I’m Always Asking, Why?

Today I would like to welcome Cathryn Grant, author of The Demise Of the Soccer Moms, to My Friends Call Me Kate.  Cathryn has been gracious enough to stop by and share with us her thoughts on why she enjoys writing about psychological suspense.  Cathryn has also been kind enough to pass along a signed copy of The Demise Of The Soccer Moms for one person that leaves a comment today. (Winner will be chosen at random) She'll be stopping by the blog throughout the day, so if you have questions about her writing, today would be a great day to leave a comment. Comments of encouragement our welcome, as well.  If you would like to leave a comment without your contact information, but would still like  to be entered for the drawing, please send me an e-mail to sabrinaogden@gmail.com. I'll make sure to add you to the list.

Cathryn's Suburban Noir short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Magazines, and her flash fiction has also been published in the eZine Every Day Fiction. 

Sabrina says she likes to ask writers why they write. I thought I’d take a slightly narrower focus and blog about why I like to write psychological suspense.

I fell in love with psychological suspense fiction when I discovered Ruth Rendell through her novel, The Bridesmaid. I was captivated by the way she probed characters’ fears and neuroses. I immediately devoured all her non-series novels.

Stephen King said this about Ruth Rendell’s fiction: “No one surpasses Ruth Rendell when it comes to stories of obsession, instability, and malignant coincidence….”

The obsessions and instability of human beings fascinate me. I’m interested in what makes people tick, interested in why they do what they do, and whenever I read about a crime, my first thought is, Why? I’m interested in what it would take to drive someone to commit a crime, especially murder. When I observe what some people have endured in their lives, I wonder sometimes how they keep pressing forward, how they avoid going over the edge.

Psychological suspense is the perfect framework for exploring the psyche, for putting characters that are already wounded under extreme pressure and watching where it leads. Most books grouped under the heading of psychological suspense have a protagonist that’s a detective or some law enforcement official. Often they’re matching wits with a criminal, and those are frequently pure sociopaths. I like a more ambiguous story, because I think life is quiet and ambiguous. My stories only peripherally involve law enforcement, and the “criminal” is not pure evil or without a conscience. In fact, I like to show “criminals” as someone who’s suffered a lot of misfortune, or is pushed into a corner by a series of poor choices that, at the time, might seem minor.

I think if I can achieve the goal of evoking empathy for a criminal, that readers will walk away from my stories with more compassion toward people whose lives go off the tracks, and that they’ll be a little more forgiving of themselves as well. Of course, I also want to create a little fear and build a sense of foreboding along the way.