Julie McElwain

Julie McElwain is a national award-winning journalist. Born and raised in North Dakota, she graduated from North Dakota State University, and moved to Los Angeles, where she worked for a fashion trade newspaper.

Her first novel, A Murder In Time, was one of the top 10 picks by the National Librarian Association for its April 2016 book list. The novel was also a finalist for the 2016 Goodreads’ readers choice awards in the Sci-fi category, and made Bustle’s list of 9 Most Addictive Mystery series for 2017.

The series continues Kendra Donovan’s adventures in Regency England with A Twist in Time, Caught in Time, Betrayal in Time, and Shadows in Time.

My Q&A with McElwain:

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

When I came up with the idea of having a modern-day FBI agent involuntarily thrown back into England’s Regency era, I knew that I wanted to develop this as a series and I wanted to have the word “time” in the title, which then could be used as a through-line for the entire series. The title for the first book — A Murder in Time — was easy because it’s so straightforward. We’re literally dealing with the main character, Kendra Donovan, who finds herself in the early 19th century and is forced to solve a murder.

As a general rule of thumb, I want each title to relate to something that is happening in the book. In the latest installment, Shadows in Time, Kendra must deal with the shadowy past, both when she investigates the violent murder of a young man in a remote cottage and when a woman comes forward, claiming to be the Duke’s presumed dead daughter.

So far, I think we’ve been successful in coming up with titles that work with each story and strikes the right tone. However, I imagine this will become more challenging as the series progresses.

What's in a name?

When I was coming up with the name for my main protagonist, Kendra Donovan, I did a lot of research because I really wanted it to mean something beyond sounding good. When I found out that Kendra means both “greatest champion” and “prophetess,” I thought that was perfect. Kendra knows the future in broad strokes because she is from the future. And she has proven herself a champion for victims. Interestingly enough, I address the meaning of Kendra’s name in my latest novel, Shadows in Time. While I haven’t spent the same time researching the meaning of other character names as I did with Kendra, I always think naming characters is an important part of storytelling. In many ways, it’s a very sensatory process; the name needs to feel right both for the character and the time that the novel takes place. People have been naming their children unusual names since the dawn of man, but I shy away from popular modern-day names. Or, at least, I will research them to see if they were used in the Regency period, otherwise that name could become too distracting or jarring in the story.

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

My teenage self would not be at all surprised by Shadows in Time. In fact, it combines all the interests that I’ve had since I was a child — a fascination with time travel, a love of history and mysteries, a bit of romance, and a kick-ass heroine. The only thing my teenage self would be surprised about is why it took me so long to come up with this concept.

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

Oh, this is an easy one to answer! The ending is much harder for me to write than the beginning of a novel. Because I’m writing a series rather than standalone novels, there needs to be a sense that these characters are moving forward in their lives, even as the mystery in each book is solved. The characters’ relationships with each other are always developing, growing, becoming richer and more complicated — and that doesn’t end with the last page of the book. At the same time, I want to leave the readers satisfied that a story has been told to its natural conclusion, even though the characters’ journey will continue.

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

I suppose I can find tiny bits of my own personality in all my characters, but I am the least like my main protagonist, Kendra. I needed a character who was whip-smart with an almost photographic memory so that she had a broad knowledge of many things — she can’t rely on Google when she’s thrown back into the past. She has also been trained to view life in almost harshly logical terms and is wary of the metaphysical or spiritual world. While I like to think that I’m pretty logical, I also tend to be very spiritual. In that, I probably am more like the Duke, who is both a man of science and a man of faith. And I can relate a lot to Lady Rebecca. I grew up with three brothers, so I was always fighting for “girl power.” In fact, when I was 16, the first thing I had published was a letter to the editor of my local newspaper, responding to one gentleman’s letter suggesting a woman’s natural order was to serve her husband. I disagreed, just as I imagine Rebecca would disagree.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My father was a huge newshound, so I grew up watching 60 Minutes and TV news shows that often showcase criminals, crime, and humanities darker side. It wasn’t something I was conscious of, but I’m sure that propelled me to write mysteries. I also watched shows like The Bionic Woman and old reruns of The Avengers, which had Emma Peel karate chopping her way through the bad guys. That sense of female empowerment resonated with me, and I think you can recognize shades of Jaime Sommers and Emma Peel in Kendra Donovan.

Visit Julie McElwain's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Molly Aitken

Molly Aitken was born in Scotland in 1991 and brought up in Ireland. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University where she was awarded the Janklow and Nesbit Prize for her novel. She was shortlisted for Writing Magazine‘s fairy tale retelling prize and has a story in the Irish Imbas Celtic Mythology Collection 2017. She lives in Sheffield, England.

Aitken's new novel is The Island Child.

My Q&A with the author:

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

As I was writing I cycled through a lot of names for The Island Child, a few of which I loved, but didn’t end up suiting the novel when I’d finished writing. Just before my agent sent the book out to publishers I realised the name was The Island Child. I was reading WB Yeats poem called ‘The Stolen Child’ and it hit me that its title was quite close. However, my narrator Oona leaves her island, Inis, off the west coast of Ireland. She’s not stolen. It’s a choice for her so I replaced ‘stolen’ with ‘island’. Sometimes naming is that simple. Also the island is really what the novel rotates around. None of the characters can really escape it. They’re constantly drawn back. There are several important children in the novel. It’s up to the reader which child the title refers to.

What's in a name?

The Island Child is set in Ireland but it’s loosely based on the myth of Demeter and Persephone. In Irish folklore, there’s a story of a mortal woman who’s taken by the king of the fairies. Her name was Oona. This is a lovely parallel and I actually stumbled on it quite by accident. As soon as I started writing my protagonist told me her name was Oona. Many of my characters ended up having names that reflected some element of their personalities or meaning in the story. The stranger who comes to the island for a new dream-life names herself, Aislinn which in Gaelic means dream. That is just part of the magic of writing.

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

As a teenager I wrote a novel set in ancient Rome about a slave girl and a Senator's daughter who become friends. I would be very surprised in my teens to discover that my first published novel was set in Ireland’s past. Irish history was always my least favourite subject (after science). I always wondered why there were no women in the history books. So perhaps I wouldn’t have been totally surprised that my novel is all about Irish women and their history.

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

I find beginnings much harder to write. It takes a while for my characters to assert themselves and start talking to me. I will write my opening many times, but as soon as their voice is all I hear then the beginning writes itself. In The Island Child Oona’s story begins with a terrible storm. As soon as I’d written it I knew it was the right beginning. Writing the ending was easy. It poured out of me, because by that time I knew everything about my character. I knew her fate.

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 definitely elements of Oona that I relate to, especially when she’s a child longing to be out and about with the boys. But writing would be boring if the characters were too similar to me. I find it more fun to come up with people as different to me as possible. For me writing is about living new lives in minds unlike my own.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Place has the biggest influence on my writing. The Island Child is set on the fictional island of Inis but it’s based on many islands I visited throughout my childhood. While I was writing the novel, I took the ferry out to the Aran Islands to feel the wind on my face and listen to the seagulls screaming. I took a notebook and camera with me and referred back to them as I wrote. I always make a Pinterest board for each novel I’m writing so that if I’m getting lost I can have a look and the pictures will give me ideas.

Follow Molly Aitken on Twitter and Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue

Alex Landragin

Alex Landragin is a writer whose fiction explores place, migration and literature's formal potential. He has also worked as a copywriter, travel writer, journalist, librarian, indigenous community worker, wine merchant and musician.

Landragin was born in France and migrated to Australia as a child. He has previously resided in Marseille, Alice Springs, Paris, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Washington DC. He currently lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Landragin's debut novel is Crossings.

My Q&A with the author:

Adele Parks

Adele Parks was born in Teesside, North East England. She has written twenty novels in twenty years; all hit the bestseller lists. She's been an ambassador for The Reading Agency and a judge for the Costa Book Awards, and is a keen supporter of The National Literary Trust. Parks lived in Italy, Botswana and London and is now settled in Guildford, Surrey, with her husband, son and cat.

Her latest book to hit the US is Lies, Lies, Lies.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Lies Lies Lies was without a title for the entire process of writing the book. That is unusual for me, and I think, for most writers. The book is about a marriage in freefall. Lies and deceptions pile almost as high as the empty spirit bottles that my character, Simon – an alcoholic - discards, I knew lies had to be in the title, to be er…truthful to the book.

My stumbling block was that there are so many books already in print with the word lies in the title. Every time I saw one on the bookstore shelf, my heart would sink a little, because I feared my novel would get lost. In the end my editor and I decided to take the bull by the horns. By bluntly entitling the work Lies Lies Lies, we own the concept of deception and drum home that there are going to be multiple twists and reveals.

Daisy and Simon who have been together for nearly twenty years; many of which were dominated by their yearning to start a family. We meet them when they have their longed-for daughter, and everything should be perfect now they are a happy family of three but because of the title the reader will doubt that concept from the get-go.

Simon is pushing for a second child, but Daisy is resistant to even trying for another. Again, the title will make readers question both his motivation and her resistance. Nothing is what it seems. Thwarted, Simon is drinking more than usual. One night at a party his drinking spirals out of control with horrific consequences. This little family can never be the same again, however the title forces the question: were they ever what was presented in the first place?

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

My teenage self was desperate to be a writer. She was already a weird combination of moody moroseness and stunning ambition so I think she would be unsurprised by the fact she had published this particular book; a domestic noir that hit the number 1 spot in the UK Sunday Times Bestseller List. The domestic noir would appeal to her pretty firm belief that families were hotbeds of anger, frustration and deceit and she would have expected bestseller positions and international success, because she didn’t have much of a grasp on the real world!

My adult self is significantly more surprised. I have been writing novels for twenty years, one a year for all that time. This is my first number one hit and I’ve been blown away by that. Also, I’m much less morose than my teenage self and have a greater understanding of families, who are not as desperate as they appear when you are a teenager. Yes, this novel is about lies and deceit and I do look at addiction in all its glorious gore but it’s also a book that values redemption.

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

I love writing endings! Endings inevitably have showdowns, confrontations and shocking reveals which are great to write; incredibly satisfying. It is so exciting; galloping towards the close of a book, knowing it’s nearly ready to be shared – initially with my editor but then much further afield. Getting the book out there so people can read and relate, be entertained and challenged, is my main motivator.

As I am a planner, I always know how my books are going to end so it is not a daunting process writing the ending. The beginning of a novel can feel overwhelming or a fresh opportunity, depending on my mood when I first sit down to write. The end of a novel is more reliable in terms of delivering me emotional satisfaction.

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

I am not at all like Daisy. I actually find her a little sanctimonious, I’m not a judgey person and I think she is. She’s also long-suffering; a quasi- martyr, that’s not my personality type either. I enjoy writing characters that are dissimilar to my own. It’s a perk of being a writer, you get to try being someone else.

Daisy’s entire self-definition is based around being a mother and she struggled for 15 years to conceive. That is torturous, watching all your friends have families, envying them, feeling alone, is hard. I conceived my son very easily and years before many of my friends had children so again my situation is different to hers. However, we are both mothers of only-children; I understood her satisfaction with her little family and her belief that celebrating what she has, rather than pushing for more is the way to go.

I am not an addict and so am not like Simon in that way, but writing him did make me look closely at my relationship with alcohol, we all have one even if you abstain, avoidance is a relationship.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I like having a song that is the soundtrack to the life of my main characters which I sometimes play when I’m writing a particular scene. Simon is the embodiment of Panic! At The Disco - "Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time" ... If you are not familiar with the lyrics, go and listen. I honestly think the songwriter nailed that precarious bizarreness when a night out tips from hilarious to out-of-hand messy, and then plunges into the surreal, wide-eyed, hungover, morning-after feeling. The chorus “Champagne, cocaine, gasoline And most things in between” sums up in one line the fact that excessive drinking is marked out by a lack of inhibitions, a total loss of equanimity or composure and a disregard for safety. Music is very inspirational. It’s not just the lyrics, it’s the beat, the riff too. Transportive.

Visit Adele Parks's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jennifer Honeybourn

Jennifer Honeybourn is a fan of British accents, Broadway musicals, and epic, happily-ever-after love stories. If she could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, she’d have high tea with Walt Disney, JK Rowling, and her nana. She lives in Stratford, Ontario with her husband, daughter and cat in a house filled with books.

Honeybourn's new novel is The Do-Over.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Typically, I have a hard time coming up with titles, but I had The Do-Over before I even started drafting. I think it gives potential readers a pretty good idea of what to expect in the book, which is about a girl who finds a magical solution to re-do a choice she made in her past, only to face consequences she didn’t expect.

What's in a name?

Naming characters is one of my very favorite parts of writing. I like unusual names, names that aren’t widely used or have unique spellings. Emelia is the main character in The Do-Over and her love interest is Alistair. In previous books, I’ve used Marty, Quinn and Shelby. I don’t really go deep with names in terms of what they mean, I just go with what I like and what I want to live with for the six months or so it takes me to draft the book.

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

Endings are much more of a challenge for me. I’m always really excited when I start a new book and that usually carries me about to the halfway point and then it comes a bit more difficult. I am a planner so I try to have the plot figured out before I even start writing, but sometimes it surprises me and changes along the way. I would say I revise the back half of a book more than the front half.

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 there’s a little bit of me in all of my main characters. I don’t think I could understand them and their motivations as well if there wasn’t. I would love to write an origin story about a character who later in life becomes, or is perceived as, a villain (like Maleficent), so that would be a case where I’m not sure whether my personality would make it into the character (although who knows, maybe it would!).

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Movies and TV are a big inspiration for me. I love to binge-watch series on Netflix (just finished Orange is the New Black and I thought it ended perfectly). It’s a different form of storytelling, but it’s often helped me out of jams with my writing. I’ve learned a lot about good pacing and character arcs from well told series.

Visit Jennifer Honeybourn's website.

My Book, The Movie: Just My Luck.

The Page 69 Test: Just My Luck.

My Book, The Movie: The Do-Over.

The Page 69 Test: The Do-Over.

--Marshal Zeringue

TJ Klune

TJ Klune is a Lambda Literary Award-winning author (Into This River I Drown) and an ex-claims examiner for an insurance company. His novels include the Green Creek series, The House on the Cerulean Sea and The Exraordinaries. Being queer himself, Klune believes it's important—now more than ever—to have accurate, positive, queer representation in stories.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Titles can be tough; there have been stories I’ve written where the title was one of the first things I thought of, and stories where even after I’ve finished, I have no idea what to call the book I’ve just spent months writing. I have a book right now that I finished recently. It’s the fifth book in a series that I’ve spent years writing, and for the life of me, I have no idea what to call it, even though the four previous titles were incredibly obvious.

I didn’t have that problem with The Extraordinaries. The title is what the book is about. In this world, Extraordinaries are the superheroes that exist alongside regular people. Some are good, some are evil, but they are all extraordinary because of what they’re capable of.

It also works twofold: while describing the supers, it also works as a twist for the main character, Nick. Nick thinks he’s anything but extraordinary. In fact, he thinks he’s quite ordinary, and to him, that’s not the best thing to be. The novel follows Nick’s journey—one he thinks he needs—to change from ordinary into extraordinary. To him, the worst thing a person can be is normal, and he tries his damndest to change that. Of course, he will come to the realization that there’s honestly no such thing as “normal.” We’re all different, and those differences are something to be celebrated, even if we can’t fly or shoot lasers from our eyes.

What's in a name?

The Extraordinaries deals with superheroes, and the fanboy who loves them to the point of obsession. Even though the story deals with superpowers and seemingly impossible feats, I needed the story to be as grounded as possible. Nick thinks he is—in every meaning of the word—ordinary. Sure, he has his quirks—some of which he doesn’t quite like—but he dreams big, and his actions in the novel follow this. But his name—Nicholas Bell—is a perfectly ordinary name. Nick is, in his own way, a sort of everyman. While not exactly humble, he thinks there’s nothing that special about him, and a simple name like Nick adds to that. But, as he learns, he’s more than the sum of his parts, and there’s nothing ordinary about him, which is such a wonderful revelation for him to have.

When I first sat down to plot out The Extraordinaries, I already knew Nick’s name. It was one of the first things I decided. Four letters, one syllable, simple and to the point. It can be a little disarming for the reader, especially with all that follows in the narrative. I’m of the mind that complicated names that serve no purpose to the narrative aside from being unique can lead to being a distraction for the reader. Something common like Nick can have the reader focus on who he is as a character rather than trying to figure out what the hell his name is supposed to mean.

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

My teenage self would be stunned to read a book like The Extraordinaries. Back when I was a kid, we didn’t have positive queer representation in books. If queer characters were included in stories, we were there for one of three reasons: A) to play the over-the-top flamboyant sidekicks who were borderline offensive; B) to impart lessons onto the main characters by way of queer suffering in the form of homophobia or illness; and C) to act as a catch-all for bigotry.

We are so much more than the sum of our parts, and though it’s gotten much better in that regard, it’s still very easy to find stories where queer suffering is the point.

I didn’t want that for The Extraordinaries. I wanted to show queer kids whose queerness is part of them, but it isn’t all that they are. They are wonderfully human—some might say to a fault—and even though they are dealing with extraordinarily fantastical things, they’re true to themselves and what they’re capable of. I wanted to give a voice to people like I was at sixteen, and to make sure it was as open and honest as possible. It’s important to show the queer identity in every day life, and not have it be the only catalyst for a plot.

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

For me, endings are the easiest part. Sure, it can sometimes change on me over the course of writing a story, but I typically know the destination I’m sending my characters on, and while the ending isn’t the be all and end all when it comes to plotting, having an ending in mind always helps me tell the story I want to tell.

It’s starting that can sometimes be a problem. Even now, after having published over twenty novels, I still get nervous when I open up a new word doc, seeing that blinking cursor on a blank page. An opening helps to set the tone for what will follow, and if you don’t grab the reader in those first few pages, chances are, you might lose them before the end. Beginnings, to me, are the most important parts of a story. I’ve been fortunate enough that I rarely change endings, but I’ve rewritten the beginnings of a story for almost every book I’ve written, usually after I’ve finished the first draft. By the end, I know the voice I’m searching for, and rewriting the beginning helps me to cement that voice.

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

Every character I write as at least a small piece of me in them, but perhaps none more so than Nick in The Extraordinaries. He is a queer kid who also happens to be neurodiverse, in that he has ADHD. I have ADHD too, and it was important to me to have positive representation about neurodiversity. There’s still—even in 2020—such a harsh stigma when it comes to mental health issues. I wanted to do my part to help normalize such things, because they need to be normalized. We need to continue to have open and honest discussions about mental health, even if it’s just to shatter the stereotypes that continue to permeate our society. ADHD—or any facet of neurodiversity—isn’t a death sentence. It doesn’t even have to define who we are as people. It’s only a small part of us, and does not make up a whole of who we are. We are more than our struggles, and the sooner others realize that, the better off we’ll all be. Mental health isn’t something to be spoken about in uncomfortable whispers. I think we’d all do well to remember that.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I think it’s a little bit of everything thrown in. Even if an author is writing science fiction and fantasy, real world issues always tend to seep in, whether one planned for it or not. The world of the last few years has been one filled with anger and strife, and that can’t not become part of a narrative, especially when writing about issues such as the queer experience. That being said, I’m always of the mind that those who are screaming their hate as loudly as they can do so because they want to drown out the voices of reason. It doesn’t work. That kind of angry fire always has a way of burning itself out, no matter how bright it can appear at first.

Some people might consider this a bit political, but as a queer man in this day and age, my existence is political, and something I believe is worth fighting for. This influences my writing, wanting to normalize the queer experience. Will I change minds? I don’t know. I don’t even know if that’s the point. All I can do is be truthful to myself and extend that truth in my works.

Visit TJ Klune's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

L. Annette Binder

photo by Gary Gartley

L. Annette Binder was born in Germany and immigrated to the U.S. as a small child. She holds degrees in classics and law from Harvard, an MA in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley, and an MFA from the Program in Writing at the University of California, Irvine. Her short fiction collection Rise received the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. She lives in New Hampshire.

Binder's new novel is The Vanishing Sky.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title — The Vanishing Sky — does quite a bit of work to bring the readers into the story, but it does so indirectly. The title doesn’t refer to the setting or the characters but instead taps into a central theme of the book — How do you grapple with the demands of a regime that you have slowly come to realize is evil? It comes from a flashback scene, which is in many ways the key to understanding the novel as a whole. In that scene, Etta Huber — the mother in the story — remembers a terrible childhood event in which she was an unwilling participant, and she grapples with her guilt and the effects of her years of silence. The vanishing sky in that moment from her childhood carries over into her adult life — and the lives of the other Germans in her town — as they struggle with the terrible things happening all around them.

An earlier title for the book was Mutti, which means “mom” in German. This title was true to the story, since Etta’s role as a mother is so central to the story, but it was problematic, too. It’s easy for non-German speakers to mispronounce, and German-speakers would likely find it strange to name a novel “Mom.” So my publisher asked me to go back and look to the story for a more fitting title. My husband, who knows the novel as well as I do at this point, suggested I look at that key flashback scene because the title was hiding in there somewhere, and he was right.

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

My teenage self wouldn’t be too surprised by the themes and the feel of the novel. I’ve always gravitated to dark stories. But I probably would be surprised by the subject matter. Both my parents were German. As a teenager, I shied away from all things German. I came to the US when I was a small child, and when my mother spoke to me in German, I always answered in English. Now I’m grateful she spent all that time speaking German and driving me to the local high school to take German classes, but it took years for me to see the value in acknowledging my roots.

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

Beginnings and endings each have their own challenges. The beginning has so much work to do —it has to draw the reader in, give the reader enough information so that things aren’t confusing — but the work has to be invisible. Endings have to leave the reader with some sense of resolution but not be so pretty that they’re tied up with a ribbon. For The Vanishing Sky, I knew how the story begins - with Max coming home broken from the front — and how it ends — on a note of hopefulness, but with only some of the characters surviving.

It was the middle of the story that was actually the hardest to finalize. I had to cut things in the middle chapters pretty relentlessly to keep the story moving, which was hard and invigorating at the same time. Structuring the novel so that it alternates between Etta’s chapters and those of her younger son Georg helped me tap into the story and kept the action going.

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 myself everywhere in the characters, and nowhere. Small bits of myself find their ways into the story — a character’s love of ancient languages, a glimpse of something that struck them as beautiful — but in the end the characters are nothing like me. They take on their lives and end up guiding me through their story. I’ve always thought of writers as something like ouija boards, hands on the keyboard and waiting for guidance from the netherworld. Once the characters take over, I’m no longer in the picture. At least that’s what I tell myself.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My family background was a huge influence on this novel. My father was in the Hitler Youth, and his life was the inspiration for the characters of both Georg and Max. I researched as much as I could about my family, and then I wrote the novel as a way to imagine the answers that nobody was left to tell me.

More generally, movies and music both influence my writing. I love movies that show characters struggling with moral or existential questions — movies like Gattaca, Dark City, Blade Runner, Unforgiven, The Lives of Others. This sensibility carries over into my writing. I also feel an emotional connection to music, and particular songs — from Radiohead’s “Like Spinning Plates” to classical pieces by Streabbog — were important to me as I wrote because they transported me to a different time and place.

Visit L. Annette Binder's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Vanishing Sky.

My Book, The Movie: The Vanishing Sky.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lydia Kang

Lydia Kang is an author of young adult fiction, poetry, and narrative non-fiction. She graduated from Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine, completing her residency and chief residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She is a practicing physician who has gained a reputation for helping fellow writers achieve medical accuracy in fiction.

Kang's new novel is Opium and Absinthe.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title Opium and Absinthe came to my mind fairly fast. The problem was--I didn't know exactly how absinthe played into the story. I was very much affected by Francis Ford Coppola's cinematic version of Dracula in the 1990s, and there was a scene between Mina and the Count drinking absinthe in a salon. It's not in the original text by Bram Stoker. But I was sort of obsessed with this spirit. First, there was the entire ritual of drinking absinthe, which seemed lovely. Then, its history among the literati and artists of the time. Also, its purported hallucinogenic qualities (it's not) and it's illegal status for some time. I just knew I wanted to include it, and so, I made it happen.

As for opium, I had researched the usage of opium during this time period for my nonfiction book, Quackery (co-written with Nate Pedersen). Not many people know that injectable morphine was really only available to the wealthy, and that it was often abused by rich, white women at the time. I wanted a character who would fall into this trap of addiction so people could see exactly how and why it could happen and be sympathetic to a character that, for many good reasons, made a lot of mistakes.

What's in a name?

My main character's name is Mathilda Pembroke, but she goes by Tillie. Throughout the novel, her name is used in both ways. But I used it as a very clear metaphor for her needing to express her individuality and her independence when it comes to demanding to be called by the name she wants--Tillie.

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

Very! I didn't like historical novels as a kid. I didn't like history. I think my teen self would say--really? Why do you love history? It's so boring! And I would reply, "Don't ignore me when I say this, but when you're my age, you'll really love it. Seeing the world through an historical lens is fantastic and fun. Also, what you get out of it is all yours. It's not reliant on a graded exam." But my teen self would have already glazed over at this point, so she'll have to realize this on her own!

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

Beginnings are the worst, because so much rides on that first page and first sentence. If you get it wrong, you won't hook your reader, and game over for the rest of the novel. I probably equally change endings and beginnings, to tell the truth. About half the time, the ending I've mapped out doesn't work and I redo it as I'm writing it. As for beginnings, if I find it boring, I know it's not going to work for anyone else either!

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

Tillie is one of those people who would be looking up etymologies, writing nonfiction novels, and losing hours upon hours learning about obscure facts on obscure things. We have a lot in common.

Visit Lydia Kang's website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Opium and Absinthe.

--Marshal Zeringue

Gretchen Anthony

Photo credit: M. Brian Hartz

Gretchen Anthony is the author of Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners, which was a Midwestern Connections Pick and a best books pick by Amazon, BookBub, PopSugar, and the New York Post. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Medium, and The Write Life, among others. She lives in Minneapolis with her family.

Anthony's new novel is The Kids Are Gonna Ask.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I'm slightly obsessed with book titles because they're a first look into the book and they should draw you in. With The Kids Are Gonna Ask, I wasn't convinced I liked the title, but every time I said it aloud, people loved it. They found it intriguing, and that's what this book is at its heart -- it's a mystery about family, heritage, and belonging. In fact, the only reason ts secrets get uncovered is precisely because the kids, Thomas and Savannah, start asking for answers.

What's in a name?

I'm also very careful about naming my characters. Most of them just need to "feel" right, need to match the concept I have in my head for that character. But I'm strategic about main character names. I chose botanical names for the mother and daughter in my last novel, Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners because that matriarch believed in symbolism and loved that her husband's family name, Baumgartner, translates as "tree gardener." In The Kids Are Gonna Ask, I named one of the twins Savannah. On the surface, it's just a pretty name. But as the book unfolds, she discovers a meaningful coincidence about her name, as well.

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

I was a teenager when Springsteen was first singing about his glory days, so no, my teenage self could not have conceived of the tools in this book--not the podcast or the social media that drives its popularity. I also doubt that the questions at the heart of the book, "Who is our father and where do we come from?" would have been as socially acceptable to pursue back then, especially since their mother was an unmarried college student when she got pregnant. Pursuing one's origin story isn't easy in 2020 by any measure, but I am grateful people on that journey nowadays have so much more support technically, culturally, and emotionally.

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

I'm terrible at both. My writer's group loves to accuse me of "pulling the punches" in my endings, and they're usually correct. I need to push myself to get an ending to its proper destination. And as for beginnings, I re-write them so often it can get ridiculous. I drafted the opening chapters to The Kids Are Gonna Ask so many times I joked I was just going to have to skip it and start the book on chapter three.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My family is all over the pages of my books. My father, who loved nothing more than a good laugh, filled our house with people and mined every one of his guests for stories that he could later steal and re-tell. My mother, never wanting to deprive her kids of a worthwhile experience, said "yes" to our adventures far more often than "no." Material possessions weren't terribly important to my parents, but art--music, theater, storytelling, television, movies, books--were. The best way to escape chores at our house was to lay down on the couch and open a book. We kids didn't get a lot done, but my brother and I both grew up to be family- and community-minded readers, writers, thinkers. I have my parents to thank for that.

Visit Gretchen Anthony's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rebecca Reid

Rebecca Reid is a freelance journalist and author of the novel Perfect Liars.

Her new novel is The Truth Hurts.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I’m famously very bad at titles. I had originally called The Truth Hurts ‘Thursday House’, which is the name of the English country mansion that Drew and Poppy move in to.

My publishers came up with The Truth Hurts, and I was disproportionately excited that it had the same initials as Thursday House, which readers sometimes think was on purpose.

I think titles are extremely important – and I wish I were better at coming up with them!

What's in a name?

Usually when I write a character, their name is an easy and obvious choice. Poppy, my protagonist, was a nightmare. It was impossible to find a name which was plausible coming from her very religious and controlling mother, but also suited her as this mysterious, wild young woman.

In the end I cheated a little bit, and came up with a solution which was part of the narrative – though I can’t explain that much more without giving a massive spoiler!

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

My teenage self would have pretended she wanted to read War and Peace, but in reality she would have loved the beaches, sex scenes, fast cars, beautiful houses and great clothes that you find in The Truth Hurts.

More than anything else, my teenage self would be overjoyed to think that I was writing as a profession. I could barely have dared to dream that could happen!

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

I write in a very basic, linear fashion, as in, I start with the prologue and I finish with the final chapter, or the epilogue. Generally speaking, they present themselves fully formed. With The Truth Hurts, I had such a vivid picture of the epilogue and the prologue, that they’re in the book verbatim as I wrote the first draft.

For me the hardest part is the middle. I so often suffer from what creative writing teachers call a ‘saggy middle’, where you loose your pace. That’s where I always need the most editing.

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

Poppy was the hardest character that I’ve ever written, because she’s not at all like me. The only aspect of my personality that I lent to her is her hot temper.

Drew was an interesting challenge, as I’d always written female characters and very little in terms of men. I went to all-girl boarding school, which means I still don’t fully understand about men! I had several male friends and my husband read with a focus on him, in an attempt to not just write a female character with a man’s name.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

As well as writing fiction, I work as a journalist, so I’m constantly reading other people’s stories. The germ of The Truth Hurts came from an article I read, about a woman who found a load of photographs of her husband with an ex-girlfriend in a cupboard at their house.

I think it’s a really exciting time to be a writer, in that we are exposed to more stories than ever before. If I’m feeling creatively blocked, an afternoon reading Instagram, Reddit and local online newspapers will provide me with access to hundreds of real life stories, any of which have the potential to kick off a new story.

The people in my life are a constant influence, too. Sometimes I will read back a chapter and realise that I’ve lifted elements of a friend, a co-worker or someone I knew as a child, without meaning to. Interestingly, people never seem to recognise themselves in these depictions!

Follow Rebecca Reid on Twitter.

--Marshal Zeringue