KC Jones

KC Jones is a screenwriter-turned-novelist currently living in western Washington. When not writing, he can be found watching movies, playing video and board games, or enjoying nature—whenever it isn’t raining.

He graduated from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas with a degree in film production. His first published novel, Black Tide, was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a first novel.

Jones's new novel is White Line Fever.

My Q&A with the author:

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

White line fever is a colloquialism for highway hypnosis, which is the primary tool with which this malevolent stretch of road confuses, frightens, and ultimately kills people who drive it. The main character, Livia, has also been going through adulthood in her own form of highway hypnosis—until an unexpected turn shocks her out of it, and she suddenly realizes she doesn't recognize her life. Not her husband, her house, even herself. Her journey is not just surviving a trip down a hellish highway, it's reclaiming control instead of just going where the road takes her. To me, though, "highway hypnosis" just didn't quite ring as a title, whereas "white line fever" has a nice punchy cadence, like broken road stripes flashing past, and it's a bit strange, a bit unsettling. I came across the term while researching the psychology behind highway hypnosis, and knew immediately that it had to be the title.

What's in a name?

There's no deep meaning behind any of the character names, besides Livia most often going by the shortened "Liv," which is the thing she's not been doing for as long as she can remember, and will hopefully start doing again by the end. I had a bit more fun with her family name of Rhodes, particularly her father's Rhodes' End junkyard, which comes into play as both a name and place. The "Silver Bullet" campervan is another fictional name that I used pretty intentionally in a wink-wink, nudge-nudge sort of way. The road itself is nicknamed "The Devil's Driveway" for how dangerous it is, but its real name, County Road 951, takes inspiration from a couple of things. One is Road 5 NW, aka White Trail Road, a rural bypass in central Washington that I've driven more times than I could count. 951 comes from the address of a haunted house a childhood friend lived in. They never claimed there were ghosts in 951 (and only ever referred to the house by its street number), just a nebulous "bad magic," which I found far creepier, and thus the combination of numbers has always felt a bit sinister to me.

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

Not in the slightest. Scary stories have been my thing since Goosebumps, and many of my formative experiences involved vehicles and creepy roads. I wrote screenplays prior to novels, and even with books I'm just writing the movie I see in my head. My teenage self would look at this and likely say "that tracks."

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

I don't like to start writing a story until I know how it ends. Endings are my lodestar, they help guide everything that comes before. I rewrote this story several times, from screenplay to exploratory novel to first draft to a complete page-one rewrite that more closely resembled the final product. But despite how completely different all of these versions were, the ending was always the same. How do you defeat a road? I knew from the outset, but getting the characters and story to the point where it's even a possibility was a journey of many beginnings.

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

Bits and pieces. Livia's tendency to avoid conflict, of trying to keep everybody together and happy, is definitely me, and shades of Becka's upbringing, and eventual turning away from it, are reflective of my own experience. Morgan and Ash's witnessing a family member slowly succumb to a terrible illness, and the ways that experience informs a lot of their behavior, is probably the most personal connection to myself in this. Personality-wise I'm way more Morgan than Ash (although I do like the "noise" of the kitchen when I need to shut everything else out.)

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

This is a hard one to distill down, because for me it's just living life. Watching, listening, experiencing. In terms of what paved the way for White Line Fever, my numerous trips down very long, very empty roads, an oddball group of childhood friends, and space. Yeah, the cosmos. I think about it a lot when playing with the more magic elements of stories. Its ability to be both beautiful and terrifying, essential to our existence and utterly hostile, vast beyond imagining and yet always right there, if we only go outside after dark and look up.

Visit KC Jones's website.

The Page 69 Test: White Line Fever.

--Marshal Zeringue

Bryan Gruley

Bryan Gruley is the Edgar-nominated author of six novels – Purgatory Bay, Bleak Harbor, the Starvation Lake Trilogy, and his most recent, Bitterfrost - and one award-winning work of nonfiction. A lifelong journalist, he shared in The Wall Street Journal's Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He lives in northern lower Michigan with his wife, Pamela, where he can be found playing hockey, singing in his band, or spending time with his children and grandchildren.

My Q&A with Gruley:

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

Bitterfrost struck me as an arresting and descriptive word that would grab browsers’ attention. It’s the title of the book and the name of the fictional northern lower Michigan town where the story is set. I don’t recall precisely how I came up with it. I know I did some trolling through Finnish words (the river that runs through the middle of town is called Jako, which is Finnish for division). Somehow, I stumbled on Bitterfrost and immediately liked it, for the feeling of coldness it evokes, and the sharp three-syllable rhythm. I barely knew then what the book would be about, but I assumed it would be dark because my books are always dark, and Bitterfrost also evokes dark. The story is also about the town itself and how it divides against or for the protagonist, Zamboni driver and accused murderer Jimmy Baker, so Bitterfrost seemed fitting.

What's in a name?

Naming characters, towns, churches, taverns, and other stuff is one of my favorite parts of writing novels (besides finishing). Generally, I like character names that are memorable and easy for readers to pronounce. Jimmy “Bakes” Baker is a fine name for a hockey player, easy to pronounce, easy to remember. The other two main characters—defense attorney Devyn Payne and detective Garth Klimmek—have slightly more unusual names that are still easy to remember and pronounce. Devyn was a major character in an earlier novel that went unpublished. I went back-and-forth with my agent on various names until we agreed on Devyn Payne. I love the name and the character (and it was easy to name her twin brother with the rhyming Evan). Klimmek’s surname is the same as that of a woman who helped solve an 18-year-old double homicide in Michigan that inspired parts of the plot of Bitterfrost. Garth just felt right, and with Klimmek his name feels vaguely Scandinavian.

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

Pretty surprised. I didn’t read a lot of mysteries and thrillers as a teen, gravitating toward more “literary” novels like The Catcher in the Rye and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I recall enjoying The Day of the Jackal when I was twenty-one, but that was an exception. The first serious mystery/thriller I remember loving was Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River. God, that was good—and by then, I was forty years old. That was the novel that made me tell myself, it’s time to try to write the novel you’ve been dreaming about forever. Some years later, I finished my debut, Starvation Lake. I didn’t really think of it as a mystery or thriller until my then-agent told me it was a “literary mystery.” Whatever that is.

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

Beginnings are easier if only because I never know how a book is going to end when I start it. I change both quite a bit. After Severn House acquired Bitterfrost, my then-editor, Victoria Britton, urged me to consider making Chapter 6 into Chapter 1. Of course I initially resisted because, you know, insecure writer, but I pretty quickly concluded that Vic was right. Now the book begins: “Jimmy wakes to a pinging sound in his head. And the smell of blood.” Our hero is on his kitchen floor, covered in blood, and he has no idea what happened to the last several hours. The ending changed too after a friend who’d read a draft of Bitterfrost told me something that I knew intuitively but hadn’t actively incorporated in the book. I went back and rewrote the final scenes. I think—I hope--it worked.

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

There’s more of me in my early books than the last three. I play hockey and in Bitterfrost both Jimmy and Devyn dwell in that world. I love the culture and geography of northern lower Michigan, where Bitterfrost is set. But I’ve never been a lawyer or a detective or a hockey fighter, though I’ve certainly observed them. I’m definitely a flawed human being, and I strive to imbue my characters with the kinds of flaws and regrets that even the best of us carry around.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Hockey, of course. Small towns all over the United States where I wrote stories for The Wall Street Journal. My mother, who encouraged me to write, and my father, a helluva joke-teller and, therefore, storyteller. Also, my favorite TV series: Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, The Night Of, Mare of Easttown, Slow Horses, The Day of the Jackal. From these terrific shows, I think I’ve learned a good deal about using compression to move the plot along, making scenes as cinematic as possible, giving even minor characters strong personalities, and getting inside characters’ heads so I and my readers feel what they’re feeling. Poor Walter White. I knew I would dearly miss him in that final scene of Breaking Bad at the same time that I knew it was the perfect ending to that superb series.

Learn more about the book and author at Bryan Gruley's website.

The Page 69 Test: Starvation Lake.

The Page 69 Test: The Hanging Tree.

The Page 69 Test: Bleak Harbor.

The Page 69 Test: Purgatory Bay.

The Page 69 Test: Bitterfrost.

--Marshal Zeringue

Allison Gunn

Allison Gunn is a professional researcher, writer, and podcaster with a penchant for all things whimsical and strange. An alum of the University of Maryland, she has extensively studied marginalized communities as well as Appalachian folklore and the occult. She currently resides in the wonderfully weird land of West Virginia with her twin daughters, a precocious pup, and one seriously troubled tabby.

Nowhere is Gunn's first novel.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Nowhere was the title from the start, and I never received any suggestions otherwise. Beyond all else, the book is about Nowhere both literally and metaphorically. Without giving too many spoilers, it is the place of no return for our characters—a living, breathing reality just on the other side of ours. Yet, it’s also a space many of us know well. The Kennans may literally reside in the middle of nowhere, however, their isolation via stigma places them even further into this lonely place in every human’s heart.

That being said, there are international markets where the title has to be altered, either for translation or for the sake of the target audience. For example, my Italian publisher had to decide how to translate the concept of Nowhere into a title that could be easily understood in Italian. Other international publishers are currently doing the same, and I’m okay with that as long as the title they land on resonates.

I’m not an author who digs their heels into the mud and refuses to budge when my team raises an issue such as the marketability of a book based on its title. I would have struggled a bit had Atria (my North American publisher) insisted on a different title, but I have also carefully surrounded myself with people I trust. Because of that, I’m willing to entertain even changes to the manuscript that initially seem immovable. That is the key to successfully publishing via a traditional route—collaboration. No one in the process is entirely correct. Once you accept that as an author, I think your ability to come to the table and bounce ideas off one another results in a much stronger novel.

What's in a name?

More often than not, my characters ‘tell’ me their names which sounds a bit wild, I realize. Typically, when I’m starting a story the first thing that becomes clear is dialogue. From there, everything is built upon the characters’ experiences.

In Nowhere’s case, every single character seemed to have a name before I even started writing them. I was actually shocked when I first allowed beta readers to take a glance that Finn and Rachel were also the names of characters from the TV show Glee because I had absolutely no idea. I didn’t watch Glee. Those were simply the names that popped into my head as they were ‘speaking,’ but because those names were so clear in my mind, I refused to change them whenever someone pointed out the Glee-connection.

Similarly, Charlie and Lucy’s names and personalities were firm before I began pursuing publishing. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the personalities of those two characters mirrored that of my daughters even then, with even their names beginning with ‘C’ and ‘L’ respectively. Even stranger, though they are twins and were quite young when I began writing Nowhere, the daughter who served as the basis for Charlie has continued to grow in a trajectory that is very much consistent with that character. It’s spooky and delightful and certainly more proof that I should trust the names my characters give me.

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

My teenage self would be surprised, terrified (potentially even horrified) by Nowhere, but not because of the genre. I write about it in the Author’s Note in the beginning of the book, but I grew up a fundamentalist pastor’s kid. In our little slice of Christianity, being queer was a one-way ticket straight to hell, and I took that very seriously at the time. It caused quite a lot of damage throughout my life, especially as a teen when I was trying my best to shove it down both for myself and the community in which I was surrounded. However, that experience made its way into Nowhere quite prominently.

I’d like to think Younger Allison would also be a little impressed that I ever grew courageous enough to talk about being queer and trapped in a society that condemned it. Overall, though, she’d be shaking in her boots that the entire world would now know what secrets were hiding in her closet.

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

Neither. The middle is the most difficult for me. I typically start with a beginning and end in mind with a few scenes connecting the two sketched out in my brain. It’s connecting the two that’s the most challenging aspect.

As far as whether I change the ending or the beginning more, it truly depends on the story and the feedback I receive. The current manuscript I’m working on is a very unconventional one, and the ending continues to evolve quite radically, though not conceptually. Regarding Nowhere, very few things changed in the beginning and the end with the exception of the Prologue which was added just before the book went to my editor. I view that as an extension of the ending, however, and it was very natural to pen. Otherwise, almost nothing changed in the opening and ending from the first draft.

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

There are aspects of myself in nearly every prominent character in Nowhere, but especially in both Rachel and Finn. Combined, they represent some of the darkest pieces of me—past flaws; present biases; character flaws that I have worked to iron out. Obviously, they are not a mirror-image of me, but there are many shared elements.

For example, I see myself in Finn’s all-consuming grief and inability to see beyond his immediate pain. When it comes to Rachel, there are multiple former partners out there who will attest, I absolutely can become insulated and cold when I’m in “defense mode.” There are quite a few reviews which have mentioned this aspect of Rachel as a major detractor from her overall likability. Perhaps that’s fair and true, but she is a survivor of multiple tragedies. Her way of coping is to focus on how to pull her loved ones to safety no matter what it takes, but that also means shutting down excessive emotions in crises when others are relying on her. For better or worse, that is something which very much reflects how I personally operate under extreme duress.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Film and television have always been major influences in my creative work. In fact, I initially planned to go to college for acting, then did a stint in film school as an aspiring director. Specific screen works that have influenced my writing include Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (which I consider a work almost entirely independent from Stephen King’s incredible book); Christopher Nolan’s Inception; and most recently, Stephen Cognetti’s Hell House, LLC. Director-screenwriters like James Gunn and Mike Flanagan routinely inform my work as well.

Additionally, independent artists such as Stephen Willey and Brian Serway continue to influence my manuscripts. While Willey’s phenomenal art resonates with much of my ongoing writing, Serway’s work very much reflects the tone and atmosphere of Nowhere. These artists’ work literally cover my walls at home. Similarly, I’m continually inspired by artwork found in many tarot decks.

Finally—and this should come as no surprise to anyone who has read Nowhere—I’m obsessed with legends, lore, the occult, and the supernatural. Therefore, researchers dabbling in these areas with sincerity inspire much of my work. I have to give credit to the crew behind the documentary Hellier: Greg and Dana Newkirk, Connor Randall, Karl Pfeiffer, and Tyler Stand. They opened the door to a wealth of research grounded in reason amidst a field riddled with charlatans. Perhaps most influential in this area, however, is researcher, lecturer, and professional ‘weirdo’ (in the fondest sense), John E.L. Tenney. I highly recommend a deep dive into these individuals’ work, even for the most jaded skeptic, especially since their analyses are usually based in psychology, history, and sociology.

Visit Allison Gunn's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Matt Plass

Matt Plass has lived in Azerbaijan, Istanbul and New York, and now resides back in the UK, where he has a farmhouse on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, and a study overlooking the 600 trees that he and his wife Elana planted during the Covid pandemic.

He regularly returns to America and considers New York a second home.

Plass's new novel is The Ten Worst People in New York.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The Ten Worst People in New York wasn’t my first choice of title, or even my second, but now I can’t imagine the book with any other lettering along the spine.

The novel began life in 2017 as The Murder Club, based on my 2015 Kindle Single of the same name (a B-side to the Lawrence Block short story "Gym Rat"). When Richard Osmond released The Thursday Murder Club to wide acclaim in 2020 (Damn you, Richard!) I had to think again. The Murder Club became The List, then The Reckoning, and finally—at the suggestion of my amazing editor, Sara J. Henry—The Ten Worst People in New York.

Who are the ten worst people in New York? Imagine a television talk show host launches a new nightly feature: a live list of public hate figures, updated by online and audience votes. On the list you might find a real estate mogul who’s really nothing more than a slumlord, a conspiracy junky who targets the victims of gun massacres, a climate-change denying scientist, a corrupt local politician, a wealthy financier who everyone suspects of being a sexual predator... Each night on the show, the audience enjoys sniggering and booing at the very worst people in the great city of New York, and it’s just a bit of fun.

Until people on the list start dying.

We spend most of the book either with FBI Special Agent Alex Bedford, or with young filmmaker Jacob Felle, as they investigate the murders from different angles. But we also get to step inside the minds of individuals on the list of the ten worst people in New York. Seeing the world through their eyes is a reminder that no one is the villain in their own movie, and in many ways, the ten worst are the stars of the show—however grisly and gruesome they might be—so it’s fitting that they should own the book title.

What's in a name?

Names in fiction matter, especially in a book like The Ten Worst People in New York where the reader is asked to keep track of three different groups of people. We have FBI Special Agent Alex Bedford and her team, Jacob Felle the filmmaker, his estranged sister Elizabeth Felle and the adrenaline junkies in Elizabeth’s club for modern adventurers, and of course, the ten worst, who have a habit of turning up dead.

Like most modern writers, I don’t go the full Charles Dickens (no cruel Headmasters named Wackford Squeers teaching at Dotheboys Hall) but I notice clever naming when I see it. For example, what a slick move by Thomas Harris to allow a typo on a birth certificate to render his serial killer Jame (not James) Gumb in Silence of the Lambs, making him seem somehow less like the rest of us, a bad sound in the mouth, all Js, Gs and Ms.

The biblical Jacob tricked his brother Esau out of his inheritance, and there’s something tricky about Jacob Felle—he has a selfish streak and he’s not above manipulating others when it suits him. Felle is an Irish name and suggests a past act of falling. Falling from grace, perhaps, the way Jacob has with his sister?

Alex Bedford, the FBI Special Agent, takes her surname from the street I lived on in Brooklyn for five years: Bedford Avenue, the western boundary of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. For me the name Bedford suggests a strong feeling of community and also the common decency that Alex embodies throughout the book, as well as a sense that something that has been one way for a very long time, now faces rapid and disruptive change. For the real life Bed-Stuy neighborhood, that change is the creeping tide of gentrification, creating winners and losers as it washes through the streets. For Alex Bedford it is adjusting to life as a widow. The name Alex I borrowed from a friend, a strong, single-minded and determined woman, just like FBI Agent Alex Bedford.

Elizabeth Felle, Jacob’s sister, is a force to be reckoned with. There’s something regal in the full form of Elizabeth—never Liz, Lizzy or Ellie—with echoes of formidable queens from the near and distant past.

Of course, most readers won’t make (or care about!) any of these connections, but they matter to me, and they might just tickle the back of the brain for some.

As for naming the ten worst people in New York, when it comes to two of them—Dallas Johncock and Emil Hertzberg—you’ll have to read the book to learn just how important those names are to the story.

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

As a teenager I inhaled books. I probably read more between the age of 14 and 18 than I did between the ages of 20 and 35, happily switching between classic literature, modern day thrillers and even comic novels—a genre I rarely read now. Back then I could—and given half a chance, would—give you a pretentious (and no doubt highly annoying) lecture on authors ranging from Hemmingway to Harper Lee, with stops along the way for Donna Tartt and Bret Easton Ellis.

So how surprised would my teenage reader self be if he read The Ten Worst People in New York? With that peculiar mix of self-doubt and arrogance that young adults have, my teenage self would probably be amazed that I had managed to write a novel at all, even more stunned that it had made its way out into the world, but also annoyed that it wasn’t as good as Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, or John le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. That’s okay. Even back then, I think I appreciated that you have to aim as high as you can, even if you know your arrows will never fly as far as those of your heroes.

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

The wonderful thing about endings is that once you have them locked in, you can go back and change beginnings—and middles—to line everything up neatly, making you look a lot smarter than you are!

When I began The Ten Worst People in New York, I had a strong sense of the emotional journey the characters would go on. While the story morphed several times over several drafts—different scenes, different locations, different real-world outcomes—the characters’ emotional journeys changed very little from day one to final manuscript.

I knew from the first chapter that any victory for Jacob Felle would be a pyrrhic victory at best; he would lose as much as he gained from the resolution of the mystery. I also knew that FBI Special Agent Alex Bedford would learn something about herself that would allow her to move past her grief at the loss of her husband. I had no idea how the scenes would unfold until I wrote them—the where, when, and how only came to me when I embarked on the final section of the book—but the what and the why was always clear.

Is it harder to write a beginning or an ending?

The problem with beginnings is how to identify the start line. A phenomenal writing coach I worked with—Allison K Williams—encouraged her students to get into a story or scene as late as you can, and get out as early as you can. Good advice. It’s why so many crime novels start with the discovery of a dead body. Do you want to open a book and see our detective getting up in the morning, brushing their teeth, eating cereal, dropping the kids at school, driving to work, grabbing a coffee in the morning, all before they get the call that a body has been found? Or do we want to be introduced to them standing over a corpse—a pacy start to any story—and then learn about them across the span of the book?

There could, of course, be good reasons for spending quality time with our character before the main action kicks off. Maybe we learn something important from witnessing a morning routine: maybe breakfast is a shot of whiskey; maybe our hero leaves her husband in bed, sleeping off a drunk; maybe one of her kids is demanding her attention, something that might become a source of tension and pressure later in the book... All good character-defining stuff! But it’s probably more reflective of real life to uncover those facts over time. After all, when we meet someone for the first time, we typically meet the version they choose to present to the world. It’s only later that we start to glimpse the real person behind the facade.

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

Jacob Felle is a white, British, male filmmaker in his late thirties, and he is, essentially, a younger, better-looking, and smarter version of me, but with perhaps a slightly more feckless or error-prone personality.

Alex Bedford is a middle-aged African-American, female FBI agent, so in some ways she and I could not be more different. However, Alex is dogged and determined, loyal and compassionate—personality traits I’d like to think I share with her—and she has blind spots that can prevent her from seeing straight and which lead her into mistakes and missteps. I know the feeling.

As for the ten worst people in New York, I spent many enjoyable hours inside their grisly minds, and maybe I learned more about myself than I would have liked. You can empathize with anyone if you put your mind to it, and to understand is not to condone, but let’s just say that I might have had a little too much fun inhabiting a corrupt real estate mogul, a disgraced Cardinal, a climate-change-denying professor...

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

With characters such as a ‘crooked real-estate mogul’ or ‘wealthy financer who is also a sexual predator’ or ‘conspiracy junkie who targets school shooting victims’, you could be forgiven if certain names from the real world spring to mind.

The truth is that aside from a headline resemblance to real-world individuals, all the characters in the book are figments of my imagination, and I tend not to be too influenced by current events.

That said, occasionally real life and fiction come a little too close for comfort, and one recent real-world event appear to validate a theme in The Ten Worst People in New York. You may have read about the fatal shooting on a New York street of a senior executive at a pharma company. The murder was portrayed by some media outlets not as a murder but as a vigilante slaying, and the killer was lauded on social media as a hero.

So my concept that the killers of the ten worst people in New York might attract a cult following for their crimes, and be lauded by the public for removing bad people from the city of New York, now appears to have a real-world precedent.

The vigilante slaying of the Ten Worst People in New York. It could happen.

Visit Matt Plass's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sandra Chwialkowska

Sandra Chwialkowska is a television writer and producer who splits her time between Los Angeles and Toronto. Most recently, she served as writer and co–executive producer on the Golden Globe–nominated ABC series Alaska Daily, created by Oscar-winning writer Tom McCarthy and starring two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank. Chwialkowska holds a BA in literature from Yale.

The Ends of Things is her first novel.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The working title for my novel was Eleuthera, which is the name of the Bahamian island where my book is set. I liked how eleutheria is also the Greek word for freedom, which is a motif in the book, as well as the epithet of the Greek goddess Artemis (Diana) who is referenced in the novel. My heroine, Laura, yearns to have the confidence and freedom embodied by Diana, the solo female traveler she encounters at the beach resort, who later goes missing. My acquisitions editor encouraged me to find an alternative title, one that was a bit easier to pronounce (haha), had an internal tension, and also suggested the genre of the book, which is psychological suspense. My beta reader pulled a phrase from my book—the ends of things—and it instantly clicked with me because it encapsulates what the book is about: my heroine, Laura, always imagines the worst-case scenario, or “the ends of things,” which causes her life to unravel when Diana disappears.

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

My teenage reader self would be surprised that I actually finished writing a novel and managed to get it published. It was a childhood dream of mine to be a published author, and I wrote several unfinished manuscripts in high school. My teenage self would also be surprised that my novel includes a flashback story about a close female friendship that started in girlhood and ended badly.

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

I find endings more challenging, especially in a mystery story because I’m the type of reader who always tries to guess the twist. The ending in my novel is very unconventional, so I think it will surprise many readers, but I think it’s satisfying and delivers on the themes that are developed throughout the book.

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

A few years ago, I vacationed with my boyfriend at a couples beach resort in the Bahamas, where I observed a woman vacationing alone. I was intrigued to know why she came to a romantic resort by herself, and this mystery gave me the idea for the premise of my novel.

In writing the novel, I discovered that I, like my heroine Laura, am a catastrophizer, in that I often imagine the worst-case scenario. Laura is deeply flawed, but I hope, deeply relatable in all her insecurities and penchant for self-doubt.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I love the TV show The White Lotus because while it’s technically a mystery, it’s really a meditation on character and social dynamics. I also love that it’s set at a resort in a beautiful locale. I find resort vacations to be fascinating pressure cookers because they unfold during a compressed time period and they’re full of forced togetherness in an unfamiliar setting. What could go wrong?

Visit Sandra Chwialkowska's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Xhenet Aliu

Xhenet Aliu’s novel, Brass, was awarded the biennial Townsend Prize in 2020, the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year First Novel Prize, was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection, and was long-listed for the 2018 Center for Fiction First Book Prize. Numerous media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, Real Simple, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, named Brass a 2018 best book of the year. Previously, her debut story collection, Domesticated Wild Things, and Other Stories won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction. Aliu’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Glimmer Train, Hobart, LitHub, Buzzfeed, and elsewhere, and she has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, and a fellowship from the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, among other awards. She teaches Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Aliu's new novel is Everybody Says It's Everything.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Disembodied from the text, the title Everybody Says It’s Everything plays with the ambiguity of the indefinite pronouns “everybody” and “everything” in a way I find kind of fun and mysterious. Who’s everybody, what’s everything? Tell me, book, tell me! Spoiler alert: the story pretty explicitly clarifies that the title refers to family, which is very much what the story is about, despite the backdrop of a real-life geopolitical conflict, i.e., the Kosovo War. The title is extracted directly from a piece of dialogue in the book, in fact, though landing on it was a real struggle. Before that, the working title was Eagle Calling, which referred to the name of a fictionalized group of Albanian expats collecting funds and weapons for the Kosovo war; it works fine for that purpose, but as a book title, it read like an issue of a G.I. Joe comic.

What's in a name?

I wish I could tell you my names are an allusion to, say, Roman mythology or something else extremely literary and smartypants. But…no. I pulled the name Drita from the reality TV show Mob Wives; Drita was the sole Albanian among a group of Italian-Americans married to mafia guys on Staten Island and was, if I do say so myself, the breakout star among a cast of characters designed to become viral memes. (Mob Wife Drita is also the absolute opposite of my book’s straightlaced Drita, unfortunately.) Petrit was my father’s name, and I bestowed it on my character because I wanted something easily Americanized–my father went by Pete after he came to the U.S., and I like the single-syllable impact of it. Drita and Pete’s adoptive Italian-American mother Jacqueline just felt like a Jackie to me, with a nice nasal “a” in the first syllable. Pete’s girlfriend Shanda was the name of the real-life human whose driver’s license I paid a lot of money for when I was a minor in order to get into bars. Dakota seems like a name that people who live in an Econoline van and drive to hippie fests full-time would name their son. Between my own name and the names of some of the characters in my last book (Bashkim, Yllka, and Gjonni come to mine), I thought I’d do readers a solid this time and make everything slightly easier to pronounce.

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

Teenaged me had absolutely no idea that she’d be allowed to write novels, because she’d been taught to work exclusively jobs that required punchcards. Teenaged me was also a secret nerd, though; by the time I was in high school, I was reading things like Lolita, which I’m certain I didn’t understand but which absolutely floored me. I was all about realism because real-life humans were so much more confusing and necessary to study to me than, say, dragons or aliens, and that’s where I’ve mostly remained (despite currently working on something I might call horror). I guess if teenaged me had been allowed to consider a future writer version of herself, she wouldn’t be terribly surprised by the characters or content: lonely, confused people who feel alienated from their own family and uncertain about their place in the world.

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

100% endings. If I wasn’t excited by the beginning of a project, it would never make it to page 10. It’s all possibility at that stage, like the first date with some not-conventionally-hot-but-somehow-beguiling person you met in the cereal aisle at Harris Teeter. I’m always more interested in investigating the unknowable things about people, and how they get so much wrong, than I am in any conventional resolution, which makes sticking the landing very difficult for me. I always want there to be an ellipses at the end of a story, not a period.

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

In a former life–one that the aforementioned teenaged me pursued–I was going to be a nurse, like Drita. It was both a practical career and one that seemed so useful and purposeful. In fact, I sometimes still wish I had finished that nursing degree and pursued writing from the side door, not just because I probably would’ve paid off my student loans by now but because I still crave tasks that have practical, quantifiable impacts, which writing almost never does. And like Drita, I can be a little judgmental and maybe prioritize goodness over kindness, which isn’t always the most practical way to move through the world. I wish I was more like Mob Wives Drita than Everybody Says It’s Everything Drita, but I just wasn’t built for reality TV.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

A very boring answer is “the news,” even if it’s obvious that reading about current events and consequently thinking about things like equity and immigration and class issues has informed my writing. But can I go with the more fun answer of narrative songs? I’ve always loved songs that tell stories, going back to “Rocky Raccoon” by the Beatles and, later, old-timey blues and folk songs, albums like Springsteen’s Nebraska, most of Wu Tang’s entire oeuvre (including solo output by individual members), murder ballads, etc. It was the storytelling form of the working person when “literature” felt so gate-kept and exclusive to a certain class of people to which I definitely did not feel I belonged. I loved that these artists were allowed to use their own voices and vernaculars and cadences instead of trying to adopt to a form of erudition acceptable in so-called high art, and they gave me permission to not chase prettiness at the expense of honesty in my own writing.

Visit Xhenet Aliu's website.

The Page 69 Test: Everybody Says It's Everything.

--Marshal Zeringue

C. I. Jerez

C. I. Jerez, who has a blend of Irish, Puerto Rican, and Cuban parentage, grew up near El Paso’s Mexican border experiencing a true cultural amalgamation. After graduating from the University of Texas at El Paso, she commissioned as a signal officer in the US Army and rose to the rank of major before transitioning out of the military. She holds an MBA from Webster University and a doctorate in international business from Liberty University. When not writing, she serves as cofounder and vice president for Ashire Technologies & Services Inc., a cybersecurity firm specializing in securing federal information systems. She lives in central Florida.

Jerez's new novel is At the Island's Edge.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title of the book makes it clear that an island will be central to the story’s premise. The cover art further supports the island we are referring to. However, what I loved about the title was the implication of being at the island’s edge. This can be taken literally, but when I first heard the proposed title by an editor at the publishing house, I immediately thought of the figurative illustration and how the protagonist in the story is at the edge of her emotional limits following her return from the war. It also implies that it’s the island she returns to while reaching her own personal limit. That’s accurate. It’s when I knew we had the right title.

Up until then I was using the working title, Isla Magic. I still really love that title, but I agreed with the editors that it could be misleading, lending itself to magical realism or even fantasy. I didn’t want any potential reader to be confused by the “magic” elements of the story. This is a story about a raw and powerful young woman battling the impact of her life experiences by returning home. The title captures all of that perfectly.

What's in a name?

Lina LaSalle Rivera is a very special name. My great grandparents immigrated from the western region of Puerto Rico to New York City in the mid 1930’s and this was my great grandmother’s name. What makes this so special is that while I was familiar with the legacy of the name LaSalle and wanted to include it in my novel, I didn’t know my great grandmother was also named Lina. My mother was shocked when she began to read the early drafts of the manuscript and realized I’d inadvertently named my protagonist after her Puerto Rican maternal grandmother.

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

I think my teenage self would be thrilled that I’d written a story about a tough young woman serving in the military. I remember taking the ASVAB (military entrance/aptitude exam) in high school as part of a class assignment and scoring the highest in my entire class. It was the first time my dream of growing up to be a Top Gun pilot seemed plausible. The recruiters showed up shortly after receiving my exam results with all kinds of promises about flying airplanes right after high school. That didn’t quite pan out, as I’m sure one can imagine, but I didn’t know better. I did not have any exposure to the military environment growing up. I had no idea how to chart a course into military service, but the idea of wearing a uniform, living abroad and being part of such an important mission always appealed to me. I’m thankful I finally found my way into the U.S. Army and even more proud of this book.

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

I can hear my agent’s beautiful laughter in my head at this question, because I’m certain she and I would agree—beginnings. Although for this book we changed both the beginning and the ending from the original submission she took on.

I knew I’d begin the book with Lina on the battlefield in Iraq. That idea never changed. I wanted to take the reader directly into the war zone and into the mind of a woman and a mother faced with life and death—her own—and, as an army medic, the lives of the men and women on the convoy with her.

It’s an intense scene and I had to honor the thousands of American troops in similar circumstances, leaving no room for error. After countless revisions, and endless soul searching, I’m very proud of every word.

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

I think their best qualities are the qualities I admire in humanity. Eli Montgomery, my southern gentlemen from South Carolina has a wonderfully optimistic view of the world. He doesn’t let things bother him, even though he feels deeply responsible for the people he cares about. Teó loves to learn. Dolores is bold and unapologetic. Lina feels very deeply about things, adores her son with her entire heart, and takes responsibility very seriously. Each of these things are characteristics I highly admire.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Movies like Top Gun with the emotional resonance combined with action definitely influenced this book. I remember how much I loved the little boy’s character in the movie Jerry Macquire. I wanted readers to love Teó that same way.

Local songs that were popular when I lived in Puerto Rico were essential during my long spells of writing. I wanted my nostalgia for the island to come through on the page and nothing draws nostalgia out, for me anyway, like music, especially the local Spanish hits I listened to when I lived in Puerto Rico. It took me back to some special moments on the island, but it also reminded me of the pride the people have for their beautiful island and it shaped the words on the page.

Visit C.I. Jerez's website.

My Book, The Movie: At the Island's Edge.

The Page 69 Test: At the Island's Edge.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ava Morgyn

Ava Morgyn grew up falling in love with all the wrong characters in all the wrong stories, then studied English Writing & Rhetoric at St. Edward’s University. She is a lover of witchcraft, tarot, and powerful women with bad reputations, and she currently resides in Houston with her family, surrounded by antiques and dog hair. When not at her laptop spinning darkly hypnotic tales, she writes for her blog on child loss, hunts for vintage treasures, and reads the darkest books she can find. She is the author of YA novels Resurrection Girls and The Salt in Our Blood, and paranormal women's fiction The Witches of Bone Hill.

Morgyn's new novel is The Bane Witch.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My title, The Bane Witch, is fairly straightforward, as the book is about the main character discovering that she possesses the unique and hereditary magic of the women of her line, making her a witch. The word bane points to the poisonous nature of their power and hints at the death toll that is to follow. I also believe that the archaic etymology of the word bane subtly implies the ancient origins of their magic.

I knew from the moment I first conceived the premise of this story that I wanted to title it, The Bane Witch. On the surface, it lets readers know this is a novel about witches and therefore carries a fantastical element. But the implications it carries for something dark and deadly were so intriguing to me, and I hope that readers feel the same.

What’s in a name?

The names of all the bane witches in this book, including the main character, Piers, are taken from either the Latin or common names of poisonous plants. In Piers’ case, I wanted the masculine origins of her name to both conceal the true intent behind it as well as allude to the disappointment Piers’ mother feels at having her, and Piers’ subsequent feelings of rejection and abandonment as a result. Piers is an English boy’s name. When she meets her husband Henry, she tells him, “My mother always wanted a boy.” While this is true, it’s not for the reasons she believes. Later, Piers comes to learn the real origin of her name—taken from the highly toxic Pieris Japonica, or Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub—and her mother’s true reasons for preferring a boy—because they don’t inherit the witches’ deadly power. In addition, Piers’ name ties back into her own mother’s, Lily, who was named for Lily of the Valley, also poisonous. This represents all the ways she comes to understand and empathize with her mother in the novel, even though it is long after Lily’s own death.

Even the false name Piers chooses for her fake I.D. when she prepares to leave her husband is a related to a poisonous plant—Acacia Lee—though she only comes to know that later. But it implies that the magic has been at work in her all along, even when she didn’t realize it.

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

Not surprised at all. I was always a rebel, always getting into trouble, always fiercely independent in my ideas and beliefs. I think she would find The Bane Witch to be very on brand.

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

Truthfully, both beginnings and endings are the easiest part of any novel for me. It’s everything in the middle that’s hard. I generally have a solid premise to start with, and that includes knowing how I want to open and where I want to end up. So points A and Z are plotted very early on. But navigating from one to the other gets tricky. If I had to choose, I would say I probably change beginnings more than endings, but not because I need to alter my original idea. Only because I often go back and layer in more details about the characters and the setting and the plot that I want my readers to get straight out of the gate.

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 a lot of myself and my personal angst in Piers. As she navigates learning who and what she is and what she’s capable of, Piers grapples with the moral and ethical challenges of her power and calling. We see her go back and forth as she tries to find her own voice in the matter between what culture has taught her and what the other bane witches are telling her. It’s so important to Piers to remain true to herself, especially after escaping all the ways Henry impeded her sovereignty. In the end, when she finally makes a decision about herself and her magic, what we know for sure is that it was her choice, not anyone else’s. She got there all on her own. And that’s what empowerment is, that’s the true arc of her story.

Visit Ava Morgyn's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Bane Witch.

--Marshal Zeringue

Travis Mulhauser

Travis Mulhauser was born and raised in Northern Michigan. His novel, Sweetgirl, was long-listed for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, was a Michigan Notable Book Award winner in 2017, an Indie Next Pick, and named one of Ploughshares Best Books of the New Year. Sweetgirl has also been published in France, Germany, Brazil, The Netherlands, and the UK.

Mulhauser is the author of Greetings from Cutler County: A Novella and Stories, and received his MFA in Fiction from UNC-Greensboro. He is also a proud graduate of North Central Michigan College and Central Michigan University. He lives currently in Durham, North Carolina with his wife, two children, and dog.

Mulhauser's new novel is The Trouble Up North.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title for The Trouble Up North had one big job, in my opinion--to locate the story in the very specific setting of northern Michigan. The phrase "Up North" will be immediately recognizable to Michiganders and other readers, I think, will understand that the book takes place in a rural, northern landscape. That's important. The Trouble Up North, I think, also indicates that the conflict in the story is bigger than just the people involved--that we are also talking about a very particular place where a larger-scale threat is looming.

What's in a name?

I think the most meaningful character name in this book is the surname, Sawbrook. The Sawbrooks are a family that is very connected to their history. Alfred Sawbrook was the first member of the family to arrive in Cutler County--he showed up in 1850 with nothing but his beaver traps and a dream--and he is still revered by his descendents nearly two centuries later. The family's name conjours their history as fur traders, but also fits their modern turn into bootlegging as well. There is also the connection to water, which is central to their work between the Michigan and Canadian border.

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

My teenage self would love this book. He probably wouldn't believe that I had written it, but he would love the action and the humor and the fact that there are explosions.

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

Beginnings! They're super hard to write because I want to move fast. I want to get the reader into the story quickly, and there is a constant tension between my desire to move forward and what the reader needs to know so that the story has meaning as it progresses. Endings are miracles. I never see them coming and I never know what they will be until they happen. There is a magic to a good ending that, in my opinion, is impossible to plan for, or see, before they happen.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Great question! I'm a huge sports fan and a lot of my attitude about writing and doing the work that needs to be done comes from my two favorite coaches in the world--Dan Campbell, head coach of the Detroit Lions and Tom Izzo, head coach of the Michigan State Spartans Men's basketball team. Both coaches are fiery motivators and sometimes I imagine what they would shout at me when I'm sitting on the couch being lazy and not wanting to work. Songs by Bruce Springsteen and Jason Isbell and Lily Hiatt. This is probably cheating, but bookstores are a massive source of energy for me. Here's one that I think is interesting and that I tell writing students to try--movie trailers. There's something about seeing the way that a two hour movie is distilled into a 90 second pitch that can clarify things for whatever story I'm working on.

Visit Travis Mulhauser's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nicole Galland

Nicole (N.D.) Galland’s novels span the spectrum from historical (The Fool’s Tale, Revenge of the Rose, Crossed, Godiva) to Shakespearean (I, Iago) to contemporary rom-com (Stepdog, On The Same Page) to speculative fiction (New York Times bestselling The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. co-written with Neal Stephenson). She has a MFA in Creative Writing from University College Dublin, and loves teaching workshops on world creation.

She has also worked as a stage director, dramaturg, and X-wing fighter pilot.

Galland's new novel is Boy.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Any book with boy in the title is going to include someone-whose-identity-is-connected-to-being-a-young-male-human. But boy with no other words should tip off readers that there’s something going on with gender. I actually think the cover art – which is gorgeous, thanks to designer Mumtaz Mustafa – does as much work as the title: it’s an androgynous young person in Shakespeare-era clothing. The art-and-title combo is more than the sum of its parts. That said, admittedly: it’s all quite coy about the story itself.

What's in a name?

My characters are mostly historical figures. I chose “Joan” for the fictional female protagonist because it was a popular name of the era that’s familiar to our ears (compared to, say, Winifred or Lettice). Also, it was easy to find an era-appropriate male nickname for (Joan/Jack). Finally, my inner poet liked the sound of “Joan” alongside “Sander” for reasons that would make me sound like a phonetics geek.

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

I think more delighted than surprised. Delighted because: oh, yay, I became a novelist! Yay, I didn’t have to give up Shakespeare to get there! Yay, I must have enough good lovin’ in my life to write the sex scenes! (Well, depending what age teen I was, that last one might have shocked me.)

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

This is a great question. Both are hard to write, but endings are more stressful, because it needs to be worthy of all that came before. Changes to the opening are usually just decorative; I know how to open the door and welcome in the reader – that’s like a first date. You’re not in deep enough to make any terrible mistakes. By the end of the book, readers have expectations, and the urgency not to disappoint them is far more acute than a disappointing first date.

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

The answer is different for each novel; in this case, I think Joan (unglamorous, smart, hard-working, determined, a problem-solver) is very much like me except that she doesn’t really suffer insecurities; Sander (gorgeous, graceful, self-absorbed, effortlessly charming to literally everyone) is not much like me… except for his insecurities. And the performing arts.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

The obvious one is theatre. I was an actor, director, and dramaturg for years before I became a novelist, and I still dabble for fun. And my geek-obsession with history probably accounts for why I write mostly historical fiction.

Visit Nicole Galland's website, Facebook page, and Threads page.

Coffee with a Canine: Nicole Galland & Leuco.

The Page 69 Test: Stepdog.

My Book, The Movie: Stepdog.

Writers Read: Nicole Galland (August 2015).

My Book, The Movie: Boy.

The Page 69 Test: Boy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Heather Levy

Heather Levy is a born and bred Oklahoman and graduate of Oklahoma City University’s Red Earth MFA program for creative writing. The New York Times called her Anthony-nominated debut, Walking Through Needles, “a spellbinding novel at the nexus of power, desire, and abuse that portends a bright future,” and the Los Angeles Times called it “a standout for its frank but sensitive exploration of trauma and desire.” Publishers Weekly says her thriller Hurt for Me "delivers both heat and heart." Her novels focus on sexuality and complex women. Levy lives in Oklahoma with her husband, two kids, and three murderous cats.

Levy's new novel is This Violent Heart.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My first love was poetry, and I've always connected with women poets with complex histories like Anne Sexton. The title for This Violent Heart was inspired by her poem "The Break," which includes a line with the phrase "violent heart." Those words always struck me, and they felt so appropriate for my character Devon Mayes in how she views her bisexuality and her complicated feelings for her best friend Summer. She truly sees her heart as violent in the way it pulls her in opposing directions.

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

I think my teenage self would've loved having a queer romantic mystery like This Violent Heart to read. I was a teen in the early 90s, and the only queer fiction I had access to at the time were Anne Rice books (and thank goodness for them!). I think I might've been more comfortable in my skin as a bisexual teen had I seen myself in fictional characters my own age. I also think my teenage self would love the spice level of my book (wink-wink).

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

Beginnings, hands down! Although the first sentence I write typically stays the same, I usually rewrite the first chapter several times. As an author, you have so little time to grab the reader and pull them into the story, so those first sentences really have to sing.

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

There are always pieces of me in my characters, whether they be parts of me I dislike or parts I see as my strengths. Devon Mayes is one of the closest characters to me since our stories mirror each other's so much. We were both confused queer teens who didn't always make the best decisions when it came to relationships, and we both grew up in an extremely conservative environment where we didn’t feel safe to come out. I felt a great responsibility in telling Devon's story because so many parts were my own. In many ways, she helped me work through some of my unresolved traumas. I think most writers use their work as a way to better understand themselves and the world they live in. It’s the cheapest form of therapy!

Visit Heather Levy's website.

My Book, The Movie: Walking Through Needles.

The Page 69 Test: Walking Through Needles.

The Page 69 Test: Hurt for Me.

--Marshal Zeringue

Catherine Con Morse

Catherine Con Morse’s debut novel, The Notes, was shortlisted for the CRAFT first chapters contest. A Kundiman fellow, she received her MFA from Boston University, where she taught undergraduate creative writing for several years. Her work appears in Joyland, Letters, HOOT, Bostonia, and elsewhere, and has been a finalist for the Beacon Street Prize and the Baltimore Review fiction prize. While writing The Notes, she was one of the inaugural Writers in Residence at Porter Square Books, where she enjoyed writing in the back office and eating croissants with her cafe discount.

Con Morse attended college on a music scholarship at the University of South Carolina, where she received a B.M. in piano performance. She also holds an Ed.M. in Arts in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education. In high school, Con Morse attended the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, a public arts boarding school. While there, she was as intrigued with her piano teacher as Claire is with Dr. Li. Con Morse continues to play and occasionally teach piano today. Most recently, she taught English at Choate Rosemary Hall, and lives in the Connecticut River Valley with her husband and daughter.

Her second novel, The Summer I Remembered Everything, is out in April.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The Notes is simple but evocative. It makes you wonder, What notes? Are these music notes or is someone writing a note? Maybe both?

The book takes place in the lively, high-stakes world of a prestigious performing arts boarding school, where Claire Wu is a pianist. When Dr. Li, a glamorous new piano teacher, shows up, Claire can’t help but want to become just like her. But when Claire starts receiving mysterious, handwritten notes about her teacher, she is forced to decide who she really is, and who she wants to become.

What's in a name?

My sister was in college when she offhandedly told me, “All the Asian kids hang out together, like Rocky Wong and Natalie Lam, but I don’t hang out with them.” Years later, it still bugged me. My sister is Asian American, so why wasn’t she hanging out with the other Asian kids? And who was this Rocky Wong? Rocky sounded like it had to be the name of a cool guy. What was his deal?

In The Notes, Rocky and other Asian students are part of an elusive secret society that Claire longs to join. Later in the novel, Rocky’s Chinese name is revealed at a crucial moment as Claire begins to see what he’s hiding beneath his bravado.

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

Teenage me would be delighted to know I actually finished writing a damn novel! I loved creative writing and had lots of ideas for projects that I never finished.

The Notes was inspired by my own high school experience at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. It was a magical place. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t the only Asian kid in my class, and I had friends who loved the arts. My senior year, we got a new piano teacher. Dr. Chen was glamorous and demanding, her teaching methods unconventional. She was the only Asian teacher at the school. All these things made her a celebrity on our small campus. Years later, I still wondered about her—so much so that I ended up writing a whole novel inspired by her.

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

I saw the opening scene in the dining hall very early on, because, as a teen, it struck me how fish-out-of-water the real Dr. Li was in our cafeteria.

This is embarrassing to admit, but it took me a while to know who was writing the notes in the novel. Once I knew who they were and their motives, the ending came more easily.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

While writing, I listened to a lot of musicians and bands that deal with coming of age, first love, loneliness, longing, and belonging—things that characters grapple with in The Notes. Some of my favorites include Mitski, Sufjan Stevens, and Belle & Sebastian. The novel is also a love letter to classical music, so make sure to listen to the playlist in the back of the book as you read!

Visit Catherine Con Morse's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

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