Stephen Policoff

Stephen Policoff is the author of Beautiful Somewhere Else, which won the James Jones Award, and was published by Carroll & Graf. His second novel, Come Away, won the Dzanc Award, and was published by Dzanc Books in 2014. He was writer-in-residence at Medicine Show Theater Ensemble, with whom he wrote Shipping Out, The Mummer’s Play, Ubu Rides Again, and Bound to Rise, which received an Obie. He was also a freelance writer for Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, New Age Journal, and many other publications. He helped create Center for Creative Youth, based at Wesleyan University, and has taught writing at CUNY, Wesleyan, and Yale. He is currently Clinical Professor of Writing in Global Liberal Studies at NYU, where he has taught since 1987.

Policoff's newest novel is Dangerous Blues.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Dangerous Blues was the title of this novel from the moment I first imagined writing it. (Full disclosure: it was originally The Dangerous Blues, because that is the title of the song which helped inspire the novel, but Bill Burleson, my editor at Flexible Press exhorted me to drop The, which he said was clunky and possibly pompous. I profoundly disagreed with him at the time, but now think he was right). Clearly, the title is imagistic rather than direct but I do think it conjures up a fitting picture of what Paul, the main character is going through, and what his eerie world seems to offer. My editor also added kind of a ghost story as a subtitle, which I love, and which I think helps cue a reader into the mysterious atmosphere of the novel. The song, “The Dangerous Blues” is a primal howl of the blues attributed to Mattie May Thomas, who wrote it while incarcerated some time in the 1930s. When the novel was a mere wisp of a thought, I heard that song in a Greenwich Village bar, and it immediately clicked with me, as if I had known it all my life.

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

Since I never imagined writing a novel when I was a kid, my kid self would probably be mildly but not completely surprised. I was in love with the theater as a boy, and dreamed of writing plays—my college honors thesis was a rock musical called Two Dwarves in a Closet, which amazed and amused audiences with its psychedelic nonsense. But I was also a voracious reader of novels, and a budding writer from the age of 7, when I wrote animal fables and long rhyming poems. So, I guess writing anything (and/or everything) would not have surprised me all that much. For whatever reasons, writing was what I saw myself doing even when no one else shared that confidence.

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

I often come up quickly with the opening line or two of whatever I am working on, and fairly frequently, that ends up as either the actual beginning or as the second paragraph. Dangerous Blues had a few openings but the first words I wrote are the beginning of the 2nd chapter. Endings are much harder for me. I almost never know exactly how I want my novel to end—I may have a final image in mind or a situation or even a line of dialogue but exactly how I get there and what the ultimate scene is, I rarely know. I rewrote the ending to Dangerous Blues at least 4 times. I knew that I wanted the 5 main characters to be in the same place, and that music (which plays a huge role in the novel) needed to be part of it. But what they were actually doing, who said what to whom, what kind of forgiveness and forbearance Paul has toward the enigmatic Tara, those things were what I struggled with. Somebody once said that when he removed commas and then put them back again he knew he was finished with his book. I removed a conversation, put it back again, took it out, then shortened it, made it slightly more humorous, and put it back… and that’s when I knew I was done.

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

Paul Brickner, the narrator of Dangerous Blues is emphatically a more unstrung version of myself. I allowed him to have my voice (a number of people have told me he sounds like me) and a few of my eccentricities but gave him a much different background, different family relations, and a propensity for the supernatural which I do not have. I liked the idea of allowing him to behave in ways I would never behave and to be open to things I would never consider.

Although Dangerous Blues is in some ways the most autobiographical novel I have written—my beloved wife did in fact die young, we did have a house in upstate New York—none of the events of the novel actually happened to me. Paul’s daughter Spring is a blend of my 2 daughters—Anna, who tragically passed away from a horrifying genetic illness in 2015, and Jane, who recently graduated from college. Jane likes to say she doesn’t need to read the novel because she is in it, which is semi-true, though Spring is almost-12 while Jane is now 22, so fortunately there are many differences. The other characters are either amalgams of people I have known or, like Paul’s father-in-law Dr. Maire, a specialist in occult lore, they are the product of my feverish imagination.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Music has been undoubtedly the greatest nonliterary influence on my writing. Dangerous Blues is filled with music, especially the blues which I loved as a college student, then kind of forgot about until shortly after my wife died when those plaintive songs seemed to conjure up a world of sorrow mingled with the absurdity of life, which was exactly how I was feeling in that blue moment. I invented the spectral musician Ghostie Boy Wilson to allow for some of that music and some of the legends of those amazing performers to be part of the novel. I would also have to say that a lifelong interest in the inexplicable ways people behave toward one another, and a fondness for eerie phenomena like hauntings and nightmares have also been huge factors in what I find myself thinking about, what I find myself writing.

Visit Stephen Policoff's website.

The Page 69 Test: Come Away.

My Book, The Movie: Come Away.

Writers Read: Stephen Policoff.

--Marshal Zeringue

Allison Brennan

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Allison Brennan believes life is too short to be bored, so she had five children and writes three books a year. Reviewers have called her “a master of suspense” and RT Book Reviews said her books are “mesmerizing” and “complex.” She’s been nominated for multiple awards, including the Thriller, RWA’s Best Romantic Suspense (five times), and twice won the Daphne du Maurier award. She lives in Arizona with her family and assorted pets.

Brennan's new novel is Don't Open the Door.

My Q&A with the author:

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

While Don’t Open the Door could be taken literally, and likely most suspense readers would see this as a teaser of the suspense (don’t open the door! There’s a bad guy outside!), the title is actually more figurative in the story itself. We all lie to ourselves at different times -- sometimes because we don’t want to see the truth about a friend or situation, sometimes because we don’t want to see what’s really in our heart or mind. Sometimes, we shut the proverbial door to our past in order to be able to survive, especially when we’re dealing with pain, grief, betrayal.

Regan Merritt could leave this door closed — the murder of her son a year ago, the betrayal of her husband when he blamed her, her grief and buried anger. She walked away from her career, moved cross- country, was rebuilding her life. Yet … can she really walk away, shut the door on her past? Because once you open the door, you never know what you may find.

What's in a name?

Some characters walk on the page and tell me exactly who they are, some characters take time to reveal their secrets as I write. I rarely name my characters — sometimes I go through multiple names until I hit upon the right one. Before I wrote a word of The Sorority Murder (Regan’s first book), I thought I knew who Regan Merritt was — her name came to me, I could picture her fully, I knew how she would react to every situation, every conversation. Yet … the more I wrote her, the more I realized she had depth I needed to unearth. Regan is a strong name, quiet, confident, smart — which matches her character.

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

Somewhat surprised. I read mostly horror and mysteries when I was a teen, so my 15-year-old self would be thinking, okay, you have suspense and mystery here, but where’s the jump-out-of-my-skin scare? Where’s the blood and gore?

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

Beginnings. Hands down, beginnings are hard. It takes me three times longer to write the first 100 pages of my books than it takes me to write the last 300 pages. And almost always, I have more editor revisions/notes in the first 100 pages than in the rest of the book.

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 some of my characters are more like me than others, but none are me. I think my main characters most align with my worldview — which is why I write crime fiction and solve what is sometimes unsolvable. I try to put myself in the shoes of every character I write, to think how they think and do what they would do. But I am definitely not as exciting or brave as my characters.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

True crime — mostly true crime books. I was a true crime addict when I was younger, starting with In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, which I read when I was 13. I follow the news — mostly crime news. But I think my biggest inspiration is people watching. I’m always observing others, especially strangers, and making up stories about them. I listen to their tone, watch body language, look at how they dress, how they talk to others, assess their emotional state. My imagination then runs away with me…

Visit Allison Brennan's website.

My Book, The Movie: Don't Open the Door.

The Page 69 Test: Don't Open the Door.

--Marshal Zeringue

Carole Johnstone

Carole Johnstone is an award-winning writer from Scotland, whose short stories have been published all over the world. Her debut novel, Mirrorland, is a psychological suspense with a gothic twist, set in Edinburgh. Her second novel, The Blackhouse, is a very unusual murder-mystery set on a fictional island off the west coast of the Isle of Lewis.

Having grown up in Lanarkshire, she now lives in Glencoe in the Highlands of Scotland, although her heart belongs to the wild islands of the Outer Hebrides.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Setting is hugely important in all my books. I always try to write a story that could only be set where it’s set and nowhere else. The setting therefore becomes almost another character, so it’s pretty inevitable that my novels end up being named after that place.

Originally, The Blackhouse was actually titled A Thin Place, but this had to be changed because of another book out around the same time with a very similar name. A thin place is a place where the walls between our world and other worlds are said to be at their thinnest; they are often considered to be very spiritual and important landscapes, such as Stonehenge. The Outer Hebrides were considered in Celtic mythology to be thin places, and the Norse that settled there in the 9th century believed something similar. The Blackhouse is set on a fictional island off the Atlantic coast of the Isle of Lewis and Harris. The Outer Hebrides are wild, isolated, and brimful of legends and cautionary tales. They are islands that are sometimes as frightening as they are beautiful; as dangerous as they are peaceful, and I really wanted the title to reflect that contradiction and otherworldliness.

Equally though, the blackhouse itself is very central to the story. Blackhouses are the traditional domestic dwellings of Hebrideans going back centuries. The titular blackhouse is the place that both main characters, Maggie and Robert live, albeit 25 years apart. As Maggie tries to find out who murdered Robert and begins to uncover the truth about his terrible fate, Robert’s own story is told from his own perspective, so he very much inhabits the same space, almost like a ghost. The blackhouse also has a hidden earth cellar that is pretty pivotal to the plot, so the title made sense. And, of course, blackhouse as a word has a very gothic and creepy vibe to it, which is exactly how I wanted the novel to be perceived!

What's in a name?

The name of the fictional island in The Blackhouse is Kilmeray. So many place names in the Hebrides are derived from Scots Gaelic and/or Old Norse, and so I went to great lengths to make sure that all the place names on this fictional island were as authentic as possible. Kilmeray translates in Scots Gaelic as the ‘Church of (St) Maraigh’ (an entirely fictional saint!), and I had great fun making many of the landmarks of Kilmeray as spooky as possible, in keeping with so many of the real islands themselves:

Gleann nam Bòcan: Valley of Ghosts
Sid a’ Choin Mhòir: Lair of the Big Dog
Glumag a’ Bròin: The Pool of Sorrow
An Droch Chadha: Wicked Pass

However, it was a lot of work, and I’m not sure I’d have the stamina to do that again – particularly in terms of researching Old Norse!

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

Probably not very (although hopefully impressed; I’d always written from a very young age, but never truly believed I would ever be published, let alone a fulltime writer!) In my teens I discovered Stephen King, and for many years my writing, my voice, everything was as near to his as I could make it. It took a long time and many years of selling short stories before I discovered my own voice and style of writing.

I’ve always been drawn to the darker side of fiction, and I’ve always been so fascinated by people: what makes us tick; what makes us break; all the wonderful and terrible things we are capable of doing and why. I also love gothic fiction: books like Rebecca, Jane Eyre, The Turn of the Screw, Beloved, The Haunting of Hill House, Gone Girl, The Dry – basically anything with a memorable setting that’s full of atmosphere, passion, betrayal, and secrets – that’s always been what I love the most, so it’s always been what I assumed I would write.

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

Beginnings always. I start with the end. That’s always the beginning of the idea, that and the setting. I always know the ending so well I can literally see it in my mind like the closing scene of a movie, and this rarely changes in the writing. The beginning is much harder. Knowing where to start in a story is such a crucial decision. Your opening has to grab the reader, has to be interesting and compelling, and it has to make the reader want to read on. You can’t start with long passages of description or backstory. But you have to be equally careful that you don’t start too far into the story either, or the reader will struggle to keep up or to understand what’s happening. You also risk losing any element of suspense. I spend a lot of time plotting before I start writing, and often working out what my starting point is going to be takes the longest time of all.

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

I almost always write in present tense, first person. In The Blackhouse there are two stories: Maggie’s story in the present day as she returns to the island with very strange motives for wanting to find out what happened to Robert and needing to prove that he was in fact murdered. And Robert’s story, following the last few months of his life, up until his untimely and disturbing death. I wrote both of these stories in first person without expressly intending to, it just felt most natural.

One of the most brilliant things about writing in first person is that you can create a whole almost 4-D experience for the reader. They are in that character’s shoes. They are seeing and feeling what she is. They don’t know what she doesn’t know. Everything is written through that person’s eyes, and it helps the reader not only understand or empathise with a character, but to feel like they are there in that place and in that situation far better than anything else.

I think when you write in first person it’s inevitable that something of yourself will creep in as it’s such a personal and intimate way to write. There’s generally a lot of inner monologue; you have to know everything about that character as you’re effectively playing their part. That said, I don’t think that personality-wise there are many similarities between me and any of the characters I play, although I do pull from personal experiences, thoughts, values etc. when I’m writing in general. I think that’s probably true of all writers, but it’s always so important that you remain completely invisible and let the characters tell the story.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Anything and everything. I try to read widely, in all genres. I keep up with the news (even when, as in the last few years, I don’t really want to). I read articles that interest me, particularly if I can mine them for story ideas! I watch movies all the time, again in all genres. All stories interest me, and definitely influence my writing in one way or another. But although I come across stories or ideas I wish I’d had first all the time, I’m always so careful not to poach them. As a teenager, I remember watching Aliens for the first time and then immediately writing a story that was so exactly the same I realised that there had been no point and no satisfaction in writing it at all. Writing should always be an amalgam of all the things that you see, hear, feel, and experience, but told through your own unique lens.

I’m also very guilty of always listening in to strangers’ conversations on trains or in pubs – a goldmine of ideas!

Visit Carole Johnstone's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Iris Yamashita

Born in Missouri, raised in Hawaii and having lived in Guam, California, and Japan, Iris Yamashita was able to experience a diversity of culture while growing up. She studied engineering at U.C. San Diego and U.C. Berkeley and also spent a year at the University of Tokyo studying virtual reality. Her first love, however, has always been fiction writing, which she pursued as a hobby on the side.

Yamashita submitted her first screenplay to a competition where she was discovered by an agent at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) who offered to represent her. Her big break came when she was recruited to write the script Letters From Iwo Jima for Clint Eastwood. Letters was named “Best Picture” by both the National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. It received a Golden Globe award for “Best Foreign Language Film” of 2006 and was nominated for 4 Oscars including “Best Picture” and “Best Original Screenplay.”

City Under One Roof is her debut mystery novel set in a tiny Alaskan town where everyone lives in a single high-rise building.

My Q&A with Yamashita:

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

Titles are always difficult, whether they are for film or books. City Under One Roof references the most unique feature about the setting, which is that all the residents live in a single high-rise building. The setting is inspired by a real city in Alaska that was originally constructed as a secret military base and it was given the nickname “the city under one roof” back then. The publishers had thought City of Ice and Lies would be a good title because it references cold and hints of intrigue, but there are actually a number of books titled City of Ice out there and I thought my book would get lost in the mix, so we ultimately went with City Under One Roof.

What's in a name?

I don’t think I gave too much thought to the characters’ names other than that they reflected their heritage. There is, however, a reference to Lewis Carrol’s real name if you look for it. The book is chock full of Alice in Wonderland references.

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

I think my teenaged self was optimistic about one day getting a book published, but the mystery genre would have definitely been a surprise. I haven’t been an avid mystery book fan, but now I find mysteries are a fun genre to write in.

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

Both are tough but I would say endings are harder and change more because they have to be satisfying on many levels whereas you can have an intriguing beginning without having everything figured out yet.

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

I’m a pretty boring, sedentary, old Asian woman, so I would say I am worlds apart from my characters. Absolutely no one would want to read me as a character. However, for each character, I try to put myself in their shoes, understand their motivations and make them identifiable.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I was a big fan of Twin Peaks when I was younger and I think there are definite Lynchian influences. Top of the Lake was another series that I really enjoyed and made me think the mystery genre could be for me.

Visit Iris Yamashita's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ellen O'Clover

Ellen O’Clover writes stories about finding your people, falling in love, and figuring it all out (or trying to, anyway). She grew up in Ohio and studied creative writing at the Johns Hopkins University before moving west to Colorado. When she’s not writing, you can usually find her reading fiction about big feelings, trying new recipes with mixed results, or hiking in the Rockies.

O'Clover's new novel is Seven Percent of Ro Devereux.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Seven Percent of Ro Devereux’s original title was, simply, MASH — in homage to the classic game, Mansion Apartment Shack House, that Ro builds her future-predicting app around. But when it came down to it, my editor and I both felt that MASH wasn’t doing the work it could be doing as a title: Ro’s app is a major character in the book, but it’s not the heart of it.

This story is about discovering who you are, and grasping at control over what comes next, and figuring out whether the person you’ve been in the past will follow you into the future. Ro’s app, MASH, is predicated on a human behavioral theory that people are 93 percent predictable. So, in turn, her app’s predictions are 93 percent predictable. I won’t say any more than that, but I think readers can fill in the blanks! I love the book’s final title and how it captures the story's emotional core.

What's in a name?

Ro’s mom named her and then disappeared from her life, so it was important to me that she had a name that didn’t suit her, chosen by someone who never took the time to know her. Rose: something delicate and sweet. Ro’s more of a dandelion: tenacious and messy and beautiful in her own, unruly way.

And, truthfully, I just loved how Ro Devereux sounded — say it out loud! Rolls right off the tongue. I also had some fun playing with the fact that Ro’s a developer and has “Dev” in her last name. Her social media handle, for example, is @rodev.

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

Shocked, I think! I’ve always been a humanities kid, a reader and a writer through and through. Getting into the POV of a young tech genius—one who builds her own app at eighteen—isn’t something I’d have expected for myself. But I was working as a copywriter in the marketing department of a software startup when I wrote Seven Percent of Ro Devereux, and being in that world for the first time inspired me to set a novel there.

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

Can I say middles? Beginnings and endings are much easier for me; I tend to know where I want readers to meet my characters, and where I want them to say goodbye. Neither the beginning nor the ending of Seven Percent of Ro Devereux changed in revision. It’s always the murky middles that require my attention! To me, this is the hardest part: what challenges can you present your characters with that will shape them in ways that lead to the final resolution you have planned? How can you push them to grow in the right ways?

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

In some ways, Ro is just like me at eighteen: headstrong, sure her worldview is 100 percent accurate, confident in her skills to carry her where she wants to go. She has a lot of learning to do, just like I did! But in other ways, Ro is my opposite. A tech wizard, where I’ve always been a book person. Bold and brave, where I’ve always been shy. I’m a careful planner. Ro acts first and considers the consequences later!

Visit Ellen O'Clover's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kate Manning

Kate Manning is the author of the critically acclaimed novels My Notorious Life, Whitegirl, and Gilded Mountain. A former documentary television producer and winner of two Emmy Awards, she has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, Time, Glamour, and The Guardian, among other publications. She has taught creative writing at Bard High School Early College in Manhattan, and lives with her family in New York City.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Gilded Mountain is about the stark divide between rich and poor in a Colorado marble-mining town in the 1900s. The word ‘gilded’ implies wealth, as in the Gilded Age, but also hints at a superficial beauty: sometimes a shiny gold object is actually made of gold-painted tin. One contender for the title was Avalanche Days, because avalanches--real and metaphorical--feature in the story. But Gilded Mountain won out because the word ‘gilded’ carried hints of beauty and intrigue while ‘avalanche’ spoke only to disaster. In this novel, the young protagonist is tempted by luxury and must choose between a life of ease—and a daring adventure. I hope the title helps conjure a mountaintop outlined by the sunset in a rind of gold, while underneath that beautiful gilding of light is something hard, sometimes dangerous or cheap.

What's in a name?

Sylvie, the heroine of Gilded Mountain, is named in honor of Sylvia Smith, a real-life female newspaper editor whose story I found while researching the history of Marble, Colorado. Between 1908-1912, Smith published a paper that was pro-labor, pro-woman’s suffrage, in a time when women did not even have the vote. She wrote highly critical stories of the company that dominated the town, and for that she suffered severe consequences. When the young heroine of the novel is apprenticed at a newspaper like Smith’s, she begins to see the world through newly- sharpened eyes. Naming the heroine Sylvie was a nod of thanks to the real historical figure—and also helped me to create a protagonist who defies stereotype.

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

I was an earnest old soul of a teen bookworm, with a secret burning to write stories. I kept a cheesy heart-encrusted diary, reading all the time, even while walking home from school, bumping into trees and lamp posts. I didn’t know any writers. The women novelists I read seemed to exist on an inaccessible mountaintop. So teenage me would be surprised to have published a novel at all. Gilded Mountain is about a young woman learning to follow her ambition, to use her voice, daring to speak up. That aspect of the character comes from my own experience—of going against female social training to “be nice,” keep quiet. So, of course my young self would be elated, as I am, to have written this particular book.

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

It’s middles. Ghastly. The beginning is in some ways the easiest. When I start something and find a voice, language, that feels strong, an idea of plot, the work motors along till it hits the sagging middle. Gilded Mountain started out written in the third person—but I changed to first person after I had 50 pages done. For me, first person lends itself to a stronger voice. I’m always editing as I work, and can’t go forward unless the voice and character are working well. When I finally type “The End,” I go back to the beginning and fix that first page, change it around and write what I hope is a hook—a lead that poses a question the story must answer, one that pulls a reader through to the last page.

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

Writing fiction seems to me to be a kind of radical empathy, putting yourself in the shoes of another person. So there’s some of me in all the characters. Even if they are worlds—or centuries--apart, the question is: what would I do in a certain situation if I were this character, with his experience? With her social constraints? In the context of her time and circumstance? In Gilded Mountain, a young woman is trapped in a snowbound mountain cabin and fears a life circumscribed by poverty and the greed of others. She is raised to be quiet and subservient. But in her thoughts, she is subversive. In some ways, that’s me: polite, cheerful—my subversive thoughts kept to myself—except in writing. It was especially fun to write scenes where Sylvie’s dialogue is interspersed with sly mental asides.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Acting. Painting. In high school and college I did a lot of theatre. As an actor you are using your voice and body and experience to inhabit a character. You must understand everything about the character’s past—her back story, her motivations, actions and desires, even if they are not spelled out in a script. At my desk I often will do voices and facial expressions of characters in scenes I’m writing, in order to feel emotions in the body, and describe them on the page. My mother is an accomplished painter, as was my grandmother, acute observers of detail. Art and photography fuel and inform my work. Gilded Mountain was sparked by a photograph I found in the family attic. The novel’s setting, character, and plot were all inspired by historical pictures of Colorado in the early 1900s. These images provoked my imagination, and gave me information that found its way into the novel.

Visit Kate Manning's website.

The Page 69 Test: My Notorious Life.

--Marshal Zeringue

J. H. Markert

J. H. Markert is a producer, screenwriter, husband, and father of two from Louisville, Kentucky, where he was also a tennis pro for 25 years, before hanging up the racquets for good in 2020. He graduated with a degree in History from the University of Louisville in 1997 and has been writing ever since.

Markert's new novel is The Nightmare Man.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title, The Nightmare Man, carries a heavy workload, as it screams what the book is about—which is nightmares! And even more specifically, the book has a villain known as the Nightmare Man. Even Ben Bookman (his last name has a backstory to it too), as a popular best-selling horror novelist, has earned the nickname The Nightmare Man, due to the creepy nature of his novels. This novel is my seventh published novel, but the first under my pen name J.H. Markert, and so far, only one of my titles has kept the original title. But while The Nightmare Man was not my original title, it is very close. My original title was Mr. Dreams and The Nightmare Man, because, as you might guess, there’s also a Mr. Dreams in the story. After discussing with my agent, we decided to title the novel The Hollow when we started pitching it. There’s a creepy mansion in the story (the building is a character in itself) called Blackwood, and the area around it is referred to as Blackwood Hollow. It is also learned in the story that inside the brains of children there is a place called the hollow, where nightmares form. Ultimately, the publisher decided to change it to The Nightmare Man, which I not only liked but was also included in the discussion.

What’s in a name?

One of the two main characters in the novel is Benjamin Bookman. And while Benjamin’s name has no real significance, his last name Bookman does. Only Ben’s younger brother Devon ever called him Benjamin—everyone calls him Ben—but Devon has been missing since he was kidnapped as a boy. The name Bookman, however, even before this book, The Nightmare Man, is released, has been a funny source of contempt for some early readers and reviewers. Some have been downright mad that I named a “novelist” main character something like Bookman. One even stopped reading because she got so annoyed. If that early reader would have finished, she would have learned the origin of Ben Bookman’s name. His great, great, grandfather was the first in a line of child psychiatrists dealing with the nightmares of children. Without too much of a spoiler, the Bookman name, originally from Austria, was Mundt. But because of how Dr. Mundt learned to trap nightmares inside books, he became known as the Book Man. And when, after a certain tragedy, he was forced to flee the country and enter the United States, he took on the new name of Bookman.

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

My teenage self would be shocked that I even wrote a book, but then, I hope, would be impressed. My teenage self would also probably ask, what took you so long to write a horror novel? This, because it was horror that got me reading and writing in the first place, although my first 6 novels were historical fiction. That, because I was a history major and the first book I sold was historical, so for years that’s what I continued to write and publish. People find it interesting that until my junior year of high school I hated to read. Couldn’t stand it. It bored me to death. All I wanted to do was sports. And then, after reading The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, my teacher then said, “Okay, enough of the classics. We’re reading Stephen King the rest of the year!” We mostly read his novellas, Four Past Midnight and Different Seasons and the four Richard Bachman books, written under King’s pen name, but my life changed after reading those works. I was like, this is what books can do? This is what stories can be? I fell in love with reading and then eventually started writing, all because a teacher put something in front of me that I wanted to read.

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

For me it's easier to write an ending because if I’ve done my job up until that point, the characters and plot should mostly be writing that part of the story. I no doubt change the beginning more than any ending. I write and rewrite the first 50 pages of a book more than any other parts of the story, and it’s not even close. It’s inevitable that as a story develops, the perfect beginning—which is what every writer strives for—is almost always in flux, as I don’t think that perfect beginning can be achieved until it is known definitively how a story will end. I think John Irving always has the best beginnings to a novel, and even more specifically, the best first sentences; and Mr. Irving, of course, has a history of tying in his first sentence to his last.

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

I sure hope not! I’d like to think I’m a likeable outgoing person, but as far as interesting book characters go, if I put too much of myself into a main character, especially, I fear the reader would get bored. A big part of writing a good character is how they deal with conflict, and often in novels, the more conflict the better, but in real life I try to stay away from conflict as much as possible. Since my characters are all created by me, it would be impossible not to have any connection at all to my personality. If it comes through at all, I think it's mostly through dialogue.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Pictures are big influences on me, for sure, especially with my first 6 historical fiction novels, where on a few occasions it was a picture that spurred an idea. For example, seeing a picture of a dust storm inspired my 4th novel, What Blooms from Dust. Folklore inspired The Nightmare Man. Classical music, as well as seeing Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium inspired my first novel, A White Wind Blew. Art, and growing up in an artistic household, in general, inspired my 5th book Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel. While music played a part in inspiring my first novel, and also my most recent novel under my name, Ransom Burning—just finished—music plays a huge part in my writing process. As in, I can’t write without it! Some may find it distracting to have music going when they write, but I need it to help me focus and block out any other possible distraction. The music I listened to the most while writing The Nightmare Man was The Who, Muse, Pearl Jam and Radiohead.

Visit J.H. Markert's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Shirley Russak Wachtel

Shirley Russak Wachtel is the author of the short story collection Three For A Dollar, the book of poetry, In The Mellow Light, and several books for children. Her short stories and poems have appeared in various literary journals. A daughter of Holocaust survivors, Wachtel was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a doctor of letters degree from Drew University and for the past thirty years has taught English literature at Middlesex College in Edison, New Jersey. The mother of three grown sons and grandmother to two precocious granddaughters, she currently resides in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with her husband, Arthur.

Wachtel's new novel is A Castle in Brooklyn.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I am so pleased with the title of my book, but it was not easy to settle on it. I originally called the book Jacob’s Castle since it is about Jacob, the central character, and his dream of building a home which he envisioned as a “castle.” However, upon collaborating with my agent and editor, we came up with a better title which quickly immerses the reader in the novel. Have you ever walked down a street in Brooklyn and noticed a castle? Hardly! The title, A Castle in Brooklyn, is ironic and piques the reader’s curiosity, yet it succinctly suggests the novel’s theme. After enduring a traumatic childhood during the Holocaust, Jacob dreams of building a home of his own in America, a land full of possibilities. For him, the home would be a castle. The reader will be curious as to how he accomplishes his goal despite the tragedy he endures along the way.

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

I don’t think my teenage reader self would be surprised by my novel. When I wasn’t studying or hanging out with friends, I wrote. My dream was to be a published author. Writing was a wonderful outlet for a girl who moved several times, wherever my father would find a new business. What did I write about? Mostly, my parents’ hardships during the Holocaust and their adjustment to a new life in Brooklyn, as well as my own dreams of making my life meaningful. So, A Castle in Brooklyn would not surprise me. What would surprise me is how long it took to get there!

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

I begin writing with the nugget of an idea, and generally I know where I am going, how it all will end. However, I am not sure how I will get there, and allow the character to lead the way. I recall writing about a particular character, only to realize halfway through the novel, that she would not survive. Sometimes I surprise myself! Beginnings are always difficult and sometimes require “rewrites,” whether on paper or in my head. Introductions must catch the readers’ attention, make them want to turn the page. I hope I have accomplished that with my novel.

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

I never write with the intention of portraying myself. But sometimes, I find some aspects of my personality “sneaking” into my writing. For example, as a baby boomer, I grew up during the time in which the novel is set, watched the same TV shows, saw the same movies, etc. Like Esther, I went to college and became a teacher in a high school and had empathy for many of my students. And, like the characters in my book, I had dreams. Becoming a published author was one of them.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Family is certainly my greatest inspiration. Like Jacob and Zalman, my parents were Holocaust survivors, my mother, one of eight, losing all but two brothers, while my father lost his entire family. Like Jacob, my father courageously saved himself from death when he was sent to the line headed for the gas chamber in Auschwitz and ran to the line for life. My parents, like the characters in my book, sought to rebuild their life in Brooklyn, not with a home in their case, but several business ventures. Above all, family was important. Besides family, current events motivate my writing. The problems which diverse immigrants have gaining a foothold in the US, a country which offers freedom; and the issue of increasing antisemitism, have inspired me to write literature which forces the reader to see our similarities, not our differences.

Visit Shirley Wachtel's website and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: A Castle in Brooklyn.

My Book, The Movie: A Castle in Brooklyn.

--Marshal Zeringue

Priyanka Taslim

Priyanka Taslim is a Bangladeshi American writer, teacher, and lifelong New Jersey resident. Having grown up in a bustling Bangladeshi diaspora community, surrounded by her mother’s entire clan and many aunties of no relation, her writing often features families, communities, and all the drama therein. Currently, Taslim teaches English by day and tells all kinds of stories about Bangladeshi characters by night. Her writing usually stars spunky Bangladeshi heroines finding their place in the world—and a little swoony romance, too.

Taslim's new novel is The Love Match.

My Q&A with the author:

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

For the longest time, early versions of The Love Match were called Rearranged, because it’s a book that explores and subverts the arranged marriage trope. I think that title might have been a bit on the nose, and since the book has a love triangle, might have felt a little flat? I’m actually not the best at coming up with titles, so my publishing team and I deliberated for a while about what to change it to, and ultimately settled on The Love Match.

A “love match” is a very common phrase in South Asian and Muslim culture. Anyone from those backgrounds who hears the term immediately knows that it refers to a couple who married because they met and fell in love, rather than having an arranged relationship. Love matches are more and more common these days, but what I love about the current title is that it requires a little more thinking. Hopefully, as readers delve into the story, they wonder who is truly Zahra’s love match and maybe change their minds a few times.

What's in a name?

I am definitely an author who ponders names a lot. I never want them to feel too obvious, but I want them to feel right for the character. I wanted to pick names in The Love Match that were clearly brown while not being too challenging for readers outside my culture.

Zahra means beautiful. It also sounds a little similar to Sarah, which means princess. Throughout the book, she’s always fighting against the idea that she is merely meant to be a wife, a pretty thing, despite the fact that what makes her so appealing to the Emons is her heritage as a sort-of-princess. Zahra also means brilliant and shining and I think that’s the truth of who she is beneath the surface, bursting with all of this unrealized potential.

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

She would be completely shocked! I didn’t see Bangladeshi representation outside of a few literary novels until I was already an adult in my twenties. None of the characters looked like me in the books I loved. When I first started writing, I thought I would need to write all white casts—perhaps just a token, funny brown friend—in order to make publishing a reality. The fact that my debut novel defies all of those beliefs would astound the teen I was so much. I think she’d be proud too. I hope teens like the one I was see themselves in the book.

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

I think for The Love Match, the ending was harder. I went through a few different versions of the beginning before I determined what the story would really be about, but once I knew it would be a romance, I also knew that I wanted to start with a wedding. So often, weddings are the ultimate ending in romantic stories, and that’s especially true when it comes to South Asian media like Bangladeshi natoks—the Bengali equivalent of Bollywood movies. There’s still a taboo element to being with someone without the intent to marry them, so happy stories often end with a wedding. When a natok begins with one, it usually means bad news—more often than not, you’re about to follow the tragedy of the new bride’s life as she faces conflict in her new family. Thus, I felt starting with a wedding would add not just the beautiful spectacle of it, but add some tension to make readers wonder: how will this book end?

Since it’s a love triangle, I was torn about the ending, however. I ended up rewriting not just the ending but the whole book a time or two so that the ending felt (hopefully) earned.

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 there’s a little bit of me in a lot of The Love Match’s characters. Zahra has the most of it, because she’s the oldest daughter of an immigrant family just like me. I put a lot of my feelings about that into her even if our life experiences aren’t necessarily 1:1; it’s a really core part of her identity. We’re both writers and romantics, but also very practical. We’re fiercely loving and protective of anyone important to us. I think the difference is that she’s braver than I am.

I probably come off as more of a Harun during first meetings. I can be shy and anxious, but if you dig past that a little, I’m nerdy and dorky, I love puns, that sort of thing. In that way, I have a sense of humor similar to Zahra’s best friend Dani too.

Of the big three in the love triangle, I think Nayim is probably the most different from me. He’s outgoing and a social butterfly, a total free spirit. I’ve gotten better at being more extroverted after teaching and doing so many writing events, but I’m still awkward at heart. I wish I could be more like him!

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

For this particular book, my family and community were a huge influence. I set The Love Match in my hometown and gave Zahra some of the struggles anyone growing up surrounded by nosy aunties and uncles might face, so Bangladeshi culture plays a big part.

I love a lot of different media and find inspiration in it as well! I really enjoy watching Korean dramas and slice of life, romantic anime. I love watching all kinds of romcom films and tv series with romantic elements. The classic romcoms of the ‘90s and early ‘00s still have some of my favorite moments. I also love some of the famous Bollywood romances.

Some of my earliest writing projects were actually fanfics of anime and video game series, like Final Fantasy VII, so I can’t wait for the second part of the remake and have been having a blast playing the remaster of Crisis Core. I’m not sure if readers will find any similarities in my romance novels, but these things have definitely influenced me over the years.

Visit Priyanka Taslim's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Love Match.

--Marshal Zeringue