Karen White discusses writing and reading

Author Karen White

Karen White's The Girl on Legare Street is the second book in her paranormal, romantic mystery series starring Melanie Middleton, a realtor in Charleston who sees ghosts.  Karen White took time out of her schedule to answer some interview questions about her book.

If you missed the first part of the interview, please check it out.

When writing do you have particular routines or habits?  If so, please share a few.

Routine??  What's that???  I recently told a friend that I didn't mind waiting in the waiting room for my last mammogram because I had my laptop with me and was able to write 3 pages.  THAT'S my routine--I write whenever and wherever I can.  I've got two children, a dog, a guinea pig and a husband who travels---I just don't have a choice and my deadlines dictate that I can't wait for 'the muse' to strike!

Southern fiction seems to be gaining ground in the market.  Please explain what you see as the draw to readers and what you love best about writing it. 

I write about the South because it's what I know.  Both of my parents were born and raised in Mississippi and I spent lots of time with my grandmothers and cousins while I was growing up.  Because I lived all over the world, returning to visit relatives was a great way to 'study' Southerners as an outsider while given exclusive entry to their way of life.

It's quirky and warm, their mannerisms couched in colorful language and set in a hot, sticky climate.  (And let's not forget about the food!)  It's so unique to the rest of the country that I'm not surprised that people want to read about it, or that I would choose to write about it.

Which books have you been reading lately, and are there any you would like to recommend?

Two of the best books I've ever read I read recently and HIGHLY recommend them both:  The Help (a GREAT southern novel and destined to become a classic) and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  I can't speak highly enough of both books:  great writing, wonderful characters, gripping stories.

Please share some tidbits about your latest writing projects, particularly if there will be a third in the Tradd Street series.

I just finished ON FOLLY BEACH which will be out in May 2010.  It's a really cool book, set half in 1942 and half in 2009.  It's the story of two war widows who never meet, but their connection is the book store they own 60 years apart.  The story begins when the 2009 woman finds a box of books belonging to the 1942 woman, and there are cryptic love notes between an anonymous man and woman written in the margins.  I love history and just loved doing the research for this book--and visiting Folly Beach for a week this past summer for 'research' wasn't too bad, either!

I'll have another book, FALLING HOME (a revamped edition of my 2002 release from a previous publisher) out in Fall 2010 and then another book out in the Spring of 2011.  Since the 3rd Tradd doesn't come out until Fall 2011, it's not yet even a twinkle in my eye. :-)

For a full review of The Girl on Legare Street or The House on Tradd Street, click here and here, on Savvy Verse & Wit.  For a look inside Karen White's writing world, check out her guest post.