It was K.A. Cobell’s Blackfeet father who guided her throughout her life, teaching her about their culture and greatly supporting her goals. She put everything he taught her into her YA thriller debut, Looking for Smoke (Heartdrum), and getting that book into his hands was the final step of a roller-coaster journey.
In Looking for Smoke, four Blackfeet teens are pulled together when a girl from their community, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered during a traditional Blackfeet giveaway. The four were the last to see her alive; each has their own complex histories and interactions with Samantha, and they become immediate suspects, so they must band together not only to clear their names but to ensure that Samantha doesn’t become one more unsolved Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women case.
Cobell started her writing career knowing one thing: that she wanted to write Blackfeet characters into a book. She had not seen a single Blackfeet character in any sort of media growing up and wanted to share the pride she has in her culture with the world. She notes that she looks up to fellow Indigenous author Angeline Boulley, whose debut novel The Firekeeper’s Daughter (a 2021 Flying Start) came out when she was in the middle of drafting Looking for Smoke. “That was the first time I saw a part of myself in the books that I love to read,” she recalls. “It’s so cool to be part of a growing list of representation.”
She had found her groove writing thrillers, and that, combined with her determination to write Blackfeet characters, meant she would need to bring in the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, a term used to describe the human rights crisis surrounding Indigenous women who are taken or murdered and whose cases go largely unsolved and underinvestigated. “I was a little afraid to write it at first, because I knew I would be walking a fine line between trying to write about this serious and real issue while also creating an entertaining, page-turning thriller,” she says. “But this was a story that really needed to be told, because this epidemic needs a lot more attention.”
Her draft was finished just in time to submit for Pitch Wars in 2021, in what would turn out to be the final year of the mentorship program. She was chosen by Fiona McLaren, who helped “sharpen her vision,” Cobell says, by having her work on deepening characterization to ensure that the themes of her story came through. When the Pitch Wars showcase went live, many agents showed interest, and she ultimately chose Pete Knapp of Park & Fine Literary and Media.
A bidding war ensued, which Cobell called “mind-blowing,” with 10 imprints vying for the rights. “It’s hard to wrap my mind around it, still, that so many people were interested and excited about it,” she says.
The auction led to her speaking with, and ultimately choosing to go with, Rosemary Brosnan and Cynthia Leitich Smith from Heartdrum, a HarperCollins imprint focused on stories by Indigenous authors. “They knew what I was trying to do with this story and wanted to help me get there,” Cobell says. “They’re doing such amazing work trying to uplift Native voices.” She notes that she feels safe in their hands not only as an author but specifically as a Native author, and feels her story is respected by them. The team continued to work on the novel, ensuring that the portrayal of the victims was analogous yet respectful to the real-life victims of the MMIW crisis.
While her two young children might not be ready to read her novel yet, Cobell emphasizes the importance to her of writing for Native kids and showing off the cultural pride that “they don’t see as much as I think we should.” Next year, both of her kids will be in school, and she’s looking forward to having more time to write. “I wrote Looking for Smoke completely after bedtime and during a one-hour naptime,” she says. “I made it work!”
Cobell says she has a number of ideas and works in progress. “It’s really cool that I’m now in a place where I can keep writing stories for Native kids,” she says. She has a couple of young adult thrillers—her favorite genre—in the works, both with Native characters and further focus on the MMIW crisis. If readers take away anything from her books, she hopes it’s the attention she has called to the epidemic. “My characters are going through so much,” she says. “They have this sadness, this anger, and this deep thirst for justice. I really hope readers come away realizing that they are connected to a real epidemic and that the characters shine a light on the MMIW.”
Shannon Lechon is a book reviewer, freelance writer, and education consultant in Brooklyn.
