Karl Kling Interview Published on: 08, May 2026

With a supportive wife, I've been able to enjoy several career changes. We've taken a leap of faith a few times, where others said we shouldn't. In 2021, I was at a crossroads professionally, and that's when I decided to devote more time to writing the books that had been floating in my head for several years.

We all die in the end, so we might as well laugh along the way.

If you have something inside of you, share it. Keeping it to yourself is the greatest tragedy ever not written. Even if only one person enjoys it, you made an impact. Several of my characters have connected with people, and that connection has moved a few people deeply. Nothing is better than realizing that something you created will stay with someone for quite some time.

I've met a lot of people over the years from various walks of life. My books are filled with many moments that come from actual events that I've been involved in over the years. My wife always says, "write what you know." Having had so many different jobs, exposed me to so many wonderful people, who in some way, became characters in my books.

That is such a great question. I've been coaching for 32 years. I pondered the question for a while, not wanting to give a forced answer.

Adjust and persevere. In sports, you have to have a plan before the game starts. As important are the in-game adjustments. What you thought was going to be the expected path, can vere and weave in numerous directions you may not have envisioned when it began. Those midstream adjustments may or may not greatly affect the end result, but it's possible, they do. And some days you just have to throw everything away, take the loss, and start again tomorrow.

Always. In Blown Save, the quick, unexpected rise of Allison Carpenter, is based on someone that I personally knew. The fall, although not as dramatic, was just as quick. I'm currently writing three books, one is an offshoot of the Brody James series that focuses on Betsy and her history. The entire book is based on political intrigue intertwined with journalistic ethics.

I was fortunate enough to work as a weekly reporter and editor. I feel that that experience really prepared me for life as an author. Daily newspapers report the news. In 2002, our publication was named Newspaper of the Year in Michigan for our size. I feel that as the editor at that time, I stressed the fact that, for the most part, people already knew what had happened as it probably occurred days prior to our pages reaching their doorstep. What we wanted was to delve deeper and give them something they may not have known, or to tell the story in a way that was such an interesting read, that people wanted to moved beyond the headline. The most important connection is the one that started it all. I was a part-time sports reporter for a monthly in Detroit in the mid-90s. I had to cover a Monster Truck even in the Silverdome. I know as close to nothing about cars as possible. When my first weekly newspaper was hiring, the Monster Truck story was one of the clips I submitted. The editor offered me the job and told me he was excited to have another "gear head" on staff. I confessed I knew very little about what I wrote. He said, "if you can write a story like that, and impress someone who loves the subject matter, when you know nothing of it, then you're a hell of a good writer." That was such a great compliment, it has stuck with me ever since.

Not sure about funny, but I had a few interesting moments: the night I forgot my pants, the time my trailer wasn't hooked up correctly by my assistant and it became disconnected in downtown Detroit on I-94 and I had to use my girlfriend's (now wife) truck to "guide" the trailer to the shoulder, or when the whole celebration came to a screeching halt when a lady blew her knee out on the dancefloor, and her inebriated date was yelling at her for "ruining the event," as we waited for paramedics to arrive.

My annual calendar fluctuates greatly. During the winter months, my evenings are full of lessons. In the spring, my lessons decrease but then I have to coach games many evenings and weekends. In the summer, I run Detroit Tiger Youth Camps all over the state, so my days are filled. The key for me is to write when I have time and not to stress or force anything. As I said, I'm currently working on three separate books. When ideas come to me, I spend time with that specific book. There will come a point when the project simply grabs a hold of me and I write in a flurry until I finish that particular work.

My dad was funny, and I've always been a class clown, if you will. But I think being a child of the 80s, we learned that everything is funny. I've always been infatuated with comedians. When I was younger, my mom took me to see Jay Leno do standup as a birthday gift. My wife and I have made it a point to see several of our favorite comedians recently perform: Nate Bargatze, Brian Regan, Greg Warren and Bill Engvall, to name a few. I think you can find humor everywhere. Even church or funerals. But the timing has to be right.

I understand there's darkness in the world - in fact, one of the books I'm working on is probably the darkest work I've ever done and might be jarring to some people who've read my other stuff - but for the most part, I want people to sit back and be touched by what I write. A lot of it is life experience. That's what I focus on. Things most of us can relate to. The miscarriage scene in Takin' Care of Business was cathartic in that it was representative of a moment my wife and I experienced. I don't view myself as a high-brow author. I think, possibly, that may be why I haven't connected with literary agents. I find it funny that I write stories and need help marketing them, but to get someone willing to market them, I have to market them to the people who market them for a living. But I need to be serious about it. And I just can't do that.

My wife is a voracious reader. She actually is the person that convinced me to write. She and my son, Hayden, are the sounding board and initial "editors". I will read chapters to them periodically and they will provide feedback and help shape the story. They are an integral part of what I've put on the pages. Believe me, neither of them are bashful about telling me they don't like something.

You have a vision of what you want. You have to explain that vision and you have to have the person you're communicating with to fully understand that vision. Sometimes you're successful, sometimes you're not. When you don't connect with that player, it very well could be, the two of you weren't the right fit. They may flourish with another voice. I've received some negative reviews, and while I appreciate the feedback and ponder the words, I just chalk up the difference of opinion as not being a fit. I did, however, take one review of my first book, that Brody James wasn't a good detective and it actually became a scene in the sequel.

The best thing about AllAuthor to me, has been the time I've spent connecting with other authors. Occasionally, after connecting with another author, I will just sit and explore their pages and read their stories and try to learn how they go about things. I love the Cover of the Month feature, as it allows me to see what is connecting with people visually. Finally, I'm so appreciative of the promotional tweets of my books. To have someone be willing to help promote you is very humbling. I have learned that a lot of people love to vulture on the carcass of an author. I was disheartened after my first book when I realized that many of the people who were willing to help for a fee, were only helping themselves. That caused me to pause and wonder if it was all worth it. I pressed on and wrote the sequel and then the non-Brody James Series story Blown Save. In the end, I said, "the hell with it." Through it all, AllAuthor has done nothing but deliver exactly what they promised, and for that, I am very thankful.