Author’s Choice with Elise Scott writing as Kit Gray

Please welcome Kit Gray to Author’s Choice.

Dear readers, here’s where you get to play along. The author will tell us two truths and one lie (ed comment –I randomized the order). At the end of the questions, we’ll reveal what really happened. Remember, we write crime fiction, so lying is in our nature . . .

Two Truths, One Lie

Truth or Lie? I once tried to go skydiving, but I was too frightened to jump out of the plane.

Truth or Lie? I once ate fish jello with hard-boiled eggs and onions.

Truth or Lie? I once met an adorable stray kitten wandering around inside the surgical unit of a hospital.

Eight Quick Questions

Now for some fun insight into today’s author. Here are eight forced choice questions.

1.     First draft: longhand, keyboard, or dictation? Keyboard. I have a special thocky one my writer friend Alice made for me, and another that she showed me how to make for myself. They are extremely satisfying to type on.

2.    Plotter, pantser, or plantser (that chaotic middle ground)? Chaotic middle ground all the way! I make something longer than a beat sheet but shorter than an outline, but most times, my characters take me on a detour from the plan at least once, and then I have to stop and figure out where we are and where we’re going from there.

3.    Editing as you go, or vomit draft first and fix it later? I tend to re-read what I wrote the previous day as a way of settling into the mental space to continue working, and I polish a bit as I go. But mostly, I’m a draft first and fix later type. I’ll go back and leave myself notes in comment bubbles as I work, for plot holes and brainstorms and clue-trails and such to address in my developmental editing round. And then I have a five-pass editing and revision process with a checklist for each pass (which I am happy to share—I adore checklists). And that’s all before I get the revisions from my editor, Denise Zaza at Crooked Lane, who is an absolute powerhouse and a delight to work with.

4.   Writing snack: sweet, salty, or "I forget to eat"? I prefer salty over sweet, except for hard candies, but mostly, I forget to eat. Sometimes it’ll be midnight, and I’ll realize I fed kiddo, but didn’t eat a thing myself all day.

5.   Writing space: coffee shop chaos, library quiet, or home sweet home? I’m a solo parent, and my kiddo (currently 9) is a neurosparkly homeschooler, so it’s home all the way for me. Usually at like 3 AM.

6.  Reading your own work aloud: love it, tolerate it, or would rather eat glass? Love it! I especially love doing the voice of the big goofy dog, Brutus, who sounds a lot like Scooby Doo in my head. People are always so surprised when that sound comes out of my mouth.

7.  Happy ending, bittersweet, or gut-punch finale? For my cozies, happy ending all the way. I write darker stuff, too: speculative apocalyptic fiction and alternative history, mostly. I’m just at the start of my publishing journey, but I’m sure they’ll start coming out at some point, and how those books end depends on where the stories take me.

8. Deadline approaching: calm and prepared, thriving on adrenaline, or full panic mode? Thriving on adrenaline for sure. I tend to write in bursts of productivity followed by fallow periods where I recharge. There’s nothing like a good deadline to kick me into high gear. I once wrote 75,000 words in just under four weeks because I was so motivated by a deadline.

About the Book

Enough about you, let’s turn to three questions about your book.

Q: If your main character in this novel showed up at your door right now, what would be the first thing they'd say to you (and would it be a complaint)?

A. My human main character, Mila, would probably start with, “thank you for the kittens!” and then she would demand to know what on earth made me think it was okay to mar the quiet of her little New England island home with murder.

Q: What's one thing you hope readers take away from this book?

A. I wrote this book when I was going through something really hard and had lost track of my joy. I think in today’s world, we all could use a little more lighthearted whimsy and kittenish antics in our lives, and my fondest hope is that my book helps people find a little joy when they need it.

Q: What question did you want me to ask, and what is your answer? 

A. What do you do to get yourself into the frame of mind for writing? I make at least one playlist of songs that put me into the headspace I want to be in. Sometimes, I make a different playlist for each narrator. Then, before I start, I do a tarot reading on each core character, to help unlock my deeper, non-rational perspective on them and their story arcs. I got this idea from an absolutely brilliant speculative fiction writer called Rivers Solomon, who posted about it one day back when Twitter was still a thing, and I have done it ever since.

The Big Reveal

Now let’s see how good a sleuth (or guesser) our readers are. Please reveal all.

The lie is that I once tried to go skydiving, but I was too frightened to jump out of the plane. I am so clumsy (no shade, self, just the truth) that when I went zip lining back before I got disabled, I came into the landing area facing absolutely backwards and accidentally took out the staff guy whose job it was to help me land. I have also unintentionally taken people down on ski slopes, at roller skating rinks, and just like… grocery shopping. So I feel like it would be criminally irresponsible for me to go skydiving.

Both of my truths are actually from my semester abroad in Russia when I was in undergrad. People who know that I’m vegan would be surprised to see some of the stuff I ate back then, but I made a promise to myself before I went that I would eat anything set before me with open-mindedness and gratitude. I tried really hard to like that fish jello, but I… I did not. I would love to think that my host-babushka couldn’t tell, but I’m pretty sure she could, because she never made it for me again.

The kitten in the hospital was quite a shock. Back then, I rode horses competitively for Mount Holyoke, and so while I was in Moscow, I went for a trail ride, just to stay in shape a bit and enjoy some horse time. Well, the horse they gave me to ride was kind of unhinged, and I ended up getting dumped on my head without a helmet, and then taken to a Russian emergency room. This was almost thirty years ago, so hopefully things are different now, but there were doctors smoking over and dropping cigarette ash directly onto patients with open wounds, muddy footprints on the cot where they put me, and no soap or gloves or masks or sterile needles anywhere. When they took me up to the “sterile” surgical ward to be evaluated (they thought I might have internal bleeding, but they lacked the equipment to check) the most darling little stray tabby kitten, who couldn’t have been more than eight weeks old, was toodling around the place like he was in charge, shouting at the doctors. I must admit, I was charmed.

Here’s a blurb for and some links where you can find Kit's latest:

Book Blurb for The Black Cat Detectives

A charming cozy mystery with a delightful twist: The detectives are three kittens with magical powers, determined to solve a most purr-plexing case.

Precocious kittens Bippity, Boppity, and Boop are exceedingly loyal to their human, the twenty-eight-year-old up-and-coming magician Mila. She saved them from starving to death in a dingy Corvin’s Crossing alleyway and has been nothing but loving ever since, even though her own life is in shambles.

So when Mila’s sketchy boyfriend and business manager turns up dead at the end of her big magic show—she’s the prime suspect. With evidence mounting, there’s nothing stopping the sheriff from hauling away Mila to the human pound. Unless the kittens can solve the crime and clear her name.

The kittens will have to use their dubious control over the laws of physics and every whisker of know-how they’ve got to catch the real killer if they want to save their happy home with Mila. This is one meow-stery more tangled than any ball of yarn they’ve encountered yet.

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Want to know more?

For more information about Elise Scott writing as Kit Gray https://elise-scott.com