Welcome to the Gang

Welcome to the Gang

by Saralyn Richard

Once in a while, a new mystery author puts on her stilettos and joins the crew. The Stiletto Gang is happy to welcome Barbara Kyle, and we know you will enjoy hearing from her on the third Wednesday of each month.

Today, I’m sharing an interview with Barbara. After you’ve read about her many talents and adventures, I know your appetite will be whetted for her first blogpost tomorrow.

Saralyn: Barbara, you’ve had several enriching
and fulfilling careers on the path to becoming an author. Can you tell us a
little about your days as a film, TV, and stage actor, and how that career
influences your life as a writer?

Barbara:  I loved being an actor. On
stage I did a lot of classical theater: Shakespeare and Shaw and Moliere. On TV
I starred in the daytime drama High Hopes, and in the series The
Campbells I had a lovely continuing role as a feisty pioneer innkeeper who
never quite won the heart of the dishy Doctor Campbell. In film, a favorite
role was in a made-for-TV movie about the hostage crisis in Iran when Jimmy
Carter was president. I played the president’s wife, Roselynn Carter. That was
an honor. Later, when I turned to writing fiction, it felt like a natural
extension of acting. I mean, I’d been playing characters written by someone
else for years, so I thought: why not create characters myself, in fact create whole
stories? 

Saralyn:  Your Thornleigh Saga
series is set in Tudor England. What is it about that time and place that
captured your imagination?

Barbara:  The trigger was Sir Thomas
More. He was Henry VIII’s chancellor and friend, but he famously went to the
scaffold to die rather than submit to Henry’s tyranny. That story always fascinated
me. Sir Thomas More had a couple of wards – that’s an historical fact – so I
decided to create another, fictional ward for him and make her the heroine of a
novel. So that’s how Honor Larke came to “star” in my first historical novel, The
Queen’s Lady. Honor becomes a lady-in-waiting to Henry VIII’s first wife,
Catherine of Aragon, and then comes into conflict with Sir Thomas, the man
she’d once revered. By the way, the situation of wardship in that historical
period is fascinating; I wrote about it in this article: Wanted: Rich Orphans: The Tudor Court of Wards.

Saralyn:  When you wrote THE QUEEN’S
LADY, did you know that it would be the start of a series? Did you have an
outline in mind for all seven books?

Barbara:  Not at all – it was quite
a zig-zag path to the series. Penguin published The Queen’s Lady and its
sequel, The King’s Daughter, but after that my editor there moved on, so
I turned to writing thrillers. Then, a few years later, I got a note from that
editor saying she was now editorial director at Kensington Books and wanted to
re-publish those first two books plus sign me to write more. Eventually, the
series grew to seven books that follow three generations of Honor’s family, the
Thornleighs (Honor married seafaring merchant Richard Thornleigh), through
three turbulent Tudor reigns.

Saralyn:  What was it like to switch
from historical novels to thrillers?

Barbara:  The funny thing is, all
my books are thrillers, even the Thornleigh Saga books. Life and death
stakes, implacable antagonists, lethal deadlines – these dynamics drive all my
stories, from the historicals to The Experiment to, most recently, my
novel of suspense, The Man from Spirit Creek. It seems I can’t help it!

Saralyn:  I’ve participated in some
of your author mentoring classes online, and I’ve appreciated how knowledgeable
and organized you are. What particular joys do you find in helping other
authors to achieve success? 

Barbara:  One of the true joys of my
life is cheering the success of writers I’ve mentored. Many of them have become
award-winning authors. Writers usually tap easily into their innate talent, but
talent and instinct only take you so far. When instinct gets stuck, it’s time
to open the toolbox of techniques, and I love showing writers the tools that
can help them get moving again. Anyone who’s interested will find lots of tips
in my videos on my YouTube channel Write Your Page-Turner, and my book Page-Turner. I firmly believe that perfecting
craft is an enriching, life-long journey for all writers.

Barbara
Kyle
is the author of the bestselling Thornleigh Saga series of historical
novels (“Riveting Tudor drama” – USA Today) and of acclaimed thrillers.
Over half a million copies of her books have been sold. Her latest is The
Man from Spirit Creek, a novel of suspense. Barbara has taught hundreds of
writers in her online classes and many have become award-winning authors. Page-Turner,
her popular how-to book for writers, is available in print, e-book, and
audiobook. Visit Barbara at www.BarbaraKyle.com 

Award-winning author, Saralyn
Richard was born with a pen in her hand and ink in her veins. A former
educator, she loves connecting with readers. Her humor- and romance-tinged
mysteries and children’s book pull back the curtain on people in settings as
diverse as elite country manor houses and disadvantaged urban high schools.

Visit Saralyn at http://saralynrichard.com, on her Amazon page at https://www.amazon.com/Saralyn-Richar…, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Palmcirclepress