Katharine Schellman
Author Interview - Katharine Schellman
Author of The Last Note of Warning
Prohibition is a dangerous time to be a working-class woman in New York City, but Vivian Kelly has finally found some measure of stability and freedom. By day, she’s a respectable shop assistant, delivering luxurious dresses to the city’s wealthy and elite. At night, she joins the madcap revelry of New York’s underworld, serving illegal drinks and dancing into the morning at a secretive, back-alley speakeasy known as the Nightingale.
Then the husband of a wealthy client is discovered dead in his study, and Vivian was the last known person to see him alive. With the police and the press both eager to name a culprit in the high-profile case, she finds herself the primary murder suspect.
She can’t flee town without endangering the people she loves, but Vivian isn’t the sort of girl to go down without a fight. She'll cash in every favor she has from the criminals she calls friends to prove she had no connection to the dead man. But the more Vivian digs into the man’s life, and as the police close in on her, the harder it is to avoid the truth: someone she knows wanted him dead. And maybe the best way to get away with murder is to set up a girl like Vivian to take the fall.
Author Interview - Katharine Schellman
Author I draw inspiration from:
Honestly, anyone who has finished a book! Writing a book is hard work, and there's always a point when powering through to the end feels impossible. Whenever I get stuck in my own writing, I find it so inspiring to look at my shelves and remind myself that every single one of those writers felt stuck at some point. And every single one of them figured out how to get through that feeling, which means I can too.
Favorite place to read a book:
I think the place I most love to read is curled up in bed, usually when I know I should be going to sleep but can't resist starting just one more chapter. My second favorite is probably on the beach, under an umbrella on a hot summer day.
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
I was six years old when I first announced to my parents that I would write books when I grew up. It took a while (and a lot of bad writing along the way) but I got there!
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
I go back and forth between physical books and ebooks, though I try to read physical books in front of my kids so they can see what I'm doing. I don't really have a preference between hardback and paperback, though I love hardbacks because I can imagine them on shelves for years to come, while paperbacks are easy to grab and take them with me. Ebooks I tend to borrow from the library, especially when I'm in the mood for something particular right away. I can only listen to audiobooks for nonfiction; if I try to listen to fiction I either get really distracted from whatever I'm doing or I end up missing too many plot details.
The last book I read:
I recently finished an ARC of "Bless Your Heart" by Lindy Ryan, which features four generations of women from a family that runs a funeral home and fights the undead in a small Southern town. I don't read a lot of horror, so it was fun to try something new!
Author Interview - Katharine Schellman | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
I love making notes on paper, usually in my journal (it started out as a bullet journal, but I never make the time to create beautiful layouts, so it's just lots of notes about different things happening in my life). For actual drafting, I'm always on the computer. I find that my brain moves at about the same speed that I type, so I can get into a really good flow that way.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Mrs. Watson from the Lady Sherlock Mysteries by Sherry Thomas (which are an absolutely brilliant Sherlock Holmes retelling). She's such a warm, practical, encouraging character who values the people that others undervalue—exactly the sort of friend everyone needs!
Author Interview - Katharine Schellman | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
I used to be an actor and dancer, and I gave it up because writing was what I wanted to do long-term and I decided to focus on building that career. I don't regret that decision at all, but part of me will always miss being on stage. I think if I hadn't known I wanted to be an author, I would have stuck with performing. If I decided to do something completely different, though, I would have probably ended up as a math teacher.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
I love clothing in the 1920s! It's one of the reasons I wrote a character who's a dressmaker in the Jazz Age. I definitely write way too much about the clothing in my first drafts and have to trim it down as I edit!
Place I’d most like to travel:
I'm heading to Iceland this coming winter to see the Northern Lights (which are supposed to be spectacular this year) with my extended in-law family. This kind of travel feels like a huge privilege, and it's one I definitely don't take for granted.
My signature drink:
I'd clearly have been at home at the Nightingale, because I love champagne or a gin cocktail. If we're going non-alcoholic, ginger beer mixed with lime and seltzer is always a favorite, sometimes with a splash of cherry juice.
Favorite artist:
My mother. She's a professional painter and such an inspiration to me, especially because she didn't start painting until she was around 50 years old. So often we end up thinking "If I haven't achieved X by Y age, I never will," but that's just not true. It was so valuable for me as a young woman to watch my mother pursue a new passion and create a new career without worrying about being "too old" for it.
Number one on my bucket list:
Would it be cheesy if I said hit a bestseller list? I think any author would be lying if they said they didn't want that, even though we all know bestseller lists are completely out of our control (and mostly a matter of marketing dollars, if we're being honest).
If we're talking about something that's in my control, though, I'd love to grow a beautiful garden. I've got a black thumb with houseplants, but I'm educating myself about native plants and hoping to have more luck outdoors. It's a small goal in the grand scheme of things, but I think small goals are as important as big ones. Maybe even more important, because they're the ones that we live with every day.
Anything else you'd like to add:
Thank you so much for having me and featuring The Last Note of Warning!
Find more from the author:
About Katharine Schellman:
Author Interview - Katharine Schellman
Katharine Schellman is a former actor and one-time political consultant. These days, she writes the Regency-set Lily Adler Mysteries and the Jazz Age Nightingale Mysteries. Her books, which reviewers have praised as “worthy of Agatha Christie or Rex Stout” (Library Journal, starred review), have received multiple accolades, including being named a Library Journal Best Crime Fiction of 2022, a Suspense Magazine Best Book of 2020, and a New York Times editor’s pick in June 2022. Katharine lives and writes in the mountains of Virginia in the company of her husband, children, and the many houseplants she keeps accidentally murdering.
