Kristi Charish Interview - Owl and the Tiger Thieves ~ JeanBookNerd

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Kristi Charish is the author of KINCAID STRANGE, a paranormal mystery series about a voodoo practitioner living in Seattle with the ghost of a grunge rocker, and THE ADVENTURES OF OWL, an adventure fantasy about ex-archaeology grad student turned international antiquities thief, Alix— better known now as Owl—a modern-day “Indiana Jane” who reluctantly navigates the hidden supernatural world.

Kristi writes what she loves; adventure heavy stories featuring strong, protagonists, pop culture, and the occasional RPG fantasy game thrown in the mix. Kristi is also a scientist. She has a BSc and MSc from Simon Fraser University in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and a PhD in Zoology from the University of British Columbia. She specializes in genetics, cell biology, and molecular biology and gratuitously uses her expertise throughout her fiction. You can find Kristi with her laptop on Vancouver film sets, getting paid to write while filling in the background.

What was the greatest thing you learned at school?

That stories are the building block of communication.

What are some of your current and future projects that you can share with us?

At the moment I’m working on an untitled spy spoof all about the woman whose job it is to make certain the world never finds out just how clueless her famous spy boss really is.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.

Hands down whenever someone writes to say they enjoyed a book.

Why is storytelling so important for all of us?

It provides context for so much of our lives- how we view ourselves, our world - they show us how to build narratives for how we want to see ourselves and have the world see us. Stories are a cathartic outlet for hope.

Can you tell us when you started OWL AND THE TIGER THIEVES, how that came about?

I started the Owl series while I was still in grad school. I love adventure movies and video games - particularly anything to do with archaeology and mythology. I added an adventuring thief with a dubious cause and my series was born. TIGER THIEVES is the fourth book so it kicks off in the place Owl last finds herself; in trouble.

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel?

That they need to turn the page.

What part of Alix did you enjoy writing the most?

Action scenes are always a blast to write. I also love researching history and archaeology and adding in details. The monster design is always fun too - there’s a lot of science I get to dabble in.

Which of your characters do you feel has grown the most since book one and in what way have they changed?

Probably Owl as the series is about her and from her perspective.

If you could introduce one of your characters to any character from another book, who would it be and why?

I’d love to drop Owl and Kincaid Strange (a character from another series I write) into a scene together and see what happens. I think their similarities would cause some spectacular fights before they settled in to work together.

Tell me about a favorite event of your childhood.

Ski-doing in Ontario on the frozen lakes when I was a kid.

Best date you've ever had?

Egyptian Pyramids. Desperately hoping for a Pompeii date one day.

First Heartbreak?

Finding out that Archaeology really didn’t have an Indiana Jones career option. ;-) I was torn up for years over that.

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your readers. What would it be?

This is geared towards aspiring writers - always, always remember that money goes in one direction- towards the author. It was the most valuable piece of advice I got starting out and still serves me well.

TEN FAVORITE BOOKS READ THIS YEAR

1. BLACK ADDER Script Collection (Found this gem in a second hand shop)
2. HENCH by Natalie Zina Walschots (the henchmen take on the superheroes)
3. MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (The title says it all)
4. DEAD MOON by Peter Clines (What if the moon were a graveyard?)
5. SQUEEZE ME by Carl Hiaasen (political satire at it’s best)
6. MIDNIGHT RIOT by Ben Aaronovitch (urban fantasy set in London)
7. DEATH ON THE NILE by Agatha Christie (an oldie but a goodie)
8. STIFF by Mary Roach (the fascinating science of bodies)
9. THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL by Sujata Massey (Murder Mystery in 1920s Bombay)
10. PLAGUE by CC Humphreys (2020/21 thematically appropriate)

Writing Process
Every author has a unique writing process. I start off writing a novel by finding the right voice for my protagonist (or just finding a protagonist). After that, the plan usually focuses on getting something written that resembles a novel. I always have ‘big picture’ stuff percolating in the back of my thoughts but I also try not to set too many things in stone. After that, it’s honestly a matter of getting the work done. Make hands do fun typy-writey thing on keyboard until words come out. I try to do it for 4-6 hours every day, making sure to drink water occasionally. I don’t worry about spelling, at least not at first. That’s pretty well it.

There is a ton of fantastic writing advice out there covering how to organize your thoughts, how the backbones of great novels work, great plots- all of that you can find online for free. There are countless authors I meet who never get to the writing part because they’re afraid it won’t be perfect. If you never sit down and do the physical work of writing something awful (I’ve done it many times, gleefully), you’ll never get to the part where you figure out how to make it better. Honestly, that’s the best process advice I can give. Get the work done.

This years challenge has had the added challenge of writing with the pandemic. Pre-pandemic I was averaging 2-3 novels a year and writing an average of 6-8 hours a day. Last year I was lucky to manage a half hour uninterrupted. Though I managed 4 drafts I didn’t finish anything. The goal at the beginning of this year was to finish and deliver all four to my agent by Dec 31st, but that dream is rapidly departing - and that’s ok.

In this fourth Owl novel, Kristi Charish (The Voodoo Killings) melds sparkling fantasy with the grit of urban underbelly—with a detour through the world’s most spectacular cities. This is perfect for fans of Kim Harrison, Jim Butcher, Jennifer Estep, Jenn Bennett, and fantasy lovers everywhere.

Through no fault of her own, Alix has found herself essential to the fate of the world as we know it. She didn’t mean for this to happen—she was quite happy being merely the notorious antiquities thief, and ex-archeologist, known as Owl.

However, years ago, Owl reluctantly entered the secret world of the supernatural. Her goals: complete one job, escape one bounty on her head, continue her thieving in peace.

Fast forward to today. Now, she has become a key player in a brutal paranormal civil war that is rapidly getting out of hand. The leader of one of these factions—a lethal opponent called the Electric Samurai—grows more powerful by the second. To stop him, Owl sets out to find the long-lost, legendary group known as the Tiger Thieves.

But will it be too little too late? One thing Owl misses about “normal” archaeology: there are few emergencies with thousand-year-old relics.

You can purchase Owl and the Tiger Thieves at the following Retailers: