BOOK CLUB FRIDAY -- GUEST AUTHOR KAT HENRY DORAN

Today’s Book Club Friday guest author is Kat Henry Doran. Over the years Kat has worked as a nurse, malpractice insurance investigator, forensic nurse examiner, and victim advocate, all of which add authenticity to her writing. Kat retired her speculum a few years ago but continues to advocate, quietly, for marginalized populations through Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders. Today she talks to us about Choosing a Setting. Read more about her at her website and blog. 

Kat is offering a copy of Out of the Dark to one lucky person who posts a comment to the blog this week. Check back tomorrow to see if you’re the lucky winner. -- AP

Anastasia, I thank you for inviting me to your blog

CHOOSING A SETTING
I am a nurse by first profession; I've been writing for perhaps twenty-five years, published in novel length romance fiction since 2004. For the last ten years of my nursing career, I worked as an investigator for a malpractice insurance carrier. The position required me to travel the length of Upstate New York. One glorious Fall day, while driving through a small Central New York town, I passed a New York State Trooper substation. The  lone car in the parking lot sparked the “what if” process that all writers experience. What if a hot shot  police investigator from the big city is reassigned to a small town in the middle of nowhere? That became Nohmensville, aka No Man's Land, the setting for my first romantic mystery, “Captain Marvelous”.

On another beautiful day in the Fall, I drove Interstate-88 from Binghamton to Albany and discovered the perfect scene of the crime for “Captain Marvelous” where women were murdered, then dumped like pieces of garbage along the interstate which frames the Northern border of the Catskill Mountains. I deliberately created a small, rural town where  social activities center around its festivals, amateur sports, and the local VFW pot luck suppers. I wanted the hero to start out having an elitist big-city attitude who loathes everything about small towns, the unique slow pace, the attitudes and mores, biases and eccentricities.

For my second novel, another romantic mystery, “Try Just Once More”, I chose my favorite vacation spot—Saranac Lake, a town in the Adirondack Mountains of Northern New York, famous for finding cures for tuberculosis prior to the advent of effective meds and spitting distance from Lake Placid and Olympic history. There is such charm here, with many of the cure cottages and cure porches still in existence. I wanted a place for my wounded heroine to run to after she hits bottom, a place that would welcome my wounded hero and give him a home to love.

My third book, “Raising Kane” will be released on September 24^th  as part of the anthology, “Out of the Dark”. To enhance the setting, I used my history as a victim advocate when I often took my kids and their friends to Take Back the Night marches, protesting violence against women. I felt the need to introduce the girls to their First Amendment rights as well as the plight of crime victims. The marches were always safe; we always made sure to have a “police presence” along the route. As I planned “Raising Kane”, I had the march evolve into a riot in front of a biker bar. Lots of blood, guts and gore with drunks wielding beer bottles and brick bats. Throw in a few activist nuns and we had ourselves a great party.

Currently I am involved with The Class of '85, an ongoing series for Wild Rose Press. The premise is centered around an invitation to the 25^th high school reunion of the class of 1985. To start, we needed to create a small city of about 50,000 with a lot of character, history, and elegant architecture. As so often happens, brilliance strikes when we least expect it. I discovered a small, enclosed neighborhood in the middle of Rochester  complete with stone and brick mansions, cobblestone streets, and tidy, manicured lawns. Ta da! We picked up this neighborhood and dropped it on a bluff overlooking Lake Ontario, Queen of the Great Lakes.

           
Then we needed to create a framework for the high school as it was in 1985, identify the basics [sports, principal, executive secretary, chief custodian]. After identifying the current infrastructure, including social and legal issues plaguing the community, we let the authors take it from there. They embraced it with open hearts. As of September 18, six stories have been released with more on the horizon.

Thanks for stopping by today, Kat!

Remember, readers, if you’d like a chance at winning a copy of Out of the Dark, post a comment and don’t forget to check back tomorrow to see if you won. -- AP