Jeff Macfee

Jeff Macfee is the author of the superhero noir Nine Tenths.

His latest crime novel, The Contest, is about a former puzzle prodigy who returns to the contest of her youth.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The Contest wasn’t the first title I landed on, although it’s the title I’m happiest with. In earliest forms the book was called Wonka Crime, a handy shorthand given the concept of a widely known event run by an eccentric character. However that title, aside from legal problems, didn’t speak much to the protagonist. I considered Gillian Charles, but Gillian evolves throughout the book and is somewhat of a moving target. The Contest was the only title that spoke to me on multiple levels. It refers to both a literal contest and also the sense of competition within Gillian. The idea of Gillian competing against herself being the most consistent theme throughout the book.

What's in a name?

My character names are definitely more art than science. They need to “feel right”. In very old drafts—idea sketches, really—Gillian was a man named Spencer Charles, which sounds like a billionaire who solves crimes. Once I gender-flipped the protagonist, and made a number of other changes to ground the character, Gillian was always Gillian. There’s energy in the name and a suggestion of trouble, all of which encapsulate her pretty completely.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

Very surprised. One, that I actually finished a novel. Two, that the novel was published. And three, that the novel was crime. Teenage me was very into fantasy, and a number of terrible fantasy proto-novels (hand-written) sit in folders somewhere in my house. Ultimately I found I didn’t have anything to say in fantasy, and have found speculative fiction and crime “more my jam.”

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I enjoy writing both, and each has a particular challenge. Beginnings you worry about entering the story too soon, before the energy is there. Endings you worry about going on too long, but also failing to wrap things up enough. If forced I’d say endings are harder. I err on the side of leaving a number of things unresolved—without spoiling the end of The Contest, I can say I certainly don’t tie up every loose end. I typically need (and did need, for The Contest) editing or an outside viewpoint to push me toward more resolution.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Given I’m creating the characters, there’s a bit of me in all of them. There is a stubborn streak in me, no doubt, so Gillian’s character drew on that aspect. But I rely on different facets of my personality for other characters, such as the smartass know-it-all that is Ellsberg. I also pull and mix from people I know. No character is a direct one-to-one to a living person.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Movies, certainly. Another way I described The Contest was if the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was directed by Sidney Lumet. (Not that I’m Lumet by a long shot.) I think very visually when I’m writing. As I’m editing I sometimes imagine blocking, shots, character motivation, how the characters play off each other, etc.

Visit Jeff Macfee's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Clea Simon

Before turning to a life of crime (fiction), Boston Globe-bestselling author Clea Simon was a journalist. A native of New York, she came to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University and never left. The author of three nonfiction books and 32 mysteries, most recently the psychological suspense The Butterfly Trap, her books alternate between cozies (usually featuring cats) and darker psychological suspense, like the Massachusetts Center for the Book “must reads” Hold Me Down and World Enough. She lives with her husband, the writer Jon S. Garelick (another Boston Globe alum), and their cat Thisbe in Somerville, Massachusetts.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

That’s a two-part question for me, in part because my title has two parts. Originally, and for most of its existence, this book was called The Blue Butterfly, which I thought was both descriptive of the way my male protagonist sees my female protagonist and also refers to a mounted butterfly, a Morpho menelaus, that comes into play. But my publisher changed it to The Butterfly Trap, which has less direct relevance to the plot but does evoke suspense more.

What's in a name?

For me, the names Greg and Anya set up the characters. Greg is such a basic, grounded name, isn’t it? Greg is someone you could get a beer with. Anya, though, that’s a little fanciful. Was Anya’s very pragmatic mother reading a Russian novel when she was pregnant? Did she want to set her daughter apart from all the “Annes” and “Angelas” of the world? We may never know.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

Very! I held onto a very romantic view of relationships for years. I’m still a romantic, but The Butterfly Trap deals with the realities that underly any relationship – the inequalities and give-and-take. The daily betrayals, big and small. The love behind the lies.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Beginnings tend to come to me: I envision a scenario and I think “I have to write this.” But I am often surprised by my endings. I always start off knowing how I want my book to end, but then my characters insist on something else. Does that make them harder to writer? Well, it makes them harder to prepare for.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I have certainly been on both sides of this relationship: the infatuated suitor and the ambivalent recipient, whose life is just kind of too complicated at this point for a real relationship. More to the point, I’ve spent most of my adult life living with and working with writers and artists, so the social network – the friends and the jealousies – is very real to me.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

In another life (when I was in my 20s), I was a music critic. I covered everything from crooners like Wayne Newton to zydeco (Queen Ida’s first national tour!), but my heart was in the Boston punk rock scene. That was my world – my community. We wouldn’t just gather at night at the clubs, we’d go to after parties at bands’ lofts and stay over at each other’s apartments, share dim sum the next day before heading out to see the groundbreaking art, film, and photography our colleagues were doing (there was a lot of crossover between the music and the visual arts) and more. I formed some solid friendships in that scene that last today, and that world informs The Butterfly Trap.

Visit Clea Simon's website.

The Page 69 Test: To Conjure a Killer.

The Page 69 Test: Bad Boy Beat.

Writers Read: Clea Simon (May 2024).

--Marshal Zeringue

Camille Di Maio

Camille Di Maio is the bestselling author of Until We Meet, The First Emma, The Beautiful Strangers, The Way of Beauty, Before the Rain Falls, and The Memory of Us. In addition to writing women’s fiction, Di Maio buys too many baked goods at farmers markets, unashamedly belts out Broadway tunes when the mood strikes, and regularly faces her fear of flying to indulge in her passion for travel. She and her husband have worked in real estate for twenty-five years in both Texas and Virginia. There’s almost nothing she wouldn’t try, so long as it doesn’t involve heights, roller skates, or anything illegal.

Di Maio's new novel is Come Fly With Me.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Come Fly With Me is one of the rare books where I had the title before starting the book. And it ended up being ideal because it evokes several things that are a part of the story. The title, inspired by the famed Frank Sinatra song, sets us in that jet-set era. And the notion of flying not only touches on the travel themes of the book, but also the interior journey of the two main characters: each are escaping something in their lives and flying off to new opportunities with Pan American Airlines.

What's in a name?

When I chose names for my characters in historical fiction, I start by figuring out about what year they would have been born, and then I do a search for names that were popular in that era. I scroll until several "speak" to me and I think about them for awhile until something emerges in feeling right. In the case of Judy and Beverly, something about those evoked particular images to me that did reflect the characters. "Judy" felt like a traditional housewife to me and "Beverly" sounded like someone glamorous who would live on Park Avenue.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

I think my teenage self would be ecstatic that I wrote a novel, let alone eight of them! My dream ever since I was twelve was to do so. I don't think she would be surprised by the subject matter - I have long had an interest in crooner music and nostalgic times. So that's very fitting for me.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I don't find either particular hard - it is that saggy middle that is always the challenge! Being able to sustain interest, subplots, action, pacing, etc. for arguably the longest part of the book is something every author works hard to achieve.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

My main characters often have an arc of beginning from a place of innocence, having something difficult thrust upon them, and then maturing as they step up to face the challenge. I do relate to this. My nickname in my family is "Pollyanna" because I often look at the world with rose-colored glasses. But I do quickly develop the savvy skills I need to work through the reality of what comes. And am better for it in the end.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Travel influences my writing more than anything else. I am often inspired by a location or a historical event that I learn about when I'm on the road. If an idea intrigues me and sticks around in my head for a few years, continuing to fascinate, then I begin to think that there might be a story worth telling.

Visit Camille Di Maio's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Constance E. Squires

Constance Squires holds a Ph.D. in English from Oklahoma State University and teaches Creative Writing at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. Her latest novel is Low April Sun. She is the author of the novels Along the Watchtower, which won the 2012 Oklahoma Book Award for Fiction, Live from Medicine Park, a 2018 Oklahoma Book Award finalist named in Electric Literature as one of the "Seven Candidates for the Great American Rock and Roll Novel," and the short story collection Hit Your Brights. Her short stories have appeared in Guernica, The Atlantic Monthly, Shenandoah, Identity Theory, Bayou, the Dublin Quarterly, This Land, and a number of other magazines.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I usually change my titles a lot, often calling a book something different for each draft, and it’s often been the case that stories and even books have had their titles changed close to publication by suggestions from editors. But Low April Sun came to me early and didn’t change. The story takes place in April in two timelines, 1995 and 2015, so the title covers both temporal settings and unifies them. The word “Low” is like hitting a somber note, with low evoking depth—a bottom level—and moral depravity or unfairness—lowlife, low blow. Well, what else was the Oklahoma City Bombing if not a low blow? All of those meanings of Low fit the story, April is the setting, and sun is, well, heat and hope, and that’s there, too, in how the characters pursue their lives. So Low April Sun is a three-word progression from darkness to light.

What’s in a name?

One of the book’s main characters is named August P. I hid a lot of meaning in his name, partly to remind myself what I wanted him to do in the story. August is after Light in August, in which Faukner has a character named Joe Christmas who functions in the story like my August P. I can’t say more. That he is referred to by the first initial of his last name focuses his identity as a member of a recovery community where he meets Edie, one of the other main characters. Hi, my name is August P. and I’m a ---. The initial also makes me think of the way Russian novels of the 19 th century used to use initials for the names of towns, somehow driving you mad to know the real name. August’s full last name, Price, is finally said very late in the novel. He’s a character who has and does pay a high price for much more than is his to pay for, so. I usually work hard to avoid allegorical names, but in his case, I went for it.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

She’d be happy to see that she was right and that she really was/is a writer. I wish that were possible, because it might have spared me so much murky self-doubt and inertia. She’d be horrified to hear that the Oklahoma City Bombing was coming, though.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Beginnings are so strong and easy, whereas endings take forever to get, even when I can see how I want it to end. But if the number of drafts in a novel were visible like geologic strata, the beginning would be a tall mountain and the ending would be a flat plain at sea level because I rewrite the openings over and over as I draft and learn what the story is about and what notes I need to hit to set things up at the start, whereas the ending flows out one time and usually isn’t changed at all, or not much.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality or are they worlds apart?

There’s not an autobiographical avatar in this novel, but all of the characters come from me, so they can’t be anything that I can’t imagine, just literally. We don’t think of ourselves as characters from the outside, as subjects, or at least I don’t, but my subjectivity, the eyes doing the seeing, it’s the matrix within which it all lives, so the characters’ observations and ways of noticing the world are all originating with the daily impressions of me as a flesh-and-blood person walking around noticing things. But then I turn my mind to what the kind of person I’m writing about would notice and want and how they’d express things, and those things aren’t usually characteristic of my own thoughts or responses.

What non-literary influences have inspired your art?

Music is always a huge influence on me. Film, too, but I think through music, and I often get ideas or solve problems in my writing while listening to music. This story about the Oklahoma City bombing started as a short story for the RS500.com about the Hole album Live Through This. I had been wishing someone would write a novel about the OKC bombing for years, couldn’t imagine it would be me, but the memories that album evoked whisked me into a set of characters and a situation that let me into the bigger historical topic through kind of a back door where I felt enough authentic connection to feel I had something to say.

Visit Constance E. Squires's website.

My Book, The Movie: Low April Sun.

The Page 69 Test: Low April Sun.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sherry Rankin

Sherry Rankin grew up in New Jersey where she became an early and avid reader of mystery fiction. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in English and currently lives in Abilene, Texas where she has taught writing and literature at a local university for twenty years.

She has written scholarly articles and worked as an editorial consultant, manuscript reader and ghostwriter, but her avocation has always been creative writing.

Her novel, Strange Fire, was shortlisted for the 2017 Daniel Goldsmith First Novel Prize and won the 2017 CWA Debut Dagger Award.

Rankin's debut thriller is The Killing Plains.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

My working title for this novel was The Hare’s Mask, because the skinned rabbit faces that are left on the murder victims in this book create such a vivid, creepy image, to me. But I was never sold on it as a permanent title. It just helps me to have something to call a book while I’m writing it. The editorial team at Thomas and Mercer wanted the book to have a title that was indicative of the West Texas landscape and the nature of the crimes occurring in the novel. We briefly considered Dead Man’s Bluff; but my agent actually came up with The Killing Plains, and I liked it immediately.

What's in a name?

For me, a character’s name either springs up spontaneously, or I never do seem to get it quite right. As I was doing some pre-writing about the personality of my main character in The Killing Plains, the name “Colly Newland” just popped into my head, almost as if she were rising up out of nowhere and introducing herself to me.

“Colly” is actually a nickname. Her legal name is “Columba,” which means “a dove,” the symbol of peace. I liked that, because peace is what Colly is pursuing throughout the novel. The desire for resolution of her own sense of guilt provides the emotional impetus for Colly’s character.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

Growing up first in Wyoming and later in New Jersey, I was hugely into the classic icons of early 20th-century British detective fiction. So my teenage self would be shocked that this book is set in West Texas. I would also have been surprised that the book is as grim and darkly atmospheric as it is. And if I’d imagined at sixteen that I’d be publishing my first novel at sixty-one, I would’ve keeled over in despair.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I started writing for fun a child, and, though The Killing Plains is my first published novel, it’s actually the third one I’ve written. So I can say confidently that, for me, beginnings are definitely tougher. So much rides on the opening pages, not just in terms of hooking the reader, but also in defining the “feel” of the work for me as a writer. By the end, a piece of fiction has often found its own voice, so to speak, and I almost have the sensation of being along for the ride.

In preparing to write an ending, I like to re-read books by authors I admire—books that end with the emotional “flavor” I want to create. In preparing to write the final chapters of The Killing Plains, I re-read Margaret Atwood’s brilliant dystopian trilogy Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and Maddaddam, each of which ends with the sort of wistful, ambiguous, reluctantly hopeful feel that I wanted for the conclusion of my book. Then I tried to write an ending that made me feel the way Atwood’s do.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I see facets of myself in all my characters, but none of them is fully “me.” In The Killing Plains, I admire and wish I had more of Colly Newland’s determination and fierce independence; I relate to her impatience, skepticism, emotional reticence, and sense of irony. I dislike how hard she is on herself and how judgmental of others she sometimes is—but at times I can relate to those traits, as well.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

The landscape of West Texas has been hugely influential on my writing. It’s such a stark, austere, beautiful place, with a bleak and fascinating history; I wanted it to function essentially as an independent character in the novel, bringing its own personality to the way the story unfolds.

Visit Sherry Rankin's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Killing Plains.

The Page 69 Test: The Killing Plains.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tamara L. Miller

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tamara L. Miller earned her PhD in Canadian history before embarking on a career working for the federal government. Miller began as a doe-eyed policy analyst and eventually moved into an executive role with the Government of Canada. She later left public service, older and perhaps a little wiser, to become a writer. Miller is past president of Ottawa Independent Writers and has written several articles published online by the likes of CBC and Ottawa Life Magazine.

Over the years, the author has called many Canadian cities home but now lives in Ottawa with her family and two long-suffering cats. She’s always been fascinated by the raw beauty of the wilder places in the world and escapes to them whenever possible.

Miller's first novel is Into the Fall.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Settling on a title is like casting into a very large body of water looking for just the right nugget. The best titles are layered, giving a sense of the story but also playing with the themes and readers’ expectations. Into the Fall came about thanks to some brainstorming with my agent. We wanted something that captured the Canadian wilderness at its most wild and unfamiliar, while also hinted at the fate of the characters.

The novel opens on a late season canoe trip when Sarah Anderson wakes up to a frost filled morning and a missing husband. We played with a few titles, all rooted in water or wilderness themes. Deep Waters was a holding title for a long time, but it didn’t quite capture the emotional journey that each of the characters goes through as they learn the people they loved were not who they seemed. Into the Fall, with its double entendre, was the winner as soon as we landed on it. Nothing autumn images to conjure up beauty, peril and human fallibility.

What's in a name?

In many ways, the main characters named themselves. They came off the keyboard really early, and almost right away ingrained themselves into the story. For the lead couple, Sarah and Matthew Anderson, I wanted relatively common names. Sarah means ‘princess’ in Hebrew, and that’s who she is in so many ways. She lives life in her own little reality and goes to great, even terrible, lengths to make it fit.

For Matthew, I needed a name that could move through time to distinguish two different versions of the character. So, he became Matt in the past, and Matthew in the present.

The character of Izzy was always going to need a short, tempestuous nickname. I just loved the chaos that comes with the double ‘zz’ sound. She is the ball of energy who keeps the family from falling apart, but also Sarah’s conscience.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel?

I think that little bookworm would be pretty darn happy with where I’ve landed on my writing journey. As a teen, I idolized the National Geographic journalists. I wanted to travel the world, write, and take pictures. Life doesn’t always take you where you expect, but if you’re lucky, it takes you where you need to be.

I had a detour towards a doing PhD and, then a career in government, but I think my teenage self would be thrilled with where I’ve landed. When I’m not writing, I love to travel. Into the Fall was released on February 1st, 2025, and my next trip will take me to Barcelona, Spain.

It’s as if my teenage self wrote my Instagram tagline — “I write books and I go places.”

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

It’s a tricky question for a debut author. After all, I only have one published example, though I’m working on a second novel now.

I tend to structure my stories in scenes. It’s like having building blocks that can be moved around as the book takes shape. I don’t know what will be at the beginning until the near final draft. That said, with Into the Fall, I knew where I wanted it to begin, and I knew where I wanted it to end, so the middle section was the most challenging for me.

The idea for Into the Fall came to me while I was camping with my family. I wake up early, so I had the entire lake to myself. I sat on a sun-warmed slab of granite and watched a devastatingly calm lake. It wasn’t hard to imagine the opening scene of the novel where Sarah, the main protagonist, steps out of a tent to face an untameable wilderness and a missing husband. This was the first scene I wrote, but also the one I polished the most as it had lived with me the longest.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Like many writers, my characters are composites of all sorts of people, me included. Sarah and Izzy, for example, are complete opposites in the book, but they are both imbued with little bits of my personality or experiences. What I can say is that my characters feel distinctly Canadian to me, which I would say is their biggest connection to my personality.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Into the Fall was heavily influenced by artists from vastly different eras and mediums.

The work of Tom Thomson, an early twentieth century Canadian painter, was a constant touchstone for the setting. Just like the characters in the novel, Thomson’s work is vibrant and beautiful but with a touch of darkness.

At the same time, Lord Huron’s album, Strange Trails, was on repeat most of the time I was writing. The natural world is a recuring theme in their lyrics, but it was the melancholy melodies and pops of warmth that literally scored Into the Fall for me.

Visit Tamara L. Miller's website.

My Book, The Movie: Into the Fall.

--Marshal Zeringue

Krista Davis

New York Times bestselling mystery author Krista Davis writes three mystery series: the Domestic Diva Mysteries; the Paws & Claws Mysteries; and the Pen & Ink Mysteries.

Davis resided in Northern Virginia for many years and lived for a time in Old Town, Alexandria. Today she lives with an assortment of dogs and cats in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

Her new novel is The Wagtail Murder Club.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The Wagtail Murder Club leads the reader directly into the idea that people are working together to solve a murder. Wagtail is the name of the town where they live and recognizable to fans of the series. For others, it’s a strong hint that dogs are involved, which is kind of funny because wagtail is a real word but it has nothing to do with dogs! A wagtail is a bird with a long tail that moves up and down.

Holly Miller rescues an adorable stray pup, Squishy, by the side of the road. Days later, her ex-boyfriend Ben shows up with a group of his attorney colleagues who seem to think that he and Holly are still an item! The arrival of a newly released convict sets the town on edge, especially when one of the attorneys dies in exactly the same way the former convict killed before. Holly bands together with her mom, grandmother, and beloved Inn butler, Mr. Huckle, to uncover the killer and the truth about Squishy. Because nothing brings a town together like murder.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel?

My teenage self would be completely shocked that I am an author! I was heavily into books but never imagined that I would be lucky enough to write books. Murder, dogs, and cats? My teenaged self would have loved it!

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I’m always impressed by authors who write the ending first. I spend a lot more time on beginnings. They have to start at exactly the place and hopefully make the reader want to know more. The ending is far easier because that’s what everything in the story has led toward.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Definitely. Not the murderers so much, though! Like my protagonist, Holly Miller, I love dogs and cats, and had a German grandmother. Sometimes, I worry that because I wouldn’t do something, neither would the characters. In The Diva Cooks a Goose, someone was stealing gifts from under the Christmas trees in people’s homes. I can’t imagine doing that. And in my house, you’d be likely to get a joke gift or pajamas. But two weeks before the book was released, a local man was caught doing exactly that! But in real life, his cell phone fell out of his pocket. The police called him to say they had found it and he came right to them!

Visit Krista Davis's website.

Coffee with a canine: Krista Davis & Han, Buttercup, and Queenie.

The Page 69 Test: The Ghost and Mrs. Mewer.

The Page 69 Test: Murder, She Barked.

The Page 69 Test: The Wagtail Murder Club.

--Marshal Zeringue

Brittany Newell

Brittany Newell is a writer and performer whose work has been published in Granta, n+1, The New York Times, Joyland, Dazed, and Playgirl. She published her debut novel, Oola, at the age of twenty-one. She lives in San Francisco.

Newell's new novel is Soft Core.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I think the title, Soft Core, sets the tone and creates a slinky pink atmosphere for the reader to sink into. It is of course a double entendre, calling to mind the Vaseline-smeared lenses of softcore pornography and long smooth limbs, but also the notion of a literally soft core, a tummy fully relaxed and vulnerable, sloping over one's waistband. I think the title tells you everything you need to know about our main character, Ruth, someone who tries to be tough and brave but is actually, deep down, quite soft and sweet.

What's in a name?

The name Ruth just came to me; I take names very seriously and feel that they have to be summoned. Ruth is a woman of many names: Baby Blue is her stripper name, Miss Sunday is her dominatrix name. All of these names had to be conjured, I had to wait for them to come to me...I keep an ongoing list of names on a note in my phone, names I found beautiful or poetic or charged with meaning, many of which just so happen to be stripper names...off the top of my head: Omaha, Jezebel, Hunter, Bernice.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

I think my teenage self would eat up Soft Core and not be shocked by it at all! Perhaps she would be shocked that it took me so long to write a second book; I wrote Oola at 20 and wrote Soft Core at 27. My cocky teenage self was a prolific scribbler and knew nothing of the trickiness of the publishing world/whims of the market; I thought I was unstoppable. But in terms of the book itself, I think my teenage self would stay up all night reading this book under the covers with a feeling of illicit glee. At 14, I remember proudly telling my class that my favorite books were Nabokov's Lolita and Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. Make of that what you will....

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Endings are hard because I don't really think in terms of conventional plot arcs; I write in a more fractal, zigzaggy, meandering style where there are no tidy endings and loose ends don't get tied up. I've had to learn to be better with endings, so that my readers don't feel cheated or edged! Beginnings, meanwhile, are intoxicating and full of potential. Once I find a beginning image that inspires me, I don't tend to change it: everything else flows from that first potent image.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

It is important for me to state that Soft Core is not a memoir. I am not Ruth and my ex is not Dino...that being said, my own life always trickles into the lives of my fictional characters, in unpredictable, seemingly minor ways, all those rich sensory details that make up a life. So I definitely see myself and my loved ones sprinkled throughout the book in ways that only me and them could recognize, like a favorite brand of coffee or type of perfume, a bar where we kissed.... Also, I will say that all of Ruth's dungeon stories are thinly-veiled nonfiction; I had been dying to write about all my funny/tragic/moving dominatrix experiences and Ruth's journey proved to be the perfect vehicle!

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Music, for sure. "Goodbye Horses" by Q Lazzarus. "Dirty Work" by Steely Dan and the Pointer Sisters. Tom of Finland drawings. The paintings of Noelia Towers. The color purple. Crushed velvet. Tacky paperback drugstore romance novels with names like Surrender the Night. Sleazy 90's erotic thrillers with unhinged female leads.

Visit Brittany Newell's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Allison Montclair

Allison Montclair is the author of the Sparks and Bainbridge mysteries, beginning with The Right Sort of Man, the American Library Association Reading List Council's Best Mystery of 2019. Under her real name, she has written more mystery novels and a damn good werewolf book, as well as short stories in many genres in magazines and anthologies. She is also an award-winning librettist and lyricist with several musicals to her credit that have been performed or workshopped across the USA. She currently lives in New York City where she also practiced as a criminal defense attorney.

Montclair's latest novel is An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

“Her voice was ever soft / Gentle and low — an excellent thing in a woman.” King Lear, after the death of Cordelia. This mystery deals with voices — how they sound, who they belong to, and the stilling of them by death. The book begins with a new client coming to The Right Sort Marriage Bureau who has a background in radio and a particular love for voices. Iris mentions the Lear quote, with her own typically acerbic take: “Another man realizing the value of a woman when it’s too late.”

Titles have generally been difficult for me, and I have wrestled with my editors over them many times. This one, however, was accepted right away. It also echoes P.D. James’s An Unsuitable Job For A Woman, one of my favorite mysteries.

What's in a name?

My protagonists are Iris Sparks and Gwendolyn Bainbridge. I had a colleague named Sparks, and I thought it appropriate for this volatile woman. I liked Iris because of its similarity to Eris, the goddess of discord. Gwen was derived from The Importance of Being Earnest, and I settled upon Bainbridge because it sounded British. It occurred to me after that my subconscious was sending me the names of female British novelists: Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark, and Beryl Bainbridge.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

My teenaged self wanted to become some combination of Thomas Pynchon, Tom Stoppard, and Stephen Sondheim. Teen Self would have been surprised to find me writing mysteries and not sprawling modernistic novels, but they are historical, something shared with the first two writers. I started writing mysteries because I thought they would be easy (they’re not) and a good learning experience (they are). I’m also writing musical theater, so Teen Self would be pleased with that.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

It’s all hard, it’s all easy. The middles are the difficult parts. Sometimes I know the ending in advance, sometimes I will write my characters into a hole, then claw my way out. Research drives the story. I tie it into specific events happening at the time, and I’m more skilled at planting items in earlier books that pay off in later ones.

I usually don’t change much. My editor felt one book had a secondary character with too much plot time, so I rewrote extensively, giving some of his plot points to Iris and Gwen and dropping others. (It saddened me, because I liked the character.)

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Iris is closer to my own personality, although much smarter and more physically capable. I aspire to be on her level. Other than that, the time and place are very different than my own, so the fun is discovering that world and the characters’ voices.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I am looking at historical events, so that research is fascinating and a source of many writing ideas. I’m interested in social change and its effects on individual existence. An Excellent Thing In A Woman is set in the world of BBC-TV as it resumed after the war. I knew when I planned the series that I would be addressing it at some point. Alexandra Palace, which the BBC had taken over for their broadcast facilities, was a wonderful setting for a mystery.

Visit Alan Gordon's website.

The Page 69 Test: An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jacqueline Faber

Jacqueline Faber is an author and freelance writer. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Emory University, where she was the recipient of a Woodruff Scholarship, and taught in the Expository Writing Program at New York University, where she received an award for excellence in teaching. She studied philosophy in Bologna, Italy, and received a dissertation grant from Freie University in Berlin, Germany. Faber writes across genres, including thrillers, rom-coms, and essays. Her work explores questions about memory, loss, language, and desire. Steeped in philosophical, psychological, and literary themes, her writing is grounded in studies of character. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.

Faber's debut novel is The Department.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Like all departments, the eponymous department of my novel hints at some kind of authority, bureaucracy, a place where boundaries might be transgressed. But it holds back as much as it gives away. Something has gone very wrong in this academic setting, but it’s not quite what you think.

What's in a name?

There are two protagonists in The Department. Neil Weber and Lucia Vanotti. Neil’s name feels like a blank slate. A man who has yet to claim agency over his life. Lucia’s name bears within it a kind of indeterminacy. There’s a debate in chapter one over the proper way to pronounce it. Lu-see-ah or Lu- chia. She’s Italian, so the correct pronunciation is the latter. But misrepresentation and misunderstanding are so central to her character, it felt important to capture that in her name.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

For an early writer who never wanted to subject her characters to any form of hardship (which didn’t make for page turners, as you can imagine), my teenage self would be surprised by the devastation I’m now willing to heap on my characters.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Beginnings! Once I understand the story, the ending feels sanctioned. But the beginning is always challenging. It carries a heavy burden. Building a world, introducing character, revealing stakes, hooking readers and making them care. A beginning is a tall order. I’m in awe of books that do it well.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I see pieces of myself in every character I write. Our circumstances and experiences may be different, but I have to understand their psychologies and belief systems to write them authentically. I come to each of them – even the most depraved of my characters – with a sense of empathy.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Dance. And also foreign languages. There’s something about rhythm and cadence that informs my writing.

Visit Jacqueline Faber's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Department.

--Marshal Zeringue