"I THINK OF THE RECKONING AS A SLOW-BURNING FUSE THAT GATHERS SPEED AND SUDDENLY IGNITES A LARGE BOMB OR TWO": THE RECKONING'S KELLI STANLEY

Kelli Stanley's latest, The Reckoning, deals with a lady on the run in 1985 with many secrets, dealing with a town of secrets, some tied to it's marijuana cash crop, others to the young girls who have gone missing in the past years. It was great to get together with Kelli again and ask a few questions.

SCOTT MONTGOMERY: Which drew you first to the story- the character of Renata Drake or setting a story in eighties Garberville, CA?

KELLI STANLEY: I think most writers, at one point or another, toy with the quasi-memoir concept: writing a book more steeped in your own experiences than you’ve previously written. THE RECKONING is that book for me. I know Garberville and Humboldt well because I spent my adolescence there—I graduated from the high school featured in the book, South Fork High. My parents owned a riding stable—a concession with the California State Parks—and Garberville was basically my home town in the late ‘70s and early 1980s.

Once I left for college, I witnessed how it changed through the years while visiting my parents, as they continued to live there—albeit moving from southern Humboldt to near Eureka—for the rest of their lives.

I remember what Humboldt was like in 1985. I remember what CAMP felt like—the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting paramilitary taskforce that was the largest in history at the time. And when I became a writer, and started to think about narratives I wanted to tackle, it struck me that what I had witnessed, what I had experienced, what I saw, was historically significant (I compare it to Prohibition) and made for a really layered, fascinating narrative.

Of course, it’s all fictionalized, but a good many things in the book are based on fact, not fiction, and I was able to lift some small personal experiences of my own and fit them in, which lends it the memoir-like intimacy for which I was striving.

The book—and Renata—have actually been on the back burner of my mind for quite a while. Long ago before my first novel—before grad school, even—I ran a comic book store (family owned) in San Francisco, and I toyed with the idea of a creating a comic book heroine for whom justice and closure will never be an option because diplomatic immunity shielded the murderer of a loved one. Governmental immunity is surely the most horrific of injustices …  Anyway, the pain and rage and trauma is unbearable, and my erstwhile heroine decides to do something about it.

That was how Renata was born, albeit she is not a superhero, does not wear a cape or tights (more like baggy jeans and a sweatshirt from the Army-Navy store), and emerged many years later in a novel, not a comic book. And of course, her name means “reborn”—which she is, figuratively, in THE RECKONING.

S.M.: Garberville is a unique town. Was there anything you had to keep in mind about it, when writing the book?

K.S.: Garberville, at the time I lived in Humboldt, was a small but very thriving town—three or four grocery stores, a music/record shop, a beloved book store. Not bad for a place with a registered population of under 2,000!

Sadly, the whole area has declined economically and culturally, and that decline started to happen during the era I write about in THE RECKONING. It’s now at a very, very low point because of the widely available status of legal cannabis. Until that industry is structured and regulated and marketed like, say, wine—a terroir approach to marijuana—recovery will be a long, slow, trudge.

However, Garberville’s decline also meant that I was able to recreate and portray the flourishing Garberville of earlier decades, albeit fictionalized. Most of the businesses from that era are long gone; however, I think anyone who knew it in the early ‘80s would recognize it in THE RECKONING. Most importantly, the tension and hustle and the illegal economy and the claustrophobic-yet-comforting feeling that everyone knows you and you know everyone is, hopefully, caught convincingly.

Growing up in a such an endogamous environment—never mind one completely dependent on an illegal economy—is markedly different than a childhood spent in the suburbs or a large city. I really tried to emphasize that. How quickly Renata becomes embedded in the community? I saw that happen in real time when I was growing up, when people moved in and were immediately absorbed into the life of the area.

Ultimately, Humboldt County has one glorious asset that more people should treasure: redwoods. Sequoia sempervirens. Before the “Emerald Triangle” boom of marijuana, even before the timber trade of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, there were redwoods. The old growth trees that remain are a world treasure, and I urge everyone contemplating a visit to California to think about driving up 101 and experiencing them.

S.M.: You're withholding a lot of secrets in the story telling. How did you deal with the challenge of when to reveal each of them?

K.S.: That is an incredibly well-crafted question, Scott! Thanks for that graceful avoidance of spoilers, lol! Well, I think of THE RECKONING as a slow-burning fuse that gathers speed and suddenly ignites a rather large bomb or two. It’s also a metaphorical—I don’t know, onion? Mango? Peel after peel after peel, until you get to the center. All those peels are revelations, and you’re absolutely right—revelations must be handled carefully and judiciously. They can build on other another, but they can’t pile on.

Suspense is the climb to revelation, and I wanted to make sure the book was suspenseful from page one to very nearly the last page. It’s a thriller, yes, but it’s also a mystery and a psychological suspense novel, and it shares pacing and attitude and mood with all of those subgenres. Plus, I had a contract for the second book (working title is WHERE THE RAIN NEVER FALLS), so this wasn’t a stand-alone, which means I could play around a bit more with what is revealed and when.

I never believe in dumping every fact about a character or a situation in a reader’s lap. That’s why CITY OF DRAGONS does not necessarily read like the first book in a series. THE RECKONING does, because Renata’s on the run from the FBI, and we meet her when she arrives at her hastily-chosen destination. But—she’s still a complex character, suffering from extreme PTSD, going through an intensely complex and frightening experience. So … more secrets to come!

S.M.: Your protagonist has such a distinctive name, Renata Drake. Do you know how it came to you?

K.S.: I’m very particular about names, especially for a series protagonist. The rhythm, the sound, the cadence all has to be right, to fit who I think my character is and to echo in my mind and ear.

Renata as the first name, as I mentioned, was rattling around in my head for a long time. Maybe I just like three syllable feminine names that end in “a”, lol? Certainly Miranda and Renata have a similar ring, though Miranda (“she who should be marveled at or admired”) is a bit more rooted in her name, while Renata (“reborn”) is just coming into hers at the start of THE RECKONING. Her alias, Natalie, is more specifically related to Christmas, but also generally can be taken as meaning renewal or birth. She chooses it because it can be shortened to “Nattie”, which is also a diminutive of Renata.

As for “Drake”—well, “drake” is essentially another name for a dragon. Short, direct, forceful. So while Renata’s first name is indicative of her vulnerability as a newborn person, her last name anchors her and conveys that behind that vulnerability is someone fierce and very strong. I’m partial to dragons!

S.M.: Even though it's set in 1985 it isn't as historic as the nineteen forties or ancient Rome. What was it like for you to write in a more contemporary time?

K.S. It’s weird to think you’ve experienced history rather than just researched it, so that was very different for me. Research enforces perspective on a period—and I think the closer you are to a time and place, the more perspective you need. So I still did research—on things like Greyhound bus schedules, for example—but I did not need to delve as much into the way people spoke, behaved, etc. because I could tap into memory.

It's a freeing process—you can process a lot of memories writing about something as close to you as THE RECKONING is to me. It was highly satisfying to exact fictional justice for friends I had who were victims of some of the crimes described in the book. It was almost like a well-known PTSD therapy called EMDR, during which you seek to basically rewrite negative memories to make them less self-destructive.

That said, I wouldn’t make a habit out of writing either personally-close stories or near contemporary narratives, with the exception of Renata. I wouldn’t rule it out with the right concept—I actually have started a contemporary work—but the contemporary world is honestly not where I want to spend my time.

I always prefer the “no cell phone” eras! And I Iove, love, love to research.

S.M.: Like Miranda Corbie, Renata has a lot of femme fatale characteristics when you first meet her, but she turns out to be a true hero by the time you get to know her throughout the book. What do you enjoy about turning that trope on its head?

K.S.: Thank you for that observation, Scott—and you know me, there’s nothing I like more than turning a trope upside down!

Renata is a hunted animal when you meet her, stepping out of that Greyhound onto the bright Garberville street. She is confused, sleep-deprived, self-doubting, bewildered, grieving, knows she doesn’t want to go to prison but feels guilty for violating her father’s oath, and also feels guilty—survivor’s guilt—because of Josie’s murder.

Hunted animals are extremely vulnerable and extremely dangerous. I hope both of those characteristics emerge in Renata’s portrayal.

So, in some ways, as a young woman on the run from a pending murder charge, she fits the trope of damsel-in-distress while simultaneously fulfilling the femme fatale concept of the attractive, dangerous, deadly female who has killed a man. She understands how to talk to people, but puts up a wall of noninvolvement similar to Rick “I stick my neck out for nobody” Blaine in Casablanca.

Her transition is one of the major themes of the book—which, itself (and I know you’ll appreciate this) was heavily influenced by Hammett’s RED HARVEST. In fact, I almost borrowed that title! So I see in her a bit of a displaced, concussed Op, too.

I love to play around with expectations. So many people are so often underestimated and undervalued by societal systems and power structures, and I love to write about how they potentially emerge from whatever has damaged them: usually the power-players and sociopaths whose machinations put them in that position to begin with. Miranda Corbie was one such character (and I do have plans to bring Miranda back!); Renata Drake is another. Thanks for picking up on that motif, and thanks again for the fabulous questions!