Have you seen her? Kate White!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: If ever there was an example of the realities of having it all—which is that it’s constant work, constant juggling, some luck and some timing, and endless passion and abilities--it’s Kate White.  She’s savvy and fabulous, and generous and glam. She’s a terrific cook, with a wonderful family and a pretty darned exciting life. Take a look at her bio below—yikes! amazing!—and her newest thriller  HAVE YOU SEEN ME comes out next week. And it is fantastic!

(It’s an adventure for any writer to have a new release, but these days, you know how scary and uncertain it is—so be sure you look for this one!)

Her latest real-life adventure might be titled “Escape from Uruguay” or  “Last Flight from Uruguay”—which this airplane photo proves. (And we should ask her about that!)  But if I know Kate, she’ll take that harrowing experience and use it for—research!

Maybe the Best Thing I’ve Ever Learned Researching Murder

 (And I Think You’ll Like It, Too)

           by Kate White

     The superstar domestic thriller author Harlan Coben once told me that when book authors do research it’s often just a form of procrastination.

     In certain cases I would say that’s absolutely true. Writing is hard, and how nice to have a legitimate-sounding reason for putting it off for a few hours—or days. You start off with the best intentions, but then you end up falling down some deep rabbit hole on the Internet, and the next thing you know you’re perusing recipes for peach cobbler or watching a video of ABBA singing “The Winner Takes It All.”  And NOT writing.

     That said, I feel a certain amount of  research is absolutely essential. I want to get my facts straight out of respect for my readers. I don’t want you finishing a  chapter of mine and thinking, “This woman has no freaking clue what she’s talking about.” Plus, the research I’ve done has often yielded surprising little nuggets that I’ve been able to turn into delicious plot twists.

     Okay, I admit, I’ve sometimes overdone it. When I was researching a mystery novel that takes place at a spa, I indulged in seven or eight different kinds of facials and massages (loved the hot stone!), and that might have been about five too many. But darn, I felt so relaxed afterwards.  And that’s worth something, right?

     There is, I’ve found, another amazing benefit to book research, something you don’t hear much about. Every once in a while, research opens my eyes in a spectacular way to something that’s of value to not only my writing, but my life in general.

     Case in point: a forensics expert I know taught me one of the best lessons I’ve learned about developing a golden gut.

     When I was writing my first novel, a cop suggested I interview a woman with the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office named Barbara Butcher (Seriously, that is her name!). Now a consultant for forensic and medicolegal investigations, Barbara spent years as a death investigator with the ME’s office and examined thousands of homicide scenes.  We soon became friends, and she’s helped me with forensic details in all my books since.

     From the moment I met Barbara, I was struck by how highly intuitive she is. One day over lunch, instead of inquiring about some appetizing subject like blood spatter or rigor mortis, I asked if good intuition came naturally to her. She surprised me by saying that a golden gut was actually something she’d developed over time from investigating so many homicides. And then she shared her  secret.

.     “Everything we need to know is around us for the taking as long as we are truly taking it,” she said. “As a death investigator I learned to open my senses to what was around me and abandon preconceived notions of what I was going to find. I learned early on that if I was told that I was going to investigate a homicide, then that is what I would find, but if I reminded myself that I was going to investigate the cause of death then I would find the truth.”

     Barbara’s best advice for honing your intuition? “Take your hands off your ears and put them over your mouth. Learn to listen, see, smell, and absorb everything around you without speaking your thoughts first, and if you practice these skills you will get all the signals you need to be able to trust your instincts.” 

     That principle made Barbara a fabulous death scene investigator. And over the years I’ve used that wonderful wisdom again and again. More than once, it’s saved my butt big time. 

HANK: You had me at ABBA, Kate!  And now I am singing. But  it’s so fascinating about the suggestion to listen—so let me ask you, Reds and readers. What are you listening to now?  Jonathan and I, here at home, are listening to a lot of classical music in the mornings—that’s a very different kind of morning for us. Outside, the bird song seems louder—does it to you?

And a copy of Kate’s HAVE YOU SEEN ME to one lucky commenter!

Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of fourteen novels of suspense: eight Bailey Weggins mysteries and six standalone psychological thrillers, including the upcoming Have You Seen Me? (April 28).

For fourteen years she served as the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, and though she loved the job (and all the freebies to be found in the Cosmo beauty closet!), she decided to leave seven years ago to concentrate full time on being an author.

Her first mystery, Even If It Kills Her, was a Kelly Ripa Book Club pick and #1 bestseller on Amazon. She has been published in 15 other countries.

Like many female mystery writers, Kate fell in love with the genre after reading her first Nancy Drew book, The Secret of Redgate Farm.

She is also the editor of the Mystery Writers of America Cookbook, a collection of recipes from the field’s top-selling authors.

Kate is a frequent speaker at libraries and conferences and loves to share her journey from magazine editor to suspense novelist in a talk called “On Becoming an Author: Forging a New Creative Path and Finding Winning Ideas All Around You.”

In addition to writing mysteries and thrillers, Kate is the author of several best-selling career books, including The Gutsy Girl Handbook: Your Manifesto for Success, as well as I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: How to Ask for the Money, Snag the Promotion, and Create the Career You Deserve.

She lives in New York City.

Have You Seen Me?

The key to her missing memories could bring relief—or unlock her worst nightmares.

On a cold, rainy morning, finance journalist Ally Linden arrives soaked to the bone at her Manhattan office, only to find that she’s forgotten her keycard. When her boss shows, he’s shocked to see her—because, he explains, she hasn’t worked there in five years.

Ally knows her name, but is having trouble coming up with much beyond that, though after a trip to the psychiatric ER, she begins to piece together important facts: she lives on the Upper West Side; she’s now a freelance journalist; she’s married to a terrific man named Hugh. More memories materialize and yet she still can’t recall anything about the previous two days. Diagnosed as having experienced a “dissociative state,” she starts to wonder if it may have been triggered by something she saw—an accident, or worse, a trauma from her childhood that has risen to the surface.

Desperate for answers, Ally tries to track where she spent the missing days, but every detail she unearths points to an explanation that’s increasingly ominous, and it’s clear someone wants to prevent her from learning where those forty-eight hours went. In order to uncover the truth, Ally must dig deep into the secrets of her past—and outsmart the person who seems determined to silence her.