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?Visit Derek Milman's website.
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 avery 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.
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