Today, Olivia from YA-Mag sat down with Connie C. Wilson, author of KHAKI = KILLER!
As Tad, Melody, Janice, Stevie, Heather, and Kelly near the end of their senior year, a madman’s return to Cedar Falls can mean only one thing: death.
But after a devastating fall during the Homecoming game, cheerleader Melody is in the hospital. And the risk of death is real not only for herself but for her unborn child as well.
As innocent lives hang in the balance, Tad McGreevy–the boy with the ability to see the color of evil in his nightmares before crimes occur–finds himself targeted by the escaped serial killer.
Olivia with YA-Mag: Connie, welcome to the Young Adult Magazine! We’re here talking about your novel KHAKI = KILLER.
YA: Let’s talk about Tad McGreevy. How did you two first meet? What makes Tad the perfect character to tell this story vs. any other character?
Connie (Corcoran) Wilson: Tad McGreevy is the only character in THE COLOR OF EVIL series that has the paranormal ability known as Super Tetrachromatic Vision. He began life in a short story called “Living in Hell,” which was contained within my three-volume short story collection, “Hellfire & Damnation.” Tad is the only character in the three novels in THE COLOR OF EVIL series who has precognitive “flashes” of insight as the result of this exceptional power. That power makes him the only character who could tell the story.
YA: What sets Tad’s story apart from other YA thrillers? What will readers find that is unique to this tale?
CCW: This story is darker than many YA thrillers and is aimed at slightly older readers—those who are at least the age(s) of the students in the novels, which means juniors in high school or older. Many YA books pretend that teen-age suicide, teen-aged concerns over divorce and death don’t exist. Pedophiles who prey on young people are non-existent in the sanitized world of many of today’s YA or New Adult fiction—although not on the front pages of nearly every newspaper. Problems such as self-mutilation and teen-age pregnancy are conspicuously absent from other YA thrillers I’ve read. My novels reflect the real-life problems that the students I taught for thirty-three years experienced in their lives. It’s real life as lived by real people. But not life without hope for things to improve and for the characters to change and learn to overcome adversity. What makes this tale unique is the believability of the characters and the way you will empathize with them.
YA: What non-book influences (films, television shows, music, plays, etc) helped spark this story?
CCW: I have reviewed film continuously, in print or online, since 1970, most recently on Yahoo, WeeklyWilson.com, True Review and Wikinut.com. I even wrote a book entitled “It Came from the 70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now,” which was comprised of 50 reviews of representative films from 1970-1979 (written when those films were new) that appeared in the Quad City Times when I was their film and book critic.
I’m in Chicago as I write this, preparing to cover the 50th anniversary of the oldest film festival in North America and to interview Oliver Stone, Taylor Hackford, Kathleen Turner and many other celebrities.
I am influenced, as any reader is, by popular fiction like the genre works of Stephen King, Scott Turow, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut and John Grisham, but I also have a Master’s + 30 hours in Literature with PhD concentration in Victorian literature and taught in these areas at 6 IA/IL colleges. I had teachers such as Nelson Algren (this year, the subject of a documentary at the film festival), Kurt Vonnegut and Patrick Sommerville (“24,” “The Bridge”).
I’ve been a movie aficionado (even teaching a class on Hitchcock at Black Hawk Junior College) since I was old enough to cross the street to the local Malek Movie Theater in Independence, Iowa to see Saturday afternoon matinees.
And certainly the references to real-life murderer John Wayne Gacy in THE COLOR OF EVIL were intentional.
YA: When you were a teen, what was your favorite book (YA or otherwise)? Now that you’re an author for teens, what is your favorite contemporary YA?
CCW: I loved “Catcher in the Rye” (J.D. Salinger) and the early works of Kurt Vonnegut, (whom I interviewed when I was 18 years old) like(“Cat’s Cradle,” “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine,” et. al. when I was of college age. I don’t have a current “favorite contemporary YA author” who writes what I consider to be the reality of teen life, but I am enjoying all the dystopian series (“The Hunger Games,” “Divergent”) as much as the general public seems to be.
I read all Stoker-nominated books the year THE COLOR OF EVIL was the leader in HWA recommendations for many months, and most of those I read were so highly sanitized in regards to “real-life” issues and reflected so little of what I experienced as a teacher of adolescents, that I wrote what I, personally, know from experience. I do think that S.E. Hinton’s early books (“The Outsiders”) were close to what I am trying to achieve with her lines like “Nothing gold can stay” and I would point out that she, also, was a teacher of students this age for many years. If you read the first few lines I’ve provided, you can see that there is going to be conflict over life and death issues. One of the things I’ve explored in the series is how teenagers face the demise of one of their own, because it’s never supposed to happen to THEM, now, is it?
YA: What is the story behind the title KHAKI = KILLER?
CCW: Contrary to what one potential reader said to me, the title has nothing to do with the government— (although stay tuned for further developments on that front.) In the first book, we learn about a young boy who has the ability to “see” auras around others and, from those colors, tell whether they are naughty or nice. He can literally “see” those with the color of evil which in these books is khaki.
YA: This is the third in THE COLOR OF EVIL series. What makes this a great book for new readers to jump in on? What will fans of the series have to look forward to? And any word on a 4th?
CCW: Wherever readers start the journey, they will not be lost. There is enough information to catch them up on what (and who) has gone before. Many readers have told me that they read the second or third book and then went back to read the very first book. But most readers say they really enjoyed starting “at the beginning” and reading the books in order.
Think about “Breaking Bad” on television— or “The Sopranos.” Each episode can be enjoyed on its own, but the back story that you get by starting at the beginning is helpful and will add to your knowledge of the characters and situations. It can also add immeasurably to your enjoyment and appreciation.
As far as “What about Book #4?”, tentatively titled SCARLET SUMMER, it will only cover 67 days of summer, the way I am currently plotting it. At that point, the major characters from the series will launched be into two different worlds. They’re no longer all in high school together. Some of them will be going off to college and some will be starting their adult lives.
I think most of my readers are interested in knowing what happens to Pogo, and that is why a fourth book seems likely and necessary.
YA: If you could cast the Dream Film of KHAKI = KILLER, who would be in the lead roles?
CCW: First, let me say that this would be the ideal television series or movie for new young unknowns. I would envision a younger version of Reese Witherspoon playing the part of Jenny SanGiovanni. Tad, physically, resembles the young actor who co-starred with Naomi Watts in the tsunami movie “The Impossible”, Tom Holland.
YA: What’s up next for you in YA land? Any pet projects you can tease us about?
CCW: As mentioned, I’ll be writing a fourth THE COLOR OF EVIL novel, tentatively titled SCARLET SUMMER.
My other pet project is not a YA project, but a personal one. I covered the 2008 presidential race for Yahoo as press, starting in Iowa with the caucuses and going on through the DNC and the RNC and all over the United States. Now that Yahoo has broken up the Content Producer ranks of regular reporters like me and has gone in another direction, the rights to all of those articles have reverted to all of us. I want to pair my articles with the many pictures I took during the campaign and release a nonfiction book about that momentous 2008 campaign (first black candidate running against the first viable woman candidate and all the others) before the 2016 election.
I also will be releasing the third volume of short stories in the series “Hellfire & Damnation”. It is at the publisher’s right now and nearly ready to go. I’m primarily waiting on the cover art from award-winning artist Vincent Chong of the UK. It is nine stories organized around Dante’s “Inferno” and the 9 Circles of Hell, with each story illustrating the crimes or sins punished at that level of Hell.
Meanwhile, the third book in my children’s illustrated series just launched: THE CHRISTMAS CATS ENCOUNTER BATS. This is a series I write for and with my 5-year-old granddaughters, Ava and Elise. The Christmas Cats travel doing good deeds, teaching good moral lessons, and helping other animals in distress. Check out www.TheXmasCats.com.
YA: All right, last one! If you could spend one day with Tad, what would you do together? What would advice would you give to Tad about his past or future?
CCW: If I could spend one day with Tad, we’d go to the movies. As far as “advice about his future,” the series is set in 2003-2005 (so far). I’d warn him about buying in to the variable rate mortgages that were being pushed back then, and tell him: “Buy Apple.” [It’s a little bit like the line of advice that Dustin Hoffman got in “The Graduate” (“Plastics”), but more lucrative.] I’d hope to head Tad off at the pass of financial insolvency, if he were thinking about purchasing a home with one of those slated-to-fail loans.
However, Tad is just starting college now. It’s fortunate that his parents have money, because taking out a huge student loan would be disastrous, too. It’s a moot point, though. Tad probably won’t have the money to buy stocks OR houses, and he probably wouldn’t have the time to go to the movies with me. So, I’d just tell him, echoing the song, “Don’t worry. Be happy.”
YA: Thank you very much, Connie! And again, from YA Mag, congratulations on KHAKI = KILLER!
Readers, be sure to check out Connie C. Wilson at her website www.ConnieCWilson.com. Or follow her on Twitter @Connie_C_Wilson.
KHAKI = KILLER, published by Quad City Press, is now available at your favorite retailers and local independent bookstores, and can also be found on Amazon.com
Olivia Hennis is a transplanted New England girl dropped by a tornado into the magical Land of Jersey. For more info, follow her on Twitter.