makes you visible to your boat and can keep you from getting run over.

 

Why don’t rebreathers give off bubbles? I always thought of them as breath recycling machines. A diver’s exhale is returned to the device where scrubbers clean the carbon dioxide and recycle it back to the diver to rebreathe. Not only do they not produce bubbles—they’re silent. Spooky stuff.

 

Why are divers fascinated by other divers’ deaths? That varies by the individual, of course. As is common in most extreme sports, tragedies and near misses serve as learning experiences.

 

What differentiates recreational divers from technical divers? Not too much! Recreational divers use air in their tanks and stay at shallower depths. Technical divers use mixed gases depending on the dive and regularly end dives with decompression.

 

Why did Hayden try a risky dive she wasn’t qualified to make? Was her ego too engaged? Yes indeed. She was foolish and should have known better. To be honest, I tried to tell her. She insisted.

 

Can employees be personally sued for actions they took while on the job? In the legal world they can. As a paralegal I carried both errors and omissions insurance and liability insurance. It’s a scary world!

 

Hayden is a bit clumsy, isn’t she? She has her moments! I think she gets that from me!

 

After being shot at, Hayden is suspicious of everyone, even Luis. Has she become paranoid? No, not paranoid. Being shot at made her take a step back and dive deeply into the people involved in the case. One of her favorite tools is to create a mind-mapping chart of relationships. In this case, everyone had a personal connection to the decedent and Luis attempted to conceal his.

 

What’s next for Hayden? Hayden is at a crossroads. The past few years have been difficult. She’s changed jobs, but not professions, her heart is in the law and she always intended to attend law school. The pandemic threw a hitch in her plans, and now she’s trying to find her way.

 

Thank you for inviting me to the other side of WWK! This has been fun. Great questions, Elaine.