Lisa Lee

Lisa Lee is the recipient of the Marianne Russo Emerging Writer Award from the Key West Literary Seminar, an Emerging Writer Fellowship from the Center for Fiction, and a Pushcart Prize. She has received other fellowships and awards from Kundiman, Millay Arts, Hedgebrook, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Tin House, Jentel Artist Residency, and the Korea Foundation. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, VIDA, North American Review, Sycamore Review, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. Lee holds an MFA from the University of Houston and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Southern California. She lives in Los Angeles.

Lee's debut novel is American Han. Joumana Khatib of the New York Times Book Review called it “one of the best things I’ve read in ages.”

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title is doing a lot of work in that American han is what the book is about. But many readers won’t know what han is or what I mean by “American” han, and since I don’t define or use the word anywhere in the book other than in the title and epigraph, for some readers it might take reading the whole book and maybe a little research to understand the meaning.

What's in a name?

I chose the name Jane Kim for my narrator because it’s a common Asian American name—so common that she shares it with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Jane Kims in America. She has no middle name because her parents are Korean immigrants and it wasn’t customary in Korea to assign middle names. In the novel, Jane explains how she ends up with the middle name NMN on her driver’s license. Jane’s brother is named Jun-ho at birth, and changes his name to Kevin when he’s ten. Kevin is another common Asian American name. To be honest, I just liked the way it sounded with the last name Kim.

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

My teenage self wouldn’t believe it if you told her that she’d grow up to write and publish a novel. I read a lot growing up, but I didn’t think about the idea of being a writer until I was in my twenties, and even then, I thought that was for other people, not for someone like me. It took almost a decade after college to really pursue writing as a career. I had to live and learn a lot before I was ready to write this book. My young self didn’t have any of the knowledge that went into it. I think she’d be relieved to learn that she would one day have a novel’s worth of insight into her experience.

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

I always knew how my novel would begin. I knew that the charged scene where the mother shows up unannounced at Jane’s apartment in San Francisco was the beginning because it was the first thing I ever wrote concerning this novel, but it took me years to figure out where the novel would end up. At some point, I realized that we couldn’t understand the women in the novel without understanding the men, and this is when I decided to bring Jane’s brother and her father into the forefront as central characters. In this world, the men have the authority and their experiences take precedence. The way they process the world gets passed on to Jane and her mother. So I understood that the men’s experience is a shared experience with the women. When I understood that, I knew that it would end with the climactic event involving Kevin, and that the novel would end with Jane and Kevin.

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 lot of myself in all my characters. I imagined them all, so they must all come from some part of me. The characters are inspired by people I know or have met, at least my perception of them, but they are entirely fictional.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I’ve learned a lot from my daughter. Being a mother has helped me to think about perspectives different from my own and to have more empathy for my own mother. This has found its way into my writing. Motherhood has also helped me to value time and think about the passing of time. I try to do the things that bring me joy because that joy fuels my work and allows me to be more free in my writing.

An early draft of my novel is based on Harold & Kumar. I love that movie. When it came out in 2004, it was transformative to see two young Asian American men playing stoners on a road trip to White Castle—their characters were so anti-stereotype and I loved it. I knew Asian American men just like them. It made me happy to see them on film. I tried to write a comedy of errors like Harold & Kumar, starring Jane Kim and Margaret Cho’s mother, but it just wasn’t funny.

Visit Lisa Lee's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Diane Josefowicz

Diane Josefowicz is the author of Guardians & Saints: Stories, L’Air du Temps (1985), and Ready, Set, Oh: A Novel. She is also the author, with Jed Z. Buchwald, of two histories of Egyptology: The Zodiac of Paris and The Riddle of the Rosetta. She serves as managing editor of the Victorian Web, the internet’s oldest and largest website devoted to Victoriana. A graduate of Brown University, she holds a PhD in History of Science from MIT and an MFA in fiction from Columbia University. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Josefowicz's new novel is The Great Houses of Pill Hill.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The Great Houses of Pill Hill is a novel about an interior decorator who inadvertently winds up investigating the murder of her marquee client, a surgeon who lives with his wife in a grand mansion in an expensive neighborhood nicknamed Pill Hill because, historically, many doctors either lived or had offices there.

Since the book has been published, I've heard from many people who also live on or near a Pill Hill. It turns out, quite a few neighborhoods have that nickname, and they have a similar historical connection with medicine and medical professionals.

For a long time, the novel's working title was The Ministry of the Interior, which is also the name of the heroine's interior design firm. But this working title directed the reader's attention to the wrong things. As your question implies, a novel's title should place the reader directly in the scene of the story. In The Great Houses of Pill Hill, the murdered client is himself a doctor, and the local hospital plays a role in the plot, so foregrounding this aspect in the title made sense to me.

What's in a name?

Funny you should ask. One morning, years ago, I woke up with this line in my head: "My real name is Hannah Cooke, but no one ever calls me that."

This line, with its ambivalent gesture toward and away from self-disclosure, became the first line of the novel. The narrator, who goes by "Cookie," doesn't like her nickname but she goes along with it because she's lived in the town her whole life, and everyone knows her by this nickname. To change it would mean rocking the boat, and even though it seems like such a small thing, to insist on a change like that is a big no-no in this small place.

Personal history can be sticky in small towns. I'm also from a small place, and it can be hard to convince people who've known me forever that I'm not that shy and pliable small child they remember. Cookie has a similar problem. It also gives her power: People expect her to be a certain way, to do certain things. It's as if her real self is a secret, something only she knows about.

Cookie has a few secrets. One of them—in addition to her day job, she's a working artist with a side hustle making miniature crime scenes—plays directly into the plot. Another of her secrets, which is more to my point here, is that she's intelligent. She thinks—and that's something no one gives her credit for. As a thinking person, she's socially invisible—and also, for that reason, freer to operate behind the scenes, to pursue her own ends. With the character of Cookie, one of the things I'm hoping to suggest is that people blind themselves to each other at their peril.

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

For me, endings are more difficult by a country mile. The Great Houses of Pill Hill had several endings over the course of its development. One of them even involved a trip to Italy, which was really just wishful thinking on my part.

While I was in Columbia's MFA program, everyone seemed to be writing a road novel. One of my teachers, who got fed up with this, kept repeating: Stay in the wound. He meant: Don't let your characters skip town, literally or figuratively, on the psychological work they need to do. Letting go of that Italian ending, I kept thinking of his advice. A road trip doesn't always, or even very often take a character where he or she most needs to go.

The book's present ending, with its last-minute turnabout, came to me as a complete surprise. As I wrote it up, I tried to preserve that element of shock, of feeling bowled over by an important revelation.

Endings are hard for me in general. I need to feel my way into them, and that emotional labor is almost always something I'd rather not do. I have a lot of ways to avoid too. Housecleaning, errands, hobbies—the whole procrastinatory run of stuff. My closet is never as organized as when I'm finishing a draft.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I've mentioned that Cookie makes miniature crime scenes. These are primarily domestic interiors, something that she, of course, knows a lot about as an interior designer. The two interests dovetail nicely, in the sense that she's always confronting the problem of being on the outside looking in. She observes and creates the context for the crime scenes that interest her, just as she does for the domestic lives of her clients, whose luxury fittings and appliances are well beyond her personal budget.

Before writing The Great Houses of Pill Hill, I'd renovated a historic carriage house on the East Side of Providence where I live. So I was already immersed in the world of interior design and historic renovation. As I was doing that, my mother-in-law handed me a copy of The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death by the photographer Corinne May Botz, who took a series of amazing photographs of miniature crime scenes created in the 1940s by a Chicago heiress named Frances Glessner Lee.

These little crime scenes are immensely detailed. They remind me of the famous and equally detailed and inviting illustrations that accompanied the publications of Victorian novels like those by Charles Dickens. There is a level of detail that I find distinctly novelistic, and these crime scenes by Glessner Lee are a wonderful example of what I mean. Amazingly, they are still used to train detectives to "read" crime scenes, to quickly absorb all the details of a space, to notice all the clues that might otherwise escape notice. I could not have written my novel without these minatures and the photos that Botz took of them.

Visit Diane Josefowicz's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mahmud El Sayed

Mahmud El Sayed is a British Egyptian science fiction and fantasy writer and translator. A former journalist, he won the 2023 Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of Color for his work focusing on Arabic and Islamic–inspired themes in a genre he is calling Arabfuturism. He lives in East London where he spends his time pondering linguistic oddities and running story ideas by his cat.

El Sayed's debut novel is The Republic of Memory.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Memory is definitely one of the meta-themes of the story (“what must this crew, so far from Earth in years and light-years, remember and why?”) so hopefully quite a bit. TROM was not the book’s original title (or even the second or third version) and it came about via a process with my editor and their publishing team. When I won the Future Worlds Prize in 2023, the novel was called ‘What the Crew Wants’ (probably it’s third title by then) in reference to a popular Arab Spring protest chant and I still have a soft spot for that one. However, having gone through so many titles before, it was easy to accept changing it. For myself, I always thought of it simply as “The Book.”

What's in a name?

TROM is multi-POV and while I’m not Dickensian in my character naming there are definite reasons why characters are named as they are. Given that the book is set on a generation ship that is divided by language, there’s lots of linguistic shenanigans to be had and multilingual puns for readers to discover. One of the main POV characters is Translator Iskander Ezz – named after the Egyptian city of Alexandria (Iskanderiya). It’s no accident that a translator is named after a city with an extremely cosmopolitan and multi-lingual history. Iskander’s younger sister, Damietta (also named after an Egyptian port city) gets embroiled in the revolution. Of course, the city of Damietta has a long history of protest and rebellion dating back to the Crusades.

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

My teenage self would not be surprised at all by TROM. It includes all his favourite things. Science fiction. Revolutionary politics. Constructed languages. Hardboiled detective fiction. If anything, he would be surprised it took me so long to write. ‘What were you doing for all those years instead of writing, Mahmud? Working a nine to five? Ugh, so boring!’

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

This is a difficult one! Writing multi-POV means getting into my characters heads but, at the same time, that means getting out of my own. In real life, everyone thinks they are the hero of their own story. The same applies to fiction. In a story about revolution, every character has their own view (should I protest? And if so, how? Violently? Non-violently? Or maybe it’s better not to protest at all but to reform slowly?) and I worked very hard to keep my own personal views if not out of it altogether, at least opaque from the reader. If I’ve done it right, at the end of the book, the reader should have no idea where I – the author – stand on things.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

So many! Music? Yep, I was listening to a lot of jazz when writing the hardboiled detective sections of TROM, Miles Davies and Ibrahim Maalouf particularly. Movies? Science fiction is always in conversation with other science fiction and that, of course, includes film and TV. Andor is one of the best explorations of rebellion that I can think of. The news and politics? As a former journalist, I’m always embroiled in those and TROM is a soft retelling of the events of the Arab Spring, an event that continues to reverberate through the region, whether people realise it or not.

Follow Mahmud El Sayed on Instagram.

The Page 69 Test: The Republic of Memory.

--Marshal Zeringue

Melinda Leigh

Melinda Leigh is a #1 Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author. Her books have sold over 16 million copies, and she has garnered numerous publishing awards, including nominations for an International Thriller Award and two RITAs. A martial artist and animal lover, Leigh lives near the beach with her family and two spoiled rescue dogs.

Her new novel is You Can Tell Me.

My Q&A with the author:

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

You Can Tell Me as a title is meant to feel personal, as if someone is whispering secrets. The main character, Olivia Cruz, is a former investigative journalist turned true crime writer. One of her strengths is getting people to talk to her. They tell her their secrets. She is small and physically nonthreatening, and she uses this to her advantage. Since this is a series, the title of the first book must also establish the feel of the books yet to come.

What's in a name?

My protagonists are strong women, and I like to give them names that sound strong. Other than that, I choose names that are generally easy to say and read. I want readers to be comfortable with my characters, to feel like they’re family or friends, to be invested in their lives, and to want to know more of their story.

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

Teenager me would not be surprised by my books at all. My grandmother had almost every Agatha Christie novel on her bookshelf, and I read them all. I consumed Flowers in the Attic by V. C. Andrews in middle school. By the time I reached high school, I was a solid Stephen King fan. So dark and mysterious books have always been my favorites.

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

Beginnings and the two-thirds mark are the two most difficult parts of a novel for me to write. First chapters are drafted at least five times. I need the beginning to feel right before I continue. Once I have the story voice established, then I typically cruise until I’m about sixty percent finished. I’m not a plotter. I start with a few ideas and let the story evolve organically as I write. So, when I’m ramping up toward the black moment, all the threads I’ve developed have to come together. Once I’ve decided on my black moment and how it will flow, then the rest of the book generally comes together quickly.

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

That depends on the character. My protagonists probably share some of my personality. I make an effort to give them individual characteristics, I’m sure a little bit of me leaks through, especially in my longer running series. It would be impossible for me to spend so much intimate time in my fictional world and remain separate from it. That said, I also write in the POVs of serial killers, etc., so I hope they’re not much like me.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

This might be the weirdest—or nerdiest—answer for this question, but math. As a kid, I was a math geek. For me, writing a mystery is like a logic problem. While I’m plotting, I sometimes envision multiple linear equations all converging at the same point—the black moment.

Visit Melinda Leigh's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kayla Hardy

Kayla Hardy is a mythology expert and multi-hyphenate author and screenwriter of Louisiana Creole descent. She earned her PhD in creative writing and African American literature from SUNY Binghamton University. Hardy is an adjunct professor at SUNY Binghamton University and is an accomplished scholar of Black folklore, mythology, and Voodoo.

The Quarter Queen is Hardy's first novel.

My Q&A with the author:

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

It is my hope that my novel’s title The Quarter Queen centers readers in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter which, in a historical fantasy novel, is a character in itself. More than simply a lush backdrop, the French Quarter is alive with dark magic, Voodoo, alchemy, gods, and demons. The title The Quarter Queen is my own twist, made up of the real-life moniker for Marie who was known historically as the ‘Voodoo Queen’ and the neighborhood of New Orleans known as the French Quarter—the Vieux Carré—where she lived and worked her magic. While it is has some great alliteration to it, I hope that readers will see the title as something to be critically unpacked, to study the very nature of unprecedented power that a woman like Marie Laveau wielded in the 19th century.

What's in a name?

Because The Quarter Queen centers both the real-life Marie Laveau I and her daughter, Marie Laveau II, the names were already baked into the conceit! But, the challenge arose with how to differentiate the two on the page so readers wouldn’t be confused between them. So I had the not so crazy idea to name Marie II, Ree, which ended up working out because so much of the novel is about Ree inherently rejecting the title of The Quarter Queen, and in doing so, the legacy of the name Marie Laveau itself. Much in the same way I hope readers will do, Ree begins to critically understand the political power she holds as her mother’s successor and how to, ultimately, use this power to change the course of destiny not just in her own life and family, but for her people and the city of New Orleans as a whole in the ways in which her mother failed to do.

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

Usually, the endings will come to me first. But for this novel, the beginning came to me right away, down to the very first line in the prologue. The ending was changed a couple of times, but not so much on a craft level, but in a way that helped conclude both Maries arcs satisfactorily. Because their chapters alternate between two different timelines, their arcs naturally became more emotionally entangled as the past and present collided. By the end of the book, I wanted readers to see how the events of Marie’s life, for better or for worse, complicated the course of Ree’s rise, forcing her to make one final emotionally and politically devastating choice that would have explosive ramifications for all the power players in New Orleans. I wanted the ending to have a sense of destiny that shapes both mother and daughter and that will make readers question a sense of legacy in their own families and lives.

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

On other projects, I have not. I try to honor the characters in all of their messy glory which is a process that has nothing to do with me, author-Kayla, personally. But with The Quarter Queen, I wanted to explore my own Louisiana Creole heritage and really try to unpack questions of duality. How can someone be both Catholic and a Voodienne? How can someone live in the shadow of a larger-than-life mother without her own light being totally eclipsed? I had a rocky relationship with my own mother growing up that has now since mended and I saw so much of that in the dynamic between Ree and Marie. I also just think Ree and Marie are such great foils for readers to study because they represent the inherent duality, we as humans embody mother and daughter, princess and queen, saints and sinners.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I absolutely love the band Sleep Token; they are cinematic and lush and dark. Honestly, their music stayed on repeat the entire time I was writing the book (including songs like “Rain” and “Dark Signs”). Perfect fuel for a book like The Quarter Queen. I am also a massive fan of Ryan Coogler and Jordan Peele; there are intersections in their films, different but overlapping takes on the lives of black folks. I also feel so deeply anchored by the American south, by my childhood summers spent beneath a sweltering Louisiana sun. That sense of southern gothic is deeply implanted in my brain, and I hope it never goes away.

Visit Kayla Hardy's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Quarter Queen.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jennifer Pearson

Jennifer Pearson is a former teacher and author who lives in the northeast of England with two energetic boys and her somewhat energetic husband. She’s the author of several middle grade novels, writing as Jenny Pearson, and has been short-listed for the Costa Children’s Book Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, and was the winner of the Lollies (Laugh Out Loud Book Awards). When she’s not writing, Pearson can either be found doing something sporty or binge-watching true crime documentaries while eating astounding quantities of cheese.

Pearson's new novel is Drop Dead Famous.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My working title for Drop Dead Famous, a YA story about a girl who investigates the murder of her superstar sister Blair Baker, was Homecoming. I think this title worked in some ways – Blair is killed during the opening act of her homecoming tour, and it hints that the home is an important part of the story, but I don’t think it was quite strong enough for the YA audience. It doesn’t mention murder or death, words which are frequently found in YA thrillers as they serve as good genre touchstones. By the time the book went on submission to publishers, I had changed it to Drop Dead Famous which I think does a good job of signalling the core themes of murder and fame to the reader.

What's in a name?

I think I’m quite instinctive when it comes to naming characters. Often, I’ll hear a name I like or find interesting during a school author visit and file it away to use later – which is how Colby’s name came to me. It works for her because to me, Colby is a fun sounding name. For Blair Baker, I wanted something that felt like a teen star, and I think the alliterative name helps with that. I’ve always liked the name Stevie, (huge Fleetwood Mac fan) and I think Stevie Budd in Schitt’s Creek was partly in my mind when I was writing her.

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

My teen self would be very surprised! My current self continues to be very surprised! I really had no idea what I wanted to do career-wise as a teenager, but becoming an author seemed like such a ludicrous proposition, I never seriously considered it.

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

Endings are the worst. By far. And I change them a lot. With a mystery, there is always so much to do – so many loose ends to tie up, characters to give moments to. A reader will not forgive you if you mess it up at the end. You can’t take them through 300 pages and then drop the ball at the last moment.

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

I suppose I’m a positive person like Colby and we have a similar sense of humour. There are elements of me in Stevie too. She can get pretty hyper-focussed, and I see that in myself, especially when it comes to writing. I can lose a whole day at the laptop and realise I’ve not eaten.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Not suggesting that they are non-literary, but the biggest influences are my family! My grandparents, parents, my sister and my extended family have shaped my humour, they’ve shaped my ability to tell an interesting story (you cannot get away with being boring with my lot) and they’ve shaped a lot of the characters I have written.

Visit Jenny Pearson's website.

My Book, The Movie: Drop Dead Famous.

The Page 69 Test: Drop Dead Famous.

--Marshal Zeringue

Paige Classey

Paige Classey is an author and school librarian who lives with her family on the Connecticut shoreline. Her middle grade debut, Anna-Jane and the Endless Summer, is a Junior Library Guild Selection and earned a starred review from School Library Journal. Her articles on libraries and education have appeared in School Library Journal, TEACH Magazine, and Education Week.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Anna-Jane and the Endless Summer introduces our narrator and signifies something unusual is afoot. Summer is supposed to have an end date; kids away at summer camp know this all too well. This title prepares the reader for atypical times. The original title was Anna-Jane and the Last Summer, but my editor and I worried that that maybe implied it was her last summer, as opposed to a last normal summer for all.

What's in a name?

Anna-Jane is a name I must have heard somewhere that returned to me. It seemed fitting for her character, both quiet and strong. I try to ensure my characters all have distinctive names so as not to be confused on the page. I sometimes sneak in names of family members and friends if they feel right for the characters. I’ve also worked as an educator for the past fifteen years, so I’ve run across hundreds of names that I occasionally weave into my writing.

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

My teenage self probably wouldn’t be shocked by the darkness of Anna-Jane and the Endless Summer. In high school, I gravitated towards dystopian books like A Clockwork Orange and profoundly sad stories like The Perks of Being a Wallflower (my senior year quote came from that one!). But my teenage self would have been unprepared for the shutdown element, as we had yet to face the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying uncertainty.

I think I would also be surprised by the fact that it’s in verse. I read Karen Hesse’s 1997 novel in verse Out of the Dust as a child, loved it, and then promptly forgot about novels in verse until I rediscovered them as a school librarian many years later, through the works of Kwame Alexander, Jason Reynolds, Elizabeth Acevedo, and others.

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

I find the middle to be most challenging. I usually know where I want the characters to begin and where I’d like them to end up, but getting from point A to point B can be a bit murkier.

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

Parts of my personality and my life definitely echo in my characters. Like Anna-Jane, I’ve always loved to read. Middle school was difficult for me, but I felt at home and free to be myself at summer camp. We both love Gilmore Girls and our moms’ French toast. She’s definitely better with a bow and arrow than I am, though. I also embed traits and skills that I wish belonged to me, like Jojo’s toughness and Morgan’s passion for science.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I draw from everything in my life, from family and friends, music or podcasts I’m listening to, shows I’m watching, news I’m following. Anna-Jane and the Endless Summer grew from my own memories of summer camp and the pandemic years, as well as from my mounting concerns watching censorship efforts sweep the nation. It felt important to me that the story, at least in part, underscores how important the arts are to the human experience.

Visit Paige Classey's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Catherine Mack

Catherine Mack (she/her) is the pseudonym for Catherine McKenzie, the USA Today and Globe & Mail bestselling author of over twenty novels. Her books are approaching two million copies sold worldwide and have been translated into multiple languages, including French, German, Portuguese, Polish, Italian, and Greek.

McKenzie also has several original movie scripts in development. A dual Canadian and US citizen, she splits her time between Canada and various warmer locations in the US.

Her new novel is This Weekend Doesn't End Well for Anyone.

My Q&A with the author:

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

A lot! The titles are everything in this series! Usually, I come up with a concept first, but it was the title that came to me first with Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies, and each title after that has to live up to that one. They convey the tone, the topic, and the genre.

What's in a name?

The main character of my books is called Eleanor Dash. She’s named after Elinor Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility, and each of the books has a character named after a different main character in Jane Austen’s works. It’s a little nod to part of the origin of the idea for these books—modern Jane Austen but with jokes and murder! Ironically, the Eleanor/Elinor distinction is one that gets explored in a future book—what’s in a name indeed! Could your whole life be different if your first name had been spelled slightly differently?

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

My teenaged self would be surprised I was writing books at all. I didn’t think I had an imagination back then.

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

Beginnings are so important, and I spend the most time on the first few chapters. The endings are “pre-written” if you will—by then (and long before then) I know where I’m going. But the real work happens in the middle.

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

I try not to write about myself! Obviously, I seep in somewhere—I have to—but that’s part of the work. Not writing about me.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Lots of great television shows over the years. There’s always been great writing in TV and that continues to this day. I like long-form storytelling. Current favourites: The Summer I Turned Pretty, The Artful Dodger, Young Sherlock, The Other Bennett Sister.

Visit Catherine McKenzie's website.

The Page 69 Test: Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies.

--Marshal Zeringue

Shay Kauwe

Shay Kauwe is a Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) author from Hawaiʻi. She grew up on the Homestead in Waimānalo but moved to Russia because she fell in love with a boy. They now live in Oʻahu. Kauwe holds an M.Ed in Education and was named an NCTE Early Educator of Color in 2021. In 2022, she was awarded an Empowering ʻŌiwi Leadership Award by the Hawaiian Council, for her work in storytelling and literacy. Her debut urban fantasy The Killing Spell is the first traditionally published adult fantasy novel by a Hawaiian author.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The original title of The Killing Spell was a reference to a popular ʻŌlelo Noʻeau (Hawaiian proverb) I ka ʻōlelo no ke ola; i ka ʻōlelo no ka make, which roughly translates to “In language there is life; In language there is death.” My publisher let me know that title may be a bit of a mouthful to remember and suggested the The Killing Spell, arguing that it would be catchier.

They were right.

What's in a name?

In Hawaiian culture, names are taken seriously which is why Kea’s holds so much weight. Kealaokaleo literally translates to “the way/path of the voice,” but she usually just goes by Kea which means something entirely different (pearl-like). I like that Kea gives off the feeling of something pretty and shiny, concealing the deeper, more important meaning that Kealaokaleo holds. Kea would only like her closest friends and families knowing her full name.

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

As a teen, I was notoriously “bad” at Hawaiian, so I’m sure that writing an entire book encouraging people to learn it, would be a surprise to me! Now, I’m a really strong advocate for people to learn Hawaiian and all endangered indigenous languages. It’s important for novice learners to push through the shame of not being fluent enough because the alternative is letting these languages die, and that isn’t an option for me.

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

Endings are a challenge because I hate for a story to end! I tend to know exactly how stories will go before I even start them, but I get attached to my worlds and characters. I never want to write in those final words and have it all stop for good.

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

Like many debut authors, I’m guilty of making my main character a lot like me. Kea’s an eldest daughter and feels responsible for caring for her family. She is someone who has a strong sense of justice and is vocally opinionated. She can be a lot, and I love her for that.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Modern Hawaiian History was a huge influence on The Killing Spell, specifically the Hawaiian Renaissance in the 70ʻs-90ʻs when ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi experienced a resurgence of interest. In addition, my family has always been at the forefront of my writing because stories without a heart aren’t ones that I’m interested in telling. I believe in love, hope, and community resilience, and I want my work to reflect that.

Visit Shay Kauwe's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

April Howells

With a background in magazine publishing, April Howells has built a career in global communications and employer branding. Raised in southern Ontario, she now resides on the west coast of Canada with her husband and a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog named Chief. The Unforgettable Mailman is her debut novel.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I like to believe the title sums the whole story up. Not only is it a play on words regarding Henry’s memory loss, but it also lets readers know the story will linger with them after they turn the last page. Henry is sweet and determined and unintentionally funny. He’s the type of character you root for and one you won’t soon forget.

I wrote the story off and on for years, and in the beginning the working title was much different. It wasn’t until I experienced the impacts of memory loss in my family that Henry’s character fully developed and this title came to me. I provided several alts to my publisher, but The Unforgettable Mailman was the clear winner.

What’s in a name?

Whenever I’m choosing names for characters, it’s important to me that they fit with the era they were born. ‘Henry’ was a popular name in 1885, and it stuck. I never looked into the meaning of it, though now I know it means ‘ruler of the home’. I love that it’s a name associated with influential people who have left a lasting impact in history.

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

Very! I was a voracious reader growing up, but never a writer. I loved to say that one day I would write a novel, but for a long time that was all talk. Even in my 20s, I daydreamed about writing more than I actually put pen to page.

I think teenage April would be proud to see her name in bookstores, alongside some of her favourite authors. I think she’d also be a bit surprised at the perseverance it took to develop her craft and finish a publishable novel.

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

Endings, though I can’t say too much without giving spoilers. The ending of The Unforgettable Mailman eluded me for a very long time. I wrote several different versions and none of them were right. I remember walking the dog and it finally came to me. I stopped and thought, oh yes, that’s how it ends.

Visit April Howells's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jennifer N. Brown

Jennifer N. Brown is from New York City and after falling in love with Chaucer in college, pursued a Ph.D. in medieval literature. Her dissertation and subsequent books and articles have mostly been about devotional literature and medieval women as authors, subjects, and patrons of literary culture in medieval Europe. She has taught medieval literature at several institutions, most recently at Marymount Manhattan College where she taught in the English and World Literatures department for over 15 years. She is currently serving as the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Bentley University in Boston, where she lives with her husband, two children and two miniature dachshunds: Athena and Apollo.

Brown's new novel is The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton.

My Q&A with the author:

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

This wasn’t the title I was working with when I wrote the book, that title was Remember Death, which is the English translation of Memento Mori, a medieval concept that recurs several times in my novel. However, my editor rightly felt that it doesn’t fully reflect what’s going on in the novel, so it was changed. It was hard to land on a title that referenced both timelines of my book — the Tudor English timeline of Elizabeth Barton and the modern day timeline of Dr. Alison Sage who finds Elizabeth’s book. When we landed on The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton, I was pleased that we had something that gestured towards both sides of the narrative.

What's in a name?

Well, I’m sure it doesn’t take much for a reader to see “Sage” as an appropriate last name for a professor (but is she sage? You’ll have to see). I chose Alison because it’s a name that speaks of a particular generation of women (like Jennifer does!) and also because it is a name of one of the best characters in medieval literature — Chaucer's Wife of Bath. There are also Easter eggs in the novel for some of my fellow academics in medieval studies, and some of these are in names of characters.

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

Not as surprised as my 20- or 30- or 40-something self. I really wanted to be a writer as a teenager and thought for sure that was my future. I did become a writer, but of academic work, and I think that may have surprised my teenage self more (certainly that I focused on nuns as my subject matter), but in many ways this novel is a return to what teen-Jennifer thought her life may yield.

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

I’ve only written one and a half novels and in both the beginnings came very easily, although I am a happy reviser — my favorite part of any writing process — so I don’t think anything survived the way it was originally written.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart? What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Certainly I am connected to Alison, in that she is an academic in a field adjacent to mine, my age, a mother. There is a lot about her that I don’t relate to or that is not like me, but I understood her in a very natural way. It was harder to place myself in the Tudor era and the figures that populate it. I knew quite a bit about the period and about what people said and did, but it’s one more leap to understand how they feel. For that section, especially, I looked at a lot of paintings and art from the time, surviving jewelry and clothing, letters, and recipes. I tried to construct the world as it was inhabited, and that required mostly non-literary inspiration.

Visit Jennifer N. Brown's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Anica Mrose Rissi

Anica Mrose Rissi is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for kids and teens, including picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and YA. Her essays have been published by The Writer and the New York Times, and she plays fiddle in and writes lyrics for the band Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves. Rissi grew up in Maine and spent many years in New York City, where she worked as an executive editor in children’s book publishing. She currently lives in central New Jersey with her very good dog, Sweet Potato.

Rissi's new book is Girl Reflected in Knife.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I think it pulls its weight! Girl Reflected in Knife is a short, sharp, unsettling title for a short, sharp, unsettling novel. I hope readers will feel intrigued by the title and the tone it sets, even if they’re not quite sure what to expect. Likewise, I hope they’ll be intrigued by the book’s unstable narrator and her story, even as they’re not entirely sure where it might lead them.

What's in a name?

This is a question the novel poses as well, in the fragments of a dark fairy tale version of Destiny’s story that runs parallel to the main narrative, woven in throughout. Here’s a taste:

The girl’s name contained a promise—an expectation and prediction

of some larger fate, or perhaps of a path she must follow.

But how does a destiny differ from a curse?

Her mother did not name her Lucky.

So was the girl’s twisted fate her mother’s fault? This was,

after all, a fairy tale.

The girl chided herself: not that kind.

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

When I was a teenager, my passion was politics. I wanted to go to law school and become a senator or perhaps a supreme court justice—to fight for the issues I cared about and help shape a different world. My teenage self would be quite surprised to see her name on multiple book covers. I don’t even own a gavel.

But in a way, I didn’t stray too terribly far from that idea because, of course, writers are master manipulators. They control what a reader pays attention to and influence what the reader notices, hopes, and feels. A well-written story might change how a reader sees and understands the world. That’s even better than winning an argument or a vote.

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

Both the beginning and the ending of this novel went through multiple major revisions (as did everything in between—I worked on Girl Reflected in Knife for more than a decade before I figured out how to make it the book I wanted it to be) and, with my editor’s encouragement, I did something radical to the ending, which I won’t spoil here. But I will share the first chapter, which is only three sentences long.

When I found this beginning, multiple years and revisions into the process, I suddenly understood what the story was and could be in a new way. It’s an opening that still thrills me.

1.

Listen.

Be careful the story you tell yourself. It might become the one you believe.

Visit Anica Mrose Rissi's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Anica Mrose Rissi & Arugula.

The Page 69 Test: Anna, Banana, and the Monkey in the Middle.

--Marshal Zeringue

Dana Mele

Dana Mele is a Pushcart-nominated writer based in upstate New York. A graduate of Wellesley College, Mele holds degrees in theatre, education, and law.

Mele’s debut, People Like Us, was shortlisted for the 2019 ITW Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel and is an ALA Rainbow List Selection. Their sophomore novel, Summer's Edge, was a Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Selection and a New York Public Library Best Books for Teens title.

Mele's new novel is The Beast You Let In.

My Q&A with the author:

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

A little known fun fact is that I have never chosen my own book title. My proposed title for The Beast You Let In was Veronica, after a character whose vengeful spirit may be possessing one of the main characters! The Beast You Let In is a neat title, and I think it speaks more broadly to the themes of repressed anger, buried secrets, and how much we allow the people who surround us to influence us against our better judgment.

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

Not terribly! It’s a story about twin siblings solving a murder and dealing with a potential possession and revenge from beyond the grave. I was a huge horror fan as a teen and I probably would have inhaled this in the back of the theater during lunch period.

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

Beginnings are harder by far, because for me finding the voice is more than half the battle. Honestly if I can nail a really strong first chapter the rest almost writes itself. But easier said than done. And I always change the ending. I never get attached. Besides, it’s fun coming up with alternate endings!

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I tend to form strong connections to places, and much of my writing is inspired by setting. The Beast You Let In is largely about home, however you may personally define it— whether as a family or a community or a country—and the tension that exists when the home you love becomes a hostile and dangerous place.

Visit Dana Mele's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pamela Steele

Pamela Steele holds an MFA in Poetry from Spalding University. Her books include Paper Bird: Poems and Greasewood Creek. She has been awarded residencies and fellowships by the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California; the Hindman Settlement School Oak Ledge, in Knott County, Kentucky; the Jentel Artist Residency in Banner, Wyoming; and Fishtrap’s Gathering of Writers in Joseph, Oregon. She lives on a ranch in the high desert of Eastern Oregon.

Steele's new novel is In the Fields of Fatherless Children.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I didn’t commit to a title until my gut told me I was in the last few days of writing a complete draft for submission. In thinking about a title, I remembered that an early reader had remarked on how biblical the story is, which brought my mind to biblical references I’d used in the story: Bethel and Thomas, for example. When I got to the point where I knew I needed a title, I ruminated on Solomon, the novel’s primary antagonist and a character I’d actually named for a long-dead ancestor. I picked up a Bible and scanned Song of Solomon for an idea and then found myself backtracking to Proverbs. When I happened upon Chapter 23, verse 10 and read it aloud: Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless . . . I knew I’d found a title that fit one of the novel’s larger themes of family relationships and abandonment: In the Fields of Fatherless Children.

Initially, the editors at Counterpoint thought the title fitting but possibly in need of shortening. I couldn’t see how that could be done and still convey meaning, but I put my trust in them. In the end, we decided stick with the title I’d originally used.

What's in a name?

Character’s names are everything. As I wrote both my novels, some characters in early drafts came off as two-dimensional— lackluster—until I dispensed with placeholder names and renamed them. When I land on the right name, I can begin to see them for who they are and how they will fit into the narrative. Their entire world begins to open.

In naming June, my main character who is a sixteen-year-old-girl in Appalachia, I though back to my childhood summers spent in West Virginia. Many of the girls I knew, including myself, had the simple, standard names of my late-boomer generation: Kathy, Donna, Pam. I wanted the novel’s protagonist to be resourceful, pragmatic and determined, with a one-syllable name that strongly grounded her. I landed on June, after June Carter Cash. The name June also easily lends itself to recognizable nicknames that telegraph endearment from the characters who use them, for example, Junebug,

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

My favorite books as a teen were Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Love Story and Mountain Man, the book on which Jeremiah Johnson was based. My current novel would probably come as a great surprise to a teenaged me, first of all because I knew I loved to write but didn’t see myself as a writer. Secondly, owing to the fact that I was raised on Goofus and Gallant of the Highlights magazines that came in the mail and as a Southern Baptist with fundamentalist grandmothers, I might not have envisioned the story at all and certainly would not have written it on paper for everyone to see. My granny once ordered Once is Not Enough from the Book-of-the-Month Club. A few pages in, she tossed it into the coal stove, completely disgusted, so I’m pretty sure she would have opinions on my book. Nonetheless, I’d like to believe I’ve done her proud.

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

I began writing this novel as a workshop prompt to put two people together in a room who don’t want to be there. It became the scene in which June prepares a body for burial. The scene doesn’t occur at the beginning or the end of the novel, but somewhere between. I was taught by Jane Vandenburg, my mentor, that you begin by writing an episode, and then another and another until you hitch onto a narrative.

I’m not very good at outlining. Once I have a few scenes and know the characters a bit better, I can begin to think about where to begin the book. Although I know what I need to do to wrap up a narrative, I never know how a book will end until just before it happens. I didn’t figure out the end of In the Fields of Fatherless Children until the day before I wrote the last two chapters. Before I submitted my first novel, I literally printed and placed the collection of episodes on the floor and crawled around to arrange them, then I wrote sensible transitions. It worked, but it was a much shorter novel.

It took me twelve years to write In the Fields of Fatherless Children. I stalled during the process of writing the last two-thirds of the book, which at that time, was strictly written in third-person POV. Once I began to hear the voices of Bethel and Granny—especially Granny—I shifted the opening chapter into first person and in Granny’s voice and immediately felt that chapter grow roots to ground the book. Just as finding the right character name is important, getting the POV right is job one.

Writing the ending chapter came easily and went through very minor revision. The previous chapter dealt with the bad guy and had freed me up some to write the final scene, which was fun to write. Grace’s first-person perspective, and the only time we hear her voice, occurred organically. I had such a feeling of elation as I saw the narrative coming to an end. Even I learned things about the characters I didn’t know or foresee.

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

I’d like to think I’m resourceful like June, and I’ve certainly been called pragmatic and stubborn. I grew up with a step-father in the house, as I lost my own father when I was young, so those experiences gave me a perspective on the dynamics of June’s relationship to Isom and longing for her father. I also have a two-years younger brother that is my person and who is currently undergoing cancer treatments, which terrify me. I drew heavily on our relationship to build June’s connection to Tom.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I use music as a jumping-off place for a writing session—a sort of ritual to get me in the right frame of mind. I call it opening the wound, as crazy as that sounds, because pain is a way into the core of a narrative. Incidentally, I built a soundtrack for writing the novel that contains 60’s and 70’s music, as well as songs that deeply affect me. I can only listen to Dylan’s "You’re a Big Girl Now" once a year, tops.

As for images, I relied heavily on Roger May’s book Testify. Roger shot the cover photograph for the novel, and I gave him a nod by naming a fleeting character after him.

Early in the writing process, I knew I wanted one of Roger’s photos on the cover, and the editor agreed with my request—not a common occurrence in publishing. While there are many photographers that capture the landscape of Appalachia, geography becomes character in Roger’s lens.

The Talmud says that a lion is made of all the lambs he has eaten. With all my soul, I believe that truth extends beyond metaphorical lambs to art. I can see the influence of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road in the latter half of the novel, just as I can sense echoes of the Boxcar Children, a book my granny read to me as a child. Resourceful characters abound in both. My novel contains many echoes of art I’ve consumed, some I didn’t realize were there until the final revision process.

When the original True Grit was released in 1969, I saw it with my brother, then returned to the theater in Springfield, Tennessee several times after to watch it again. I loved the story and the characters, particularly the memorable dialog. You won’t be surprised to find an extended reference to the movie in my novel.

Follow Pamela Steele on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

My Book, The Movie: In The Fields of Fatherless Children.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lauren Reding

Lauren Reding grew up in rural Virginia. She earned a BA in English from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and an MFA in fiction from Johns Hopkins University. Reding enjoys planting native perennials, playing video games, going for walks, and shooting the breeze.

Her new novel is The Killer in the House.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title for The Killer in the House tells you a couple of important things. First, obviously, there’s a killer! But, to me, the bigger clue in the title has to do with the domestic setting: the house itself and the secrets inside.

In the book, down-on-her-luck Renee takes new a job as a live-in housekeeper for a wealthy family that’s also trying to get a fresh start. The father, Ed, has just been exonerated of the high-profile murder of his first wife, thanks to a sensational true crime podcast. Now, he’s excited to reunite his family and face the world again, a triumphant and vindicated man.

But from inside the house, Renee sees the secrets Ed’s family hides from public view. As she folds laundry and washes dishes, she begins to suspect that danger still threatens the family, and she can’t help but take risks (and then bigger risks) to assemble the whole story from the clues that never made it into the podcast, clues hidden inside the house’s four walls.

What's in a name?

In the real world, our birth names are a reflection of our parents and what expectations they had for us when we were born. When I name a character, I spend a lot of time thinking about that character’s parents. I figure out what generation those parents belonged to, and what kind of people they were. I think about how their values would be reflected in the name they would choose for their fictional child.

Many of the characters in The Killer in the House feel tension between their parents’ expectations and what they want for themselves, and they seek to make a name for themselves, metaphorically or literally.

A teenager in the book goes by a nickname in an effort to redefine herself as separate from her parents while another character takes...a more drastic approach.

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

Beginnings are definitely harder! The beginning of a novel has to set everything in motion: the characters’ motivations, the inevitable disasters that will strike them, and the reader’s expectations for what they hope, or fear, will happen.

The beginning of The Killer in the House went through many revisions, but I always knew how it needed to end: with our protagonist losing one option after another, until she has no choice but to face the danger head-on.

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 there’s a little something of me in every character I write, good guys and bad guys alike. Even though I don’t always condone what the characters do, I still have to fundamentally understand them as people. I try to find at least one motivating thing we have in common. Maybe it’s the fear of being judged by others or the desire to escape grief and loss. Maybe it’s the ambition to impress people or the desire to do the right thing. Everything else about the character can be completely different from me and my experience, as long as we share that one knowable thing.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

For this novel, I think you can guess that I did listen to a lot of true crime podcasts! I particularly appreciate the long-form investigative podcasts where journalists spend months or even years collecting interviews, scouring archives, and working tirelessly to speak for the voiceless in a thoughtful, responsible way.

I have so much respect for this kind of journalism! And I think the fictional podcasters in my book could stand to learn a little from their hardworking real-life counterparts.

Visit Lauren Reding's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rob Phillips

Rob Phillips grew up in the Dallas area, where he became an Emmy-winning sportswriter covering the Dallas Cowboys for print, radio and television. He and his wife are proud parents to a spunky senior King Charles spaniel and a lively young daughter, who’s still waiting for her first stakeout. His debut novel, Stakeouts and Strollers, won the Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Award.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Stakeouts and Strollers works really well as a title because it explains the book’s general premise in three words: The protagonist, Charlie Shaw, is a first-time girl dad and rookie private investigator. He’s constantly sleep deprived, a common occurrence for both roles, and he’s fairly clueless at both, at least at first. The reader instantly knows that our hero is juggling new-parent/spousal duties with solving cases. When a teenage runaway named Friday Finley shows up near Charlie’s home in search of her estranged father, the case appeals to Charlie’s newfound sense of “dadness” and triggers some tragic personal memories that he seeks to exorcise by helping this girl in need.

What's in a name?

I love it when a character’s name acts essentially as an Easter egg with subtle connections to their personality or the book’s theme. Two supporting character names have special meanings tied to the story. Inspector Dwayne Powell, Charlie’s boss and mentor, is named after Powell Street in San Francisco, the book’s primary setting. Inspector Powell has been an esteemed guardian of the city, and he knows it inside and out. Miss Finley explains in the book why her mother named her “Friday.” I’ll save it for the reader, but let’s just say Friday’s life has hardly been a weekend jaunt.

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

Teenage Rob probably wouldn’t be surprised, actually. I grew up fascinated with mystery novels, especially the hardboiled detective stories, and many were set in California: The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Devil in a Blue Dress, Fletch, L.A. Confidential, to name a few. I always wanted to contribute something to the genre, and although I grew up in Dallas, I’ve spent a lot of time in California over the past twenty years. I decided to challenge myself to create that setting on the page.

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

Beginnings, for sure. By the time I’m halfway through the book, I usually know exactly how I want it to end, and I play out the final pages in my head like a movie scene before writing it. The start of Stakeouts and Strollers had a few different iterations, though. Obviously, I wanted to draw in the reader immediately, but I debated the best way to accomplish that. Do I establish Charlie’s home life as a doting, often bumbling new dad? Do I show his glaring lack of experience as a PI? Those lighter elements were important, but my editor and I decided to jump right in with some ominous action, flashing forward to a scene with Friday’s estranged father and the events that got him in big, big trouble. It foreshadows exactly what Charlie will be up against when he decides to take the case.

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

I see a little of Charlie in me, for sure. We’re both from Texas, we’re proud girl dads, and we both have big hearts. But in some ways, Charlie and Inspector Powell represent who I’ve always wanted to be. Charlie is an ex-crime reporter, and he’s absolutely fearless. He’s not afraid to ask tough questions, which serves him well in his new job as a PI (but also gets him in hot water with some of the book’s unsavory characters). I worked in sports media for a long time and enjoyed writing more than being a dogged reporter. With Inspector Powell, I think of Superman when I write about him. He defines the word “honorable” as a decorated veteran and investigator, a loving father and husband. He’s also Charlie’s conscience throughout the book.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My main inspiration for this book was my wife and daughter. I started writing during the pandemic right after she was born, so some of Charlie’s experiences are based on my own. Stakeouts and Strollers is a mystery, but it’s also a love story that shows the lengths Charlie will go to help and protect those close to him.

Follow Rob Phillips on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Albertine Clarke

Albertine Clarke received an MFA in fiction from the University of Florida and studied English Literature at the University of Edinburgh where she won the Lewis Edwards Memorial prize for creative writing. Raised in London, she now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

The Body Builders is her debut novel.

My Q&A with the author:

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

My title, The Body Builders, is possibly slightly misleading, in that it makes the novel sound like it’s about body building. While the father of the protagonist is a body builder, this is more in the background than one might expect. Really the title is a pun, because there are two other varieties of body builder – the mother, who has literally built Ada’s body with her own, and the mysterious beings that provide Ada with the synthetic body. I imagine readers might find their expectations subverted, possibly frustrated, which is what I wanted.

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

I think my teenage self would not be surprised at all. The feelings I had when I was a teenager – mostly a desperate, aching loneliness – make up the bedrock of the novel. I think she would feel very seen, and I hope she would feel that someone had taken her seriously.

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

I find beginnings easy, and endings almost impossible. It’s like a romantic relationship. The beginning is the fun part, and the ending is where you have to think about what you’ve done, and how it relates to the world. I changed the ending of The Body Builders several times, and each change retroactively changed the emotional balance of the entire book. Ultimately, I landed on something quite elliptical. In my short stories I change the endings a lot.

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

Ada is me, but she’s a drastically extrapolated version of me. I have struggled with my mental health throughout my life, but I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by people who have wanted to help me and have succeeded. Ada does not have that privilege. She’s marooned inside herself, with far fewer links to the concrete world, and far stranger things are happening to her.

In terms of plot, basic points map on to my life – my parents’ divorce, and a relationship with an older man – but I wanted to challenge myself to use my imagination, which is partly why I used speculative elements. I think it’s important to do the work of translating experience into metaphor or representation. There has to be a reason for something to be a novel, rather than a memoir or an essay. I think all fiction draws in one way or another from the authors life; it would be difficult to write something completely random, and why would you want to do that, anyway?

However, fiction has to be a dialogue between individual and universal experience, and imagination often forms the bridge between the two.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

I watch a lot of sci fi movies. Blade Runner, Minority Report, The Matrix, and 2001: A Space Odyssey all have played their role in building my aesthetic sense. I would love the novel to be adapted into a movie.

Follow Albertine Clarke on Instagram.

--Marshal Zeringue