Eliza Nellums

Raised in the Detroit suburbs, Eliza Nellums now lives with her cat in Washington DC.

Her debut novel is All That's Bright and Gone.

Nellums's new novel is The Bone Cay.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Well, "the bone cay" is said to be the original name for Key West (Cayo Hueso - "West" was probably a misunderstanding of the Spanish word for bones, back when the island was used for fishing) so I think it establishes the location and also the tone, since the book is a thriller. I would have preferred to spell it "key" so that you get another pun - as there is literally a skeleton in the book that becomes part of a larger mystery - but that wouldn't be an original title, and I think this works too.

What's in a name?

I usually put a lot of thought into names, but in this case Magda Trudell presented itself to me. Part of her backstory is that she's not from Key West herself - her family is from almost the opposite place, a town called Ishpeming in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (I grew up in Michigan so it creeps into a lot of my work; my previous book was set outside of Detroit). That is in part because I didn't think a native would underestimate a hurricane the way Madga does! Ishpeming is famous for a mine disaster and Trudell is a real name associated with miners from that incident.

For her first name, in the book it says that her artistic father named her for paintings of "Magdalena with a lamp," which is a classic motif of memento mori - usually, it's a woman sitting with a skull in the semidarkness. That imagery was meaningful to me for this book, in which a woman makes a suicidal choice out of obsession with her dead idol (the poet whose estate she refuses to abandon in a hurricane). I wanted a strong name for this character, who is very driven and focused throughout the book. The poet's name, Isobel, is much softer and more romantic.

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

This one I think more so than the last. The book is very atmospheric and focuses a lot on the setting - it's almost gothic, actually, because it's this historic estate, a poet who killed herself 100 years ago, and a catastrophic storm. I had never been South as a child so I don't think I would have known then how much I would come to love the landscape and culture. But to be fair, the part where the main character is really stubborn and doesn't listen to anyone does still sound like me both then and now!

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

I always end up changing the beginning to make sure there's more action already happening when we start, so we're being dropped into something that's been going on for a long time. I usually start a book with an idea for the ending - this book I definitely did - and it doesn't usually change unless someone else makes me change it. But in terms of what is 'hardest' to write, that's definitely the middle for me. The beginning isn't difficult because I'm excited to start and I know I can fix it later, but there's usually a point where the story starts to feel like it's dragging and the bloom is off the rose for me as the author. I don't know if other authors struggle with this, but as a mystery writer since I do know the "solution" all along, it can feel like we're just playing for time before the big reveal. I try to mix it up at that point; switch locations, bring in new characters, pull a big plot twist - anything to keep it fresh! I love to write the ending I've been waiting for the whole time. That's truly a joy. I'm not allowed to skip ahead, I have to write the entire draft in order to earn that ending scene.

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

I thought it was funny that a few editors called Magda "chilly" or said she was unlikeable - I did not set out to write an unlikeable female character! I hope her passion, for history, for the house and gardens, and later for staying alive, allows us to relate to her even if she's not exactly a warm and fuzzy person. She's had a difficult past and is very focused on her work. I don't think that people would particularly describe me that way, but I can certainly be obsessive. I think writers in general tend to be, because we turn ideas over and over for years in our minds - or at least I do. And of course, Magda loves reading and words, which I do as well.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

In this case there was a very direct inspiration, which was when Hurricane Irma was forecast to hit Key West in September 2017. The caretakers of the Hemingway House announced that they would not be evacuating and would stay in the house throughout the storm. I was really struck by that and wondered what would cause someone to make that choice, because at the time it looked like the entire chain of islands might end up under water. That was really the inspiration of this book, and then I just started spinning my own imagination out for this character, this fictional estate, and everything that happened in the storm itself. I was very lucky to be able to visit the Hemingway house the year after Irma and talk to some of the folks who stayed. Of course, it was nothing at all like I had imagined! Real life so rarely is.

Visit Eliza Nellums's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Bone Cay.

--Marshal Zeringue