Kate Folk’s debut novel Sky Daddy stars Linda, a San Francisco content moderator with a secret obsession: airplanes. Not in an aviation-geek kind of way, but she literally has an erotic fantasy of dying in a plane crash. Linda spends her weekends riding the AirTrain at SFO, booking cheap round-trip flights, and watching plane crash videos with the fervor of a lovesick teen. Her ultimate dream is to be recognized mid-flight by a plane as its soulmate and go out in a final act of union. Insane? Absolutely. And I loved every minute of it.
Set against the bleak glow of the tech industry, Sky Daddy follows Linda as she tries to balance her ecstatic life in the air with a lonely existence on the ground. She rents a windowless garage, reviews disturbing videos for money, and maintains an awkward friendship with her coworker Karina. As her fantasy inches closer to reality and the line between longing and danger begins to blur, Linda is forced to confront what she really wants—connection, escape, or something in between. Sky Daddy is a beautifully deranged novel about loneliness, connection, and the lengths we go to feel anything at all.
What are three words to describe Sky Daddy?
Adventurous, earnest, depraved
If it’s adapted, who needs to play Linda?
I love Margaret Qualley in everything.
What were you watching/reading/listening to when you wrote this book?
It’s hard to remember, as I wrote the book over a period of four years or so. I drafted much of the book in pandemic times, during which I was watching a lot of reality shows—Survivor and Love is Blind, in particular. I also watched a lot of plane content—movies about planes and plane crashes, and videos on The Flight Channel, recreating famous aviation incidents.
If you were a literary critic, what would you say about your own writing?
Folk smuggles dark themes—alienation, futurelessness, the death drive—into a deceptively light-hearted narrative with an endearing lead.
What part of Sky Daddy was the most fun to write?
The airport scenes, particularly in the last third of the book, when Linda goes on a bit of a binge. They also required the most research into flight schedules and airport interiors. I also loved writing the vision board scenes.
Where’s your dream writing retreat?
I would love to rent a cabin in a mountainous region, maybe with a little town in a valley where I could have dinner some nights, and go to a movie.
What are your most overused words?
Bleak. Grim. Sinister. Ominous.
If you could get a drink with any fictional character, who would it be?
Christopher Moltisanti. I would help him write his screenplay.
What’s a book that made you want to write?
White Noise by Don DeLillo. I read it in high school. I think it was the first “postmodern” novel I read, and it showed me what was possible.
Are there any books you feel Sky Daddy is “in conversation with” as they say?
Moby-Dick, explicitly. Implicitly, JG Ballard’s Crash, Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman, Lolita, Notes from Underground, and Chuck Tingle’s I’m Gay for My Living Billionaire Jet Plane.
What’s your relationship to self-promotion?
I don’t mind doing it, though I don’t think I’m very good at it. One time years ago, a friend threw herself a birthday party and bought her own birthday cake, which I found surprising. She said, of course I bought my own cake. Who else was going to do it? I think it’s the same with book promotion. You have to buy your own cake, and make an event of it.
What author’s (dead or alive) persona is aspirational?
Ursula LeGuin
Favorite recent read?
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
Is Sky Daddy a love story?
Definitely! It’s about Linda’s love for planes, especially whichever plane will finally reciprocate her love. But it’s also a story about platonic love, especially between women.
What’s one word to describe what you’re working on now?
1991
