Local author and N.C. Superior Court Judge the Hon. Katherine Burnette is busy working on her second book, which she estimates is about two-thirds completed.
The process of writing an entire work of fiction can be a slow one, Burnette acknowledged. So when she needs a break from writing books, she writes poetry and short stories.
Several of her poems have appeared in Deep South, an online publication that features Southern writers.
Her poem The Martins, describes the movements of that insect-gobbling bird. The setting is near the ocean’s shore, and Burnette intentionally indented the lines of her poem to mimic the waves that lap the sandy coastline.
“I find them fascinating,” Burnette said of the martin. They’re very active at dusk, picking insects out of the sky. “Just the way they fly – they have a unique flight pattern,” she added.
Other poems that appear in Deep South include The Edge of the Pool and Gray Tabby.
Visit https://deepsouthmag.com/ to read the poems and https://maudlinhouse.net/ to find her short story, Cast of Characters.
Burnette spoke with WIZS’s Bill Harris on Tuesday’s segment of The Local Skinny! to discuss her latest literary efforts.
Her first novel, Judge’s Waltz, was published in July 2021, and it has garnered a couple of awards – one for debut novel and one in the category of Mystery, she noted.
Her second work will be a thriller, not a mystery, she explained.
“If you only have one murder in your book, you can’t call it a thriller,” she said, chuckling. The new novel will be set in Henderson and nearby Oxford, where Burnette lives and will include a new set of characters, although readers of Judge’s Waltz will recognize some characters that make an appearance in the new book.
She uses her experience as a judge to help her when she writes courtroom or investigation scenes, she said. Writing is a way “to relieve stress and to think about something else” after a long day in judge’s robes.
Burnette’s book Judge’s Waltz is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble online, as well as the brick and mortar Barnes & Noble in The Village District (formerly Cameron Village) in Raleigh and locally at This ‘n’ That on Main Street in Oxford.
Read more at https://katherineburnetteauthor.com/
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