Steph Post

Steph Post's new novel is Miraculum.

From her Q&A with Tabitha Blankenbiller for The Rumpus:

The Rumpus: I’m high-key obsessed with first lines, and I love yours: Daniel stood in the center of the midway and felt its beating heart. Was it your first actual sentence or something that came together after cutting that beginning throat-clearing?

Steph Post: Ah, thank you! I think first lines are so important—they set the tone for the entire novel. I always think of an opening line as a promise. Like a secret, between myself and the reader. Hopefully, it’s a promise I can keep. I do a huge amount of revision during novel writing—it’s a constant process of layering—and Miraculum, in particular, had many changes along the way. The first line, though, stayed the same from the very first moment I scrawled it down in one of my many, many notebooks. It just came, fully formed, and I knew it was right. You know, now that I think about it, I almost never go back and change the opening line of a novel from the very first draft. Everything else, yes, but somehow that promise always comes out right on the first try.

And concerning this line in particular—I absolutely wanted to open with Daniel standing on the midway, the carnival blossoming all around him, because that’s where I wanted the reader to find herself as the journey of the story begins. In a strange way, too, Daniel is our guide into this topsy-turvy world. He’s the most mysterious character, but he’s also an outsider to the Star Light Miraculum and so we’re able to learn about...[read on]

Visit Steph Post's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Steph Post & Juno.

My Book, The Movie: Lightwood.

The Page 69 Test: Lightwood.

My Book, The Movie: Walk in the Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue