Kasey Riley has more than twenty years of horse ownership and enduring riding ability, Kasey Riley (Kim) brings a wealth of knowledge to her novels. Her love of trails, outdoor life, and the countryside brings color and vibrancy to her books. This realism attracted many readers to his novels. She tries to get readers to see through the eyes of her characters and imagine them being drawn into the plot.
The fictional town of Riverview, Colorado is the setting for several of his stories. The town is full of characters, each with a story to tell or who might become a victim or perpetrator. Small-town, rural life ties them together, and the rugged Colorado countryside provides the backdrop for the action.
His first two novels are detective stories with romances built around them and the third is a romance, using suspense to bond couples. together as they struggle to stay alive. She planned each book to be a self-contained novel that could be read in any sequence without the reader missing the details of the story.
His latest work comes from a discussion between Kasey and her husband, Jeff, during one of many trips between Oklahoma and their new home in Tennessee. Brings up the idea of a young woman who continues to be involved in a mysterious abuse case. Then find out why she’s involved and address the situation that keeps them busy for miles.
Kasey Riley’s mind treats each news story as a possible storyline for her characters, and each hike as a possible setting for the next crime or mystery. Needless to say, she enjoys spending time alone on the track to work her way through the next storyline and create new characters.
When she’s not writing or riding, she enjoys reading different genres of novels and learning new conspiracies about her husband of over 40 years. Together, they moved two horses, four dogs, two cats, and all of their belongings from southeastern Oklahoma to central Tennessee in 2016.
Bring them back and the small town on the Cumberland Highlands passed on. inspired them to install it there. With “Don’t Assume” finished, she’s back to work on Ruff Cut and the YA novel in the background while she’s writing Don’t Assume.
Here is an interview with Author Kasey Riley
Kasey Riley, I am a retired business owner, and writing keeps me young. The same as riding my horses keep me agile. I enjoy developing new stories with the sounding board of my husband of 48 yrs. My best riding buddies also help me develop plots when things get complicated. We live on the Upper Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee in the USA.
My time at the computer is weather dependent. If it’s too hot, too cold, or rainy…I’m writing most of the day. If the weather is nice – I’m saddling up and riding.
While I have several plots in mind, I have only one Work In Progress at the moment. It should be published by the end of April – RUSTLERS HEIST, a Sheriff Megan story.
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
Until the Pandemic hit…it would take about 6 months to finish and publish. Then I became distracted by all the issues of the Pandemic, and my writing just didn’t flow. It took 2 yrs to write a book that should have been 6 months.
I simply wasn’t “into” writing or much of anything. I think I’ve finally adjusted to the “new normal” and have picked up writing again. I set aside a 60k manuscript when I couldn’t see the ending to start and finish the last book in my DNA Trilogy. DO NOT ANSWER
DO NOT ANSWER is the final book in my DNA trilogy. The concept of this series happened when my husband and I both submitted a DNA test to find our ancestors. It got me wondering what would happen if your DNA proved to be something rare/unique/modified. Who would see your results? We were driving back and forth from Oklahoma as we prepared for our move to Tennessee and hours of highway turned into hours of brainstorming ideas.
From this, the first book DO NOT ASSUME took shape and hit the market within six months. I didn’t start out writing a trilogy or even a connected series. It was to be a standalone book. HOWEVER – the ending was muddied by discoveries in the final chapters and this called for a second and maybe even a third book with the same characters.
It took me three novels to get the main characters married and settled enough to end the series. There COULD be another series down the line, but I’m not sure…I’m happy where it ended.
I’ve developed plots while on horseback while riding in the car, while reading the news. My first book arrived into my brain half written when I was reading a very poorly written book based in the sport of Endurance Riding. The author knew little to nothing about the sport and didn’t do much research to make her story.
I don’t think I finished the book, I simply KNEW I could do better than she had. DESPERATE ENDURANCE was written in three months…but took another six to get revised, edited, and printed. The best compliment I ever got on my first book was from a veterinarian who told me she liked it so much that she had to read it twice.
“Random Name Generator.” I stop there first, then I move to “Best Baby Names” if my characters haven’t been named by that point. I’ve learned the hard way NOT to change a character or place name after I’ve started writing. You will NEVER find all of the uses and if you do a “find and replace” it is likely to change things you never thought of. LOL.
I was asked by fans to complete the DNA series. Again, I felt I had left it almost finished after the second book, but the main characters still hadn’t made it to the alter and they needed people to help them with the children. Sooo…DO NOT ANSWER did all of that and settled them where I wanted them to be. I don’t know if when I wrote DO NOT ASSUME that I would be committing myself to a trilogy, I’m not sure I would have penned it. Sagas and trilogies are hard.
What age range are you asking about? Horse books, always horse books until high school. Black Beauty before 3rd grade, King of the Wind at 3rd/4th, and ALL of the Black Stallion and Misty books throughout the remainder of grade school. In high school, I discovered historical romance. So many of them, it’s hard to choose one or two. Georgette Heyer and Victoria Holt were my favorite authors.
I don’t think so. I read to escape the depressing world around me. Non-fiction IS what I’m trying to escape. I’m impressed by some of the characters in the world, but I’m not interested in reading their memoirs. I find biographies boring. I would be more interested in reading about animals or geology than humans in history. I also detest books written in more than one first person. I keep looking for the second or third name of the author. LOL
Sheriff Megan. She’s a veteran with maybe PTSD who is coping with losing her career in the Army when her war wounds put her on the disabled list. She’s recovering and not truly disabled enough to need a desk job. The love of her life is her mentor with her PTSD. Another veteran with mental and physical scars to show for his service to his country.
This book is about a crime wave in the small town of Riverview where Megan is Sheriff. Things that seldom happen in her quiet town keep her hopping at the same time as Aaron proposes. It has been a fun but challenging book to write. It took me months to come up with a good ending – I just couldn’t come up with anything that would put the story to bed. Until my husband gave me an idea…I didn’t use it exactly as he suggested, but I was able to write the final chapter because of it.
Every single one of them. I get irritated when a reader only leaves a “rating” without a review, but I’m still thankful for the rating. I had a reader leave a negative rating on two books without a review of either. How can I improve if I don’t know what they didn’t like?
In some reviews, there is nothing to do but shrug it off. The one I’m thinking of was a single star and a single sentence: “more romance than mystery” That was it. I looked at the lack of punctuation and the misuse of “then” and decided I could ignore this person, they likely don’t read much. I find myself agreeing with some of the critiques and understanding the points of others and everyone enjoys a good review.
Mnd series. She writes Women’s Fiction compared to my Romantic Suspense/Mystery. We ride together, beta-read each other’s manuscripts, and discuss plots and actions. We were riding one day and she said: “I need to kill off a character, the man needs to be a widower, any suggestions?” Hardly missing a beat, I suggested a teenage driver who was texting while driving caused the wreck that killed her character.
She used a form of this in her book…and the riders behind us were horrified that we were killing people as we rode. LOLy beta reader (I’ve had others, but this one is the most honest) is Linnhe McCarron who has written the Riverwood Series and is currently writing her second.
Write first, worry about details later. Get the story down – quickly before you forget it. Once that’s done, as you revise, research to find out if kangaroos are native to Montana or if whatever you had happened to your MC is even physically possible. I detest those who don’t research. They are lazy. I’ve researched so many strange things I’m likely now on the FBI Watch List somewhere.
I’ve researched NAPALM, Arson, How to fool Facial Recognition Software…all kinds of strange things. The internet is an amazing place to find out about stuff you want to include in your story. EDIT, EDIT, EDIT. The use of self-editing software can clean up tons of minor errors, but flow editing will catch things like a character who “enters the room” only to find himself already seated at a table from an earlier chapter. A BETA reader is great for finding those things too.
Self-editing software. Grammarly has made me a much better writer. I use it with discretion because people don’t talk in perfect English and the software will prompt you to make changes. Those are suggestions that I trash and move on.
It’s not the money. If you expect to get rich…you need to get an agent, who will get you a publisher (IF you’re very, very, lucky.) and a book deal, or even a movie deal.
I ENJOY writing. I do it for ME. If my fans enjoy my work – that’s pure extra enjoyment for me. If you enjoy what you do… it does not work. That’s where I am in my life at this point.
I have to take a trip for a couple of weeks…but I want to have “RUSTLERS HEIST” out by the end of April. DO NOT ANSWER was released in January.
www.kaseyriley.com or the Kasey Riley author page on Amazon, and Kasey Riley | Facebook on FaceBook. I try to respond to contacts…but I will ghost those who are scamming or phishing.
I want to thank Prachesta.com for giving me a chance to answer these questions for them and their fans…who I hope will become my fans.
The Interview With Author Mark Zvonkovic!
An Interview with author Julie Gianelloni Connor
So, that’s all about Author Kasey Riley’s Interview. I hope, you like this interview. Thanks for reading this author’s Interview.
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