Kate Brandes
Stone Creek
Seventeen years ago, Tilly Stone (age 13) is left to fend for herself in rural Pennsylvania when her infamous eco-terrorist father disappears under mysterious circumstances. Ever since she’s tried to forget the dams they blew up together and forge a new life until her father’s return threatens to upend her small-town world and her friendship with the dogged FBI agent still pursuing him. Ultimately, as the past and present fuse and blow up with more than one kind of casualty, Tilly must choose between the father she loves and her home.
DOSSIER: When you wrote your debut novel, THE PROMISE OF PIERSON ORCHARD, you didn’t know a lot about how to sit down and write a story. Afterall, you’ve spent most of your adult life as an environmental scientist. Now that your follow-up, STONE CREEK, is coming out, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about storytelling that you like sharing with others?
BRANDES: Given that I have a scientific, logical kind of brain, I’m inclined to want to outline a story in great detail before I write it. But I’ve learned over the process of writing two novels, that having too much of the novel figured out ahead of time can lead to a dull story with characters doing what the writer needs them to rather than what they would do organically. So I’ve learned to trust the creative process more. I still do outlines for stories, but they’re very loose and I use them now less as a guide than as a way to get started.
DOSSIER: How coincidental is it that you’re a geologist and the name of your new book is called STONE CREEK?
BRANDES: Funny, I hadn’t even thought about that :-). Stone Creek is a waterway in the book named after the Stone Family. In my story, Frank Stone raises his daughter, Tilly, while they live as fugitives on the run from the FBI. She’s therefore brought up outside of regular social structures. The book opens with Frank’s decision to start living a “normal” life. But then he abandons her just when she’s starting to settle into this new life. The book is about her coming to terms with how she was raised, who her father is, and figuring out who she is without him.
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer? (Thrilling music/deadly silence/a cabin in rural Pennsylvania?)
BRANDES: I live in rural Pennsylvania, in a small town right beside the Delaware River. I write from my home office which also serves as a second office for my other job as a geology professor at a local university and as an art studio (I’m also a painter). I like it to be very quiet when I’m writing, otherwise it’s hard for me to immerse myself in the story.
DOSSIER: How long did it take you to go from learning about the art of storytelling to being able to teach creative writing and co-direct a writer’s conference at Moravian University?
BRANDES: More than ten years of pretty intense learning.
DOSSIER: You focus your stories around rural communities and small towns. How do you feel about larger metro areas like Philadelphia or Chicago? Attending a writer’s conference like ThrillerFest in New York City might give you some great ideas. Can we look forward to a future book where the two types of areas clash?
BRANDES: Although I love to visit cities and would be very happy to attend ThrillerFest in NYC, my heart is in rural places. I grew up in a very rural part of central Pennsylvania, an extension of Appalachia, near where my mother still lives. Ever since I’ve lived in rural places.
In the stories I tell, I strive to show how the relative scarcity of people in rural areas forges closer personal bonds. I hope readers of my novels see that traditional narratives and assumptions about who people are based on where they’re from doesn’t always match up with the more nuanced and complex reality.
Website: Kate Brandes | Amazon Author Page