Interview with William Kent Krueger (March 2004)
Author of Blood Hollow (2004)
March 16, 2004
William Kent Krueger grew up in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. He briefly attended Stanford University before leaving it to experience the "real world" -- which included working as a logger, construction worker, freelance journalist, and more recently as a researcher in child development. He now makes his home in St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife and two children.
Q. What made you decide to start writing mysteries?
A. It was a midlife crisis. I'd always wanted to write a novel, and at forty I looked around me and asked myself what the hell had I accomplished, where the hell was that damned book? In the spring of 1992, I sat down to begin the manuscript that would become Iron Lake, my first published novel.
When I began that work, I didn't know it would be a mystery. Two things influenced my ultimate direction. First, I discovered Tony Hillerman, a novelist with a fine sense of language and place and whose inclusion of the Navajo culture in his stories I found fascinating. Second, I wanted desperately to be published, and I had a friend who swore to me he knew everything about the publishing business. His advice was, "Write a mystery. In that genre, they'll publish anything."
Q. As much as I enjoyed your standalone novel (The Devil's Bed), I missed reading about Cork O'Connor. How did you feel about taking time off from the series?
A. The time away from writing my Corcoran O'Connor character was vital to the life of the series. By the time I finished Purgatory Ridge, the third in the series, I'd been writing about Cork and Aurora, Minnesota for eight years solid. I was, quite frankly, "Corked" out. I didn't have another story for him or the desire even to think about another story. The series was doing well, both critically and in terms of sales, and my publisher was eager for another Cork book. I could, I suppose, have simply signed a contract and forced something out, but I didn't want to risk having a book in the series that was written only to meet a contractual obligation. I didn't want to risk having a book out there I hadn't invested in fully, a book that might feel hollow to the reader.
So I convinced my publisher to let me write something else, a different kind of book, a thriller. My hope was that in turning away from Cork, whatever it is that bubbles around in an author's psyche and churns up the stories would be at work and when the next Cork tale was ready, it would somehow present itself to me. In fact, that's exactly what happened. By the time I finished writing The Devil's Bed, I not only knew what the next Cork book would be, I knew what the next three would be.
Q. Your latest book (Blood Hollow) is probably the best thing you've written so far. Did it feel any different as you went through the process of creating it?
A. I'm so glad you like Blood Hollow. Honestly, I was more concerned about the reception for this book than any I've written because, in many ways, it's the most personal of my stories.
Typically, I outline significantly before I launch into writing a manuscript. Blood Hollow was no different. I thought I knew a lot about the story when I sat down to write it. In my outline, it was going to be, in the end, a courtroom drama in which Jo O'Connor, Cork's lawyer wife, defends a young Ojibwe man on a charge of murder. It became not that book at all, and for this reason. In the middle of writing the manuscript, I learned that my mother was dying. (In fact, she passed away before I completed the work.) Suddenly, all the concerns I'd had when I began the writing changed. I was asking myself different, probing questions, particularly about spirituality, and the book reflected this. In the end, there is a strong undercurrent in the work that deals with the spiritual quest. I didn't know how an audience might react, and I was concerned. But you know, I'm very happy with the book that Blood Hollow became. I think my mother would like it, too.
Q. Family plays a very important part in the books you write. O'Connor's relationships are not only the strongest part of your stories, but they're also very realistic. I assume that family plays a crucial role in your life as well. (I realize that isn't a question, but maybe you can comment.
A. The best parts of my life have always come out of family. I grew up in a close-knit, loving family. My father was, among other things, a high school English teacher. Though primarily the overseer of the household, my mother was a very artistic and intuitive woman. I felt close to them, and close, too, to my brothers and sister. We moved around a lot as I was growing up -- eight different cities or towns before I graduated from high school -- and family was the most stable element in my life.
The family that I've had a hand in creating, the one that includes my wife, daughter and son, is the fertile soil out of which most of the good in my life arises these days.
Q. Your books have some similarities to the excellent series by Steve Hamilton featuring Alex McKnight. Have you read his work?
A. Who hasn't? I love Steve's books and have read them all. He writes the U.P. of Michigan extremely well and does male relationships (Alex and his buddies) better than any writer I can think of. His prose is simple, powerful, direct, very Hemingwayesque. My hope is that someday Steve and I will have books released at the same time and can coordinate a tour together, the "McKnight-O'Connor Extravaganza." The only problem is that you put these two characters together and O'Connor would kick McKnight's butt.
Q. Do you read your reviews?
A. Unfortunately, yes. I think no author benefits from reading reviews. If the reviews are good, we risk getting cocky or complacent. If they're bad, we're depressed. Better to put your nose to the grindstone and concentrate on what you know brings you peace, energy, and happiness -- the writing of the story itself.
Q. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
A. The same advice I was given: Hang in there.
Publishing is such a fickle business, and the possibility of actually making a living from your writing so remote that anyone aspiring to the this profession/art ought to be certain that at the heart of what they're doing is a deep and abiding love for the work itself. Love the act of writing, appreciate the joy that comes from the private moments of creation, and then it doesn't matter if you publish, if you sell. I guarantee that regardless of the outcome you'll never feel as if you've wasted your time.
I write every day. I have for thirty years. But it's been in only the last five or six that I've received significant recognition or made any money. However, I never look on those early years with regret, because I understand I was establishing the discipline necessary in every art. Also, I realized long ago that writing had become a way for me to energize myself. Writing every day fed a deep need in me, and every day after writing I felt centered, excited, ready to meet the world.
Zen poets used to create beautiful poems and send them down a river, never to be seen again. Would that all writers could let go so easily. The gift is in the act of creation, not in the result.
Q. What are your thoughts about Hollywood adapting your books?
A. If it comes to pass, so be it. If not, the schmucks have missed a wonderful opportunity.
In fact, my series has been optioned by Hollywood, but so far everything is still "in development." I've been told Hollywood moves at two speeds -- slow, and glacial. So patience is a definite virtue.
Q. What excites or distresses you about the mystery genre today?
A. It's tremendously exciting to see such a broad spectrum of style, tone, setting, protagonist. The genre is wide open territory, and there's marvelous work being done that refreshes the pool and expands our sensibilities about the genre. I think about Charlaine Harris writing delightfully about vampires, S.J. Rozan with alternating protagonists, Dennis Lehane and the marvelous, brooding Mystic River, or Eric Garcia and dinosaur detectives. Man, the door is so wide open!
What's disappointing is that the publishing industry still seems focused on the hard sell of work that's getting moldy. The same names get pushed year after year with no regard to the diminishing quality of the books.
Q. What's the last book you read?
A. Scott Phillips' excellent Cottonwood, an good example of a book that pushes the limits of what we think of as genre. A dark, funny, troubling story.
Q. What's next for you?
A. I've just sent to my editor the manuscript for the next Cork O'Connor novel, Mercy Falls. I'm really stoked about this one. It has a wonderful undercurrent in it reminiscent of The Great Gatsby, one of my all-time favorite books (by another great Minnesota author). It should be out in the winter of 2005. And I've started work on the Cork book that will follow, tentatively titled Copper River. In this one, I'll be invading Steve Hamilton territory because the whole thing takes place in the U. P.
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