Kelli Stanley

A critically-acclaimed, bestselling author of crime fiction, Kelli Stanley is the author of the award-winning Miranda Corbie historical noir series (City of Dragons, City of Secrets, City of Ghosts, City of Sharks), featuring "one of crime's most arresting heroines" (Library Journal), private investigator Miranda Corbie, and set in 1940 San Francisco.

Stanley also writes an award-winning, highly-praised series set in Roman Britain (Nox Dormienda; The Curse-Maker).

Her newest novel, The Reckoning, is a first-in-series mystery-thriller set in Northern California's "Emerald Triangle" in 1985.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Ah, titles. Always difficult. I like to choose a title while I’m writing the book because it helps give me focus, a kind of preview of what I want the book to be. I also like titles that make readers think. An early consideration for The Reckoning was Red Harvest—borrowing Hammett’s title—and it very much fits because of the setting (cannabis harvest in Humboldt County, CA) and the fact that the book is inspired by Hammett’s Red Harvest. Another possibility was Run Down Like Water, from Amos 5:24, and a quote made very famous by Martin Luther King: “But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” Both are very suitable in different ways. Ultimately, I chose The Reckoning as my working title, and was surprised the publisher kept it because there are so many other properties with the name.

It most definitely fits the novel. There are many reckonings, large and small, throughout the narrative, so—despite the overuse of this particular title—I think it perfectly expresses what happens in the book, and hopefully will lead to book club discussions among readers about what those reckonings were.

What's in a name?

Choosing the right name, with the right cadence and symbolic meaning and sound, is crucial for me. Miranda, for example, means “something to marvel at” and Corbie derives from the same root as corvid—a raven or crow. Thus, Miranda Corbie.

With Renata, I’ve had that first name in mind for a long time. It’s a bit unusual, but it’s musical, with a lovely lilt to it, and it means “reborn”—and indeed, Renata Drake is reborn in The Reckoning as “Natalie Connors”, a name that lacks the rhythm and meaning of a “real” protagonist and thus is perfect for an alias. She chose that name because she is accustomed to the diminutive “Nattie”—which is short for Renata and could be short for Natalie, too.

As for Drake? It’s a synonym for dragon. So the vulnerability of a newly reborn Renata is anchored by the fierceness of a drake or dragon. That tells you something about her character.

As for Natalie Connors, it remains to be seen as to whether she will be able to forego an alias and fully reemerge as Renata Drake again.

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

I don’t think she would be all that surprised—especially because I had to channel her for so much of the book. The high school in The Reckoning is my alma mater, South Fork—and I had to tap into adolescent memory to remember phrases, apparel, attitudes and more from 1985. Plus, I’ve always been a writer—poetry, screenplays, etc. I wrote my first “play” when I was eight!

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

Beginnings, always. By the time I get to the conclusion, it’s like a roller coaster—wheee!! all the way down. Everything has built up to that point and it’s all in you and you can just roll with it. Beginnings, though—at least for me—change constantly because I write from beginning to end, front to back, and along the way you might make decisions that impact that opening. So beginnings change throughout the writing process—in fact, the earlier parts of my books are always the most rewritten because I don’t stick to a strict outline. Outlines are necessary for me, but I use them like roadmaps on a pleasure drive—they show me where I think I want to go, but I’m always open to a detour.

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

There are two characters in The Reckoning who share some stuff with me. Because this is a “lived in” book—a time and place I experienced—I used some small personal memories where appropriate and shared them with both Renata and Amanda, a young teenager and would-be sleuth whose name has a similar construction to Miranda. Her name means “must be loved.” So yes, I see a bit of myself in both of those characters, but ultimately, in order to write, I have to project them in my mind as full-fledged people who are separate and distinct. That said, my protagonists—at least those written in a close third person, like Renata or Miranda, or first person, like Arcturus in Nox Dormienda, usually express values that I hold as well—some more, some less.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Life in general influences the intellectual aims of my writing, particularly what I see happening around me. The Reckoning, for example, is a suspenseful mystery-thriller, yes, but it is also a reflection on what happens to communities when there is a gulf between justice, law and survival. What happens when law must be ignored in order to effect morality? What happens when laws contradict behavior necessary to survive? What defines community? Can a community based on an illegal economy still be a community in the best sense of the word? So yeah, those are some of the questions I wanted to touch on in The Reckoning—along with giving everyone what I hope will be an entertaining thrill-ride, I always try to write a book that bears rereading … and that’s usually when you find those non-literary inspirations I just mentioned.

Visit Kelli Stanley's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Kelli Stanley & Bertie.

The Page 69 Test: City of Dragons.

The Page 69 Test: City of Secrets.

The Page 69 Test: City of Ghosts.

My Book, The Movie: City of Ghosts.

The Page 69 Test: City of Sharks.

My Book, The Movie: City of Sharks.

Writers Read: Kelli Stanley (March 2018).

The Page 69 Test: The Reckoning.

Writers Read: Kelli Stanley.

My Book, The Movie: Kelli Stanley's The Reckoning.

--Marshal Zeringue