Kelley Armstrong - dReadCon Guest of Honour Interview

When we received confirmation that (the) Kelley Armstrong would be joining us as our Guest of Honour, we were absolutely ecstatic. To say we screamed with delight when she agreed to host a panel for readers and lead a workshop for budding authors wouldn't be an exaggeration. We are honoured and thrilled to have Kelley Armstrong attending dReadCon on September 13, in Burlington.

Take a moment with us and chat with Kelley about her writing, upcoming books and more in this dReadCon interview:

Your latest book “Cold As Hell”, has some chilling moments—was there a particular scene that was emotionally or psychologically difficult to write?

Yes, but it’d be a spoiler, since it comes at the end! For something closer to the beginning, the murder scene itself was a difficult one to write. I was creating a particularly cold-blooded killer, so I needed a particularly cold-blooded crime.

What real-life inspiration (news event, personal fear, location) crept into this story and shaped its darkest moments?

Honestly, by this point in my career, it’s very rare for me to be dipping into the well of the personal, and I can’t say I ever really have. It’s far more natural for me to create a character and then delve into their fears.

The Haunting of Paynes Hollow, what can readers expect in this new Horror Novel?

My main character, Samantha Payne, needs to stay at her family’s old cottage in order to inherit the land, which she needs to pay her mother’s medical bills. It’s a haunting both in the sense that the land is actually haunted and in the sense that what happened there when Sam was young haunts her—a very real family drama that ended in the death of her father and a childhood playmate.

How does your approach to crafting dark fiction differ from how you tackle your other genres? Are there elements you feel freer—or more restricted—to explore?

With horror, I can certainly delve deeper into the horrific aspects of the thriller plot I unfold. I’m also free to make the answer something supernatural, which I can’t do in my mysteries ;) The only real restriction is obviously that it needs to be chilling in some way, and I know that what one reader finds terrifying won’t faze someone else.

Are there any standout characters or storylines in your recent books that surprised *you* as they came to life?

With The Haunting of Paynes Hollow, the pitch to my publisher literally says that I’m not sure which characters will die LOL There were two in particular. I knew one had to (you can’t have too many survivors in a horror novel) but I knew I’d have to wait for the story to unfold to know who lived and who didn’t. I’d been leaning in another direction, but as the ending came, it was clear, thematically, what I had to do.

If you could insert one of your characters into a famous film or book universe, who would it be—and where would they end up?

My other mystery series (A Rip Through Time) is time-travel set in Victorian Edinburgh. Combine time travel and Scotland, and of course everyone thinks Outlander, so I’ve been asked how my main character would fare if she was dropped into that world. Mallory’s discovered she’s really not good at keeping her head down and blending in, and I’m pretty sure she’d be hanged as a witch within a week, probably for using modern-day techniques to solve a crime.

For fun: You’re trapped in an abandoned bookstore overnight. One of your characters shows up to keep you company. Who is it—and do you survive till morning?

Hmm, since I was just talking mysteries, let’s go for my two mystery series leads. If it were Casey, from Haven’s Rock (Cold as Hell), we’d be fine. She’d enjoy a break just chilling and reading and sharing book reccs with me until morning, when she’d calmly flag someone down to let us out. Mallory (A Rip Through Time) would spend the first hour collecting books for her friends and the rest of the night roping me into increasingly elaborate and reckless escape plans…until I opened the door, and then she’d just be disappointed that it was so easy.

While Kelley will not be selling books at the event, our Onsite Book shop will have a select number of books available for you to purchase to have her sign them. Pre-order your books today to make sure your copies are available.

ONSITE BOOK SHOP PREORDER PAGE