Everyone please welcome KEVIN CADY

 

 

 

 

 

Kevin is the author of the Warren Files Trilogy, a high school teacher from Colorado Springs who loves climbing in the mountains.

 

 

 

 

BOOK ONE OF THE WARREN FILES by Kevin Cady

 

 

 

 

 

A Solitary Awakening: Book One of the Warren Files

 

 

Where are you originally from?

I’m originally from Oxford Ohio, a red-bricked college town tucked in the southwest corner of Ohio.

YAY Ohio! Woohoo!  I’m from Ohio and currently in the Dayton area. I’ll be going to visit a family in Oxford this weekend! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

I have certainly not always wanted to be a writer, but writing was the one subject in school I deemed tolerable. I wasn’t a great student and wasn’t a great reader. Writing novels came to me as an adult because of the ideas I want to consider and convey. With how I work, writing makes sense, because it helps me understand, and ultimately manage the world I’m in.

I can certainly relate to this. Writing didn’t really take off until late adulthood. Everyone’s path is a little different, but that’s the beauty of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which authors have influenced you the most in your career?

Writers, and writing which has influenced me is a tough question to answer, because I don’t necessarily want my work lined up beside those people (half lighthearted and joking). But there are certainly writers who have influenced me, and writers whose work I greatly admire. I hope I can someday stack up. The people I admire (I feel) have written their own way, in their own style. I think Chuck Palahniuk, author of Lullaby and Fight Club (among others) is a perfect example of someone, who isn’t writing in the same genre as I am, but is a perfect example of someone who creates amazing narratives in their own way, almost as his own genre. When you pick up a Palahniuk book, you know who wrote it. I feel the same about a man named William Sloane, who published a couple of Cosmic Horror novels in the 1930’s, light years ahead of his time in my opinion. These two have surely influenced my writing, but a shortlist of others would include… Mark Danielewski, Steven Hall, and Alex Garland.

I haven’t heard of any of these but I always enjoy learning of new authors. 

 

 

What attracted you to crime writing?

I love crime writing because it generally centers around the darkness that lives inside people. I think this darkness is something interesting, and the idea that people do horrible things for a slew of reasons can be an exciting combination. What happens if we agree with motive but disagree with action? It can create unique moral dilemmas, and it can push big-picture questions out into the world.

YES. I love it. It’s quite fascinating isn’t it? The darkness of the human condition, legal grey areas and the impossibility of moral dilemmas are all too intriguing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you give us an introduction to Elijah Warren and the Warren Files Trilogy?

Elijah Warren is a man who lives for his job. He breaths and sleeps the FBI, and it might seem due to his lack of personal life. In fact, he lives the FBI to avoid a personal life. He’s cast off relationships and (since a tragic accident as a child) unofficially vowed to focus on the Bureau’s issues. When he is forced to work alongside Aurelia Blanc, an erudite detective whose vast intelligence isn’t superseded by her beauty, a twinge of something finds him affected, and when they’re pushed to find the esoteric, “Poetic Murderer,” the quandary becomes all the more real.

In the first book our protagonists chase the Poetic Murderer across the United States. They’re twisted and turned around, and rarely are gaining evidence it doesn’t appear they were set up to find. The first book focuses greatly on why things happen, and sets up the key pieces for the remaining two books.

The second book, Crooked Principles, takes the (now former) detectives to remote Grizzly, Alaska, where they’re snowed in and forced to track a killer who has killed a person per year for twelve years, leaving the town’s population at less than a hundred. It’s a very personal story, and as the detectives feel more and more stranded, more and more paranoid, their relationships are put to the test. New relationships pop up and affect theirs. Elijah Warren starts to feel like maybe he’s out of his depth, and comes ever closer to losing Aurelia as they search for Grizzly’s Secret.

The final book brings characters from both novels together, and the narrative becomes bigger than all they’ve done. Unbeknownst to them, their prior actions have begun a series of events that will come to  affect every human in the world. There is still a serial killer, one indicative of the Poetic Murderer’s work, but that’s not the greatest challenge this time. The protagonists are separated and pulled all across the globe, chasing a new enemy that threatens civilization at its core, and has for nearly a century. Elijah and Aurelia and their collective crew are the ones that must intervene.

AWESOME! I can’t wait to see how the story develops. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When can we expect the next installment of the series?

The second book in the Warren Files Trilogy, Crooked Principles, is in the final stage of revision, and it’ll be available next summer!

AWESOME. It already sounds intriguing. 

 

 

Who are your favorite characters or protagonists, or sleuths?

One of my favorite characters ever written is Lisbeth Salander from the Millennium Series, by Stieg Larson. I was immediately captivated by her terse impassiveness, in combination with her unique technological skills. It made her immediately intriguing, and I wanted to know all I could about her. I finished all his books because I needed to understand Lisbeth and her story.

Another character I loved reading about was Hannibal Lector. His intelligence, way of thinking, and ultimately his relatability made him an unforgettable antagonist.

Wow. These are all noteworthy. I love how you felt compelled to understand Lisbeth Salander and her story. I don’t think an author could ask for more from a reader. Crafting an unforgettable antagonist is one of my hidden ambitions. BROUHAHAHAHA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s it like being a teacher?

Being a teacher, and the experience of it, is something I could have never foreseen. As mentioned, I didn’t like school, and didn’t do that well. I try to teach in an engaging way, one that pushes all students to critically think. I try to teach the power of thinking, and this year I’m getting to do so through a series of novels I’ve chosen. It is a senior level English class, and it is a unique year because I’ve taught these kids 6 years in a row.

I came to Atlas Preparatory when it was just beginning as a school, and each year we have added a grade (we started in 5 th ) . I’ve taught my students various courses, but I’ve moved up with them each year, and this year I’ll finally shake their hands at graduation.

It must be rewarding to see them grow and develop before they’re sent off into the world. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You think you’ll ever write a YA series?

I’m certainly not opposed to a YA series, but I don’t know if it’d be anytime soon. I love some of the newer YA series because they’re able to engage thinking toward high-level societal issues, and so, if I was to write a YA novel or series, it would have to be deliberately tackling some sort of worldly dilemma. I would want people to be engaged by and love the story, but I’d want a greater purpose for it.

Well put. I can tell you put a lot of thought behind your writing. Excellent.

 

 

Favorite quotes?

Do the right thing. (It’s the motto I give my students.) We don’t know what we don’t know.

 

 

 

**************

 

THANKS KEVIN 

Your time is much appreciated!

 

 

**************

 

 

 

“Remember that guy that gave up? Neither does anybody else.” -Unknown

 

 

 

____________________________________________________

 

“Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.” -Mark Twain

 

____________________________________________________

 

 

The book to read is not the one that thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. – Harper Lee

 

 

____________________________________________________

 

 

Over and out….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOIN US NEXT TIME

On the train….

 

 

 

 

Benjamin Thomas

@thewritingtrain

http://www.thewritingtrain.com