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"The easy grace of Easley's writing is matched by her vivid understanding of what makes people tick. It's a pleasure to be in such good hands."

- Richard Hawke - Speak of the Devil

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A fill-in-the-blanks press release for your convenience!
Author KD Easley lives and writes in Missouri with the help of two feline co writers who make sure she takes plenty of catnaps. Her first mystery, Where the Dreams End, featuring repo man, Brocs Harley was released in 2009. Murder at Timber Bridge, introduces amateur sleuth, Randi Black, and will be released in April of 2010... Read More...
KD Easley was born and raised in Fulton, MO where she grew up dreaming of being a racecar driver, a bull rider, an astronaut or a country music star. She did manage to attain one of those early dreams for a brief period, but life, as so often happens, stepped in to turn her in a new direction... Read More...
KD Easley, lives and writes in Fulton, MO. She is the mother of two grown sons, one a nuclear technician and the other a United States Sailor, that have and continue to provide her with more material than she will ever be able to use. She also shares her home with two feline writing partners, Luna and Merlin... Read More...

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do you get your ideas?

Sometimes I wish I knew. Wouldn’t it be cool if there were a idea bank, and you could go make a withdrawal anytime you needed one? I think most of my book ideas creep together a little at a time. I’ll see a name on a road sign that I really like and I’ll store it away. Then, a week, or a month, or a year later I might see something funny in a grocery store or overhear something at a restaurant and think, that’s something that I could use in a story, and I’ll store it away with that name I liked so much. Then one day, I’ll be driving along, yes it usually happens when I’m driving, don’t ask me why? A plot will leap into my head that encompasses that cool name, that funny scene, and as soon as I get home, I jump on the computer and start writing. So I guess I’d have to say my ideas come from everywhere and everything.


Why do you write mysteries?

I write mysteries because I enjoy the symmetry. There’s good and evil battling it out and the good guys come out on top. At least in most of my stories the good guys win. It’s also a great way to relieve stress. Instead of becoming a screeching harpy when some rude store clerk treats me like dirt, I just go home and kill them off in a book. It’s cheaper than therapy.


Do you use real people and places in your story?

Hmmm, yes and no. Yes, I take things from people and places I know and see. I use mannerisms, or pretty scenery, but I cobble things together in different ways and create my own people and places.


How long does it take to write a book?

A rough draft can take anywhere from ten days to ten months. It depends on the type of story, and whether or not there’s a deadline. My first book took the better part of ten years, because every time I failed to get it published, I worked on it some more. Once you enter the merry-go-round of publishing, you don’t have that kind of time to tweak and play. You have to get your butt in the chair and get it done. I’d say from rough draft to final copy, somewhere in the neighborhood of a year.


How do I get my book published?

When you finish your book and your ready to send it out in the world, the first thing you should do is put it in a drawer and forget about it for a month. After that month is over, take it out and read it again, tweak it, polish it, and make it perfect, then craft a query letter. If you don’t know how to go about that, Google it. There are tons of websites on the Internet with information on how to craft a successful query letter. Once you have a beautiful polished manuscript, and a perfect one-page query letter, get a copy of Writer’s Market. Make yourself a list of agents that represent the type of book you have written and whittle it down until you have twenty-five or thirty on your list. Pick out five, research them, learn what they like and don’t like. If they have a blog, hang out there and listen to what they say and what they’re looking for. Then read their query instructions and get those query letters in the mail. Keep sending out four or five queries a week, and start collecting those rejection letters. You will get rejected. Count on it. Everyone does. It’s part of the price of being a writer. Just don’t give up. If you exhaust that first list of thirty agents, move on to the next thirty, wash and repeat until you hit the jackpot. Unfortunately there’s not magic bullet. It takes time and a lot of it, sometimes years, sometimes decades. Just keep after it.


If you’re a published author, why do you still have a job?

Unfortunately there are a very small number of authors that actually make a living with their writing. I’ve heard anywhere from two to five percent. The rest of us, write after work, or after the kids go to bed, or while the kids are at ball practice, or during our lunch break.


Who is your favorite author?

Dick Francis is number one, but the list of authors I love to read is almost endless. Jim Butcher, Robert Crais, Laura Lippman, Julia Spencer-Fleming, I could go on for days.


How long did it take you to get your first book published?

Over ten years.


What do you like to read?

I will read anything, books, blogs, cereal boxes. It’s an addiction. I could go without food before I could live without books. My favorite thing to read is mystery fiction, but I enjoy biographies, westerns, classics like Tom Sawyer, or Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Sea. I’ll even dip a toe into the romance world from time to time. I just enjoy a good story.