After publishing two books of poetry under her maiden surname Melendez, Maria Kelson said she hit a poetry wall and was ready to try something different. And what could be more different than a crime thriller?
“Changing from poetry to thrillers is like going from playing the violin to the tuba,” Kelson said. “I knew how to read music, but I had a lot of technique to learn.”
After setting aside her poetry, Kelson had decided that her next writing project would be a page turning crime story. She had been inspired by reading Walter Mosley’s crime fiction and wanted to try exploring the dark side of life.
That was 12 years ago.
What followed was years of writing, and rewriting. It wasn’t until just a few months ago that Kelson was finally able to hold her finished book, “Not The Killing Kind.”
Her debut novel is a high-stakes crime thriller about the lengths mothers will go to protect their children. She wanted the book to be an easy read and one that would be hard for readers to put down as the excitement continues to build.
“It is very fulfilling to see something I've worked on for so long, be in print,” she said. “It’s exciting to be able to talk to people who are working on longer projects and to be able to confidently say that there are ways to cross the finish line.”
Ten Years Of Research And Revision
Kelson worked full-time and raised two kids with her husband while she wrote her thriller. There were a lot of competing demands on her time, but she persisted. Paragraph by paragraph, Kelson built her story and discovered her characters.
For the first few years, she devoted her time to researching. When it came to the actual writing, she admitted that some weeks there would only be 25 minutes that she was able to carve out for writing.
“I was teaching myself how to write a novel,” she said. “The experience overall of writing fiction has really taught me a lot about patience. I chipped away at it over the years and wrote eight drafts.”
As Kelson juggled her writing, family, and full-time job, she also found time to network. She said that the biggest part of her success came from the writers’ conferences she attended and meeting other authors who inspired her to keep writing.
During this time of writing, she won the inaugural Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime. The award elevated what had been just a work-in-progress passion project into something more, and it became just one more reason to finish the book.
The Inspiration
Kelson’s fiction is influenced in part by her surroundings. She was born in Arizona and raised in Northern California. Along with her husband and kids, she moved throughout the United States until finding her forever home in Wyoming.
For her debut crime thriller, she leaned into her own experiences working years ago as a family literacy coordinator at an elementary school. There, she had met several undocumented mothers from Mexico who were learning English. Since Kelson’s own dad is Mexican-American, she thought they would have a bond through their shared heritage and was surprised that their perspective on life was so different from her own.
Intrigued by these differences, she leaned into the tension of not completely understanding everything they were facing to help form her novel. She also used her own life experiences as a young mother as a major part of the novel.
“Parenting is a theme in the novel, and parenting has been a big part of my adult life,” Kelson said.
As she wrote her book, her ultimate goal was to make something that people wanted to read.
“Most of all, I hope it's entertaining,” she said. “I wrote it to be a page turner, so I hope that people find it engaging.”
Maria Kelson is excited to be able to share her book and attend book signings where she can meet her audience in person. (Maria Kelson) 
"Not The Killing Kind” by Wyoming author, Maria Kelson. It is a crime thriller that explores a parent’s relationship with their child and what extent a mother will go to protect her child. (Maria Kelson) 
Maria Kelson is the winner of the inaugural Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime for her book, “Not The Killing Kind.” (Maria Kelson) 
Maria Kelson loves to read thrillers and turned that passion into her debut book, “Not The Killing Kind.”
From Writer To Published Author
In a day of self-publishing, Kelson decided to go the traditional route for her first novel and got herself an agent, editor and publishing house.
“I wanted to have a team of people who were behind the book who would help me promote it,” she said. “I ended up working with this editor who I had met in my poetry days. I met her at a poetry reading years ago in New York.”
It was this networking she had done throughout the decade of the writing process and from her poetry background that also led her to the publishing house, Crooked Lane Books. Their niche is crime novels, and they are distributed through Penguin Random House Publisher Services which has given Kelson an opportunity to reach a broader audience.
Crooked Lane Books publish 120 books a year and with this many authors to keep track of, Kelson is responsible for most of the promotion of her thriller.
Kelson said that although she still must do her own marketing as if she was self-published, the editing she received going the traditional route helped her improve the book. Just for this alone, she said, made it completely worthwhile.
Although Kelson left a few threads hanging in “Not The Killing Kind” with the option to someday write a sequel, she said that it is still a stand-alone book that people will walk away from, satisfied by the ending. This said, she is now working on a new thriller based in Wyoming.
New Inspiration
For Kelson’s second book, she is confident the writing process will go faster. She now has an agent prodding her along with goals and she has more of an understanding of what it means to write a fast-paced thriller. She has learned how to play the tuba.
“I get a lot of inspiration from my own environment and by the reading I do,” she said.
That inspiration and the books she is drawn to are all about Wyoming.
Kelson’s husband works for the Teton Science Schools, so she has a unique opportunity to see behind the scenes as she does her research for her next thriller. Currently, the couple divide their time between the national park in Jackson and their home in Thermopolis.
When she first moved back to Wyoming and Teton County, Kelson said she read a book called “Billionaire Wilderness” by Justin Farrell. The author described an enclave outside of Yellowstone National Park called the Yellowstone Club that sparked her imagination.
“I'm fascinated by the idea of hidden enclaves,” Kelson said. “That's a topic ripe for crime novel plotting.”
As Kelson continues to juggle her work, family and writing, she is excited to see what the next chapter holds for her.
“I find it fascinating,” she said about the opportunity to explore Wyoming through fiction. “I get to look at different communities all around the Greater Yellowstone area and bring it to life for others.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
