Terry Kirk is the author of the new novel Pitfall. She has worked as a lawyer and in the venture sector, and she lives in Toronto.
Q: What inspired you to write Pitfall, and how did you create your character Frank?
A: After practicing law and holding several executive roles, I navigated as many did to the risks and rewards of the venture sector. I led three investor-backed ventures in the fintech sector, raising capital and seeking shareholder exits in capital markets in Canada and the US.
With the sale of my last venture, I secured the freedom to return to my first love—writing. My natural habitat was fast-paced historical fiction stories—like Pitfall!
How did I create Frank? He’s a flawed human being, but one I identified with—the pressure he feels to support a family and prove himself in a competitive, entrepreneurial sector.
I understood his aspirations—in the weeks before the Crash, Frank says, “The stock market was churning out millionaires like tom cats siring kittens”—and his trepidations. His era—the late 1920s—produced epic wins and losses. Readers tell me they rush through the pages, dying to find out what happens next.
Q: How did you research the novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: Like the story itself, my research unfolded in three acts—beginning, middle, and end. Before tackling the writing, I immersed myself in the 1920s—in Jazz age Chicago, the “Big Migration” of Blacks from the rural South to urban Chicago, the gang warfare that sprang up in response to Prohibition, and the economic conditions that eerily resemble our overheated tech market of today.
I also read a lot about wheat. Frank makes his fortune trading wheat. It was the Bitcoin of the era—technology and advanced manufacturing stocks did not take off for another 20 years, during the build-up to World War II. Wheat was sexy, and Frank is the Wizard of Wheat. It’s also a poignant metaphor—for hearth and home, for bread and sustenance, for spring crops, winter wheat, and sunsets over a wide-open prairie.
During the middle stage of my research, I progressed from sweeping books—Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Galbraith’s The Great Crash—to sweating the small stuff. Almost every sentence required research. How did people swear? Did they have telephones? How did they work?
Here is a paragraph capturing the details of the trading pit in the Chicago Board of Trade in 1929:
“Its stained-glass skylight soared eighty feet above the floor and filled the room with dimpled light. There were granite columns, a frescoed ceiling, majestic windows, and full-length curtains that kept sunlight and peering eyes off the Board—a giant slab of slate covering the entire height and width of that towering wall. A labyrinth of metal scaffolding stood between the traders and the Board, and a dozen clerks scurried along the catwalks, scaling the ladders, scribbling the bids and answer prices, and sending chalk debris falling like fairy dust from the sky. The room was awash with brawny athletic men, wearing the white unstructured jackets worn by traders in the pit. Many had wrestled their way through college, and some sported noses that looked like they’d been reshaped by an illegal right hook. The stench of their sweat and adrenalin filled the pit during trading hours and lingered long after markets closed.”
At last, you reach the fact-checking final round. I relied on newspapers at this stage. I’m grateful they are now online. In a few moments, you’re perusing The New York Times from a century ago, reading about the fashions and the weather on the day the market crashed.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Yes, I plotted my story in detail before I began writing. Two resource books stand out as particularly helpful: The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker—it’s hard to imagine a better name for an author—and Super Structure by James Scott Bell.
Booker outlines the archetypal story types dating back to the Bible. Pitfall, by the way, is a Quest—a story of Journey and Return. In Super Structure, Scott Bell reminds us that well-written stories are almost always three-act plays. There we go again—beginning, middle, and end.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: I set out on my writerly life with only one goal in mind—to entertain. I felt gratified when Readers’ Choice awarded Pitfall five stars, highlighting its “gripping plot inspired by real-life events.” Publishers Weekly piled on more praise: “Vividly constructed . . . layered and compelling.”
Favorable reviews are important milestones for writers, but what really matters is what readers have to say. For most, it’s all about the characters. Many wrote to say they were having a hard time saying goodbye to Frank and Katrina. Happily, I can now assure readers: “They’ll be back!”
It's also fair to say that I wanted to shed some light on the epic financial events that have shaped our lives: Why do markets crash? And what happens next?
Last April, global stock markets plummeted 19 percent in two days, then ricocheted.
Are we heading for the kind of disaster that brought 1920s prosperity to a grinding halt? It’s a question worth confronting because, while the Crash is disappearing into the distant past, its legacy—that our fortunes can dramatically decline in a day—still haunts us.
I am thrilled when readers tell me they loved my characters or stayed up half the night reading Pitfall. But the icing on the cake is when they strap on their seatbelts and learn a few things along the way.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am up to my eyeballs marketing Pitfall through podcasts, blogs, book clubs, and events.
I am also writing. I have completed Plunder, a follow-on to Pitfall. It picks up with Katrina and Frank a decade later, as America pivots on the brink of entering World War II. So much is at stake. Can America find the funds to change the course of history and preserve the freedoms we enjoy today?
With my publisher assuring me that Plunder will hit the bookshelves in 2026, I am busy plotting Book Three, transforming Pitfall into a multi-generational family saga.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Some ask me why, as a woman, I have a male protagonist. Pitfall’s rich tapestry is woven with male hubris and ambition, but also the weft of memorable women.
Katrina takes no second seat to powerful men, and the prairie women are remarkable. They remind us of the sheer physicality of rural life, in the age before birth control and household automation.
In Book Two, Katrina moves to the forefront, and by Book Three, their daughter Franny takes the lead.
Other characters also evolve in lock step with history. In Pitfall, Hector Ray is the only Black trader in sight. It’s gratifying to watch his horizons expand as new roles open up. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Pitfall is for sale in paper and e-book versions on major book platforms, including Amazon and Indigo.
Enjoy, and promise to stay in touch!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574934151663#
Instagram: terrykirk2023
Website: TerryKirkBooks.com
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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