Tell us about yourself.:
Yurie Kiri is a shy, secretive person who used to live on a boat, sailing between various ports in the Pacific Ocean. Yurie lived on the boat until some crazy mega-yacht got loose and went on a full throttle rampage through the marina squashing everything it hit. Alas, sailing was one of Yurie's passions, now writing and photography are the main passions in Yurie Kiri’s life along with cats of course like the enhanced, intelligent cats featured in New York Stories…

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?:
Yurie Kiri, born in a trailer in rural America, studied Mathematics and languages and speaks Japanese, English, French and has also studied Chinese, Arabic and Spanish as well as a smattering of other languages such as Korean and Russian along with binary, octal and hexadecimal machine language because if you really want to get to know someone you need to speak their language no matter if they’re machine or human. Yurie lived and worked in Asia for decades before coming back to America where Yurie went on an extensive backroad journey across the US and Canada from the rough Mexican border towns to the icy cold town of Yellowknife in Canada’s NWT where you need to cross a frozen lake to get into town in the winter. Yurie also sailed (single-handed) from Mexico to the Canadian border, retracing a well-traveled road journey by sea in a small, live aboard sailboat. Yurie has been traveling and gathering story ideas from Asia for the Game Series which covers Japan and other Asian countries and North America for the Murder and Mystery Series which covers the American Southwest.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I'm always writing and I write everywhere: in bed or on planes, on boats, on trains, in bars and restaurants and even on park benches. Sometimes I'm just writing, working on a story and sometimes I'm editing again and again, trying to shave off excessive words, sentences or paragraphs… and sometimes I'm watching and listening, picking up bits and pieces of people and their conversations then making notes on scraps of paper or on my phone… All that could be construed as creepy lurking but a smile keeps me out of trouble. I usually describe these story gathering processes in the "Dear Reader (author’s note)" in all of my books.

What authors have influenced you?
Yurie Kiri, born in a trailer in rural America, studied Mathematics and languages and speaks Japanese, English, French and has also studied Chinese, Arabic and Spanish as well as a smattering of other languages such as Korean and Russian along with binary, octal and hexadecimal machine language because if you really want to get to know someone you need to speak their language no matter if they’re machine or human. Yurie lived and worked in Asia for decades before coming back to America where Yurie went on an extensive backroad journey across the US and Canada from the rough Mexican border towns to the icy cold town of Yellowknife in Canada’s NWT where you need to cross a frozen lake to get into town in the winter. Yurie also sailed (single-handed) from Mexico to the Canadian border, retracing a well-traveled road journey by sea in a small, live aboard sailboat. Yurie has been traveling and gathering story ideas from Asia for the Game Series which covers Japan and other Asian countries and North America for the Murder and Mystery Series which covers the American Southwest.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write like your life depends upon it.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?
Run!

What are you reading now?
Science: "This is your Mind on Plants" by Michael Pollan, who I love and have read his other books. Travel: "On the Plain of Snakes" by Paul Theroux, who I also love and have read his other books. Fiction: the "Slough House" series by Mick Herron who I don't particularly like because of how he kills off good characters. I've killed off a few characters in my books too but I can always bring them back as ghosts or spirit guides however Mick didn't give himself those options. I do like the Apple TV version of his books and the cast they picked…

What’s your biggest weakness?
I skip meals and don't exercise enough.

What is your favorite book of all time?
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

When you’re not writing, how do you like to spend your time?
Reading and traveling.

Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I read it when I was a child and it made me want to travel and write stories.

What has inspired you and your writing style?
Please don’t think that this strange story about a series of murders, organ donors, witchcraft and sex sprang from my feverish brain all on its own. I have a good imagination, but it’s not that good. The truth is, one night a few years back, I was sitting in Bolero’s, a Rancho California, patio-style Mexican Restaurant, nursing a margarita and waiting for an expensive Carne Asada taco plate when two women came in and sat down at a nearby outdoor table.
I don’t usually eavesdrop on other people’s conversations, but it was a slow night at Bolero’s and something about these women grabbed my attention and made me turn my head slightly so that I could hear them better. I think that the part of the women’s conversation that really made me sit up went something like this, “You were a close friend of hers, weren’t you? Tell me how she really died. No one deserved to be killed like what I heard…”
As you can imagine, I took my time with my food and margarita, all the while straining to hear and remember exactly what they said. Like I often do, I took a few notes on napkins and scraps of paper as discretely as possible. However, the women decided to move on, before the story was finished, since one of them had promised to meet another friend at Jake’s by the beach. I sadly watched them go but finished up and paid my bill as quickly as possible then I arranged my notes and filled in some of the blanks with what I could best remember.
After that I went to Jake’s looking for them but sadly I never found them again. The story that they told was not finished, however they had given me enough facts that I was able to fill in some of the remaining holes after some research. Although the following story was based upon the overheard conversation plus my research, it also contains assumptions that I’ve been forced to make. In some areas, the truth has been well covered up. As one of the women said that night, “You can’t believe how much money was paid to keep the details out of the local news…”

What are you working on now?
Sequels to the Moonlight series. Moonlight Skull which just won the "unpublished" category at the 2024 Beach Book festival. Also just finished sequel to Games series – Kijo Games which won second place in 2024 LA Book festival – "science fiction" category.

What is your favorite method for promoting your work?
I like both the "fussy librarian" and "bargain booksy" promos.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Continuing to write sequels but planning to eventually have some of the Moonlight characters meet up with the Games characters in Japan.

How well do you work under pressure?
You can't even imagine what I've been through yet I'm still able to write.

How do you decide what tone to use with a particular piece of writing?
I've read and re-read my own stories over and over, probably close to a hundred times before publishing and think about them (my characters) all the time like they're real people… (which they are) when I get inspired to make a change it's a meaningful change but then I'm weird… because I believe in my characters.

If you could share one thing with your fans, what would that be?
Be skeptical. If the insurance company (like in NY Stories) says, "Get in the boat, we'll keep you safe." Don't believe them. If the politicians say, "Vote for me I'll set you free…" You may want to think about that since it could mean the opposite and if anyone says, "Don't worry, it's just the weather…" run for high ground.

Yurie Kiri’s Author Websites and Profiles
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