I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING: AUTHOR INTERVIEW, "BINGO BLOGS", & BONUS ENTRIES

GIVEAWAY ENDED
 I WOULD FIND 
A GIRL WALKING

BY KATHY KELLY

and DIANA MONTANE

REMINDER ABOUT THE BOOK:

What made me kill and kill again?  
I can't answer that except like this...
 
Culled from interviews with the lead investigator and the victims' families, and exclusive access to the killer, this is a revealing, shocking, and unflinching portrait of Gerald Eugene Stano, a man who fancied himself one of the greatest lady-killers of them all. 

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PRODUCT DETAILS:

Media: Mass Market Paperbound Book, 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley
ISBN-10: 0425231860
ISBN-13: 9780425231869
Dimensions: 4.22 x 6.75 x 0.84 inches
Shipping Weight: 0.33 lbs
Audience Age: 18+ 

NOW LISTED WITH AMAZON.com AS #1  in "Hot New Releases in Serial Killers True Accounts"!

I Would Find a Girl Walking
by Kathy Kelly, Diana Montane

5.0 out of 5 stars   

Release Date: April 5, 2011

Want to buy now? Check out the link to Amazon in my left hand column!

You can go HERE to the first post and read my review of I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING and comment for more entries there to win! 

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THE AUTHORS:

The author, Kathy Kelly, is an Assistant Managing Editor / Metro / Team Leader at the Daytona Beach News-Journal, a newspaper. Kathy Kelly was a reporter for the Daytona Beach News-Journal and became involved in several of Gerald Stano murder cases. Included in I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING are excerpts from letters that Stano wrote to her.

Diana Montane is a journalist and published author. She was Arts & Entertainment writer, as well as art, theatre and film critic, for Miami’s first newspaper, The Miami News, until the demise of that publication. Shortly therafter, she was Entertainment Editor and art, theatre and film critic of EXITO, a weekly published by The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and The Chicago Tribune. 

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH KATHY KELLY:

1. Welcome, and thank you for agreeing to an interview for BOOKIN‘ WITH BINGO. Is there any personal information or bio you would like to start out with today so my readers will know a little more about you, Kathy?

I’m one of those rare birds – I’ve worked at the same place for nearly 49 years.  I started at the Daytona Beach News-Journal in my senior year of high school as a campus reporter.  From that, I got a job as a copykid, a glorified “go-fer.’’  Over the years, I was hired first as an intern reporter, then as a fulltime reporter.  I covered the police beat for more than 20 years.  I’m currently an assistant managing editor and work with a team of five reporters while doing a column for the newspaper.

2. What made you decide to write this book? How did the title, I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING, come about?

I first started this book in 1980, arranging the visits to the prison and starting to write the letters, but the project didn’t seem to go anywhere.  I submitted some material through an agent, but it was rejected.  Two years ago, I wrote a story about Stano for the paper and it was read by Diana Montane.  She e-mailed me and asked if I had ever thought of writing a book.  We got together and she found us an agent.  The first three agents didn’t work out, then she connected with Linda Langton, who is terrific.  She sold our book to Berkley Penguin a prestigious publisher.  When I started writing, I realized that the letters I planned to use for background  were  the book.

3. Did revisiting all your information on Gerald Stano bring back any memories you may have forgotten or didn’t want to remember?

Quite frankly, his friendly overtures in person and his personal tone in the letters was unnerving.  He quickly latched on to the possibility that I might become interested in him.  Nothing could have been farther from my mind.

4. Why do you think Gerald Stano confided in you and Paul Crow as he did? Was there something about him that you felt you were able to understand that others weren’t?

I tell friends that I have this blinking sign on on my forehead that says “tell me all your personal problems.’’  I seem to be able to quickly engage people, who talk freely to me.  Once Stano found out Crow’s son was adopted, he established a link with him.  He felt Paul was the only person who really looked out for him.

5. Are you working on another book and do you think you would like to write fiction novels?

I do have another idea for a book that is cooking around in my head.  It is fiction based on events of my childhood.  I love fiction, especially Southern authors like Anne Rivers Siddons, Dorothea Benton Frank and Mary Kay Andrews.  I’ve been lucky enough to meet Mary Kay, who is really Kathy Trocheck, a former Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter, who has gone on to become very well known.

6. As far as reading goes, what books would you say have made the biggest impression on you, especially starting out? What are you currently reading? 

My all time favorite is “To Kill a Mockingbird.’’  When you stop to think that the book was literally Harper Lee’s only novel, it’s amazing.   I just finished a book by Maeve Binchy, an Irish author and a favorite of mind, called Minding Frankie.  I also like Michael Connelly, who did the blurb for the cover of my book.  He actually used to be a reporter at The News-Journal.

7. What is something about you that you would want people to know that we probably don’t know, or wouldn‘t know?

I love to bake desserts.  For years, I have been taking sweets to my co-workers and have quite a few that are often requested, such as cheesecake, my mom’s famous red velvet cake and a coconut cake that has a legion of fans.

8. Do you own an eReader of any kind and how do you feel about their impact on books, as well as you as an author?  

Naturally, I would hope folks who use those devices are going to buy our book.  I’ll never say never, but I’m an old-fashioned reader who loves going to the library and curling up with a good book.

9. What is your advice to anyone, including young people, who want to be writers?   

You need to be a good reader to be a good writer.  Write about what you know. 

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 "BINGO BLOGS"

MY PERSONAL CONNECTION AND THOUGHTS ON I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING AND AUTHOR, KATHY KELLY:
True crime books are not a favorite genre of mine although I have read some. I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING came to me from Alexandra, one of my contacts at Penguin Publishing, when she wrote suggesting I might be interested in it as they were very excited about this book. When I saw that it was Kathy Kelly's book, I had to laugh and of course accepted. I knew Kathy had covered the case and was writing a book and it seemed like the perfect book for me to cover on my blog. Little did I know how much I would find out until I read the book and got involved. 

First of all, for some background, Kathy graduated a year ahead of me with my husband in high school. I knew her then because she wrote the school news column in the local newspaper, The Daytona Beach News-Journal, and as a junior, I had applied and been accepted as one of two to do the same job my senior year. My sister, who was then a teacher at my high school, had also done the same thing during her senior year so I was carrying on a family tradition. Little did I know that about 30 years later, my own son would do the same thing during his senior year at my old high school. Yes, it was definitely a family tradition after that. 

Also, the summer after I graduated before leaving for college, I also was a "copy kid" like Kathy was. I only did it that one summer but it was great fun and hard work. I remember how news came "over the wire" on machines feeding out from news agencies onto big rolls of paper (no computers, kids!) and part of my duties were to cut off the stories and deliver them to the appropriate reporters. It was, as Kathy said, a "go-fer" job. The other summers during my college years, I worked at the Daytona Beach Police Department in the Records Department and got to know Paul Crow and his then girlfriend, later wife. When Paul and his wife were married, I was a bridesmaid in their wedding. So Kathy and I definitely had another connection.

Lastly, Kathy is an honorary aunt to boys of a dear friend of mine who not only did I teach with after graduating, but when I married and had my son, our sons grew up together so I would see Kathy at family functions a lot.

All this to say, even living in the same town, I never knew this about Kathy's connection with Gerald Stano. Oh, I read about him and listened to the news but didn't follow his murders that much. Now as I look back and have read I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING, I know so many of the places he had been and/or worked. I am pretty sure I would take my son and friends to the skating rink and he was the older, I thought goofy looking, guy who I always wondered why he was there trying to act like he was so cool with the younger kids. So many of the things Kathy wrote about, were things I could relate to because I had been to those places or knew where they were. I have to say, I found it a spellbinding read even more so because of this. I was shocked to find out about Kathy and Paul Crow's "association" with this serial killer. 

Again, the book was a fascinating read but certainly not just because I live in this town. But, I will say as I look at Kathy, I can't imagine how meeting with Stano and getting those letters wasn't something to send her over the edge. I know they must have been disturbing but I guess as a professional reporter, especially on the "police beat", it came a little easier to her than an everyday citizen like myself. I also think because she is a superb author, it must have made a really emotional job writing this book a challenge but maybe a little easier, and along with the partnership with Diana Montane, she handled it very well. I hope those who win a copy will find the book as intriguing as I did and if you don't win, I hope you will try and buy a copy. I don't think you will regret it. Thank you all for your patience as I changed the schedule this week on my blog and now...I shall post all the winners from the past week and change gears into a little bit lighter and happier subject. Congratulations and thanks again to Kathy and Diana...and to all my followers for your warm reception of my friend and I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING. 

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GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO ALEXANDRA AND THE GOOD FOLKS
AT BERKLEY AND PENGUIN PUBLISHING, I
HAVE TWO COPIES OF THIS CHILLING REAL
LIFE CRIME NOVEL TO GIVE AWAY. ALSO, I
HAVE TWO AUTOGRAPHED COPIES TO 
ADD TO THAT MYSELF FOR A TOTAL OF
FOUR LUCKY WINNERS THIS TIME!

 

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
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IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT KATHY KELLY'S INTERVIEW

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND LEAVE A LINK THAT I CAN FOLLOW

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ANOTHER TRUE CRIME MYSTERY YOU HAVE READ ABOUT OR FOLLOWED IN THE NEWS. IF YOU NEVER HAVE, YOU CAN JUST SAY THAT AS WELL BUT I BET YOU CAN THINK OF SOME CASE YOU HAVE BEEN INTERESTED IN OVER THE YEARS

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GIVEAWAY ENDS AT

6 PM, EST, APRIL 25!

GOOD LUCK!