When Alex Kava bought her house just outside Pensacola seven years ago, it was supposed to be a writing retreat. Then came Hurricane Ivan, and after that came Hurricane Dennis. She spent two years cleaning up the damage.

“I didn’t do much writing at all,” she says.

But she’s picked up speed in the past four years, and Damaged, her new thriller, contains all the hard-core thrills her readers expect, and a little something extra: This time, her heroine, Maggie O’Dell, finds herself coping with a nasty hurricane in Pensacola.
Hmmmmm.

Kava’s novels aren’t cozies; Maggie O’Dell’s introductory scene in Damaged finds her combing brain tissue out of her hair. Being a female cop is tough. But not as tough as riding out a hurricane.

“I grew up in Nebraska,” says Kava, “and I thought I would be prepared for hurricanes from growing up in tornado country. But having a massive storm plowing its way toward you is a whole different thing. It’s the waiting that gets you.

“What impresses me about Floridians, especially the natives, is that they’re so good about the waiting. I was on pins and needles, and my neighbors would just say, ‘Oh, it’s not time for the plywood yet. And if it’s a Category 4 or 5, don’t even bother boarding up.’ And when it is time to board up, they just go do it. It’s all so matter-of-fact.”

The second time around, with Hurricane Dennis, Kava decided she was wasting perfectly good material. She began taking notes, “of anything and everything, from signs saying (TV meteorologist) ‘Jim Cantore Go Home,’ to how the demeanor of the friends I was staying with changed as the storm hit.”

Kava came to writing in midlife. At the time, she was in public relations with a sideline in graphic design. “I was pretty burned out, and decided I no longer wanted to do what I was doing. I just quit. I had always dreamed of writing a novel, but I couldn’t get it published — 116 rejections, and it’s still in the drawer. I was at a crossroads in my life, and figured while I was taking time off, I would write a novel. I gave myself a deadline and was able to do it.”

But she added something to the mix. Kava’s given name is Sharon, which is the name she used for that first, unpublished manuscript. It resulted in some interesting notes from agents:

“This is a great suspense novel, but add some romance … ”

“This is too violent, add some romance … ”

“I had submitted the book under my real name, and there was a general perception that a woman should write romantic suspense. So when I quit my job, I approached the selling of the book from a business standpoint. I decided to submit it with a name that could be either male or female and I chose Alex. I sent it to 32 agents. Three called to represent it, and they all called for ‘Mr. Kava.’

“That’s when I understood that there can be a double standard for female protagonists in thrillers. My readers have been really great — they loved Maggie before I even liked her. I never intended to write a series, and the publisher and the readers demanded I continue. It took me a couple of books to warm up to her.”

Following her own experiences, Kava firmly believes that aspiring writers need to approach the craft “as a profession. If you want to make a living, you have to treat it as a business.”

If her website is any indication, Kava’s readership is 60-40, tilting toward women. “Women are voracious readers, and a lot of men come up to me at signings and say they wouldn’t have started reading me if they knew I was a woman. I guess men are set on reading men. I take the fact that they read me as a compliment.”

Kava says that Maggie O’Dell is far from a road not taken for her.

“I have built up a group of friends who are in law enforcement, from detectives to CSI to prosecutors. I love being able to sit down and listen to their stories, and I do use some things they tell me about cases.

“But I get queasy. I make this stuff up, and what they do is real. The bit about Maggie picking someone’s brains out of her hair, that comes from a law-enforcement person describing that experience.

“This is what they do every day. It’s not something I want to do or would choose to do.”

~scott_eyman@pbppost.com