Q&A With Kay Sparling 

Retired from being an international opera & sacred singer, Kay had released her debut spy thriller novel Mission Thaw! I am honored Mickey had arranged for us to do this Q&A! 

Q: Kay welcome to Book Notions! Would you please give a brief description of Mission Thaw? 

A: Mission Thaw is a feminist spy thriller set in Europe near the end of the Cold War. American Soprano, Kaitlyn Stewart, is awarded a grant to apprentice at a world class opera house. Soon after she arrives, she is approached by the CIA. They have been vetting her for years and want to recruit her in a mission that requires an international Mozart soprano. Kaitlyn accepts and goes into intense training with “the best agent in the free world”, MI6 officer, Clive Matthews. Through many plot twists, Kaitlyn becomes a primary player on the team in the mission as they race to take down a cartel of KGB and Neo-Nazi human traffickers who are exploiting East European refugees.

Q: What made you go from being an international opera and sacred singer to writing? Has your singing experience influenced your book in any way? How long has it taken you to write Mission Thaw?

A: The book started as a journal project in a PTSD therapy group. When the therapist read my entries, he suggested that I write a book and try to get it published. I had been encouraged many times to write my stories, so I finally decided that I’d get training as a writer and give it a try.                                   

Yes, my singing career experiences are threaded throughout the book because Kaitlyn Stewart is an opera singer, and she uses her position at the opera house as her CIA cover. All my singing experiences allow me to write authentic scenes of an opera house, the stage, backstage, the audiences and of course all the other locations that the story takes the reader. One will feel they are in the Mozart Cafe or a lavish Vienna villa. But readers shouldn’t think this is a book about opera. This book is a fast-paced spy thriller. The opera thread is a thin one used sparingly.                 

From the time of the first journal until my final draft to the publisher took nine years. While writing, I was still having a full musical career and experienced a few life crises during those years, but I finally took the book back off the shelf and finished it.

Q: What lessons & emotions do you hope readers learn and feel after they finish reading Mission Thaw?

A: The primary thing that I hope the readers take away from Mission Thaw is that they will feel a great compassion for the refugees in this story and not just be aware of human trafficking but will become advocates against it. The International Labor Organization estimates that there are nearly 21 million victims of human trafficking worldwide.                   

I also hope that the readers have a deep-felt compassion for the team of CIA and MI6 agents and directors for their mostly unrecognized highly dangerous and brave service.       

And finally, I hope this book keeps my readers excited on the edge of their seat throughout the mission!

Q: Will book 2 be a sequel to Mission Thaw or something different entirely?

A: YES! Kaitlyn has two more thrilling missions. In the second book, the team is back and has moved their headquarters to Prague. Kaitlyn must shed her cover as an opera singer and go undercover as an American Cross worker during the Bosnian War. This time her sidekick is not Clive Matthews, but instead, Father Mike, a Catholic priest gone AWOL. Will Kaitlyn follow his lead to rescue a camp of orphans? Stay tuned!