Noelle Salazar

Noelle Salazar was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, where she's been a Navy recruit, a medical assistant, an NFL cheerleader, and always a storyteller. As a novelist, she has done extensive research into the Women Airforce Service Pilots, interviewing vets and visiting the training facility—now a museum dedicated to the WASP—in Sweetwater, Texas. When she’s not writing, she can be found dodging raindrops and daydreaming of her next book. Salazar lives in Bothell, Washington with her family.

Her debut, The Flight Girls, was a USA Today and international bestseller. It was followed by the critically acclaimed Angels of the Resistance and The Roaring Days of Zora Lily. The Lies We Leave Behind is her fourth novel.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Titles are a difficult thing for me. After the title for my first book was changed, I became unsure of my ability to correctly title my books. Most of the time now, I just give them a placeholder and then I go through a title creating back-and-forth with my editor, our team, and my agent. For this title in particular, we had our work cut out for us. But I kept getting drawn back to a style of title I'd seen on some other books previously and so we started throwing words around. My team came up with The Lies We Leave Behind and I have to say, I love it. It's intriguing. What lies? Whose lies? How many lies? Why were the lies necessary? So many questions beg for answers just because of the title. Hopefully my readers will find the answers satisfying.

What's in a name?

I tend to choose names with careful consideration to the character. Who is this person and does their name convey who they are? I chose Kate's name because to me, the name sounds strong. No-nonsense. Able. Quick. Sensible. All the things she is - until maybe she isn't. But Kate has another name (and perhaps more...) and they too were chosen for specific reasons. I don't want to give too much away though so we'll just stick with Kate.

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

Not very. Teenage me loved books with historical elements. I was a huge reader of romance novels (thanks to my Nana giving me the ones she'd finished) and I fell in love with stories that took place in the past. I loved learning other cultures, other names for things, and ways of living that I wasn't familiar with. Teenage me would be so happy we'd made something out of one of our passions.

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

Beginnings for sure. I never start writing a book until I know how it ends. And I always write out that ending, which rarely changes. And if it does, it's a small change. My job then is to get my character(s) to this point. How did they get there? I always have a general idea, of course, but then I have to go back to that daunting blank first page and... How exactly do I start this tale? Because often the character is in an opposite place from where they are in the end, I start there. I work backwards. If this is who they are at the end, where do we find them in the beginning? I start to picture them. I imagine their life. I figure out where they're starting from to make the choices they make and end up where they do. My beginnings change a lot over the course of writing a book. And I've come to understand it doesn't really matter how it starts at first, because I can always alter it later. I just need to start.

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 a lot of the time my main characters have something of me in them - or something in them I wish I had or was. Audrey from The Flight Girls was very much a "I want to be like her" character. I admired her determination and unwillingness to submit to what was expected of women during that time. So often I have lacked those same qualities and wished I were stronger. Lien from Angels of the Resistance carried trauma. Writing her brought out my own trauma. It's my most personal work... so far. I do tend to pull pieces of me for my main characters. Maybe I'm working out something. Figuring out an unexplored piece of myself. Maybe I'm curious what someone else might do in a situation, so I used characters to test the waters. Writing has always been and I imagine always will be cathartic for me. So I imagine you will always find bits and pieces of my heart and soul in my characters.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I consume a lot of television and movies. Imagery inspires me. I take walks and listen to music a lot as well. If I'm working on a particularly hard scene, I put on my headphones and go outside. I choreograph these scenes to music - so that every time I play that song, the scene plays out, and I can change it at will, adding or subtracting to it until it's a perfect dance. I play songs over and over again. It's my favorite way to write. Inside my head. Before it ends up on paper.

Visit Noelle Salazar's website.

Writers Read: Noelle Salazar (August 2019).

My Book, The Movie: The Flight Girls.

The Page 69 Test: The Flight Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sariah Wilson

Sariah Wilson is the USA Today bestselling author of The Chemistry of Love, The Paid Bridesmaid, The Seat Filler, Roommaid, Just a Boyfriend, the Royals of Monterra series, and the #Lovestruck novels. She happens to be madly, passionately in love with her soul mate and is a fervent believer in happily ever afters—which is why she writes romance. She currently lives with her family and various pets in Utah, and harbors a lifelong devotion to ice cream.

Wilson's new novel is A Tribute of Fire.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title ended up surprising me. I had chosen it because my female main character’s battle master tells her that in the past, an enemy nation demanded a tribute of earth and water (as it signified total surrender) and he tells her to give them a tribute of fire and steel instead. (The book was originally called A Tribute of Fire and Steel but the “and steel” was cut because it was deemed to be too similar to another book my publisher had put out.) After I had submitted the book to my editor I realized that the FMC is the tribute of fire herself since she bribes her way into a death trial in order to save her nation. It works on a couple of different levels, totally unintentionally!

What's in a name?

The names of all the characters in this book were very, very deliberate. There are clues in those names if people look closely, but I assume that most readers won’t. I don’t want to reveal why the names were chosen because they would all be spoilers!

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

She’d be pretty shocked. I was something of a literary snob in high school as I was in Honors/AP English and read mostly classical literature. I never imagined that I would be a writer—it certainly wasn’t what I aspired to do when I was younger (although I had always loved reading). I think she’d also be surprised that I was able to publish a book that is so heavy on the fantasy parts as growing up the only fantasy books I ever read were written by men.

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

Usually the beginning as I write romance and I know how it’s going to end up. This series has been a bit different though—while I knew exactly how it would start and I know exactly how it will end, now that I’ve written the first two books so easily (the first book is about 515 pages and I wrote it in thirty-nine days; the second book is about 720 pages and I wrote it in thirty-one days), I’m feeling pretty anxious that I’m the one who has to write the third book and bring all the threads together and write a book that is satisfying and exciting and will keep the reader engaged. I almost wish someone else could do it!

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

Sometimes. I very rarely write characters that are like me (there’s only one that I can think of that thinks like I think and has a lot of the same interests that I do), but I would say that most of my protagonists have at least one or two traits of mine. And they’re almost always tall because I’m tall and I understand that perspective very well.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I am very heavily influenced by the world around me. I’m a huge fan of movies and television and they have a big impact on what I write. This book in particular was heavily influenced by the Star Wars sequels and the characters of Kylo Ren and Rey. I also find music highly inspirational and I have playlists for my books and a particular romantic song for the main characters.

Visit Sariah Wilson's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Tribute of Fire.

My Book, The Movie: A Tribute of Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elizabeth Hobbs

Elizabeth Hobbs is a New Englander born and bred who spent her childhood roaming the woods, making up stories about characters who live far more exciting lives than she. It wasn’t always so—long before she ever set pen to paper, Hobbs graduated from Hollins College with a BA in classics and art history and then earned her MA in nautical archaeology from Texas A&M University. While she loved the life of an underwater archaeologist, she has found her true calling writing historical mysteries full of wit, wickedness, and adventure. Hobbs writes wherever she is and loves to travel from her home in Texas, where she lives with her husband, the Indispensable Mr. Hobbs, and her darling dogs, Ghillie and Brogue, in an empty nest of an old house filled to the brim with bicycles and books.

Hobbs's new novel is Misery Hates Company.

My Q&A with the author:

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

A great deal! Misery Hates Company is set on a small—and very real—island just off the north shore of Massachusetts, Great Misery Island. My heroine finds herself unwillingly drawn into family intrigue and murder on the island, so it is a lovely little shorthand for the plot of the novel!

What’s in a name?

I love naming characters. There is something lovely and powerful and delightful about finding just the right name to enhance a story and aid in the reader’s understanding of the character. Since Misery Hates Company is set in New England, I plucked my names off of the graves registration for my own small hometown and read US Census rolls from the 1890’s to find just the right, period-appropriate names that also had a bit of a gothic ‘vibe’ to enhance the atmosphere of the novel like Sophronia and Seviah. But my protagonist, Marigold Manners, is actually named for a distant Hobbs family member, who, when I met her in her very old age, was still as feisty and charming as she must have been in her youth at the turn of the 20th century. And I liked the Language of Flowers association for marigolds (marigolds also represent good luck, warmth, creativity, prosperity, and passion, although they may also symbolize grief, despair and jealousy and be associated with death, remembrance and resurrection) which also played nicely into the murder plot.

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

I think she would be absolutely delighted to find exactly what she’s been looking for in a protagonist—a forward-thinking, feminist, New Woman of the Progressive Age in her Gibson Girl shirtwaists and high-piled hair. I would go so far as to say that I created Marigold Manners specifically for my teenaged self! The only thing that would surprise my teenaged, impatient, dreamy, un-focused brain would be that we do indeed have the patience and determination to make our dream of writing a reality. Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

Beginnings are both a bane and a delight—I really enjoy the first flush of putting an idea on the page. I love when the heat of an idea or a character comes to me. And I love finding the right words that are going to give me the key to that character—and I absolutely need just the right words to illuminate my character before I can move forward into the plot. So beginnings are a challenge—but a fun challenge. Usually, by the time I get to the end of a book, the words move onto the page far more easily. And in my current series, the Marigold Manners Mysteries, I have a little literary conceit that the first words and the last words echo each other, so once I have the beginning set, I know I have the ending, too.

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

For the most part, they are a world apart. I don’t live at the turn of the 20th century, and many of the cultural freedoms and norms I live with are but a distant dream for Marigold Manners. That said, I do think that authors necessarily put a part of themselves—their experiences, opinions and world-view—into their writings one way or another, even if the characters themselves are different.

I suppose that instead of writing a sort of “everywoman,” I like writing a “best version of themselves” character—my characters get to say the witty and timely things that I could never come up with in real life, until the day after. I can give my characters what the French call the “mot d’escalier” or the “staircase word” that would in real life only come to them later, on the staircase on their way out of a situation, instead of in the thick of the moment.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I think doing puzzles of all kinds—Spelling Bee, Wordle, Crosswords and jigsaws—is the biggest non-literary influence that helps me to tease out the plots of my mysteries. I studied to be an archaeologist—I have my M.A. in Nautical Archaeology—and I think the skills and traits that I honed as a working, underwater archaeologist—a sort of sharp, probing curiosity about the world and a delight in figuring something out—continue to influence my writing more than anything else.

Visit Elizabeth Hobbs's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

James Tucker

James Tucker is the author of The Paris Escape, as well as two acclaimed mysteries: The Holdouts and Next of Kin, an Amazon Crime Fiction Bestseller and recipient of a Publishers Weekly starred review.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Various titles work for novels, but in the case of The Paris Escape I wanted a title that included the word 'Paris', as that is the setting of the story and one that fascinates readers all over the world. And I chose 'Escape' because it has a double meaning that becomes clear during the course of the story: Henry and Laura are escaping from the rules and restrictions of the American Midwest in the 1930s, and later, they must escape from Paris when their lives are at stake.

What's in a name?

Finding the right name for a character can be difficult, and it's much easier to find names that don't work. Some names come to you and they fit the character perfectly. But I've finished entire novels and then changed the names of characters. In a story, the point of a name is to hint at something within the character, some quality, rather than just being something to identify one characters vs. another. For example, Fitzwilliam Darcy could never have been called Bob Smith.

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

I grew up in Minnesota, traveling almost entirely within the U.S. It would have excited me to know that this novel, and the next several novels, take place in foreign capitals that I could only dream of visiting, let alone knowing well enough to set novels there.

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

Beginnings are the most difficult. They set forth the characters, the setting, the tone, and they must entice readers--all at the same time. It's very difficult to do all of these well, and within three to five pages. They're often the first thing I see in my mind about a story, and they must be interesting to me, or they won't be interesting to readers. In The Paris Escape, the first thing I imagined was a young man in a dinner jacket, standing on the deck of an ocean liner and meeting a young stowaway. What were both of them doing there? And who was the woman who soon joined them? So many questions need to be answered clearly and without too much effort on the part of readers. If the kernel of the idea is right, then I revise the beginning but I don't change the characters or the idea or setting. Endings are easier. By then, I've written nearly the entire novel and I know exactly what will happen, and I've had weeks to think about the last scene and the last paragraph--and most importantly, the emotional sense the readers must have on the last page.

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

The characters don't have to be me, but I need to understand them. I need to feel connected to them and, most of all, they must interest me. If they don't interest me, they won't interest readers. They live in a different world from mine, but they may have some of the same concerns and thoughts. Or I must be able to imagine their concerns and thoughts from what I know about life, about people, about the world. In the end, all characters come from my imagination, so all of them are me.

Visit James Tucker's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Holdouts.

The Page 69 Test: The Holdouts.

--Marshal Zeringue

Christina Lynch

Christina Lynch is at the beck and call of two dogs, three horses, and a hilarious pony who carts her up and down mountains while demanding (and receiving) many carrots. Besides Pony Confidential, her new novel, she is also the author of two historical novels set in Italy and the coauthor of two comic thrillers set in Prague and Vienna. Lynch teaches at College of the Sequoias and lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Quite a bit, and I can’t take any credit except recognizing a great title when I heard it. The project was originally called Christmas Pony and it was only after it had floated around for a while without any nibbles that my agent asked if I would retitle it. I happened to be in a house full of writers on a freezing island when her email arrived. I read it aloud and my pal Anna Kovel looked at me and said “Pony Confidential.” Boom! It was a genius title that sold the book and shaped its future. Christmas Pony was the story of a pony looking for the one little girl he really loved, twenty-five years after he last saw her. Pony Confidential suggested a mysterious crime as well as a tell-all about pony life. It became not just three-foot-tall Pony’s hilarious critique of everything wrong about humans, but also the story of Penny, his long-lost human, who stands accused of a murder only he can solve.

What's in a name?

A lot of Easter eggs (hidden surprises), because Pony Confidential is based on The Odyssey, so many of the names are derived from that ancient Greek epic. I’m not going to give them all away here and spoil your fun, but Penny/Penelope is pretty obvious, for the woman that Pony (who is at one point named “O”) is trying to get back to. Penny is sent to a prison called “Sticks River,” and see if you can spot the Cyclops, Circe, Calypso and Telemachus.

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

Ha! Not in the least. I can actually hear her saying “Why didn’t you write this as your first novel, not your fifth, you idiot?” I’ve always been horse and pony-obsessed—I think some of us just have that gene, because it doesn’t feel like a choice. I never had my own pony as a child, which only intensified the longing. I managed to get a job working with polo ponies when I was eleven, and, in defiance of financial logic, I’ve owned horses since my mid-twenties, so I’ve always been an up-close observer of equine moods and behaviors. Pony Confidential is actually (as far as I can determine) the first-ever book written for adults from a pony’s point of view, which my teenage self is cheering. They're the cute-yet-mean animal we all long for as children, but who never get any respect... until now.

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

The pony’s first chapter sprang from my fingers as if they were on a Ouija board, so clearly there was a pent-up pony in me desperate to be heard! Though it got a bit trimmed and tightened, it stayed pretty much unchanged through many, many, many drafts of the novel. The ending did change quite a bit—I don’t want to give it away, but it was harder to write as it’s a very emotionally intense scene.

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 the secret to good writing is to become all of your characters, and put some of your own emotional truth in them, even if they are abhorrent to you. There is no one character in this or any of my books who is me, but parts of me are in all of them. Circe the goat’s cynicism, Caya the dog’s optimism—both me.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

In the case of this book, actual animals. I have a large pony I ride named Floraa who was the pandemic muse of this book, freely sharing her many moods with me as we traveled up and down the mountains where I live. I now also have a small pony named Bill, who I adopted after finishing the book but who seems to have sprung fully formed from its pages—grumpy, food-obsessed, and not above a nip when service is slow. He’s proof that I got it right.

Visit Christina Lynch's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Italian Party.

The Page 69 Test: The Italian Party.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (April 2018).

My Book, The Movie: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

Writers Read: Christina Lynch (June 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Sally Brady's Italian Adventure.

The Page 69 Test: Pony Confidential.

--Marshal Zeringue

G.M. Malliet

Agatha Award-winning G.M. Malliet is the acclaimed author of three traditional mystery series and a standalone novel set in England. The first entry in the DCI St. Just series, Death of a Cozy Writer, won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for many awards, including the Macavity and the Anthony.

The Rev. Max Tudor series has similarly been nominated for many awards as have several of her short stories appearing in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and The Strand.

Mailliet's new DCI St. Just mystery is Death and the Old Master.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Titles are nearly as important as covers. It is one of the pleasures of browsing a bookstore that you can be drawn to a book you never knew you wanted by its title alone.

I’ve been lucky with being able to keep my original ideas for book titles. I believe I’ve never had an editor request an alternative title except in the case of the St. Just books. “Marketing,” a term for a generally anonymous, behind-the-curtain group in publishing, wanted every title in the series to begin with “Death.” (The series began with Death of a Cozy Writer.) After six books, all this “Death” is getting a bit morbid, but I’m stuck with it now, and I do see the wisdom of making it easier for readers to find me.

I have a title I really love for Book #7. I won’t say what it is, lest I break my lucky streak.

Choosing titles is the fun part, however, even given that constraint. Death and the Old Master, a title with layers of meaning, suggested itself to me in a chicken/egg fashion, and became integral to the plot. DCI St. Just is based in Cambridge, and the story concerns an aging master of a fictional Cambridge college called Hardwick. The master is an art expert who acquires a painting that may or may not be by an Old Master.

What's in a name?

Names are so crucial to getting the character to gel. In the same way the title has to be right, and sometimes goes through a few tryouts, the name has to fit the character.

Or perhaps be so at odds with the character that it’s a bit of a tipoff they may be up to no good.

I bless whoever invented the search/replace feature in word processing that makes these tryouts possible. I suppose back in the day before typewriters, authors had to decide immediately on the character name and stick to it.

I especially have fun with the sort of hyphenated names the British nobility go in for, like Eliza Snodgrass-Chickenwire or something, but this time my college master’s name is simply Sir Flyte Rascallian. He is a bit of an isolated, lonely figure—a brilliant academic, of course, and the best in his field, much in demand to weigh in on the value of artworks found behind dust covers in the attics of the rich and famous.

I became quite attached to my old master and sad because I knew early on I’d have to kill him off. The same goes for the next character to die in the book, whose name I won’t reveal.

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

Endings are harder because in the puzzle-type mysteries I write, there tend to be a lot of characters and motives, and bringing all the strands together like Viking braids at the end is difficult. I’m sure this is why Agatha Christie liked the technique of gathering everyone in the drawing room, so Hercule Poirot could explain how he reached his conclusions.

I’ve used the gathering technique more than once. I do try to vary things, but honestly, it’s the simplest and most straightforward way to explain very complicated plots.

I never change beginnings. Once it’s there on the page it’s pretty much set in concrete.

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

My series heroes (Max Tudor, St. Just, and Augusta Hawke) are a bit like me because they are all seekers after truth and justice—crusaders, if you like. My characters have traits—greed, fear, hope, kindness, self-delusion—that most of us share, but it’s a question of degree.

My favorite characters to write are narcissists or charismatics, the kind who lead cults. I’ve had a fair amount of experience with those, and they are endlessly fascinating.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

The daily news is an endless source of inspiration, particularly the metro section of my local paper, which happens to be The Washington Post. I get a lot of plot ideas from reading about the scammers and embezzlers, not to mention the politicians who never seem to learn. There was recently quite a horrible murder that occurred near me that will end up, in some distorted fashion designed to protect the innocent, in one of my stories. It has all the elements of a Christie plot.

Visit G. M. Malliet's website, Facebook page, and Instagram home.

The Page 69 Test: A Fatal Winter.

The Page 69 Test: The Haunted Season.

Writers Read: G.M. Malliet (April 2017).

--Marshal Zeringue

Michael Wendroff

Michael Wendroff is an author and marketing consultant, and has an MBA from NYU. His background is running marketing and advertising for Fortune 500 companies, and he now runs a global consulting practice (one of his clients is a $4 billion firm headquartered in India). He has homes in New York City and Sarasota.

Wendroff's new novel is What Goes Around.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I think my title, What Goes Around, does quite a lot. First, I believe potential readers complete the thought (Comes Around), and immediately involving your readers in a "conversation" puts you ahead of the game. It also piques interest, as the immediate questions raised are what occurred that requires retribution, and what will occur for the "comes around." Lastly, it sounds like a thriller, and indeed the reader will be taken through very thrilling twists and turns.

Note, this wasn't the original name of the book. Its draft name was The Perennial Plan, which ties into the surprising ending. But my publisher, who is great, thought we could do better, and the team there came up with What Goes Around, which is much much better.

What's in a name?

All of the character names in my novel are purposeful.

Jack Ludlum is an amalgam of Jack Reacher (my male protagonist is very similar, at least to start) and Robert Ludlum, the best-selling author of the Bourne novels, etc. It's a homage to both--in fact I stayed at Robert Ludlum's house when I was very young, and watched him write his 400+ page novels by hand on yellow legal pads. Luckily, I was able to write What Goes Around on a pc!

There are other characters in my novel, like Officer Nefesh and Chief Gil Gulim, whose names mean something vital to the story in another language--but I won't reveal that until you've read the book!

Lastly, the evil doers in my novel, Incels, white supremascists, etc., as well as some of the good guys like FBI agents, are all named after a form of real people's names that have been involved in the different groups.

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

I don't think my teenage self would be surprised at all. I was a voracious reader of thrillers because my stepfather, now deceased, was a literary agent, so I got all his clients books for free and devoured them --in fact, I read the little known first ever novel by Dean Koontz, called After The Last Race.

I started college, NYU, at 16, and while I took plenty of English classes, I was in the business school. It was when I received my MBA, I combined my two loves, as I wrote my thesis on "Marketing in the Publishing Industry." The industry's trade journal, Publishers Weekly, published excerpts from it, so I actually got paid for my thesis!

But the most fun I had in writing the thesis was interviewing editors at the major publishing houses. In fact, once I had to interview Michael Korda, who was then Editor-in-Chief at Simon & Schuster, and he kept me waiting quite some time. But when he finally opened his door, who walks out but Truman Capote! Lots of fun meeting him.

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

They are both equal for me, because they share similarities. My goal is to make the reader never want to stop reading, to force the reader to want to keep turning pages. I do that by having a cliffhanger ending on almost all chapters. The cliffhanger can be physical, psychological, or emotional. Then, I try to make the first sentence of the next chapter very intriguing. So the endings and beginnings are written to achieve the same objective.

Of course, my favorite ending is when I've written the story out, have fully edited it, and can then finally write, The End.

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

I definitely see myself in some characters--I have the same birthmark and same situation that arose as one of my key characters.

Most of my characters though, are a world apart from me, and required my doing tons of research. I think the best form of research is actually talking to people involved in the various professions, which I did. I don't think I spoke to a serial killer, but then again...

I also found the connection an author has with his characters to be quite interesting. I became very emotionally involved with some of them. In fact, there was one that my plot outline called for killing off, but I just couldn't do it. No, I'm not crazy. Well, maybe a little.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

This book was inspired by what happened the moment I was born. I was put on my mother's chest, she looked deeply into my eyes, and she said, "Nice to see you, again."

The "again" part always intrigued me, and since I always wanted to write a thriller, I knew someday I would combine the two. And I did!

Visit Michael Wendroff's website.

The Page 69 Test: What Goes Around.

--Marshal Zeringue

Marilyn Simon Rothstein

Marilyn Simon Rothstein is the author of four novels: Who Loves You Best, Crazy To Leave You, Husbands And Other Sharp Objects, and Lift And Separate. She grew up in New York City, earned a degree in journalism from NYU, began her writing career at Seventeen magazine, married a man she met in an elevator and owned an award-winning advertising agency for more than twenty-five years.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I think the title --along with the cover--makes it clear Who Loves You Best is a warm and humorous contemporary story and that there is a competition going on. From the cover, it’s also clear that the people in the book wear shoes.

The working title for Who Loves You Best was Battle of the Bubbies.

What's in a name?

A lot. I go for names of people who are gone but meant and still mean, a lot to me. Often, I utilize someone’s name to say thank you for being there for me. In my first two books, the main character is Marcy Hammer. Hammer is my mother’s maiden name. In Crazy to Leave You, Lauren Leo is the protagonist. Leo was my dad’s name. His nickname was Honest Leo.

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

Shocked. As a teen, I could never have imagined myself as a woman with the life experience to write about older mothers, adult daughters and too many grandmothers.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings?

Endings are the most difficult for me. On the other hand, not one of my four books begins with the words I originally envisioned.

Which do you change more?

It’s probably a tie. I can rewrite the beginning or the ending endless times. Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

My characters are of my world. The protagonists have a sense of humor, lean on the ability to laugh while experiencing sadness and sorrow. I do that a lot.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My idea of research is going to lunch with my daughters. Or, walking around the reservoir with a friend. Or, listening in intensely while at Starbucks. Do not sit in Starbucks telling your secrets to a friend. I like to listen in.

Visit Marilyn Simon Rothstein's website.

The Page 69 Test: Who Loves You Best.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tony Wirt

Tony Wirt was born in Lake Mills, IA, and got his first taste of publication in first grade, when his essay on Airplane II: The Sequel appeared in the Lake Mills Elementary School’s Creative Courier.

He's a graduate of the University of Iowa and spent nine years doing media relations in the Hawkeye Athletic Department. He's also been a sportswriter, movie ticket taker and Dairy Queen ice cream slinger who can still do the little curly thing on top of a soft serve cone.

He currently lives in Rochester, MN, with his wife and two daughters.

Wirt's new novel is Pike Island.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Most of the excitement in Pike Island takes place on Pike Island, so I think the title puts readers right in the middle of the action. I always thought the name of the island would be a great title for the book, unfortunately, the real place I set this book is called Mystery Island, and that sounds way too much like something out of an episode of Scooby Doo. So my agent, my editor, and I put our heads together to think up a new name that sounded both realistic and a little spooky.

What's in a name?

Not much, honestly. I never name any of my main characters after anyone. Minor characters, however, I'll sometimes toss in a mixture of old friend's names. In an early draft I had a character named after an obscure Minnesota Indie Rapper, but by the time the book sold and was published, Lizzo's career had exploded and she definitely didn't fit the 'obscure' description.

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

Half of the story in Pike Island revolves around a group of guys on a trip to the lake. While no character is based on me and my group of friends individually, they are definitely inspired by the group dynamic we had. We took many trips up to my grandparent's cabin together, so I definitely mined those memories for some color.

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

I don't outline things out, but I usually have an ending in mind when I start. The beginning usually changes more, because I'm always looking for a better way to hook the reader.

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 always some of the author in their characters. For me, there's usually a lot of me in the early drafts, but with each re-write the characters establish more of their own personality and act like themselves instead of me.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I always listen to music when I write, and each book tends to feed off a different genre. Pike Island needed a lot of 80s and 90s College Rock (R.E.M., Husker Du, The Replacements). My book Just Stay Away fed off of Hall of Fame hip-hop (A Tribe Called Quest, Erik B & Rakim, Wu Tang Clan). I never know what a particular book is going to need.

Visit Tony Wirt's website.

The Page 69 Test: Pike Island.

--Marshal Zeringue

J. T. Ellison

J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels and the Emmy Award–winning cohost of the literary TV show A Word on Words. She also writes urban fantasy under the pen name Joss Walker.

With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim and prestigious awards. Her titles have been optioned for television and published in twenty-eight countries.

Ellison's new novel is A Very Bad Thing.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I think it’s a rather straightforward title, quite literal and easy to understand, as it sets the stakes for the whole story from the jump. It was not the first title I entertained—mine rarely are—but it was one of the first lines I wrote for the book. It starts with a letter. My darling daughter. Many years ago, I did a very bad thing. Even I wanted to know what that very bad thing was, and what I thought wasn’t what it ended up being. So I tricked myself! Columbia Jones is an author, and she’s killed in the opening pages of the book. The letter gives us a peek into her mind, one of the few we get, as the story revolves around the people closest to her, the ones with motive to kill her.

What's in a name?

I have exactly zero idea how or why, but I was starting to think about my next book, and I tend to journal quite a bit as I do so. There’s an entry on November 26, 2021, that says only Columbia Jones. It just appeared, handed to me by the writing gods. I followed on quickly with Who killed Columbia Jones? Columbia Jones. Totally unique first name coupled with a very common last name—it’s actually the perfect moniker to represent the two sides of my main character—public and private. I do like a unique androgynous name, though. It allows the reader to create an impression of the character in their head right away. Naming all my characters I something I take seriously. They’re your children in many ways. They need just the right one.

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

I think my teenage self would be shocked, honestly, because she would be so thrilled and grateful to realize she’d fulfilled her lifelong dream of being a writer on such a big stage. She was still writing poetry and just learning how metaphor and simile worked. To see a complete manuscript—and know it was the 30th published novel? I think she’d be pretty darn happy and proud.

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

The beginnings are always harder—in that they take longer. Setting the stage is everything for a crime fiction novel. You must open with a question, establish the stakes, introduce the characters, and if you’re doing it with a standalone, you’re recreating the wheel every time. It usually takes me six months to write a book—five months for the first half and a month for the second half.

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, the good, the bad, the sinister, the sweet, is a little piece of me. They have to be; they live in my head and talk all the time. My challenge is to allow myself into the heads of characters who are nothing like me. I lead a quiet, boring life. I’ve been married to a great guy for 30+ years; I have a wonderful family, loving parents, and a simple, regular existence. But there’s drama in the edges of everything, and I have to go searching to find it, make it mine, identify with it, and bring it to the page in a relatable way.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

  Everything influences my writing, from the news cycle to cold cases to overheard snatches of conversation. Music is always a big player, from lyrics that create titles to sweeping symphonies that encapsulate the story for me. I read and watch everything I can, too, which helps!

Visit J.T. Ellison's website and follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

The Page 69 Test: Edge of Black.

The Page 69 Test: When Shadows Fall.

My Book, The Movie: When Shadows Fall.

My Book, The Movie: What Lies Behind.

The Page 69 Test: What Lies Behind.

The Page 69 Test: No One Knows.

My Book, The Movie: No One Knows.

The Page 69 Test: Lie to Me.

My Book, The Movie: Good Girls Lie.

The Page 69 Test: Good Girls Lie.

Writers Read: J. T. Ellison (January 2020).

--Marshal Zeringue