Stephanie Kane
Author Interview - Stephanie Kane
Author of Automat.
“Who is the enigmatic woman in Edward Hopper's famous painting, Automat? When the young actress playing her is brutally murdered at the launch of The Denver Art Museum's blockbuster Hopper exhibition, Conservator of Paintings Lily Sparks feels compelled to use her special gift of discernment to solve the crime. Her perfect eye tells her that just as the celebrated artist kept painting the same iconic woman, the killer must keep killing her.”
Author Interview - Stephanie Kane
Author I draw inspiration from: Truman Capote. In Cold Blood is the gold standard for crime narratives of any type.
Author Interview - Stephanie Kane
Favorite place to read a book: Leaning against a window overlooking the ocean.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Flavia de Luce, the eleven-year-old chemist-sleuth-narrator of the Flavia de Luce mystery series by Alan Bradley. Flavia is everything I always wanted to be: brilliant, lethal and wickedly funny
Author Interview - Stephanie Kane
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: l always loved to read and write, but never imagined becoming an author. I still don’t identify myself that way except when I have to tell people what I do.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
The last book I read: In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate the World, by Simon Garfield. A penetrating look at our fascination with miniatures, which has something to do with making the universe obey.
Author Interview - Stephanie Kane
Pen & paper or computer: Mainly computer, but I take notes in pencil and pen and keep a pad in my nightstand. When I’m editing, I toggle between hard copy and the screen because I pick up different things in each mode.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Anne Shirley of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. Anne is decent, ardent and brave—and an orphan. (Come to think of it, so is Flavia. Part of me must be stuck at age eleven.).
Author Interview - Stephanie Kane
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: A marine archaeologist for the deep dives
Favorite decade in fashion history: The 1940s. I haven’t worn skirts in years, but I love those rayon swing dresses!
Place I’d most like to travel: The South Seas, retracing the voyages in Nordhoff & Hall’s Mutiny on the Bounty trilogy, so long as I didn’t have to live off breadfruit and grog.
My signature drink: Iced coffee with oat milk. It fuels my writing after a morning swim.
Favorite artist: Kaiko Moti, a Parsee from Bombay who did stunning still lifes, landscapes, and portraits of people and animals in aquatint.
Number one on my bucket list: Surviving to see my next manuscript in print.
Anything else you'd like to add: ? What makes me tick as a writer is exploring new worlds with female detectives who solve cases in unusual ways. Lily Sparks, the art-conservator heroine of my new mystery series, has a uniquely discerning eye trained virtually from birth. Jackie Flowers, star of my legal thriller series, is a dyslexic criminal defense lawyer whose difficulties processing the written word make her a better lawyer. Those characters—and their real-world counterparts—inspire me.
