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To purchase your copy of Not the Killing Kind, click the following for links to your favorite outlet: Penguin Random House.

Interview with Maria Kelson — Debut Author of Not the Killing Kind

Not the Killing Kind focuses on Boots Marez, a single mother of an adopted, now adult, son. What would you like readers to know about Boots? 

Besides being a mother, Boots is also a progressive education leader in a rural town. She’s struggling to keep her K-8 school going despite financial challenges and ideological opposition from surprising corners of her community. Education has become such a hot-button issue in some rural counties that the profession truly demands heroism, these days.

The name “Boots” got attached to her following a childhood tragedy. Why keep the nickname after all these years? I think she’s bringing that part of her past with her into her adulthood.

Not the Killing Kind also centers around the school that she runs, which helps undocumented people in her town in Northern California. What drew you to incorporating that aspect of the story?

Boots teaches adult English Language Learners and this has been, up until now, her primary means of getting to know (and wanting to help) undocumented families.

I became interested in the relationship between a Latina teacher with citizenship privileges and her undocumented adult Latina students when I ran a family literacy program in an elementary school serving Spanish-speaking mothers. I was so moved by how these mothers swam against so many currents to try and give their children the happiest, safest, richest childhood they could. And I was frustrated by how, no matter how many home visits I made, and after school parties I threw, and friendly conversations I had, I knew there were parts of their lives I’d never understand fully.

That meant, in some cases, I could only make my best guess about how best to help.

This novel ratchets up that contrast between generally warm feelings flowing between teacher/adult students and nearly insurmountable gaps in understanding about each others’ lives.

Not the Killing Kind won the Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime. Tell us about that award and what winning it meant to you and your publishing journey:

Actually, I won it the first year it was offered—2014! That’s ten years ago! The award was meant as a one-time gesture to honor the late crime writer Eleanor Taylor Bland. I gave a little acceptance speech at a Sisters in Crime breakfast at Bouchercon in Long Beach, where I basically said, “Let me know how I can help make it so that more writers can feel the great feeling of validation that comes with this award.” 

That happened to echo thoughts that some in Sisters in Crime were already having about continuing the award, and 10 years later it’s been offered annually, open to crime writers of color of any gender who have yet to receive a contract for a full-length crime novel. I served as a selection judge for a year or two, and there have been some fantastic titles that had their start with this recognition. 

It’s meant for a work-in-progress. That’s important, because “in-progress” is probably the most vulnerable time in a new novelist’s journey. The message the award sends to the finalists and winners is that there is an audience hungry for crime writing by writers of color, in general, and for the work of these individual, specifically. I can say first hand: that’s very affirming!

In concrete terms, the award comes with prize money meant to advance a writer’s career in some way. I used my loot to fund a trip to SleuthFest in 2015, the crime writing con put on by the Florida chapter of Mystery Writers of America. That’s where I started to learn how to pitch by pitching, and where I started to learn how to talk about my book by talking about my book. It was a great conference for gaining this kind of experience—small enough not to be overwhelming, but with access to some high powered and highly experienced authors, agents, and editors—because—Florida!—in February!

What can we find you doing when you aren’t writing and reading poetry and crime fiction?

A have a day job, a hubs, two adult kids, and an old pooch. I can be found walking Maggie slowly down the road at sunset, or off on a hike with my sweetie while Maggie stays home and watches the Bob Ross channel (really).

What are you working on now?

Next up: a standalone thriller set in the greater Yellowstone area, featuring a Latina law-enforcement ranger for the National Park Service. Plus grizzlies. 

Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:

We all know nothing makes more of a difference than increasing the time for rear-in-chair, hands-on-keyboard. Be ruthless and creative about how to add that time to your week consistently. So-so writing sessions (short amount of time, or high amount of distractions, etc.) are so much greater than zero writing sessions.

Author Pet Corner!

Here’s Maggie, the 13 year-old cattle dog mix.

She was adopted at 6 months old from the Colorado Cell Dogs program, which places pound puppies with incarcerated trainers who teach the dogs basic obedience and get them ready for their forever homes.

Maria Kelson has two collections of poetry (as Maria Melendez) with University of Arizona Press, which were finalists for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Colorado Book Award.

Not the Killing Kind is her debut novel. It received the inaugural Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime. A former Santa Fe Arts Institute and Hedgebrook resident, she has given readings and workshops at campuses and literary festivals around the U.S. and served as an American Voices arts envoy in Bogotá, Colombia.

Born in Arizona, raised in northern California, she has lived in one southeastern, three midwestern, and five western states. Connect at mariakelson.com.

To learn more about Maria, click on any of the following links: Website, Facebook, X/Twitter.

Elena Hartwell/Elena Taylor

Header Image from Pixabay