Who is Kaitlyn Dunnett?

Although I am now semi-retired from writing, Kaitlyn Dunnett is the pseudonym I used for contemporary mysteries because I am better known under my own name (Kathy Lynn Emerson) for historical mysteries, nonfiction, and historical romances. I used a pseudonym once before, for three contemporary category romances I wrote for Silhouette. That name was Kaitlyn (the name I'd have given myself rather than Kathy Lynn) Gorton (my maiden name). I didn't want to use the same pseudonym again, since the new books were mysteries, not romances, so I kept the Kaitlyn and borrowed the surname of one of my favorite authors, Dorothy Dunnett. I was hoping to reduce confusion by using different names for contemporary and historical mysteries, but opinion is mixed as to whether this was a good idea or not. Just to make things more complicated, I also used another pseudonym, Kate Emerson, for non-mystery historical novels set in the Tudor era.

I live in Maine and although I am not currently involved in things Scottish, I have been in the past. When my husband was learning to play the bagpipes, I took up the bass drum, and we once played in a small, rural, bagpipe band. I gave up the drum for the pen and my husband traded in his bagpipes for custom woodworking. He is the real-life source for the projects "Dan Ruskin" works on in the Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries.

The other cozy mystery series written under the name Kaitlyn Dunnett is set in rural New York State in a fictionalized version of the town of Liberty, where I grew up. The four "Deadly Edits" novels feature an older sleuth who is the same age I was when I started writing the series.

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To send email to Kaitlyn Dunnett, use this address: kaitlyndunnett@gmail.com