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Hello, and good morning. How
are you doing today? Hey, I'm

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good. How are you? Absolutely
fantastic. We got to talk about this

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book cover. I know we're not
supposed to judge a book by its cover

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and stuff, but this is a
fantastic, memorable book cover. What went

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into the thought of this. Yes, I love the cover as well,

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and the thought was my team really
wanted her to symbolize female empowerment. It's

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there, it's there. I study
Native American spirituality, and I mean,

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I just feel like the great mystery
is right there, and that she has

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this vision and she's moving forward and
you can you can follow her, or

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she's gonna set the story up and
you're gonna eventually get there. Yeah.

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And I love how she Is she
coming out of the smoke or is she

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disappearing into the smoke? Mmmmmmmm?
Oh my god. And of course you

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know when you break it down,
are we talking about something that is coming

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from a pipe kind of smoke?
Is there an elder that's with her in

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the way of growing forward? Yeah? It really drives you in and brings

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a lot of questions. Perfect cover. Wow. One of the things that

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I find so special about this story
is that just a few weeks ago,

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I was with Ricky Medlock of Lenyard
Skinner and he's got a whole entire campaign

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to basically get information to people to
understand what these stories are all about,

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because it's happening all over the place. Yeah, that's amazing. I think.

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I think we are seeing an uptick
in people wanting to talk about the

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MMIW crisis, and I hope that
Listening for Smoke does that as well.

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That brings a lot of people in
to say, pay attention to this,

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Yeah, because this puts it inside
their hands. This isn't a news story

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on the radio or something that's happening
on ABC News. With this story right

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here, you're physically allowing us to
go through and experience exactly. Yeah.

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That is my hope for this book. When I first started writing, I

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was sure how I could find the
line between, you know, an entertaining

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thriller and a book that deals with
an actually real serious issue. And I

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thought I could do that through these
characters and to bring in real emotions that

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would be relatable to every reader.
I've sat down with numerous medicine men and

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we've talked about documenting the history of
the Native American lifestyle and how it needs

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to continue to be very sacred.
And the elders always tell me, no,

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they're not writing the history. They're
not writing the story, and it's

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going to be lost. I think
a book like this, even though it

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is it has its darkness to it, it's still part of the history and

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the story, and it's got to
get in the hands of somebody two and

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three decades from now. Yeah.
Absolutely, And I really wanted to bring

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in a lot of the culture in
a respectful way and to honor all the

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things that I grew up with,
my childhood memories there on the reservations,

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in visits with my family, and
the culture. This everything that I felt

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was so special and that I have
so much pride about with the black Feet

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culture, I tried to bring in
so that people could see how cool this

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is, Like, I have so
much pride for my culture. So when

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you said that you were on the
Blackfeet Reservation, were you up in Montana,

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Because I'm from Montana and that's up
there around the Great Falls area.

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Yeah. The Blackfeet Reservation is nestled
right along the Glacier National Park and I

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never lived there, but my older
siblings did, and I visited a lot

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because I lived in Bozeman for the
first half of my childhood, so we

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were pretty close to visit, and
I go back every summer. Now my

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dad lives up there again, and
so I get to spend a lot of

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time up there. Do you feel
like that you were spiritually called to write

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this story because it is so personal
it feels like an experience. You know?

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Maybe I did feel like a great
need to write it, and I

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doubted myself at the beginning because I
wasn't sure if I was the right person

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to tell this story or if I
was talented enough to pull it off.

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But I did just keep coming back
to the idea thinking that this is a

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story I need to tell. It
was very important to me to try.

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There's a huge part of my heart
that would love to see this on Netflix

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and or Hulu as a binge watch, because I and I think that would

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be so incredible to be able to
go there and see it for ourselves in

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the way of understanding the story and
basically understanding the deep darkness that that's going

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on that needs to be talked about. Yeah, that would be an absolute

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dream. I would love for what's
in my head to be out there for

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people to see what I see,
and of course to bring in more eyes

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to show what's going on, what
this epidemic is doing to real communities.

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I think seeing it would definitely strike
a chord, locating a sense of balance

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inside the story. Sure, you
talk about the pain, but it's also

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a thriller for readers as well.
Yeah it is. It's on its surface.

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Looking for Smoke is a gripping thriller
in which these black seat teenagers are

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suspects in the murder of their classmate
and they must now clear their names while

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a killer is still in their midst. But at its heart, it's a

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story of community and resilience and fighting
for your loved ones despite the cost.

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And it's about the great lengths that
we would go to protect our families and

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the thirst for justice we feel when
we fail to do that. How many

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people are shaking their heads, going, oh my god, this is just

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your debut novel. What is the
writing world going to be like when you

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get book two, three, four, and five? You know, I

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hope it just keeps getting even better
and better. I really want to continue

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to write these thrillers with a native
characters and shine a light on this issue.

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I think it's important and I have
found a real joy in writing it.

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Where is your writing space? In
other words, I write inside a

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forest here in South Charlotte, North
Carolina, because I believe that that's where

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the energy of my writing comes from. For you to write a book like

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this, did you go to the
same place to write it? No?

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So I am a mom and I
have two young kids. So I wrote

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this book like during an hour of
nap time every day in my room,

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in my sweatpants, by myself for
an hour of the day, and then

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maybe after that time at night.
So it was not the ideal location,

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but just being alone in my thoughts. I can be anywhere and the creativity

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will come out. When did you
know it was time to relinquish the book

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to a the editor and or the
book company. I felt really comfortable giving

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it to the editor. I chose
at the HarperCollins imprint called Heart Drum,

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and Heart Drum's sole mission is to
uplift Indigenous voices. See and they have

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so many beautiful Native books out there, and I knew that they would take

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care of this story and get it
into all the hands that we wanted into

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and that they would take care of
me as a native author. See that

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goes all the way back to the
beginning when I was talking about the Elders,

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where they're afraid that the story is
not going to be shared. You've

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got to love a publishing company like
that. Yeah, it is really beautiful

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and it's so special for me to
have this experience as a debut, to

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find just the perfect home for this
book. It's really it's really cool.

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I got to ask you kind of
a personal question only because I grew up

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in the state of Montana and Bozeman
was my hangout with my grandmother, and

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that is, did you ever get
over there or see the Bozeman Tunnel which

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was coming up at the I ninety
No, And it's been so long since

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I've been in bozun It's my grandfather
helped create it way back in the nineteen

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sixties. And it's just I just
dream of that day of finding somebody who

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remembers seeing the Bozeman Tunnel, and
my quest is good. I will continue

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with it. I will go on
until I meet that person. I'm so

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sorry. Where is Where can people
find you and give you lots of love?

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Because, like I said, this
is your debut novel. I want

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you to feel like the community has
embraced your soul. Yeah, that would

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be wonderful. I am on Instagram
and Twitter or x and TikTok I'm on

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TikTok list, but it's all Ka
underscore kobel co O b E l L.

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That's where you can find me.
Excellent. Well, I look forward

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to talking to you many more times
in the future. Ka, thank you

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so much. Thank you for talking
about looking for smoke. Will you be

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brilliant today? Okay, thank you
too.