Suite:Tell me a little about your books and what genre they are.
KRIS: I write the Tracy Eaton mystery series, REVENGE OF THE GYPSY QUEEN, DEM BONES' REVENGE and the forthcoming REVENGE FOR OLD TIMES' SAKE, featuring the eccentric adult offspring of reality-challenged Hollywood stars. Tracy is a fun, sarcastic narrator. I suppose they fall on the cozier side of the hard-soft spectrum, but the humor gives my books a little bite.
SUITE:When did you first start writing? First start publishing?
KRIS: I can't remember a time in my life I didn't write. Even before I could read, I used to make up stories to go with the pictures in the comic strips and pretend to read those stories to my younger sister. But I only got serious about writing as a profession about fourteen or so years ago. I floundered around in different areas at first. Then I secured a foothold in nonfiction writing pieces for magazines -- features and commentary. I published my first nonfiction in 1990, and I took off fast. In those first several years I earned lots of credits in a number of national magazines. But I really always wanted to write fiction, and since I was comfortable with the shorter length thanks to my nonfiction, I started writing mystery short stories. I published my first short story in late '92. I didn't tackle a novel for some years after that.
SUITE: Why do you write?
KRIS: I suppose because I consider the world to be a senseless and cruel place some of the time, and I need to make some sense of it. I need to experience the sensation of right prevailing, as it so rarely does in life. I also want to laugh at the things in life that are just too absurd to take seriously. And I want to share my vision of all of those things with my readers. At least, I guess that's why I write. I've agonized over that question for years, and I've never been completely comfortable with my answer. I just know it's something I need to do.
SUITE: Do you have a day job?
KRIS: I teach writing part-time, but I no longer have a full-time job.
SUITE: What do you want people to take away with them when they read your writing? Do you ever have a message?
KRIS: What I hope they'll take away from my Tracy Eaton mysteries is that life is
