Interview with Leanne Kale Sparks – S. 9, Ep. 22

The Crime Cafe

Our guest for this episode is thriller author Leanne Kale Sparks. Check out the podcast to hear more about her Kendall Beck series and the authors who inspire her, amongst other things. Before I bring on my guest, I’ll just remind you that the Crime Cafe has two eBooks for sale: the nine book box set and the short story anthology. You can find the buy inks for both on my website, debbimack.com under the Crime Cafe link. You can also get a free copy of either book if you become a Patreon supporter. You’ll get that and much more if you support the podcast on Patreon, along with our eternal gratitude for doing so. We also have a shop now. Check it out! Check us out on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crimecafe The transcript can be downloaded here. Debbi: Hi everyone. Our guest today had a short career in law before turning to writing a series of thrillers featuring FBI agent Kendall Beck. Her books are set in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, which is a really cool place. I love that. She currently resides in Texas with her husband and two dogs - a German shepherd named Zoe and her Corgi named Wynn. It's my pleasure to welcome today Leanne Kale Sparks. Hi, Leanne. Leanne: Hi. Debbi: I'm so glad you could be with us today. Leanne: Me too. This is exciting. Debbi: Excellent. Wonderful. I, too, had a career in law before I started writing full-time. Leanne: I think there's a lot of us. Debbi: I think there are quite a few of us who left the profession in a kind of "we gotta do something else" feeling. You were fortunate in making yours a short career though, as you've described it. How long were you practicing law, and what kind of law did you practice? Leanne: Well, I did a little bit of everything in that short amount of time. I did a little bit of family law and ... Debbi: Oh, God! Leanne: I did a little bit of estates, but that was short-term. Mostly, it was criminal defense. Debbi: Ah. I'm telling you, family law right there will turn you off to the idea of doing more. Leanne: It's the most dangerous profession. Everybody thinks it's the criminal lawyers that get it. It's family law. Debbi: Not at all, because at least the clients understand you're dealing with a certain type of system. People going through divorce, acrimonious ones just go temporarily insane. That's my theory. It's temporary insanity. Leanne: And you're taking away kids and money, two of the things that people value the most. In criminal defense, most of your clients, they know they're guilty. They have probably been in the system before, and so they know what's going on. Debbi: Their expectations are well managed right from the start. Oh my. What inspired you to write the Kendall Beck series? Leanne: I lived in Maryland at the time, and I had a friend who had retired from the FBI, and he used to be the person that was in charge of the criminal part of the FBI, the investigations. I had gone online and looked, and there was this really interesting department or group within it, a unit, and they did Crimes Against Children. And so I talked to this guy and I'm like, Hey, can you get me in to see them or talk to them, or have somebody just answer some questions? He pulled some strings and I was able to meet up with some actual agents that work in the unit. It was a while ago and it just always stuck with me, and I thought, I need to have a character. The Wrong Woman started out as a short story just to see if I could actually write a crime thriller, and get all of the red herrings. The first versions of this, it was just like this person died and then we investigated, and yay, I figured it out, so I had to learn a lot about red herrings and things like that, so it kind of evolved. But I really did want Kendall to be involved in the Crimes Against Children, because I really think it's important now. My books don't focus on that. I don't talk about any of the icky, really icky. I don't go in depth with any of it,