Kitty Pilgrim-Interview with the Author

The Reading Cafe would like to welcome former CNN correspondent and the author of the John Sinclair Mystery series new release THE STOLEN CHALICE-Kitty Pilgrim.

Photo: by Carol Seitz

TRC: Hi Kitty and welcome to The Reading Cafe.   We would like to start with some background information.  Please tell us something about yourself?

Kitty: I am a career journalist (24 years) for CNN who now writes thriller novels.  When I wake up in the morning I have always had the urge to write.  This has been going on for as long as I can remember.  When I was four, I dictated my first book.  I wrote stories in gradeschool, plays in high school, news in my early career. During my reporting career I would travel widely and enjoy telling the “story” to my viewers.  Now I am doing the same, except now I get 300 or more pages to tell the story, and can invent wonderful adventures for my archaeologist John Sinclair, and his girlfriend oceanographer Cordelia Stapleton.

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TRC:   As an award winning correspondent and reporter, what do you consider to be the most enlightening moment of your career?

Kitty: It is difficult to narrow down a career of nearly two and a half decades into a single moment that crystalizes my experience as a journalist. I have learned from every story, and gained a broader understanding of the world, day by day.  I have had the privilege of covering many world-changing events  – the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of China, the wars in Iraq and Iran, September 11th, and many many more.  

I can say this.  I started out in my career as an optimist, convinced that global communication would make the world a better place. After many years and thousands of miles I still am an optimist.  Most people do want to live in peace and harmony, have what is best for their children and enjoy comfort and security in their later years.  I believe in the inherent goodness of the majority of people who populate this world.

TRC:   You have travelled extensively throughout the world, both professionally and for personal reasons.  What or where is your favorite destination and why?

Kitty: I love the oceans.  Put me on a boat and I am in bliss.  I spend a lot of time on ocean liners – the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth.  (The Queen Victoria is in my first novel THE EXPLORER’S CODE as a location.)  My partner also has a boat and we spend most of the summer on it, doing my book tour up the New England coast and I usually write every day when I am on the boat.

In terms of land destinations I have been to approximately 6o countries and my favorite is usually the one I am exploring right at that moment.  My recent travels in Egypt for THE STOLEN CHALICE are a cherished memory.  Also I adore the high arctic of Svalbard Norway, not far from the North Pole.  Polar travel is one of my other favorite things to do. 

TRC: THE EXPLORER’S CODE is the first book in your John Sinclair Mystery series.  Would you please tell us something about the premise of this SERIES?

Links to Order-THE EXPLORER’S CODE
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Amazon Paper Books
Amazon Kindle
The Book Depository
B&N Nook and Paper Books

Kitty: I have always been fascinated by the great explorers and adventurers – Christopher Columbus, Ernest Shackleton, Howard Carter, Amelia Erhardt.  Isabelle Bird, Gertrude Bell.  People who push the limits of the known world – so first and foremost my characters are explorers..

In this series, I would also like to inform as well as entertain.  In each of my novels the reader will experience new places – usually five or six locations per book. As my characters try to solve the puzzle, they go to some of the most glamorous places in the world, Venice, Paris, London, Cairo, Egypt.  My readers eat the delicious food, stay in the finest hotels, live the life of opulence and luxury.  These books are meant to take the reader out of their daily existence and give them a jolt of mystery, romance and adventure.  We all need a little of that in our lives, even if it’s for ten minutes before we turn off the light at night.

TRC:   Did you base the characters of John Sinclair and Cordelia Stapleton (or any of the storyline characters) on anyone in particular or are they a culmination of many people you have encountered?

Kitty: I wrote Cordelia to be a role model for young women.  So many thrillers undersell the abilities of the female character. I wanted my female protagonist to be smart, strong, and courageous – every bit an equal to the man in her life.  I intentionally made Cordelia an oceanographer because it is a very important and cool profession.  She is a scientist and has a very analytical way of working things out.  When I wrote her I consulted with a real life oceanographer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts – Susan Humphris.  Susan helped me tweak the character to make her exactly the way a marine scientist would be in terms of temperament and intellect.

John Sinclair is pure, dreamy fiction. Many people who read the series ask me “do you KNOW someone like Sinclair?”.  He is a compilation of all the heroic qualities I admire – courage, intelligence, sensitivity.  I threw in a good dose of humanity too – he’s not always perfect – especially when it comes to relationships – but he is well intentioned. 

Basing characters on real people isn’t fair to the real people – or to the characters.  They each deserve to live their own lives.

TRC: THE STOLEN CHALICE is your second novel (June 26, 2012 release) in the series.  Would you please tell us about the premise of this storyline?

LINKS TO ORDER The Stolen Chalice:
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Paper Books
The Book Depository
KOBO
B&N Nook and Paper Books

Kitty: I was very intrigued by era of exploration in ancient Egypt during Victorian times.  I updated this theme to include modern egyptologists and all the turmoil that is going on in that part of the world.  We learn the latest is scientific method for studying mummies.  In terms of plot, in THE STOLEN CHALICE, a terrorist ring in stealing ancient artifacts from museums around the world and using the proceeds to fund their activities.  My characters are drawn in when the Metropolitan Museum in New York is hit by an attack, and simultaneously on that very same night scores of Egyptian antiques are stolen.  I can’t tell you more or it would spoil the plot.  But the action takes place in New York, London, Scotland, Venice, and Cairo.

TRC: With the introduction of many varied and new characters, there are several potential storylines.  Will John and Cordelia remain your primary focus, or will the storylines venture into new territory, with different heroes and heroines?

Kitty: All my books will have John Sinclair and Cordelia Stapleton.  They are irresistible as a couple.  The storylines will explore new field sciences – such as volcanoes, or botany.  We will go to many new exotic places…I am thinking Iceland, or Ethiopia at the moment.  We have a big world out there.  With archaeologist John Sinclair representing land, and Cordelia Stapleton representing water, there is nowhere on Earth we cannot go.

TRC: How many books do you have planned for the John Sinclair Mystery series?

Kitty: I have six outlined, and have nearly finished the third in the series. Because I go to different places to research my books, I don’t expect to run out of exotic locales until I am in my eighties or nineties – and that is quite some time from now.

TRC: There is plenty of espionage, intrigue and references to potential bio-terrorism in your storylines.  How much research was involved with the writing of this series?

 

Kitty: This is a heavily researched book.  I call it “fact based fiction”.  As a journalist I believe that my duty is to inform accurately – no matter what the format of writing. So for example in THE EXPLORER’S CODE I researched the historical details of the 1918 pandemic with medical records from the US Army and gave the novel to be proofread by the Harvard School of Public Health – just to make sure my treatment of the pandemic was accurate.

In THE STOLEN CHALICE my terrorist plots are also very true to life – I covered both domestic and international terrorism for CNN for many years am familiar with that subject.  However my terrorists in my books are not based on any real individuals – they are fiction.

TRC: What do you consider your greatest achievement? Personally?  Professionally?

Kitty: Personally,  I raised two sons entirely on my own and put them through college while working as a reporter full time for CNN.  It took enormous dedication and effort to keep everything running smoothly in all of our lives.

Professionally I aspire to inform.  When I do that well, I am happy.  Over the course of my career I have won many professional journalism awards, but when some individual comes up to me and says that they were very interested by something I wrote, that is the greatest achievement.  Connecting with each individual person is what I consider the highest goal.

TRC:  What was behind your decision to write a fictional mystery series?

Kitty: Over the course of my journalism career I had the great privilege of traveling to many exotic places. There were many details I wanted to share that didn’t fit into a news story – food, the feel of the place, what it was like to travel there.  In writing fiction I can bring these places to life for my readers.

I decided to write the novel on a whim, just to amuse myself.  It became a very addictive pastime.  Before I knew it I had a full series, and the characters took hold of my imagination and wouldn’t go away.  I found it so relaxing to write these books – they are so diversionary – that I didn’t want to stop.  After publishing THE EXPLORER’S CODE – I decided to become a novelist full time.

TRC: Many authors have always had a talent or desire to write.  What difficulties or challenges have you faced in your writing career and on the road to publication?

Kitty: I had no real obstacles.  I know it is popular to say I overcame all odds and kept pushing, but I wrote the full manuscript on a whim with no anxiety or thought of having it published.  Then I submitted it to an agent almost as an afterthought.  Mort Janklow matched me up with Scribner – my publisher.  I adore my editor, and my agent.  Everyone I have met in the book world is charming and nice –  from the bookstore owners who invite me to read, to the other authors I have met on book tour.  I hate to disappoint, but I love this new world.  

TRC:  Writer’s Block is a real phenomenon that many writers face at one time.  How do you handle the stress and anxiety of ‘writer’s block’?

Kitty: Ok hate me some more.  I DON’T get writer’s block.  In the news business you crank out story after story on a very tight deadline.   I did that for 24 years on a daily basis.  Now, when I sit down to write fiction, I just bang away at it for a few hours and then go out for a walk.  I do that every day without fail.  The discipline of doing it every day is in my genetic code. 

Part of my secret is I never stop moving, so I don’t run out of new places or ideas.  If I sat alone in a room and tried to invent something I dont think I would get very far, but my novels are based on my experiences.

TRC: Next Six months?

Kitty: I have a very heavy travel schedule – and write on the road.  First of all book tour for THE STOLEN CHALICE runs for the entire summer.  I love this part because this is where I will meet many of my readers.   After that I plan an extensive research trip to the Middle East.  November it will be England – as my characters live in London.  It will be a full six months of travel and writing.
 

TRC:  Many authors bounce ideas and information with other authors, family or friends.  With whom do you bounce ideas and why?

Kitty: My partner Maurice is absolutely brilliant.  He is very knowledgeable about achaeology and art, different cultures and travel.  I always joke “Who needs Google?”  In my own home there is a man who has vast knowledge of pretty much everything. (He would hate me saying that, as he is also blessed with considerable modesty)

TRC:  On what are you currently working?

Kitty: The third book in the Sinclair series is almost finished, and I am actively setting up travel to research the fourth.  I work on two at once – one for research, the other to write.  We also shoot videos of the locations of the books so everywhere I go we photograph the places that will appear in the upcoming novels.  These videos are published on my website    Kitty Pilgrim  at the time of publication so people can view the locations in the book.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Kitty: Primarily these novels are meant to be entertainment.  We all have long days and lots of worries.  I think the greatest joy is to pick up a book and let it take you away to another place and time.  In my novels I try to give the reader the most pleasurable experience possible, introducing exotic destinations, delicious food, fabulous hotels and homes, utterly luxury.  Interspersed are  and interesting and accurate tidbits of historical or scientific information.  But THE EXPLORER’S CODE and THE STOLEN CHALICE are not heavy lifting – we don’t need more homework.  These novels are meant to be a delight in every way.    

LIGHTNING ROUND (for a little fun):

Favorite Food – really good spaghetti – in Italy if possible

Favorite Dessert – Baked Alaska. ( I love the combination of hot and cold)

Favorite TV Show – Any kind of news

Favorite Movie – vintage movie: Now Voyager with Betty Davis,
contemporary movie: anything my sons take me to – it can be really silly or scary or just plain good.

Last Movie you saw –  I watch movies non-stop on airplanes so I see everything and anything – if it’s a long flight that can be two or three at a sitting.

Dark or Milk Chocolate – either, why limit yourself?

Favorite Flower – any flower that is white. (I have a white garden)

Last book that you read – Left Neglected – Lisa Genova

Do you have any pets? – Scottish border terrier named “Ensign”

TRC: Thank you Kitty for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the release of The Stolen Chalice. The John Sinclair Mystery series is a fascinating read.