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

Sejal Badani

Sejal Badani is the Amazon Charts, USA Today, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Storyteller’s Secret and Trail of Broken Wings. She is also a Goodreads Best Fiction award and ABC/Disney Writing Fellowship finalist whose work has been published in over fifteen languages. When not writing, she loves reading and traveling. Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, and Ed Sheeran are always playing in the background.

Badani's new novel is The Sun's Shadow.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Quite a bit. In The Sun’s Shadow, the title symbolizes two key ideas: first, that even in moments of light and joy, shadows can loom over lives; and second, that one of the boys—a son—would cast a shadow over all their lives while also being a source of light and healing. Similarly, in The Storyteller’s Secret, the title reflects the layers of hidden truths. While the protagonist is a storyteller with a significant secret, it is the former servant, recounting the tale to the granddaughter, whose secret ultimately changes the course of all their lives, giving deeper meaning to the title.

What's in a name?

I love naming characters. I have a passion for exploring the meanings behind names, hoping to craft a connection between the name and the character’s essence. For instance, Felicity, which means "intense happiness," felt perfect for the character in The Sun’s Shadow. Her journey of searching for happiness, only to discover it was within her all along, mirrored a personal journey I’ve experienced myself. It’s these subtle layers of meaning that make naming characters so special to me.

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

My teenage self would be shocked I’m a writer at all. I was supposed to be a lawyer.

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

Beginnings. I usually have the ending in mind when I start a story. I change the beginning countless times but I have yet to change an ending.

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 so much of myself reflected in many of the main female characters I write. My first two novels, Trail of Broken Wings and The Storyteller’s Secret, were deeply personal, inspired by real events from my own life. This made it natural to weave elements of myself into the storylines. In The Sun’s Shadow, the two protagonists are women who fiercely protect their children while juggling careers and personal lives—a dynamic I can completely relate to.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Travel is a huge source of inspiration for me. Experiencing different cultures and connecting with people from around the world is truly incredible, and I feel deeply grateful every time I have the opportunity to explore new places. My family is another profound influence in my life. I’ve always wanted my children to understand the importance of chasing their dreams and believing in themselves, no matter how challenging the journey may seem.

Visit Sejal Badani's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Sejal Badani & Skyler.

My Book, The Movie: The Storyteller's Secret.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kemper Donovan

Kemper Donovan is an acclaimed author and host of the “All About Agatha” podcast. A graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School, he worked at the literary management company Circle of Confusion for a decade before transitioning to writing full-time. He is a member of the New York Bar Association, PEN America, and Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his husband and daughters in Los Angeles.

Donovan's new novel is Loose Lips.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Quite a lot, I hope! My title, Loose Lips, is the first part of a common phrase: “Loose lips sink ships.” To make certain that this word association occurs in the mind of a would-be reader, I made sure to include a picture of a sinking ship on the cover of the book. The idea is to convey: 1) the action of the story takes place entirely on a boat, and 2) matters on this boat go seriously awry. There is also a subtitle, A Ghostwriter Mystery, which clarifies that this book is a mystery, one in a series, and furthermore, that it does not matter where the book falls within that series, since any one of the Ghostwriter Mysteries can be read on its own. The Ghostwriter in question is the narrator of each book, and in this outing, she reluctantly joins a literary-themed cruise as a lecturer, along with a handful of writer colleagues and a few hundred paying passengers. Would you be surprised to learn that secrets and intrigue abound aboard this ship, and that someone ends up murdered?

What's in a name?

Ah, well, this opens up a can of worms, I’m afraid. Loose Lips is the second Ghostwriter Mystery. In the first book in the series, The Busy Body, my Ghostwriter character did not have a name. That’s right: she went nameless for the entire book. I was partly inspired here by Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, which famously features a nameless first-person female narrator, but I also felt that my enigmatic, withholding Ghostwriter character did not want to be named. (She is a ghostwriter, after all.) In my second book in the series, I decided that this character finally needed a name, if only for ease of reference. And so, she goes by “Belle Currer” in this book, which is the pseudonym she used when she “wrote” The Busy Body. (Just as Watson writes his chronicles of Sherlock Holmes, my first-person narrator writes the stories that she tells.) This name is a cheeky inversion of “Currer Bell,” the pseudonym Charlotte Brontë used when first publishing Jane Eyre—a novel both the Ghostwriter and I happen to love very much.

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

I think it would make perfect sense to my teenaged self that I write mysteries. I was always a mystery fanatic—in particular, a devotee of Agatha Christie, both on the page and screen. (I particularly loved the David Suchet series, Agatha Christie’s Poirot.) For the past eight years, I’ve vented my love of Christie by way of a podcast that I host called All About Agatha. (For the first five years I co-hosted the show with a dear friend of mine, Catherine Brobeck, but she passed away. I’ve continued the project solo.) Sooner or later, I was going to have to start writing mysteries of my own. It was only a matter of time….

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

I’ve found that when I’m writing a mystery, the beginning is much harder than the ending, due to the type of mystery that I write. My mysteries are “puzzle” or “fair play” mysteries, also known as “whodunits,” which feature clues that the reader can ferret out in the text at the same time the fictional investigators do. This means there is a pre-arranged solution at the end of the novel, which has to be carefully built into the text. (Agatha Christie was an expert at these sorts of mysteries, as were many of her contemporaries in the so-called “Golden Age of Detective Fiction.”) For this reason, by the time I’ve reached the ending of one of my mysteries, I’ve got everything worked out, and the going is much smoother than at the beginning, when I’m still experimenting and figuring out exactly what I want to do. There is no question that the beginnings undergo significantly more changes!

Visit Kemper Donovan's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Samrat Upadhyay

Samrat Upadhyay was born and raised in Nepal. He is author of the novels The City Son, The Guru of Love (a New York Times Notable Book), and Buddha’s Orphans, as well as the story collections Mad Country, The Royal Ghosts, and Arresting God in Kathmandu. His work has received the Whiting Award and the Asian American Literary Award and been shortlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. He has written for The New York Times and has appeared on BBC Radio and National Public Radio. Upadhyay is Distinguished Professor of English and Martha C. Kraft Professor of Humanities at Indiana University.

His new novel Darkmotherland.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I settled on the title Darkmotherland fairly early in the process, and the title didn’t change even though the novel went through numerous drafts.

This is not my standard writing process. Normally, I have a working title that changes later when I have a firmer sense of what the novel is about. But in Darkmotherland, the name of this dystopia came to me early on, and it felt very right. It’s a combination of Darkmother, a prophetic figure in the novel, and Motherland, which evokes old-timey patriotism and nationalism.

Darkmotherland is not only a place but also a character, a mythical reverse-Shangrila. It holds the major characters in a grip they cannot escape.

What's in a name?

Character names are important to me either in their symbolism or the physical image they conjure for me as I’m writing—sometimes they are a mixture of both. One of my main characters, Kranti, for example, means “revolution,” but she dislikes her name because she has an antagonistic relationship with her mother, a dissident-activist who gave her that name. The mother herself has earned the nickname Madam Mao, undeservedly, for her communist leanings. The irony of the two names hover over their contentious exchanges throughout the novel.

Interestingly, the naming of places and temples became important to me in the novel. I found myself translating Nepali street names into English, so much so that they became, at times, awkward and convoluted, which then provided another texture to Darkmotherland as a land of dissonance and dislocation. So, Battispulati became Thirty Two Butterflies Street, Ghantaghar clocktower became Home of the Bell, and so on.

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

My teenage self would be quite surprised by my new novel. I was a serious teenager, and as a young man I wrote about serious things. So the dark comedy in Darkmotherland would be a surprise to my younger self. But on second thought, maybe not so surprising. As a teenager some of my favorite books were Catch-22, The World According to Garp, and Cat’s Cradle.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My interest in “translations” of culture and language is at a heightened display in Darkmotherland. I’m interested in how global English has become, and how it transforms and is transformed by other cultures and countries.

I’m generally interested in politics, especially in politics that impacts our daily living, and it was interesting to explore this in the novel with an all-consuming authoritarian figure who inspires fear. I’m also fascinated by how American politics dominates the globe, and I had fun imagining this influence in the emotional landscape of Darkmotherland.

Visit Samrat Upadhyay's website.

Writers Read: Samrat Upadhyay (August 2010).

The Page 69 Test: Buddha’s Orphans.

The Page 69 Test: Darkmotherland.

--Marshal Zeringue

Heather O'Neill

Heather O’Neill is a novelist, short-story writer and essayist. Her work includes When We Lost Our Heads, a #1 national bestseller and a finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal, The Lonely Hearts Hotel, which won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and CBC’s Canada Reads, and Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, and Daydreams of Angels, which were shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize two years in a row. O’Neill has also won CBC’s Canada Reads and the Danuta Gleed Award.

The Capital of Dreams is O’Neill's most recent novel.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My novel is about a fictional country that gets its borders after World War 1. They invest in the arts, and hold it above everything else. They believe they don’t need to invest in an army. They will be protected by the West should they be attacked. And then at the height of their golden era, the Enemy comes to wipe them off the face of the earth.

The Capital of the country is so important in the novel. Sofia, a fourteen-year-old girl, is entrusted with getting her mother’s manuscript out of the country, so the culture can be saved.

I liked the idea of having a sophisticated girl from the cultural elite, having to make her way through the war-torn countryside. I wanted to see how the philosophy of The Capital made sense to her once she was out of it. Can a clarinet tune stop a war? Can a poem save a people? I have always believed in the power of art.

I wanted to show why artists and children are targeted by genocidal invaders. And how they are at the heart of a country’s identity.  

What's in a name?

I decided to name the children in the novel names that sounded as though they might all come from varying countries. I wanted them to have names that made them sound as though they were each from a different sort of children’s book from a different culture. They were all from the land of childhood which has different borders than adults.

I named the main character Sofia, because it means knowledge, and she is a philosopher of the children’s condition and the particular existential questions children have, and particularly the ways in which children make sense of trauma.  

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

Very delighted probably. Most of the novels I write are based on idea I had as a young girl. I would plan out the novels that I wanted to write when I was older and figured out how to write a novel. Capital of Dreams was a novel based on stories I had heard about my dad and uncles going to war as teenagers. I would be so surprised my future self listened to me. And that I was in possession of real ideas for novels. I think children have incredible ideas.

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

I almost always write the ending first. So I know where the characters are heading towards. The beginning always changes. Because you don’t begin a book with the beginning. You begin a book with an arresting moment, a sort of photograph, a little dance, to trick the reader into reading the whole book.

At the start, I dress my characters up and say, “Your job is to make the reader enchanted by you. Do anything, something lovely, something bizarre.”

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

When I was creating the character of Clara Bottom, a renown philosopher, I went to great efforts to make her a narcissist and bombastic. I wanted her to be so openly full of herself and not humble. It was such a fun way to portray a middle-aged woman.

When I was finished the novel, everyone I knew said Clara Bottom resembled me very much. Which I found shocking and hilarious.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

This book was very influenced by the news of the world. I describe an occupied country being subjected to a genocide. What was happening in the Ukraine and Gaza greatly affected the politics of the novel.  

But also photographs. Fashion magazines. Traveling. I collect notes about people doing and saying strange things to me on the subway.

I was influenced by the way children play instruments. My daughter went to a Performing Arts school. There was something so magical about the sound of children making their way through a piano tune. The notes would tumble out into the corridor. I loved the awkward pacing and imperfection. I wanted some of that spirit in the language of this novel.

Follow Heather O’Neill on Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue