Women Writers of Color: Kyra Davis

Full Name - Kyra Davis
Birth Date - August 22nd
Location - Los Angeles
Website/blog - KyraDavis.com and Kyra's Web Log
Genre- Chick Lit/Women's Fiction

Most recently published work
Vows, Vendettas & A Little Black Dress

Writing Credits
I've had six books published. Five within the Sophie Katz Mystery Series and a novel called So Much For My Happy Ending

How frequently do you update your site?
I try to update my blog three-four times a week

Is your site designed for reader interaction?
I encourage readers to leave comments on my blog (or on my Facebook or Twitter page to which the blog is linked) and I try to respond to reader's questions promptly.

Post of note or something in particular you want readers to check out.
"Yesterday's news," probably isn't as irrelevant in the world of blogging as it is in the world of newspapers but I do think that last week's news lacks...well, if nothing else, immediacy. So rather than point to a blog post that is important to me at this particular moment I would rather encourage readers to check in every few days to see what's going on in the present

How would you describe your work?
The Sophie Katz mysteries feature Sophie who is a hip, multiracial, quick-witted novelist who is constantly stumbling into the path of danger. With the help of her eccentric and diverse group of friends Sophie investigates the crimes that are happening around her and finds ways to bring the bad guys down. It's Sex And The City meets Murder She Wrote. So Much For My Happy Ending is about a woman who discovers that her new husband has a serious psychiatric disorder. It’s the story of her path to self-discovery as she learns to cope with the ramifications of that.

I love your Sophie Katz books. I was very sad there wouldn't be any more. How does an author say goodbye to a series that ends too early?
Well, you don't say goodbye. Shortly before I got the news from my publisher I was talking about the series to this guy I was on a date with. He was a bit of a jerk on a whole but also a VERY successful business man. I joked that I would probably be more financially successful if I started self-publishing the series and he looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "Well of course you would be. You may hold on to your readership for several more books but you're not going to grow it by a significant percentage at this point in the series nor is any publisher going to dedicate a meaningful marketing budget to promote the 6th book in a series that hasn't yet made The New York Times list. If you self publish you'll lose a lot of readers but with social networking you should be able to keep your base and you'll keep one hundred percent of the profits which should make up for the lower circulation. That's obvious." At the time I was slightly (and perhaps unjustly) offended by his intimation that I was being dense for not having already realized all that. Then a month later I got the news that my publishing house was going in a different direction and, out of necessity, I found myself thinking about that conversation again. The reality is that bookstores are, in the face of a tough retail environment, cutting inventory and as a result publishers are focusing all their attention on trying to get as many of their blockbuster books into the stores as possible and are giving less and less attention to driving up the sales for their midlist authors. But with the Internet making up more and more of the market share and with this new ebook revolution (iPad, Kindle, Nook, Google's upcoming ereader and so on) midlist authors may not need to be so reliant on traditional publishing anymore, particularly if they already have a loyal fan base. Of course it's a lot more work that way. You're essentially going into business for yourself. You have to be your own art department (for the cover), editor, publicist, salesperson and so on and so forth. But it's absolutely doable. Since my announcement last week that Mira will no longer be publishing Sophie I have received just under three-hundred emails from readers pledging to purchase the next Sophie book regardless of whether or not I choose to publish it myself or even as an ebook exclusive. With support like that I should be able to keep Sophie alive for a little longer.

Can you tell us a little about Vows, Vendettas and a little Black Dress ?
Sophie Katz attends the engagement party of her best friend Dena Lopiano's cousin, Mary Ann. But the party takes an ugly turn when someone shoots Dena. She was shot in the back while alone in a room and there were no witnesses. Dena survives the assault but it's questionable if she'll ever walk again.

Enraged, Sophie vows to find Dena's attacker. Sophie's boyfriend Anatoly, who is a P.I., tries to convince her to leave the investigating to the police but to no avail. Sophie has known Dena since high school and she's sure she knows everything there is to know about her: her likes and dislikes, her friends, her lovers (past and present) her habits and hobbies, her missteps and successes. Now, as Sophie's loathed to admit, she even knows the color of Dena's blood. Yet Sophie is shocked to find that there actually are an enormous number of people who have a motive for trying to kill Dena. With more suspects than she knows what to do with Sophie sees that she has her work cut out for her. But she won't be deterred even if it means facing down a killer on her own.

Thanks Kyra. I must confess I checked out your blogs for the first time and will probably become a lurker. I am very happy to hear we haven't heard the last of Sophie Katz. Vows Vendetta and a Little Black Dress is out now and its soooo good. My review