Issue date: 10/20/05 Section: The Studio

Media Credit: Brooke Rasor/Progress Keven McQueen is an English instructor at Eastern. His fourth book has just been published.

Eastern's English professor Keven McQueen lets his readers know what they are in for in the first line of the preface of his book, "Murder in Old Kentucky." "...My sense of humor is as dark as the inside of a badger, and I find murder an irresistible subject matter."

This is his fourth published book. It is a true crime story filled with drama from the Bluegrass.

McQueen used to be a tour guide at White Hall, home of Cassius Clay, which inspired his first book, a biography of Clay.

"It's something I've always wanted to do," McQueen said. This led to three more books and inspired the true crime genre he started to write.

Writing a book is long and tedious, and it starts with a lot of research. McQueen sorted through 17 years from 1877 to 1894 of the Louisville Courier-Journal on Microfilm.

"I try to do lots and lots of original research," McQueen said. "Sometimes as I do it, I think I'm crazy." He looks to the stories for inspiration.

"I try to find stories that people have never written about or that people have forgotten about," McQueen said.

A lot of work goes into writing a book outside of the actual writing aspect.

"From the beginning process of research, writing it up in an interesting way, polishing the manuscripts, sending things out - it takes about two to three years," McQueen said.

McQueen tries to take a different approach to writing true crime than other true crime writers.

"I try to take a different tone than most true crime writers. Most try to be determinedly objective, but I try to take a lighter, darkly humorous approach," McQueen said.

There are a lot of literary allusions found in his book.

"The English instructor comes out in me even when I'm writing true crime books," McQueen said.

Despite McQueen's almost all true crime books, he enjoys many different types of literature.

"I like histories, biographies, fact based writing, 19th century writers, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson," McQueen said.

McQueen has a twin brother who illustrates his books.

"He didn't do any in this past book, but the past three books have had cartoons that he illustrated," McQueen said.

Despite all the work that goes into McQueen's books to make them factual and grammatically correct, he still finds mistakes.

"I think that when one of my books comes out, I know how a woman feels when she gives birth to a two-headed baby," McQueen said. "Once it's out, I'm glad, but all I can see is the flaws."

McQueen already has another book and is currently trying to get the next book published at national level.

Reach Courtney at
courtney_daniel11@eku.edu

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