Kathleen Shaputis, author/ghostwriter, lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Bob, where curling up with icy Diet Coke, writing romantic comedies is her ultimate paradise.
www.shaputis.com
Drag queens, a ghost and murder, oh my. Love spirits through the modern day tale of inheritance and greed, crossing the vale between worlds.
Baillie thought life was content, successful in the Pacific Northwest until her bookshop became haunted. Inheriting a Scottish castle leads her on a wild adventure of Celtic chaos where she meets her gorgeous ghost. Finding her life in danger, Baillie calls the diva squad to the rescue: her friend Gillian Nation and his girls.
Will she choose her normal, safe existence or grab onto an unusual love that makes life magical?
iTunes
Q) What inspired you to write this story?
The original idea was forced out of me by a crafty instructor back in 1993. I took a creative writing class where we had to brainstorm a novel based on a genre we didn’t usually read. Mine was mysteries. I hadn’t picked up a mystery since Nancy Drew’s “The Clue of the Dancing Puppet” as a young girl. Funny, once I finished the exercise with a main character, a murder and an inherited Scottish castle – I never let go of it. I’d work at it a little, then put it back in a drawer. Yet it was giving myself the gift of attending a writers conference through Abroad Writers Conferences to a castle in England in November, 2012, that blasted this story into completion. I maxed out my credit cards and spent a week in the English countryside, pretending it was Scotland madly researching details.
Q) How long did it take you to write?
Technically over twenty years, it’s hard to believe! Now I had nonfiction books published, a couple romantic comedies self-published and over a dozen ghostwriting projects done during this time. But when I got back from England, it took less than four months to flesh out and finish the 72,000 words with surprise characters, twists I didn’t know about and more.
Q) What is your favorite thing about writing?
Dialogue. Many times I will have whole chapters and scenes written only in dialogue first. I love how my characters interact and sass each other. The thrill of a good argument or the tenderness of understanding blooms through my dialogue. Then I go back and fill in the what, where, when portion of it.
Q) What is your least favorite thing about writing?
The third or fourth read-through for editing and tweaking is tough for me. This is where it becomes grueling. Making sure I show, don’t tell – avoiding passive voice. Have I left someone behind? Did I answer questions? Do the chapters end leaving the reader wanting more? It’s a necessary evil.
Q) If you could be any famous person for one day, who would you be and why?
Oh, I love this – I’d want to be Katharine Hepburn! The woman epitomized an independent, self-confident woman. To be her for a day and have access to her mind, her strengths, her foibles would be delicious. What I could learn and experience in just twenty-four hours would be worth a life-time to me.
Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
Hmm, it would be one of the salad dressing in the door. I love salads and go through phases of flavors. So it’s probably the half-empty bottles of French or Catalina, maybe an odd Italian-plus mixture I’ll never finish because I’ve moved on. The oldest is easily a year or more old.
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
I’m currently working on a sequel to “Her Ghost Wears Kilts.” The characters have much more adventure ahead of them and another murder or two to solve. I also have a work in progress that takes place in the mid-Seventies of a widowed mother and her young daughter titled “Twinkies and Tranquilizers.” I would like to help fill the void left by Nora Ephron’s death with my own romantic comedies and slanted humor.
Q) What inspired you to write this story?
The original idea was forced out of me by a crafty instructor back in 1993. I took a creative writing class where we had to brainstorm a novel based on a genre we didn’t usually read. Mine was mysteries. I hadn’t picked up a mystery since Nancy Drew’s “The Clue of the Dancing Puppet” as a young girl. Funny, once I finished the exercise with a main character, a murder and an inherited Scottish castle – I never let go of it. I’d work at it a little, then put it back in a drawer. Yet it was giving myself the gift of attending a writers conference through Abroad Writers Conferences to a castle in England in November, 2012, that blasted this story into completion. I maxed out my credit cards and spent a week in the English countryside, pretending it was Scotland madly researching details.
Q) How long did it take you to write?
Technically over twenty years, it’s hard to believe! Now I had nonfiction books published, a couple romantic comedies self-published and over a dozen ghostwriting projects done during this time. But when I got back from England, it took less than four months to flesh out and finish the 72,000 words with surprise characters, twists I didn’t know about and more.
Q) What is your favorite thing about writing?
Dialogue. Many times I will have whole chapters and scenes written only in dialogue first. I love how my characters interact and sass each other. The thrill of a good argument or the tenderness of understanding blooms through my dialogue. Then I go back and fill in the what, where, when portion of it.
Q) What is your least favorite thing about writing?
The third or fourth read-through for editing and tweaking is tough for me. This is where it becomes grueling. Making sure I show, don’t tell – avoiding passive voice. Have I left someone behind? Did I answer questions? Do the chapters end leaving the reader wanting more? It’s a necessary evil.
Q) If you could be any famous person for one day, who would you be and why?
Oh, I love this – I’d want to be Katharine Hepburn! The woman epitomized an independent, self-confident woman. To be her for a day and have access to her mind, her strengths, her foibles would be delicious. What I could learn and experience in just twenty-four hours would be worth a life-time to me.
Q) What is the oldest thing in your fridge and how old is it?
Hmm, it would be one of the salad dressing in the door. I love salads and go through phases of flavors. So it’s probably the half-empty bottles of French or Catalina, maybe an odd Italian-plus mixture I’ll never finish because I’ve moved on. The oldest is easily a year or more old.
Q) What can readers expect from you in the future?
I’m currently working on a sequel to “Her Ghost Wears Kilts.” The characters have much more adventure ahead of them and another murder or two to solve. I also have a work in progress that takes place in the mid-Seventies of a widowed mother and her young daughter titled “Twinkies and Tranquilizers.” I would like to help fill the void left by Nora Ephron’s death with my own romantic comedies and slanted humor.
