Samrat Upadhyay

Samrat Upadhyay was born and raised in Nepal. He is author of the novels The City Son, The Guru of Love (a New York Times Notable Book), and Buddha’s Orphans, as well as the story collections Mad Country, The Royal Ghosts, and Arresting God in Kathmandu. His work has received the Whiting Award and the Asian American Literary Award and been shortlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. He has written for The New York Times and has appeared on BBC Radio and National Public Radio. Upadhyay is Distinguished Professor of English and Martha C. Kraft Professor of Humanities at Indiana University.

His new novel Darkmotherland.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I settled on the title Darkmotherland fairly early in the process, and the title didn’t change even though the novel went through numerous drafts.

This is not my standard writing process. Normally, I have a working title that changes later when I have a firmer sense of what the novel is about. But in Darkmotherland, the name of this dystopia came to me early on, and it felt very right. It’s a combination of Darkmother, a prophetic figure in the novel, and Motherland, which evokes old-timey patriotism and nationalism.

Darkmotherland is not only a place but also a character, a mythical reverse-Shangrila. It holds the major characters in a grip they cannot escape.

What's in a name?

Character names are important to me either in their symbolism or the physical image they conjure for me as I’m writing—sometimes they are a mixture of both. One of my main characters, Kranti, for example, means “revolution,” but she dislikes her name because she has an antagonistic relationship with her mother, a dissident-activist who gave her that name. The mother herself has earned the nickname Madam Mao, undeservedly, for her communist leanings. The irony of the two names hover over their contentious exchanges throughout the novel.

Interestingly, the naming of places and temples became important to me in the novel. I found myself translating Nepali street names into English, so much so that they became, at times, awkward and convoluted, which then provided another texture to Darkmotherland as a land of dissonance and dislocation. So, Battispulati became Thirty Two Butterflies Street, Ghantaghar clocktower became Home of the Bell, and so on.

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

My teenage self would be quite surprised by my new novel. I was a serious teenager, and as a young man I wrote about serious things. So the dark comedy in Darkmotherland would be a surprise to my younger self. But on second thought, maybe not so surprising. As a teenager some of my favorite books were Catch-22, The World According to Garp, and Cat’s Cradle.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My interest in “translations” of culture and language is at a heightened display in Darkmotherland. I’m interested in how global English has become, and how it transforms and is transformed by other cultures and countries.

I’m generally interested in politics, especially in politics that impacts our daily living, and it was interesting to explore this in the novel with an all-consuming authoritarian figure who inspires fear. I’m also fascinated by how American politics dominates the globe, and I had fun imagining this influence in the emotional landscape of Darkmotherland.

Visit Samrat Upadhyay's website.

Writers Read: Samrat Upadhyay (August 2010).

The Page 69 Test: Buddha’s Orphans.

The Page 69 Test: Darkmotherland.

--Marshal Zeringue

Heather O'Neill

Heather O’Neill is a novelist, short-story writer and essayist. Her work includes When We Lost Our Heads, a #1 national bestseller and a finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal, The Lonely Hearts Hotel, which won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and CBC’s Canada Reads, and Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, and Daydreams of Angels, which were shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize two years in a row. O’Neill has also won CBC’s Canada Reads and the Danuta Gleed Award.

The Capital of Dreams is O’Neill's most recent novel.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My novel is about a fictional country that gets its borders after World War 1. They invest in the arts, and hold it above everything else. They believe they don’t need to invest in an army. They will be protected by the West should they be attacked. And then at the height of their golden era, the Enemy comes to wipe them off the face of the earth.

The Capital of the country is so important in the novel. Sofia, a fourteen-year-old girl, is entrusted with getting her mother’s manuscript out of the country, so the culture can be saved.

I liked the idea of having a sophisticated girl from the cultural elite, having to make her way through the war-torn countryside. I wanted to see how the philosophy of The Capital made sense to her once she was out of it. Can a clarinet tune stop a war? Can a poem save a people? I have always believed in the power of art.

I wanted to show why artists and children are targeted by genocidal invaders. And how they are at the heart of a country’s identity.  

What's in a name?

I decided to name the children in the novel names that sounded as though they might all come from varying countries. I wanted them to have names that made them sound as though they were each from a different sort of children’s book from a different culture. They were all from the land of childhood which has different borders than adults.

I named the main character Sofia, because it means knowledge, and she is a philosopher of the children’s condition and the particular existential questions children have, and particularly the ways in which children make sense of trauma.  

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

Very delighted probably. Most of the novels I write are based on idea I had as a young girl. I would plan out the novels that I wanted to write when I was older and figured out how to write a novel. Capital of Dreams was a novel based on stories I had heard about my dad and uncles going to war as teenagers. I would be so surprised my future self listened to me. And that I was in possession of real ideas for novels. I think children have incredible ideas.

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

I almost always write the ending first. So I know where the characters are heading towards. The beginning always changes. Because you don’t begin a book with the beginning. You begin a book with an arresting moment, a sort of photograph, a little dance, to trick the reader into reading the whole book.

At the start, I dress my characters up and say, “Your job is to make the reader enchanted by you. Do anything, something lovely, something bizarre.”

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

When I was creating the character of Clara Bottom, a renown philosopher, I went to great efforts to make her a narcissist and bombastic. I wanted her to be so openly full of herself and not humble. It was such a fun way to portray a middle-aged woman.

When I was finished the novel, everyone I knew said Clara Bottom resembled me very much. Which I found shocking and hilarious.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

This book was very influenced by the news of the world. I describe an occupied country being subjected to a genocide. What was happening in the Ukraine and Gaza greatly affected the politics of the novel.  

But also photographs. Fashion magazines. Traveling. I collect notes about people doing and saying strange things to me on the subway.

I was influenced by the way children play instruments. My daughter went to a Performing Arts school. There was something so magical about the sound of children making their way through a piano tune. The notes would tumble out into the corridor. I loved the awkward pacing and imperfection. I wanted some of that spirit in the language of this novel.

Follow Heather O’Neill on Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ellie Brannigan

Ellie Brannigan has lived in South Florida for the last twenty years. She loves the ocean and any food dish with shrimp. When she’s not creating new fictional worlds, she reads, and travels…and eats.

Brannigan's new novel is Death at an Irish Wedding.

My Q&A with the author:

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

For Death at an Irish Wedding, I was asked to come up with several titles. In fact, this was the third title selected, and I wrote the book under a completely different title and saved my word doc that way. When I went to look for my story later, I couldn’t find the manuscript. Any author might imagine my immediate reaction of holy smokes, my work has all disappeared: belly tightening, sweaty palms, slightly sick…but then I went to my saved emails and found the email stream with my editor. Crisis averted, but it was an awful ten minutes of panic.

This is the Irish Castle series, and at the end of the first book there was the question of ghosts in the castle. I liked Haunting in an Irish Castle, but my publisher wasn’t sold. Once the story progressed, I realized it was more about the super-secret Hollywood wedding of Rayne’s rich American client and her actor boyfriend than ghosts. We came up with alternates and Death at an Irish Wedding stuck. It was a lot of fun to bring in Irish wedding traditions to the getaway weekend to fit the title.

Through each story, the struggle for Rayne and Ciara to save Grathton Village is paramount and it is unfortunate that people keep kicking the bucket—which is why I’ve included more of the villagers in book three, Death at an Irish Village, available in August 2025. The title completely matches the story.

What's in a name?

I think names for characters are hugely important and I spend a lot of time researching what might be appropriate for the area and time period. Let’s unpack Rayne Claire McGrath, my protagonist for the Irish Castle series.

Rayne—a fun play off of ‘rain’ that her Irish father, with a poet’s soul, gave as an ode to his birthplace. Ireland is known for gray rainy days.

Claire. This is a family name, and she is named after her poor dead aunt who died as a child.

McGrath. This is a popular Irish surname that has been around for centuries.

Ciara Smith. Her name also tells a story…though Nevin McGrath was her father, she didn’t know it until her mother got sick with cancer and introduced them before she died. This gives Ciara all kinds of baggage with claiming her stake at McGrath Castle, and Grathton Village. She feels she has to prove herself doubly hard.

Blarney, the Irish setter. Just saying the dog’s name makes me smile. He’s his own character and attached to Rayne. He’s supposed to be a bird dog but doesn’t have the hunter’s instinct.

Maeve, Aine, and Cormac Lloyd—the live-in staff at the castle, all have classic Irish names. They are part of setting the scene.

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

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I wrote angsty poetry and children’s stories as well as novels that rightfully never saw the light of day. If my teenage self knew about Death at an Irish Wedding, I’d like to think she’d be pumping her fist and doing the pogo.

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

I love a plot board. I love lists. I have an addiction to notebooks and go through a dozen at least a year. As I sit down to write, I have the reader in mind, wanting to entice and entertain. I have been known to take the ending I’ve imagined beforehand and throw it out the imaginary window if I feel it is predictable. My biggest thrill is when I’m reading reviews, and the killer has remained masked until the end. As a voracious reader, which I am, I want to be fair and lay out clues, and then mix everything up.

Visit Ellie Brannigan's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Colin Mills

Colin Mills graduated from the University of Queensland in 1987 with a BA in arts, majoring in Japanese language and literature. He spent most of the next eighteen years in Japan, where, after a brief career as a wire service reporter, he spent ten years in investment banking in Tokyo and a further decade in the portfolio management industry. He left the financial services industry in 2008 and is currently pursuing a PhD in creative writing at the Queensland University of Technology.

Mills's debut novel is Bitter Passage, a work of historical fiction.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I hope it doesn’t pull any punches. It’s true what they say: coming up with a title was the hardest part of writing the book. I won’t share the original title if you don’t mind, but my publisher—quite correctly, I think—suggested it include the word ‘Passage’, alluding to the Northwest Passage. I thought long and hard about how to succinctly describe the Royal Navy’s nineteenth-century search for the Passage, and ‘Bitter’ was the most appropriate adjective. The British wanted to find the Passage, thought they needed to find it, but the search was arduous and dangerous. Men died trying to find it, even before Franklin’s expedition. For all that, the search for the Passage became almost like a kind of unpleasant medicine the Royal Navy felt it needed to consume. Why? Bitter Passage tries to explore some of the answers.

What's in a name?

The two main characters, Robinson and Adams, are loosely based on real men with the same names who searched for Franklin in 1849, but are fictionalized versions of those men. Historical fiction requires a delicate balance between fact and imagination. As I’ve noted in the Author’s Note to the novel, I’ve taken creative liberties to develop these characters and tell a story. I’ve done so to try and imagine the human side of an event the historical record leaves incomplete, while also trying to spark curiosity about the Franklin tragedy. They say fiction writing begins with a simple question: what if? In this case, I knew the real Lieutenant Robinson led a sledge mission to Fury Beach but returned having found nothing. I thought, what if he kept going south? What might have happened, and what might have been the emotional and psychological complexities of that experience? I wanted to know—or at least imagine—so I started writing. Then I kept writing because I wanted to know what was going to happen.

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

I grew up in a house with books in it (thanks, Mom and Dad), but always thought novelists were some special sub-set of unusually cerebral humans, a category that excluded me. So I think my teenage self would be most surprised by the notion that I, too, could write a story that (hopefully) both entertains and explores some aspect of the human condition. I hope my young self would realize that I could also ask, what might that have been like? What might I have done in that situation? Hey, you know what? There’s nothing stopping me from writing a story and figuring out the answers that way.

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

For Bitter Passage, the beginning was harder. My first draft was 120,000 words long and took a few years to write. Muddled and unsure what to do with the mess I had created, I hired my first editor. He helped me realize who the key characters should be. More importantly, the story actually started halfway through the draft, so I cut the first 60,000 words. After that, I felt more confident about where the story would go.

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

None of the characters in Bitter Passage are me, but of course they have certain traits I relate to, while others I need to try harder to imagine. More than anything, I am fascinated by what feeds our sense of self-worth, because when we talk about a character’s motive, that’s what is at the heart of it. We can talk about a character’s motivation as being money, love, or status, for example, but I want to know why that is the motivation. It’s all about what fills our souls. In Bitter Passage, for example, I can relate to Robinson’s self-doubt and perfectionism. On the other hand, I found the depiction of Adams’ piety more challenging, as I do not share the character’s religious faith.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Because I have written a work of historical fiction, I would have to say I’m heavily influenced by what we know of the historical record, and how we’re able to keep interrogating it. I’m fascinated by historical events that are imperfectly understood or chronicled, because it gives the fiction writer room to make stuff up and imagine new stories. In addition to non-fiction history books, I love documentaries and podcasts about history, archaeology, and philosophy. I never cease to be amazed by the extent to which we’re able to reassess what we thought we knew about ourselves. What have we learned? Have we evolved? If so, in what way? And what are we still missing?

Visit Colin Mills's website.

My Book, The Movie: Bitter Passage.

The Page 69 Test: Bitter Passage.

--Marshal Zeringue

Isa Arsén

Isa Arsén is a certified bleeding heart based in South Texas, where she lives with her spouse and a comically small dog.

Her work has been featured in Stone of Madness Press, The McNeese Review, and several independent anthologies and audiovisual projects. Her novels include Shoot the Moon (2023), and the forthcoming midcentury drama The Unbecoming of Margaret Wolf.

My Q&A with the author:

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

This title reveals the entire conflict to the reader, if they know where to look. Unbecoming is lifted directly from a line of dialogue in Macbeth, a Shakespeare play with themes & character relationships woven into this novel. It comes from a scene in which Lady Macbeth is convincing a dinner crowd that her husband is fine, actually, despite his mental turmoil over the choices she has pushed him to make; holding up decorum, desperate to come across as normal. Margaret Wolf is our protagonist's name, and fitting to feature up front since the reader spends the entire book placed directly in her internal monologue. As a whole, the title speaks to strange, uncouth change -- when something is "unbecoming" it may be unsightly, disgusting, or unfit for civility. It's a book about rebirth through complete dissolution, and I think the title evokes that sense of urgency well.

What's in a name?

Since a major element of this story is identity, I wanted to pick names that behaved like the characters wearing them. Margaret is a name with many different nickname forms: Margot, Margie, Maggie, Peggy, Marge, etc. This points to Margaret's unsettled sense of self, wearing a different version of her name depending on her environment. As a child of the early 1990s, I spent a lot of time obsessed with the movie The Princess Bride, and as such one of the most heroic, romantic names in my memory is Wesley. It's a very sturdy name, with only a nickname or two if you get creative. Since they are both two-syllable names (depending on how one pronounces Margaret), they stand well next to one another as a pair: Margaret & Wesley, Wesley & Margaret. The rhythm works. It's also serendipitous that M and W are inversions of each other, for a pair of soulmates.

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

Very!! But, I think, in a good way. It's an unapologetic work, and I was very afraid of presenting myself authentically in fiction for a very long time. The themes of love and self-actualization would be familiar to my younger self, so I would have absolutely picked this up off the shelf and devoured it. Most of what I write fulfills in at least some small part a creative wish of my younger self, so young-me has certainly already had input.

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

This is a great question -- it depends on the story. The ending for this one ended up as a coda of sorts, as the initial draft ended near the 3/4 mark of what made it to print. I changed the starting point several times throughout revisions but always had it starting at the same point in Margaret's life, so I think I will have to say the ending for this one.

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

I try not to make my fictional characters 1:1 copies of any living person, because that removes for me the fun of building a unique personality on the page. There are plenty of parts of me that I put into these characters as a starting point for the rest of their idiosyncrasies -- Wesley's discomfort with absolute silence and Margaret's general obsession with control are pried directly from my own ribs -- but no character is 100% based on anyone, no.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My professional background is in writing and performing contemporary music, so music is a major engine for me. I make a playlist and a Pinterest board before I even start drafting a novel, so my sense of mood and tone stay clear throughout the project's lifetime. I'm also hugely invigorated by theater in general: stagecraft, cinema, film of all stripes -- a good combination of image, sound, and story will never cease to amaze me, and awe is my favorite source of inspiration. It makes for more impressive risks taken to reach a new height.

Visit Isa Arsén's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Orlando Murrin

Orlando Murrin is the debut author of Knife Skills For Beginners, a murder mystery set in a posh London cookery school. Having started out as a magazine sub-editor, he won through to the semi-final of the BBC MasterChef programme and found himself hurled into the world of food writing. He was editor of the UK’s bestselling food magazine, BBC Good Food, for six years before taking off to rural France to create a gastronomic guesthouse. He has written six cookbooks, including A Table in the Tarn (Stewart, Tabori and Chang), which describes his French adventure, and Two’s Company (Ryland Peters & Small), devoted to the art of cooking for couples, friends and room-mates.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I come up with dozens and dozens of titles in order to find the best. It isn’t always obvious – you have to live with them for a while, go away and come back, change your mind.

Eventually we settled on Knife Skills For Beginners because it takes you straight in – it’s a story set in an upmarket cookery school. The only doubt was that some readers might mistake it for an instruction manual for wannabe chefs. Indeed, I’ve been to a few literary events where those attending have been expecting an actual cookery demonstration, and are bemused to find me talking instead about a sophisticated murder mystery, albeit with culinary flourishes.

What's in a name?

Equally, I spend hours dreaming up (and changing) the names of my characters. They’re specially important in a plot-driven whodunit with lots of suspects, to help readers remember and differentiate between characters.

When it came to naming the hero of Knife Skills For Beginners, I chose Paul simply because I like the name and all the Pauls I’ve known have been honest, decent people. (Thinking about it now, Paul in the Bible had something of a past, which he put behind him, and the same could be said for Paul Delamare.)

I chose the surname Delamare firstly because it’s a poetic-sounding name, and my character Paul is in some ways a bit of dreamer. It also provides a running gag because no one is sure how to pronounce it, and it is constantly spelt wrong - which infuriates Paul.

My editor said to me, are you sure we want a hero with a name no one can pronounce or spell? I promised him it would be fun – and memorable in itself.

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

I find beginnings very hard, and they get drastically changed, rewritten, then changed and rewritten again.

Endings, however, are my thing. I can’t resist a big finale – I always have the last scene clear in my head, usually involving a lot of theatrics.

Knowing that I’m working towards something exciting also helps me as I labour my way through the text, weaving in clues and red herrings and misdirection as I go. When I finally get to write it, the ending feels like a reward, a delicious chocolate truffle that arrives with the coffee.

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

I promise it wasn’t deliberate, but there is a lot of me in Paul Delamare. He’s a food writer/chef – which was my previous profession – and both of us have been described as 'somewhat waspish'. We also share being gay, and have lost partners, though in my case it was some years ago.

On the other hand, he’s a far more accomplished chef than I ever was and is endlessly curious – knowledgeable about everything from antiques to ornithology. I’ve also made him aged 42 and extremely attractive – not that he realises it – so there the resemblance ends.

I also have lots in common with Paul’s best friend Julie. Like her, I worked in magazines for many years, and her editor is a real-life portrait of someone I used to work for. Other characters often have characteristics of people I've known or encountered; I tend to write about rich people and I've known quite a few in my life.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I play the piano – for many years I used to moonlight in bars and restaurants, but now it’s mainly classical. Mastering a difficult piece takes infinite patience and practice, but it’s such a privilege to be able to enter a composer’s head, marvel at the imagination and attention to detail that they poured into the music, feel it in your hands and fingers.

I would never compare my writing to Bach or Chopin – obviously! – but they do remind me of the superhuman effort that it takes to produce something worthwhile. Every note, every phrase, every indication matters in a piece of music. So does every sentence, word, comma, in a piece of writing. There’s no such thing as ‘good enough’ – it has to be as good as you can make it.

Visit Orlando Murrin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Knife Skills for Beginners.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kristi Jones

Kristi Jones grew up in the military and has lived in Germany, England, Turkey, and many places throughout the U.S. She attended a German high school that left her with a lifelong love of languages. She holds a degree in history and is a member of Sisters in Crime and The Writer’s League of Texas. In her free time, Jones loves to paint, travel, explore historical sites and comb through old bookstores and museums for obscure nuggets of historical details to add to her stories. She lives in the Houston area with her husband and two rescue pups.

Jones's new novel is Murder in the Ranks.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I think Murder in the Ranks immediately tells the reader my book is a mystery and there is some military element to the story. Dottie Lincoln, my book’s sleuth, is a member of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in WWII. The word ‘ranks’ does some heavy lifting here to show that these pioneering women, serving in the first American women’s expeditionary force, were indeed soldiers. I hope the title brings up the question, who would want to kill one of these soldiers? And why?

What's in a name?

I wanted Dottie Lincoln’s name to be as American as apple pie. I wanted her to be relatable. At the same time, her name is a choice she’s made. Her full name is Dorothea Lincoln von Raven. Her father was in the army and married a French woman while stationed in Germany after the Great War. Dottie’s chosen name hides a somewhat checkered past and puts her in danger. It is also part of her attempt to redefine herself - as a woman, as an American and as a soldier.

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

I don’t expect my teenage self would be too surprised by Murder in the Ranks. In many ways, this book reflects a lot of my own childhood experiences. I grew up as an Air Force brat, surrounded by military men and women. I was always fascinated with women in uniform. My Dad was a fighter pilot and at one point, he was stationed at a German Air Force base. The nearest American base was almost five hours away and we were the only Americans in town. I went to the local school and learned German. Dottie’s childhood experiences are similar to my own. She is the daughter of a military man, who was stationed in occupied Germany after the Great War.

I’ve also always had a fascination with history, especially military history. When we lived in England, my parents would take me to the local pub and I’d listen to all the stories of the old-timers who’d survived the Blitz and Dunkirk and many other battles. In Germany, my best friend’s Dad had served in both World War I and World War II. I majored in history and German in college. A few years ago, I discovered the 149th Post Headquarters Company, the first American women soldiers to serve in a combat theater, and I knew I had to write about them. I’ve also been a fan of mysteries since I was a kid. It started with Nancy Drew mysteries and Agatha Christie. Again, being stationed in England when I was in elementary school, I was fascinated with mysteries and touring castles and some of the great houses only fueled that obsession. So, yes, in many ways, Murder in the Ranks was inevitable!

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

Beginnings are always harder! When I start writing, I’m writing to explore. To suss out the story buried in a bunch of facts and random ideas. It’s only when I come to the end of the book that I really know how the story should start. It’s only at the end of the story that I truly know who my main character is. Dottie Lincoln starts Murder in the Ranks as an insecure, somewhat weak person, who shields herself from rel connections with the soldiers in her company. By the end of the story, she is coming out of her shell. She learns to stand up and fight for what’s right. During the process of investigating the murder of her fellow soldier, Ruth Wentz, Dottie steps into a fuller version of herself. But to show that progression, I had to start Dottie off on a mission destined for failure.

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 in my book has a connection to my personality. Even the killer! I don’t know how to write characters completely alien from myself. I’m not sure that’s possible. One thing I enjoy about writing is having the opportunity to explore multiple facets of personality and choice. Our choices are what define us. Writing and reading stories allow us to explore multiple avenues of decision making and multiple versions of ourselves.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My biggest inspiration is always the research. After I discovered the 149th Post Headquarters Company, I was granted permission to do research at the U.S. Army Women’s Museum. Nothing inspired me more to write Murder in the Ranks than reading the personal accounts of the women who served under General Eisenhower in Algiers, North Africa. One WAAC in particular did an oral interview, and she talked about how her husband told her after the war not to tell anyone she’d served in the military because it wasn’t ladylike. She also suffered PTSD from the bombardments in early 1943. Whenever the work got hard, I thought of this WAAC and pressed on. These women were true pioneers, and they paved the way for women to serve in combat today. Nothing inspires me more than these brave women soldiers.

Visit Kristi Jones's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Midge Raymond

Midge Raymond is the author of the novels Floreana and My Last Continent, the short-story collection Forgetting English, and, with coauthor John Yunker, the mystery novel Devils Island. Her writing has appeared in TriQuarterly, Bellevue Literary Review, the Los Angeles Times magazine, Chicago Tribune, Poets & Writers, and many other publications. She has taught at Boston University, Boston’s Grub Street Writers, Seattle’s Hugo House, and San Diego Writers, Ink. Raymond lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she is co-founder of the boutique publisher Ashland Creek Press.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I hope it pulls readers right in! This was a tough book to title because Floreana has two narrators—women who, a century apart, struggle with love, family, and buried secrets—and it’s set in two eras on one island that has changed remarkably in the past hundred years. It was challenging to find a title that would incorporate a real-life, unsolved murder mystery, penguin conservation, and two women who seem very different but whose struggles are very similar despite the years between them. In the end, my hope is that the title Floreana offers a sense of place and of intrigue to readers.

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

She would probably be quite surprised by the setting. As a younger person, I was interested in cities, not remote places. Now I’d much prefer to travel to the middle of nowhere than to a city—I’m not sure my teenage self would appreciate that. On the other hand, I think Teen Midge might recognize the struggles of the women in the story—the challenges of trying to find yourself by living life a certain way, and then wondering what you might’ve done differently.

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

The blank page is the hardest for me; I always love to have an idea of where my story is headed when I get started. But if I waited for an easy beginning or to know where things would end up, I’d never write a thing! So I just have to dive in, and this is why my early drafts are a mess. I would say I rewrite beginnings and endings an equal number of countless times.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Animals and scientists—especially endangered species and humans in conservation work. In the contemporary narrative of Floreana, Mallory is returning to the task of building nests to give Galápagos penguins safe places to raise their chicks, and her fictional work is based on real work being done by the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels at the University of Washington, in collaboration with the Galápagos National Park. The humans who devote their lives to saving and protecting animals—whether endangered species or stray cats or abused farm animals—are my heroes.

Learn more about the author and her work at Midge Raymond's website.

The Page 69 Test: My Last Continent.

Writers Read: Midge Raymond (June 2016).

The Page 69 Test: Floreana.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kate MacIntosh

Kate MacIntosh is always in search of the perfect bottle of wine, a great book, and a swoon worthy period costume drama. You’ll find her in Vancouver making friends with every dog she meets, teaching writing, and listening to true crime podcasts while lounging on the sofa in sweats and spouting random historical facts she finds interesting.

MacIntosh's new novel is The Champagne Letters.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Over twenty years ago, I was lucky enough to be traveling in France and I visited the Champagne region. In between tours of different wineries and copious amounts of free samples, I heard the story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, the founder of Veuve Clicquot. How do you not find a woman fascinating who runs a business, develops new innovations, works with smugglers to get her champagne out of the country during the Napoleonic war, and was a widow raising a daughter? I scribbled in my travel journal that I thought she would make a great character. That’s when I learned widows founded many of the great champagne houses. At the time, the only way a woman could own a business was if they were a widow. The present-day character is divorced, but she often thinks it would be easier if she were a widow, if her husband died instead of that he chose to leave her. That gave me the initial title for the story: The Champagne Widows.

When I had a publishing deal, the editor and I discussed the title. There was already a book with the title The Champagne Widows. Although there are many books with the same title, we decided to change it to avoid confusion. There were endless lists of options. Contenders included: Champagne Secrets, The Women of Champagne, The Widow’s Guide, The Champagne Gamble. In the end we went with The Champagne Letters, which, when we stumbled upon it, seemed the perfect fit.

The book goes back and forth between the 1800s where the Barbe-Nicole Clicquot is writing letters to her great-granddaughter to tell her about her life, and the present day when Natalie has fled her divorce and run away to Paris for vacation. Natalie finds a book of letters from the Widow and uses those to help her chart her new direction.

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

Growing up, I spent so much time worrying about what other people thought. Were they mad? Did I have their approval? Did I seem to them as awkward and odd as I felt? I would love to have my teenage self read the book and perhaps begin to understand that there’s never a way to make everyone happy. Trying to please people (sometimes total strangers) and constantly checking to see other’s opinions, is a recipe for disaster. Hopefully, my teenager self would be inspired to consider what she wants for her own life.

I’m also quite certain that my nerdy teenage self would love all the historical details and odd facts. History has always fascinated me.

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

The beginning of the book was always clear. I knew I wanted to start the Widow’s story with her husband dying, as that was when her life as an independent woman began. For Natalie in the present day, I knew I wanted to get her to France as soon as possible, that’s when her adventure starts. The ending, however… that was much murkier.

The story in the past is based on the real life of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, so her story already had a clear timeline. My only challenge was deciding what to include and what to leave out. My story ends with her success in launching the champagne house, but she would live until her 80s and had many more adventures.

The present-day story kept surprising me. I thought I knew what would happen, but suddenly things took a turn I hadn’t expected. An early reader commented, “I didn’t see that twist coming,” and I thought neither did I. I did several revisions of the ending and when I came up with the final scene, it seemed as if it had been planned. Various details, the jeweller the ring etc, were already in the story, so perhaps a corner of my brain (or my heart) knew it before the rest of me.

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

As I mentioned earlier, the real-life story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot was a big inspiration. The biography The Widow Clicquot, by Tilar Mazzeo, is fascinating.

However, the present-day story line had a more personal connection. A few years ago, my marriage blew up. It was right before my 50th birthday and our 25th wedding anniversary. We’d already booked, and pre-paid, for a big anniversary trip to France. Unexpectedly, I’d lost the person I thought was my best friend, my home, and half the belongings we’d spent our lives collecting. I was sure as hell not going to lose that trip. So, I went without him. Unlike the character in my book who ends up in several adventures, including one with a dashing Frenchmen, I spent a lot of time walking around Paris and eating my body weight in cheese. But I left that trip with an idea for a novel and the reminder that I’m a capable and strong person. The character Natalie isn’t a direct reflection of me or my former marriage, but I certainly used that experience. One of the best parts of fiction is unlike real life, you can control it.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

What doesn’t influence my writing? Wine, great food, travel, history, just about any random show on the BBC, overheard conversations, news, my life, and stories of friends and family. When I’m asked where to find ideas for books, I think that is never the problem. Finding time to write all the ideas I have is the daunting task. I find the world a fascinating place and I'm constantly asking myself, what if….?

Visit Kate MacIntosh's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Champagne Letters.

My Book The Movie: The Champagne Letters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Yvonne Battle-Felton

photo credit: Marat Battle

Yvonne Battle-Felton was born in Pennsylvania and raised in New Jersey before moving to Maryland. She currently lives in Yorkshire, England with her family. Battle-Felton holds an MA in writing from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University. She is an associate teaching professor and the academic director of creative writing at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. Her debut novel, Remembered, won a Northern Writers’ Award, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize.

Battle-Felton's new novel is Curdle Creek.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I think the title captures the essence of the book really well. The title of the book is the name of the town and so much of the book is about the way the town operates, the cost of living there, the secrets it keeps. It’s not an entirely bad place or at least, there’s a rationale for how it came to be the way that it is so for a while, I flirted with the title: A Good Place for Bad Things. But the idea of the town came to me maybe seven years ago. I grew up in a rural town called Sweetwater. It was a town where nothing much seemed to happen. In many ways, Curdle Creek is the opposite of that. So, seven years ago I wrote a short story about characters about to experience their first Moving On ceremony. The town was Curdle Creek then and when I revisited it in my imagination the town and the title just fit.

What's in a name?

In the short story I wrote, Osira’s name was Riley. She was 16 then. Now, she’s 45 and the name Riley just didn’t seem to fit her, not with all of the life she’s seen and all of the Moving On’s she’s participated in. She’s had a lifetime of loss. I was rolling old names around in my mouth, feeling how they tripped off of the tongue. The name Osirus came first. I like the way it sounds and feels. That it’s also the name of the ancient Egyptian God of the Underworld is not quite intentional. Osira is named after her father. There’s likely a story in that.

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

Teenage me would love Curdle Creek. But, she would want more mystery and less horror. Teenage me was quite squeamish. She was afraid of movies like The Hand and The Blob. Not that they looked realistic but maybe even more so because they didn’t. So while she wouldn’t read it in its entirety, she would absolutely love parts of the book. Still, she’d be a little surprised and maybe a little worried too that we wrote it.

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

I find it harder to write beginnings because I don’t start with them. I get to know the characters through scenes. So, I play with them in different settings with different characters, at different times of their lives to see who they are, what they want, and what they’re willing to do to get it. My way into the story, into caring about the characters, is not the same point that I introduce them to readers at. Often, the scenes I think will be the opening don’t even end up in the book. But endings, I love an ending. Even in life there’s something satisfying about an ending, something inevitable that’s sort of comforting. It’s not that I’ll know what the ending will be when I start the book. I don’t. That’s what keeps me curious and helps me return to the page. I write to see what will happen.

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

Whenever I write a first-person narrator my inner villain takes over. Even if it’s for a bit. There are likely parts of me in quite a few of the characters, especially in the first drafts. The more I get to know them, the more they become their own entities and the less of me they need (or the less of me I need to write). Osira doesn’t start out with it but she ends up with some of my inner rebel. Other characters might have a bit of my sense of humor, slivers of my outlook, my competitive nature. I crack my knuckles constantly. It’s a way of relieving stress. I gave Osira that habit as a way of managing hers. But, in her community, she can’t even do that freely. But, Osira is also a rule follower. Even when she loses everyone she loves, she likes the reassurance of rules. In that respect, she and I are worlds apart.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I often write to music It might be something melancholy and moody like classical orchestra or something upbeat and full of tension like jazz. Music helps me to capture the rhythms of language and reminds me to let go, have fun, explore. These days I’m inspired by nature. The brightness of moon, the inquisitiveness of robins, the resourcefulness of squirrels, all of it. There are stories in my own backyard. Remembering that makes me remember that stories are everywhere and everyone has a unique way of bringing them to life.

Visit Yvonne Battle-Felton's website.

The Page 69 Test: Curdle Creek.

My Book, The Movie: Curdle Creek.

--Marshal Zeringue