Racist or Rude?
A deep dive and free books!
News
Only four days until Finding Brody is released! I already heard from ARC readers who loved it! I’m so excited! Here’s the excerpt (first two chapters) if you didn’t grab it yet.
Free Books
Romance Books for readers who love happily ever afters.
Cozy Mysteries for readers who want to solve puzzles with amateur sleuths.
Women’s Fiction for readers who want to feel alongside the heroine as she grows.
If you missed last week’s cozy mysteries, you can still get them here.
Fun Facts in Finding Brody
Some of the most fun parts for an author are the tiny details. So, I wanted to take a deep dive into the details of Finding Brody to share the fun.
Violet lives in Delkin, Rhode Island, a place I made up. As someone who’s lived and loved Rhode Island, I came up with the name from two popular franchises: Dell’s and Dunkin’. Dell’s lemonade is a Rhode Island treat that you must have if you ever visit. And while Dunkin’ Donuts comes from Massachusetts, it was also a staple in Rhode Island. How can anyone skip iced coffees during the summer?
New London was created by thinking of early settlers often using “new” with a European city name.
I created the MoneyMoneyMoney app inspired by a song title.
I created Goggle Enterprises, very different from Google LLC. Google LLC got its name from googol, which is a number (one followed by 100 zeros). Google Enterprises was inspired by feeling like we’re in a surveillance state and giant eyes are watching us at all times.
Finding Brody was inspired not by another mystery but by a literary short story. That being said, my love of mystery also influenced this book. You can read more about that down below.
And last but definitely not least …
Racist or Rude Brought to You By Finding Brody
Violet travels down to New London, Georgia, to help her friend, Fiona, investigate her husband’s disappearance. Fiona is half East Asian and European. Violet is half South Asian and European. New London is a very white town without diversity, making Violet feel uncomfortable. So when she encounters an angry white person or introduces herself to a new suspect, she has to decide if they are being racist or just rude.
I wanted to bring up some of the struggles of having a different race than the people surrounding you. However, I didn’t want it to overtake the narrative of the book. I’d like to think I did that pretty well in Finding Brody. Much like real life, Violet deals with it as best she can and moves on to finding out what happened to Brody.
I also made sure to include both types of people in the book, because while the South is a complicated place, it’s not one-dimensional. There are some good people. Some rude ones. And some racist ones.
If you want to jump into Finding Brody, Racist or Rude starts in chapter 2, which is in the excerpt!
You could also read more about my mystery inspirations below!
Available Books by Kalen
Delkin is Dell's + Dunkin'? That's just brilliant, I love it.