-[narrator] This program is brought to you by the generous support of The Secular Society, advancing the interest of women in the arts in Virginia and beyond.

♪ Every day (every day) every day (every day) ♪ ♪ Every day ♪ ♪ Every day I write the book ♪ -Welcome, I'm Rose Martin, and we are Write Around the Corner in Glen Allen, Virginia, with debut novelist Kristin Kisska.

This book was an Agatha Award finalist.

It's full of secrets, unconditional love, and some of those things that just tear us apart during family trauma, I guess we'll say that.

-Right.

-[Rose] Let's meet her.

Hi, Kristin.

Welcome to Write Around the Corner .

-Thank you.

Welcome to my home.

-Well, and we sure appreciate you having us and can't wait to talk to you about this book.

-I'm excited too.

-So before we get to the book, let's let viewers know a little bit about you.

So as a novelist, this isn't where you started.

So banking and finance and international banking and Wall Street, you come from that world.

-I do, I do.

This was definitely a second wind kind of thing.

At one point my daughter was in high school in an AP psych class and she— the students all had to give examples of what it was like to be in a midlife crisis and she raised her hand and said, "My mom's writing a novel."

So— -Well, and you had said sometime your husband maybe thought this was a phase.

Just kind of play it out and you're going to get over it.

But that didn't happen.

-It wasn't a phase.

It stuck.

-Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I think that's absolutely wonderful.

So you have three kids.

-Yes.

-And you have one that we talked about before we went on air that's kind of taking in their mom's footsteps in the finance world.

-Yeah.

My youngest is a Hokie.

-[Rose] Yeah.

-So that makes me a Wahoo, also a Hokie mom.

-Yeah.

It's making it fair around the house, right?

You got the Wahoos, you got the Hokies.

-That's good.

-House divided.

-[Rose] Yeah, absolutely.

-[chuckles] So, yes, he is studying business at Virginia Tech.

-And how about your other two?

-Well, my oldest is a graduate from UVA and is currently applying to med schools.

She is also a firefighter in Charlottesville.

-Wonderful.

-And my middle just graduated from Notre Dame just this spring, and she is off to Manhattan to work in consulting.

-Now, which one— was it your son that was the climber early on that you were worried about him with whatever kinds of things he was doing?

-Yeah, my daughters definitely didn't prepare me for the daredevil that my son was growing up.

He still is.

He still is.

-Well, you know, I was reading and something fun that I was reading about you, one of your very first purchases online was your wedding dress?

-That was.

Oh my gosh.

You really dug deep into my past.

Yes, I--it was back at Y2K and I was brand new to the whole online purchase thing, but that was.

I found a beautiful dress that was way out of my budget and I discovered that if I went online I could make it work.

-Well, didn't it fit?

I mean, it was fine when it came in because, you know, we buy a lot of stuff online, but I'm thinking, wow, you really branched out with a wedding dress.

-The thing with wedding dresses is they come a little bigger than your street clothes size, and so I did take it to an alteration.

-[Rose] Custom?

-Yeah.

-Custom made for you.

That, I think that was really fun.

Okay, so initially you thought you might want to be a vet.

-Yes.

-[Rose] Okay.

And what else would you like viewers to know about you?

-I also thought— -Who is Kristin?

-Who is Kristin?

Well, Kristin, let's see, back in the day, I guess one of the coolest things I've ever done is that I ended up buying a one-way ticket and moved to Prague and lived there for three years, so-- -Okay, so we've got to know that story.

-Okay.

I am first-generation American from Slovakia, and my family was still there, and at the time, the Soviet Union Iron Curtain had collapsed.

I had family over there.

I was really excited to learn that.

And so I saved up my money, I got an internship to go over there and to at least get my feet on the ground, and I bought a one-way ticket.

My parents thought I was nuts.

-And they're scared to death, probably, like, what is she doing?

-I am sure.

-Are they daredevils?

-No.

-[Rose] Okay.

-No, no, no.

Uh, so, but I went and I met family and I learned the language and I got a job over there and I ended up living there for three years.

-Wonderful.

-Wouldn't trade it for anything.

I got to hop all around Europe.

-Have you been back?

-Yes, yes.

I've been back a couple times.

I still have some friends over there.

-Wonderful.

And I understand you did something else which was kind of crazy, thinking about you might want to get an internship, so you sent a note to the Supreme Court?

-I did.

I did.

This was back when I was an undergrad at UVA.

I was looking for a summer internship, and a lot of my friends coming from the Northern Virginia area had access to opportunities on Capitol Hill.

And I thought, well, I can maybe see if the Supreme Court has an internship.

I wrote a letter and was offered an internship.

I don't think— I think it was a well-kept secret because I don't think many people have had such an opportunity.

-If you think about it, you know, going to Prague, buying a one-way ticket, going to Prague, contacting the Supreme Court thinking, "I might want to do an internship."

What a fantastic sense of adventure that you've had.

I'm not at all surprised that your books then take on a really great sense of adventure too.

-It has— everything has been fodder for something in one of the novels or short stories I've written.

Absolutely.

Nothing's off limits.

-I think that's fun.

So we're sitting here at this cool table.

So when we think about you putting a book together, is this pretty common for how The Hint of Light or any book goes together with these Post-it notes, these color-coded Post-it notes and papers?

-Actually, yes.

So The Hint of Light is my first published novel, but it's the third one that I wrote, and I started this fun, colorful process with The Hint Of Light .

I try to— it's very colorful for me to take a look at the plotting of this.

So in early stages of thinking about the novel and thinking what's going to happen, I think about the characters, I think about the timelines that I'm going to be writing about.

But it can get complicated when it's just sort of an idea in the ether.

So as I'm noodling it, I start writing on Post-it notes.

One Post-it note is a chapter.

One color of Post-it note is a character.

And then where the Post-it note lies is the timeline that it's in.

So for example, in The Hint of Light , I had two timelines with three POV characters, point of view characters, and so I had three colors, back-and-forth timelines.

What you don't see here is that I actually had a string of yarn in between the two timelines to make sure I knew before and after and alternating.

But it was a really good way for me to visualize who was speaking, what was happening, and who was going to introduce which concept into the story.

-So when you do this from the beginning to the end, do you ever move the Post-its around or decide, "I don't want that to happen now, I think it should happen later"?

-Absolutely.

And my finance background made me pretty adept at using Excel spreadsheets.

So as I'm writing in my Word document, I have an Excel spreadsheet off to the side with different— the same corresponding colors of characters, what's happening when, and in Excel, I can switch the plot around as needed.

-Of course you do.

-Of course I do.

-I think of some people who are just pantsers, who like, you know, "I just kind of write and I'm going to think about how it comes together," then to have you be so organized like this.

I love something else that I read about you with your finance background.

You learned to synthesize a lot of words into very succinct bullet points so that people would actually read your emails.

-Yes, absolutely.

Nothing is worse for me than an ongoing email that just never ends and you don't know where it's going.

But I also found that my finance background, my business background, helped me with writing fiction because I, not coming from that literary background, helped me use daily used words.

My goal in writing a story is to disappear in the background.

I don't want readers to think about the word choices that I'd make.

I want readers to visualize a movie in their head.

So I extricate any fine little nuance of turn of phrase.

That doesn't matter to me.

I'm trying to use strong, visual words to help readers just dive into the story.

-And with the dual timelines, it's like you leave us with a hook, right?

And then you're going on to something else because you want people to stick with it or be like, okay, now I got to find out what happens.

So you're keeping us up all night instead of saying, we'll pick it up in the morning.

-Well, that kind of comes from my suspense.

-[Rose] Yeah.

-So this is a little more book club fiction— with some domestic suspense, no doubt about it.

But I hail from the mystery, murder, suspensey community, and we're all about cliffhangers and tension and keeping readers guessing.

So of course I had to incorporate that in this.

-Of course.

And I understand you also love secret societies.

-Yes.

-And that's going to be a little hook.

So I'm imagining this table gets pretty full.

When it gets to be the point in time that you're finessing the timelines and the point of view of all the characters and what's happening.

And so you have beta readers, I'm sure, who kind of take a look at the stuff you're doing.

But then I understand your sister Catherine is like the final one.

You're like, "Okay, it's ready for Catherine."

What's that about?

-She has this sixth sense.

-[Rose] Yeah.

-She will take a look at one of my stories before I've sent it off to most other people.

And I will have baked a story.

I will have created something that I think is good with a zinger and just keep readers engaged.

And she'll come back to me inevitably and say, "Well, this is good, but I thought it was going to be this character."

And I would think like, "You're right.

I didn't even see that coming.

It was in my story, but that would've been the really cool ending."

And so I will re-engineer my stories based on her comments all the time.

It helps also, she's a lawyer.

She just has this logical sense of approaching issues, problems, problem solving, and it is perfection.

-So special shout-out to Catherine.

-Oh yeah.

She is the ace in my pocket, or up my sleeve.

-Okay, so Hint of Light , actually, this was the third title, I understand.

So for Hint of Light , and the first two briefly, one of them didn't get shopped around, thought it had maybe other kind of references, -but yet it was pretty cool.

-Right, it was.

It was My Guardian Deer , and I really liked it because there's a prayer referenced in there.

It's not a Christian fiction, but there was a prayer that was referenced called "Angel of God, My Guardian Deer," and it's a children's prayer in the Catholic faith.

It was also about parenting and the choices we make.

So My Guardian Deer was the original title that I wrote the novel under.

That didn't really elevate the story at all.

It really just didn't do me any favors.

So my literary agent and I went back and brainstormed new title ideas.

We took the second title, which was Secrets We Bury , from a line in the book.

It was from my— one of my main character's mentor had a conversation, and that character, that side character, said, "The secrets we bury deepest hurt us the most."

-Which is profound, yeah.

-Which was a— -it was a trigger moment.

-Yeah.

It was really pinpointing exactly one of the fundamental problems, flaws in this character's story.

So, uh, we had the— we renamed it the title Secrets We Bury , which is what we ended up selling it to the publisher under.

They loved it, it was great, it was wonderful.

And all through the editing process coming up to publishing, it was Secrets We Bury .

Well, late in the 11th hour before the book was published, we were at the cover design stage and we got notice from marketing that it was just too similar to another title that they had already published under their portfolio umbrella.

So we had to go back to the drawing board and this time it hurt.

It was so tough to give up that title that I had become so personally attached to.

And we probably brainstormed 20 different titles before my editor came up with The Hint of Light , which was a reference to the very last chapter.

My character is looking up at the, at the sky, sees a hint of light, and has an "aha" moment.

And it's a good aha moment.

Well, we'd already gone through the editing process, so I had to get a waiver to add the title in again, add another 20 words in the epilogue to reference the title again -from a different angle.

-Sure.

-And in doing so, I really felt that I was able to add another book club question.

-[Rose] Yay!

-Well, the cover's beautiful.

-Thank you.

-And this is personal for you, isn't it?

-[Kristin] It is.

The story is set in Chicago, and as you can see from the cover, it is Lake Michigan with the skyline of Chicago.

That is the Hancock Building, and the character, the young lady holding an orange umbrella is called Tangerine in the book.

That is a moment from the book, and so it's definitely a metaphor for what that one character is going through.

But I happen to absolutely love— I lived in Chicago for five years, so this was the drive down Lake Shore Drive toward the city that I always took.

And I, when I saw this cover design, I absolutely fell in love with it.

And it doesn't hurt that it's orange and blue, which are UVA colors.

-Right?

Yeah.

-Wahoo-wah!

And I, right after the book was published, I had the opportunity to go back to Chicago.

So I took with me an orange umbrella.

-Yep.

-And I found this beach, it's called Concrete Beach on Lake Shore Drive, and I recreated the cover myself.

-I love this story because I could just envision, like, I have to be a part of this, right?

-Yes.

-It's my place, it's my story.

And so you recreating that, I don't know, I expect to see a picture of, like you recreating that somewhere framed in your beautiful home.

I think that's really a special nod to you, a place you love, and makes it personal.

-It was so— it's just a piece of my heart.

I might have to tattoo it.

-[Rose] Yeah, there you go.

There you go.

So in looking at the process, I understand you don't read your reviews.

-No.

-And good, bad, or otherwise.

But you do something really cool, and that's creating a special wall of fame.

-Yes.

-[Rose] And it's a way— I love this idea because it's a way for people to grasp on to things that mean a lot or pull you up, finding, you know, hope.

So what's the Wall of Fame?

-Well, the Wall of Fame is a Word document that I keep in my computer, and any time I get some good message, some positive message or reaction from a literary agent or a publisher or a reader who contacts me personally, or one of my beta readers who has read something of mine and has a positive comment about my writing, I put it in my Wall of Fame.

And the reason is the whole process of being a writer is just levels of rejection after rejection after rejection.

And sometimes that can get you down.

It's also a very quiet process.

It can take months and months and months to write something as big as a novel, even the first draft.

So any milestone I hit, anything I would put in this Wall of Fame Word document, and it would just remind me that, yes, I can do this.

This is me.

I am meant to be here.

I am meant to be at this point in time right now, even though I don't have a cheering section -in the background.

-Right.

And even though I might struggle, I don't know where I'm going, people like it.

And they want to get more -and they want to hear about it.

-Right.

-So I know everyone wants us to dig into the book.

-Sure.

-So The Hint of Light , I'll let you describe the overview of the story and then we'll get into the three main characters.

-Well, The Hint of Light is a story about a woman whose adult son has passed away, and she finds out after the fact he may have fathered a child.

So she goes on this desperate search for this phantom granddaughter, and in the process has to revisit parts of her own past that she would really rather not dredge up.

But it is a story of unconditional love.

It is a story of consequences.

It is a beautiful story about how the things you do for someone's— in someone's best interest may not have a nice outcome.

-[Rose] I love that description.

Okay, so we've got Margaret, Kyle, and Ally.

-Yes.

-To start with.

And I understand you like to— like when you— book clubs are a favorite of yours.

So you— people who are watching will be like, okay, I'm going to mark this down.

So getting to know those characters, who's Margaret, who's Kyle, and who's Ally?

-Okay.

Margaret is the grandmother in this story.

She is the one who is-- has just found out that her son has passed away.

She is grieving, actively grieving this passing when she finds out that there's this granddaughter and she is... and while grieving, she is— has this element of hope that there might be someone to carry on and fill the void that her son has left behind.

So she is one of the main characters, and what she does is she goes digging through her adult son's past and what he left behind to try to find clues about this granddaughter.

-And she's a strong woman, the matriarch of the family.

Okay, so she's looking for clues.

Who do you want to go to next, Ally or Kyle?

-Let's go to Kyle.

-[Rose] Okay.

-Kyle is a broken person.

He is my unlikely hero.

He is suffering from alcoholism.

He— and it's a daily challenge.

It's definitely something that has become part of his own tapestry.

And he is— we see him at a relatively low point when we meet him.

But he finds out that— and this is not a spoiler— he finds out that he has a child from a former relationship that definitely soured.

And he gets to know this daughter.

She is 18 years old when he meets her, and they establish a relationship going forward.

And that--like I said, he's my unlikely hero, so he is in his own struggles, but in doing so is reaching outside of himself to create these bonds with this young woman.

-And there's another reason Kyle's kind of a special character.

Even though you base characters on people we know, and there's a little bit of people who might recognize themself, I'm sure, in some of your characters and wonder if you put them in there.

But what's so special about Kyle?

-Kyle was my inspiration for this novel.

It is based on, inspired by someone near and dear to me who passed away.

And it's really just this manifestation of this wish that I had that maybe, maybe, maybe he could have left someone behind for us to continue loving as well.

So this book, this novel is an expression of that wish from back in the day when the human, the person, my loved one who passed away... this was what I would love to have happened.

Not all of it.

There are definitely some dark elements in this story, and I don't wish any of that on anybody, but just the overall arc of the story -I do wish had happened.

-Yeah.

-And how many of us kind of wish that there's something that we could have as a remembrance or a lesson or a way to share something so important with other people.

-That's right.

-Okay, and how about Ally?

-Ally is an amazing young lady.

She is 18 when we meet her, and so she is in both the before narrative timeline and the after timeline.

So it was actually a little tricky writing Ally.

First of all, I had to revert back to my 18-year-old self.

Fortunately, I had a couple of daughters who were going— -Kept you right on track.

-Right.

So I was able to get glimpses into them.

-[Rose] Yeah.

-But she is a remarkable, open, empathetic young lady who reached out beyond her comfort zone and is trying to balance a lot of different dynamics in this world.

But she is a senior when we meet her, senior in high school, and then a freshman in college when she— when— as the story closes.

And she is a marvel to me.

She's stronger than I was as a young kiddo.

-She is a very colorful person.

-Mm-hm.

Well, I think Ally doesn't want to hurt anybody either, right?

She wants to be loyal to her mom.

She wants to find out about her dad.

She wants to just know about this whole big, beautiful world, where she fits in and who she is.

And how many of us also do that, right?

Thinking about our past and how it really plays into who we are right now.

Any other character you want to talk about?

-There is another character.

The character is Hannah, and she is Ally's mom.

And we really don't meet Hannah a lot, but she's a very strong influence in— -Strong single parent.

-Right.

Strong single parent.

-Mama bear.

-[Rose] Mm-hm.

-Someone that I definitely felt an important role in the development of Ally, but also in the dynamic between the other characters as well.

-I agree.

I agree.

All of the characters are so beautifully written and I get to know them and I didn't want to put it down.

Would you be willing to read something for us?

-I would love to.

-[Rose] Okay.

What'd you pick?

-I am going to read the prologue.

-[Rose] Okay.

-Which is just two and a half pages long.

Here we go.

"Motherhood is not for the weak.

"In my opinion, "it should have a warning label attached to it.

"Only dedicated individuals with boundless energy, "unconditional love, "and a high tolerance for pain need apply.

"She didn't arrive in the normal way.

"My water broke when I was waiting tables, "so my manager drove me to the nearest hospital.

"I waited on a gurney in the emergency room "because there were no available beds "in labor and delivery.

"The nurse had teased me, blaming the full moon.

"Straps across my belly were hooked to monitors "showing my contractions and the baby's heartbeat.

"I was dilated enough "and in such intense pain the anesthesiologist was called "to administer my epidural.

"But as the bands of fire slicing "across my swollen belly faded, the monitors pinged, "summoning the nurses to hover over me, "scanning the printouts.

"They called it fetal distress.

"Within minutes, an orderly rushed me "to the operating room.

"Though drapes hid my view, the surgeon's clipped orders "to the scrub nurses put me on high alert.

"Reflections off the metal light fixtures overhead "afforded me a blurry view of movement, "but I couldn't discern what was happening.

"Dread seeped through my numbed body.

"I had no one there to help advocate for me, "not the baby's father or my parents.

"I begged for updates, "but the oxygen mask absorbed my shouts, "making them inaudible to others, "though amplifying them in my head.

"The surgeon's tangible silence confirmed my worst fears.

"I was losing her.

"Suddenly, a team of neonatal doctors and nurses "swooped by me, taking my baby with them "to the far corner, again shielded from my view.

"Controlled panic infected every air molecule in the room.

"Still, no one would answer my ever-escalating pleas.

"My only consolation was that my baby "must still be clinging to life "if everyone was so focused on her.

"Fight, my precious love, be strong.

"A tugging sensation below my ribs indicated that my doctor "was suturing my splayed-open belly.

"So I counted to 10, to 50, to 100 and beyond.

"With each ragged breath I drew, I whispered a prayer "that God would not take my baby from me.

"Not after everything I'd been through.

"He couldn't do that, could he?

"As I reached 500, a nurse wandered around my drape "and showed me the most beautiful "purple-faced burrito swaddled in white blanket "and a doll-sized knit cap embellished with pale blue "and light pink ducks.

"'Meet your daughter.'

"Relief flushed through my veins.

"No one warned me in that nanosecond "I clapped my eyes on her I'd be a goner.

"This perfect little creature chose me to be her mother "out of all the other women in the universe.

"Me.

"In that instant, "I vowed to never let her suffer one single moment of pain.

"I'd risk my life to protect her.

"Over the years, I've devoted every waking moment, "every cent I've ever earned, "and every prayer I've ever uttered "to support her care and well-being, "to lift her higher.

"No repayment expected.

"She has no idea the countless nights "I've stayed awake in awe watching her sleep.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm no martyr.

"I'd do it all over again and twice as hard.

"She was— is— my everything.

"But I have two regrets.

"No, that's a lie.

"The truth is, I have one.

"The first incident brought me her, "and in a million years I'd never regret that.

"Had I been young, reckless, and over-trusting?

Guilty.

"But being a single mom has been my badge of honor.

"I'm proud of how far we've come together.

"My true regret was my mistake, a momentary lapse of judgment "that I've paid for ever since.

"She is my everything.

Throughout her lifetime, "my lifetime.

"No, time is meaningless here.

A mother's love is infinite."

-Yeah, I get goosebumps.

It's beautiful.

I'm so glad you chose that to read.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate you being here and being on the show for us.

-Thank you for having me.

Thank you for meeting me.

-My special thanks to Kristin Kisska for sharing The Hint of Light in her home here in beautiful Glen Allen.

I'll tell you, this needs to be your next read.

So tell your friends about us and stay around because Kristin and I are going to talk about more about the book, more about her, and some things that might be coming up for her.

I'm Rose Martin, and I'll see you next time, Write Around the Corner .

♪ Every day (every day) every day, (every day) ♪ ♪ Every day ♪ ♪ Every day I write the book ♪ ♪ Every day (every day) every day ♪ ♪ Every day I write the book ♪ ♪ Every day (every day) every day ♪ ♪ Every day I write the book ♪ -[narrator] This program is brought to you by the generous support of The Secular Society, advancing the interests of women in the arts in Virginia and beyond.