The agency, however, wanted Katsu to quit writing for news organizations. “I went for the weird life experience, and I ended up staying in intelligence for 30 years,” Katsu said. On a whim, Katsu took the application test and, after scoring well, accepted a job offer. Katsu’s older sister, Linda, suggested she apply for a job at the National Security Agency. Although she wanted to be a journalist, she struggled to find a steady income, working as a freelancer for several news outlets for several years. “When you’re a big reader, at some point it crosses your mind that you would like to try to write a novel,” Katsu said.Īfter graduating high school, Katsu attended Brandeis University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in literature and writing in 1981. Inspired by her surroundings, Katsu became obsessed with gothic literature and dreamed of becoming an author. When she was 7 years old, she and her family moved to Concord, Massachusetts, which she described as “a creepy little town in New England” filled with old cemeteries and funeral homes. Katsu was born the third of four children in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Hunger, a work of historical fiction about a group of pioneers migrating through the West in the mid-1800s, was named one of NPR’s 100 best horror stories when it was published in 2018, and earned the praise of horror writer icon Stephen King.Īs she heads into relative retirement, soon leaving Maryland for West Virginia with her husband, Bruce, Katsu is finally living the life she had imagined as a little girl. The Taker, a paranormal romance that eventually became a trilogy, was honored as a top ten debut novel by Booklist and has since been translated into more than 10 languages. Katsu, now 60, published her first novel, The Taker, at the age of 50 in 2011. “I’m having a better career for having it later in life than if I had found early success,” Katsu said. She’s a consultant for emerging technologies in the government and private industry.īut she’s also an award-winning author who can’t even be contained within one literary genre, with novels in romance, historical fiction and horror. She’s a former analyst for the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. Columbia resident Alma Katsu cannot be constrained to one occupation.

Alma katsu the taker trilogy