Author Quiz: Kaye George, author of Eine Kleine Murder

Eine Kleine Murder by Kaye George is available for Kindle from Amazon:
US: Eine Kleine Murder (Cressa Carraway Musical Mysteries)
UK: Eine Kleine Murder (Cressa Carraway Musical Mysteries)

Eine Kleine Murder by Kaye George

Eine Kleine Murder by Kaye George

When aspiring conductor Cressa Carraway arrives at her grandmother's resort home, she finds Gram dead. When Gram's best friend drowns in the same place, Cressa knows something sinister is at work in this idyllic setting.

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Author Quiz interviews Kaye George...

What is it you love most about writing?
I love losing myself in the world I'm creating. Sometimes my imaginary places become so real to me, I can shiver from frostbite that I'm writing when it's the middle of summer. I love looking up and realizing it's daytime when my story has taken me to someplace at two am.

Why do you enjoy writing in your usual genre? What is it about your usual genre that appeals to you most as a writer?
The short answer to this question is that I write mysteries because that's the genre I know best. It's my favorite reading. But it goes deeper than that. I really and truly do not know why a person would murder another person. It's such a strict taboo, such an awful, forbidden thing to do. I feel compelled to explore reasons why a person would get the the point where he or she thought that killing another human being was the solution to a problem. I think I'm getting close to understanding this sometimes. At other times, I'm still completely baffled.

If your book, Eine Kleine Murder, was made into a movie and you were asked for input into the soundtrack, are there any songs that would work especially well for any particular scenes?
This might be cheating, since my book, EINE KLEINE MURDER is billed as A Cressa Carraway Musical Mystery. There's music throughout the story as the main character is composing it. She also lives her life against a background of music that plays in her head. In fact, I made a playlist of the pieces mentioned in the novel on a recent blog post:
My Playlist for Eine Kleine Murder

If you could invite one character from your novel to a dinner party who would it be and why?
I think I would invite Cressa's best friend, Neek. In the first of the series (the only one out right now), she never appears, but talks to Cressa on the phone a lot. She's a unique person. In fact, her actual name, given by her hippie parents, is Unity Unique. She likes to predict the future. In this books she's using found money, but in the past, she's found portents in clouds. I think she'd be fun to talk too, but I'd like to see what she looks like, too.

What do you think stimulates sales the most; positive reviews or advertising?
I seem to see upticks after a positive review, if I, or the reviewer, can let enough people know about it. With my first series, the Imogene Duckworthy series, I could see exactly what was happening, since I self-published and had publisher's access to the figures. Since my new series is through a small press, Barking Rain Press, I don't have that access. Instead, I check my Amazon rank to try to see if what I do has immediate effects. It's hard to tell, really.

If you worked for a publishing house, what sort of books would you be looking to publish?
I know that I should publish books that would sell, so I could stay in business and earn a living. However, I'd sure want to publish the ones I like to read the most. My reading is eclectic, both fiction and non-fiction. I love to read biography and true crime. I also like hard-boiled, cozy, and lots of in between mysteries. I always enjoy humor, no matter what the genre. And every once in a while, I devour a tear jerker.

What are some of your favourite quotes from reviews that you've received?
For EINE KLEINE MURDER, Lynn Farris wrote this: "The name of the book added to my concern. “Eine Kleine Murder.” I wasn’t sure what Eine Kleine even meant. (I later found it means small.) Then, I saw the main character, Cressa Caraway was studying musical composition. Another area where I have little expertise.
Before I got through the first chapter, my concerns disappeared."
I was very happy to read this because I had little niggling thoughts about her concerns and she alleviated them. Whew!

Would you rather have great reviews but average sales or great sales but average reviews?
You mean I can't have both? Oh shoot. I guess I'd take great reviews. I'm writing for the money, luckily, because there's not much of it at this point. I do love it when a reader connects with what I've written and it means something to that reader. I could just melt when I'm giving a talk and someone I've never met before tells me who their favorite character is, and why. As the ad says, Priceless.

Is there a book out there which you feel is underrated and deserves a bigger audience?
I can't say enough good things about any of the books that Sandra Parshall has written. Her writing touches me deeply and is satisfyingly, unfailingly entertaining.

Who do you see as your target audience?
I really think my books are aimed at women readers, since they're written to be books I'd like to read. I'd like to think they appeal to all ages, but maybe middle-aged women would connect more with them, since I think that's generally who reads mysteries.

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Thanks for your comments, Kaye, and good luck with your writing.

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Here's a brief excerpt from the beginning of Eine Kleine Murder:

Prologue
Stinguendo: Dying away. (Ital.)

What was that sound? A foot, snapping a twig in the woods? Ida knew she shouldn’t be swimming alone at night, but she’d been antsy all day. She needed to get her mind off Cressa's visit.

Grace usually swam with her, but Grace had taken relatives to the Quad-City airport tonight.

Besides, Ida was a strong swimmer. She knew every inch of Crescent Lake. And she thought she knew every sound. But there was that snap again. It prickled the hairs on her arms.

She stopped stroking and listened, straining toward the trees on the opposite bank, just ahead. It didn't repeat. Must have been a night creature in the woods. A raccoon out foraging?

Ida cupped her hands and pulled herself through the caress of the cool water, creating tiny ripples and almost no sound. The moon, a mere sliver tonight, lay a shining path across the silent ridges in the inky liquid.

Bullfrogs boomed from the shallow end of the lake and the wind rattled the oak leaves on the shore.

She neared the bank and stuck her toes into the soft mud, turned and stood waist deep for a moment before her return trip. The scent of the night woods was verdant, lush. She breathed in the familiar fishy smell of the dark water.

There was that sound again--snap, then a footfall.

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You can sign up for a free sample of the first four chapters of Eine Kleine Murder at the following link:
Eine Kleine Murder Preview

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