Now it’s time to learn more about the authors we read. . .
What drew you to the genre you write?
Walter Mosley’s The White Butterfly and Alice LaPlante’s Turn of Mind inspired me to try mystery/thriller/suspense writing. Both are stories with ordinary protagonists, people with families, taking charge of their difficult and extraordinary circumstances—stories featuring protagonists normally sidelined in mainstream society—page-turners that dealt with personal and social issues all at once—I loved them both, so much! I encountered both of these books while I was wrapping up years of focusing on poetry and looking for a new arena to explore as writer. Mosley and LaPlante were my gateway to the mystery/thriller/suspense world!
Tell us how you got into writing?
If there was anything else I could’ve done as a kid that allowed me to imagine I could talk to plants (I wrote letters to flowers in our garden) and that let me deep dive into anything I wanted to learn more about (I wrote a ten-page report on Golden Eagles in third grade), I would have done it. But nothing came close! As a young adult, I didn’t know writing professionally was an option for Real People like me, so I started college in the sciences. Luckily, some encouraging writing professors at Colorado State University encouraged me to switch majors and pursue writing as an English major. 30+ years later, I’ve never looked back.
What jobs have you held before, during and/or after you became a writer?
Pre-book publication: fast food, phone bank, retail, wildlife biology field research assistant, office assistant, personal assistant, activity coordinator for a senior service organization, poet-in-residence, ESL tutor, freelance journalist.
Post-book publication: phone bank, freelance journalist, oral historian, editor, family literacy coordinator, public relations coordinator, English professor, instructional technologist.
How many books do you have published?
Three. Debut novel (mystery/thriller) from Crooked Lane Books in 2024, preceded by two poetry collections (as Maria Melendez) with University of Arizona Press in 2010 and 2006.
Where do you write?
At an adjustable desk in my living room, in front of a window with lots of sunlight.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Contemporary thrillers or literary novels, both featuring women protagonists. Three-way tie for second would be horror anything, speculative novellas, and nonfiction about scientific, economic, or social issues.
What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
Acting, anthropology, law enforcement, and the Presbyterian ministry are all alternate-life career daydreams I’ve had. Plot twist: I have been on stage, but I’ve never been a Presby!
Who is an author you admire?
Cynthia Pelayo, for keeping her poetry, mystery, and horror candles burning. Stella Pope Duarte, for being open to dreams and nightmares, both personal and national, as inspiration for fiction. Linda Rodriquez, for her devotion to the life of letters: writing, reading, publishing, or mentoring. Any Latina novelist working through competing demands on her time to produce work that makes social issues personal is deeply inspiring, to me.
Have you any advice for aspiring or beginning writers?
Many, many, many roads lead to “done.” Be patient. As the great translator Coleman Barks interprets the poet Rumi to say, “There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” And, by the way, that same translation of a Rumi poem called “A Great Wagon” also says:
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.
That’s advice I need to give myself every day. Not to go numb. Not to forget to be all ears. To walk toward that ache that won’t be quieted until I write the next page. I need to give myself that advice because unless I’m physically in the middle of the act of writing, I, too, aspire to write. I spend most of my day aspiring.
What is next for you?
I’m writing a thriller set in an enclave for billionaires outside Yellowstone, told from the point of view of a new worker on the property who soon learns there’s one billionaire she must, must kill.
I also have slow-cooking speculative fiction on the burners: a novella set in northern New Mexico, a short story set under water in the kingdom of whales.
Where can we find you?
Soaking in the mineral waters of Thermopolis, Wyoming, in your email inbox now and then with event and book updates for any who’d like to sign up here, online at mariakelson.com, in the background of Crime Writers of Color as a newsletter volunteer, and on IG as @mkelsonauthor.
Now to have some fun . . .
Breakfast, lunch, or dinner
Breakfast for days.
Fruits or vegetables
Veggies. Over cooked. The more baby-food-like, the better.
Sweet or salty snacks
Salty, please. Mind you, I consider any Reese’s product a staple, not a snack.
Ice cream or cake
These are the same dessert.
Cooking or baking
I like to cook what I eat, but I like to eat what others bake.
Dining in or dining out
Dining out with a book for a date.
City life or country living
Country living, city vacationing.
Beach or mountain
Mountain.
Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall
Fall! I’ll never forget a billboard I saw outside an automotive service shop in Dodge City, KS: “It’s that time of year again. Pumpkin spice oil change.”
Extrovert or introvert
Depends on the time of day, caffeine intake, how the writing project’s going, lunar calendar, astrological outlook, whether I’m in the mood for a dark cave or a warm fire…
And even more fun . . .
What is your favorite movie?
Are you asking the me who believes in the positive, transformative potential of genuine connection? Stand By Me and Shrek.
Or are you asking the me who thinks the best we can do is claw our way around and between the individual and societal monsters creeping around every corner? Usual Suspects and Parasite.
You are stranded on a deserted island. What are your three must-haves?
All six seasons of Lost on DVD. Solar-powered DVD player/TV combo. Fresh water.
My bio:
Maria Kelson’s NOT THE KILLING KIND won the Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime, the Women Writing the West WILLA Literary Award for a Mystery/Thriller, and the 2025 International Latino Book Awards Gold Medal in Mystery. Set in northern California’s redwood country, the novel was inspired by her family literacy work with undocumented mothers. Maria published two poetry books (as Maria Melendez) with University of Arizona Press, which were finalists for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Colorado Book Award. She lives in Wyoming, where she’s writing a new thriller set near Yellowstone National Park. Connect at mariakelson.com.