Bookpleasures.com welcomesas our guest professor, writer and artist, Kathleen Kelley Reardon.

Kathleen has published ten nonfiction books and two crime mysteries. Her debut novel, Shadow Campus, was described by Forbes as “fast-paced” and a “masterful debut.” Damned If She Does (2020), a Manhattan-based sequel described by Kirkus as “informed and searing,” was selected for their September 2020 “Great Indie Books Worth Discovering.”

Kathleen is a member of the Ireland Chapter of the International Women’s Forum. She lives in Schull, West Cork Ireland where the upcoming third book in her crime mystery trilogy takes place.

A professor of business and communication, Kathleen has published extensively in journals, magazines, and was a signature front-page blogger with Huffington Post from 2005 to 2016.  

She’s also written for The Conversation, Big Think and Thrive Global.

Her classic Harvard Business Review case, “The Memo Every Woman Keeps in Her Desk,” became a reprint bestseller leading to her first trade book, They Don’t Get It, Do They? 

It’s from this work about female challenges at work that Kathleen’s two crime mystery novels emerged - along with writing about sexual misconduct and developing a spectrum from mild forms of offense to egregious ones about which she was interviewed by David Brancaccio on Marketplace Morning Report.  

In September, Kathleen presented online at the International Dublin Writers’ Festival “Crossing the Bridge from Nonfiction to Fiction Writing.” She described the “false dichotomy” of treating fiction and nonfiction as if in two distinct silos. Nonfiction can inform fiction - as did her nonfiction writing about challenges women face in hostile workplaces before writing her novels Shadow Campus and Damned If She Does.

Her nonfiction trade books include The Secret Handshake, It’s All Politics, The Skilled Negotiator and Comebacks at Work, which have been Amazon bestsellers. 

Norm: Good day Kathleen and thanks for participating in our interview.

How did you get started in writing? Why do you write? Do you have a theme, message, or goal for your books? 

Kathleen: Hi Norm. Thanks for inviting me. My nonfiction books derived from my research as a professor of communication and later business.

My two crime mysteries were influenced by some of that research on gender differences and my own experiences as a professor.

Shadow Campus starts with a young professor, Meg Doherty, found hanging in her office nearly dead the night before her tenure decision.

In Damned If She Does, a sequel, Meg has been keeping a dark secret from everyone, including her brother Shamus, until she comes upon the body of the man who caused it all and she quickly becomes the prime suspect. Both books involve a brother-sister duo solving the mystery. 

Norm: What has been your greatest challenge (professionally) that you’ve overcome in getting to where you’re at today?

Kathleen: There have been several.  I would say that overcoming breast cancer in my early thirties and twenty years later being diagnosed with Parkinson’s certainly presented major obstacles.

Fortunately, by the time I began to realize that I had Parkinson’s disease, much of my career had been established. Nevertheless, at the age of 52 I had plans that had to be reconfigured. I did become a fiction writer and artist, so you could say that “when a door closed, two windows opened.”

Norm: How do you deal with criticism?

Kathleen: I’m used to constructive criticism as a writer. You have to listen to what others think when you’re a professor or you won’t be able to publish in journals important to promotion. You get used to editors asking for changes and the same thing happens when writing nonfiction books in particular.

Norm: What did you find most useful in learning to write? What was least useful or most destructive?  

Kathleen:  I loved writing even as a child. I was fortunate to have some wonderful teachers early on, especially in my junior year of high school.  Judith Kase was extremely encouraging and helped me develop confidence in and enthusiasm about writing. All writers get rejections, especially early on. It’s important to keep writing and to improve by reading the works of highly regarded authors.

Norm: Do you write more by logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Please summarize your writing process.  

Kathleen: With crime mysteries, I’d say both are necessary. You have to keep in mind what can logically occur. In terms of intuition, I’m often asked how I keep readers from knowing who did it. The answer: I hide it from myself. Any of the primary characters could be the killer and I keep several as candidates until near the end.

It’s a lot like spinning a number of plates, but that’s what I enjoy about mysteries. If I know precisely “who done it” while writing, there’s a good chance that I’ll accidentally telegraph that to my readers. So, keeping me in the dark keeps them in the dark too. I truly enjoy that aspect.

Norm: Does the line between truth and fiction sometimes become blurred for you?

Kathleen: Most fiction isn’t void of truth. Unlike my nonfiction books, however, there’s more room for play and imagination with fiction.

I’d say that if the line blurs, it’s purposeful for me. I allow my nonfiction, especially about academia and gender issues, inform my crime mysteries that occur in academic contexts. 

But, for example, Shadow Campus starts, as I mentioned, with Meg Doherty, a young professor, found hanging in her office – nearly dead - on the eve of her tenure committee decision. While promotion to tenure is a stressful time and people can present obstacles, this was certainly a scene that no one I know has experienced. Yet, it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility in fiction.

Norm: How do you choose the names of your characters?

Kathleen: That’s a fun question, Norm. I take time with this. Meg and Shamus, the lead characters, are from an Irish American family, and I like those names. Jeffries in Damned If She Does needed a name that suited a tough detective. It took a few walks to come up with his name. I think it suits him well. Sometimes I hear a name and realize that it will fit a character.

Norm: Do you ever dream about your characters?

Kathleen: Yes. And about the plot. The characters and their story become part of your life when you’re writing.

You begin to know what they would and wouldn’t do. I should mention that Meg’s dream sequence in Damned If She Does was partially derived from a dream I’d actually had when writing the book. It was so unsettling that it woke me up ☺ 

Norm:   What do you think most characterizes your writing?  

Kathleen: I do a lot with dialogue rather than telling the reader exactly what characters look like or what they’re doing. Take Shamus, for example, there are hints in my books about what he looks like, but I find readers come up with their own version of Shamus. I like giving them that option.

Norm: Could you tell us about your latest novel, Damned If She Does?

Kathleen: Damned If She Does is first and foremost a New York City crime mystery. But fiction often conveys messages about reality. In this case the plot involves Meg Doherty keeping a dark secret for six years. This is how it’s described on Amazon:

When a renowned professor is viciously murdered at a Manhattan conference, Meg stumbles upon the scene and quickly becomes the prime suspect. It falls to her brother, Shamus, to help prove her innocence.

The estranged sister and brother we met in Reardon's debut novel, Shadow Campus, now find they know less about each other than they thought. Caught in NYC's blinding media spotlight, gilded society and criminal underworld, the pair must confront not only Meg's secret but a long-suppressed family mystery.

Damned If She Does "artfully stirs" what Kirkus Reviews describes as a "dangerous cauldron of ambitious scholars." "Informed and searing" in her "takedown of ivory tower politics," Reardon makes us work for answers throughout the "page-turning scenes" of this MeToo whodunit.

Norm: How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book?  

Kathleen: As a professor, I was tenured at two universities. I knew the process well. I remember waking up one morning with the plot of Shadow Campus in my head. I had to get the bones of it down. So, I started writing very early that morning.

After my three children had gone to school, I spent much of that day writing. I remember being on spring break and putting everyday of that week into Shadow Campus.

With my academic work, though, I had to put it away and mostly work on it during the summers for a few years. You could say that I was immersed in the context of the novel by being a female professor in a department where women had not successfully attained tenure through the system. I was the first.

And, it was a struggle – much like the one Meg experiences in Shadow Campus. Damned If She Does takes place at an academic conference. I attended those for years, some in New York City. So, again my experience as a professor influenced the story.

Norm: What were your goals and intentions in Damned If She Does, and how well do you feel you achieved them? 

Kathleen: My primary goal was to write a second crime mystery that would be a challenge for the reader. I believe that was achieved given what readers tell me. I also wanted to bring Shamus and Meg back to life and present them with a number of dangerous challenges. There’s a helicopter scene that is particularly harrowing.

Norm: What was the most difficult part of writing Damned If She Does and what did you enjoy most about writing this book?  

Kathleen: The difficulty came mostly from the cognitive challenges I have with Parkinson’s. I used to be able to fit two days into one. Cognitive issues were one of the earlier symptoms for me and one of the most troublesome as a professor and writer.

I learned that exercising my brain as I did when writing blogs, helped. Still, I would have loved to put in four hours a day writing Damned If She Does, but it wasn’t possible most days.

I meditate using Bernie Siegel’s “Morning and Evening Meditation.” I met him when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in my early thirties. My oncologist introduced me to him. His meditations have made a world of difference in terms of restoring my energy to write each day and also to paint. 

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and your books?

Kathleen: Both Shadow Campus and Damned If She Does are available on Amazon.com and described there. And right now, Damned if She Does is only $5.00 on Kindle. Also, the audible version of Damned If She Does will be ready soon.

You can also follow me on MY BLOG

I’m excited about that. Two performers, Brendan Conroy and Camilla Griehsel did the reading near where I live in West Cork, Ireland. I produced it and because of Covid-19, we communicated daily by video conferencing. My husband, Chris, is editing it. 

Norm: What is next for Kathleen Kelley Reardon?

Kathleen: I have the third crime mystery of the trilogy to write. It’s partially done. I’m looking forward to writing a memoir. Friends and family have been encouraging me to do that. I’m beginning to warm up to the idea. I’ll continue to paint as I love it. Some of my painting is at www.paintingdoc.com and at www.mizenartists.com

Norm: As this interview comes to an end, what advice can you give aspiring writers that you wished you had gotten, or that you wished you would have listened to?  

Kathleen: Don’t wait until you think you have a story good enough to write. Start writing now. Short stories or even journal entries will get you going. 

Norm: Thanks once again and good luck with all of your future projects.

Kathleen: Thank you very much, Norm.

Norm Goldman -- bookpleasures.com
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