Spotlighting an SG Sister

Having read T.K. Thorne’s House of Rose, and loved it, I’m obsessed with how one person could accomplish so much while excelling at everything. If you want to know, too, read on.

T.K.Thorne has been passionate about storytelling since she was a young girl, and that passion only deepened when she became a police officer. Serving for more than two decades in the Birmingham (Alabama) police force, she retired as a precinct captain and then as the executive director of a downtown business improvement district, to write full time. Her books include two award-winning historical novels (Noah’s Wife and Angels at the Gate); two nonfiction civil rights era works (Last Chance for Justice and Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days); a dally with murder, mystery, and magic in the Magic City Stories (House of Rose, House of Stone, and House of Iron) and a YA science fiction, Snowdancers. She writes from her mountaintop home northeast of Birmingham, often with a dog and cat vying for her lap and horses hanging out in the yard.

Here’s the description of House of Rose:  Rookie patrol officer Rose Brighton chases a suspect down an alley. Without warning, her vision wavers, and the lone suspect appears to divide into two men–the real suspect, frozen in time, and a shadow version with a gun. Confused by what she’s just seen, but with no time to second guess it’s meaning, Rose shoots the real suspect in the back.

Forced to lie to detectives, she risks her job and her life to discover the shocking truth of who she really is–a witch of an ancient House, the prey of one powerful enemy, and the pawn of another.

Set in the Deep South city of Birmingham, Alabama, this is the first book of the Magic City Stories.

I had the privilege of interviewing T.K., and here’s what I learned:

1. As a former police captain, you must have created Rose from some of your own experiences. How is she like you, and how is she different?

Funny you should ask. I created Rose as I’d liked to have been! Unlike me, she is 5’8” (I was 5’3”); she has decent-sized hands (mine were too small to hold a gun correctly); and she is young and gorgeous. She is also a witch, of course, with interesting abilities while I, alas, am just an ordinary ole human. On the similar side—she has an incorrigible sense of humor, questions everything, and seems to find herself in “trouble” without trying.

2. I’d never heard of a red diamond, but, after reading House of Rose, I researched it and learned about its rare beauty. How did you decide to write about a red diamond? Have you ever seen one in person?

Diamonds have always fascinated me (my birthstone) and maybe it was the fact of Rose’s name that made me go in that direction. “Rose” was my grandmother’s name, and the incongruency of the sweet-little-old-lady image versus sharp (protective) thorns, along with the play on my married name (Thorne) intrigued me.

Roses come in many colors (as do diamonds), but I was drawn to red as a very rare color and, of course, traditionally related to roses. Diamonds are actually unique carbon constructions that are being considered for energy storage, in fact, they can even contain radioactivity! The true nature and function of the rose stone diamond in my book is revealed in the second book, House of Stone, so I don’t want to give away a spoiler, but it is extrapolated from the extraordinary structure of diamonds.

Never seen a red one, but I think it would make a great anniversary gift, don’t you? (My husband will be proofing this.)

3. Your love for all things Birmingham spills into your writing and makes me appreciate its culture and history, too. What’s it like to be a local author with a series set in your hometown?

As people who live or lived in Birmingham discover the trilogy, they tell me how cool it was to read about places they knew or existed under their noses. We did the first book launch at a historical location mentioned in the book. The owner was so excited. Much fun!

I didn’t grow up in the city but moved there after college and lived in a house on the Southside that was the inspiration for Rose’s neighborhood. It was also where I lived when I was a police officer working in that precinct, so it made it easier to envision Rose’s world.

Birmingham is unique in that the three ores needed to make steel (iron ore, limestone, and coal) are found within proximity to each other. That discovery in the late 1800s gave rise to a boom town that grew so rapidly it was nicknamed “The Magic City.” Those three ores are the basis of powers for the legacy family Houses in these books (House of Rose, House of Stone, and House of Iron).

At the same time that I was writing these stories, I was also working on a nonfiction project (now out) set in Birmingham—Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days. Those same ores gave rise to a set of circumstances and economic forces that propelled the city into turmoil and onto a world stage. So, I was looking at Birmingham through very different lenses—real/imaginative, past/current—at the same time.

4. When you wrote House of Rose, did you envision the series? What are the advantages of series writing?

House of Rose was a spontaneous story that began when I was brushing my teeth one day, wondering what my next writing project would be. Three little words just popped into my head, and I hurriedly rushed to computer to write them down, having no real idea what they meant, but feeling the muse stirring.

Those words were “You’re a hero.” As I typed, it turned out Rose’s sergeant said them to her after she shot a man in an alley. That was the first moment her heritage revealed itself, but at the time she had no idea what had happened or that she was a witch of an ancient, dying House, the prey of a powerful enemy, and the pawn of another.

I didn’t either!

Eventually, the notion of the different Houses evolved, and I realized the story needed three books. To answer your question, I did not set out meaning to write a trilogy. But the advantages to writing multiple books with the same characters are primarily that the world is established, and the characters become multidimensional and very real, seeming to respond on their own to whatever is thrown at them by the sadistic author.

5. Your prose is superb, and your books have won high acclaim. What advice would you give to a new writer who wants to follow your star?

Many thanks for those kind words that mean much coming from you!

I’ve been writing for decades, and I assure you my early attempts (which are still “in the desk drawer”) were rough, but I kept going and that is really the Secret. In addition, a good writer analyzes everything—books, movies, and that best source of emotion and perception, ourselves.

6. You write in multiple genres. Tell me something about your other books.

It’s true that I don’t know what I want to write when I grow up, but so far, I have two historical novels about biblical women no one thought to name or give more than a cursory line—Noah’s Wife and Angels at the Gate (Lot’s wife). Then two civil rights nonfiction, Behind the Magic Curtain, which I’ve mentioned, and Last Chance for Justice, which covers the forty-year search for justice for the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four young girls. Additionally, I have a YA science fiction, Snowdancers, and am working on a mystery/thriller with a working title of The Old Lady about a retired police officer with a penchant (clearing throat) for finding trouble.

Getting to know T.K. better has been part educational, part magical. If you could interview the author of any great book you’ve read, who would it be?

Purchase House of Rose at https://www.amazon.com/House-Rose-Magic-City-Story/dp/1603817581/ref=

And check out my books at Amazon.com: Saralyn Richard: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle