Alison McQueen

Born in the Sixties to an Indian mother and an English jazz musician father, Alison McQueen grew up in London and worked in advertising for twenty-five years before retiring to write full time.

Her new novel is Under The Jeweled Sky.


From McQueen's Q & A with Jennifer Smeth at Book-alicious Mama:

What was your inspiration for Under the Jeweled Sky?

Under The Jeweled Sky was inspired by memories of my mother’s friends; the women I would eavesdrop on, the hushed voices and grave expressions passed over teacups. My mother’s friends had grown up (many of them in India) in the days before such things were openly spoken of, but it was all there: domestic violence, unwanted pregnancies, addiction, ruin, and occasional salvation.

Bad marriages were commonplace, but divorce was unthinkable, and the brittle veneers of fake harmony were part of the everyday landscape. Morals and ethics were knotted up with religious doctrine and stiff upper lip. Respectable people did not wash their laundry in public, nor did they question what went on behind the closed doors of their neighbours’ houses.

Part of the story is set in a maharaja’s palace. Although the fictional palace and its location are anonymous, I did have an inside track into life inside an Indian palace. In her twenties, my mother was hired as the private nurse to the Maharaja of Indore’s mother-in-law. She arrived there from Bombay and was shown to her quarters, an enormous suite in a grand building set across the grounds from the main palace.

A car was sent for her every morning, but she said that she preferred to walk. So off she would go, strolling through the grounds while the car followed along a few yards behind, driving at snail’s pace in case she should change her mind. Her breakfast would be served to her on a solid silver service, with a footman standing by should she want for anything.

From what she has told me, I am not sure that she...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Alison McQueen's website.

My Book, The Movie: Under The Jewelled Sky.

The Page 69 Test: Under the Jeweled Sky.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lamar Giles

Lamar "L. R." Giles writes stories for teens and adults. He's never met a genre he didn't like, having penned science fiction, fantasy, horror, and noir thrillers, among others. He is a Virginia native, a Hopewell High Blue Devil, and an Old Dominion University Monarch.

Giles's new young adult mystery/thriller is Fake ID. From the author's Q & A with Ryan P. Donovan for the New York Public Library:

I really enjoyed reading Fake ID. What gave you the inspiration to write the book? Had you heard stories about families and teens in the Witness Protection Program? Did you have to do a little research into the topic for the story?

First, thanks for reading the book. I'm glad you enjoyed it. As far as inspiration, I'd read a non-fiction book by Gerald Shur, the man who founded WitSec (Federal Witness Protection). He told stories about witnesses who would join the program but not follow the rules. That gave the U.S. Marshals in charge all sorts of headaches, up to and including having to relocate the witness again. It felt like prime story material so I started drafting an adult thriller about a woman who'd ratted on her crime boss father and went on to cause some trouble in WitSec. That novel was terrible.

I was reading some great YA at the time and I had the wild idea to start over. This time I'd make my hero a teenager, and a boy, and I'd try not to suck. I'm happy to say what came together did not suck. I had a clean first draft in nine months and HarperCollins Children's Books bought it a little over a year later.

Most of the research came from Mr. Shur's book and a few scattered articles. At the time there wasn't much out there about the program, and for good reason. Lives depend on WitSec's secrecy. But, my book is as much a family drama as a mystery, so I drew upon my knowledge of a family dynamic that I felt was similar to WitSec families...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Lamar Giles's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: Fake ID by Lamar Giles.

The Page 69 Test: Fake ID.

--Marshal Zeringue

Linda Yellin

Linda Yellin's new novel is What Nora Knew.

From her Q & A with Lilith Fiction Editor Yona Zeldis McDonough:

YZM: What Nora Knew is an homage not only to Nora Ephron but to the whole Hollywood tradition of romantic movies. Can you say more about that?

LY: There are certain constructs and expectations in romantic movies. We probably know from the get-go who the heroine will end up with, but if you care about the characters, you want to travel along with them and root for their success. Whether it’s Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, or Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, or Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper – romantic comedies are journeys with happy endings, and who doesn’t love that? And who doesn’t love Nora Ephron’s romantic comedies?

YZM: Do you consider Ephron a quintessentially Jewish humorist and if so, why?

LY: Her humor is quintessentially relatable, so it also covers Christianity, Buddhism, Atheism; you name it. But there is a wry, sardonic point-of-view in all of Nora Ephron’s writing that certainly feels Jewish. An oy-vey-can-you-believe-this quality. It’s the same one I grew up with while my aunts and uncles and cousins were debating life over corned beef and smoked fish.

YZM: How would you describe the differences between male and female humorists?

LY: Subject......[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue

John DeDakis

Award-winning journalist John DeDakis is a former CNN Senior Copy Editor for the Emmy and Peabody-Award winning news program The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. DeDakis, whose journalism career spans nearly four and a half decades, served as a White House correspondent and interviewed such luminaries as Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. A writing coach who currently teaches journalism at The University of Maryland—College Park, John DeDakis lives in Washington, DC.

His new novel is Troubled Water.

A brief Q & A with the author:

How would you complete this line: "You might well enjoy my book if you like..."?

You might enjoy my book if you like the authors John Grisham or Sue Grafton -- and not just because both their last names start with G-r. I like both these authors because their writing is lean and unadorned. Their emphasis is on telling a good story -- and doing so unpretentiously. I write like them, not because I pattern myself after them, but because of my training and long-time experience as a just-the-facts-ma'am journalist.

As a writer, my goal is to get you to keep turning pages because you're invested in the characters and you find the story compelling. Grisham's protagonists are lawyers, Grafton's is a private eye, and both authors give their readers a glimpse behind the veil to show how those jobs are done. My heroine, Lark Chadwick, is a journalist. One reason I think you'll enjoy my book is because you'll come away with a more intimate understanding and appreciation of the behind-the-scenes struggles and challenges journalists face.

If they make your book into a movie, who should direct it?

For me, this is not just a theoretical question. Right now I'm working closely with my agent, Garry Dinnerman of Beverly Grant Associates, to adapt my Lark Chadwick novels to the big or little screen.

Lark is a complex, strong minded and strong willed twenty-something young woman who stumbles into journalism after being orphaned and sexually assaulted. Garry is looking for a talented director who will be able to get inside the head of the actor playing Lark and translate that vision to the screen. Garry's "wish list" includes David O. Russell [American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook], Curtis Hanson [L.A. Confidential], Mike Figgis [Leaving Las Vegas], Paul Greengrass [Captain Phillips], Ron Howard [Rush, The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind], Stephen Frears [Philomena, The Queen] and Ridley Scott [The Counselor, Body of Lies] -- all of whom are very accomplished directors who have the ability to help the audience understand what makes Lark tick.

And just who would play Lark? Garry has always favored Ron Howard's daughter Bryce Dallas Howard [The Twilight Saga], but Garry and I would be fine with a no-name actress for whom playing Lark could be a career-igniting vehicle. Right now I'm collaborating with broadcast journalist Jenna Troum [WSPA - Greenville, SC] on a proposal to build a TV series around Lark [Working title: Press Pass]. Not only is Jenna a young, scrappy reporter (like Lark), but Jenna looks and acts like Lark, plus Jenna has acting chops. (During one of our working sessions, I almost called her Lark.)

What is your second favorite art form?

This would have to be playing the drums. I taught myself how to play rock and roll back in 1964 when the Beatles invaded America. I was too shy to join a band -- I was a closet drummer. In 1996, my wife Cindy bought me a set of drums, but it was my oldest son James who banged on them more than I did. Now James is in L.A. trying to make a living as a professional drummer/composer. As for me, I'm now studying with D.C.-area jazz musician Paul Pieper at his Jazz Workshop, trying to perfect my chops as a jazz drummer. I have much about which to be humble, but drumming is a great way to take a break from writing.

Visit John DeDakis's website, blog, and Facebook page.

--Marshal Zeringue

Laura Lippman

Laura Lippman's new novel is After I'm Gone.

From her Q & A with Sandi Tan at Goodreads:

GR: Going from the first Tess Monaghan novel, Baltimore Blues, to your 19th novel, After I'm Gone, an intricate stand-alone that plays with multiple perspectives and time frames, I sense a growing confidence and ambition. Do you agree?

LL: I wrote a first novel that was good enough, and it was as good a novel as I could write at the time. Since then, at every point along my career, people have said to me, "I hope you don't mind if I say you got better." Of course you want to get better. And so I do push myself very hard. I do have goals for myself. I am hopeful I'm getting better.

But when you're writing fiction in the 21st century, you're staring up a mountain, and it's so tall that the peak is out of almost everyone's reach. And you can be frustrated or you can say, I'm going up that mountain. You have to get braver. It makes me think of a short story that Italo Calvino wrote in Cosmicomics called "How Much Shall We Bet," about an eternal wager. And I think for novelists who are really honest with themselves, they are in an eternal wager.

Every time out the goal is to write a better book, but then there's also some specific goal. One of the counterintuitive things that as a crime novelist I try to do is slow the crime novel down. If you slow down, you're telling the reader: I respect you; I don't think you're an adrenaline junkie; I don't think you're only interested in the destination but also in the journey. And it can be...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Laura Lippman's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kimberly McCreight

Kimberly McCreight attended Vassar College and graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After several years as a litigation associate at some of New York City’s biggest law firms, she left the practice of law to write full-time. Her work has appeared in such publications as Antietam Review, Oxford Magazine, Babble, and New York Magazine online.

McCreight's 2013 novel is Reconstructing Amelia.

From her Q & A with Leslie Lindsay:

LL: ... I am currently in the last quarter of the book and find myself racing to the end to find out what really happened to young Amelia. Without giving away too much, did you intend for the book to be a mystery?

Kimberly McC: Reconstructing Amelia was inspired first and foremost by my experiences as a mother, specifically my fears for my daughters as they grow older. And I don’t think I set out to write a mystery per se. I didn’t set out to write any particular kind of book. But as much as I cared about the characters while writing Reconstructing Amelia I was also very interested in the puzzle aspect of the story. And I knew from the outset that a central question driving the narrative would be the “why” of what happened to Amelia. For me, that’s the question at the heart of all great mysteries.

LL: Cyber-bullying has become such an unfortunate trend in young people’s lives—from texts to blogs, to Facebook. You tap into this environment surprisingly well—the teen slang, the secrets, their mannerisms, yet your own children are young. Can you give us a glimpse into your ‘research’ for the book?

Kimberly McC: I was certainly influenced by many news accounts of bullying, though the book wasn’t inspired by any one story in particular. I also did a fair amount of Internet research, exploring what teenagers talk about and what mediums they use. There was a lot that surprised me about the ways teens use social media these days, for better and for worse. I’m amazed how different their definitions of “privacy” and “friend” are from mine. I also talked to local teens while writing Reconstructing Amelia. I grew up in the suburbs, so I needed to get a sense of how the details of life differ for an urban teenager—where they go one weekends, after the school, etc. But much of Amelia’s character was inspired by my own...[read on]

Watch the trailer for Reconstructing Amelia, and learn more about the book and author at Kimberly McCreight's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Reconstructing Amelia.

Writers Read: Kimberly McCreight.

--Marshal Zeringue

Cherie Priest

Cherie Priest’s books include Boneshaker, the first installment in her Clockwork Century saga (which also includes Clementine, Dreadnought, Ganymede, The Inexplicables, and the recently released Fiddlehead).

From the author's Q & A with Paul Goat Allen at The Barnes & Noble Book Blog:

Aside from the obvious draws of this series—the brilliantly realized alternate history 19th-century America, the cool fusion of history with elements of steampunk, zombie fiction, etc.—the thing I love about these novels is the way in which you feature heroic female protagonists in a realistic manner, challenging gender stereotypes. As a father with young daughters, I’m grateful to you for that.

Well, I’ve been privileged to know a great many badass, courageous, brilliant women (and men, and those otherwise affiliated) from a number of different backgrounds, so I write about them because this is what the world looks like. This is what history looked like. This is what the future will look like, too. It’s lazy and insulting to pretend otherwise.

Agreed. Here’s one out of left field: Seems like every time I bring up your Clockwork Century saga with a hardcore fan, they inevitably say something like “that would make an amazing movie series.” And I concur: extraordinary storylines, unforgettable characters, jaw-dropping action sequences, really something for everyone. And the merchandising opportunities—steampunk goggles, toy dirigibles, action figures, handcrafted weapons and jewelry—I can see the Happy Meal toy gas masks already! Any news on that front?

I suppose you’re asking, in a general way, about the Boneshaker movie option [details on that here]. To be perfectly honest, at this point I’d be surprised to see anything come of it. The project had a lot of steam (wocka wocka) for a while there, and then…just…nothing came of it. I have my suspicions, and I have bits and pieces of gossip—but...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue

Jenny Milchman

Jenny Milchman is a suspense novelist from New Jersey whose short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Adirondack Mysteries II, and in an e-published volume called Lunch Reads. She is the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, and the chair of International Thriller Writers’ Debut Authors Program.

Milchman's debut novel is Cover of Snow,.

From her Q & A with Denise Fleischer:

Denise: It looks like you’re finally living your dream of being a published author. I understand that your creative nature made itself known when you were only two years old, when you began reciting your first stories to your parents. By Kindergarten, you already had your first story written. How have you nurtured that creative part of who you are? Where do you suppose that creative spark came from?

Jenny: I’m going to start by answering with a story. Maybe that’s fitting. Anyway, when my first child was two years old, I asked her to take her toothbrush and her brother’s toothbrush back to the bathroom. As she carried them down the stairs, holding each one aloft like a little figurine, I heard her say, “The twins were on their way home…” At two years old, she was turning dental equipment into characters. So while I used to have no idea where the creative spark comes from, now I believe there must be some genetic or organic component to it. My mother tells me that I used to sit so silently on long car trips that she would get alarmed. I was making up stories. In terms of nurturing the spark, I think the main thing is that I allow myself lots of quiet time. I sit around a lot, read, or just stare out the window–oh, and eat. Eating’s good, too. Or I’ll drive, walk, or take long showers. I’m the opposite of over-programmed, and I think in the down time, a lot might actually be taking place, including...[read on]

Visit Jenny Milchman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Cover of Snow.

The Page 69 Test: Cover of Snow.

Writers Read: Jenny Milchman.

--Marshal Zeringue

P.S. Duffy

P.S. Duffy is the author of The Cartographer of No Man’s Land, a debut novel that takes place during the First World War in Nova Scotia and the Western Front in France. She lives in Rochester, MN, had a long career in adult neurologic communication disorders, and now splits her time between writing fiction and writing scientific papers for Mayo Clinic. She says that at her age she is happy to have the word “debut” applied to anything she does.

From the author's Q & A at Barnes & Noble:

What inspired you to write about World War I? What is it about this moment in history that speaks to you?

Young soldiers, the "flower of youth," die in every war, as do civilians. What breaks your heart about this war is how buoyantly innocent everyone—soldiers, commanders, and civilians—was to the utter devastation to come, how almost cheerfully they took up arms and made the fatal leap from that sun-dappled Edwardian idyll into the abyss of deadened hope and churned-up, wounded earth. No one was prepared for the slaughter to come as outdated tactics (massed frontal assaults) met modern weaponry (machine guns, poison gas, mass shelling, land mines).

As I began my research, I found myself staring in disbelief at facts like this: on the opening day of the Battle of the Somme, 110,000 British soldiers marched in attacking waves across No Man's Land, staggering under forty-pound packs, cutting their way through the barbed wire. By nightfall some 58,000 of them lay on the field, mowed down by machine guns and shells, and some by their own barrage.

Amiens, the Somme, Verdun, Passchendaele, and on—in battle after battle, thousands of lives were lost for a few yards' gain until in the end, as was said at the time, the only winner was the war. The Cartographer of No Man's Land is not a combat novel, but it is...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at P. S. Duffy's website.

Writers Read: P. S. Duffy.

The Page 69 Test: The Cartographer of No Man's Land.

My Book, The Movie: The Cartographer of No Man’s Land.

--Marshal Zeringue

Gary Shteyngart

Gary Shteyngart's latest book is Little Failure: A Memoir. From his conversation with Daniel Asa Rose for the Barnes & Noble Review:

BNR: Which if any of the following descriptions of your protagonists from various books applies to you?

"Small, embarrassed, Jewish, foreigner, accent" (The Russian Debutante's Handbook, p. 78)
"unworthy, always unworthy" (Super Sad True Love Story, p. 67)
"the dull pain of being somehow insufficient. Of being half-formed" (Russian Debutante's Handbook, p. 78)

GS: None of the above. I change from year to year. I'll figure out who I am by the next book. Stay tuned.

BNR: Does that mean there's a sequel in the works? What will it be called?

GS: "Enormous Honking Failure: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Mom."

BNR: Toward the end of Little Failure, your mentor, John, says, "You have to decide to take yourself seriously, not in a phony self-pitying way, but in a serious, dignified way." Was that good advice?

GS: That was...[read on]

Read about Shteyngart's heroine from outside literature.

--Marshal Zeringue