ComfyCozy (00:01):
Hey, Comfy Cozy. This is episode 33. We have an author interview today. We have Kelly Brakenhoff and Kelly's now the friend of the show because she's been on the show. That's how we roll over here. She has the Cassandra Sato mysteries. Her first book in that series is Death by Dissertation and then most recently is Dead Week. Cassandra is a college administrator and it's just such a cool, cool series. Kelly is also an interpreter for American Sign Language, and she had a lot of really cool insights. It was such a fun interview. Kelly came to us by way of another podcast from Leanna Shields and just wanted to give a quick shout out to The Cozy Sleuth. If you're not listening over there, you definitely should be. They are much more professional and put together. Give them a follow on Twitter @thecozysleuth, so follow that handle and if you're not following us, make sure to follow us. I'm Etta Welk, @ettawelk, both podcasts you should be listed to and following on Twitter. And then also you've already found us here. If you're listening, make sure to give us a subscribe and tell all your friends who read mysteries and I would so appreciate it. Hope you enjoy the interview.
ComfyCozy (01:52):
All right, we have Kelly with us today. Welcome Kelly. How are you doing?
Great. How are you doing?
Good.
Let's talk a little bit about mysteries today.
Love to.
Alright, so it looks like you have released a new series lately and we just wanted to ask you a few quick questions. So first things first why, why cozy mysteries? Why write them?
Kelly Brakenhoff (02:21):
I like to read cozy mysteries, but I think cozy mysteries kind of encompasses a pretty wide variety of types of mysteries. So I would say mine aren't the cat, the cooking, and the bakery shop kind of cozies. They're a little bit more towards the traditional side of mystery. But I like how they're set in a small town. And so being set in a rural town in a small college, that kind of fits that cozy thing. I like how you get to know so many characters.
ComfyCozy (02:59):
You are my kind of girl. So your character Cassandra Sato recently made a pretty big move. So where is your cozy?
Kelly Brakenhoff (03:00):
My cozy series’ main character’s name is Cassandra Sato and she trades her life in Hawaii where she was born and raised for a dream job in Nebraska. Nobody does that, right?
ComfyCozy (03:28):
That is not a phrase I hear every day.
Kelly Brakenhoff (03:30):
She thinks that working at a small liberal arts college will help her get experience to someday become a university president. She expects that the Midwestern church casseroles, the landlocked corn fields, and face freezing winters will be her biggest challenges. But it's her job that's rapidly becoming a nightmare. Two months in, a student dies and she has to help with the investigation. And hilarity ensues.
ComfyCozy (03:59):
And that's one of the things I love most about cozies is having that kind of lighthearted juxtaposed with you know, pretty serious things like a life and death.
Kelly Brakenhoff (04:10):
Like murder and mayhem. Yeah, it's kind of funny. I attended my first writer's conference last fall at Bouchercon in Dallas.
Oh cool.
One of my favorite times was these very normal looking authors on this panel and they spent an hour talking about the best way to kill someone. It was really funny because about halfway through they all started laughing and said, yeah, like this is like a normal conversation for us. We're talking about like calm life in a small town, but we're also talking about murder and mayhem
ComfyCozy (04:50):
And any other group we would start getting concerned if the conversation led to death and mayhem.
Kelly Brakenhoff (04:56):
Yeah, it was fun.
ComfyCozy (04:58):
So when you're writing your mysteries, how do you know who done it? You know, do you have a detailed outline or are you more by the seat of your pants?
Kelly Brakenhoff (05:06):
I am evolving. I try really hard to have an outline. I've tried different methods of outlining and then when I wrote the first two books it seemed like things kind of go off the rails from my outline. Then it takes me a while to wrestle everything back and fill in all the plot holes. So I have a really good idea of what the ending is and who the people are. But I had a heck of a time, especially with the second one, trying to figure out how to get there. I'm just starting my third book right now and I'm really, really, really trying harder to have a good outline because I don't want it to take me quite as long. I keep hoping that the longer I do this, the better I'll get at it. But it's funny. I've heard a lot of more experienced authors than myself say that it really never gets easier.
ComfyCozy (06:04):
Oh man. I can understand that. I feel like I've been trying to write my first one three different times and I keep on kind of writing myself into a corner or the people feel too plastic. It's a fine line. Being able to surprise people and surprise yourself, but actually keep something cohesive.
Kelly Brakenhoff (06:26):
Well, yes, because like I know who did it, but I don't want everyone to know who did it. I mean for me that's another fun part of the cozy genre. You don't know who did it until the end. Then you have the big Scooby Doo reveal kind of thing. But it's really hard. I didn't realize when I first started writing mysteries. I love to read them, but I didn't realize how hard it is to write them. It's definitely an intellectual challenge.
ComfyCozy (06:52):
Yes. A very humbling experience, at least for me. Yeah. So what's your writing process? Do you have a favorite place or time of day?
Kelly Brakenhoff (07:04):
I have a full-time job. I'm an American sign language interpreter and luckily I get to plan my own schedule with that job. I work around my other job, so that's kind of nice. Especially if I'm really in the middle of writing or editing, I can kind of pull back on my day job and do more. I can be flexible with that.
ComfyCozy (07:35):
That's kinda nice. Do you try to write every day or do you like to write in bursts?
Kelly Brakenhoff (07:42):
Well that's like the biggest advice that people say to write every day. And I'm horrible at that. I do not do that. I write in my head. I drive around a lot from job to job. And so in my head I'm always thinking about the plot and I will dictate into my phone. Things that I'm thinking about as I'm driving. So I guess that counts as writing. Right? But as far as like “butt in the chair,” I do not do that every day. I kind of go in bursts.
ComfyCozy (08:13):
Thinking of writing totally counts, you know. Clock that time.
Kelly Brakenhoff (08:19):
I do! I'll lie in bed at night and in the morning and I swear that's when things come to me cause you're working on it while you're sleeping. I've jumped out of bed with great revelations before because I think I'm actually working on it all the time.
ComfyCozy (08:38):
Like you have to let the idea of ruminate, think of that as a process, right? We should call ourselves, we're the ruminators.
Kelly Brakenhoff (08:46):
Yes! You have the pantsers, the plotters, you got the people who like religiously, write a thousand words a day or whatever their word goal is. I'm the ruminator. I might think about it for a week or so, and then I sit down and it all just kind of comes rushing out. I've written as many as 10,000 words in a day before. So when it comes out it's all there.
ComfyCozy (09:14):
We are starting a writing movement. I am ready for it.
Yeah. #ruminating right?
So what's your favorite thing about your lead character? Cassandra, why would readers like her?
Kelly Brakenhoff (09:34):
What's different about Cassandra is that she grew up in paradise basically where most of the people look like her. She's Asian American. Her ancestors came from Japan to America about a hundred years ago and she's super ambitious. Then she takes this job in Nowhere-ville Nebraska to get the experience that she needs. On one hand she's a workaholic, but she's also really kind and caring and funny.
And she's overwhelmed in this story about how different life is surrounded by miles of cornfields and mostly Caucasian students who have had a super different upbringing than she has. Another really unique thing about the series that readers have loved is since I’m an interpreter, I write deaf characters into my stories. So you get to learn about deaf students and what life is like attending a college where most people feel uncomfortable approaching you because they don't use the same language you do.
Kelly Brakenhoff (10:38):
I throw in a lot of Deaf Culture and American Sign Language information into the characters of the book. So it kind of gives you insight into what it's like to struggle to fit in. I think everybody struggles to fit in somewhere, whether it's a new job, or with your classmates, or who you want to be when you grow up. And so these stories really touch on all of those emotions and hopefully make you laugh. I think if you're laughing, you know, it kind of helps you deal with the difficulties.
ComfyCozy (11:13):
Oh, so true. And it books are a great way to, you know, show how different people live and what their struggles are and be able to relate to them in a completely new way. So that's really awesome. Who's your favorite cozy sleuth that you've read. Who's your sleuth hero?
Kelly Brakenhoff (11:31):
When I started first reading mysteries, I loved Sue Grafton. The alphabet series. I love Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. But really those aren't cozies. They're more traditional. And so I've really tried to start reading a lot more of the stereotypical cozy mysteries. And I really like, I don't know if you've heard of Frankie Bow? She writes the Professor Molly Series and they're set in Hawai’i. She is hysterical. Like she can like walk from her car to the office and it's hysterical. It's a great series. I love those.
ComfyCozy (12:21):
I haven't heard of that. I'm gonna have to pick it up.
Kelly Brakenhoff (12:23):
If anybody likes mine, they'll like hers. And hopefully if people like hers, they'll like mine too. They're similar, except I think she's funnier. But I tried. Another I don't know if you've heard of Anna Castle. She has The Moriarty Series. So it's kind of like the Sherlock Holmes thing but from the Moriartys viewpoints. So James Moriarty's the protagonist, and it's about his relationship with his wife. He kind of goes off on his own and becomes a sleuth. I love those. Oh gosh. There's so many. I mean there's so many out there. It's so fun to keep meeting new authors and I kind of want to read them all.
ComfyCozy (13:10):
I don't have enough time. So true. So what's the last cozy mystery that you've read that you'd want to recommend to our listeners?
Kelly Brakenhoff (13:20):
Well, I just finished one to two nights ago and it was called Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun and it's by Lois Winston. She writes a series whose main character is Anastasia Pollock and she's works for a women's magazine as the craft editor.
ComfyCozy (13:40):
Oh, cool.
Kelly Brakenhoff (13:42):
It's really funny. All the review quotes say that she's like the an older version of Stephanie Plum cause the series takes place in New Jersey. She works at a magazine in New York City. And so you get a lot of the New Jersey and New York City feel. Also totally hysterical and a great mystery. So if you haven't read those, you should pick one up.
ComfyCozy (14:11):
Oh, that sounds awesome. All right. And how can, how can your fans keep track of you? You know, any blogs, social media that they should be checking you out?
Kelly Brakenhoff (14:21):
Sure. All of my books are available on Amazon. The mysteries are in Kindle Unlimited. The first one is Death by Dissertation and the second is Dead Week. You can get paperbacks everywhere you buy paperbacks. If you want to connect with me personally, I'm on Facebook and Twitter, but my real favorite is Instagram @KellyBrak. I post photos of my goofy dogs and my new baby granddaughter and anything that else that I think is interesting.
ComfyCozy (15:00):
Oh, congratulations.
Kelly Brakenhoff (15:02):
Yeah, grandkids . . . You know, my mom used to have a tee shirt that said, “If I had known grandkids were so much fun, I would have had them first.” And I was always kind of insulted by that until I became a grandma. Now I understand.
ComfyCozy (15:18):
So sometimes the truth hurts, but that's okay. You also have an amazing newsletter. And you can get, if you sign up you can get a Runza recipe! And so as a former Nebraskan that was near and dear to my heart.
Kelly Brakenhoff (15:35):
Yes. Thank you for mentioning that. I just I just added that. I've always had a newsletter and I hadn't done very much with it. I'm trying to get to know readers a little bit better. I have this really good recipe. You know how whatever the specialty is where you live, everyone has a recipe for it. Mine is a really healthy version. I love to share it with people because most people when they hear the ingredients kind of curl up their lip. But you used to be from Nebraska, so you know, Runzas are delicious,
ComfyCozy (16:18):
Delicious. They're amazing. Kind of like a cabbage hot pocket I guess is how I would describe them.
Kelly Brakenhoff (16:26):
Yeah. And you can kind of mix and match how you like it with the cheese or the mushrooms or fillings.
ComfyCozy (16:36):
Yeah. Amazing. All right, well, thank you so much for joining us. Today is such a pleasure and everyone go make sure to pick up the new release Dead Week.
Kelly Brakenhoff (16:48):
Yes. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
ComfyCozy (16:52):
All right, thanks Kelly
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