Pine - Spring 2014 - (Page 14)
COVER
SPOTLIGHT
CONNECTIONS
Q&A
FEATURED
LINKS
Katherine
Ramsland
embraced vampire culture for
her book Piercing
the Darkness.
Q: In the past decade, we've seen
an explosion of pop culture interest
in forensic science and criminal
psychology, with the success of
shows such as CSI and Dexter. What
is it about our fascination with these
topics, and do they reflect a darker
side of human nature?
Danger is strangely attractive. It's arousing and
makes us feel alive. When we read true crime
accounts, we can experience this shivering dread
within a protective frame. The stories fascinate us,
but we also know we can put the book down and
walk away. We can feel the energy without being
overwhelmed by anxiety. We get close to the
bodies without having to do the autopsy, or see
through a killer's eyes without concern over being
arrested. We're voyeurs.
Q: Any advice for burgeoning authors?
This is both the best and worst of all times to try
to get published. The big publishers are hard to
approach unless you have some sort of success
strategy they believe will work, but at the same
time, anyone can learn to self-publish an e-book.
I think the best advice I can give is to do what it
takes to retain your love of writing and learn to roll
with the punches. You must be able to adapt to
the changes that come at you. I got into writing
circuitously. I turned my doctoral dissertation into
my first book, but I had already published a few
short stories. The academic book was such an
ordeal that I thought I'd never want to write again.
Then I wrote Anne Rice's biography, Prism of
the Night, and loved the process so much that
I thought I'd never want to do anything but write.
And that book came about merely because I
wanted to read about her but discovered that there
wasn't a book, so I figured, "Why don't I just write
one? How hard could it be?" Well, it was hard,
but it was also exhilarating. From there I just kept
moving more deeply into a writing career.
Q: Visiting haunted places is a necessity
for your research, as well as a passion.
Have you ever had any supernatural
encounters of your own?
I've gotten voices on tape. That's probably the best
I can say for my personal collection, but I've dug
up stories that are more impressive than my own
experiences. I like to call myself a ghost repellent,
because typically when I arrive to a haunted spot,
the ghosts just aren't there. I guess they hear me
coming and leave.
Q: What are some of your favorite
memories of NAU?
philosophy courses. I loved the way my professors in both of these disciplines made me think,
challenged me and got me writing and reading
things I wouldn't ordinarily approach. I didn't come
to Flagstaff to go to college. I was visiting friends.
I'd pretty much dismissed the idea that I'd ever
go to school, but I was there and I decided to
take a course during the summer, and I just loved
the classroom experience. I stayed and stayed
and stayed. And now that I have four graduate
degrees, I can look back and say that my educational experience at NAU was the best of them
all. My mentors there were truly mentors in every
sense of the word, and in a way I have not experienced since. They formed and fed intellectual
preferences that I still have today. I would say they
contributed a lot to my eventual career as a writer.
Q: What is the next chapter for
Katherine Ramsland?
I'm doing a follow-up to Blood & Ghosts called
Haunted Crime Scenes. Over the past two years,
I've written half a dozen "e-shorts" in true crime for
Rosetta's Crimescape series, like The Ivy League
Killer, Psychopath and The Sex Beast. In addition,
I finished a master's thesis in criminal justice on
neuroscience and serial murder, so my next book
is still in the works. I cannot yet reveal the subject
matter (it's very dark), due to legal reasons. I also
can't predict when it will be finished, but it promises
to be my capstone work, the culmination of so
many of my writing threads.
To view more works by Katherine
Ramsland, visit her author page
on Amazon.
My favorite memories of NAU center around
my professors. Although I majored in psychology (perhaps over-majored, since I took many
more courses than I needed), I also took a lot of
nau.edu/alumni
PINE � SPRING 2014 � PG 14
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