The DiG recently sat down with musician and author Kasey Lansdale ahead of her upcoming book tour to promote her debut novel, First Chance! She’ll be traveling from Los Angeles to Gwinnett County for a special Author Talk at the Gwinnett County Public Library Collins Hill Branch on September 22. From learning more about her creative upbringing to getting insight into the inspiration behind her characters, we uncovered it all to give you the inside scoop.
Meet the Author Behind First Chance
At 8 years old, Kasey Lansdale discovered a love and talent for writing. Growing up in a creative household may have played a part in this, as her father was an author and her mother an editor. Kasey shared that it wasn’t until she was in about 8th grade that she realized her family was different. They always encouraged Kasey to chase after her dreams and encouraged her passion for songwriting. In fact, when she told her parents that she was going to drop out of college to go on tour as a musician, they completely supported her decision. She went on to establish an incredible career as a country singer and songwriter, performing at acclaimed establishments including the Hotel Café in Hollywood and eventually obtaining a residency at Mixology 101 at the Grove. For Kasey, she had always considered herself a singer who writes as opposed to a traditional writer. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that her career hit a turning point, forcing her to find a new type of work as live music ceased to exist until the shutdown was lifted. With a lifetime of published work in the form of short stories and anthologies, Kasey was able to turn to writing exclusively, allowing for a nice change of pace in her life to slow down and not always be on the road. Kasey shared that it’s been an interesting challenge going from songwriting, where she had to tell her life story in just 3 1/2 minutes, to short-form writing and now long-form writing.
Dive Into the World of Crime Fiction
This exciting challenge has led Kasey to publish First Chance, a highly anticipated thriller novel! Kasey has always spent a “good chunk of her existence” in horror, gravitating towards crime and mystery writing where the real monsters are people. A few writers who have inspired her include Raymond Chandler, Michael Connelly and Kathleen Kent, who have produced countless works in the classic crime and mystery genre. With her love of horror and beloved list of authors who inspire her, Kasey was naturally called to write a suspenseful mystery and thriller novel for her debut work! The plot of First Chance revolves around Chance Kirby, a rookie private investigator who has just relocated to the small town of Hopeful, Texas. Her first case after opening a small PI agency proves to be much darker than Chance had expected, as she’s asked to solve the decades-old murder of a woman named Patience. As Chance dives into the investigation, she discovers that Patience’s murder is just the tip of the iceberg for a pattern of darkness in the town.
Uncovering the Inspiration Behind Her Characters
First Chance is, in a lot of ways, a reflection of Kasey’s personal life. Starting with the location of Hopeville, Kasey’s own upbringing in a small town in Texas inspired the fictional community in her novel. Kasey shared that it was an easy decision to write about what she knew, leading her to create a town with similarities to her own. This allowed her to get as factual as possible about the realities of a small town that most outsiders wouldn’t understand. This includes how news travels fast, relying on your neighbors for help and often a lack of resources and information available for detectives. As for the characters, while they all contain a piece of Kasey, Chance is the one who most resembles her today. One major difference is that Chance is naive, having never left her bubble of East Texas, which affects how she approaches the murder case. The character of Tia resembles Kasey during her teenage years with a sassy personality but the character has experienced a much tougher upbringing. Kasey shared that she created Tia with the intention of portraying a young person who has seen the harshest parts of the world but didn’t let it break them and instead turned out stronger. Police Chief Izzy is described by Kasey as the best of us all and is in a lot of ways similar to Kasey’s cousin, who is a retired homicide detective.
Choosing the Perfect Cover
After creating the fictional world of Hopeville and its colorful characters, the next step for First Chance was designing a cover that brought its story to life. Kasey shared that she had an incredible designer to work with, Sarah Riedlinger, who looked over Kasey’s Pinterest board of crime-noir cover concepts and created a variety of concepts to choose from. After collaborating back and forth, the cover that made the final cut was the one that, as Kacey said, “gave her a visceral reaction,” where she instantly knew it was perfect. She even had her graphic designer husband lend his creative eye and in the end, the cover was the embodiment of First Chance. It has a fun retro vibe, with an eye-catching red color that instantly grabs the reader’s attention. Kasey shared that the cover reminds her of the books that she used to steal from her dad to read. It also has a depiction of a dog, which Kasey shared was a must for the cover!
Gwinnett County Book Tour Stops
Kasey’s book tour has officially kicked off and she’ll be stopping by Gwinnett County twice! On September 20, she’ll be visiting Read It Again Bookstore in Suwanee for a 3:00 p.m. appearance. Then, she’ll be headed to the Gwinnett County Public Library Collins Hill Branch for a special Author Talk at 6:30 p.m. There are still plenty of spots open, so reserve yours today! This exciting event will feature a discussion between Kasey and her friend/moderator, Jim Argendeli, about First Chance. There will also be an opportunity for guests to purchase a copy of the novel and get their book signed!
If you can’t make it to either event, Kasey shared that the best way to support an author like herself is by pre-ordering her book. This signals to a publisher that people are interested in it. Another easy way to help upcoming authors is by asking your local library, like the GCPL, to stock their book or your local independent bookstore. For some parting words of wisdom to those who dream of one day publishing their own novel, Kasey shared that it’s truly about sitting down in the chair and writing. Even if it’s just 10 minutes of writing a day that you can allocate, it makes all the difference in the world.