Natalie Kikić

Natalie Kikić is a Croatian American speculative fiction writer who grew up on stories of her parents’ lives in the former Yugoslavia. She holds a Bachelor’s in Slavic Languages & Literatures from the University of California, Berkeley and her work explores Balkan folklore, belonging, and hauntings, both ghostly and romantic.

When not writing, Kikić can typically be found wrapped in a blanket with a cup of chai, meticulously planning her next travel itinerary, or listening to Taylor Swift on repeat. Originally from California, she is a dual Canadian–US citizen and currently resides in Massachusetts with her husband and two polydactyl cats.

Kikić's new novel is The Haunting of Lavender House. My Q&A with the author:

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

The title of my book, The Haunting of Lavender House, does an excellent job introducing readers to my story, but it’s actually not my original title. For years, while I was writing the novel, I called it House of Lavender. While I like the simplicity of it, it doesn’t really communicate the gothic elements of my story—the house in my novel is haunted, you see. And so, my publishing team introduced the new and current title, which I love. It evokes other gothic horror tales, such as The Haunting of Hill House. And it still keeps the lavender element, which is common flower along the coastal region of Croatia, where my story is set. So in the end, my title is a perfect combo of gothic and Croatian culture.

What's in a name?

The name of the island setting of my book—Tolba—is a fictional name I made up for creative freedom, but I chose it because it contains most of the letters from the real Croatian island that inspired it, Olib. Olib is where my dad is from, and it’s remote island vibe inspired much of the setting.

As for the characters, the protagonist’s name changed many times over the course of writing this book. I landed on Petra because I liked that it evoked the word “petrify”—a very fitting sensation since she contends with a frightening spirit that gives her sleep paralysis.

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

I think she would be surprised at first, but after thinking about it, not at all. I’ve always been a huge scaredy cat, especially when it comes to horror films, so my younger self would be surprised that I became a horror author. Yet, that same teenager loved gothic stories like Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights. So it makes sense that I eventually came around to appreciate gothic horror as a genre, and now write stories within it.

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

Endings are always so much harder for me to write. I think I am initially too scared about hurting my characters too much. But I think the best stories are ones that seize your heart, that make you think, how will they ever resolve this?

For The Haunting of Lavender House, since the story is gothic, I was eager to lean into a lot of common gothic elements, such as madness, isolation, and the dread. So you’ll see that turned up to the max towards the end. But I also wanted to provide hope—ultimately my story is about the protagonist, Petra, finding belonging in her parents’ homeland of Croatia, so despite the terror, there is a happy 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?

Petra and her feelings about her identity are very much inspired by own experiences. As a child of Croatian immigrants, I’ve always felt like I didn’t fully belong in my parents’ homeland. This was largely due to the fact that they didn’t teach me their native language. So I wanted to write about a character with a similar sense of disconnection from her heritage. I wanted to explore the other-ness diaspora can feel, not fully belonging to a culture that is supposed to be their birthright. In my opinion, it’s a great setup for a gothic heroine, who typically struggles with autonomy and isolation. When she arrives in Croatia, she already feels a bit alone and anxious, and then the haunting experiences amp up all her fears.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Taylor Swift is a huge inspiration for me. Her music covers so many emotions so beautifully, from falling in love, to heartbreak, to rage. In particular, her album, Midnights, captures a lot of the vibes I associate with The Haunting of Lavender House—that liminal, mysterious aura that the middle of the night brings. I have some easter eggs to her lyrics in the book, such as a nod to the song, "Lavender Haze."

I am also very inspired by movies; I often imagine scenes I am writing like a movie scene playing out. I love the big drama and romance of Baz Luhrmann films, and also the eerie visuals of Guillermo del Toro. Like these directors, I try to create bold and haunting visuals in my stories that will come to life in the readers’ minds.

Also, a special shout-out to Nosferatu by Robert Eggers—the scene where Ellen, the protagonist, is drawn out of bed with the window curtains billowing in the wind directly influenced a dark scene in The Haunting of Lavender House.

Visit Natalie Kikić's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Anna Maloney

Anna Maloney grew up in London, part of a large Irish family. She has written for television (one BAFTA win), film, and radio; taught screenwriting; and works as a script consultant. She has worked in reality television, journalism, and public relations and is a qualified children's playleader, and sometime usherette. She lives in southeast London and can often be found swimming at her local outdoor pool while working on a plot problem. A synopsis and sample of her new novel, The 10:12, won the UK Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award.

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

The 10:12 suggests a train and I wanted people to know the story would involve something that happens on a train. I was influenced by the writers who have set stories on trains such as Agatha Christie and Patricia Highsmith. It is a very specific location. People effectively trapped in a moving tube. And I wanted that to be the invitation to the story. Titles can be difficult, though. For my first teleplay I produced 22 alternatives after a new producer rejected the original. (And yes, I was beginning to get facetious.)

What’s in a name?

I’m not fond of awkward character names that sound implausible – unless there’s a reason for them. In Claire’s case, I wanted something straightforward and no-nonsense, rather like Claire presents herself. I also thought of her parents and the kind of names they would have chosen. Fitzroy, a name that’s Norman in origin, does have a bit of a dash about it, though. And I suppose that was another clue about Claire.

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

My teenage self was reading Chandler – as well as Zola, Austen and Dostoyevsky. But the thought that a girl from my background would become a published novelist wasn’t even a daydream. Although I was good at English, writing was never suggested as a career. Perhaps it would have been thought of as flippant. The convent I attended until I was sixteen had the motto ‘serviam’ – I will serve. Not the best motto for a writer. I also didn’t read many books where the hero was female because there weren’t many. They were typically the victim, the cause of the crime or the assistant. The gender of my hero would probably be the biggest surprise to my teenage self not because she is a she, but because she exists in a published novel. Times have changed.

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

Beginnings tend to come quickly but may be changed later and by the time I get to the end I’m usually sure where I’m going. However, with The 10:12 I knew I wanted to start en route to a train station and that stayed much the same. The ending did change because I had introduced another thread into the story within the story, which I wanted to tie up.

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

Perhaps many of my characters have bits of me in them, and I’m not always aware of it when I write them! Sometimes it might be aspirational – I’m not as kick-ass as my protagonist, although I hope I’m less grumpy. There are aspects of my personality and those of people I’ve come across in my characters as I want the people I’m writing about to feel real to readers. However, some characters are just completely imaginary.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Film has always been important. When I write, I watch the conversations taking place. As a sometimes screenwriter, I occasionally need to remind myself when novel writing to describe where we are and how people might be feeling. Old and recent Noir and the classic American conspiracy films of the 70s would be influential in terms of layered story telling. And the news: what’s happening in the world now is always important whether it’s what’s going on in my neighbourhood or internationally.

Learn more about The 10:12, and follow Anna Maloney on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elizabeth Noel

Elizabeth Noel has called many places home, including the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. She holds an MEd from the University of Exeter and an MLitt from the University of Saint Andrews and has taught at various universities in the UAE. Long-listed for both the Katherine Mansfield Sparkling Prose Competition and the Anthology Short Story Competition, Noel has published various short works. She lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and two daughters, on the land of the Gayemagal people within the Eora Nation.

As a child, Noel made regular visits to see her Austrian grandmother, or Omi, who encouraged her to chew on fennel seeds, sip herbal teas, and rub strange-smelling creams onto her skin. The city of Vienna, Melk Abbey, and the mountains and glass-topped lakes of Carinthia captured her heart. Her new novel, Beneath the Edelweiss, is the result of years of questioning what happened to her grandparents and great-grandparents, piecing together a narrative of Carinthia’s complex and tragic past.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The edelweiss is the quintessential symbol of the Austrian Alps. The flower has been protected under environmental laws since 1886 and features on the nation’s 2-Euro-Cent coin. It might bring forth images of Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp singing a love letter to his homeland in the classic 1965 adaption of The Sound of Music. Edelweiss, Edelweiss, every morning you greet me…

Austria’s Alps live and breathe in Beneath the Edelweiss so pointing to place in the title felt intuitive. However, the edelweiss denotes more than Austria alone. The flower is an illusion, appearing as a star against craggy limestone cliffs, you must look closely to see the tiny yellow flowers nestled inside what are fuzzy white leaves. Able to withstand freezing alpine winters, gale-force winds and thin soil, the edelweiss is a symbol for not only weathering the storm but knowing how to thrive once the clouds have passed. With its rugged alpine beauty, it clings to life against all odds.

The novel’s exact setting is Carinthia, Austria’s southern border province where history is as rich as it is heartbreaking. Beauty in Carinthia is omnipresent, and the dead are thought to mourn the landscape from heaven. Beneath the Edelweiss details Carinthia’s centuries old alpine herbalism tradition alongside it’s cradling of Nazism for it was in the region’s fertile soils that Austrian Nazism permeated.

Other strong contenders for the title included Of Wildflowers and War, Carinthia’s Shadow, and The Alpine Herbalist, but it was the edelweiss that won out as it always does.

What's in a name?

Sometimes a name can contain a cultural heritage, and to keep it during wartime can be an act of resistance, to change it a sign of new allegiance. In Carinthia during World War two Slavic sounding names were chiselled out of gravestones and replaced with more Germanic sounds, silencing certain letters like the people buried below.

The character names in Beneath the Edelweiss reflect those who inspired the story, as well as the ethnic diversity of Carinthia. Mitzi is a distinctly German-Austrian name and is the diminutive of Maria. The fictional Mitzi, and the real Mitzi, have a form of dwarfism. Depending on how the ancient root of the name is interpreted, Mitzi can mean wished for child, sea of bitterness, rebellious, or beloved. Mitzi’s life in the novel, what she must do and overcome, reflects these meanings.

As an alpine herbalist in training, she is charged with serving her community and protecting an ancient tradition. Her grandmother tells her that if she keeps the flowers safe the flowers will keep her. Oma was wrong, but if we only look at names, there was still foresight in her words.

Mitzi becomes beloved especially to Cvetka with whom she forms a maternal relationship. The two enable each other to become more fully formed. Cvetka is a distinctly Slavic name which means little flower, blossom or bloom.

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

Of surprise I cannot speak, but my teenage self would devour this book because it shows people like her moving from brokenness to wholeness. Struggling with chronic illness, and a body I could not control, I needed heroines like Mitzi back then.

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

Beginnings. I knew the ending must contain survival but everything else was open to change. The human response to soldiers or doctors knocking on the door asking to take disabled and sick loved ones away was varied. I wanted to rewrite what happened to my great grandmother through Mitzi and Cvetka. I wanted the characters to fight and resist in a way that enabled them to outlive the system hunting them.

The beginning kept changing. Originally, Beneath the Edelweiss started in 1937, a year before Austria’s annexation to Nazi Germany, but I wanted to understand how the seeds of Nazi policy were able to spread and this meant going back to 1927 when Nazism received just 0.2 percent of the national vote. I could have gone back further to Austria’s four-year famine between 1919 and 1922, and no doubt before that. Some ideas sit a long time in the soil waiting for the right time to germinate.

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

All the characters contain parts of myself or my experience. I place this into a bowl with a cup of imagination and a cup of research and wait for what rises to greet me.

Cvetka’s experience with chronic illness is based on my own, so a lot of her around the diagnosis relates back to my lived experience as a child.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Where do I begin? Beneath the Edelweiss is based on three women from my family. Ana the mother who was too sick to look after Elfriede the daughter, and Mitzi who fostered Elfriede on an alpine farm. I knew that Elfriede sat by the window looking at the valley waiting for Ana to return and that Mitzi led her by the hand into the alpine garden. I imagined Ana looking up at the mountain from the hospital, hoping she would see her daughter again. Ana never collected Elfriede because she died in a place where nurses killed patients as part of their daily duties under the regime. I could not tell Ana’s plight from within the hospital walls, so I asked Mitzi to explain what happened through the metaphor of the alpine garden and all the wisdom and joy it has to offer.

This story was the kernel for Beneath the Edelweiss, but my own evolving relationship with disease, recorded histories of people within Carinthia and Austria, artwork such as Little Big Woman Condescension by Dr Debra Keenahan informed the novel more broadly.

One story I was unable to include in my Author’s Note is how Maud’s escape from a terrorist bomb was informed by the true stories of Hermine Preis who had her fashion boutique plundered and stolen during Kristallnacht in 1938, and Norbert Futterweit who was targeted by Carinthian Nazis at his Jewellers shop in Vienna in 1933. Upon finding a bomb, Norbert attempted to throw it outside. The bomb exploded in his hands killing him in an instant but saving two other people inside his store.

Both Herbert and Hermine have become part of the Austrian landscape via a stumbling stone placed in Klagenfurt in 2012 and a plaque in Vienna in 2008. I hope that Beneath the Edelweiss can also serve as both a reminder of a tragic past and a pledge to a better future. In seeking to understand, we are presented with the opportunity to honour those who came before us and refuse to look away.

Visit Elizabeth Noel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Monona Wali

Monona Wali is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and filmmaker. Her new novel is Sutra Americana. Her debut novel, My Blue Skin Lover, won the 2015 Independent Book Publishers Gold Award for Multicultural Fiction. Many of her stories and essays have been published in literary journals including Air/Light, Folio Literary Journal, Juked, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Santa Monica Review. One received Special Mention in the 2025 Pushcart Prize Anthology.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title Sutra Americana is meant to be intriguing and mysterious. Most western readers might not know the meaning of the word sutra (although they may have heard of the Kama Sutra, the famous manual on lovemaking from ancient India) but what the title does is signal that this is a story about two cultures coming together – in this case the Indian and the American. The book cover also reflects that with its bright blue background and Indian fabrics in the graphics, but also using the iconic red, white and blue of the American flag. Together, they invite the reader into a world they might not know but will find accessible and entertaining. Honestly, I was worried that the title would sound too foreign, but readers have responded very positively, and I never got any advice from editors or publicity people to change it. I’m so happy about that.

What's in a name?

There are five central characters in the novel: Sharma, Sushila, Raja, Kiran and Anu. These are all fairly typical Hindi names and I chose them very intuitively. They just felt right to me for the character. I wanted the names to be easy to pronounce and different enough from each other to not confuse the reader.

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

My teenage self would be very surprised! I don’t think she had a clue that the life she was living in suburban Upstate New York might one day be turned into a fictional account by her older self. She was often introverted and alone, reading books, knitting and sewing, secretly watching soap operas, and baking bread with her father. How could she imagine that her ordinary life would be fodder for a multi- generational family saga?

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

In this book, which follows a family chronologically over five decades, it was challenging to figure out where to start and stop the journey. In an early draft, the book started earlier in the journey of Sushila and Sharma, the two parents, when they first meet in India, but that seemed too cumbersome. Now the beginning throws you right into their marriage when they arrive in America and confront parts of each other’s personalities they hadn’t encountered before. It’s much more dramatic. I wrote an ending chapter early on, because at one time I was considering that as a beginning (you can tell the book went through many drafts!) When I did come to the end, luckily that chapter held up and delivered the emotional punch I was going for. I’m so happy with the way it all worked out.

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

I love writing fiction because while it definitely comes from my own experience, ideas, and imagination, my essential core, it allows me to extend beyond into other characters shoes. If I were to write only my own personality or experience, it would feel too constricting. As a teacher, I would tell my students to let their characters go, take risks, go beyond their comfort zones, and do things they would never do. I have to heed that advice too, and in fact, some of the most gratifying writing I’ve done has come when I’ve been able to fully imagine another life. Still, the core of truth I’m after can only come from my deepest self.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I had my start as a filmmaker, so I am definitely influenced by cinema. Films have this incredible ability to transport you fully into another world, often a world you might not know anything about. I love how interior lives of characters have to be brought out in action and scene. As I’m writing, I often see scenes playing out in my head, and I work hard to include the physical setting, detailed visuals and dialogue. All of these make the writing alive on the page and help bring the reader fully into the world of the novel.

Visit Monona Wali's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elizabeth Crane

Elizabeth Crane is the author of several collections of short stories, including Turf, When the Messenger is Hot, All this Heavenly Glory, and You Must Be This Happy to Enter, a memoir, This Story Will Change, as well as two novels, We Only Know So Much and The History of Great Things.

Crane's latest story collection is That May Not Mean What You Think.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I like a title that suggestive of what's inside the book, in this case, the idea I had about That May Not Mean What You Think was that even though it speaks to that particular story, it also speaks to the overall stories in the sense that it playfully invites the reader to question things they think they're sure about, via my stories or otherwise.

What's in a name?

I love to have fun with character names. In the story "Nepo Babies," they don't have actual names, they're just identified by who they were related to: The white feminist's grandchild, the grandson of the muckety-muck, the shady tech heiress. And in the story "Senior Living for the Unknowables," which is inspired by a reality show, I gave them all names that sounded extremely similar to their real names with just something changed. Which is really just kind of an inside joke for anyone who's an actual fan of that show.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your latest book?

I think my teenage reader self would probably not be surprised to find that I still watch a lot of TV, although mostly in fiction I play with reality TV, which didn't exist back then.

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

Endings! I'm always revising endings. I can always jump right in to some story idea, but trying to bring it to a conclusion that feels believable, but not too wrapped up in a bow is always a challenge.

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 parts of me in many of my characters, but this is often a call for me to question the beliefs of the characters that resemble me, and then turn it around to try to see a different point of view. Which brings me back to the title of the book - I am sometimes also the You in That May Not Mean What You Think!

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

As mentioned, I have often found myself influenced by reality TV, in the sense that there seem to be endless things people are willing to do or say on television that I still cannot understand, and so I try to figure it out fiction. I'll let you know if I ever do!

Visit Elizabeth Crane's website.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Crane (April 2008).

The Page 69 Test: We Only Know So Much.

My Book, The Movie: We Only Know So Much.

Coffee with a Canine: Elizabeth Crane & Percy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Denise Derya Brandt

Denise Derya Brandt worked in international development for more than twenty years and led women’s health projects in Afghanistan, Liberia, and Myanmar before becoming a published author. A Book Incubator graduate, 2024 Women's Fiction Writers Association Rising Star Award finalist, and 2025 Poets & Writers Publicity Incubator Fellow, Brandt has degrees from Arizona State and the London School of Economics. As a Turkish American, she claims she can fool tourists but not taxi drivers! Raised in Arizona, Brandt now lives in northern Kentucky with her husband.

Her debut novel is Istanbul Dreaming.

My Q&A with the author:

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

A lot, I hope! I was originally going to title the novel A Modern Turkish Woman, but ultimately I think I went with the better choice. I wanted Istanbul in the title for a few reasons. It’s my favorite city in the world, and it’s where my main character’s life changes in ways she could previously only have dreamed of.

I was cautioned against using a gerund in the title, but I kept coming back to “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas and Papas. If it worked for them, I figured it could work for me too! My main character, Ayten, really does dream about Istanbul.

What’s in a name?

The names in Istanbul Dreaming were very important for me to get right. My parents inspired the novel, so I gave their first names, Ayten and Earl, to my leads. Then I picked other Turkish names I liked. But my early beta readers said they were getting some of the character names confused because too many started with the same letter or sounded too similar. So I went back and changed things, picked names that were easy to read and pronounce in English and didn’t blur together. When you’re writing an English novel full of non-English names, I think you owe your reader that—keep it simple and memorable.

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

Honestly? Not very. I’ve wanted to write something inspired by my parents for as long as I can remember. So teenage Denise would probably just say, “finally!”

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

Since this was my first novel, both were difficult to write, and both changed from my early drafts. The beginning took the most work. It’s probably where most writers spend the bulk of their time, since it’s what people read to decide if they’re sticking around. The stakes are high! I always knew I wanted a flash forward, but my first version was too long and gave away too much. So I cut it, added some intrigue, and hopefully now it makes readers curious and turning the page.

But the ending was actually harder to nail. I kept trying to stay true to what I knew really happened to the people who inspired the book and it just wasn’t landing. The stakes were not high enough. Then friends in my writer group reminded me I’m writing fiction and can make up any ending I want! That freed me completely. The old ending, the one I scrapped, will probably become the start of another book someday, following one of the minor characters from 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?

Since the story is inspired by my parents and family in Turkey, and by all the stories my parents shared with me, it’s impossible not to see some of myself in there somewhere. I’m Turkish-American, grew up in the U.S. speaking English, and only ever picked up intermediate Turkish on a good day. We visited Turkey every year or two when I was growing up, so I’ve got plenty of firsthand experience with the whole tuning-out-a-conversation-you-don’t-understand thing, the frustration of not having the words, the little cultural blunders you make without meaning to. I tried to work all of that into the book, especially between Ayten and Earl.

Personality-wise, though, I probably relate most to Yasemin, Ayten’s bold best friend. She more often and naturally challenges the cultural expectations of a young woman. I can relate to that.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My multicultural background, my years living and working abroad, watching up close what’s expected of women and girls in different places—all of that shaped the book. And on a more practical level, a few TV shows helped too. To get a feel for 1950s Turkey, I took notes while watching the Turkish Netflix show, The Club, which is about a woman just out of prison, working as a seamstress at a nightclub, trying to reconnect with the daughter she had to give up. 1950s Istanbul basically becomes its own character in that show, which is exactly what I’m hoping happens in Istanbul Dreaming.

Visit Denise Derya Brandt's website.

Writers Read: Denise Derya Brandt.

The Page 69 Test: Istanbul Dreaming.

--Marshal Zeringue

Marivi Soliven

Marivi Soliven has authored seventeen books, taught creative writing at the University of the Philippines and the University of California San Diego and was admitted to the Hedgebrook Writer-in-Residence Program in 2012. Her debut novel The Mango Bride won the 2011 Grand Prize at the Palanca Awards, the Philippine counterpart of the Pulitzer Prize. Additionally, two of Soliven's books for children were awarded silver medals at the 1991 and 1993 Palanca Awards. The film adaptation of her story “Pandemic Bread” has screened at film festivals across the country. She writes and works as a Filipino interpreter in San Diego, California.

Soliven's new novel is Taxi Dancer.

My Q&A with the author:

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

A decent amount of work seeing as folks are unfamiliar with the term Taxi Dancer which refers to the profession fairly common among young white women who worked in taxi dance halls in the 1930s through the '50s. They were called Taxi Dancers because patrons paid for the time they danced with these women - a dime bought you about 3 minutes of dancing time. Because the term is no longer in common use, it draws readers into a bygone era, an era alluded to by the Art Deco border that frames the book's image of a couple dancing.

What's in a name?

I named the Filipino protagonist Eli, which is short for Elias who was a major character in Noli me Tangere a seminal novel written by the Philippine national hero Jose Rizal, published in 1887. In that novel Elias is a farmworker who represents the oppressed, suffering Filipino masses who struggle for reform. Likewise, in my novel, Eli is also a farmworker who yearns to get around the anti-miscegenation laws that prevent him from marrying the American taxi dancer he's fallen in love with, Lucinda. Lucinda means "light" or "illumination." I chose the name because she seeks to bring to light the murder conspiracy that ensnares Eli. Mamie Savage is the actual name of a taxi dance hall owner involved in the real life 1930s murder that inspired this novel. I simply couldn't resist using a name like that.

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

Pretty stunned, considering my teenage reader self back in Manila would never have imagined that 1) I could write an entire novel and 2) that it would be published in the US.

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

They are equally hard to write. I changed the beginning of this novel multiple times, even as I always knew how it would end. On the other hand getting to that ending turned out to be a bit more complicated and challenging than I expected.

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 some of myself in both Lucinda and in Mamie. Lucinda for her stubborn perseverance; Mamie for the way she manipulates people with her charm.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I watched every film of James Cagney and Fred Astaire I could find, as well as film noire to get the feel of the movie, to learn how folks dressed and danced, fought and flirted. Additionally, while writing I listened to a playlist that included Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway and Louie Armstrong. One of the novel's drafts actually had chapters named after songs from the era, but I figured that would present a copyright issue.

Visit Marivi Soliven's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Robbie Couch

Robbie Couch is the New York Times bestselling author of If I See You Again Tomorrow, in addition to Blaine for the Win, The Sky Blues, and Another First Chance. He is also the author of the novel Bloom for adults. Originally from small-town Michigan, Couch now calls Los Angeles home.

His new novel is Just the Good Parts.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My hope for every one of my titles is to spark more intrigue in the book than introduce them to the narrative itself. I think my novels' titles tend to feel more relevant after having read the books, and Just the Good Parts is no exception. It, of course, conveys the idea that there's been an elimination of the bad parts—whatever good, bad, or parts are even supposed to mean out of context—but my hope is that the framing brings a richer understanding to readers after they've been introduced to Caspen, a nostalgic character whose penchant for forgetting the bleaker sides of his past may cost him his future.

What's in a name?

I have a very uninspiring answer to this (that may make some people angry)! I think, generally speaking, character names are overrated and reflect an author's own state of mind—or even self-indulgence—more than they serve the story. I've never enjoyed a novel more or less because a character was named Patrick instead of Peter. There are definitely exceptions; if the name of a character is meaningful to the bones of the story itself beyond some clever symbolism that gets lost in the weeds, for instance. And there can be cultural considerations to keep in mind while creating characters, as an ahistorical error or nonsensical name risks distracting the reader and pulling them out of the story. But in terms of the creative process of naming characters or leaning into the symbolism of names, I'd rather spend that time on more important things (sorry not sorry!).

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

I think my teenage self would be (pleasantly) shocked that I'd written a book that was about to be published at all, let alone six gay ones! I'd always dreamt of writing a novel as a kid, so I suspect Teenage Robbie would be on cloud nine. Because Just the Good Parts is speculative fiction and my earliest reading obsessions tended to lean in the fantasy direction, he may be a bit surprised by the genre, but I'd have to revisit my childhood memories to find out ... which I'd do, if only I were Caspen Coolsby.

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

I find it much more difficult to write beginnings, even if I'm incredibly inspired by the scene and story. I want my first page (my first sentence, really) to immediately hook the reader with a compelling conflict, a strong character, or, ideally, both. And that results in my putting a lot of pressure on getting it just right, which usually comes with about a dozen or two heavy edits. Getting to write the ending of my books incentivizes me in the same way I imagine it feels for a marathon runner to make it to mile 26; I'll be exhausted by the time I reach the finish line, but that moment fuels my forward motion the whole journey.

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

It really depends on the book. My debut novel, The Sky Blues, was my most autobiographical of the six novels I've written, so, naturally, I saw a lot of myself in its main character, Sky Baker. But I've spread my narrative wings since then. I try to challenge myself to write as complicated characters as I can—because the messier they are, the more compelling they seem to be—and that requires getting outside of my own thoughts, my own history, and my own lived experiences.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I find a lot of inspiration in TV and film, particularly when they're written in ways that blend genres or frame narratives in inventive ways. I recently rewatched one of my favorite movies, Arrival, for the fifth or sixth time, and continue to be amazed at how a chilling, sci-fi story about an alien invasion is actually a heart-shattering tale about Amy Adams' character grieving the loss of her daughter. And I just finished Widow's Bay, which swings between horror and hilarity in a way I've never seen done before on TV, let alone done well. It's very inspiring to see other writers reinvent the storytelling wheel.

Visit Robbie Couch's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Erin Cotter

Erin Cotter writes young adult fiction. Originally from Buffalo, New York, she currently calls Austin home. When not writing she spends time with her partner and pets, eating tacos, and searching for Golden-cheeked Warblers in the Texas Hill Country.

Cotter's new novel is A Dangerous Bargain.

My Q&A with the author:

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

For my book, I want the title to both hint at the action to come and also serve as a bit of a metaphor for what the book explores thematically. At first, my book was titled The Angel’s Bargain, but I didn’t love that title because while the book is about bargaining with angels for magic, it’s also about the cost of such magic, and what someone is willing to give up for greatness. There’s a sense of unease to the divine magic in my story, a sense that this power, while relied on heavily by the Renaissance artists in their workshops, is a sinister, ticking bomb with an agenda of its own. A Dangerous Bargain obviously points to that theme much more effectively than The Angel’s Bargain.

What's in a name?

The protagonist is called Virgil, and in all the books I’ve written, I’ve never felt more strongly about a character’s name before. The name isn’t historically accurate to 1400s Florence so I had to create a backstory for why Virgil calls himself this. Virgil chooses this name because he likes the thought of being someone who can lead people through darkness—a direct nod to the fact that the famous Roman poet Virgil is Dante’s guide through hell in The Divine Comedy. A Dangerous Bargain explores some heavy topics such as forgiveness, guilt, and reckoning with the cost of bad decisions, so Virgil himself goes on a personal journey through his own darkness and emerges on the other side knowing he’s worthy of love and self-kindness.

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

My teenage self wouldn’t be surprised by A Dangerous Bargain. This book is the most teenage me coded story I’ve written so far. I loved dark, historical leaning tales, and Sabriel by Garth Nix was and still is one of my favorite books. The lush Renaissance setting, the grounded, sinister magic, and the romance between pricky self-sabotaging Virgil and annoying, flirtatious Leonardo would’ve been cat nip to me at seventeen! The only aspect of this story that would surprise teenage me is the queer element. There were virtually zero queer YA books on shelves when I was a teen, and I wish so much that wasn’t the case.

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

Sticking the landing for this book was the hardest part of the entire writing process. I knew the exact final image I wanted to end on. Without spoiling anything, I wanted Virgil’s journey out of the darkness to symbolize something bigger than his own struggles but I must’ve rewritten the ending three times before I figure out what that bigger thing was and how to get there. I hope readers love the way everything ties together in the end—I know I do even though it took me a long time to get there!

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, especially, my protagonists, carry large parts of myself in them. I wrote A Dangerous Bargain during a time in my life when I struggling with a lot of personal guilt and regret, and I think Virgil is clearly a posterchild for that. When I sit down to create a new story, of course I want to create a story readers enjoy, but I also sit down to write to explore something that’s nagging me in my own life. Maybe it’s a form of therapy, I’m not sure!

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Contemporary technology had a very large influence on A Dangerous Bargain: the magic was inspired by AI. I was sitting in the airport traveling to promote my second book when I learned from the Atlantic LibGen database that my book had already been pirated to train AI less than two weeks after its release. I was angry, but also heartbroken. What’s the point of writing a book without doing any of the labour of it? How could anyone call themselves an artist when they were skipping the creative process? I began to wonder if bygone artists would be as pissed about this as I was, and this turned into imagining what an age of AI would’ve looked like during the Italian Renaissance—one of my favourite time periods—and the magic of A Dangerous Bargain emerged.

Visit Erin Cotter's website.

Writers Read: Erin Cotter.

The Page 69 Test: A Dangerous Bargain.

My Book, The Movie: A Dangerous Bargain.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ryan Douglass

Ryan Douglass is the author of young adult horror novel The Taking of Jake Livingston, a New York Times bestseller and an ALA Rainbow Book List Pick; The Great Disillusionment of Nick and Jay, a reimagining of The Great Gatsby set in 1920s Harlem; and Night of Madness, a collaboration with the company behind Clown in a Cornfield. His work explores the ways young people fight to survive in hostile worlds. He lives in Atlanta with his dog and spends his free time baking ambitious desserts and scoping out true crime documentaries.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I think Night of Madness is pretty on-the-nose for what you’re getting. It’s a horror novel that takes place over one night and follows a character who gets trapped in a death game disguised as a game show. “Madness” is the perfect descriptor for what happens as the game induces sensory confusion. This is a collaboration with Temple Hill, so the book was originally called A Night of Madness, but I advocated to drop the “A.” Something about starting with “Night” feels very foreboding to me.

What's in a name?

The main cast was mostly named by Temple Hill, so for their characterizations I followed what the names evoked. For the characters I created, like Mara’s younger brother, Charlie, I wanted to see how I could lean into Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which is what the plot derives from. Most of the characters have common names, some of which call back to the original cast in ways that are felt rather than explicit.

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

My teenage self would not be surprised by this at all, because I remember how changed I felt when I read Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman. I knew I wanted to do something similar, with a funhouse/carnival aesthetic that was psychologically dark underneath and formed allegories for the main character’s mental state. I had been playing with story ideas like this for years.

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

I find endings to be the hardest part because I like to take risks and go to ambitious places in my writing, but endings require you to give the reader payoff—to ground all your flights of whimsy in logic. I am very Type B, a mood reader, and naturally a more abstract, metaphysical, and metaphorical writer, since my education is in poetry. So while writing beginnings can feel like running into something exciting and new, writing endings always brings me to a grounded place and allows me to stretch that logical muscle.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Music is always the big one for me. Movies as well, especially when I want to pull off something cinematic. I use the news as noise more than anything, because I get my news online. I stay abreast of politics because I always want to make sure my writing is tuned in to the current moment as much as possible, and because I see that as part of my civic responsibility.

Follow Ryan Douglass on Instagram and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue