Featured Interview With Kathryn Pincus
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
Kathryn Pincus honed her writing skills in her law practice, presenting complex factual and legal matters in clear, compelling and persuasive writings. Long Hill Home is her debut novel, and another novel and a collection of short stories are in the works. She was raised in the New York metropolitan area (Long Island and then Northern New Jersey), received her undergraduate degree (B. A., Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Delaware, and her law degree (J. D.) from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D. C. Since her “early retirement” from the practice of law, she has filled her days taking care of a busy household and family, supporting numerous charitable and community causes and writing fiction. When not engaged in all of the above, Kathryn enjoys running, biking, traveling, reading, cooking and watching her sons compete in sports. She lives in Wilmington, Delaware with her family and a large black Labradoodle named Shadow, and they all enjoy part of their summers in Longport, New Jersey (at the Jersey Shore).
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I was the youngest of six children, and so there were many occasions in my childhood where I was expected to “entertain myself.” I loved sports and anything played outside, except, I also loved reading. I was a voracious reader, and I read books of any subject matter and including books meant for older audiences. I also loved any class in school that involved book discussions or the written analysis of authors’ works, and I also loved creative writing.
I wrote as part of the curriculum in high school, college and law school. I also wrote a great deal in my profession as a litigation attorney. The creation of a legal pleading such as a brief is tantamount to writing a story. First I wove together a factual story, and then I added the legal argument– ideally in a manner that drew in the decison-maker (a judge, an arbitrator or a jury), educated them about the issues and the dispute, and then persuaded them to decide the dispute in a certain manner. I began writing my debut novel after I retired from the practice of law, at about age 42. At first I was weaving a story in my head during my morning run on the wooded trails of the Brandywine River Valley, and then that story evolved into a written manuscript and ultimately, a published novel. The novel begins with a woman running in the exact spot where I was running when I created it in my head.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I love to read books by Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book ever), John Grisham, Lisa Scottoline, Scott Turow, Pat Conroy, Anita Shreve, and Jennifer Weiner.
I love thrillers, as well as any general fiction that involves vivid settings, complex characters and interesting story lines. I also enjoy biographical works (such as those by Laura Hillenbrand and Jon Krakauer).
I am inspired by the authors I mentioned here when I write, because I try to emulate their ability to truly bring to life their characters, their settings and their experiences. Like Harper Lee, I also try to inject issues of social justice into my story lines–to prompt debate or raise awareness about those issues.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Long Hill Home is a suspenseful story of three strangers–whose lives collide in the aftermath of a violent crime. Kelly Malloy is a wife, a mother and a successful lawyer whose world is shattered when she is brutally attacked while running along the banks of the Brandywine River. Chad McCloskey, a lonely teenage boy from a dysfunctional home, stumbles upon Kelly Malloy’s unconscious body immediately after the assault. He is falsely accused and imprisoned with dangerous felons, only because he tries to help her. Maria Hernandez, a young woman who emigrated illegally from Mexico, is reluctantly thrust into the role of witness to the crime, putting her in jeopardy of deportation only weeks before she is to give birth to her child.
It is a story of the human condition, intimately examined through the harrowing experiences of Kelly, Maria and Chad. All striving for love, security and a fulfilling life, Long Hill Home’s key players face adversity together in spite of seemingly insurmountable differences – which, ultimately, only serve to underscore their commonalities.
Electrifying readers with suspense and provoking nuanced considerations of timely social issues like criminal justice, class, immigration, and security through compelling and emotionally-charged characters, Long Hill Home is a page-turning exploration of what happens when worlds collide – and the narratives we’ve built our lives around come crashing down in unexpected ways.
Long Hill Home is written about subject matter and places that author Kathryn Pincus is very familiar with, enabling her to write with vivid detail and give her readers an authentic–and vicarious–experience. Readers of Long Hill Home will run through the trails of the Brandywine River Valley, sit in an eighteenth floor office of a downtown law firm, stand on a litter-strewn sidewalk in a poor section of Wilmington, and shudder with fear in the shower room of a maximum security prison. They will also be reminded of the fact that all people, regardless of vast differences in background or circumstance, strive for the same things: a place to feel loved, safe, and to call home.
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Dear Book Reader Magazine, thank you for letting me share my book and my story!
You are very welcome. Thanks for sharing your story with us.