Julie Kramer: Stalking Susan

Title: STALKING SUSAN
Author: Julie Kramer
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher:  Doubleday
ISBN: 978-0-385-52476-6

1. First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about?

STALKING SUSAN is set in the desperate world of TV news, a world I understand too well, having spent a career a as a television news producer.  In my book, an investigative reporter discovers a serial killer is targeting women named Susan, killing one on the same day each year.

Now the deadly anniversary is approaching.  But not just lives are at stake- so are careers.  November is television sweeps month, and every rating point counts. Our heroine must go up against a news director who cares more about dead dogs than dead women, a politician who fears negative stories about serial killers will hurt the city’s convention business, and the very real possibility that her source knows more about the murders than he is letting on.

I got my inspiration for the story from a couple of old, cold cases as I covered as a journalist ten years ago. 

2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.

I wish I had a more interesting story about how my first book sold- I’m envious of Vince Flynn’s tale of self-publishing his way to the top or folks who talk about all the manuscripts under their bed or an office wallpapered with rejection letters-because adversity makes for a more compelling story (that’s why we pile it on our protagonists.)

My story is fairly bland. I asked an author friend for the name of his agent, then queried Elaine Koster with my first fifty pages. About a month later she asked for the rest, soon after she offered to represent me because of what she called my “voice.” I don’t have one of those deep, rich broadcast voices, so no one in news had ever paid me such a compliment before. But she was talking about my writing voice, something she says you either have or you don’t.

Then she and her associate, Stephanie Lehman, worked with me on revision and I learned a big difference between news and fiction. In news, when the bosses want something changed, they usually write it in, cross it out and say exactly how they want it changed. Because time is usually crucial, creativity sometimes has to bend.

In fiction, the revision process is much more open ended. I was asked questions about my characters and plot, but basically I had to find the answers. And when I tried to rush the changes, I was told to slow down and get it right. “You only get one chance with these people,” my agent warned me. “The manuscript has to be ready to go.” So I hunkered down and kept working at it until even I could see it was better and she pronounced it ready. Then I tried not to think about it.

A couple weeks later, the call came. Honestly, I don’t recall the details. I was in the middle of a news shoot. My cell phone rang.  I figured it was the news desk calling to mess with me. I answered with an exasperated now what? Instead it was my agent calling to say Doubleday wanted the book. I mumbled something about can I call you back and she responded with a this-editor-is-a-perfect-match-for-you and we-need-to-take-this-deal-now and I said okay and went back to my shoot and didn’t tell my camera crew I sold a book until months later because it didn’t seem real.

3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?

 I just finished the sequel to STALKING SUSAN.  Here’s the gist of it: A newspaper want ad, “Wedding Dress For Sale: Never Worn,” draws a TV reporter into a dangerous missing person case during sweeps month. It’ll be released in summer 09.

4. What’s your writing process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

I usually start writing when my kids leave for school in the morning.  I try to hit a thousand words a day. I keep at it until it happens or seems pointless.

5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at the The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

My sons have two grey, striped cats, named Marvin and Lucy.  But since the boys are in school all day,  and I’m home writing most days, the cats feel I belong to them.  They like to sit, one on each side of my desk and watch me write. It’s very disconcerting.  Sometimes, if they strongly disagree with my prose (like when I introduced a dog character into the plot) they walk across the keyboard. You’ve heard of lap cats…these are laptop cats.