Kathleen Yasas was born and raised in a small town in upstate New York. In 1978, she graduated from the State University College at Brockport with a degree in communications and journalism. She moved to Arkansas in 1979 to take a job as city editor of a small daily newspaper.

In 1981, Kathleen returned to her home state, but this time taking her chances in New York City. She lived in Manhattan until 1984, working as a promotion writer for a medical publishing company. In 1985, she and a business partner launched their own medical publishing and conference management company, MSP International (www.mspinternational.com), which she still owns and manages. She is also the executive director of the World Foundation for Medical Studies in Female Health (www.wffh.org), a women's health non-profit founded in 1951.

While her career began as a reporter, and then continued in the medical publishing industry, she has worked as a feature writer and columnist for 30 years, and has been published in The New York Times, Self Magazine, Working Woman, and extensively as a columnist in newspapers in both the south and central New York. However, her real interest has always been fiction, most particularly mysteries and thrillers. Her first published novel is If Thine Eye Be Evil, the story of a serial killer in northeast Arkansas.

Today, when not writing, Kathleen splits her time between her homes on Long Island and central New York.

FAQ

Q: Why do you write in the thriller/mystery genre?
A: Truthfully, I have no idea. As a kid living in the country, I spent quite a bit of time alone because my only sibling was a sister six years older. When I was ten and she was sixteen, she wanted nothing to do with a pesky kid, and so I lived a life, in a way, as an only child. I would spend hours on the swing set, daydreaming and spinning stories. Or I would go up to the attic and create stories around my dolls. The stories always had a twist to them. My dolls weren't going to tea parties. They were disappearing and the other dolls had to solve the case. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the house I grew up in was haunted (truly). I guess that helped to color my stories a little dark. I've always been drawn to the genre as a reader...at first, Trixie Beldon mysteries, some of the gothic stuff; and then later, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Sue Grafton, Agatha Christie. I read all genres, but my favorites are mysteries. So to answer your question...the environment contributed to where my mind goes, but in the end I think I was just born that way.

Q: Will you write in another genre?
A: Oh sure. In fact, I have another novel completed ― but not quite ready for prime time ― called Holliday House, about a family named Holliday (as in Doc). It's not in the thriller or mystery genre, is really more of a slice of life book, or maybe chick lit, but it's chick lit with a twist: funny, quirky, vaguely autobiographical. I'm also working on another that I'm not ready to talk about that's in the category of Secret Life of Bees.

Q: Why don't you want to talk about it?
A: Because it's still a fetus. It needs some nutrition, some development, before being born.

Q: Can you tell me the name of the book?
A: (laughs) No. Sorry.

Q: Do you have any other published books?
A: Yes. I wrote a non-fiction book called The Port Washington Yacht Club: A Centennial Perspective, which was published in 2005. As the title suggests, it's a one-hundred year look at a yacht club on Long Island, published in their centennial year. I also have a children's book published, Australian Fly, about a fly from Australia who gets stuck in a suitcase and travels to New York City. Australian Fly meets Manhattan Fly and they teach each other about their respective homes. It's an educational picture book, illustrated beautifully by kids from a school on Long Island.

Q: You self-published If Thine Eye Be Evil, is that right?
A: Yes...well, yes and no. It's published through Amazon. I entered the book in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest in 2007, and was a finalist. From that experience, I learned about Amazon's Create Space, which is a self publishing outlet. But it isn't like the old days of the Vanity Press. And, more importantly, I'm the president of a medical publishing company, so I'm not your average writer who doesn't know anything about publishing. I have writers, editors, proofreaders, graphic designers, and printers at my disposal, so the only difference between me and, say, a Doubleday is the big bucks for marketing and promotion. Publishing through Create Space was a great experience. It's like having a publisher at your fingertips. You send a polished pdf file and cover to them and a week later you have a professionally produced book in your hands. It's remarkable. In my case, I'm handling marketing and promotion myself, so every time somebody orders my book through amazon.com, I get a royalty. Think of it as the trunk of the car that in the old days some self-published authors loaded up with books and sold to bookstores. The only difference is that I don't need to print a bunch of books. I just have to tell you to go to Amazon, and there it is. And the royalty check comes in.

Q: Why did you decide to self publish?
A: The publishing world is undergoing a revolution, and I happen to be in a unique position because I already have three decades of publishing experience under my belt. The Internet has changed the world, with publishing being one of the most dramatic of those changes. I guess there are still those who sit around and say that you don't count ― and you don't have talent ― if one of the big boys don't snap you up, but I think those people are dinosaurs and will go to the wayside. The Internet has opened up this so-far exclusive club for those writers who are great at what they do but who can't get a break from an agent, or a publisher. In the past, those writers have finally given up, and who knows how much terrific literature has gone unheard because some New York agent is too busy to look at the work. There are so many self-publishing stories out there, where writers haven't given up after being rejected, have literally sold books out of those car trunks, and have ended up selling millions of books. I look at work like Lady Chatterly's Lover, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Godfather, and Gone With the Wind...which was rejected 38 times...books that agents and publishers said no to initially and that went on to be blockbusters. For heaven sake, the first Harry Potter book was rejected by an agent. I have no doubt that guy is sitting around in a London pub somewhere this very minute, drunk out of his mind, muttering into his beer. The Internet...this incredible tool...has opened the door for writers. Today, if you have a good book, you can make it without a "traditional" publisher.

Q: Sometimes people react negatively to hearing that a book is self published. What do you say about that?
A: (Shrugs, smiles.) They’re entitled to their opinion. But when they’re negative about it, I think it just shows their age. They aren’t up to speed with what’s going on in publishing, that’s all.

Q: So what would you say if a "traditional" publisher came to you and said they wanted to take on If Thine Eye Be Evil?
A: Oh my God, I would sign on the dotted line and do the dance of joy (laughs). I'm not stupid, but all I'm saying is that it isn't necessary like it used to be. Ultimately, of course, I would love to be in bed with Doubleday or Penguin. It's work to promote your own book. And the most important thing is that the writing…the story… has to be good. If Thine Eye Be Evil, from all the feedback I've gotten from readers so far, is good. I hear comments like "It's a page-turner, I couldn't put it down, I didn't want it to end." If I got the ear of a big publisher, I'd be thrilled.

Q: Are you working on anything now that you can talk about?
A: Yes. I'm working on another mystery, The Question Mark Murders. It's more of a traditional mystery, the story of five classmates from a high school who are turning up dead. The main characters, Kelly Quinn, a private investigator (Kelly is man by the way) and Dinah Pelling, a mystery writer, realize that classmates are dying and get to work figuring out why, who's doing it, and why there's a question mark left at every murder scene. It's really a nod to the old Thin Man series, the movies starring Mirna Loy and William Powell. In The Thin Man, they were both wealthy alcoholics who solved crimes. My characters are wealthy, but they aren't drunks. It's not so politically correct anymore to drink a dozen martinis at noon. But the book has the same feel as The Thin Man series...funny, a touch of romance, good solid mystery. There's even a dog named Eshter, a tribute to Asta, who was the dog in The Thin Man.

Q: What do you think will be the future of If Thine Eye Be Evil?
A: Well, it's a dark book. There's humor, but there's really a dark side to it. The murders are a bit grisly, and there are a dozen twists. Most readers can't figure it out, which is the kind of story I like to read, or watch. So ultimately? I think it'll take off and I think it'll end up as a movie (I know that sounds overly confident, but it's the truth...I think it'll translate well to film). The trick is going to be to get the right cast, and of course the right director. Since Alfred Hitchcock is dead, it's going to take somebody like M. Knight Shylaman. Somebody to can find a way to translate it from page to screen. That won't be easy, though I can't tell you why because I don't want to ruin it for you, but it can be done. So what do I think? I think, in the right hands, it could be a blockbuster, another Silence of the Lambs. From my lips to God's ear, right?