KIM REID
Interviewed by Terri Molina
Associate Editor, Terri Molina met up with Kim several months ago following the annual Backspace conference and found her to be a fascinating young woman. When the chance came up to interview an author for The Scruffy Dog Review, she jumped at the opportunity.
Kim’s novel No Place Safe: A Family Memoir is a gripping coming of age story set during the time of the horrific Atlanta child murders in which her mother was a lead officer with the crime task force.
No Place Safe was released in October 2007 by Kensington Books.
"Reid maintains a lively sense of dialogue and characterization, and her memoir is an affecting tale of a girl's transformation in a climate of fear and pervasive, bleak Southern racism." Publishers Weekly
SDR: What made you decide to write this story?
KIM: This case has been covered in true crime books, novels, TV and cable movies. I always felt most of them presented generalized, negative views of cops on the case. Like many in Atlanta, I was upset that the killings went on for so long and looked to the police for answers, but I never believed there was a single cop on the case who didn’t want to solve it, and didn’t work hard trying to solve it. I knew my mother gave up a lot personally while she worked the investigation. I wanted to share my version of this time in Atlanta, from the perspective of a kid of one of the many cops impacted by working this difficult case.
SDR: Were you worried when you wrote this story that it would cause a negative impact or backlash with the people involved?
KIM: I didn’t worry about backlash from my family; they supported me in the writing of the story. Though I was mostly influenced by my mother’s view, I did a lot of research to keep the facts straight regarding the case itself, so I hope not to get crosswise with cops on the investigation. In aspects of my personal story, especially the areas touching on racism, I wondered what some of my friends, past and present, would think. But these were my experiences, and I decided I couldn’t worry whether people would agree with my perceptions – because they’re mine. On the flip side, all I can do is share what I felt, but I can’t tell people how to feel about it. Even though the story is structured by a true crime, it really is a memoir of my family and my coming-of-age. I didn’t interview the families of the victims as one might with a true-crime book, but I tried hard – and hope I succeeded – in respecting them and their loved ones. With the victims being mostly children, I wanted to treat them gently. I’ve been asked why I didn’t include more play-by-play details about the murders, but that is not the story I wanted to write.
SDR: You and your sister seemed very close. Has the publication of this book affected your relationship with her? What about with your mother?
KIM: We are all still very close, and there weren’t any major surprises for my mother and sister since I talked to them throughout the writing. They helped me remember things, or discount some of what I remembered. My sister and I are more aligned in how we remembered the period, perhaps because we were both kids. There are some things my mother didn’t see the way my sister and I did, but still she loves the book, and tries to get everyone she meets to buy a copy (or three).
SDR: How do you feel now that you're an adult about how much your mother told you about the case while it was going on?
KIM: I’m fine with it. Some of my knowledge also came from me snooping. My earliest favorite TV shows were police shows, and I had big fun trying to figure out who did it before the TV cops did. I loved that my mother was a cop until I was old enough to understand that what she did was nothing like TV, that it was dangerous, stressful and often thankless. I was always interested in being a cop but never had the nerve – so I write about them instead.
SDR: Having had to grow up fast, was there ever a time you wished you hadn't been privy to the details of the investigation?
KIM: That’s one of the themes of the story, that I never felt much like a kid when I was one. I’m more like a kid now, but I’ve never believed ignorance is bliss. The unknown is scary to me. If I don’t know what’s going on, I’ll start dreaming things up that are more frightening than reality. Even as a kid, I figured the more I knew, the better I could deal.
SDR: I'm sure these crimes will always have a lasting effect on the Atlanta community, but do you feel the city has changed much because of these crimes?
KIM: I think it did for people who lived there at the time. Atlanta is very transient in that so many people who live there now moved from somewhere else and don’t know about the investigation. But for those of us who were there, I think the crimes stripped away some innocence, changed outside perceptions of southern gentility, rocked our views on race, made us mistrust our leaders, frightened us down to the core, to our most personal selves. I’ve had feedback from folks who didn’t live in Atlanta but remember the period and were changed by it. Recently I received a message from a reader who grew up near my neighborhood during the murders. She said the story made her sad, but also made her remember living through that very important moment in Atlanta’s history and she thanked me for writing it. I appreciate that. I think it was a pivotal moment that we shouldn’t forget. And not because it holds some cautionary tale. We simply shouldn’t forget.
SDR: I know being one of the few minorities in an all white school and growing up in with the crimes essentially in your backyard, did it ever make you feel as if you'd lost a sense of personal safety? If so, how? And does it affect your relationship with your husband (since most men have such strong protective instincts over those they love)?
KIM: Yes, I think just about everyone was scared back then; it was the thing that made me most angry, having to be a kid and always afraid. But I tend to watch my back anyway – my mom was a cop, my husband worked in a police department for a decade and now works in the court system, and my step-father is a criminal defense lawyer. Most of my life, the people closest to me have worked close to crime, so being aware of crime is just a part of how I think, act, and write. But I only see the law side of it. The crime side gets filtered through them, and that’s really the most fascinating part. Not that I want a close-up view, mind you.
SDR: As you move into writing fiction, how much of your past affects the genre you're drawn to write in?
KIM: Every manuscript I’ve ever written, published or not, looks at what drives people to commit crime, and the fallout for both victim and criminal. I’d like to continue exploring that.
SDR: What's the one question you've never been asked that you wish someone had asked you?
KIM: Kim, would you like a seven-figure book deal?
SDR: Well, I’m sure that question isn’t far behind. Is there anything I haven't asked you that you feel I should have?
KIM: No; you ask great questions!
SDR: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me.
KIM: Thanks for having me.
Kim lives in Colorado but grew up in Georgia and hopes the South will always flavor her stories. Kim Reid enjoys writing narrative non-fiction although fiction is her first love and she’s working to add novelist to her bio. To learn more about Kim and her future works visit her at her website www.kimreid.com
