Today’s featured author is Matty Dalrymple, who writes the Ann Kinnear and Lizzy Ballard series and podcasts as The Indy Author. Readers will love Matty’s insights on paranormal suspense, and authors will learn a thing or two about publishing imprints and podcasting. When Matty and I connected at the March 2022 Women in Publishing Summit, I was very impressed with her platform, books, and podcast—so this was an exciting interview. Happy reading!
Connect with Matty on Facebook, Twitter, and her website. Buy Matty’s eBooks directly via her PayHip store; see her website for more eBook, print, and audio retailer links.
Hi Matty! Thanks for joining. Your Ann Kinnear suspense novels feature a psychically-inclined heroine sleuth who uses her spirit-sensing abilities to solve mysteries. Book five in the series, A Serpent’s Tooth, just launched this April. Readers love the edge-of-your-seat suspense in these stories—in your opinion, what is the best way to craft a thrilling and gripping mystery?
There is lots of great information out there about creating suspense (for example, check out this tongue-in-cheek topic from my podcast, The Indy Author: Episode 043 – Twelve Sure-fire Ways to Kill the Suspense of Your Novel with Steven James). But there are two approaches I have used for the Ann Kinnear and Lizzy Ballard novels to ensure that the foundations of plot, timeline, and character motivations are firmly in place before I dive too deeply into the story.
First, to understand the story at a strategic level, I create a story “frame.” I love nautical metaphors for the writing craft and the publishing voyage, and I call this a frame because it mimics the function of a boat frame, providing a foundation to which to attach the planks of the story and the “brightwork” of detail and dialogue. I create a third-person, present tense description of the scene, with notes reflecting the plot-, timeline-, or character motivation-related reasons for various aspects. For example, if I have a character take the scenic route from work to home, I will note the reason (e.g., “because they need to pass by the scene of the crime”). These notes remind me of the ripple effect that a change to that aspect might have. The frame enables me to tweak minor story aspects, and even to overhaul major ones, far more easily than would be possible with a novel-length draft. During the framing of Ann Kinnear 6 (about 30K words for a novel that will eventually come in at about 85K), I made several changes to the crime in which Ann becomes involved. (If you’re interested in more detail on the benefits of and approach to creating a story frame, keep an eye out for an article I penned for “Writer’s Digest” that will come out later this year.)
Another key component of crafting a compelling mystery is who-knows-what-when. To understand the story at this more tactical level, I create a spreadsheet with chapters along one axis and characters along another. Then in each cell I note what the character knows, believes, thinks, and feels at that point in the story (e.g., “Ann, irritated with the progress of the case, meets Randall, then has a conversation with Marilee (although Ann thinks she’s Lara)”). I can review all the cells on one axis to see what all the characters know, believe, think, and feel at any point in the story. I can review all the cells on the other axis to trace an individual character’s evolution through the entire story. That saves me from writing a scene that assumes a character knows something that they won’t learn until later, or of having a character’s motivations vary illogically through the course of the story.
You also write the Lizzy Ballard thriller series, a completed trilogy that, like Ann Kinnear, also has paranormal elements. What makes writing paranormal suspense and thrillers exciting for you? Can you speak to the advantages and/or disadvantages to crafting a thrilling mystery with paranormal themes?
I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of what happens when an extraordinary ability transforms an ordinary life. Tweak just one aspect of normal life and see where it takes you! Ann Kinnear has the ability to communicate with the dead. It would be a spoiler to share what Lizzy Ballard’s ordinary ability is, but it’s one that sets this naturally sociable young woman apart from the people she yearns to interact with.
In both series, the extraordinary abilities open opportunities for suspense and thrills that wouldn’t be available in a story that didn’t include paranormal elements. As long as Ann can speak with the dead, I can’t imagine running out of ideas for how that ability could get her in trouble, and how she can use it to get herself out of that trouble.
You established an imprint, William Kingsfield Publishers, for your books. Can you describe, for other indie authors who might be reading, the advantages of owning your own publishing imprint (versus publishing under your name, or simply “Independently Published”?).
Authors who consider their writing and publishing work to be a profession (rather than a hobby) have to treat every aspect of their endeavor as the business it is, and that includes presenting a professional face to your readers and to the industry. You wouldn’t open a restaurant and call it “Non-chain Restaurant”; your imprint deserves the same consideration.
Your imprint name could communicate something about your books (e.g., Joanna / J.F. Penn’s Curl Up Press), your own brand (e.g., Mark Leslie Lefebvre’s Stark Publishing), or your own background as a writer. I chose the name William Kingsfield Publishers for my imprint in honor of my father, who wrote under that pen name. His stories appeared in Collier’s Weekly (“Tobe” and “The Captain’s Counterfeit”), Cosmopolitan Magazine (“The Rut”), and Esquire (“So Quietly Waiting”).
In addition to your suspense and thriller novels, you also write nonfiction, produce a podcast, and discuss the writing craft as The Indy Author. How do you balance writing fiction with maintaining The Indy Author? Can you give advice for authors looking to expand their platform beyond fiction, as you have, into the podcasting/writing craft space?
As a full-time writer and publisher, I believe in the benefits of multiple streams of income. I also believe in paying it forward to my fellow authors by sharing the information that I and my colleagues have gained through our experiences. Those were two primary drivers of my decision to launch The Indy Author Podcast. With the explosive growth of audio, podcasting was an obvious choice for sharing this content and for building community with my listeners and viewers. (The Indy Author has a YouTube channel as well: https://bit.ly/YouTubeTIA.)
In fact, I’m such a believer in the power of podcasting for authors that I wrote a book about it, “The Indy Author’s Guide to Podcasting for Authors.” Authors who are interested in exploring this avenue can find more information, including free downloadable resources, at this link.
However, my fiction work is still my biggest income source, so I allocate my time to make sure I’m not skimping on my fiction writing. I generally work on production, distribution, marketing, promotion, and the podcast until 12:30, at which point I have an almost-daily writing sprint with two fellow authors until 2:00. After a break for dog walks, I continue working until it’s time for cocktails with my husband, and spend most evenings reading, which I believe is one of the best—and most enjoyable—ways of improving one’s writing! I read a lot in the suspense / thriller / mystery genres, but I also read outside my own genre—you never know what you can learn from great writing of any type!
Lastly, what’s on the horizon for you? Are more Ann Kinnear novels in the works, or perhaps an expansion to the Lizzy Ballard trilogy?
I’m currently working on Ann Kinnear Book 6, which was inspired by an off-season visit to a friend’s condo in Ocean City, Maryland. There’s something inherently creepy about summer destinations in the winter, and of knowing you might be one of only a very few people in a huge building . . . with no one nearby to hear you if you scream. 🙂
Thanks so much to Matty for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.