About TK Hatfield:
T. K. Hatfield recently retired as a senior US Coast Guard officer after 25 years. Born and raised in Homestead, Florida, during the heyday of the cocaine wars and the Mariel boatlift in the 1960s, she worked two jobs to put herself through college before opting to join the US Coast Guard instead. After her first tour, she returned to college and graduated from the University of West Florida with a degree in environmental studies. When 9/11 struck, she was called back to active duty, where she remained until retirement, earning a master’s degree in environmental planning and management, and completing the Naval War College along the way. She responded to many major events including Hurricane Katrina and Deepwater Horizon over the course of her career.Hatfield now owns a maritime consulting business; she and her husband spend time in New Orleans, Bay Saint Louis MS and the Florida Panhandle.
What inspires you to write?
My stories are targeted for the busy, stressed professional woman juggling everything that comes with “I can have it all”. Their downtime is limited and precious, and when they get the chance to grab a book and go to the beach for those precious minutes, they want a story that is engaging, that takes them places with characters that are relatable, and women characters who are strong but realistic. They also want to be able to finish the book fairly quickly because of their limited time, but still come away thinking about the story, the characters, and wanting to know what is going to happen in the next book.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Well the incredible Sue Grafton is my inspiration. Her Kinsey Milhone is so honest and real I feel like I know her. I am also a HUGE fan of Robert B. Parker and have read everything of his, and closely following the writers his family chose to continue his legacy. John Sanders, Robert Crais and Jonathan Kellerman are also favorites.
Tell us about your writing process.
I'd say I am a mixture of both outliner and seat of the pants writer. Once the general storyline has presented itself, I use a whiteboard to track the timeline of the story, and all of my characters have an index card that I update as they develop and change over time in each book. These are pinned up on a cork board so I can see them all the time.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
I think the dialogue between characters, and even inner dialogue is so important to the story – many times I will wake up in the morning and there is dialogue that I can actually hear in my head, a conversation even, that I have to go capture right away.
What advice would you give other writers?
Write what makes you happy, write what is in your heart and accept that not everyone is going to love what you write but there will be people that do and you keep writing for them and for yourself.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I received the obligatory 100 rejection letters from publishers, and after a lot of research decided to step off the well-trodden path and into the world of self-publishing. I have had some good experiences and some not so good along the way, but have learned a lot and wouldn't go back and change that decision.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I think book publishing is at the threshold of a revolution. Writers are tired of having their success or failure determined by a very small pool of people, and the self-publishing industry is gaining momentum.
What genres do you write?: Mystery, Thriller, Beach Mystery
What formats are your books in?: Both eBook and Print, Audiobook
Website(s)
TK Hatfield Home Page Link
Your Social Media Links
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
