Arbor Sloane

Arbor Sloane grew up in the Midwest and earned her master’s degree of English at Iowa State University. She now teaches community college courses and resides with her family in the Des Moines area.

Sloane's new novel is Not Who You Think.

My Q@A with the author:

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

Titles are a tricky thing. The author might come up with a title that they feel encapsulates their book perfectly, but publishers could find that it's not as marketable as they would like. This is the case of Not Who You Think. Originally, I called the book Beyond the Glass because the book is about monsters who hide behind a computer screen, pretending to be harmless when they're really predators looking for their next victim. But I could see how that idea might not be immediately apparent to readers, so I think the alternate title works better. It hints that people are not always what they seem in a catchier way.

What's in a name?

Generally, I don't use a lot of symbolism when naming my characters. I usually just research the time frame in which the story takes place and select the most popular baby names. However, in Not Who You Think, I named the main character Amelia Child because before she begins her research on serial killers, she is obviously much more innocent than she is once she's learned the entire story of Gerald Shapiro, the original catfish killer. There might also be some more significance to the name, but I don't want to spoil the story too much.

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

I don't think I would be too surprised that I ended up writing thrillers. My favorite author when I was in high school was Stephen King, and I always enjoyed reading darker, more disturbing stories.

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

I think beginnings and endings are both difficult in their own ways. Beginnings are tough, at least for me, because I have no idea what direction they will take (I'm a true panster through and through), and the road ahead of me is long and uncertain. And, because I write thrillers, endings are hard because they have to tie in all the clues and everything has to make sense. Since I'm a pantser, I tend to go on a lot of side quests, and not all of them end up being significant. I end up having to go back and rewrite the beginning to make it all cohesive.

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

In particular, the main character in Not Who You Think struggles with some of the same things I am navigating at this time in life. There's a lot of exploration of female relationships, specifically the mother-daughter dynamic. Like me, Amelia Child is plagued by the atrocities that humankind is capable of and wants to explore what contributes psychologically to shape the minds of such monsters. She has written a book that she's apprehensive about her teenage daughter reading due to its focus on violence. Amelia has also lost her mother, which is a grief I'm still working through. Essentially, there are questions about how a mother's negative experiences might affect her daughter and whether that trauma may be mitigated somehow.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

As I mentioned in the previous question, I'm extremely interested in what drives people who commit terrible crimes. I remember being in college when Columbine happened, and I just couldn't fathom what went on in the heads of those boys to have so little regard for human life. Even worse was Sandy Hook. What horrific experiences did that kid have that could make him so evil that he'd be able to put a gun in a child's face and pull the trigger? I think that question is what drove me to write this book. Are serial killers born or made? Is there any way to prevent such annihilation in the future?

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The Page 69 Test: Not Who You Think.

--Marshal Zeringue