Cozy mystery author Nikki Knight releases Live, Local, and Dead.

 

Welcome to radio news anchor and cozy mystery author, Nikki Knight (aka Kathleen Marple Kalb!

Nikki Knight is the pen name of award-winning New York City radio news anchor Kathleen Marple Kalb. She’s been on the air since she was a teenage DJ in her small Western Pennsylvania hometown, working in newsrooms in Pittsburgh, Vermont, and Connecticut – and never losing her love of radio, or her hatred for snow. She also writes the Ella Shane historical mystery series for Kensington, and her short stories appear in several anthologies. Her Vermont story “Bad Apples” was an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Black Orchid Novella Contest. She, her husband, and their son live in a Connecticut house owned by their cat. 

WHERE TO FIND Nikki:

Website:  https://kathleenmarplekalb.com/nikki-knight

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NikkiKnightAuthor

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/NikkiKnightVT

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenmarplekalb/ 

How many hours a day do you write?

I’m entirely at the mercy of school and work schedules! If my son has a full school day, and I didn’t take an extra early-morning shift over the weekend, I might get most of the six-hour school day at the laptop. If I worked extra (I have a three-hour commute each way to the NYC radio station), I’m probably going to take a nap first. If it’s a short school day – who knows? When we were doing Virtual School, I would write while my son was in class across the room…and we somehow made it work. I like to say I write whenever I have five free minutes and a flat space for the laptop, and it’s true!

What is your favorite childhood book?

Hands down, ANNE OF GREEN GABLES! I loved the main character, who’s so intelligent and feisty – and not easy! I loved the community around her. And, growing up in the western Pennsylvania back-country, I just adored the whole escape to Prince Edward Island. My family went to P.E.I. once when I was really young, and it was wonderful being able to go back with Anne. Even now, I dig out my old Anne’s once in a while when I’m stressed.

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

Finding – and taking – the time to really let ideas mature. Between the scramble for writing time, and my newsroom training in deadlines, I’m just not good at letting things sit.  But it’s so important, to walk away for a while, and return with fresh eyes, or to just sketch out a few points and turn it over in my head before writing. I have to remind myself to do that, but when I do, the work is much better.

Five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer?

Hopefully, still writing a couple of series, and short stories in between. And, please sooner than five years, actually seeing readers and other writers in person! I was a lockdown debut, and I’ve never signed a book for a live reader or gone to a conference. Starting a writing career alone in my basement was pretty ugly, and I’ll probably be one of those annoying people who is EVERYWHERE when it’s really safe again!

How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

Actually, a lot! Next installments in each series ready to go. Plus, complete first books in three new and entirely different cozy series. Not to mention a couple of sample chapter and proposal packages. Oh, and one utterly insane women’s fiction thing I wrote as a kind of brain-cleanser after my first try at a Vermont mystery didn’t sell! That one probably isn’t saleable, either, but it was really important to know that I could write something else.

Was there a person who encouraged you to write?

When I was a kid, my mother bought me legal pads to write on, and I always “borrowed” my Grandpa’s classic mysteries. Fast-forward to my son going to kindergarten, and I say to my husband, “Maybe I’ll try writing while the kid’s at school.” He tells me to go for it, and backs me all the way, through two brutal years of querying and submission – much of it during his own treatment for lymphoma. And then there’s my son. One day, I was crying over a bad rejection, and the then-seven-year-old hands me a quarter and says, “I’ll buy your book.”

I still have the quarter…and he gets every first copy.

 

LIVE, LOCAL, AND DEAD (2/8/22) follows New York City DJ Jaye Jordan’s new start at a tiny Vermont radio station, after her husband survives cancer but their marriage doesn’t. She thinks she’s got enough trouble with protests because she replaced angry talk with love songs…and then the talk show host turns up dead in a snowman in front of the station. Plus, her second-chance romance with her old crush – the governor – turns out to be much more dangerous than either of them expected. Add in a colorful cast of locals, the cranky station cat Neptune, and Charlemagne the Moose, who has flatulence issues…and it’s more fun than anyone should be allowed to have in maple sugaring season.

 

Buy: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/695810/live-local-and-dead-by-nikki-knight/