An Interview of Kate White, author of Eyes on You

When did you decide that you’d like to write mysteries?

I knew I wanted to write mysteries from the moment I read my first Nancy Drew book. I was enthralled by the genre. I guess I was about 11. 

What inspired this particular mystery?

Because I was the in the magazine business for many years (including editor in chief of Cosmopolitan for 14 years), most of my books take place in New York and involve the magazine world. But I'd never written a book about someone who was super successful in her career and I wanted to do that. There are definite perils to being a powerful woman. Sometimes it can be murderous--in a figurative sense. So I wanted to write a book about a successful woman who found herself in a truly terrifying situation, one that was worse than a bad case of office politics.

What do you like best about writing mysteries?

I love the plotting part. My goal is always to write whodunits that make readers stay up late and feel satisfied at the end but annoyed they didn't figure it out. I always spend a lot of time on clues and red herrings. And the research part is fabulous. I LOVE talking to cops, experts in forensics, etc.

 And what do you like least?

Writing the last five chapters. I am ready for it to end but it's like finishing a marathon.

Where do you prefer to write?

I'm lucky that I have a home office. I purposely made it small because I like that womb-like feeling. I love to have some opera playing, too, though sometimes I need to write in silence.

 Do you have a particular beverage you like to drink while working?

Tons and tons of camomile tea!!! I love caffeine but it makes me too jittery for writing. 

Do you reward yourself in any particular way when you’ve had a book accepted for publication or published?

That's such a great question because rewards are important. I take myself out to a nice lunch alone (I do love my husband but for some reason I need a solitary celebration in these cases) and I often buy myself a small piece of art. 

Who is your biggest fan?

My son, Hunter. He's always so supportive.

Who is your favorite mystery writer?

Gosh, so hard to say because I have so many. But I love Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford mysteries in particular. 

Thank you so much!

Marilyn

BOOK BLURB

A terrifying psychological suspense with so many twists that the ending will leave you breathless.

What would you do if you began to suspect one day that someone was out to get you?  Really get you. But you had absolutely no idea who it was.

That’s what happens to Robin Trainer, the gutsy, charismatic protagonist of Kate’s upcoming psychological suspense novel, Eyes on You.

Robin seems to have everything going for her. After losing her TV hosting job two years ago, she’s back on the air in a hot new show with a co-host she can’t help but feel attracted to. She’s also penned a book that’s climbing the charts. But one night at a party in her honor, she discovers a nasty, threatening note in her evening bag.

Maybe, she tells herself, it’s just from a jealous party guest. But the threats and harassment soon escalate and Robin realizes that she has an adversary with a dark agenda. What’s even worse is that the person is clearly someone in her life. While she frantically tries to put the pieces together and unmask this hidden foe, it becomes terrifyingly clear that the person responsible isn’t going to stop until Robin loses everything that matters to her . . . including her life.

ABOUT KATE

Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of nine works of fiction—six Bailey Weggins mysteries and three suspense novels, including, Eyes on You, which will be published in June. For fourteen years she was the editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, and though she loved the job (and the Cosmo beauty closet!), she decided to leave in late 2013 to concentrate full time on being an author.

Her books have received starred reviews from a variety of publications and she has been covered everyplace from The Today Show to The New York Times. Her first Bailey Weggins mystery, If Looks Could Kill, was named as the premier Reading with Rippa selection and soon shot to number one on Amazon. (And it’s now being made into an opera!). She is published in 18 countries around the world.

Kate is currently editing the Mystery Writers of America cookbook, a selection of recipes from many of the top-selling authors.

Like many mystery writers, Kate fell in love with the genre after reading her first Nancy Drew book, The Secret of Redgate Farm, and she still admires those cliffhanger endings that “Carolyn Keene” created.

She is married and the mother of two children, and once had her daughter stalk her through the woods so she could better describe the sounds of someone being followed.

Kate is also the author of several very popular career books, including I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: How to Ask for the Money, Snag the Promotion, and Create the Career You Deserve, and Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do.

www.katewhite.com