WS: Today’s guest is Kathryn Lilley, a multi-published author of young adult books who makes her adult mystery debut on October 2nd with DYING TO BE THIN, first in the Fat City Mystery Series. Hello, Kathryn!
Kathryn: Hello, and thanks for having me as a guest in your corner of cyberspace today! I love reading the posts on “Working Stiffs.”
WS: Can you tell us a bit about DYING TO BE THIN?
Kathryn: Plus-sized TV producer Kate Gallagher has often been told she has the “face” for TV—it’s the body she needs to work on. So when she gets dumped by her boyfriend and laid off from her job in the same week, Kate decides to trade in her Whoopie Pies for thinner thighs and enrolls in an exclusive weight loss clinic (read: fat farm).
After just one day at the Hoffman Clinic, Kate is about ready to sell her soul for a white mocha with a coffee cake chaser. Working freelance on a story about her own transformation, she must endure petrified fruit, tasteless gruel, sunrise walks, and crazy neighbors. But when the clinic’s principal diet guru turns up dead with a pair of fondue forks where his eyes should be, Kate loses her appetite. Now that the menu features murder, she has a breaking story on her hands…
WS: Where did you get the idea for the series?
Kathryn: As a pre-teen, I had two passions: Nancy Drew mysteries and Pralines ’n Cream ice cream. So I guess it was inevitable that I grew up to write a series called the Fat City Mysteries!
And like my journalist sleuth, I understand the battle of the bulge all too well. I once had to lose 90 pounds in order to land a job on camera in TV News. (And even today, I avoid the street that goes past 31 Flavors!)
WS: What’s coming next in the series?
Kathryn: Right now I’m finishing up A KILLER WORKOUT. When Kate’s TV audience ratings go down in the “cosmetic” area, she gets sent to a boot camp to do a little emergency downsizing on her derriere—only to wind up sugar crashing it into a gruesome crime scene!
WS: So except for the readout on the scales, one could assume that your books are on the “lighter side”?
Kathryn: Whatever gave you that idea
To learn more about Kathryn, visit her web site at www.kathrynlilley.com. She’s also a member of Killer Hobbies, posting on Fridays at http://killerhobbies.blogspot.com/
