Derek Milman

Derek Milman is the author of Scream All Night and Swipe Right for Murder. A graduate of Yale Drama School, Milman has performed on stages across the country, and appeared in numerous TV shows and films, working with two Academy Award-winning film directors. He lives in Brooklyn.

Milman's new novel is A Darker Mischief.

My Q&A with the author:

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

It was originally called With Love & Mischief, which is the sign-off of the secret society at the heart of the novel, and also the real one at Yale on which it is based. I adored that title, it reminded me of an old Salinger story, For Esmé--with Love and Squalor, and classic literature, which this book takes many of its cues from. When the sub-genre of dark academia began to trend and my book fell into this emerging aesthetic (accidental, on my part) Scholastic asked me to change the title so we went with A Darker Mischief which I think is a good encapsulation of the world of the book and the plot.

What's in a name?

The main character's name is Calixte Ware and he goes by Cal. Calixte means "most beautiful" in French, but I think I just found the name especially fetching in its own way. If I hear a name I like to make a note of it, and did so in this case. I like that he doesn't use his full first name, it makes him seem more real to me, more multi-layered. In early drafts he detested his name, but I cut that, so now he just goes by Cal because it makes him more relatable. His parents are unconventional people, so it makes sense they would have transcended typically Southern norms for names and picked Calixte.

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

I probably would have no idea what I was talking about or what this even was. I didn't go to boarding school, I wasn't out, I had no inkling of secret societies. But I was reading those classic Vintage International paperbacks, which this is similar to, in scope, and maybe I would have seen the literary angle going on, and would have probably recognized the humor.

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

I tend to figure out what the ending is going to be very early on in the process and then it becomes a race to figure out how to get there. The beginning changed many times in this book, but that might just be typical of this book. But I think I tend to tweak beginnings a lot and then the ending is set from a pretty early point in the drafting phase.

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

It depends on the character. They all germinate from my consciousness, so they all have to come from somewhere inside me. That said, many characters in A Darker Mischief are fairly different from me in many ways. Maybe this book more than any other I've written. Looking at the main character of Cal, however, he has a very different background than mine. I grew up in the well-to-do New York suburbs and was fairly shy and sexually dormant. Cal, who is poor, comes from a small town in Mississippi, and got up to a lot of mischief before winning his scholarship to Essex and traveling far away (which I never would've done at that age outside sleepaway camp). But internally, a lot of those differences vaporize. We are both sharp, sensitive, hyper-aware people, who struggle with loneliness and a sense of belonging, while fighting against isolation and self-worth. Luke Kim, his foil, probably represents my dark side, even though I wouldn't peg him as an especially dark character, just troubled, compromised.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Books and movies always do. Movies have been a massive influence. But meeting people and hearing their stories is the best source of inspiration. People always tell you fairly wild stories, if you listen, and so much of what anyone says can help make up a character, or build a psychological profile. Even the smallest of anecdotes can inspire something. I'm a visual person, so I always love going to museums, galleries, and rifling through photography books. Sometimes music, or the strangest of songs, can inspire something. When the thrashing punk band Wavves slowed everything down to record this pretty, nonsensical song called "Cop" about a man who kills a cop and then just rests in his boyfriend's arms after the carnage, I loved that whole idea, it lit some fuse about gays behaving badly that have permeated my last few books. Why do gay men always have to be depicted as fashionistas screaming "slay, queen!" at their local drag bar -- no, there is a whole wide world out there, and we are just like other people, with all the flaws and pain and hopes and dreams.

Visit Derek Milman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Scream All Night.

The Page 69 Test: Swipe Right for Murder.

My Book, The Movie: Swipe Right for Murder.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sharon Wishnow

Armed with an MFA, publications certification, and a BA, Sharon J. Wishnow, a New Englander now in Northern Virginia, crafts upmarket fiction with environmental themes. As a former VP of Communications for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, she founded Women’s Fiction Day and serves as Executive Editor of WriteOn! magazine.

Wishnow’s storytelling centers on flawed, educated women navigating environmental changes. Passionate about research, she shares insights through speaking engagements and her newsletter, Research for Writers and Other Curious People.

Beyond writing, she finds solace in her garden, bird-watching, and feeding peanuts to local squirrels.

Wishnow's new novel is The Pelican Tide.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I tell authors I know not to become hooked on their book title because chances are, it'll change. My original title for The Pelican Tide was axed by my agent. She renamed it and I hated it. It knew I'd have another chance if it was sold. And I was right. I feel the title does a 75% job of clueing readers into themes of the story, it deals with an ocean setting and there is most definitely a pelican. The word tide also evokes change and my characters face a lot of change. However, the other 25% of the book is about an oil spill and a hot sauce competition.

What's in a name?

Names are everything in my story and provide authenticity to the setting and something to help the reader remember the characters. Josie Babineaux is named after a friend's mother who passed away as I was starting the book. Hugh Dean and Odeal, the book's human antagonists were taken from an actual US. Census listing of the Babineaux family in the Louisiana Parish where the story takes place. Louise, the town mayor, is named for my childhood best friend. Minnow, Josie's daughter was at first a character nickname until it just became the character. And Gumbo the pelican was named to explain his origin story with the Babineaux family.

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

I think she would love the story but not believe older me had the ability to write it.

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

I begin every story knowing what the last scene is and that usually doesn't change. Beginnings are completely different. I rewrite first chapters and opening sentences more times than I can count.

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

I don't see any particular character like me in The Pelican Tide. However, the characters face some issues that I have in my life and I was able to call on my memories and emotions to make their stories more authentic.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I am greatly influenced by the natural world. The Pelican Tide was inspired by a documentary I had seen on the 10th anniversary of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill and I asked, What happened to the people. This is my version.

Visit Sharon J. Wishnow's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Maggie Nye

Maggie Nye is the author of The Curators. She is a writer and teacher whose work has been supported by MacDowell, Tin House, and the St. Albans Writer in Residence program.

My Q&A with the author:

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

For many years, while I was shopping my manuscript around, my title was How do you like these bad days? That original title came from a line in a postcard I found from murder victim Mary Phagan to her cousin. I dug up said postcard in the archives of the Breman Museum of Jewish History in Atlanta. I loved that it gave Mary a chance to speak, but editors and readers agreed that it was too long and obscure.

After much agonizing, I landed on The Curators because that title accurately depicts the desires of the adolescent girls who narrate my novel. They seek to collect and to control a historical perspective that is denied to them. An audience member at my book launch asked me recently: “Why not The Creators? They create a golem, so wouldn’t that title make more sense?” And my answer is that though they bring a golem to life, even that is an act of curation. Their golem can only act within the boundaries of history and the conversation that surrounds it. They can only manipulate the conversation and try to change the lens.

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

Honestly, I think my teenage reader self would really dig this novel. I suppose that either means that my selfhood is remarkably consistent or that I haven’t matured much intellectually since my teenage years. Either is possible. But the intensity of the adolescent friendships in my novel, the feeling of trying to uncover what is being shielded from you, and the desire to have agency in one’s own life, and to be part of--not apart from--history all seem like themes my high school self, at least, could get behind!

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

Endings, for sure! I am not a planner. Never have been when it comes to writing. So while my beginning remained pretty much consistent, the concept of the ending that I had in my head when I first started writing changed pretty radically as the characters made choices I hadn’t anticipated. I also changed my ending at the eleventh hour to give more space to Mary Phagan--the murdered adolescent factory worker at the heart of the historical tragedy that underpins my novel.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Ooh, I love this question! Well, first, I did a ton of research for this novel, so the cumulative time I spent in the archives of various museums in Georgia or skimming through historical issues of the Atlanta Constitution or reading issues of the popular weekly Collier’s pretty much created the novel. I really do feel like this novel hatched from the research I did.

But in addition to the research, I watched several movies to try to enhance my visual writing and to immerse myself in the intensity and urgency of adolescent girl friendships. The Turkish film Mustang (2010), for example, was very meaningful to me during this time. I see it as a more internal, more intimate Turkish answer to The Virgin Suicides. The films Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), and especially Heavenly Creatures (1994) were also on repeat while I was drafting my novel too. The fervor of the fantasy world that the protagonists of Heavenly Creatures conjure made me giddy with desire to write!

Visit Maggie Nye's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Curators.

--Marshal Zeringue