AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Kiersten Modglin “The Queen of Twists”

Dear Readers–Thank you for coming back for another installment of my AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT series. Every time I publish a new spotlight, the traffic to my website surges beyond what I ever expected when I first began the blog, and for that I thank you.

It’s always scary to branch out and do something you’ve never before done, and creating blogs was definitely one of those moments for me. Would anyone want to read what I spent so much time creating? Would any authors want to give up their precious time away from work and family to participate in interviews with little ole me? These were just a couple of the many thoughts that ran through my mind as I tried to figure out ways to justify staying in my comfort zone, but I’m so glad I decided to step out, because I’ve been blessed to not only work with some great authors but also to hear from some great new readers.

I’d also like to thank the many readers who come to my blog not because of me, but because they want to hear from an author they love and admire. I hope everyone enjoys reading the blogs as much I enjoy bringing a new author to you every month.

So far, most of the previous AUTHOR SPOTLIGHTS have been cozy, small-town reads and romantic beach reads, so I decided to shake it up a little and spotlight someone different. As I considered what that would be, my mind when back to my early days of reading. I remember going to a book fair in the cafeteria of the middle school I attended and picking up a paperback of the first “adult” novel I ever read by “The Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark, who quickly rose to the ranks of my favorite author. I picked up the book and gazed at the mysterious book cover, and that book cover hooked me before I even read the book description. All these years later, she’s still my favorite author!

I am the proud owner of a collection of hardbacks of every novel Mary Higgins Clark ever wrote. Needless to say, mysteries and thrillers became one of my “go to” genres, which leads me to today’s AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT.

A couple of months ago I picked up an ebook called THE ROOMMATE by Kiersten Modglin, a brand-new author to me, and I was immediately hooked.

If I could ever say there’s a downside to writing novels, which there really isn’t because writing novels is the most amazing decision I’ve ever made in my life, it would be not having time to read other authors’ work as often as I’d like. I love to read, but often my time is consumed with writing, then editing, then editing some more, then editing one more time–and that’s before the beta readers and editors get their hands on it!

Today, I’m excited to introduce you to a wonderful author, Kiersten Modglin. She is an Amazon Top 30 best-selling author, a KDP All-Star, and her twenty-nine novels have sold more than 400,000 books in thirteen different countries. She is a member of the International Thriller Writers Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors. She is a recipient of the ThrillerFix Best Psychological Thriller Award.

I see many of her books appearing on my bookshelf in the near future.

Brett: Kiersten, take our readers and me back to the time before Kiersten Modglin was an author. Were you an avid reader as a child? If so, who were your favorite authors?

Kiersten: I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. From the time I was very young, I could always be found with a book in my hand. As a young child, I loved Dr. Seuss. As I grew up, I fell in love with books by R.L. Stine, Judy Blume, Carolyn Keene, Beverly Cleary, Margaret Peterson Haddix, Lois Duncan, JK Rowling, Sarah Dessen, and Ann Brashares. My love of mysteries started early with books like Nancy Drew, Goosebumps, Harriet the Spy, and grew into darker stories like The Shadow Children series and all of Lois Duncan’s work. Reading has always been one of my favorite things to do.

Brett: At what age did the light bulb appear over your head and you thought, “Writing is something I’d like to do.” Was a novel your first attempt at writing, or did you start smaller and work your way into full-length novels?

Kiersten: I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer. I think from the time I realized that there was actually someone behind the books I loved, someone whose job it was to tell us stories, I knew that was my dream. I wrote short stories, poems, and novels in elementary school, and even convinced my fifth grade teacher to let me start my own class newspaper, just so I could write even more. I finished my first novel in fourth grade and I was hooked. After that, I pretty much wrote at least one novel a year. After graduation, I spent a few years writing and perfecting the first book I knew I would actively try to get published. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was determined to make it happen. There was never really a back-up plan. That novel was published when I was twenty-two, and the rest is history.

Brett: One of my all-time favorite authors is Mary Higgins Clark. Before her death in 2020, she dusted off one of her first attempts at writing, a short story from 1973 called Death Wears a Beauty Mask, which was never published. Instead, she abandoned it to write what would become her first best-selling novel. To the glee of her millions of fans, she finally pulled out that story almost fifty years later to finish and publish it. Is there a story you’ve started that you abandoned and never finished?

Kiersten: Yeah, I have a few stories I’ve started and not finished, especially from early in my career when I was still learning what worked and what didn’t. Usually I’ll stop writing because it isn’t working for whatever reason, but I almost always intend to go back someday when I figure out where I want to take the story. That’s actually happened with a few books that I have published now. My debut novel was BECOMING MRS. ABBOTT, but the first book I actually wrote was THE MISSING PIECE. I wrote that story when I was fifteen! After BMA’s release, I went back through my old notebooks, reading through some stories I’d written in school, and that was one that had always stood out to me. I dusted it off, edited and rewrote most of it, and it became the third book I published. Similarly, I began writing THE GOOD NEIGHBORS much earlier than it was published, but I couldn’t quite get it right. I ended up publishing six books in between the start and finish of that one. MY HUSBAND’S SECRET is another that I started, then got stuck on it and moved on to another idea. There were six books in between the start and finish of that one as well, funnily enough. Now that my job is to write, I try not to waste my words or ideas and I’ve gotten better about outlining to see if the idea will work before I spend time writing it, but if a story isn’t working, I’m always okay with putting it down for a while and stepping away until I have a better grasp of what I’m trying to do.

Brett: When it comes to novel writing, are you a “plotter” or a “pantser?” In other words, do you plot your novel before writing it, or do you just jump in and figure it out as you go along?

Kiersten: I’m definitely a plotter. I can and have written books both ways, but I find that I write much faster and more efficiently when I plot. My plot outlines generally aren’t very detailed, but I break them down by chapter and will have a sentence or two to let me know what needs to happen in each chapter. Most of the time, I don’t follow my outline completely, but I never start a story anymore without having one completed.

Brett: As an author, choosing the favorite book you’ve written is like choosing which of your children is your favorite. That said, of the books you’ve written, which would you say are your top three favorites?

Kiersten: Yes, it’s so hard! Top three is easier, but still not easy. I’d say my top three favorites are: THE ARRANGEMENT, WIDOW FALLS, and THE MISSING. THE ARRANGEMENT has been a runaway success for me and I owe so much to that story, so I couldn’t leave it out of my favorites. And THE MISSING and WIDOW FALLS were both a ton of fun to write. One is set on a deserted island, and one is in the mountains of east Tennessee at a whitewater rafting camp. I really love writing atmospheric stories set in the wilderness.

Brett: I believe Missing Daughter is the novel you’ve most recently published, not counting the one coming out in December 2021. For readers who haven’t read the book, tantalize us with some of the highlights of that novel.

Kiersten: Yes! MISSING DAUGHTER is the story of Cameron, Ginny, and their young daughter, Skylar. The morning after Skylar’s birthday party, Cameron and Ginny wake up to find their daughter missing, but all the doors and windows in the house are still locked. It’s as if she vanished into thin air…

Brett: That sounds amazing! It’s definitely on my “to be read” list. Out of all the books you’ve written, is there one that stands out as being the most difficult one to write, either emotionally or technically, etc? Why?

Kiersten: Ooh, this is a fun question. BECOMING MRS. ABBOTT was a tough one because it was the first book I was writing for more than just the fun of it. I knew I was actively going to try to get it published and that was really stressful! It’s also my only story with a legal element, so there was a lot of research involved. THE MISSING was another one. It’s my most emotional story, and the only one to make me cry multiple times while writing it. In it, my characters are dropped onto an island with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. I had to do a lot of research into survival techniques and life on a deserted island.

Brett: Generally speaking, how long does it take you to write one novel?

Kiersten: It takes me 2-3 weeks for the first draft. That’s a lot faster than when I started out. The first draft of my debut novel took about nine months, but the more I write, the faster and more confident I get. Plus, I’m writing full time now, so I have much more time to devote to it. My books average 60-90k, and I typically write 5k words a day.

Brett: You’ve written several books, and as a result you’ve written several characters. Which character that you’ve written would you not get along with in real life? Which one would be a friend you most wish you had in real life?

Kiersten: I have A LOT of characters I wouldn’t get along with in real life! Most of them, honestly. One that stands out will always be Coralee from THE MOTHER-IN-LAW. Someone I know I could be friends with would be a tie between Harry from THE MISSING and Natasha from THE PERFECT GETAWAY.

Brett: When you start writing a book, do you always know the title before you begin writing? Or have there been times when the title didn’t emerge until later in the writing process?

Kiersten: No, not at all. Usually I start with a working title and, as I write, the actual title begins to form in my head. Sometimes that working title becomes the actual title, but I don’t make the call of whether something else fits until close to the end. So, for instance, WIDOW FALLS had a working title of THE FALLS and I decided I liked WIDOW FALLS (the name of the actual place) better. THE REUNION’s working title was THE REUNION though, and by the end, that still felt like the strongest option. Sometimes, it changes simply, like with WIDOW FALLS, but sometimes it’s a big change. OUR LITTLE SECRET had a working title of THE STORM and THE GOOD NEIGHBORS was originally called DON’T WAKE THE NEIGHBORS. I love choosing my titles!

Brett: Do you ever worry after completing a book that you’ll never be able to write another one, or am I totally alone in this?

Kiersten: I definitely don’t think you’re alone! I always worry that I won’t be able to compete with my last title, or that my new idea or story won’t be as well received. I never really feel like I’ll run out of ideas or that I won’t actually be able to write anything else, just because I’ve spent my life writing stories and it’s very second nature to me, but, even 29 books in, I still worry that each book will be the one that readers hate.

Brett: Give us a short description of your working space. Is there anything you must have to flow in the creative process? When you take a minute to look out the nearest window, what do you see?

Kiersten: The walls of my office are lined with bookshelves, my favorite is over 7 feet wide, and then I have three average sized ones. They’re filled with books, photos, gifts from readers, and memorabilia from throughout my career. I also have a whiteboard on my wall with a calendar and each of the years releases written down. I plan out my year every December and update and change the board as often as I need to (usually to add sales or change titles, my release dates rarely ever change). My walls are covered in drawings from my daughter and framed photographs and canvases of my favorite motivational quotes. My office is my happy place and I find surrounding myself with positivity keeps me motivated. Out my window, I see lots of greenery and trees! I love looking out into nature.

Brett: Let’s pretend Hollywood just called and they want to make a blockbuster movie of ONE of your books, and you must choose which book. Which would it be?  You also get to be the Casting Director—who plays the main protagonist and the main antagonist?

Kiersten: I can’t pretend I haven’t dreamed about this. I’d love to see a movie made of THE MOTHER-IN-LAW. I’d choose Helen Mirren as Coralee, Elizabeth Olsen as Loren, and Nick Wechsler as Jack.

Brett: Who is your current favorite author(s)?

Kiersten: I love Minka Kent, B.A. Paris, Ellie Monago, Gillian Flynn, Sue Watson, Samantha Hayes, Louise Jensen, and Mark Edwards. Just to name a few!

Brett: What book(s) are you reading right now? How many books are in your “to be read” pile?

Kiersten: Oh, I’ve lost count of my TBR pile. More than I’ll ever finish, and I just keep adding new reads! Right now, I’m reading HIS & HERS by Alice Feeney.

Brett: Have you ever killed off a character, then had “killer’s remorse?”

Kiersten: There was one death in THE MISSING that gutted me. I think I actually grieved that character, but I knew it had to be done to further the story. There’ve been several characters in other stories that I’d planned to kill and changed my mind. If they can be spared without hurting the story, more often than not, I’ll save the characters I love.

Brett: I remember the first time I cried when writing a particularly emotional scene in my Christmas novel. I wasn’t expecting that to happen, and it took me by surprise. Has this happened to you? If so, can you describe which book and scene that was?

Kiersten: Yeah, I’ve already touched on this a bit with my other answers, but I cried A LOT while writing THE MISSING. Without spoilers, I’ll say that I cried during one of the death scenes and during the ending. I also cried while writing THE MISSING PIECE, during a hospital scene near the end. I cried all throughout THE MESSES SERIES, particularly through the final book.

Brett: Speaking of Christmas, I’m the biggest Mr. Christmas I’ve ever met. I love all things Christmas. Any chance you’ll ever write a Christmas-themed novel?

Kiersten: I don’t currently have any plans to write a Christmas-themed novel, but I never say never. At one point, I’d planned to write a follow up to THE MESSES SERIES with a Christmas novella, but that never happened. I try to make sure my books are great reads year round, so a Christmas story scares me a bit!

Brett: You primarily write psychological thrillers. What are the chances of you ever genre jumping and writing something in a different genre? If so, what genre would you like to write in?

Kiersten: Yes, I have twenty-nine books out. Twenty-three of those are some variation of thriller (serial killer, missing child, legal, psychological, or domestic) but six are romantic suspense. At the beginning of my career, I jumped between genres quite a bit. The connecting factor between all of my stories is the fact that there will always be a mystery and there will always be multiple twists. But, when I found it hard to gain traction, I realized not “choosing a lane” was hurting me. In 2020, I decided to go all in with the psychological/domestic thriller genre and it’s been the best decision for my career! That being said, I loved writing romantic suspense, so there may be a day when I return to it just for fun.

Brett: You have been dubbed by your readers as, “The Queen of Twists.” How do you come up with all the “twists” that your readers have come to love and expect?

Kiersten: Yeah, I love that nickname, and it’s one I try very hard to live up to. One thing that helps me is that I live and breathe this genre. It’s basically the only genre I read, my favorite genre to watch on TV, and the only genre that I write now. So, when I’m crafting my stories, I try to think about what twists I’d want to see. I also think about what twists I’d be predicting at certain points, and make sure to spin it in the opposite direction. I want my twists to be memorable, even if it means pushing the boundaries of being a bit too “out there.” The books I love are the ones that remain unforgettable, the ones that stand out among the thousands of stories I’ve read in this genre. And that’s my goal for my own stories. To stand out and be unforgettable. To make sure my twists pack a punch. I write the stories, and the twists, I want to read, and I’m very blessed to have found readers who share my tastes.

Brett: If I were to drive to your home in Nashville to have dinner with the Modglin’s, what would be on the menu?

Kiersten: I’ve had readers point out to me that there’s almost always a pizza involved at least once in every one of my books, and that’s probably because we eat pizza in our house way too often, especially when we have guests over. We’d probably order in from one of our favorite local pizza places here in Nashville!

Brett: If you could spend an entire weekend doing nothing but binging your favorite television shows, what would you watch?

Kiersten: This is tough, because I’m very much a mood watcher. If I’m in the mood for comedy, I’d turn on The Office, Friends, or Brooklyn Nine Nine. If I’m in the mood for drama, it’d be Outlander, Lost, or The Handmaid’s Tale. And, if I’m in the mood for something suspenseful, it’d be How to Get Away with Murder, You, or Riverdale.

Brett: What’s your favorite hobby/activity for the rare occasions you’re not writing?

Kiersten: That IS rare. If I’m not writing, I’m usually spending time with my family, reading, binge watching TV, or traveling.

Brett: What’s your favorite format when you have time to sit down with a book (ebook, physical book, audiobook?)

Kiersten: I prefer ebooks, because I can take them anywhere I go, they take up less space, and I can read them anytime. With little ears around, it’s tough to listen to audiobooks, and physical books are less practical for long trips or travel.

Brett: Have you ever read a novel and left thinking, “I could have written that better?”

Kiersten: No, never! More often than not, I think “Man, I’ll never be that good!” I find myself reading with a bit of a different lens now that I write for a living. Usually, I’m so in awe of the author’s talent and so jealous I didn’t come up with the idea myself.

Brett: Since Christmas will be upon us soon, tell us about one of your most cherished Christmas memories.

Kiersten: I love Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday and my favorite time of year. Growing up, we’d spend the whole day making gingerbread houses, watching Christmas movies, and listening to Christmas music. Then, at the end of the day, we’d get to open one present each, which was ALWAYS pajamas, but the excitement never got old. I’ve carried on that tradition with my daughter. To this day, I actually prefer Christmas Eve to Christmas Day. I don’t think there’s a more exciting day of the year.

Brett: You have a new novel coming out in December. Tell us the release date and a little about it.

Kiersten: Yes, THE REUNION releases December 28th! It’s about an author, Cait, who returns to her hometown for her high school reunion. It’s the first time she’s been back since something awful happened her senior year, but she’s determined to put all of that behind her and move on. She’s living a beautiful life now and wants to prove to everyone who treated her poorly as a teen that she’s made something of herself. The reunion is being held at an old hotel in town and, once Cait arrives, strange things begin to occur. Things that make her question exactly what happened that night, so long ago…

Brett: Kiersten, thank you so much for being a guest on my “Author Spotlight” blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. Is there anything you’d like to say to your readers before we finish the interview?

Kiersten: First, I want to say thank you to you for having me as a guest! This has been really fun. I owe every bit of my success to my readers. I tell them this a lot, but once, not so long ago, I wished for someone to read my stories. I wished to be living the life I am now. They’re my dreams come true. They’ve made every bit of this possible and I could just never thank them enough for believing in me.

Ms. Modglin loves hearing from her readers, so you can email her at: [email protected]

Her newest novel MISSING DAUGHTER releases on Amazon on November 8, 2021, find it by clicking this link: https://www.amazon.com/Missing-Daughter-gripping-psychological-heart-stopping-ebook/dp/B098FHX7VH

Her thrilling new novel, THE REUNION will be available on Amazon on December 28, 2021. Click this link: https://www.amazon.com/Reunion-Kiersten-Modglin-ebook/dp/B09G8YLYVK

If you’re interested in following her on social media or subscribing to her newsletter or text alerts, click this link for more information: http://www.kierstenmodglinauthor.com/links

Finally, if you’re interested in checking out my novels: https://www.amazon.com/Brett-Nelson/e/B08D2C1YSC