Christina Kovac

Christina Kovac, author of the Watch Us Fall and The Cutaway, writes psychological suspense/thrillers set in Washington, DC.

Prior to writing fiction, Kovac worked in television news, covering crime and politics at Fox 5’s Ten O’Clock News in Washington, DC, and after that as a news producer and desk editor at the Washington Bureau of NBC News.

She lives outside Washington DC with her family. She loves morning writes with her cat on her lap, book hauls from her town library, and hiking national parks. Her favorites—C&O Canal National Park, Assateague Island, and Rock Creek Park—provided inspiration for Watch Us Fall. She’s currently at work on her third novel.

My Q&A with Kovac:

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

I don’t like to share meaning of title—that’s for the reader to decide—but I will say I chose each word carefully, purposefully. Watch. Us. Fall. The opening line is: People still talk about what happened to Addie and Josh. Some of what they say is true, some of it not; you know how people are. Watch: this is about people in the spotlight. They’re watched and talked about. Some are famous and some will become infamous. (You know how people are.) Us: This is a book about holding onto cherished relationships in conflict with each other. Who is Us? Who will Addie choose, when the choice comes? Her best friends or Josh? And then of course there is a falling action to the plot. Thus, the Fall.

More than that, let the reader decide.

What's in a name?

As it turns out, an awful lot’s in a name. Lucy, the main narrator, a kind of witness to the destruction that Josh brings into Addie’s life, is the best friend; Lucy’s the one who loves Addie best. Her name comes from the light-bringer in Paradise Lost. In fact, one of the section titles is: O Street Lost.

Josh Egan, the son of Senator Egan, comes from a storied lineage, and Egan means “bright- eyed.” He is described in the prologue as the “golden guy with his father’s face and eyes like gas burners that made you feel seen. Not everyone wants to be seen.”

And Addie James? I have no idea where her name came from. She was just fully formed and named, the moment she stepped onto the page.

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

Not much. My teenaged self would be thrilled. My mother gave me her box of old Nancy Drew novels as soon as I could read. I stole Rebecca from her shelf when I was twelve. I loved covering crime when I covered news in the District—it’s infinitely more honest than politics. I was destined for mysteries and psychological thrillers, I think.

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

I find it all hard. I change both a lot, but the beginning I will cut down and keep cutting until I find a fast entry point.

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

None of these characters are me. Although I do have Josh Egan’s obsession with truth and terror of disinformation and this awful age of misinformation we live in. It’s our trigger. Actually, the entire reason I wrote this novel.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I get a lot of inspiration from my past work in news in the District and also from the natural world. I love hiking and climbing. I love the C&O canal and the Potomac river. When I was hiking on a barrier island along the coast of Maryland, I saw an enormous tree along a back bay, and there were four girls clinging to it and laughing and bumping up against each other. I kept thinking about those girls and that tree—and ultimately the girls became Addie and Lucy and Penelope and Estella, and I moved that tree to the banks of the Potomac (in my novel) and made it their secret place.

Visit Christina Kovac's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Cutaway.

The Page 69 Test: The Cutaway.

Writers Read: Christina Kovac (March 2017).

My Book, The Movie: Watch Us Fall.

The Page 69 Test: Watch Us Fall.

Writers Read: Christina Kovac.

--Marshal Zeringue