Barbara Gayle Austin

Barbara Gayle Austin writes crime fiction. She grew up in Houston, Texas, but has spent most of her adult life in the Netherlands and the UK. She now lives in Amsterdam with her two children and her dog.

What You Made Me Do is Austin’s debut novel, a thriller set in Amsterdam and a Dutch island in the Wadden Sea. The novel was longlisted for the esteemed Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger award (under the title Lowlands). Her short stories have been longlisted in the Margery Allingham short mystery competition and in the Aestas 2022 competition.

My Q&A with Austin:

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

My novel is a dark psychological thriller. The original title, Lowlands, doesn’t say what kind of book it is or what it’s about.

The publisher wanted a title that would appeal to readers of thrillers, so I brainstormed with my daughter, and we suggested ten options. What You Made Me Do is a variation of one of those suggestions. The title is brilliant—it works on multiple levels. As the reader delves into the book, they will wonder which character(s) the title refers to.

What's in a name?

The novel is set in the Netherlands, and the characters are Dutch. But I wanted to avoid names that are difficult for native English speakers to pronounce. If I had known that there would be an audio edition of the book, I would have picked names that are even easier. Fortunately, Andy Arndt, who narrates the audio book, has studied Dutch. So her pronunciation is spot on.

Part of the novel takes place on Wexalia, a fictional island inspired by the real island of Terschelling—one of the barrier islands off the northern coast. Wexalia is the medieval name for eastern Terschelling. I didn’t use the real/modern name, because I changed the geography of the island to accommodate the story.

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

My teenage self dreamed of writing mysteries, but she never…ever… imagined that she would be living in the Netherlands and set her debut novel there.

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

I love writing both beginnings and endings. One isn’t harder for me to write than the other. But I end up changing the endings more than the beginnings because sometimes the characters take on a life of their own and defy my original plans for them. For example, in the thriller I’m writing now, there’s a murder near the end of the book. In the current draft, the character I had originally intended to be the killer becomes the victim, while the supposed victim turns into an accomplice.

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

There’s a little of me in each character. I can step into their shoes and pretend to be them. I imagine how they feel and how they would react in a scene, but I promise I have never committed a murder!

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My adopted city of Amsterdam has deeply influenced my writing. The rich history, the mix of nationalities, the canals, and the crooked houses all play a part. Not to mention the unstable wooden poles supporting the older parts of the city—a constant reminder of an invisible threat beneath the surface.

Visit Barbara Gayle Austin's website.

The Page 69 Test: What You Made Me Do.

--Marshal Zeringue

Samantha Greene Woodruff

Samantha Greene Woodruff is the author of Amazon #1 bestseller The Lobotomist’s Wife. She studied history at Wesleyan University and continued her studies at NYU’s Stern School of Business, where she earned an MBA. Woodruff spent nearly two decades working on the business side of media, primarily at Viacom’s Nickelodeon, before leaving corporate life to become a full-time mom. In her newfound “free” time, she took classes at the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, where she accidentally found her calling as a historical fiction author. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek, Writer’s Digest, Female First, Read 650, and more.

Woodruff's new novel is The Trade Off.

My Q&A with the author:

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

This was not an easy book to name! From the moment I had the idea to write about a woman trying to be an investor in the stock market in the lead up to the Great Crash, I loved the title “What Goes Up.” For me it was fun and inviting but also foreshadowed the catastrophe that was coming (you know, because of the adage: “what goes up always comes down.”) But no one else liked it. They felt it sounded too rom-com for historical fiction and I saw that too. In the end, we came up with over fifty titles before we landed on The Trade Off. Two of the other finalists were Her Side of the Street and Rhapsody in Gold, but I felt that The Trade Off did just enough to play on Wall Street and hint at the fact that it isn’t going to be easy for the protagonist to achieve her goals, without giving much away.

What's in a name?

My protagonist, Bea Abramovitz’s family dynamic was based on stories I’d been told about my grandmother, Pauline. She was the only daughter of Polish immigrants who were extremely wealthy, lost everything when they immigrated, and her mother treated her like a servant and her brothers like princes. She was my favorite grandma and passed away when I was only ten, so I wanted to honor her and my grandpa Lew (who my daughter Lila is named after), by calling Bea’s parents Pauline and Lew.

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

My teenage self would be surprised that I was a novelist at all. My high school pipe dream was to be a rock star, not a novelist. I sang in bands and wrote angst-ridden poetry. I also wrote an incredibly wordy children’s book for a senior project but I never thought I’d make a career out of writing. I loved to read (most writers do,) and I favored mysteries and sci-fi thrillers. When everyone else was reading Sweet Valley High, I read a series of books called Dark Forces. I devoured Nancy Drew and then graduated to Agatha Christie. I guess that explains why my pure pleasure reading is still psychological thrillers. I didn’t find historical fiction, as a reader, until I was a full-blown adult with a BA in history, and I didn’t start writing until I was in my forties.

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

For The Trade Off, the whole idea hinged on the ending, so that was set from the beginning. In general, I have a loose outline for the major beats of my novels before I write them, but I let the details, and the individual scenes evolve over time (and adjust the outline accordingly). I didn’t know where we would enter Bea’s story or how the “chicken little” aspect of the novel—Bea seeing that a market crash was coming and no one believing her—would evolve. And it changed as I wrote it. The ending stayed the same, although the way it happened wasn’t what I had initially planned.

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 of writing characters like method acting. Even when they have different personalities and life experiences than mine, I look to my own relationships and feelings to find authenticity in my characters’ reactions to events and people. So, I’m always in there somewhere.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

A recent event in the stock market sparked the idea for The Trade Off: the GameStop short squeeze of 2021, which was also the subject of the movie Dumb Money. I was fascinated that the investors selling the stock short were perceived as villains and the buyers of the stock were the heroes. This got me thinking about the complex morality of wealth, especially on Wall Street when fortunes can be made and lost in a matter of hours. Since I write historical fiction, I looked to the past for my actual story, but this more recent event is where the idea originated. More broadly, I’m a huge TV and movie person and I think there is a certain pacing that I try to achieve in my writing as a result. Probably, I write for those with shorter attention spans.

Visit Samantha Greene Woodruff's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Lobotomist's Wife.

My Book, The Movie: The Trade Off.

--Marshal Zeringue

Melody Maysonet

Melody Maysonet is the author of the critically acclaimed novel A Work of Art and has been an English teacher, editor, columnist, and ghostwriter. After growing up in Illinois, she moved to South Florida to see how much greener the grass could be ... and discovered that life is what you make of it, wherever that happens to be.

What We Wish For is Maysonet's second novel.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My working title for a long time was Out of Mind because the main character’s mom is out of her mind, but it was also a play on “out of sight, out of mind,” as in, Layla, the main character, is trying to hide who she really is.

Then I settled on What We Wish For as the title, which is a play on the phrase, “Be careful what you wish for.” Layla thinks she gets everything she wishes for when her rich aunt and uncle swoop in to save her from the homeless shelter, sending her mom to fancy addiction rehab and moving Layla into their mansion. Layla thinks all her dreams have come true but finds out that getting everything she wished for comes with its own price tag.

The title is also a reference to hope—as in, there are so many things we wish for, and oftentimes we don’t get them, but the point is to keep hope alive. In What We Wish For, Layla longs for a better life—for herself, for her mom. She longs to be a better person, to be a better friend, a better daughter. She struggles and gets knocked down and falls backwards, but she never gives up hope, and that’s her saving grace.

What's in a name?

One of Layla’s love interests in the novel is a teenager named Gabriel. I picked that name for a few reasons. The seed for this book was planted when I was volunteer teaching at a homeless shelter and I was introduced to some new residents, including a mom and her teenage son. The kid’s name was Gabriel, and I remember wondering what his life was like. Did he resent his mom for their living situation? Did the kids at school know where he was living? I know nothing else about this real-life kid except his name, which I thought would be a good name for someone who has a positive influence on Layla. Like Layla, Gabriel lives in the homeless shelter, and to me, he’s the epitome of cool. But he’s also a sort of mentor for Layla—an angel, if you will—so I thought the name was appropriate.

Layla’s snotty cousin (who Layla ends up living with once she moves in with her aunt and uncle) is named Celeste, and I chose that name because I like how it implies something celestial or otherworldly, which plays into the theme of wishing. Celeste herself isn’t exactly angelic. In fact, she starts out pretty unlikeable, but I think she redeems herself by the end, and that plays into another of the book’s themes, which is to look beyond the surface of things.

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

Once I know where a book is going, the ending kind of writes itself. But the first chapter? That’s a tough one. One of my earlier drafts had Layla whining about living in a homeless shelter, and I realized that it made her unlikeable. Chapter one went through a bunch of rewrites, and now it begins with Layla sitting in an AA meeting with her mom. And yeah, they’re homeless, and yeah, her mom is struggling to stay sober, but Layla is determined to stay positive, even though all the evidence is sending up alarm bells.

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

Layla is definitely based on me. Like her, I was poor growing up, and like her, I struggled in high school. I tried to project this attitude of “I don’t care what you think of me,” but I did care, and I felt very much less-than. I also wrote quite a bit of poetry when I was a teen, just like Layla, and like her, I was told by an English teacher at my school that my poems were “too filled with teenage angst.”

Layla’s mom, the struggling alcoholic, is also based on me. I’m an alcoholic, and though I’ve been in recovery for almost 18 years, I remember how awful it was to wake up telling myself I wouldn’t drink that day only to fail over and over. For years, I was a shell of a human being, but thankfully I found a way out, and for that, I am so very grateful.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My sister Dawn Freeman is one of the coolest people I know, and she had a huge influence on me. Dawn wrote poetry in high school, which made want to write poetry. In fact, Layla’s poetry shirt is based on a sweatshirt my sister wore in high school that she’d covered in lines from her poems, each of them written in different-colored Sharpie. I’m pretty sure people made fun of that shirt, so it took a lot of bravery for her to wear it. That’s the kind of person Layla wants to be—someone brave—but she’s too embarrassed to show off her own poetry, so her shirt is covered with famous poems instead of her own.

Visit Melody Maysonet's website.

The Page 69 Test: What We Wish For.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jeffrey Archer

A matchless spinner of engrossing tales, Jeffrey Archer is a bestselling British novelist and former politician. His hugely successful body of work includes Kane and Abel, First Among Equals, and the multi-volume Clifton Chronicles.

Archer's new novel is An Eye for an Eye.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Titles are very important. They can tempt you to read a book and they can stop you from reading a book. I spend some considerable time thinking about my titles and they rarely come easily. I think Kane and Abel, Only Time Will Tell and Not a Penny More have helped sales, so I will always take the problem of titles very seriously.

What's in a name?

Names are very important, because they set the tone of what the person is like, for example William Warwick is clearly a good and decent person, whereas with Miles Faulkner you cannot be sure and, certainly, Hani Khalil sets the tone even before you read about him.

Sometimes, just first names can give it away: Beth, Jojo and Artemisia all tell their own story, as do Jackie, Christina and Alice. Surnames are equally important and I spend some considerable time making sure a name and place are correct.

Once a year, I offer the chance, for charity, for someone to have their name in a book and that is a challenge in itself, because some want to be baddies and some want to be goodies and some don’t care. I wonder if you can spot who paid £26,000 to be in the next book.

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

I loved all the Just William books and Swallows and Amazons when I was a boy so, frankly, I don’t think I would be surprised.

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

I must confess I don’t find the beginnings or the endings at all difficult. It is the middles, when you must hold the readers’ interest, keeping them guessing and wanting to turn the pages. There is only one sin for a writer: boring the reader.

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

Of course, one has a tendency to put characters in that you are familiar with and, certainly, in the case of my wife, Mary, she is Beth in the William Warwick series. Christina is based on a friend, as is Ross, so I advise prospective writers to write about people they know, because they will be able to describe them more easily and will know their characteristics.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I watch a lot of very bad films and television programmes and sometimes only manage twenty minutes.

However, when I watch something wonderful, like The West Wing, Call my Agent or the German film The Lives of Others, I learn from the skill of the writer and the translation of the actor, in the hope it will help my own work.

Visit Jeffrey Archer's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elom Akoto

Elom K. Akoto immigrated to the United States from Togo (West Africa). He earned a bachelor’s degree in Education and a master’s degree in TESOL (Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages). He is the founder of Learn and Care, a nonprofit organization that aims to promote Literacy and Adult Education, not only among immigrants but also among Native Americans who missed the opportunity to earn a high school diploma. The program offers ESL, literacy, GED preparation classes, and more. He self-published two ESL workbooks: Ideal Companion, ESL level 1 and Ideal Companion, ESL level 2. He teaches French in a high school and ESL at a community college in Omaha, Nebraska, where he lives with his family.

Akoto's debut novel is Blindspot in America.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The final title of my debut novel, Blindspot in America, was not the original title I gave it. I was unhappy when my publisher decided it was best to find a new title for the book because of how cliché In the Dream of America would appear to potential readers. The publisher then included me in the task of finding a new title. After tossing words around, Blindspot in America seemed to fit the story better, as it depicts how prospective immigrants’ conception of America excludes or instead omits some crucial aspects and realities of their future adopted country. Those aspects and realities constitute the spots they didn’t see in their dream of America.

What's in a name?

I was looking for an uncommon name for the protagonist of my novel, and Kamao came to me quickly. Although it doesn’t mean anything, to my knowledge, it sounded like a good name for an intelligent, idealist African young man immigrating to the United States.

Brad and Lindsey McAdams are good names for a wealthy, influential, conservative US senator and his more down-to-earth, well-mannered daughter.

Nana, a name attributed to a “chief,” “king,” or “royalty” in Ghana, is most fitting for Kamao’s father. This well-respected and wealthy academic also happens to be the health secretary.

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

Referring to what Toni Morrison said about writing a book that one wants to read but hasn’t been written, I would have loved to read Kamao’s story if it had been written by someone else when I was a teenager because it would have allowed me to discover another side of America that I didn’t know about racism, discrimination, the influence of class, and power.

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

Surprisingly, I had little trouble writing this novel's beginning and ending. They were the two most important parts I settled with quickly and relatively easily. Once I knew and liked how the story started and ended and felt comfortable with them, I thought it would be a good story. The part that I had to rewrite mostly was the middle part, the story's evolution, and the plot's details.

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

Kamao appears knowledgeable and idealistic, and I see myself posing those attributes a bit.

Besides those, I don’t feel like I have much in common with other characters, many of whom are immigrants from different parts of the world I’m only familiar with through my research and readings.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My experience as an immigrant in America has tremendously influenced my writing. What I dreamt about the US was not what I’ve experienced in my almost twenty years in this country. There are some things I went through that felt senseless and nearly inhumane, but I also always believe in America’s promise of freedom and opportunity for all. I think I’m an example of the story of my novel because I’m becoming a published author today, besides the struggles that I knew. Although it is not given nor a guarantee, the opportunity is always there, somewhere in this country, for every individual to achieve their goal and potential.

Visit Elom Akoto's website.

My Book, The Movie: Blindspot in America.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tess Callahan

Tess Callahan is the author of the novels April & Oliver and Dawnland. Her essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Writer’s Digest, National Public Radio, Agni, Narrative Magazine, AWP Notebook, Newsday, The Common, the Best American Poetry blog, and elsewhere. Her TEDx talk on creativity is titled, “The Love Affair Between Creativity & Constraint.” Callahan is a graduate of Boston College and Bennington College Writing Seminars. A certified meditation teacher, she offers meditations on Heart Haven Meditations and Insight Timer. She curates Muse-feed.com, a toolbox for aspiring writers. A dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, she lives in Cape Cod and Northern New Jersey with her family and number one life coach, her dog.

My Q&A with Callahan:

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

During a weeklong family reunion on Cape Cod, a stretch of beach the characters refer to as Dawnland, two brothers convene at their father’s house with their wives, teenage children, and deeply held secrets in tow. Dawnland is the Wampanoag and Wabanaki name for the northeastern seaboard, the place of the first sunrise, a symbol of hope and renewal. The father figure in Dawnland, Hal, finds this indigenous name more fitting than Cape Cod, especially now that most of the cod have been fished out. Like Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, the title establishes the setting as central to the story while also acting as a metaphor. The primal forces of nature collide with the unresolved past of the characters and, kaboom! In Dawnland the natural world is a reckoning force. Hope is born of hard-won realizations. ‘Dusk Land’ would be a different novel.

What's in a name?

Dawnland’s central character, April, is named for the month she was born in, “like a date received stamp,” she says. Her parents, who play a peripheral role in the backstory, are emotionally tone deaf. Self-worth is a challenge April meets head-on in Dawnland. Can she step into her own power? I chose Oliver’s name both for its consonance with April, sharing the “L” and “R” sounds, as well the musicality offered by those long, luscious vowels. Oliver is a musician. April’s volatile teenage son Lochlann, who hides beneath layers of armor, is a ‘lock” she longs to crack. It turns out she needs Oliver’s musical magic to do so.

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

Young Tess would be quite shocked to see some of her own ancestral dynamics—patterns of avoidance and deference, the weight of unworthiness—laid bare in Dawnland. Part of her would say, “Thank God my family is nothing like this.” Another part would see down through the ancestral line to patterns of addiction, not so much to substances (although one character, Al, is fond of booze), but to habits of mind, default modes of helplessness and despair. The characters in Dawnland are forced to reckon with their own forms of autopilot and embrace the possibility of radical agency. I think teenage Tess would find her head spinning. It’s quite a ride!

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

Beginnings are pure joy. I love the headlong dive into a story. Dawnland opens with April’s teenage son, Lochlann, falling off a skiff into the ocean at night. He symbolizes everything that can be lost through avoidance and noncommunication. I enjoy exploring where a mysterious opening scene will lead me. Endings often remain a mystery well into the writing. I tend to compose the way a goose migrates, one flap at a time. The goose may not have a mental picture of where it is going, but its inner GPS knows when it has arrived. From the get-go, I sensed the fate of these characters. Getting there was a line-by-line act of trust.

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

A reader asked me recently how I could have come up with a character like Al, a carousing hard-drinking sportswriter who she said, “is nothing like you.” I assured her that I am in touch with my inner loose cannon. I once heard Milan Kundera say in an interview that his characters start where he leaves off. That feels right to me. April, Oliver, and the whole crew each represent some unlived, unexpressed part of me. I’ve taken my own proclivities and let them play out to their worst-case scenarios. By letting the characters suffer the full fallout of their choices, they reveal to the reader, and to themselves, who they are. In life and in fiction, our most daunting challenges show us what we’re made of.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

The dynamic topography of Cape Cod greatly influenced the writing of Dawnland. Having vacationed here for 25 years and lived here part-time for the past eight, I have witnessed firsthand the spectacular power of the sea, the erosion of dune cliffs, and the fall of beachfront homes into the ocean. Stellwagen Bank off the tip of Cape Cod is a summer feeding ground for whales and other mammals. A growing seal population has led to the recent return of the area’s apex predator, the great white shark, a development which Cape Cod has embraced as a sign of a healthy ecosystem. All of this plays into the events of Dawnland, in which intimate encounters with marine life play a pivotal role.

Learn more about the novel and author at Tess Callahan's website.

The Page 69 Test: April and Oliver.

The Page 69 Test: Dawnland.

My Book, The Movie: Dawnland.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mansi Shah

Mansi Shah writes novels centering Gujarati characters that speak to generational differences across the Indian diaspora, and she's the author of the acclaimed novels The Direction of the Wind and The Taste of Ginger. Shah was born in Toronto to Indian immigrants, raised in the midwestern United States, and is now based in Los Angeles. She left her long-time career as an entertainment attorney in Hollywood to travel the world and write full time. She loves to cook and is often experimenting on new culinary creations that blend Indian flavors with other cuisines.

Shah's new novel is A Good Indian Girl.

My Q&A with the author:

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

A Good Indian Girl is the perfect title for this novel and really sets the tone for the story. Coupled with the cover, which features an Indian woman with a smirk, the reader can intuit that this is going to be a story that challenges the stereotypes of what is expected of a “good Indian girl.” The story starts off with Jyoti, who is a 42-year-old woman who finds herself divorced and estranged from her parents after she was unable to conceive the child that her husband so desperately wanted. She’d given up her chef career to focus on having children, so she approaches the second half of her life having lost everything that she thought she was supposed to have at that stage of her life. With no obligations, she spends the summer in Italy with her best friend, Karishma, a fellow social outcast from their conservative Gujarati community. Through the experiences of Jyoti and Karishma—and a lot of pasta and Chianti—the story changes the narrative of what type of life a good Indian girl should have, and is grounded in the universal themes of reinventing ourselves after loss, learning to live for ourselves, and the significance of found family.

What's in a name?

Jyoti Shah is the quintessential Gujarati American woman, so I had to make sure she had a quintessential Gujarati name. In my novels, I showcase names from the Indian diaspora, and in A Good Indian Girl, I wanted to make sure I highlighted a name that is often mispronounced in North America in the hopes that others with the same name might have a slightly easier road ahead if more readers are exposed to it. And her last name Shah, which is the same as mine, was chosen not because she and I are similar, but because in the Indian community, the last name is often a signifier of the caste and region of India that a person comes from. Shah is an incredibly common last name in Gujarat, and many of the cultural aspects of my life—and Jyoti’s—are specific to that subset of Indians, so that is why the majority of my protagonists throughout my novels have the last name “Shah.”

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

I don’t allow myself to start drafting until I have a clear sense of the beginning and ending scenes. In a story about a chef in Tuscany, I knew I had to start the story with the reader being able to taste the food, and the truffle gnocchi dish described on the first page is from an actual restaurant in Florence and sets the tone for the mouthwatering story ahead. Given the focus on food in this novel, I made sure to include recipes for the Indian-Italian fusion dishes that Jyoti creates. I won’t give away the ending to this story, but so far, in all the novels I’ve written, my ending scene has remained unchanged from the first draft to final publication.

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

Jyoti was an interesting character to write because while we have cultural aspects in common, the essence of her personality and life experience are not the same as mine. At her core, Jyoti is a people pleaser. She spent most of her life doing what she thought would make others happy: her husband, her parents, her community. She never stopped to think about what she wanted, including whether she wanted children for herself or to give up her career, or whether she just subjected herself to a decade of torture trying to conceive to satisfy the dreams of someone else. I haven’t struggled with people pleasing to the extent that Jyoti has, and wouldn’t say that trait is part of my core personality, so it was very interesting to get into the mindset of someone who is driven by different goals than I am. While I have never been a chef, I do share of love of cooking with Jyoti, and those aspects of the story were incredibly fun for me to write because, as authors, we get to live out other lives through our characters and words—without the late restaurant hours.

Visit Mansi Shah's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Asha Greyling

Asha Greyling lives in Maryland with her furry four-footed muses, Gwin the terrier and a guinea pig who thinks she’s a cat. She likes nothing more than swinging in the playground (unless the local children scare her off), collecting acorns, or sitting down with a good book.

Greyling's new novel is The Vampire of Kings Street.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I think The Vampire of Kings Street is a very posh, elegant title with a bit of punch. It’s the kind of title that screams elite society – and then throws in a vampire. I think it does a great job setting up the historical vibe of the book, while suggesting darker undertones.

What's in a name?

One of my favorite characters in this book is Evelyn More, the vampire. I remember it jumped out and surprised me when I realized the name sounds like “evermore.” I love Edgar Allan Poe’s writing, so this interesting twist on “Nevermore” from a vampire’s perspective—being bound to this worldly existence evermore, instead of nevermore—I just couldn’t resist.

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

Sadly, not surprised at all. My teenage self was singing musical numbers from Sweeney Todd in the shower.

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

The middle is the hardest for me. I reach a point where I’m thinking, is this really that good? Will anyone enjoy reading this? I have to go back and review, and get my energy back from reading what’s come before to assure me that yes, this book is worth writing.

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 every character I’ve ever written has a little of myself in them. For me, writing is like acting. If I can feel it, I can write it.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Computer games! Movies! Music! Music especially helps me visualize the story. I feel like I owe a lot of this book to the music I was listening to at the time, like The Razor Skyline’s “Vittoria” and—on a more classical note—Laura Wright’s beautiful rendition of “Canon in D.” Give those songs a listen—you might be inspired, too!

Visit Asha Greyling's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Vampire of Kings Street.

My Book, The Movie: The Vampire of Kings Street.

--Marshal Zeringue

Caroline Wolff

Caroline Wolff is a writer and editor. She holds an MFA in Fiction from New York University, where she also taught undergraduate creative writing. She lives in downtown Manhattan.

Wolff's new novel is The Wayside.

My Q&A with the author:

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

She wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest. Teenage Caroline was drawn to anything darkly beautiful. (For context, the summer I was 15 I listened to Elliott Smith every night before bed and cried, just to evoke an intense emotional response and so have more fodder to draw from in my writing.) When I was creating the moody atmosphere of The Wayside, I also drew on a few of the books I loved as a teenager, like the campus vibe of The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis and the gothic overtones of Night Film by Marisha Pessl. And she would definitely approve of Jake’s taste in music.

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

It’s harder for me to write endings. I tend to fly through the first chunk of my drafts, because I’m just so energized by introducing these voices, and then I reach a sticking point about halfway through. I usually maintain a little bit of stuckness right up until the end. I need to write more logically, rather than intuitively. I found it especially tricky to write the ending of a thriller, since the genre has certain conventions that need to be honored, including an ending that provides some kind of “answer” to the question we’ve been pursuing for the past 300 or so pages. So I ended up changing the ending of The Wayside at least twice, because the first iteration was just a little too far-fetched.

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

The short answer is no. This is the first time I’ve written characters that weren’t thinly- veiled reflections of my own personality, and I actually found it liberating to inhabit these unfamiliar voices. That said, of course some parts of yourself or your world come through in your writing. In order to do justice to Jake’s struggle with his mental health, for example, I had to draw on my own experience with depression as a young adult. Superficially, I relate to Luna aesthetically. We have a similar wardrobe and a penchant for Japanese skincare products.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Music is a major inspiration for me. It can really help me enter into the mood of the world I’m creating, or even the mindset of the characters. For The Wayside, I was listening to a lot of Chelsea Wolfe (specifically her album Pain is Beauty, with the song “Feral Love” on repeat), Bauhaus (“All We Ever Wanted is Everything” gets a shoutout in the novel), and SASAMI’s album Squeeze.

Visit Caroline Wolff's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Cynthia Swanson

Cynthia Swanson is the Denver-based author of the psychological suspense novels The Bookseller, The Glass Forest, and the newly released Anyone But Her. An Indie Next selection, New York Times bestseller, and winner of the WILLA Literary Award, The Bookseller is slated to be a motion picture produced by Julia Roberts. Swanson is also the editor of the award-winning anthology Denver Noir, which features dark, morally ambiguous stories set in and around Denver, written by 14 notable literary and mystery authors.

My Q&A with the author:

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

On page 7 of Anyone But Her, we hear these exact words (“anyone but her”) spoken by Alex, mom of Suzanne, the novel’s main character. Six months earlier, Alex was killed during an armed robbery of her record store on Colfax Avenue in Denver. Now, she appears as a ghost to 14-year-old Suzanne, a clairvoyant, and urges Suzanne to intervene in the relationship between Suzanne’s father James, and his girlfriend, Peggy, whom he’d dated in high school. Alex explains that after meeting Peggy at James and Peggy’s high school reunion, she’d jokingly told him that if she died, he could marry “anyone but her.”

Lost in grief and loneliness, Suzanne heeds her mother’s warnings and does what she can to break up James and Peggy. The repercussions of this decision are severe and long-lasting, both when Suzanne is a teen in 1979, and in 2004, twenty-five years later, when she returns to live in Denver with her husband and children after decades away.

What's in a name?

Ooh, I worked long and hard on this one! As a record store owner, Alex obviously loved music, so I wanted her to give her daughter a name inspired by a musician or a song. I ultimately landed on Suzanne, after the Leonard Cohen song. I made up a scene in which Alex, pregnant at the time with Suzanne, hears Judy Collins sing “Suzanne” in a little club in Denver in 1964. The scene is purely fiction, in no small part because Cohen didn’t publish “Suzanne” as a poem until 1966, so I had to take poetic license there. However, Judy Collins did record the song that same year (1966). She was a graduate of the high school that Suzanne attends, Denver East High. Collins was in the class of 1957—the year before James and Peggy also graduated from East.

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

Suzanne and I are about the same age, so my teenage self would definitely recognize the cultural references in Anyone But Her—music, clothes, movies, books. I’m not clairvoyant, but I’ve always had an affinity for ghost stories. My teenage self wouldn’t be a bit surprised that I wrote one.

Teenage Cynthia might be surprised that the novel is set in Denver, because I didn’t grow up here. However, I think she might (as I do) sort of wish that I did. I have numerous friends my age who are Denver natives, and their stories helped shape the narrative—and also made me a bit envious that I didn’t share their experiences here in the seventies and eighties. I would have loved going to a concert at Red Rocks when I was a high schooler!

I didn’t plan this, of course (I started writing the novel in 2019), but Gen X/Gen Jones is having a moment right now, and it’s fun to have a novel coming out that’s set in the era when those generations were young. Like many of us born in the 1960s, my teenage self would be pretty excited about that.

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

For me, it’s the middle that gets tough! I usually have a solid beginning and at least somewhat of an idea where things are going to land. With a clear picture of where to start and a general sense of where I’m ultimately headed, it’s the “getting there” that can be a challenge. I completely rewrote Anyone But Her, top-to-bottom, five times, changing key elements and plot lines—this is not counting dozens of interim revisions. Because of this, the ending changed quite a bit, as did much of the middle. But the beginning never did; it always started with that scene between Suzanne and the ghost of her mother, Alex.

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

As mentioned above, Suzanne and I are similar in age and share many cultural references. Additionally, like I was as a teen, Suzanne is introverted and trying to figure herself out. That’s where the similarity ends; she’s otherwise way more badass than me. In the 2004 timeline, adult Suzanne has married and had children at a much younger age than I did—and as the mother of a teen and a 9 year old, she faces motherhood challenges that I did not in 2004, when my first two children, twins, were infants. Despite these differences, Suzanne is one of my favorite characters that I’ve ever written, in both her teen and adult lives.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

For Anyone But Her, certainly music played a big part. I have 1970s playlists that I listened to as I wrote. And as anyone familiar with my writing knows, I’m greatly influenced by setting. When I was younger, I had aspirations of being an architect, and this shows in my writing via the homes that often play a part in my novels. In Anyone But Her, the house where the family lives is an 1888 Queen Anne Victorian, complete with turret. This house, while fictional, is common in its neighborhood, Capitol Hill, and throughout much of Denver. I’m currently writing a new novel—a mystery set in Denver and the Colorado mountains in 1938—and readers will recognize this same house playing a role in that book, too.

Visit Cynthia Swanson's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Bookseller.

The Page 69 Test: The Glass Forest.

Writers Read: Cynthia Swanson (February 2018).

--Marshal Zeringue

Erica Wright

Erica Wright's new novel Hollow Bones, a contemporary retelling of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, is out now! Her essay collection Snake was released as part of Bloomsbury's Object Lessons series. Her mystery Famous in Cedarville received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was called "a clever little whodunnit" in The New York Times Book Review. She is the author of five other books, including the poetry collections Instructions for Killing the Jackal and All the Bayou Stories End with Drowned. Her poems have appeared in Blackbird, Denver Quarterly, New Orleans Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Wright was the senior poetry editor at Guernica Magazine for more than a decade and currently teaches at Bellevue University. She holds degrees from New York University and Columbia University. She lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with her family.

From my Q&A with Wright:

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

Hollow Bones is a retelling of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, and the title comes from the line “…thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast of thee.” It is a condemnation—the villain’s absence of faith has lead to an absence of character—but the phrase “hollow bones” also references birds. And a bird is a perfect symbol for the book’s protagonist Essa who is slight and fragile but determined. While not what Matthea Harvey might call a license plate title, grounded in information, I do think Hollow Bones establishes an appropriately gothic tone.

What's in a name?

This story is told in three POVs, and I decided to give Juliet the same name in my version that she has in the Shakespeare play. In Measure for Measure, she only has seven lines, so I was starting from scratch in some ways. Of all the characters in the play, she’s most affected by the events but given least attention. Her fiancé Claudio has been sentenced to die for impregnating her, and she’s sent off to what sounds an awful lot like prison. In Hollow Bones, she’s also in tough circumstances. Her fiancé has been arrested for burning down a church and killing two people inside. Instead of wallowing, though, she tries to control her own fate, not relying on the whims or rules of others.

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

Honestly? Not too surprised. I was introduced to Measure for Measure as a teenager when I attended the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery. I was captivated by Isabella and her plight. I even had her first speech on mercy memorized, but please don’t ask me to recite it today!

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

In general, I find endings more difficult to write. With a mystery, I want all the pieces to click together, and sometimes those pieces are misshapen or broken on a first—or fifth—draft. For this book, though, I wrote and rewrote and rewrote the first chapter. The final version of Hollow Bones is only 70,000 words but I wrote at least 100,000 during the drafting process.

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

Like Essa, I grew up in small town, and while most aspects of my childhood were happy ones, I longed for privacy. I never had any important secrets to hide from my neighbors, but I never liked them knowing even my unimportant ones. Essa wants to start over somewhere where she won’t be known as “the serpent orphan,” and who could blame her? Personality-wise, we’re worlds apart. I like to think that we could be friends, though.

Visit Erica Wright's website.

My Book, The Movie: Famous in Cedarville.

The Page 99 Test: Snake.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elizabeth Bass Parman

Elizabeth Bass Parman grew up entranced by family stories, such as the time her grandmother woke to find Eleanor Roosevelt making breakfast in her kitchen. She worked for many years as a reading specialist for a non-profit and spends her summers in a cottage by a Canadian lake. She has two grown daughters and lives outside her native Nashville with her husband and maybe-Maltipoo, Pippin.

Parman's debut novel is The Empress of Cooke County.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My story is dual-POV and has two main characters, Posey Jarvis and her daughter, Callie Jane. The title applies to them both. Posey claims to be the Empress of Cooke County, and everything she does in the book can be traced back to her feelings of entitlement, but, in my mind, Callie Jane is the real empress. The cover art is of Posey at the Curly Q beauty shop, and Posey is very vocal about her rightful position as an empress, so it’s easy to interpret the title as applying only to Posey, but I hope readers read more closely and realize how Callie Jane is transforming.

What's in a name?

Posey’s name is obvious—she is a poser, and Callie Jane’s name relates to something very specific in the book I can’t name without giving a spoiler. The Humboldt family got their name from the town of Humboldt, Tennessee, which I would pass when I’d drive to Memphis to see my daughter. Vern’s name was harder to come up with. I wanted something plain but dignified, a “salt of the earth” name. I went through several options before choosing Vern. I asked the woman who inspired the character of Evangeline to name Evangeline’s dog and she chose Muse. Evangeline means “good news,” and every Callie Jane in the world needs an Evangeline to help her see clearly.

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

Not a bit. She would say, “It’s about time!” I first announced I wanted to be a writer when I turned four. I asked my mother where books came from, and when she told me people wrote them, I could not imagine anything better than being an author. It took over 50 years from that announcement for me to be published, but better late than never.

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

Definitely the beginning. I always know the ending of a story before I write the first word, but knowing where to start the story is hard for me. I rewrote that first chapter probably a dozen times. I compare that first paragraph to a double Dutch jump rope game— you have to time your entry into the action perfectly or everything falls apart.

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

I take bits and pieces of my own personality and give them to characters, but they are mostly from my imagination. Callie Jane has trouble speaking up for herself, which I struggled with when I was younger, and she has no sense of direction, which I suffer from. Some of the sweet things Vern does for Callie Jane came from my father, like teaching me to ride a bike.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I am an active observer when I am out and about. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and I am always watching and listening. I keep a notebook where I write down tidbits I hear or see, and it is amazing how often I can use those notes in a story. For example, I misread the name of a church we whizzed by on the interstate and will be using that wrong name in a future book. During a recent trip, I spotted a woman carrying an unusual purse, and I am pretty sure that will pop up in the next one, too.

I will talk to anyone and love striking up conversations with strangers while in line or waiting for a take-out order. Stories are about people, and talking with new people gives me new ideas. That being said, if I’m behind you in a slow grocery line, be careful what you say!

Visit Elizabeth Bass Parman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ryan Elizabeth Penske

Ryan Elizabeth Penske is a mix of a Midwest and Southern California upbringing, where she discovered her love for snowy Halloweens in Michigan and the everlasting California sun, but most importantly her love for reading in her early teens. Now, after writing her debut YA novel The Dreamers, she looks forward to completing her MA in English Literature from Chapman University where she received her BA in English Literature, Rhetoric, and Cultural Studies. Between moments of writing and her academic pursuits, Penske spends her days with her best buddy Indy, her Australian Shepherd. Together they enjoy hiking, going to bookstores, traveling, spending exuberant amounts of time of “BookTok,” and of course dreaming.

My Q&A with Penske:

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

The title of my novel, The Dreamers, relates directly to a specific element of the story. Not only are the characters constantly dealing with the notion of dreams, thinking about dreams and what they mean, but they are also actively dreaming and in a dream state quite a lot throughout the novel. The characters who are able to dream figments of the future are also called “Dreamers” by staff that work in The Dreamers main setting of the novel, The Manor de Reves.

I write a lot of stuff, whether that be for my masters program or creative work, and I always find the title to be the last thing I think of or come up with. I think the “meat” of the work has to come first to then inform the author on what a piece should be called. I think if you title something first, very rarely will the title from the very beginning stay the same. With my novel The Dreamers however, I had enough of the premise and concept of the actual Dreamers in my story figured out, that from opening the first word document I ever began writing the story in, I titled it The Dreamers. Luckily for me it stuck, and everyone who read it including my editor and publisher liked it.

In general, I think a title should reflect the most important part of your story. It doesn’t have to be something blaringly obvious or spoiler-y, but I think what is the most cool is when a story has a title that allows for the readers to have an “ah-hah” moment and connect/understand the title once they get to a certain point in the story. I recently had this experience with Corelli’s Mandolin, and I loved the way the title related to something not quite so obvious in the book at first, but very significant to the storyline the further you read and uncovered.

What's in a name?

For me so far, the naming of characters and places goes by a case-by-case situation. Sometimes a character’s name is simply chosen because I like it, or sometimes it holds significance to something in my life. For example, the main love interest in The Dreamers name is Charlie. Charlie is the name of the boy I had a major crush on in middle school, so I thought it would be funny to pay homage to that first personal crush I had back when I was young. Another example would be Clear Water High, which is the high school my main character Stella goes to. The street I grew up on is called Clear Water, so again I enjoyed pulling in an element from my real life and using it as inspiration and fun easter-egg nods towards in the novel.

I think names can both hold great weight, but also not. I would argue that it's up to the author to decide whether a name should be something meaningful and special or if a name can just simply be one they like or think sounds nice. I definitely think if you want to have a strong character that is memorable and makes a great impression, then I would spend a bit longer thinking of what you should name them than simply choosing a random name from a list. Almost everything that has a name in The Dreamers, whether that be a person or place, relates to something from some point in my life, so I do think that naturally authors will default to naming something that has a fun relation to themselves or their lives, but I’m sure that changes with the more you write and maybe run out of names!

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

I don’t think my teenage reader self would be surprised by my novel at all, but more so elated and over the moon that I am a published author! This has been a lifelong dream of mine, so I think my teenage self would be jumping up and down. It makes sense that my first novel is a YA book, because the YA blockbuster series that came out and were massive hits when I was a teenager, such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, City of Bones, all of those type series, are what made me a big reader and ultimately inspired me to start writing The Dreamers.

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

This is a great question because funny enough, I think beginnings are way harder to write than endings, but the ending to The Dreamers changed at least three times! Beginning a piece, whether it's an academic paper or a creative piece, I always find writing an intro or that first paragraph to be the hardest. It's the story in the middle and at the end that I always have the clearest vision for, so once I get to those parts it's always so much easier. My ending idea however, was changed greatly from my first draft of The Dreamers, and that is due to different eyes reading the story and helping me mold it to have a different outcome for the better. That’s what great editors are for!

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

When writing my first every main character, Stella in The Dreamers, I leaned on personality traits of my own to help shape her. I think I did this because it was an easy way to begin molding a character and give her personality that I felt comfortable with writing because I naturally knew how she would then go about responding to or handling a situation. I wouldn’t say she is a carbon copy of myself, as there are certain traits I also have, but I think she naturally became her own character very separate from myself as she is faced with circumstances, people, and situations that are worlds different from anything I have faced. I think if you are able to write great characters, they naturally take up a life of their own as the story unfolds even if you have something different originally intended for them.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Any and all stories across page, screen, stage, etc. that I have enjoyed or felt connected to inspire and influence my writing. The most significant answer I can give to this question would be all creative works I was exposed to while attending the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. I was at the festival and attending cast, writer, and director interviews, including film premieres, and the creativity was so electric that it inspired me to begin writing The Dreamers. Specifically, I remember viewing Emma Roberts' film premiere for Paradise Hills (2019) and finding a lot of influence for the setting and vibe of The Dreamers. Other than this specific instance, this answer might feel cliché, but it's a testament to how influential this story has been to so many people, would be the Harry Potter series. I guiltily will admit that I have never read the book series in full, but the movies have always had a permanent presence in my life. The strong sense of characters, relationships, and iconic setting that the stories hold influenced the way emphasis and efforts I put into writing stand out characters and memorable settings.

Visit Ryan Elizabeth Penske's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Laila Ibrahim

Laila Ibrahim is the bestselling author of After the Rain, Scarlet Carnation, Golden Poppies, Paper Wife, Mustard Seed, and Yellow Crocus. Before becoming a novelist, she worked as a preschool director, a birth doula, and a religious educator. Drawing from her experience in these positions, along with her education in developmental psychology and attachment theory, she finds rich inspiration for her novels. She’s a devout Unitarian Universalist, determined to do her part to add a little more love and justice to our beautiful and painful world. She lives with her wonderful wife, Rinda, and two other families in a small cohousing community in Berkeley, California. Her children and their families are her pride and joy. When she isn’t writing, she likes to cuddle with her dog Hazel, take walks with friends, study the Enneagram, do jigsaw puzzles, play games, work in the garden, travel, cook, and eat all kinds of delicious food.

Ibrahim's new novel is Falling Wisteria.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I put so much thought into my titles. And they don't come to me quickly. I needed Falling Wisteria to be culturally sensitive, stand alone and fit with the Yellow Crocus series which meant a plant or flower. My initial working title was Cherry Blossom, but one of my Japanese American beta readers thought it was a stereotypical trope, so I wanted to change it. To be honest I didn't want to go full on purple since I'm heading there, but haven't gotten to the end of the family saga yet. When I googled 'Japanese flowers that grow in the SF Bay Area' I was delighted to see wisteria on the list. I knew at once it was the flower that would be in the title. I have a beautiful wisteria plant in my backyard--they are very common in Berkeley, but I didn't realize they were native to Japan.

Wisteria is a perfect metaphor for making it through hard times, for finding beauty in the midst of pain and of learning to make a home in a new place.

What's in a name?

For this novel, Falling Wisteria, I used names from my own family and friends--with their permission of course. It was fun, and a little unsettling, to use so many familiar names. The main character, Kay Lynn, was named after my daughter, Klin, in the previous novel. On more than one occasion I misspelled my main character's name. I named Kay Lynn's daughter Lizzie, after the character in my first novel, Lisbeth, who is her great grandmother. And I chose my brother's name for Kay Lynn's brother, and my son-in-law's name for Kay Lynn's husband. The Fujiokas are named for our family friends, Kimiko, Donna and George, though in real life Donna and George are the parents and Kimiko is their daughter.

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

Very surprised. I always loved reading, but I was not a natural writer. The stories would surprise my teenage self, but the discipline and devotion to writing would be a shock.

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

Each story reflects something I've struggled with in my life. I'm certain I was processing COVID and the complexity of a worldwide pandemic in Falling Wisteria. Kay Lynn was overwhelmed by the news, uncertain what she needed to pay attention to in the world versus taking care of her own small world. There was so much happening in so many places all at once. There was also no knowing how long it would go on.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I appreciate a psycho-spiritual tool called the Enneagram. Friends told me about it in the early 2000, but I didn't learn much about it then. In 2016 I realized it would help me with character development--for my writing. But after doing a deeper dive into it I have come to value it for my personal character development. It's a great tool for giving me more compassion and insight to myself and to other people.

Visit Laila Ibrahim's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Elena Taylor

Elena Taylor spent several years working in theater as a playwright, director, designer, and educator before turning her storytelling skills to fiction. Her first series, the Eddie Shoes Mysteries, written under the name Elena Hartwell, introduced a quirky mother/daughter crime fighting duo.

With the Sheriff Bet Rivers Mysteries, Taylor returns to her dramatic roots and brings readers much more serious and atmospheric novels. Located in her beloved Washington State, Taylor uses her connection to the environment to produce tense and suspenseful investigations for a lone sheriff in an isolated community.

Taylor is also a senior editor with Allegory Editing, a developmental editing house, where she works one-on-one with writers to shape and polish manuscripts, short stories, and plays.

Her favorite place to be is at Paradise, the property she and her hubby own south of Spokane, Washington. They live with their horses, dogs, and cats. Taylor holds a B.A. from the University of San Diego, a M.Ed. from the University of Washington, Tacoma, and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.

The new Sheriff Bet Rivers mystery is A Cold Cold World.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title, A Cold Cold World, came to me very quickly. There were a few different reasons why it fit the book so well and was on my mind. There is a song by Blaze Foley with the same title. (Titles are not covered by copyright). I love the simplicity of the lyrics and the tune. It’s about regrets and the challenges of living.

Further, Blaze Foley was murdered, making him an apt figure to inspire a mystery novel. The first novel in the Bet Rivers series focuses a lot on music, the protagonist, Bet, and her father and friends are musicians and singers, and would often sing together. I feel it’s a song they would have performed.

I also wanted to pit Bet against a monster storm. When I lived in North Bend, Washington, we usually got a few inches of snow at a time, which might linger for a week. One winter we had several feet that stuck around for eight weeks. That’s the storm I recreated here. It was definitely a cold, cold world. I’m thrilled that my publisher liked the title as much as I did.

What's in a name?

Elizabeth “Bet” Rivers came to me out of the blue. I knew she was Bet before I knew that was short for Elizabeth. Names are very important to me, though they are a combination of me researching the meaning of names and using those, and names that appear in my mind as if by magic.

Alma is named after an Alma that I worked with years ago, an equally tough, tiny, almost octogenarian who would no doubt have done a great job running a sheriff’s station.

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

My teenaged reader self would not be the least bit surprised at A Cold, Cold World. She read mysteries nonstop and loved small towns, horses, and women who stand up for themselves.

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

I find it very easy to write an opening scene. That’s usually where my imagination takes hold. But I quickly work at finding the ending. For me, the middle is extremely challenging to write if I don’t know where a story or a character is going.

Each book is a little different with regards to rewrites. The beginning might change the most if I realize new things by the end of a first draft, but I also once changed who the killer was after several rewrites on a certain novel, so endings can change too.

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

There is some of me in every character I write. My characters reflect how I understand the world, including the dark side of people. So, while I’ve never killed anyone, and like to think I never would, I put myself into the shoes of my killers and try to imagine the situations they are in to do the things they do.

I do believe there are evil people in the world, but no one is defined by a single action. We are a complicated intersection of our histories, our biology, and our situations. There are psychopaths out there, but the much more interesting criminal is the one who knows right from wrong and makes a bad choice anyway.

I like to consider what drives people to do the things they do, and the fact that a person’s fortune can change on a dime through one careless act or bad decision. People often say, “I had no choice.” But we always have a choice, and what we do says a lot about us.

Another choice might have been the better path, but it often wasn’t as obvious, or was harder to commit to. Much better if we can see all the choices in front of us before we make a big decision.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

As mentioned before, music inspires me. In bluegrass and country music, there are a lot of songs that tell a story. I’ve always been intrigued by how much character and plot can be packed into a song. (If you don’t believe me, read the lyrics to "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" by Bob Dylan).

I also take inspiration from photos, paintings, and the world at large. I’ve had novels and stories inspired by deep dark lakes, images of people and buildings, and true crime events or things I hear on the news. Finding a story is the easy part, writing a satisfying plot is what’s hard.

Visit Elena Taylor's website.

--Marshal Zeringue