Tuesday, June 28, 2022

John Vercher

John Vercher lives in the Philadelphia area with his wife and two sons. He has a Bachelor’s in English from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Mountainview Master of Fine Arts program. He is a contributing writer for WBUR Boston’s Cognoscenti, and NPR features his essays on race, identity, and parenting. His debut novel, Three-Fifths, was named one of the best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune, CrimeReads, and Booklist. It was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Strand Magazine Critics’ Awards for Best First Novel.

Vercher's new novel is After the Lights Go Out.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Speaking only regarding my own personal preferences, I’d say titles matter for both active and potential readers (as well as writers). As a writer, I love the process of coming up with a title that engages a reader’s curiosity, especially a title that doesn’t quite have its meaning revealed by the back cover copy. It’s fun to imagine the feeling of discovery when they encounter a passage or line that reveals the title’s importance to the novel. It’s fun to imagine this because it’s enjoyable for me as a reader to experience as well. It can be tempting to make the title gimmicky, so to that end I strive to keep the title relevant to the overall themes of the book and perhaps doing the work of hinting at the book’s conclusion. In the case of After the Lights Go Out, I hope I accomplished those things.

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

For me, beginnings and endings are actually easier than the middle. In the great plotter vs. pantser debate, I’m pretty firmly in the pantser camp. That said, I only sit down to write when I’ve figured out both the beginning and the end. The middle is the most challenging, but also the most enjoyable. As with the title, I enjoy the sense of discovery from putting my character in a challenging situation and revealing his character in the ways in which he works to get himself to a better place. In terms of changing one more than the other, the answer is neither. I don’t begin writing until I have the beginning and end firmly set.

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

While it’s not auto-fiction, there are certainly elements of myself not only in my protagonist, but in my other characters. Authenticity is important to me as both a reader and writer, and I feel the best way for me to be authentic on the page is to bring elements of people and places I know well. I admit that’s a longer way of saying “write what you know,” but it’s what I’ve found works best for me. I know my style well enough to know that if I wrote anything based on significant research, it would come off sounding like exactly that.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Music? Pictures? Movies? The news? The environment? Politics? Family? Yes to all! After the Lights Go Out was heavily influenced by music. Fighting is very rhythmic, and I wanted my sentences and paragraphs to have their own rhythm. As such, I often listened to music to infuse my sentences with a flow. I also tend to think cinematically while writing and am a huge fan of fight cinema, so there are certainly elements in this novel. I’m always intrigued by explorations of race and family as a reader. I’ve followed the advice of writing what you want to read and so those two subjects figure largely into the theme and content of After the Lights Go Out.
Visit John Vercher's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Saturday, June 25, 2022

William Martin

William Martin is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, an award-winning PBS documentary, book reviews, magazine articles, and a cult-classic horror movie, too.

In novels like Back Bay, City of Dreams, The Lost Constitution, The Lincoln Letter, and Bound for Gold, he has told stories of the great and the anonymous of American history, and he’s taken readers from the deck of the Mayflower to 9/11. His work has earned him many accolades and honors, including the 2005 New England Book Award, the 2015 Samuel Eliot Morison Award, and the 2019 Robert B. Parker Award.

Martin's new novel is December ’41.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I toyed with many titles for my new thriller, in which a German assassin plans to kill Franklin Roosevelt as he lights the National Christmas Tree on December 24, 1941. But Killing Roosevelt sounded too much like other titles. Saving Roosevelt sounded too on-the-nose. And December 8, 1941, the day that the book begins, sounded too specific, especially since the book unfolds over 19 days. I almost called it 19 Days in December, but I didn't like that, and it could be any December. It could be a Christmas books. So I settled on December '41. There's not a lot of mystery in the title. It's telling you when the story is set, and since the whole month is filled with one earth-shaking event after another, a reader is likely to pick it up to see what it's all about, or what event will be the focus of this book. Then they read a about the plot, and I know I've got them.

What's in a name?

The main character is our anti-hero, the German assassin. He's a purposely non-descript individual who changes his identity four or five times in the book. His main identifying characteristic: according to a lot of the other characters, he resembles the actor Leslie Howard, best known for playing Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. His name in German is Martin Bruning, which translates to Martin Browning. Naturally, people ask me if I see something of myself in him because his first name is my last name. The answer is a resounding "No." I gave him that name because it's a good German first name, but not an obvious one like Hans or Wolfgang. It also suggests that he has a kind of single-minded intensity, like other German Martins... Martin Luther, for example. The last name? Well, for starters, I like the way "Browning" sounds. Secondarily "Browning" is the name of an American gun manufacturer, and this guy is very good with a rifle or a pistol. He'll be using a Mauser when he takes the shot, but I couldn't very well call him Martin Mauser. Again, too on-the-nose. So... Browning.

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

My teenage self wouldn't be too surprised by any of my books. Today, I write the kind of books I've always liked to read. Back then, in high school, I loved Shakespeare's History Plays, and they're historical fiction. I loved World War II adventures like Sink the Bismarck! by C.S. Forester and westerns like No Survivors by Will Henry. And in the movies, I loved stories with larger than life characters who turned out to have flaws just like the rest of us. Lawrence of Arabia, for example. And all of those elements figure today in December '41.

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

I spend more time on the beginning. You need to get the first line right. Then the first paragraph. Then the first page. I knew from the beginning that I was writing a novel that might have been seen in the movies in 1941. So I originally envisioned a newsreel spinning around the globe, showing you what was happening in all the theaters of war before settling on the main characters. Too long. Gotta get to those characters more quickly. I knew it. So did my editor. So I shortened it, and shortened it some more, and finally got to the opening I have now, which plays very nicely. As for the end, I always have an idea of the location I'll use, and in the broadest terms, the characters involved, and by the time I get there, I'm writing so quickly that it seems as if the book is writing itself.

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

At some level, all fiction writing is autobiographical. We are all drawing upon our own experiences and observations. And the fictional characters in historical fiction serve two important roles: they are foils for the historical characters and stand-ins for all the readers who've dreamed of looking a famous historical figure, like FDR, right in the eye. Beyond that, a lot of my heroes, like Kevin Cusack in December '41, have aspects of my background - Irish-American, Bostonian, would-be screenwriter, a self-sufficient guy who keeps getting involved even though he'd rather not be sticking his neck out. I don't see myself in Kevin, but my background makes him seem more alive.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

With December '41, I relied on 40s Swing Music to get me in the mood and help me to get back there to 1941. I watched a lot of 1940s movies to capture the sensation of being in those film, because it's a sensation I want the reader to have as they read. I also listened to the dialogue so that I could recapture it. And as I wrote, I always had this question buzzing in the background: how do those events in 1941 matter to us today in our personal and political lives. So politics and the future of our democracy are never far from my thoughts as I work.
Visit William Martin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thursday, June 23, 2022

Caroline Woods

photo credit: Anastasia Sierra
Caroline Woods is the author of the novels Fräulein M. and The Lunar Housewife, named a most anticipated book of summer 2022 by The New York Times, Bookpage, Publishers Weekly, CrimeReads, the Today Show’s Read with Jenna community, and more.

My Q&A with the author:
How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The Lunar Housewife is my original title, although we toyed briefly with some others (the one that came closest was How To Spot a Communist, named for a newsreel that aired in the fifties). I love The Lunar Housewife because it does a lot of work to let the reader know that this is a historical novel (the word "housewife" does that--now we say "stay-at-home-mom") with kitschy, sci-fi elements. Its one limitation is that "The Lunar Housewife" is actually the title of the novel within the novel, the one Louise Leithauser, my protagonist, is writing, about an American woman who goes to live in a lunar colony with a Soviet man. But I think that's okay. In a metaphorical sense, Louise herself becomes a lunar housewife; she's slowly isolated, and fenced more and more into a domestic role, by the conspiracy-embroiled men around her.

What's in a name?

When Louise meets Papa Hemingway a third of the way through the novel, he comments that her name, Louise Leithauser, sounds like a girl journalist in a comic book. That's what I was going for. I wanted her to sound like a celebrity, a bit unreal; I think it fits with the space-age pulp flavor of the book.

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

I don't think my teenage self would be surprised at all. I think she'd love this book. My taste hasn't changed much over the years. I like historical fiction, but with a twist: multiple points of view, time travel, sci-fi--I need a bit of something else to really love a book. My favorite books as a teen were Sebastien Japrisot's A Very Long Engagement, a brilliant historical mystery told in nonlinear fashion, and Margaret Atwood's genre-bending The Blind Assassin.

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

I think finding the entry point at which to drop readers into the story is harder. I always knew how this book would end: Louise would find a way to get the better of the guys in her life, and their CIA handlers. But where to start? A fabulous New York party, full of debauchery and celebrity guests, seemed the way to go.

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 my main characters tend to have a lot of me in them. I'm working on getting away from that in the future.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Politics, for sure. I think reaching adulthood and learning, for example, what the CIA did to interfere with foreign elections, especially the 1953 overthrow of the democratically elected leader of Iran, had a significant impact on what I have wanted to write about for the last decade. It's not a coincidence that The Lunar Housewife is set in 1953; the Iran events are happening in the background and explain why it matters that the CIA also had an influence on what people were reading in America and abroad.
Visit Caroline Woods's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Saturday, June 18, 2022

Mary Anna Evans

Mary Anna Evans is an award-winning author, a writing professor, and she holds degrees in physics and engineering, a background that, as it turns out, is ideal for writing her new book, The Physicists’ Daughter. Set in WWII-era New Orleans, the book introduces Justine Byrne, whom Evans describes as “a little bit Rosie-the-Riveter and a little bit Bletchley Park codebreaker.” When Justine, the daughter of two physicists who taught her things girls weren’t expected to know in 1944, realizes that her boss isn’t telling her the truth about the work she does in her factory job, she draws on the legacy of her unconventional upbringing to keep her division running and protect her coworkers, her country, and herself from a war that is suddenly very close to home.

My Q&A with Evans:

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

The Physicists’ Daughter does a lot of heavy lifting in terms of signaling what this story is about, and it does all the work of characterizing the protagonist. Justine Byrne’s identity was shaped by her physicist parents, and that is a very consciously placed apostrophe. Both of Justine’s parents were physicists, which was an unusual state of affairs in 1944.

From the time Justine was born, they began teaching her to see the world like a physicist, logically and thoughtfully. When they die in a car accident when Justine is only 17, she is prepared to tackle the daunting task of taking care of herself in an era when this was very hard for a woman to do alone. World War II is raging, so she is able to find a good job at a munitions factory doing Rosie-the-Riveter-style work…but it’s clear to someone with Justine’s background that her boss is lying to her about the work she’s doing. It’s also clear to her that someone is trying to sabotage that work.

Nobody expects Justine to have the knowledge and skills that she does, so she is the perfect person to take on the task of uncovering a spy and a saboteur. As I like to say, the Nazis are no match for the physicists’ daughter.

What's in a name?

In a historical novel, it’s important to give characters names that are appropriate for the time period, but it’s also important that the protagonists’ names not be too odd-sounding for modern readers. Thus, an important secondary character in this book is named Mavis, but I judged that modern readers would not imagine a young woman with this name.

One way to deal with this issue is to use timeless names, so an important character is named Charles, a name that’s less used now but is not totally out-of-step with our time. Georgette seemed to be a time-period-appropriate name for an American girl of French descent who was probably named for her father. For those who know their fashion, Georgette also evokes a lovely, soft, dressy fabric often used in the mid-twentieth century.

Justine’s name also has French origins that suit the New Orleans setting, and it evokes justice. Crime fiction, for me, is a constant exploration of justice, and Justine is herself driven to seek justice. Also, I have always sympathized with the poorly treated character of Justine in Frankenstein, so there’s a Mary Shelley allusion wrapped up in my protagonist’s name.

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

I’ve always loved historical novels and science, and I’ve always loved New Orleans. I was still in my teens when I chose a physics major for my bachelor’s degree. Considering those things, I’d say that this was the book I’ve lived my whole life to write, so teenaged me wouldn’t be surprised by it at all.

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

I don’t want to be difficult, but the middles of books are the hardest part for me to write. Once I have the premise of the book clear in my head, the opening chapters write themselves. If they didn’t, it would be a sign that this might not be the book for me.

The middle is more of an exploration. I know where I’m going, but it's not always easy to see how to get there, while still keeping the narrative compelling enough to draw the reader through to the exciting climax.

The ending, like the beginning, writes itself. It’s as if I’ve spent a couple of hundred pages setting up the dominos and, when the time comes, I push the first one over. It’s my theory that if writing the ending isn’t easy, then the middle of the book hasn’t done what it needs to do. That means I need to go back and work on it some more before I write the ending.

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

Justine has my logical approach to life and my devotion to the people I love. We both like to look at the world and try to figure out what makes it tick.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

For this book, I must credit mid-twentieth-century mathematicians and scientists—all of them, certainly, but especially the women. I’m not sure it’s possible for us to understand the obstacles that stood in the way of women like Marie Curie, her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie, and Lise Meitner. After Justine’s time, we saw more women of color in math, engineering, and science, like Chien Shiung-Wu, Maryam Mirzakhani, and Mae Jemison, and they faced incredible obstacles.

It was a momentous century. Women were often shunted aside, but they were there. They persevered.
Learn more about the author and her work at Mary Anna Evans's website.

The Page 69 Test: Floodgates.

The Page 69 Test: Strangers.

My Book, The Movie: Strangers.

The Page 69 Test: Plunder.

The Page 69 Test: Rituals.

--Marshal Zeringue

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Jonathan Vatner

Jonathan Vatner is the author of The Bridesmaids Union (2022) and Carnegie Hill (2019). His fiction has earned praise from People, Town & CountryThe New York Post, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He is the managing editor of Hue, the magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology and teaches fiction writing at New York University and the Hudson Valley Writers Center.

My Q&A with Vatner:

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

The title, The Bridesmaids Union, refers to the secret Facebook group of disgruntled bridesmaids at the heart of the story. I came up with it in the same way my protagonist does: While I was puzzling over what it should be called, I got an email from a union I belong to. As the title of the novel, I thought it was intriguing and relatively self-explanatory. The title of my last novel changed twice, so I was pleased that no one suggested a different name this time.

What's in a name?

I wanted my protagonist and her two sisters to be named after flowers—it’s sweet and a little funny—so I picked Iris, Jasmine, and Rose. Iris is my favorite flower, so I gave that name to my protagonist. Initially their last name was Sullivan—I saw them as Irish-American—but Jazmine Sullivan is a famous singer/songwriter. To avoid any unintended associations, I changed it to Hagarty.

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

As a teenager, I read mostly fantasy novels by authors like Terry Brooks, David Eddings, and Piers Anthony. So I think young Jon would be pretty surprised to see that we wrote a rom-com together!

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

The beginning is easy. When I’m done with the book, I write a new first chapter. Originally I had started the novel in medias res—the Bridesmaids Union was already in existence. But my editor thought it would be good to walk readers through why Iris created it, so I wrote a disastrous wedding scene, the straw that broke the camel’s back.

For me, the ending is always harder. I honestly didn’t know what would or should happen, even after I finished the first draft—and the second. I’d known from the beginning what the climax would be, but I didn’t know how it would resolve. I was trying to figure out what was more important, familial or romantic love. And then I realized that neither Iris nor I was thinking about it in the right way.

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

As a rule I don’t write about myself. I find other people so much more interesting! But there’s something of me in every character, usually in their actions and choices rather than the surface details of their lives. There was a lot of me in Iris, in terms of her being afraid to speak her mind and feeling like she couldn’t say no to requests for her time. As I was writing the book, I was working on being stronger and less ashamed. Maybe one day I’ll feel confident in writing a novel about myself.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I love news stories about weddings gone wrong, which is one reason writing The Bridesmaids Union was so much fun. I also love “Am I the Asshole?” on Reddit, for the same reason I love fiction: it helps me think through my moral beliefs. I burned out on political news after the 2016 presidential election—my appetite for reading anything remotely partisan completely went away—but the Trump/Clinton divide figures prominently in the book. Iris is liberal, as am I, but the book doesn’t take a side.
Visit Jonathan Vatner's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Bridesmaids Union.

--Marshal Zeringue

Saturday, June 11, 2022

Lauren Belfer

Lauren Belfer is the New York Times bestselling author of And After the Fire, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; A Fierce Radiance, a Washington Post and NPR Best Mystery of the Year; and City of Light, a New York Times Notable Book, a Library Journal best book, a Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, and an international bestseller. Belfer attended Swarthmore College and has an MFA from Columbia University. She lives in New York City.

photo credit: Sigrid Estrada
Belfer's new novel is Ashton Hall.

My Q&A with the author:
How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I tried out many different titles for Ashton Hall, dozens and dozens, filling page after page, over several years … poetic titles, metaphoric titles, quotes from Shakespeare and quotes from the Bible. I’m too embarrassed to share any of these many titles! Then one day I realized that the simplest title, the one I’d used from the beginning as a working title for the file on my computer, was actually the best one: Ashton Hall. Ultimately, the house itself is what unites every aspect of the story … the house, its history, the beauty of its gardens, and the sorrow and happiness that have been experienced there.

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

In some ways, my teenage self wouldn’t be at all surprised by this novel – my teenage self was even more obsessed with everything British than I am!

However, my grown-up self has actually lived in Britain and experienced some of the often-comical ways in which daily life in England differs from the expectations of many Americans. England as seen through the eyes of Americans is among the themes of Ashton Hall.

My teenage self, however, was willful and stubborn, and she wouldn’t want to hear about the realities of living in Britain. If she ever had the chance to live in Britain, she wouldn’t even see the peculiarities. She would live the dream, and more power to her!

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

I always know the beginning and the end of a book before I begin writing. These are my two fixed points. I also have a rough outline of the entire story, but usually I put the outline away and let the details evolve freely as I move forward. I return over and over to the beginning of a novel, trying to enrich it and make it more subtle and intriguing. Once the story is established, I also return to the beginning to plant seeds for what will come later in the story.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Everything I see and experience in the course of a day influences my writing. In fact, I know the writing is going well when, say, I spot a magnificent Golden Retriever (my favorite breed) on the street and immediately I think – character x in the novel would adore that dog, and perhaps I can weave the dog into the story. Or maybe I hear an old song playing while I’m in the supermarket, and I wonder if one of my characters would be moved by that song. If the answer is yes, then the next day at my desk, I’ll have the character hear the song when she herself is at the supermarket, or in a restaurant, and she might reflect on the last time she heard it, so that the song sparks memories for her. In this way, everything I happen upon in the world enriches the novel.
Visit Lauren Belfer's website.

The Page 69 Test: A Fierce Radiance.

My Book, The Movie: A Fierce Radiance.

The Page 69 Test: And After the Fire.

My Book, The Movie: And After the Fire.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thursday, June 9, 2022

Samit Basu

Samit Basu is an Indian novelist. He's published several novels in a range of speculative genres, all critically acclaimed and bestselling in India, beginning with The Simoqin Prophecies (2003). His novel The City Inside was short-listed (as Chosen Spirits) for the JCB Prize, India’s biggest literary award. He also works as a director-screenwriter, a comics writer, and a columnist. He lives in Delhi, Mumbai, and on the internet.

My Q&A with Basu:

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

I think The City Inside does a fair bit of work: even without any context readers would know it’s an urban setting and expect some sort of exploration, or interiority, or mystery. The information that it’s a near-future sci-fi novel set in Delhi, India, with a focus on internal change as its protagonists try to cope with multiple-choice 21st-century crises that affect everyone in the world, with an additional Indian layer of chaos? Not so much.

Two years ago, the Indian edition was called Chosen Spirits - that title was from an old Urdu poem about Delhi, but when I sold the book to Tordotcom in the US, my agent suggested the new title - the older title sounded too spiritual for a book that would be read as dystopian/cyberpunk, and I agreed. It’s also a book about power, privilege, belonging, popularity and conformity - so I thought The City Inside totally worked.

What's in a name?

The City Inside aims to be a very small exaggeration of present-day India, so everything about the technology, locations, professions and people - plus everything else in the worldbuild and plot are very present-reality based. So every name has cultural/political/social significance, but I don’t think knowledge of those significances really make a difference to the reading experience - just as I can experience stories set in New York or Tokyo and understand them even if I don’t get every local reference. I do think that for some stories, I get a sense that they’re very specifically embedded in their setting and somehow that makes them more universal.

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

Very! The City Inside isn’t the book I wanted to write as a teenager. Most of my other books are! But this one is something that is a very specific response to the last decade, and worrying about the next one, and my teenage self, reader or otherwise, couldn’t have imagined either of those. I do think my teenage self would have been more surprised by the real world today than the imaginary future one in the book.

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

I find beginnings harder and I rewrite them after I’ve got a sense of the voice, the characters, and everything else about each book. The City Inside was particularly difficult - most of my other books are plottier, pacier and more event-driven, and so the constraints on the beginning are clearer. But for this one, it was more about capturing emotions, feelings, atmospheres, characters, while also providing worldbuild, which was particularly challenging. I don’t usually throw away the first 7000 words entirely and redo them from scratch, but this book needed it.

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

For this book, definitely. There’s a lot of me in most of the characters, and the rest is from people I’ve actually met. This isn’t always the case at all - most of the protagonists of my other books are worlds apart.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I’ve worked in film, shows, comics, print and online journalism and theatre - so all of these. I’ve almost worked in video games too. All these media, and then of course there’s real life, and non-fiction in various media. And the internet. My writing is influenced by everything I experience, and most of that isn’t literary.
Visit Samit Basu's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Marty Ambrose

Marty Ambrose is the award-winning author of a historical mystery trilogy: Claire's Last Secret, A Shadowed Fate, and Forever Past, all set around the Byron/Shelley circle in nineteenth-century Italy. Her fiction has earned starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, as well as a gold medal for historical fiction in the Florida Writers Association's Literary Palm Awards.

My Q&A with Ambrose:

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

When I played with the title of my final novel in the Claire Clairmont historical mystery trilogy, Forever Past, I was very conscious that it had to signal the end of this series but, also, reflect that nothing in life is every truly finished until we draw our last breath. So, while Claire is finally learning the fate of her lost daughter, Allegra, conceived out of wedlock with Lord Byron, she has to keep delving into the past to find the last clues to the mystery—a “forever” journey that is both exhilarating and painful. And, along the way, she realizes it is long past time for her to put those days behind her and make peace with the turmoil of her youth.

But I also wanted my readers to connect the title with Claire’s undiminished love for her daughter; it has been both a joy and torment at the emotional center of her being. Her relationship with Lord Byron was hauntingly brief, but her deep maternal feelings for Allegra, no matter the outcome of her quest, are eternal.

What's in a name?

One of the easier aspects of writing historical mysteries with actual literary figures as characters is that the names are already set. My protagonist, Claire Clairmont, was part of the Byron/Shelley circle and a real person who lived a long life in the nineteenth century. So, I didn’t have to struggle to come up with interesting names for most of my characters. However, one name in Forever Past does have an intriguing connection to the plot. After Claire gave birth to her daughter, she originally called her “Alba”—which meant “sunrise.” A few months later, though, Lord Byron asked her to re-name their child, “Allegra,” meaning “happy and lively.” Claire complied, and their daughter was always referred to as Allegra Byron. However, the original name of Claire’s daughter pops up toward the end of the book, symbolizing the “dawn” of truth about Allegra’s fate—an unexpected plot twist leading to the final scene. I loved it.

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

I don’t think my teenage self would be surprised that I write historical mysteries which take place around nineteenth-century literati. I’ve always been obsessed with the poets and authors from that era, especially Lord Byron. However, I think the younger version of myself would’ve been surprised that it took me so long into my writing career to create novels around these fascinating literary figures. But I had to develop the writing confidence (and the skills—hopefully) to take on such complex literary legends and attempt to weave the threads of history around them. Quite the challenge. But I guess the creative process all unfolds in due course.

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

I definitely find beginnings much more difficult to write; they set the tone, mood, and conflict of the entire novel. I struggle with them. It will often take me one-two years to complete a novel because I don’t have a clear idea of how the work is going to come together until I’ve written the beginning and first hundred pages of the novel; that part takes me months and months. The great twentieth-century poet, T.S. Eliot, said in the Four Quartets, “In my end is my beginning,” but, for me, it is the opposite. There is certainly a circularity about the way a writer has to jumpstart the imagination, but I have to start the book first to know where I’m going—for the most part. Then, I like to have only a vague idea of the ending; in fact, I prefer to let the novel end itself and sometimes even surprise me. That’s magic time.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I think it’s very important for a writer to have another creative art that has nothing to do with words. When I was finishing Forever Past, it was a very intense, emotional process because I didn’t want to let go of the characters after working with them for six years and two previous books. So, I took up soapmaking. It’s a perfect “paired art” for me because I’m working with my hands and creating something with unusual patterns, colors, and scents. As I make the soap, my mind empties of words and I focus only on pure creation. Then, when I go back to writing, I feel refreshed and ready to apply all of those sensory experiences to descriptive language. Not to mention, I have amazing gifts for friends and readers, such as my Claire Clairmont “book soap.” Okay, even the soap has a literary connection. It’s a win-win.
Visit Marty Ambrose's website.

My Book, The Movie: Forever Past.

The Page 69 Test: Forever Past.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Wendy Church

Wendy Church has been a bartender, tennis instructor, semiconductor engineer, group facilitator, nonprofit CEO, teacher, PhD researcher, and dive bar cleaner. Her first suspense novel, Murder on the Spanish Seas, is set on a luxury cruise in the Iberian peninsula, and introduces amateur sleuth Jesse O’Hara, whose adventures are partly informed by Church’s expertise and international travels.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Originally I really liked Shipfaced for the title, as I thought it conveyed the context (lots of drinking on a ship) and the humor concisely. But cooler heads prevailed, and we took a more direct, Snakes on a Plane marketing approach, eventually settling on Murder on the Spanish Seas, which makes more sense to use for an unknown, debut author. And should the novel be published overseas, it’s likely a more universally digestible title.

What's in a name?

This book is the first in a series of Jesse O’Hara novels, so I had to feel pretty solid about the name of the main protagonist, as she’s going to be around for a while.

I knew I wanted her to be of Irish descent, and after looking at my own family tree, and a map of Ireland’s historical surnames by county, I settled on O’Hara. For the first name, I wanted a two-syllable name that sounded like a non-traditional woman who wouldn’t mind the occasional physical altercation. I thought “Jesse” sounded kind of tough, and I could imagine a “Jesse” sitting at a bar, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, putting away a beer and a shot.

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

My teenage self wouldn’t be surprised at all at this novel, and probably could have written it. I loved crime/humor shows as a kid, starting with Get Smart, and including the Naked Gun movies, Psych, and The Heat, to name a few. I currently own all of the Get Smart and Psych episodes on DVD, the set of Naked Gun movies, and The Heat, and I rewatch them fairly regularly.

As an aside, I cleaned out my basement the other day and found some original pages of some stories I wrote when I was ten. I haven’t decided yet whether I’m embarrassed or proud of the fact that my writing voice hasn’t changed much since then.

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

Endings for me are much, much easier to write than beginnings. I’m an extremely impatient and goal-oriented writer. I want to get to the cool stuff pretty quickly, and I strive to put the reader into the suspense, mystery, and danger as quickly as possible. So for me the beginning of a novel is fraught with tension between my desire to get on to it, and the need to establish enough story and character foundation.

This is on top of the fact that there is a lot of pressure to make the beginning sentence, paragraph, chapter, really great. Many people make a decision to read on, or not, based on the beginning, which puts lots of pressure on those first words. This is one reason I really like the Page 69 Test.

By the time I get to an ending it’s pretty easy to construct, and my only challenge is that I usually have several that I like, and have to make the choice.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My primary inspiration/influence for my Jesse O'Hara series is television, including the aforementioned original Get Smart series. I fell in love as a kid with funny, imperfect/bumbling heroes, and nothing about that has changed. Bugs Bunny, George of the Jungle, Frank Drebin, Shawn Spencer, I can’t get enough of these guys. I’d like to think I’m adding to that group with Jesse O’Hara, as well as bringing in a little gender diversity to the group.
Visit Wendy Church's website.

The Page 69 Test: Murder on the Spanish Seas.

--Marshal Zeringue