What Would My Main Character Think About Me?

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HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I know it’s early, and some of us have not yet had our coffee. But can we take a moment for a standing ovation? It was thrilling, yes, when Jungle Red won this year’s Anthony Award for Best On-Line Content. But the ovation isn’t for us.

The ovation is for the terrific Kellye Garrett.

Yes, of course it was  thrilling to see Kellye win for Best First Novel! But there’s more. Her acceptance speech was just like Kellye—smart and brave and knowledgeable and timely and important. People usually thank everyone, and gush a bit (I mean, why not?) and connect with the audience. But I have never heard anyone articulate what Kellye did.  Of course she thanked people, and gushed, and connected.

Then she quoted Frankie’s List (do you know it? Sistersincrime.org/frankieslist ) and told the audience these numbers—the crime fiction authors Frankie Bailey counted who have been traditionally published. Not, like, last year. But, Frankie Bailey says, ever.

 81 Black Writers

18 Asian American / Asian

9 South Asian American / South Asian / South Asian British Writers

22 LatinX writers

9 Native American

38 LGBTQ

Bottom line, she reported to the astonished audience, 177 Marginalized Writers have been traditionally published in mystery. That’s all.

And Kellye is only the second black woman to win.

Let that sink in.

And now Kellye tells us all about her realization about her main character. And I had to laugh---you know, I just never thought about it this way. And now I am worrying, too.

  What Would My Main Character Think About Me?

            By Kellye Garrett

My second book, Hollywood Ending, came out last month. Needless to say, I’ve been thinking and talking— about my main character, Dayna Anderson, a lot. The most random thought popped into my head the other day.

What would Dayna think if she knew I wrote about her?

Here’s the thing. I’m always so fascinated when a writer says that a character just popped into their head one day fully formed and started dictating exactly what they wanted the writer to say. Because that was not the case for me. At all.

If I’m being honest, the process was more like building a house than picking the brain of someone you’ve just met. Sure, there were the basics. I knew she’d be black because I was black and I wanted to capture that experience. I knew she’d live in Los Angeles because at the time I lived in Los Angeles and was way too lazy to research another town or city. But that was all, folks.

Every other decision about exactly who Dayna was came from days and days of brainstorming and hours of discussion with my beloved Writers’ Group. And—here I go again with the honesty—so many of her most noticeable character traits were created because it fit my story or because I thought it would be a cute line in the book.

This was true even with her name. I knew I wanted to write a series and thought acronyms would be a great title theme. I literally chose the name Dayna Olivia Anderson because her initials were a very mystery appropriate acronym. 

I added the Y because my name is Kellye, which means I’m very partial to the struggle of people with unnecessary letters in their name. Plus I figured there wouldn’t be a real-life person named Dayna Anderson. (I turned out to be wrong in that front. There’s actually an editor out there with the exact name, spelling and all.)

I basically did a rinse and repeat when it came to my other main characters as well. They all have acronyms for names:

Sienna Michelle Hayes (SMH)

Omari Michael Grant (OMG)

Aubrey S. Adams-Parker (ASAP)

And even having put so much thought into every single thing about these characters from what they wear to what they eat, there are still choices I regret like nobody’s business. Like the fact that that Dayna never curses, which I decided solely because of the last line in Hollywood Homicide. Or that Aubrey never uses contractions when he talks. I thought it was clever. It’s turned out to be a pain in my side. Do you know how hard it is not to just stick an apostrophe in a sentence?

Past Kellye did not think about Future Kellye at all and not Present Kellye is paying for it!

As for that initial question—What would Dayna think if she knew I wrote about her?—I have put some thought into the answer.

At first she’d be thrilled, especially with the covers. She’s a millennial after all. There’s nothing she loves more than a good solo photo that looks like it’s been professionally styled, photo-shopped, and filtered with Lark on Instagram.

But then she’d read the book eventually and that’s where the problems would come in. She’s an actress. The idea of getting to a level of someone writing an “unauthorized biography” is probably more of a secret dream than most care to admit. Except it’s not so much a biography as me coming across her diary. One that I not only read but thought it would be a cool idea to print up and sell to a bunch of people. She might even consult with a lawyer.

And although I’d be happy to share some of the royalties, there’s no way I’m sharing any of my awards!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Aren’t those Anthony Awards incredible? Where are you putting yours?  

  And I cannot get over the acronyms in names. My initials growing up were HAS. And people always called me has-been. Yeesh.  What’s your name acronym—anyone have one, or heard of one?  !  (I am rushing off to the Southern Independent Booksellers Association Convention in Tampa. Uh-ph. There’s a hurricane between me and Tampa. Cross your fingers.

(And all you Reds and readers in the path—please let us know how you’re doing! We re worrying for you, and thinking of you! )

What are you all doing this weekend?  And give a cheer for  Kellye!

Kellye Garrett writes the Detective by Day mysteries about a semi-famous, mega-broke black actress who takes on the deadliest role of her life: Homicide Detective.  The first, Hollywood Homicide, won the Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Independent Publisher “IPPY” awards for best first novel. The second, Hollywood Ending, was released on August 8, 2018 from Midnight Ink. Prior to writing novels, Kellye spent eight years working in Hollywood, including a stint writing for Cold Case. She now works for a leading media company and serves on the Board of Directors for Sisters in Crime as the organization’s Publicity Liaison.  You can learn more at KellyeGarrett.com.

Hollywood Ending

Tinseltown’s awards season is in full swing, and everyone is obsessed with dressing up, scoring free swag, and getting invited to the biggest awards shows of the year. But when popular Silver Sphere Awards publicist Lyla Davis is killed during a botched ATM robbery, the celebratory mood comes to an abrupt halt.

Dayna Anderson—an actress turned apprentice private investigator—uncovers the killer almost immediately. Unfortunately, what starts as an open-and-shut case turns out to be anything but. Lyla’s murder was no robbery-gone-wrong. Someone hired the gunman to kill her. Diving back into the investigation, Dayna gets a backstage look at the worlds of gossip blogging, Hollywood royalty, and one of entertainment’s most respected awards shows—all while trying to avoid her own Hollywood ending.

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