Hmmm ... not sure what I say here.
I was born in San Francisco and then hijacked by my family and taken kicking and screaming to Alaska. I escaped briefly to the East Coast but ended up back in Alaska for many years where I was a social worker having 'clients' stick nine Pitbull terriers in my work car - the incident was included in a training video on what not to do when you are a social worker - working with children who had killed, and watching mother and baby Orca whales a few yards away from me in the pouring rain in Juno for several hours as tears streamed down my face. I also slept one night in a motel room with a baby elephant on the Alcan to save it from the freezing cold and got chased by a grizzly bear in my ragtop Jeep.
But what I wanted to do above all was to return to San Francisco, and I have!
My proudest writing moments have been the completion of 'Jungle Rot,' having listened to the Reverend Jim Jones's self-obsessed voice for months on end as he narrated every banal moment of his life - he narrated the most gruesome act of his life, too: the murder of nearly a thousand men, women and children in Jonestown - and the publication of 'The Funeral Bride' about the early life of Empress Alexandra with whom I have been obsessed for twenty-five years.
My most successful books have been my 'Autobiography of Empress Alexandra' series (I am currently writing Book Four), 'The Wedding Gift,' which I wrote as a fun murder-horror story after I had finished the true horror of 'Jungle Rot,' and 'The Night My Husband Killed Me,' about the deaths of four women, including the beautiful and talented Natalie Wood.
I really enjoy researching the background to my books and conducting interviews with sources, but as for the actual process of writing, I agree with Walter Winchell, who said, "you simply sit down at your typewriter, open a vein and bleed.'
Kathleen McKenna Hewtson
I was born in San Francisco and then hijacked by my family and taken kicking and screaming to Alaska. I escaped briefly to the East Coast but ended up back in Alaska for many years where I was a social worker having 'clients' stick nine Pitbull terriers in my work car - the incident was included in a training video on what not to do when you are a social worker - working with children who had killed, and watching mother and baby Orca whales a few yards away from me in the pouring rain in Juno for several hours as tears streamed down my face. I also slept one night in a motel room with a baby elephant on the Alcan to save it from the freezing cold and got chased by a grizzly bear in my ragtop Jeep.
But what I wanted to do above all was to return to San Francisco, and I have!
My proudest writing moments have been the completion of 'Jungle Rot,' having listened to the Reverend Jim Jones's self-obsessed voice for months on end as he narrated every banal moment of his life - he narrated the most gruesome act of his life, too: the murder of nearly a thousand men, women and children in Jonestown - and the publication of 'The Funeral Bride' about the early life of Empress Alexandra with whom I have been obsessed for twenty-five years.
My most successful books have been my 'Autobiography of Empress Alexandra' series (I am currently writing Book Four), 'The Wedding Gift,' which I wrote as a fun murder-horror story after I had finished the true horror of 'Jungle Rot,' and 'The Night My Husband Killed Me,' about the deaths of four women, including the beautiful and talented Natalie Wood.
I really enjoy researching the background to my books and conducting interviews with sources, but as for the actual process of writing, I agree with Walter Winchell, who said, "you simply sit down at your typewriter, open a vein and bleed.'
Kathleen McKenna Hewtson
I came across this book recently in a used book sale.
It was a book written about the Layton family, three of whom belonged to Jim Jones' inner circle. Larry Layton was the only member of Jonestown to be indicted in relation to the killings.
The book was removed from publication after a few months as a result of objections raised by the family.
Fascinating book!
In writing 'Jungle Rot,' I spent a lot of time in Jim Jones' company, listening to tapes of him talking to himself. I also interviewed several people who escaped the killing field in Guyana, which I visited some time later.
It was a book written about the Layton family, three of whom belonged to Jim Jones' inner circle. Larry Layton was the only member of Jonestown to be indicted in relation to the killings.
The book was removed from publication after a few months as a result of objections raised by the family.
Fascinating book!
In writing 'Jungle Rot,' I spent a lot of time in Jim Jones' company, listening to tapes of him talking to himself. I also interviewed several people who escaped the killing field in Guyana, which I visited some time later.
