Kathleen Bryant

Kathleen Bryant inherited a love of travel from her parents, who bundled her up for her first road trip when she was only six months old. Originally a Midwestern farm girl, she’s spent the past decades thawing out in the West, hiking its deserts and mountains, bouncing along backcountry roads, and sometimes lending a hand at archaeological sites. After writing numerous travel guides and magazine articles about Sedona, Grand Canyon, and the Four Corners, she’s returned to her first love, writing novels. Today, Bryant lives with her musician husband in California, where she continues to seek out new adventures, finding them on hiking trails, at farmers markets, and in the pages of a good book.

Bryant's new novel is Over the Edge.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I chose Over the Edge as my working title because it reflected the story’s trigger incident and emotional theme.

The book opens with Jeep guide Del Cooper’s discovery of a body lying on a canyon ledge, someone who’s literally fallen over the edge. Or so it seems.

As for Del, she’s been figuratively over the edge. Three years earlier, she was a crime reporter who made an error in judgment that killed a cop. She started drinking, lost her job, and even now, after pulling herself back from the abyss, she struggles to hold it together. She has unexplained visions that might be clues to the murder… or signals she’s still poised at the knife edge of normalcy.

What's in a name?

Sedona--the name is sibilant, mysterious, even seductive. People fascinated by its energy vortexes point out Sedona is a palindrome for “anodes.” Others suggest a connection to the Inuit sea goddess Sedna. The truth is more prosaic, but still charming: Sedona was the wife of Theodore Schnebly, the town’s first postmaster.

It’s easy to be dazzled by Sedona’s gorgeous scenery or caught up in its busy tourist center and yet, a raven’s flight away, the surrounding canyons are steeped in history and intrigue.

Lee Canyon—a fictional locale—is part of a proposed multimillion-dollar land trade, a trade that might be motive for murder. It’s a composite of actual places, filled in with my imagination. A failing ranch and abandoned film set. A thousand-year-old cliff dwelling. A secret trail. Places like these—far from the usual tourist track—are what gives Sedona its magic.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

As a young reader, my favorite books were Call of the Wild, Night of the Grizzlies, and a Crazy Horse biography. I’d read every Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Hardy Boys mystery by the time I reached my teens, when I started devouring gothic romances. Presented with Over the Edge—an outdoorsy mystery set in the West, with a hint of romance and peril for the female lead—my teen self might say, “Huh. So I didn’t go to med school after all?”

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Beginnings are easy, and I change them the most. Endings are harder. Though I usually know exactly how I want the book to end, I’m more pantser than plotter. I need to feel my way through a story, give my characters some room, and not think too linearly until the final shaping, when I put on my editor hat.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Over the Edge is Jeep guide Del Cooper’s story. Her coworkers at Blue Sky Expeditions make up an ensemble cast of nature lovers, science geeks, history buffs, and a radio dispatcher who’s dialed into Sedona’s metaphysical community. Though wary of making connections, Del eventually realizes “these are my people.” They’re mine, too. I identify with their enthusiasm and curiosity, and they represent facets of my own Sedona experiences.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Next to reading, nature is my biggest inspiration. I grew up on a farm, where observing the natural world was a given. I’m also a longtime yoga practitioner, and the foundation of yoga is observation—noticing or perceiving through close attention. Observation can be a valuable writing tool, but more than that, it’s an invaluable living tool.

Visit Kathleen Bryant's website.

My Book, The Movie: Over the Edge.

--Marshal Zeringue