Diana Clarke

Diana Clarke is a writer and teacher from New Zealand. She received her MFA in fiction from Purdue University and is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Utah.

Her debut novel is Thin Girls.

My Q&A with Clarke:

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

I am a notoriously bad titler, so I didn’t actually come up with Thin Girls, although now I can’t imagine the book with any other name. I usually call a book some incomprehensible combination of letters (mcisnanxjcjw) until someone helps me out with a title. Titles give me stage fright; it’s terrifying, to name a book! A name, I think, should glance without pointing, suggest without winking, and I’m so unsubtle. I am also always wary of the dreaded aha (!) moment in which the reader comes across the book’s title in the book and is immediately ejected from the story’s world, so it was important to me that, if the title phrase did come up in the book, it wasn’t in a cheesy ‘big reveal’ way. The phrase “thin girls” is mentioned on the first page, and then regularly throughout the book. It’s a to-the-point title, an immediate declaration – this is a story about eating disorders, body image, the dieting industry. It’s a book about girls who are thin and girls who want to be and girls who can’t be and the fact that every girl is under the pressure to be exactly, and often only, just that.

What's in a name?

I really regret the twins’ (the book’s main characters) names, Rose and Lily, but by the time I realised they didn’t work, it was too late. The reason the names initially came about is because one of the book’s presiding images is the twinflower, a flower with two buds to each stem in which each bud simultaneously takes from the other while also keeping the other alive. So, the names make sense, but maybe a little too much sense. I tried changing them, but the girls seemed to want to keep them and it would have felt so invasive to take their names from them after writing the first draft. I wish I could let them choose their own names. What feels more comfortable, in terms of naming, is when the main character, Rose, gets involved with a pro-anorexia group and they nickname her Riz, because the name has a skinnier mouthfeel than Rose. They’ve all got thin nicknames too: Mim, Lin, Flee. I think the nicknaming process speaks to the power of names. A nickname is a name you choose for yourself, or your beloved people choose for you, and one that is adopted through unity and acceptance. It is because it fits. It’s often our first communication of the self to others and it allows us to retain some kind of authority over the self in a way that given names don’t. A nickname, a name taken on, is much more meaningful than a birth name, I think.

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

Not. Not at all. She was a sad little thing. She might be surprised that I made it out of adolescence alive and healthy, happy, even! But she wouldn’t be surprised by this book. In a lot of ways, this book is for her. Here you go, little friend.

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

I can’t end a book. Beginnings are natural, for me. I write linearly and I start at the start and, usually, the first scene of the first draft remains the first scene in the published book. A miracle. The end, though? I must’ve changed Thin Girls’ ending a hundred times. One iteration was just me killing every single character in a big fire because I was so sick of writing endings. That was not a proud moment. I apologised in the next draft. The eventual ending is more hopeful than I ever imagined it to be, and I think that hope, that flicker of maybe, is so important, but it still makes me wince to read. Do other writers experience this? If anyone teaches a class on ending a book, sign me up.

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

Big time! I’m every character. I feel divided and multiple pretty much always, and so writing fiction is the perfect outlet for that strange crowded feeling. There are so many selves in this book, but the characters are also more than me; they usually have just an essence of my personality in them. Rose is an idiot, for example, and Lily is often self-destructive. That’s all me. But the twins are more than their respective idiocy and unawareness, too, and this is where the fiction comes in. I play “a person who does X would also probably do X” with myself while I write. For example: a person who does yoga would also probably enjoy eating salad. Or, a person who is as self-destructive as Lily would also probably get into a dangerous relationship. I find it to be a really helpful character-building tool – a way to distance my characters from myself.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My friends and family. I take so much from the people in my life. Anecdotes and traits and mannerisms and speech patterns. I’m also super into trashy television. I like “good” TV too, but there’s something about bad reality shows that make me think hard about narrative and the ways in which we construct stories and characters and plot out of thin air. Reality TV tries to turn life into something that can be consumed in a few hours, and that’s what a novel does too. At least, for me.

Visit Diana Clarke's website.

My Book, The Movie: Thin Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue

Gennifer Choldenko

With more than 2 and a half million books sold, Gennifer Choldenko’s best known Tales from Alcatraz series, has been called “A cornerstone series in contemporary children’s literature.” Al Capone Does My Shirts—the first book in the series—was a Newbery Honor Book and the recipient of twenty other awards. All four books in the series were Junior Library Guild selections and garnered many starred reviews. Choldenko’s newest novel is Orphan Eleven. Publishers Weekly has said this about Orphan Eleven: “This uplifting tale of hope, survival and belonging has all the ingredients to become a beloved middle grade book.” Choldenko lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her loyal husband and naughty dog.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title Orphan Eleven is designed to work on two levels. The first level is to make a reader interested in opening the novel. Once you begin reading the book, the title operates like a puzzle. Orphan Eleven is not paid off until chapter 25 (of 36). But some readers may figure out why the book is named Orphan Eleven before this reveal. I like to think that both readers who guess and readers who don’t will feel an ah-hah moment once they understand the origin of the title.

My first draft of this novel was written in the voice of a secondary character named Nico. Then the book title was: The Con Man’s Apprentice. I love that title which made it into the final book as a chapter title. But when I changed viewpoint characters, it was no longer the right title for the book.

What's in a name?

Names are very important to me. I spent a really long time trying to figure out the name of the protagonist’s sister. But once I figured out her name was Dilly Sauvé, POW! she came into view with such clarity. A good name is like a good midwife bringing a character into the world for the author.

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

Of all of my books (16 published so far) I think my eleven-year-old self would be the least surprised by Orphan Eleven. That’s because so much of my eleven-year-old heart is in the main character: Lucy Sauvé. I just wish I could have read this book when I was a kid.

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

That’s like asking which foot do you wash more the right or the left? I change everything over and over and over again until that cosmic click tells me I’ve got it right. My license plate is REWRITZ, which gives you some indication of my process. That said though, I think endings are more challenging. It is very difficult to get an ending that really really works. But so very gratifying when you do. My best endings are for Al Capone Does My Shirts, Al Capone Throws Me a Curve and Orphan Eleven.

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

Every character I write -- antagonists, protagonists and walk-ons -- all share my DNA. They are created by my mind. My belief systems, imagination, experience, reading colors who they are. I’ve been married for many years, but my husband still can’t predict what I will say or do. That’s because there are so many different characters inside of me.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Because I’ve written one series: the Tales from Alcatraz, I do look closely at good series TV. The Sopranos, The Crown, Ozark, Breaking Bad all are terrific. And the growth and change of the characters is what makes them so good. For me, writing a series means managing the character arcs across all of the books. For Orphan Eleven which at this point is a stand alone, I made good use of cinematic cuts to make the ending more suspenseful.

Visit Gennifer Choldenko's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Gennifer Choldenko & Sasha.

--Marshal Zeringue

Brianna Wolfson

Brianna Wolfson is the author of Rosie Colored Glasses and the newly released That Summer in Maine.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title, That Summer in Maine, sets the stage for where the majority our story will take place, and suggests that Maine is a destination, not a home. The characters that occupy the stage, and the drama that will unfold, is left more to the imagination.

What's in a name?

The character that the plot revolves around is Eve. She is, almost above all else, naive and her naivete that leads to the inciting incident of the story. I think you can see where we are going here! This is definitely a reference to Eve, the first woman, who succumbs to the temptation to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In That Summer in Maine, Eve similarly succumbs to the temptation of knowledge; in her case, to explore her familiar roots by reuniting with her biological father.

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

Not at all! Two of the four primary characters are in their teens. That Summer in Maine is very much a story of daugtherhood and motherhood, and I envision, and hope, that teenagers and adults alike can see themselves in and empathize with these characters.

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

Endings. All great characters start with great flaws and the story is built on how the characters address those flaws.

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

My first novel, Rosie Colored Glasses, drew a lot from my personal story. This isn't as much the case with That Summer in Maine, but I always feel like my characters reflect parts of me (even the villains). With this novel specifically I wanted to explore the relationships between non-blood relatives because that has been a really important part of my upbringing.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My family is always a source of inspiration and story telling. I come from a rambunctious, feelings-forward, bunch, which I think is what allows me to take so many different perspectives in my writing.

Visit Brianna Wolfson's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nicola Maye Goldberg

Nicola Maye Goldberg is the author of Other Women (Sad Spell Press, 2016) and The Doll Factory (Dancing Girl Press, 2017). She lives in New York City.

Her new literary thriller is Nothing Can Hurt You. 

My Q&A with the author:

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

Quite a lot. It’s from Louise Gluck’s incredible poem “A Myth of Devotion” which I kept taped above my desk while I was writing the book. The phrase also appears in certain translations of Luke 10:19. It’s a promise many of the characters make to one another, which none of them are able to keep.

What's in a name?

For the name “Sara Morgan,” I wanted it to have the same number of syllables as “Laura Palmer,” who is sort of the dead white girl prototype in contemporary culture. But that’s more thought than typically goes into naming a character. Usually I just glance around at whatever books or magazines are on my desk and go from there.

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

Very! I was a scaredy-cat as a kid. I remember at a sleepover in high school, my friends and I watched Red Dragon, mistaking it for a Kung-Fu movie. I was miserable for a week. My interest in horror and mystery and true crime didn’t develop until college. I think if my teenage self read the description of Nothing Can Hurt You, she probably wouldn’t even want to read it.

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

Beginnings are super easy to write, but I almost always end up deleting them. Endings are a little harder. The stuff in the middle, of course, is what I spend the most time on.

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 so many characters in Nothing Can Hurt You, most of whom are demographically and psychologically very different from myself. That is partly a function of what I wanted to explore in the book – namely, the effect of violence on a community – and also a desire to experiment with throwing my voice, with writing authentically about people with whom I don’t have much in common. But of course no one see themselves clearly. It’s possible the characters I think have nothing to do with me are the ones I most resemble.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I watch a ton of television – I often have in on in the background while I’m writing – so that’s probably a big one, though it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how it influences me. And I have a playlist of spooky songs I liked to listen to while writing Nothing Can Hurt You. Lots of PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Okkervil River, Tom Waits.

Visit Nicola Maye Goldberg's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lesley Kara

Lesley Kara is an alumna of the Faber Academy “Writing a Novel” course. She lives on the North Essex coast. She is the author of The Rumor, a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller.

Her new novel is Who Did You Tell?

My Q&A with the author:

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

Who Did You Tell? was one of the first titles I thought of and luckily, my agent and editor liked it too. Psychological thrillers nearly always have a question at their heart and this title hints at a secret - a secret that’s been shared. It ties in with one of the key themes in the book and that’s addiction. The main character, Astrid, is a recovering alcoholic, who is forced to move back home with her mother. She is reluctantly attending AA meetings which are, by their very nature, confessional, so the title plays on this. What happens if the thing you are most ashamed of has been shared with the wrong person?

What’s in a name?

I wanted a name that reflected the unconventional, spiky nature of my protagonist. It’s no spoiler to tell you that her real name is Hilary, but as a teenager she thought that was far too bland, so she renamed herself Astrid which is, as she’ll tell you in Chapter 2, ‘a rebellious, rock-and-roll kind of name that carries a hint of the stars, a wildness.’ I think names in fiction are incredibly important – names of characters and names of settings, too. Who Did You Tell? is set in a fictional seaside town called Flinstead, on the east coast of England. It’s loosely based on the very real town where I live, but I didn’t want to be constrained by the actual geography of the place. I wanted to be free to play around with the setting and make it work for the novel.

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

As a teenager, I was a voracious reader. By the age of eleven, I’d already worked my way through the kind of books my parents kept on the top shelves. Didn’t they realise I could stand on a chair? Mario Puzo’s The Godfather and Peter Benchley’s Jaws were two of my favourites, with certain chapters particularly well-thumbed, so as a teenager I was more or less reading anything and everything I could get my hands on, from literary classics to bonkbusters, and then I discovered crime (the genre, I mean). So I think my teenage self would be absolutely delighted to read about Astrid’s murky past!

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

I always find it easier to write beginnings, and as soon as I discovered Astrid’s ‘voice’, the words just flowed. Astrid is a mass of contradictions: feisty and sarcastic on the one hand, but incredibly vulnerable on the other, and I hope the first chapter conveys that. I rewrote it countless times, because sometimes you have to find out what kind of story you’re writing before you know the exact place to start. The ending changed a few times as well, now I come to think of it.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Who Did You Tell? was loosely inspired by my experience of witnessing the effects of alcoholism in my own family, but as for writing in general, inspiration is everywhere. The germ for my first novel, The Rumor, was hearing a rumor myself. A notorious figure who’d committed a heinous crime as a young child was apparently living in my neighbourhood under a false identity. It probably wasn’t true, but it got me thinking about how rumors can escalate out of control and have all sorts of unintended consequences. The idea for my next novel, The Dare, which will be out next year, comes from a particular walk I used to go on with my best friend when were thirteen. In the novel, the walk ends badly, and one of the children dies. But thankfully, my friend and I are both still alive!

Visit Lesley Kara's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kimberly Belle

Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of six novels, including her latest domestic suspense, Stranger in the Lake (June 2020). Her third novel, The Marriage Lie, was a semifinalist in the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Mystery & Thriller, and a #1 e-book bestseller in the UK and Italy. She’s sold rights to her books in a dozen languages as well as film and television options. A graduate of Agnes Scott College, Belle divides her time between Atlanta and Amsterdam.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Six books in, and not one of my titles has ever stuck, so I’ve stopped spending energy thinking about what to call it until the story is finished. When I turned this one in, it was called “Book #6,” though admittedly, Stranger in the Lake is a much catchier title. An accurate one, too, since that’s how the story begins, with an unnamed woman floating in the lake behind my main character Charlotte’s home, in the same exact spot where her brand new husband’s first wife drowned. A coincidence? Maybe, but what the title also does is suggest that the stranger may not be a stranger at all—something that turns out to be true. Charlotte saw the woman talking to her husband the day before, even though he tells the police he’s never met the woman. His lie exposes cracks in their fragile new marriage, and it digs up dark secrets that have been simmering under the lake’s waters for years.

What’s in a name?

I have a running list of names that I pull from when naming a character, but it has to fit both the character and the story. I’ve been known to change a name halfway through because it didn’t feel right. Sometimes something as simple as a name change can really make a character come alive in my head.

In Stranger in the Lake, my main character’s name is actually a plot device. Charlotte is a woman who has married way, way up to a man much older and wealthier, and somewhere along the way, she traded in her given name—Charlie—for the more refined Charlotte. But the name change is not fooling anyone, and it makes the people in town think she’s uppity. In the end, Charlotte/Charlie will have to decide which person she wants to be.

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

I’m not sure she’d be surprised by the story as much as that I had written one. I’m not one of those writers who penned her first novel in crayon. I’ve always loved getting lost in a good book, but for the longest time it never occurred to me to actually write one. My first career was in nonprofit fundraising, and it definitely helped me hone my writing skills. Fundraising letters, website texts, scripts for meetings and events…I learned very quickly how to drill down to a powerful, poignant message that tugs at the heartstrings.

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

Beginnings and endings are the easy part for me, it’s the stuff in the middle that takes most of the time and effort. I write from an outline, but even the most detailed plans can go sideways once I get into the weeds of writing. Sometimes the pacing is off, or a character’s actions don’t fit their personality. Sometimes a character I didn’t plan for walks into a scene and has something essential to say. I always give myself room to rework the story as I’m writing, but my beginnings and endings rarely change.

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

I’d like to think I have Charlotte’s tough skin and that I share her sense of loyalty, but I’m not sure I could have survived everything she has. My research for this story taught me that far more people follow in their parents’ tragic footsteps than break the cycle like Charlotte did, and I can’t say for certain which side of the equation I would have fallen on. I do also share her architect husband’s drive, his innate desire to create beautiful things, but I think (hope?) that’s where the similarities between us end. I guess that’s the answer here, that like most authors I put little pieces of myself into every character—the good, the bad, the ugly. My characters are the best and the worst of me.

Visit Kimberly Belle's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dear Wife.

Writers Read: Kimberly Belle (July 2019).

--Marshal Zeringue

Jennifer Ryan

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Ryan lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three children. When she isn’t writing a book, she’s reading one. Her obsession with both is often revealed in the state of her home, and how late dinner is to the table. When she finally leaves those fictional worlds, you’ll find her in the garden, playing in the dirt and daydreaming about people who live only in her head, until she puts them on paper.

Ryan's new novel is Sisters and Secrets.

My Q&A with the author:

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

A lot! It basically conveys the major plot and tells you exactly the kind of story you’re getting.

For me, titles are hard. You want the reader passing by the shelf to see the title and think, “I want to read that.” It’s not always easy to come up with something that goes with the story really well. In this case, it did. But Sisters and Secrets wasn’t the original title. When I turned in the book, the title was The Silva Sisters Secrets. The publisher and I loved it. But the book distributor thought it was too fussy with all the s sounds, so I simplified it. I like the new title a lot better. It felt like that should have been the title all along.

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

The beginning is always the hardest part for me. I don’t outline. I usually know how the book opens, who my characters are in a general way, and I go from there.

I like to write from beginning to end. I spend time revising the beginning because it’s the set up for everything that follows. Once I have the beginning the way I want, I write to the end with very little revision until it’s finished. Then I do several rounds of edits adding in details and making sure there’s continuity.

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 pieces of me in every book. But I really relate to these sisters in different ways.

Sierra is the most like me. She’s the middle sister. So am I, though I have two brothers. She’s self-sufficient and very capable. Asking for help is not her way, because she feels like she can do it all. I’ve always been that way.

Amy is a bit neurotic and a perfectionist. I’m a little bit of this, but not as much as Amy. I get her desire to make her family happy by giving them a nice home life and being the best mom she can be. I don’t go overboard like Amy does, which actually makes her family resent her a bit. My kids would probably say I tend to get lost in books and ignore them – but they get that about me. And I make them brownies to make up for it.

Heather is a free spirit who leans toward being selfish. She’s more a combination of people I know, who justify their actions for lots of reasons even when they hurt others.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I find a lot of inspiration in country music, TV, and movies. People watching is a lot of fun for me. I like to make up stories about people I see doing things in real life.

Visit Jennifer Ryan's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elle Cosimano

Elle Cosimano's debut thriller, Nearly Gone, was an Edgar Award finalist, won the International Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel, and was awarded the Mathical Book Award recognizing mathematics in children’s literature. Her novel Holding Smoke was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award and the International Thriller Award. Her books for young adults have appeared on several statewide school and library reading lists.

Cosimano's new novel is Seasons of the Storm.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The original working title for this book was When We Wake, but the entire team (myself, my agent, and my editor) felt this title was too soft for this story. This is a tale of adventure—a story of forbidden love and rebellion, featuring high-speed chases and high-stakes battles. We needed a title that hinted at the danger of the world and the urgency of the plot. My publisher came up with Seasons of the Storm, and we all immediately agreed the title was perfectly suited to its task.

What's in a name?

Names play a critical role in Seasons of the Storm. Each character’s name is self-chosen, reflecting their new identity once they are turned from humans into the immortal embodiments of their assigned season on earth. The Seasons each possess a specific elemental magic, and they are grouped by their creators to live with others of the same nature in order to foster competition between those that are different. My main character is a Winter named Jack Sommers. His chosen name not only hints at his elemental magic (a nod to Jack Frost), but also reveals a glimmer of his defiant personality—a character trait that drives him to rebel against his creators when he falls in love with a Spring he’s forbidden to be with.

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

As much as I loved writing as a teen, I never imagined writing as a career. In my mind, novelists were celebrities, lumped together in the same box with actors and film producers and famous musicians. I never would have dreamed it could be possible to become published at all. So if anyone had told teen-me that Seasons of the Storm—the kind of high-stakes, magical urban fantasy I would have loved reading as a teen—would become my fifth published novel (with three more on the way), this would have been a mind-blowing revelation for me.

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

I struggle most often with beginnings. The perfect opening line, the gripping set up of an opening scene ... these are always the most challenging parts of any story for me. When revising, more often than not, I am rewriting entire chunks of the earlier chapters, making sure I’ve laid the groundwork for the rest of the story. On the other hand, endings have always come easily for me. Maybe it’s the mystery novelist in me, but there’s nothing I find more gratifying than braiding all the loose threads together into show-stopping reveals and a satisfying conclusion. My beginnings tend to be slower, taking time to build, the stories usually picking up speed as they race, tires squealing, toward nail-biting finishes.

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 elements of my own self in every one of my characters—my heroes, my secondary characters, and even my villains. I have to feel some degree of connection with each of them in order to write them, to understand their motivations, needs, and goals. Sometimes, this means exploring parts of my own teen experiences—both joyful and painful. Often, it means tapping into the deepest, quirkiest parts of myself, and finding the universal truths in them so I can project those truths into my characters. We’ve all experienced loneliness, loss, love, betrayal, rejection, and desire. Hints of my own triumphs and scars are often written into the hearts of my characters.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I derive a lot of inspiration from music. Every book I’ve written has been created to a running playlist of songs that put me in a specific mood or headspace to create that singular story. The playlist for Seasons of the Storm was particularly special in that each character became a Season at a different point in time, and their musical tastes reflect their unique generation. For instance, Julio Verano was a surfer from southern California in the 1980s when he became a Summer. His counterpart, Amber Chase, became an Autumn in the wake of Woodstock in the late 1960s, and the songs that imprinted on her heart were very different from Julio’s or Jack’s. I found myself creating vastly different playlists for each Season, and those playlists kept me grounded in the heads and hearts of each character.

Visit Elle Cosimano's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Meghan Holloway

Meghan Holloway found her first Nancy Drew mystery in a sun-dappled attic at the age of eight and subsequently fell in love with the grip and tautness of a well-told mystery. She flew an airplane before she learned how to drive a car, did her undergrad work in Creative Writing in the sweltering south, and finished a Masters of Library and Information Science in the blustery north. She spent a summer and fall in Maine picking peaches and apples, traveled the world for a few years, and did a stint fighting crime in the records section of a police department.

She now lives in the foothills of the Appalachians with her standard poodle and spends her days as a scientist with the requisite glasses but minus the lab coat.

Holloway's new novel is Hunting Ground.

My Q&A with the author:

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

At this point in my career, I still come up with my own titles, and I am very strategic about my choices. My titles convey a clue about the plot and the character’s position in the story with the title.

The three protagonists in this story find themselves ensnared in the same trap. Hunting Ground is a blunt introduction to the fact that my story centers around predator and prey, and how, at times, those roles can be fluid.

What's in a name?

Names are important, and when I’m coming up with characters, I often choose a name that reflects something about each individual, whether in relation to themselves or another character’s view of them.

Obsession is the driving motivation of all three characters, but I think you see that most clearly and in the most twisted sense with Jeff, the serial killer. He is the character who is most at home in his compulsion, the most self aware, and I went with a touch of irony, as the meaning of his name is “peaceful.”

The name Evelyn means “desired, wished for,” and the character herself represents an embodiment of perfection for Jeff. Just why and how she represents that, you’ll have to discover for yourself.

Justice has been far out of reach for Hector. With his character, I wanted to explore how prolonged grief and a lack of closure can warp a man’s psyche. Homer’s Hector is the classic hero of the Iliad, courageous and honorable. My Hector is the antithesis of that. He is bitter, manipulative, and driven by vengeance.

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

Beginnings are more challenging for me, and I find they also change the most throughout the course of my revisions. I usually have the ending in mind when I start writing, but it takes me several drafts to find the perfect first chapter hook for the reader.

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

I do not think an author can ever write in a vacuum where their own personality, outlook, and experience does not influenced their stories. None of my characters are autobiographical. However, my experience from working in the records department of a police station for several years influenced how I portrayed the police and the justice system. My own work in a museum archive during grad school was the inspiration for Evelyn’s career in the story, and Yellowstone National Park is one of my favorite places to visit in the states. So pieces of me do show up in the novel, but not a direct translation of me in any character.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

When I was writing this book and the two subsequent novels, I watched the ID channel most evenings. Investigation Discovery covers true crime stories in loose documentary style across the channel’s variety of shows. Writing a series that is so chilling and gritty, I needed to stay deep in the dark labyrinth of human nature. I found the best way to do that was to continually dose myself with stories of the appalling crimes humans commit against one another. A little grim, but effective.

Visit Meghan Holloway's website, and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lisa Braxton

Lisa Braxton is an essayist, short story writer, and novelist. She earned her MFA in creative writing from Southern New Hampshire University, her Master of Science in Journalism Broadcasting from Northwestern University and her Bachelor of Arts in Mass Media from Hampton University.

Braxton's debut novel is The Talking Drum.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I chose a title that I thought was intriguing and as it turns out, my readers think so as well. On their face, the words “Talking” and “Drum” seem like an odd combination. It’s counterintuitive to think that a drum can talk. The title makes people curious as to what a “talking drum” is. People with a vague understanding of drumming have come close to guessing correctly, but they still aren't sure. Their questions about the title lead to a fun conversation that I always end with, “If you want to know the meaning of “The Talking Drum,” you’ll have to read the book.” My title does a highly effective job of piquing curiosity. Once readers get into the story they can follow the breadcrumbs to find out the full meaning of “The Talking Drum.”

What's in a name?

I gave the character who co-owns the bookstore with his wife the name Malachi, after Malachi in the Bible. The Biblical Malachi was a prophet in the Old Testament and the writer of the Book of Malachi. In The Talking Drum, Malachi is a prophet in the sense that he announces what the future will be for the bookstore he and Sydney are opening. He is not a writer, but an academic who leaves academia and starts of business centering on books to educate the general public.

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

She would be very surprised. When I was a teenager, I knew that I wanted to become a novelist but at that age I had no idea the themes I would explore. My teenage self would be surprised and awed that I’d written such a thought-provoking, timely, and socially relevant work of fiction.

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 a lot of myself in my character Sydney, Malachi’s wife. Sydney is a suburban girl. She’s not too comfortable in the gritty environment she’s moved to with her husband. She grew up pampered. Her parents provided her with horseback riding lessons, European travel, private schooling. She loves learning, studied print journalism and photojournalism and is in law school on a fellowship. She wants very much to make her young marriage work and is struggling to find her voice in the relationship. She’s searching for her footing. She needs to learn to be assertive. I can identify with most of Sydney’s feelings and personality.

Visit Lisa Braxton's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Talking Drum.

--Marshal Zeringue

Margaux DeRoux

Margaux DeRoux was born in Juneau, Alaska. Before turning to fiction she was a waitress, a teacher, and a marketer. She now lives in California with her husband and daughter.

Her new novel is The Lost Diary of Venice.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My title, The Lost Diary of Venice, includes several key elements of the story: the book is a dual-narrative, with one plot-line set in Renaissance Venice, the other in modern-day Connecticut, and a diary links both time-periods together. The novel was inspired by a treatise I’d discovered, written by a sixteenth-century artist who was going blind. I’d initially titled the book The Science of Shadows, after a line in his text. My agent and editor, however, both felt that this was a bit too dark, and didn’t convey the romantic qualities of the novel. I agree, and am so happy they helped me come up with a title that’s a much better fit for a historical-fiction romance!

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

My teenage self would not be surprised at all by the fact that I wrote a novel! I was very creative in High School, and actually got in quite a lot of trouble for skipping class to paint and write and make short films—all of which centered on themes of love, loss, and the struggle to find one’s place in the world. As an adult, though, I put my creativity aside for a long time. I thought I needed to find “a real job.” Eventually, I realized that I would never feel truly alive unless I was expressing myself creatively.

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

With a dual-narrative, the ending is particularly challenging: as the book progresses, the stories intertwine and influence one another. There are two sets of loose threads, and they need to be tied up in a way that makes the novel feel like a cohesive whole. On top of this, I personally always want to create endings that are satisfying—but aren’t what a reader might anticipate. With romance in particular, I think it’s important to reflect the way that love can surprise us, how our hearts can change and soften in unexpected ways.

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

I think aspects of self surface always surface in one’s writing, if not consciously, then subconsciously. One character in my novel is an introvert and a bookworm, another is an artist—all qualities I can claim. The love stories in each time-period are bittersweet, and reflect my own past experiences.

At the same time, writing also offers us the chance to explore perspectives other than our own. The villain in my novel is a zealot, for example—to craft him, I drew upon interactions I’ve had with religious extremists. Yet whether they’re living five hundred years ago or today, every character is subject to the constancy of human nature, and our eternal quest for love and fulfillment.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Music influences me greatly. I naturally find myself listening to different types of music when writing different characters; for me, music is transportive, and changing artists helps me shift perspectives. I often wonder what other authors listen to when they write—I’d love it if books included soundtracks!

Follow Margaux DeRoux on Twitter.

--Marshal Zeringue

Hannah Mary McKinnon

Hannah Mary McKinnon was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and moved to Canada in 2010. After a successful career in recruitment, she quit the corporate world in favor of writing. She now lives in Oakville, Ontario, with her husband and three sons, and is delighted by her twenty-second commute.

Her new novel is Sister Dear.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Sister Dear does a great job of giving the reader a sense that something ominous is looming. If you flipped the words to Dear Sister, one might think it’s a memoir or a love-letter of sorts to a sibling. However, Sister Dear gives it a slightly creepy undercurrent, the indication that all isn’t quite right, which is exactly the case in Eleanor’s life right from Chapter 1.

What's in a name?

I chose Eleanor as my protagonist’s name because I liked the sound of it. It’s elegant, but perhaps unassumingly so, which fits fictional Eleanor exceedingly well. It really was that simple.

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

My teenage reader self wouldn’t be surprised by Sister Dear. I loved reading thrillers and crime fiction when I was younger, too, so my writing psychological suspense isn’t much of a stretch in that sense. However, my teenage self might be surprised I chose to pit fictional siblings against one another. After all, my sister and I get along very well.

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

The beginning is typically harder for me because it means starting with a blank document. When I get to the ending, I have the rest of the story – the characters, their motivations, the build-up – behind me. I’ve often swapped out the first chapter for another or changed it completely. For my first novel I kept trying to write Chapter 1 and failed so many times, I inserted a page break and jumped into Chapter 2, and the words flowed because there seemed to be far less pressure. I didn’t write Chapter 1 until I’d finished the first draft of the novel, and even then it changed again.

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

There may be a few things here and there, little details I sprinkle in, but I’m writing fiction, not an autobiography. As an author it’s my job to make things up, to create these characters that seem and feel real to the reader. Frankly, I think if I based the characters on myself the books would end up rather boring, not to mention sounding the same!

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I love watching movies – especially at the cinema where the trailers are my favourite part. I think film in general has had a huge impact on me. I often describe on the page what I see in my head, as if I were watching my novel unfold on screen. Visualising things helps immensely with conveying descriptions and emotions via my characters to my readers.

Visit Hannah Mary McKinnon's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kelly McWilliams

Photo Credit: Black Forest Photography

Kelly McWilliams is a mixed-race writer who has always gravitated towards stories about crossing boundaries and forging new identities. For this and so many other reasons, young adult literature will always be close to her heart. Her novel, Agnes at the End of the World, benefited from a We Need Diverse Books Mentorship.

McWilliams has loved crafting stories all her life, and her very first novel, Doormat, was published when she was just fifteen-years old. She has also worked as a staff writer for Romper, covering issues important to women and families. She lives in Colorado with her partner and young daughter.

McWilliams applied the Page 69 Test to Agnes at the End of the World and reported the following:

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

My title, Agnes at the End of the World, makes the novel’s stakes clear from the get-go—this is a story about a girl standing on the edge of a cliff, which just happens to be the collapse of society as the result of a terrible pandemic.

But the title has metaphorical resonance, too. Raised in a doomsday cult, Agnes has been anticipating the apocalypse for her entire life. But Agnes’s world doesn’t end in fire and brimstone, as the controlling Prophet of Red Creek predicted. Ultimately, her world ends in ways she never could’ve anticipated—and it ends twice: First, when she must leave her family and everything she’s ever known behind in order to save her brother’s life; then again, when she discovers the Outside world is facing down a near-apocalypse—a real one.

What's in a name?

“Agnes” is an old-fashioned name, meant to convey the fact that Agnes herself comes from a strange community that exists slightly outside time. It’s also a name that shouldn’t be beautiful—all those consonants packed into the middle!—yet somehow, rolls off the tongue. As a character, Agnes is as unexpected and surprising as her name.

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

I grew up reading dystopian and apocalyptic fiction, especially the dark, edgy, socially conscious kind. My favorite book for many years was Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower—I also loved On the Beach by Nevil Shute, Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien, and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

If I could travel back in time, I’d absolutely drop Agnes at the End of the World off at the doorstep of my teenaged self (with clear instructions to prevent time travel paradoxes, of course). I think past-Kelly would really enjoy this feminist, apocalyptic tale!

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

Beginnings are definitely challenging to write. Ultimately, however, writing the ending of my novel felt more intense. Endings are crucial, because they’re what leave readers with a lasting impression of the work as a whole. I went back and forth on whether my protagonist would live or die at the end (no spoilers here, so I won't say any more!). I toggled between the bittersweet, the tragic, and the hopeful for months before I decided Agnes’s fate.

I’ll never forget the river I cried when I wrote the last scene for the final time—I just knew in my bones that I’d finally gotten it right. At long last, I’d found the missing puzzle piece, the perfect fit.

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

Agnes at the End of the World is a novel narrated from the perspective of two sisters, but that wasn’t always true! It used to be Agnes’s story alone.

I was pregnant with my daughter when I first conceived the premise of this book, and of Agnes, who must choose between remaining in the only world she’s ever known and saving her baby brother’s life.

Agnes is in many ways my ideal self—a selfless caregiver, steadfast in her beliefs. But in my second draft, I decided to explore the perspective of her younger sister, Beth, who represents another, more shadowy side of myself. Beth is occasionally selfish, petty, and needy—but also fun to be around. Agnes is a superhero, but Beth cares more about kissing boys and wearing makeup (despite the strict rules of her oppressive society) than about saving the world. Beth is relatable, and her desires are recognizable to anyone who’s ever been a teenaged girl.

Agnes and Beth play foils in the novel; but they also represent my own dual selfhood, I believe—the ideal and the real.

Visit Kelly McWilliams's website.

The Page 69 Test: Agnes at the End of the World.

--Marshal Zeringue

James Wade

James Wade is an award-winning fiction author with twenty short stories published in various literary journals and magazines. His debut novel is All Things Left Wild.

Wade spent five years as a journalist, before serving as a legislative director at the Texas State Capitol during the 83rd Legislative Session. He also worked as a lobbyist on behalf of water conservation in Texas.

Wade lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Jordan. He is an active member of the Writers' League of Texas.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I hope it sets a certain tone or vibe. It's easy to make the connection between "wild" and the setting of mountains and desert. Also there's something to be said for the "wildness" of many of the characters, of the hearts of men, etc. But the real inspiration behind the title came from the novel's origin story. I was standing in the desert outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico, and I was marveling at the untouched look of the landscape. I began to feel guilty for leaving my own footprints in this place. But when I turned back I saw that the wind had blown my footprints away. In that moment I realized this land was not untouched. Of course not. Entire civilizations had risen and fallen away. Native Americans, Spaniards, Ranchers, Oilmen, and plenty of other footprints had been blown away, and each of their stories blown away. What is truly left wild are the stories we'll never hear about the people we'll never know. We all believe our own story to be have some cosmic centering, but it doesn't. We're just stardust.

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

I imagine my teenage self would be quite staggered by the novel. I spent my teenage years learning all I could about journalism, inverted pyramids, and effective researching. When I did read fiction it was often classic literature or poetry from the Romantics. A gritty western set against the perils of mortality and morality was not something I could have envisioned at the time.

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

I have written endless beginnings. The start of a story is perhaps my single favorite part of writing. Infinite possibilities. The project has not yet been muddled by self-doubt, second-guessing, and the anxiousness that inevitably sets in around 50-60,000 words. Because of this, I change the beginning the most often. I want to get it just right. To pick from all of the options the absolute best beginning there can be. But with each page written, the ending becomes more narrow, more realized. Eventually the story is taken to a place where there can be only one ending (much like life). So it becomes then that the ending is the easier section to write. There are not infinite possibilities, there is only 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 see plenty of myself, good and bad, in my characters. Much of the philosophical conversation between characters is simply mirroring internal dialogues I've had regarding love, purpose, religion, etc. For this novel, I wanted to explore the similarities when it came to the internal struggles faced by folks in the early 1900s, despite the stark differences of time and place. They are, in a way, a world apart; and yet we share so many qualities (positive and negative), that it becomes easy to imagine ourselves dealing with the same problematic ideals about death, about family, and about how we puzzle out the differences between right and wrong.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My wife and I lived in a small travel trailer for two years, camping off-grid in some of the United States' most arresting landscapes. Being exposed to such geological beauty for such an extended period of time has certainly played a part in the setting of my stories, as well as the lyricism of some of the work. Philosophy has also gripped me in a way that turns other interests toward it. I worked in journalism and then in politics throughout my 20s, and having that experience has helped inform many of my personal philosophies over time. Philosophies which then play out in the narrative of the book. For me, there are far more questions than answers come upon. There's a certain humility in acknowledging that, or even embracing it. I believe quality literature raises questions, and perhaps hints at answers, but doesn't lecture or preach.

Visit James Wade's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Holly Miller

Holly Miller works as a copywriter and lives in Norfolk, England.

The Sight of You is her American debut.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My title The Sight Of You actually took quite a while to come up with. My working title for the book was As Long As It’s Love, but the publishers felt that might make the book sound more light-hearted than it actually is. (It’s not what I’d call a ‘heavy’ read – I’d say it’s actually quite uplifting – but there are parts where you might need some tissues handy, and it was felt the original title didn’t quite reflect that.) But The Sight Of You feels perfect, because the book is all about what Joel sees when he dreams, and the moment when he first sees Callie – as well as moments after that when seeing her becomes heart-rending and significant.

What's in a name?

I find it quite tricky to name characters – the ones that spring to mind always seem to belong to people I know! – but for Joel and Callie I definitely wanted names that, although they aren’t exactly unusual, would stick in the reader’s mind. I spend a long time when I’m naming all the different characters in a book making sure they all start with as many different letters as possible, and contain varying numbers of syllables – it’s quite time-consuming!

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

I’ve dreamed of being a writer since I was tiny – so I think my teenage reader self would be beside herself with joy! I don’t think she’d be surprised by the fact I’ve written a love story – they were always the books I was drawn to when I was younger, and are still the books I turn to now by default. Although my tastes have widened as I’ve got older, love stories are my mainstay!

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

I’d say beginnings are tougher. I generally find the ending comes naturally, as after tens of thousands of words I’m so familiar with my characters and the journey they’re on. Although a beginning is normally not too hard to draft, it’s the refining and perfecting that I find challenging, as I’m so conscious that these will be the first words a reader flips through in a bookshop or previews on Amazon, and for that reason I want them to be exactly right. I agonize over every single word.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Films and TV, without a doubt. I find an engaging script as exciting as any book – and I hope that being an avid film and TV fan has helped to hone my ear for dialogue over the years. Strong characterisation and a pithy script win me over every time – the genre doesn’t really matter (although I do confess I steer clear of horror and gore). I also find watching TV and films helps me to relax after a hard day’s writing – but I like to think I’m absorbing all the great dialogue, plots and premises while I’ve got my feet up!

Visit Holly Miller's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mamta Chaudhry

Mamta Chaudhry lives with her husband in Coral Gables, Florida, and they spend part of each year in India and in France. Much of her professional career was in television and classical radio at stations in Calcutta, Gainesville, Dallas, and Miami. Chaudry has studied with Marilynne Robinson and has also taught literature and creative writing at the University of Miami. Her early fiction, poetry, and feature articles have been published in newspapers and magazines in the States and in India. She is currently working on a second novel.

My Q&A with the author about her debut novel, Haunting Paris:

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

Of all the thousands of words I wrote and rewrote, the only two that survived the long publishing journey intact were the words Haunting Paris. I think it’s because everyone (including my editor, the legendary Nan Talese) felt that the title perfectly evoked both the subject and the atmosphere of the novel.

Paris is not just the setting, but also very much a character in the story; the City of Light is at once hauntingly beautiful and haunted by the ghosts of the past. One of the ghosts is the narrator, who returns to the place he called home, summoned by the woman he loved and by unfinished business while he was alive.

What's in a name?

That’s another thing that didn't change along the way—the names of the main characters: Julien and the women he loved: Clara, Isabelle, and Sylvie. I wanted names that were very French, yet had a slightly old-world flavor.

Julien’s name has a particular resonance: a substantial portion of the book’s drafts dealt with the Roman occupation of Paris, when Julianus was crowned emperor. That whole part of the story was completely excised from the finished version; all that remains, like a shard of pottery from an archeological dig, is the name.

As for Isabelle and Sylvie, I thought I picked the names for the sound, but a Frenchwoman pointed out that they were a perfect marker of their different classes as well, so that was probably there in my subconscious, where we make so many of our important writerly choices.

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

Oh, definitely beginnings. I wish I were the kind of writer who has the whole story outlined from the first line to the last. I set out on a journey of discovery with no roadmap in hand, and only a few flares set off in the dark. But however many detours and digressions the path takes, I see when I reach the end that it has been leading me ineluctably to this destination.

When Sylvie accidentally dislodges a hidden letter from Julien’s desk and sets out on a quest to discover the secrets of his past, I am writing to find out what she discovers. If I knew all along, I don’t think I would be as impelled to write the story.

And then, looking back, I can see exactly how the book should begin, in order to end where it does. It’s not the most efficient way of writing, but for me it’s part of the excitement of telling the story.

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

Well, unlike my narrator, I’m not French, not Jewish, neither man nor ghost. So it would seem that he and I are worlds apart in every possible way. But writing is such an act of imaginative empathy that you not only see yourself in the character, you become the character. I could hear Julien's voice so clearly in my head, it was as if I myself were speaking when I wrote his words on the page. That is the best kind of haunting, a literary haunting.

I love all the characters I create, whether it is Sylvie, whom it is easy to ignore until she reveals herself through her music, or Isabelle, whom it is easy to admire, but hard to like.

There are stray fragments of myself dispersed across all the characters—a love of music, a love of Shakespeare, the sense of being an outsider—but not one of them is autobiographical in any meaningful way. Except in that most meaningful of ways, that we all partake of love, loss, and yearning. It is our essential human condition.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Without question, music. More specifically, classical music. I used to be an announcer and music director at various classical music stations and if I had a shred of musical talent, I would have wanted to be a concert pianist. But I don’t. So instead, I have a main character who is a gifted pianist and music permeates the book, creating a soundtrack for the city of Paris.

My instrument is language, so I am very attentive to rhythm and tone and cadence. I want to tell a compelling story, but I want to tell it in a way that continues to resonate for readers long after they have finished the book.

Visit Mamta Chaudhry's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

David Philip Mullins

David Philip Mullins is the author of The Brightest Place in the World, a novel, and Greetings from Below, a story collection that won both the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction and the International Walter Scott Prize for Short Stories.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I believe a good title grabs a reader’s attention without being too directive. I.e., I want a title to be interesting, compelling, poetic, maybe even a little flashy, and I want it to point to something in the novel. I want it to have subtext—layers and depth. But I don’t want the title to give away the story, or anything about it. A title that’s too on-the-nose is a bad title, no matter how poetic and interesting it may be. The Brightest Place in the World is a bit of a triple entendre, and it has that flashiness I referred to, or I hope it does. It points to the chemical-plant explosion that opens the narrative, but also to the city of Las Vegas—where most of the novel is set—which is in fact the brightest place in the world, from space, at night. The title also points to the ending of the novel, which I intended to be hopeful: bright.

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

My teenage reader self wouldn’t be very surprised by The Brightest Place in the World, I don’t imagine. The novel is based, very loosely, on the PEPCON explosions of May 4th, 1988. PEPCON was a plant in the Nevada desert that manufactured ammonium perchlorate for the Space Shuttle program and the military, and my father was an engineer there in the 1980s. He was at the plant when it exploded—when it was leveled. Luckily, he escaped. I was in eighth grade at the time. The experience had a profound, lasting impact on me, and I wanted to write about it for many, many years—especially when I began writing, at the age of seventeen.

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

I find it much harder to write endings. Beginnings almost always, for both novels and short stories, come easily for me, and they’re fun to write—like starting a race. Endings are tough, like the final half-mile of a 10K. You’re beat, you’re exhausted. You’re out of juice. But somehow you have to cross the finish line. While my beginnings don’t change much, not often, my endings usually change over and over and over, until they’re just right. I throw them away, one after another, whereas beginnings I tend to only tinker with over time.

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 a little of myself in nearly all of my characters—and of course some characters contain much more of me than others. I don’t consciously infuse my characters with aspects of my life or my personality; it happens invariably. I doubt it can be avoided. I think most fiction writers would agree, if they’re being honest. This composite approach to building characters is what gives a work of fiction its soul, I believe. It’s what gives the work its stamp, if you will, its trademark. It’s what makes a story personal and meaningful to the author. Otherwise, the story risks being nothing more—for its creator, at least—than an assemblage of words.

Visit David Philip Mullins's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Brightest Place in the World.

--Marshal Zeringue

Colin Cotterill

Colin Cotterill, author of the Dr. Siri Paiboun series, lives in Chumphon, Thailand, with his wife. His books have been Book Sense Picks, and he won the Dilys Award for Thirty-Three Teeth as well as a Crime Writers’ Association Library Dagger.

Cotterill's new novel is The Delightful Life of a Suicide Pilot.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I always started with a title. In fact, I couldn’t start writing the story until I visualized the front cover of the book. This was one of the puzzles I set myself: no matter how ridiculous my title I enjoyed the task of making it fit. The Delightful Life of a Suicide Pilot came to me early in the series and it was quite a while before I typed it onto the first empty page of my last novel. Your title is the red light in front of the bordello. There are a lot of bordellos offering pretty much the same service, so your light has to be the brightest with a bit of a flash.

What's in a name? (Why did you decide to name your main character Siri?)

Well, firstly, I have to point out that I had Siri in print before he joined the corporate world with Apple. It was the name of a good friend in Laos who experienced one or two catastrophic domestic disasters during my stay in Vientiane. Naming the character after him was a gesture of support and thanks for his kindness to me. I’d like to think the newfound fame in the IT world contributed to a sales bump but it doesn’t look like it did.

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

My teenage reader self wouldn’t have read the book in the first place. He was too busy playing sports and chasing girls to waste time in lockdown with a book. If we’d sat down a slightly older Colin and ordered him to at least take a stab at the latest novel, I think we might have drawn him into the plot because he was a sucker for adventure and solving mysteries and The Delightful Life of a Suicide Pilot is awash with thrills and secrets and hidden clues. There’s that, plus the fact he’d learn some things about the second world war that few people knew. It wasn’t a well-known fact that Japan occupied Laos for example. And young Colin liked war stories. Would he be surprised about anything? Perhaps by the fact that he became a writer. It had never been on his bucket list.

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

Beginnings tended to arrive as soon as I sat down with my pen and my glass of red. Endings were sometimes there waiting for me after juggling plotlines and fixing missteps for a month. If I’d been clever enough to tie up all the loose ends by the last chapter I’d charge ahead into the epilogue. If not, I’d turn around and try to find the places in the text that had tripped me up and didn’t make sense. Once they were fixed, I’d take a second or third run at the finale. You can feel it, that smooth drive to the end when all the traffic lights are green.

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

I’ve told people that Dr. Siri was the person I’d hope to become when I reached my seventies. He isn’t afraid to complain or criticize, not traits that sit well in a socialist state. He’s ornery and cantankerous but generous to a fault and, despite all the hardships, he’s maintained his sense of humour. He’s open about love and relationships. I’m 67 so I haven’t got much time to iron out the faults before I become Dr. Siri.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I’ve always been a cartoonist/illustrator rather than a writer. I grew up with Mad Magazine and comics so my version of the world was always visual. I saw scenes. I moved on to cinema which served to hone my visual senses. So, when I started writing I was aided by the fact that I could see the stories on the wide screen of my imagination before I started to write them down. All I had to do was sit back and describe what I was witnessing. Not sure if that’s cheating or not.

Learn more about the book and author at Colin Cotterill's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Delightful Life of a Suicide Pilot.

--Marshal Zeringue