Recently, one of my favorite authors—who I am also lucky to call a friend—published her first work of crime fiction for adults after putting out seven young adult mysteries and thrillers. I devoured Kara Thomas’s Out of the Ashes last spring, and with the upcoming release of my own debut adult thriller, The Split, after publishing five young adult thrillers myself, I was eager to talk to Kara about making the leap to the adult space after years of writing for a teen audience.
I wrote—but didn’t sell—my first thriller for adults in 2017, when my first YA novel was under contract but not yet published. Writing in both spaces has always been a career goal of mine, and I had a sneaking suspicion the same was true for Kara, so I wanted to pick her brain about working in YA while also—finally!—making the move into the adult crime writing space. In the conversation that follows, Kara and I compare notes about taking on new challenges and expanding our audience at this pivotal point in both our writing careers.
KIT: Hi, Kara! I’m excited for this chance to chat with you about some of our favorite topics—the crime/suspense genre, writing process, and book publishing. To start, what brought you to fiction writing in the first place? If I remember correctly, your career began with a three-book YA series with St. Martin’s. How did that come about? Were you drawn initially to the young adult age category or the mystery/thriller genre, or some of both?
KARA: The funny thing is that my first attempt at fiction was not YA, nor was it a mystery! The main character was nineteen, and most literary agents I approached with the manuscript felt like there was no market for an adult book with a teenaged protagonist, but the book didn’t feel YA to them, either. I pivoted to writing a contemporary YA novel, which eventually got me my agent.
That book ultimately didn’t sell, but my agent wound up approaching me with an opportunity to write a YA mystery series for a publisher. I was really excited when I saw it was a mystery series—I grew up on Nancy Drew and my mom’s copies of the Stephanie Plum novels. But I had never really considered writing my own until St. Martin’s gave me the opportunity.
That’s the long way of saying that I never really set out to be a YA writer, or a mystery writer—I just set out to write, because that was the only thing I really knew how to do, and the universe kind of nudged me in a particular direction.
What about you? I know that you have a background in poetry—when did you start writing fiction?
KIT: That’s right, I’d been writing poetry since high school (extremely emo imitations of song lyrics, mostly) but I got serious about it in college and went on to do an MFA program in poetry a few years after graduation. I’d written some fiction along the way—a short story workshop senior year of college that I really enjoyed and several craft classes with a fiction focus as part of my MFA program—but the idea of writing anything longer than about twelve pages was so intimidating. I was in complete awe of my grad school fiction colleagues who had several novel drafts under their belts.
I didn’t know anything about plotting or character development or setting, but I knew a lot about feelings, and I think that’s what steered me toward YA once I got up the nerve to attempt a novel draft. I’d been reading some incredible feelings-driven young adult novels that came out in the early 2000s, and I really connected with those protagonists. So I wrote a draft of a YA novel that, like your first, didn’t get me an agent—but I did prove to myself that I could write something novel-length that actually had a plot, and that inspired me to keep at it.
My second manuscript—also a YA contemporary—got me my agent and sold to a publisher. See All the Stars (which has now been re-released in paperback as Before We Were Sorry) had a bit of a suspense drive when I began to draft, but its suspense/thriller nature really took shape during revision, encouraged by beta readers and my agent, and once I got into the groove, I found that I really loved writing suspenseful fiction. From there, all my books are squarely murder mysteries or thrillers.
Back to you! After the series with St. Martin’s, you went on to publish several standalone YA mystery/thriller novels, and you have another forthcoming. But you’ve also pivoted to writing adult crime fiction recently. Out of the Ashes came out last year, and you have a second coming out in a couple months. What drew your interest to the adult market? Can you tell me a bit about what that transition has been like for you?
KARA: I first had the idea for the book that would become Out of the Ashes back in 2015. At the time, I was under contract for two YA novels, so I put the idea on the back burner. I knew that the story needed to be written from the perspective of an adult character, and there was no way to age it down. I kept saying I would write it in my spare time, but I wound up publishing three YA novels and having a baby between 2016-2018. “Spare writing time” was not something I had again until 2021, when my son started preschool.
Writing from an adult perspective was refreshing for me, creatively, after writing for teens for years. When I began writing, I was 19—I’m in my thirties, now, and my everyday experience is much different than what teenagers are dealing with. It’s always easier to write what you know, and for me, that was from the point of view of a woman in her thirties. At the end of a day, crafting a mystery takes a lot of planning, troubleshooting, and juggling a lot of balls—the only difference with Out of the Ashes was that my main character had a lot more agency than my teen protagonists.
KIT: I’m so glad you brought up the issue of agency because when I get that question—what’s different about writing adult versus young adult fiction—I’ve found it’s the only element that really impacts my writing in a major, plot-directing kind of way. Interviewers often want to know if we need to “limit” ourselves in YA (regarding sex, or with the “dark stuff” that comes with the territory of writing thrillers) and my answer is generally no. I might approach a scene a bit differently in the two age categories, but I’ve never felt the need to tone anything down in a way that puts a damper on my writing. (Thankfully!)
However! With teen protagonists, you do have to contend with the limits of adult authority—respecting it or finding ways around it—in ways that can steer the plot. When drafting The Split, it was refreshing to not have to worry about the rules and expectations of grown-ups; the sliding doors structure provided plenty of limits and challenges, and setting my main character Jane loose within that framework was a breath of fresh air!
Before we go, is there anything that’s surprised you from a publishing perspective about writing for adults? Do you have any immediate or long-term career goals now that you have a foot in both age categories?
KARA: Honestly, the only thing that’s surprised me about publishing a book is the reaction from readers—I saw a one-star review that simply said, “Takes the Lord’s name in vain.” I never encountered anything like that across seven YA books (which certainly take the Lord’s name in vain), so it made me laugh.
In terms of career goals, I’m publishing another YA in the fall— a companion book to The Cheerleaders called The Champions, set in the same world. Ideally, I’d like to continue publishing for both audiences, but I tend to follow ideas where they take me.
KIT: I think my favorite one-star review (of one of my first YA novels) said something like “this book is written for teenagers.” Sometimes I still laugh about that one.
I’d also like to keep publishing for both audiences. To be mercenary about it, now that I have a kid and have given up the freelance editing work I used to take on, the dual income streams from both categories are key to my family’s financials! But beyond that, I’ve found a lot of challenge and enjoyment in writing for both sets of readers, and I’m not eager to give that up any time soon. I just finished the draft of my second adult thriller, and I’m working on the proposal for my next YA, so I’m hoping to have more coming in both spaces in the near future. (And I can’t wait to read Lost to Dune Road this spring and The Champions when it’s ready! As you know, I’m a fan of everything you write.)
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Kit Frick’s new novel, The Split, is now available from Atria Books.
Kara Thomas’s new novel, Out of the Ashes, is now available from Thomas & Mercer.
