{"id":242669,"date":"2009-06-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-29T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/caitlin-rothermurder-she-wrote\/"},"modified":"2009-06-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-29T07:00:00","slug":"caitlin-rothermurder-she-wrote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/caitlin-rothermurder-she-wrote\/","title":{"rendered":"Caitlin Rother: Asesinato que escribi\u00f3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Priscilla Lister<\/p>\n

\"caitlan
Author Caitlin Rother Photo: John McCutchen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nearly three years ago Caitlin Rother left a successful career as a newspaper reporter to become a novelist.
\nSince then she hasn’t looked back, or slowed down. Her fifth book comes out in September. \u201cTelling stories was my destiny,\u201d said the Kensington resident.
\nFour of her books are true-crime stories, which she wrote using skills she acquired as an investigative reporter. Her only book of fiction so far is \u201cNaked Addiction,\u201d a thriller about the murder of young beauty school students in San Diego beach communities. She started the novel while still working as a reporter, and it took her 17 years to find a publisher.
\nRother said she has found that non-fiction is far easier than fiction to get published \u2013 90 percent of published books versus 10 percent, she estimated. \u201cPersistence and learning how to rebound from rejection are two keys to getting published,\u201d she said.
\nHer newest book, coming out this fall, is \u201cWhere Hope Begins,\u201d the true story of how Alysia Sofios, a TV reporter in Fresno, risked her career to help female survivors of the Marcus Wesson family recover from a cult-like life of incest, polygamy and the murder of their nine children.
\nHer most recent book, published in March, was \u201cBody Parts.\u201d It chronicles the true story of serial killer Wayne Adam Ford, a long-haul trucker convicted of killing four women \u2013 dismembering two \u2013 who is now on Death Row in San Quentin.
\nHer first true crime book, \u201cPoisoned Love,\u201d dissected the story of Kristin Rossum, a toxicologist in the San Diego County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office who was convicted of poisoning her husband with drugs she stole from her county lab, where she was having an affair with her married boss. Rother’s second book, \u201cTwisted Triangle,\u201d is the factual story of a kidnapping, attempted murder and love triangle involving two married FBI agents and crime novelist Patricia Cornwell.
\nRother was born in Montreal, Canada, and came with her parents to California as a toddler. Her mother, Carole Scott, was a dean at San Diego State University, where her father, Jim Rother, was an English professor. Caitlin earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology from University of California, Berkeley, and a master\u2019s in journalism from Northwestern University.
\nShe came by her new career naturally, having had lots of on-the-job training in true crime while working as an investigative reporter. Rother was a journalist for 19 years for daily newspapers, including a couple in Massachusetts early in her career, then the Daily News in Los Angeles and the San Diego Union-Tribune. At the Union-Tribune, she developed a kind of specialty writing about bizarre deaths. In 1998 she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her story about a depressed teenager who died after lighting himself on fire behind a Santee WalMart. She also wrote some 50 stories for the Union-Tribune covering the Rossum trial.
\n\u201cWhen you cover a trial for a newspaper, you only get so much space,\u201d she said. Her editors would tell her that her stories were too long. \u201c \u2018We\u2019re not writing books here,\u2019 they said to me.”
\n“Maybe I should,\u201d she thought.
\nThe Rossum case presented her first best opportunity. \u201cI had a lot of material left over,\u201d she said. She took a six-month leave from the newspaper and got her first book deal. By September, 2006, with her second book deal in hand, she quit the Union-Tribune to write books full-time.
\nAs an investigative reporter, Rother was used to digging, interviewing, and gathering facts \u2013 for her, that pursuit was like solving puzzles. \u201cBut no matter how much great information you have, if you can\u2019t tell a story, people won\u2019t read it. So to me (true-crime writing) is creative, but I also get to use my investigative reporting skills, which I think is really fun.\u201d She prefers stories that explore the psychological aspects of criminals. Because she combines writing and reporting talents, her books are very detailed, twice-researched, page turners.
\n\u201cUsing a reporter\u2019s edge, novelist\u2019s eye and a crime scene investigator\u2019s nose for evidence, Rother\u2019s latest is all at once riveting, unbelievable, fast-paced and sure to keep you up at night,\u201d said M. William Phelps, author of \u201cI\u2019ll Be Watching You,\u201d about Rother\u2019s \u201cBody Parts.\u201d
\nShe works seven days a week in her new career. She might be working on different phases of three books at a time \u2013 editing, proofreading, promoting, even looking for the next story. She also teaches feature and creative writing classes at UC San Diego Extension. \u201cYou have to be able to multi-task,\u201d she said. She keeps a spiral notebook of to-do lists.
\n\u201cI\u2019d like to dispel the myth that writers make a ton of money and live a glamorous life,\u201d Rother said. \u201cI work so hard, for really not that much money. But I was so driven. I wanted a book published more than anything on the planet.\u201d
\n\u201cI kind of equate my current career to professional poker \u2013 it\u2019s speculative, uncertain and I feel like I\u2019m gambling all the time, waiting for the big hit,” Rother said. “Essentially, I\u2019m building a business. As long as I continue to see growth, even if it\u2019s small, I keep going.\u201d
\n\u201cI think it takes a lot of courage to step out and believe in yourself like Caitlin has,\u201d said Michael Kinsman, a former long-time Union-Tribune reporter who now works for Nuffer, Smith, Tucker, Inc. public relations firm. \u201cShe\u2019s entered a very challenging and difficult world and she\u2019s doing something she loves. You always have to admire somebody like that.\u201d
\nShe\u2019s now working on her sixth book: it’s about Skylar Deleon and his wife, Jennifer, who led a clan of outlaws to murder Tom and Jackie Hawks by tying them to the anchor of their yacht in Newport Beach and throwing them overboard.
\nRother often spends her mornings at a neighborhood eatery, her \u201coffice.\u201d She goes to the gym or takes a walk around Kensington every afternoon. \u201cI really like the old houses in my neighborhood. I walk around a lot and look at all the nicely kept yards. I like the fact the little commercial area is growing, getting more restaurants. It\u2019s just a cool neighborhood with friendly people.\u201d
\nIt surely provides a balancing counterpoint to her work.<\/p>\n

Caitlin Rother will be the featured author this month at Tango Wine Company’s “Wine n’ Writers” event, June 24, from 6 p.m.-8 p.m., 2161 India St., San Diego, 92101.
\nFor her book signings and new publication dates, check her web site, www.caitlinrother.com<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Priscilla Lister Nearly three years ago Caitlin Rother left a successful career as a newspaper reporter to become a novelist. Since then she hasn’t looked back, or slowed down. Her fifth book comes out in September. \u201cTelling stories was my destiny,\u201d said the Kensington resident. Four of her books are true-crime stories, which she […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1284,"featured_media":242670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Caitlin Rother:Murder She Wrote","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}