Sisters in Crime Author Interview: Kathleen Ryan

        On Saturday April 20, 2013 at 2pm in the Reading Room the Port Jefferson Free Library hosted an extra special National Library Week Celebration Event!
When at the Public Library Association Library Conference last year, librarian Monica Williams made the acquaintance of a group of mystery writers Sisters in Crime http://www.sistersincrime.org/. Sisters in Crime an organization composed of publishers, editors, readers, and librarians who are fans of mysteries and are united by their support of women mystery authors and a. Sisters in Crime is an American Library Association “Library Champion” and offers a “We Love Libraries” award which is a $1,000 grant that is to be used towards the purchase of books. In August 2012 Monica Williams entered the Port Jefferson Free Library as a possible candidate for the award. Word came in January that the Port Jefferson Free Library was the winner. Sisters in Crime has a Long Island Chapter and six authors will be visited the Library on April 20. Each author discussed her own works.
Several members of the Long Island Chapter of Sisters in Crime kindly consented to be interviewed via email. Questions were sent  and the authors sent back their replies. Sisters in Crime Long Island Chapter Vice President Kathleen Ryan kindly consented to be interviewed.

MW:. Where are you from originally?
I'm a native Long Islander; born and raised in Huntington. Graduated from Huntington HS; I attended and graduated from L.I. colleges. I earned an A.A.S. from Five Towns College and a B.A. in Music Education from C.W. Post.

MW: How did you get interested in mysteries?
I've been an avid reader of many genres since childhood, especially mysteries.

MW: What was the first mystery you ever read?
The Secret of the Old Clock by Nancy Drew

MW: What mysteries did you read before becoming a mystery writer? Since reading is integral to writing, it's a continual process; my list is tremendous, but to highlight several mystery,crime fiction, and noir authors whose works I've admired would include: Stephen King, Peter Straub, Patricia Cornwell, Donald Westlake, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, Jim Thompson, James M. Cain, & Patricia Highsmith; true crime books by Ann Rule; Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss; In Cold Blood by Truman Capote; short mystery & crime fiction in the Akashic Book Noir series, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

MW: What mystery authors have inspired your own work?  
Since writers should read widely, in addition to the above authors, I've also been inspired by authors such as Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury, Frank McCourt, Jodi Picoult & many others. I'm an eclectic reader!

MW: Please tell the reader about your mysteries
 In my short fiction, the setting is almost always Long Island. I've received several awards from the Public Safety Writers Association, including a Flash Fiction award for "Heat of Passion" -- which was also a finalist for a Derringer Award and a Macavity Award in 2012. My creative non-fiction piece based on a day on patrol in East Northport, "The Watcher," appears in the 2012 anthology, Women Warriors: Stories From The Thin Blue Line, edited by John M. Wills. "Playing with Matches," based on the tragic loss of two young brothers in a fire, appears in Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories of 25 Words or Fewer, edited by Robert Swartwood. In the true crime memoir I've written, the center of the story is the 1955 unsolved hatchet murder of a taxi driver in Northport, a crime that my 'armchair detective' grandmother would frequently discuss during my childhood.

MW: How has living on Long Island impacted your work?
As a lifelong Long Islander, and a retired 21-year-veteran of the Suffolk County Police Department (as a police officer, I worked in Patrol, Public Information, and Crime Stoppers), much of the short fiction I write has some basis in an event or crime that has occurred on Long Island. I'm also a breast cancer survivor, and some of my writing includes this aspect of my life.

MW:What are your future writing plans?
I have a completed manuscript of a true crime memoir; I'd like to either revise it and/or possibly consider turning into a fictionalized version. I hope to eventually obtain the representation of a literary agent. In addition, I'm focusing on short fiction (crime/noir/mystery, and flash fiction), and I've been an active contributor in two blogs (http://www.womenofmystery.net andhttp://www.kathleenaryan.com). I'm a member of the Public Safety Writers Association, NY chapter of Mystery Writers of America, NY/TriState Sisters in Crime, and Long Island Sisters in Crime (which I am the current Vice President; follow on Twitter @LI_SinC). I'm very active on Twitter, username @katcop13, Facebook, and Pinterest.