Judy Alter found the premise of her novel in a rather ordinary place: her kitchen. Her creative mind started working and churned out Skeleton in a Dead Space. One year later, she's still churning out Kelly O"Connell mysteries. Fort Worth, Texas magazine talked with the ever-original author.
Where do you get your inspiration? For Dead Space [novel released in August 2011], it came from two things. There's a very deep cabinet, then a very narrow cabinet, then a very deep cabinet. We wondered for years what was behind that very narrow cabinet. One day I was driving by a house in Fairmount, and I thought to myself, there's a dead space in that house, and there's a skeleton in the dead space. I have no idea where the thought came from, but there was my mystery.
Where is your favorite place to sit down and write? I have an office with a desk. That's the only place I write. It's where I'm used to working.
What do you plan on writing next? I plan on keeping the Kelly O "Connell mysteries in Fairmount. The neighborhood is very real. People tell me they like reading the books and reading about restaurants they go to and places they're familiar with.
