Thanks to her overactive imagination, writer Kellye Garrett is back with a new release. I recently spoke with her about ‘Missing White Woman.’
Tell me about your latest book.
Missing White Woman is about a black woman (!!) named Bree who heads to the tri-state area for a romantic getaway with her boyfriend at this superfancy four-story Airbnb. On the last day of her trip, she comes downstairs to find her boyfriend gone and the viral missing white woman all over social media dead in the foyer. Bree has no clue how the woman got there, but she knows that her boyfriend is going to be blamed for it. So she needs to find him before anyone else does.
How long did it take you to write it?
Way too long if you ask my agent, but it probably took an actual year of real writing. I got the idea though in 2018 when I had a writers retreat at a friend’s four-story row house in Baltimore. I couldn’t hear a thing from the bedroom on the third floor. And my overactive imagination was like “I could go downstairs tomorrow, find a dead person in the foyer, and have no clue how they got there.”
Which character could you relate to the most and why?
I write first person about Black women. And as much as I like to pretend like I’m talented enough to write from the POV of someone who’s nothing like me personality wise, that’s simply not the case. All my main characters are all super sarcastic and super nosy—and they get that from me. So I would say Bree.
How are you celebrating the book’s release?
I’m going on a book tour! It’ll be my first, so I’m feeling very fancy. Like five-year-old me who initially wanted to be an author would be so proud right now. I’ll be in New Jersey, New York, Philly, DC, Houston, Toronto, and London. It’s my first time going to the UK so of course I’m going to bring my mom.
Who is your author best friend (either in your head or in real life)?
In my head, my author best friend is Valerie Wilson Wesley because I was so impacted by her books as a teenager since she wrote mysteries about Black women in New Jersey. In real life, my author best friend is Alex Segura, who is a super-talented noir writer. He was already an established author when debut author me slid in his DMs one day like “Can I ask you a question?” and I have been harassing that poor man with questions ever since.
What is the most valuable piece of writing advice you’ve received?
Writing is rewriting—a piece of advice I learned in my first screenwriting class and that I always forget! I’ll see a finished book of mine (which I see a lot because I definitely keep my ego shelf with all my books right next to my desk) and pretend like the book was perfect from the first time I opened the Word doc. I have to remind myself. “Nope, that finished copy went through five drafts, two rounds of developmental edits, one round of copy edits, one round of proofreading and countless hours of thinking.”
What books have you read lately and loved?
It’s hard to read when I’m writing because I tend to mimic other people’s styles, but I just devoured Alyssa Cole’s One of Us Knows in two days. It was that good. Alyssa is so amazing at taking common thriller tropes—in this case both the remote location trope and the unreliable narrator MC—and put such a unique twist on it.
What books are you excited to read?
I’m super excited for Elise Bryant’s new cozy coming out this summer, It’s Elementary. It’s about a Black mother dealing with PTA drama. Seems like so much fun. Cozies were the first mysteries 11-year-old me picked up so they will always have a special place in my heart. Even today, there still aren’t enough of them with people of color as the protagonist.
What’s next for you?
I have a short story coming out with Amazon in the fall that is a tongue-in-cheek look at influencer culture. A top YouTube content creator films a special extreme hide-n-seek challenge at one of the biggest malls in America to celebrate reaching 10 million subscribers. My MC is one of the 10 contestants. Things are going well—until someone tries to kill the influencer and it’s up to my MC to figure out who.
Use the Black Fiction Addiction affiliate link to purchase your copy of Missing White Woman.
To learn more about writer Kellye Garrett, visit her website.