She is the author of the Tudor-era “Thornleigh” novels including The Queen’s Lady, The King’s Daughter, The Queen’s Captive, and The Queen’s Gamble, all published internationally. Barbara previously won acclaim for her contemporary thrillers under pen name ‘Stephen Kyle,’ including Beyond Recall (a Literary Guild Selection), After Shock and The Experiment. Over 400,000 copies of her books have been sold. Her latest thriller, under her own name, is Entrapped. Barbara is passionate about helping emerging writers. She has taught her “Writers Boot Camp” for the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, and is known for her dynamic workshops for many writers organizations. She offers twice-yearly Master Classes that focus on work-shopping each participant’s novel-in-progress. Her popular series of videos “Writing Fiction That Sells” offers ten hours of tips, techniques, and inspiration, and is available online via her website. Before becoming an author Barbara enjoyed a twenty-year acting career in television, film, and stage productions in Canada and the U.S.
The revolution of e-books makes this an exciting time
to be a writer. As the technology changes, so does every aspect of the
publishing business. But one thing that remains constant is people’s desire for stories. Thank
goodness for that!
I’ve published seven novels with three traditional
publishers: Penguin USA, Warner Books (now called Grand Central Publishing),
and Kensington Books. I’ve had the longest relationship with Kensington, who
published my four historical novels set in Tudor England: The Queen’s Lady, The King’s Daughter, The Queen’s Captive, and my latest release The
Queen’s Gamble. These books follow the adventures of a middle-class
family, the Thornleighs, through three tumultuous reigns and some of the most
harrowing events of English history. Kensington recently signed me to write
three more books in this “Thornleigh” series. I’m delighted with my relationship with Kensington , and
all my novels with them are available as print books and as e-books.
However, for my new thriller, Entrapped, I was
eager to go the independent route to see how this book might make it on its own
in the brave new world of e-publishing. Entrapped
is based on a true story about a farmer in Alberta, Canada, who happened to
settle on land above one of the biggest natural gas deposits in North America.
Soon his property was surrounded by the rigs and gas-flaring stacks of oil
companies. He watched his livestock
sicken and die from the poisoned air and water.
He feared for his family’s life. But his complaints were ignored by the
company executives and by government, so he took matters into his own hands by
sabotaging the oil companies’ rigs. He eventually went to jail. Using this
sabotage theme, I created a fictional tale, Entrapped. It’s the story of
Liv Gardner, an ambitious young oil executive intent on stopping farmer Tom
Wainwright who is sabotaging her rigs after a spill of lethal “sour” gas
poisoned his wife. Desperate to save the company she built, Liv plants evidence
to frame Tom. But when the evidence is used to indict him for a murder he didn’t
commit, only Liv can save him.
Thrillers are about high stakes,
countdowns, and suspense, and Entrapped delivers all these, but I like
to use the thriller genre to explore complex themes as well, and to carry
important issues to the widest possible audience. Call it Deep Genre. And no
issue is more pressing than the
environmental crisis we’ve created. I believe that the best way to understand
it is to see it played out by characters we care deeply about, characters
thrown into terrible dilemmas in which they are forced to take risks and make
hard choices, characters who illuminate the gripping question we end up asking
ourselves: If I were in that situation, what would I do?
In Entrapped, my characters on
both sides of the power divide confront one another and are forced to make the
hardest choices they’ll ever make. That’s not only compelling drama, it’s also
what all of us have to face, as a society, in coming to terms with
changing our environmentally destructive habits. Charles Dickens knew this when
he wrote his novels to hold a mirror up to the horrors that working class
people suffered under unfettered capitalism in nineteenth century London. In
our time, John Grisham has often done the same with thrillers about the “little
guy” confronting some form of corporate bully: in The Rainmaker it was
the immensely powerful insurance industry, and in The Street Lawyer it
was mega-developers who force homeless people to their death. Like Dickens,
Grisham uses the thriller genre to say what needs to be said.
I wrote Entrapped to deliver
the same kind of conflict, one between the powerful world of Big Oil versus the
lone individual pushed to the limit of endurance and taking on the giant. I
hope readers will enjoy the tale.
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Thank you Barbara for taking the time to share your journey literary journey. Wishing you the best in all your future endeavors.
You can find and visit Barbara Kyle at:
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
To purchase her book:
Entrapped at Amazon.com
Entrapped at Barnes and Nobles.com
Thank you Barbara for taking the time to share your journey literary journey. Wishing you the best in all your future endeavors.
You can find and visit Barbara Kyle at:
Website
Goodreads
To purchase her book:
Entrapped at Amazon.com
Entrapped at Barnes and Nobles.com
Juniper Grove is having a giveaway for Barbara's Kyle's book Entrapped and The Queen's Gamble. Click Juniper Grove to enter today.
