Author Event: William Kent Krueger

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend my first author event in over a year last week at the Forsyth County Library in Cumming, Georgia. The library hosts a “Cumming Reads” program which acts as a community wide book club, with this being the big meeting to discuss the book. They actually held two consecutive days of events because of the high interest in this book and their previous programs – the room was packed!

As part of the VIP group, I was invited to a meet and greet before the event which included a photo opp and time to connect with Krueger. It also gave me a chance to connect with other readers and make new friends (hi!!) – both things I have missed since taking a hiatus from in person events given other commitments. I am hoping for the chance to start attending more author discussions and book clubs in the near future!

The Event

Thursday evening’s event was a fantastic discussion between Krueger and another of my favorite authors – Patti Calahan Henry! The pair are old friends and the conversation felt like a peek behind the curtains at that friendship. Before discussing the book, the authors talked about a myriad of topics giving insight into early inspirations to become writers to their writing process, and more.

One of my favorite facts came from early in the night and a discussion around their first real books. As a boy, Krueger participated in the Boy Scouts program and volunteered at the local library in his town to earn a badge one summer. During that work, the librarian asked what he liked to read, which was mostly comic books even though his parents were literary in nature and would have preferred him to read other works. That day, the library handed him a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and opened his eyes to a world of possibilities. He read all the Dumas works the library held, then moved on to other works like Tom Sawyer – the inspiration for his own 2019 work This Tender Land.

Having just read Dumas’ The Three Musketeers a few weeks ago, it struck me to hear his name come up again in such a poignant way. I was also struck when Patti revealed that some of her first early reads were the Nancy Drew books – the same books that inspired my love of literature at a young age! Another moment that surprised me in this part of the discussion was the revelation that Krueger never read mysteries before he wrote them. We always hear it is easiest to write what you know, so it was surprising to see that he really didn’t “know” the genre before starting!

The Book

If you have not yet read the book and would like to avoid any spoilers, click here to jump to the next section. You can also read my full review of Apostle’s Cove here.

When asked about his inspiration for Apostle’s Cove, Krueger mentioned that he wanted Cork to feel as old as the author himself. Turning 75 next month, Krueger felt like it was time to acknowledge that Cork has been put through the wringer – shot, stabbed, heartbroken, and more – and allow the past to take the adventure here. Krueger also wanted to explore guilt – Cork is always written from a human place of emotion and has developed well over the 21 novels in this series, but guilt hasn’t been explored in depth yet.

It was interesting to hear both authors discuss their writing process throughout their careers. Krueger mentioned that he needs to hear the “voice” of the book before he can write the narrative and often hears it in different ways. For books like his stand alone novel Ordinary Grace, that moment came when he was nearly asleep. Both authors agreed that the setting of a novel is important to ground the reader in a sense of place, with atmosphere and motivation being developed from it. Patti mentioned that you will never read about a place in her books where she has not already stood, allowing her to write about it from a place of knowledge.

Additionally, Krueger discussed the inclusion of Native culture and spirituality in this series. Having many Ojibwe friends, Krueger often passes a manuscript before a few of them prior to turning it in. He allows them to proffer edits and redirections if a piece of the story does not match with their beliefs or would be out of character for a member of the tribe. For something that seems so integral to his novels, I was surprised to hear that Krueger had no knowledge of their culture before starting his work as a writer. He was a cultural anthropology major while attending college and used his education into research to help get started with conversations that would turn into lifelong friendships.

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What’s Up Next

I was excited to hear that this is not the last book in the Cork O’Connor series, even though this was the end of his commitment at the time he wrote Apostle’s Cove. He is currently working on God’s Country, to be released in the fall of 2026! It was interesting to hear him describe how the idea for this book developed over the course of a few phone calls with his agent earlier this year – if you have the pleasure of attending one of his events in the future, ask him about it! We were given a treat as Krueger read page one from this new novel – I was hooked from the first few sentences and am already watching NetGalley for it to land!

Additionally, Krueger is working on a new stand-alone novel that does not have a release date…yet. He wouldn’t discuss it because of how early in the process this work is, but he seems excited to share it with audiences soon!

Another topic you should ask about if you are ever given the opportunity is Krueger’s college experience. Without giving too much away, he was kicked out of Stanford without finishing his degree, but, in his words, he met the love of his life and learned more through real world experience than he ever would have sitting in a classroom!

Final Thoughts

I very much enjoyed this event and hope to attend more with Forsyth County Library in the future. I do wish I lived closer – it was a 2-hour drive during the late afternoon before rush hour to get there from the other side of Metro Atlanta! William Kent Krueger joins a handful of other authors as some of the nicest, most cordial people I have ever talked with and I encourage you to experience one of his events whenever possible! I would also like to commend the event staff and the other attendees – there have been a handful of events over the past five years that have left me wanting to run for the hills, but this was not one of them. Everyone was so pleasant, and I did truly make several new friends. You can find out more about the library system and their events here.

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: Clear and Present Danger, Tom Clancy
• Current audio book: Coraline, Neil Gaiman
• Book I’m most looking forward to: Streets of Laredo, Larry McMurtry