Kimberly McCreight

Photo credit: Beowulf Sheehan

Kimberly McCreight is the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, which was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Alex Awards and was called Entertainment Weekly’s Favorite Book of the Year. Reconstructing Amelia has been optioned for film by HBO and Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films. McCreight’s second adult novel, Where They Found Her, was a USA Today bestseller and a Kirkus Best Mystery of the Year.

Her new novel is A Good Marriage.

My Q&A with McCreight:

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

In this case, my title really is everything! A Good Marriage goes to the heart of the novel’s themes, as well as much of its plot. I was interested in looking at what really makes a good marriage and challenging the idea that there are any true golden rules. My title poses the central question that’s at the heart of the book, which is most definitely also a thriller. What’s funny is that I actually wasn’t sure I wanted A Good Marriage to be my final title. Because it had been my working title all along, I wanted something shiny and brand new for the polished final draft. It was my editor, Jennifer Barth, who wisely convinced me otherwise. She was convinced from the start that it was exactly the right title. I’m so grateful because she was absolutely right. I can’t imagine now the book being called anything else.

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

Not very. My parents divorced when I was very young, so I’ve long wondered what a good marriage looks like. As a teenager, I can also distinctly remember an adult telling me that as you get older you only have more questions about life, not less. (A sentiment I’ve found to be very true.) I think A Good Marriage lies at the intersection of those two ideas—having spent my early life wondering what a good marriage looks like, and realizing that the answer to that question only gets harder as time goes by.

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

Endings! Hands down, endings are harder than beginnings. Perhaps that’s especially true with mysteries. But I know for sure that the ending is the hardest part of my books. Setting up suspense is actually pretty easy—a threatening scene, some sketchy characters, the careful parceling out of information—and, boom, you’ve got it. Not only do all the pieces of the puzzle need to click into place by the final pages, but the ending needs to be emotionally satisfying, too. In other words, at the beginning you can keep your cards close to your vest, controlling the show by bluffing your way through. But when the end arrives and you’ve got to lay down that hand, you best be holding a royal flush.

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

On a fundamental level, I’m a lot like Lizzie, the main character in A Good Marriage. That actually made her quite hard to write at first. Early on, I was underexplaining aspects of her personality, assuming they were self-evident. I worked hard to create enough distance between Lizzie and myself so that she stood on her own as a uniquely nuanced, well-rounded character. In the published book, she and I are still similar, but we are not at all the same. That said, I share something in common with many of the other main characters in A Good Marriage, which is maybe a little frightening! For instance, like Sam, I am a recovering alcoholic and had long wanted to write about managing an addiction in a marriage.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Conceptual modern art has always been a huge source of inspiration for me. There is nothing more fearless than an artist expressing themselves through something completely abstract. It’s a true act of courage. Maurizio Cattelan’s exhibition a decade ago at the Guggenheim comes immediately to mind. Cattelan makes these irreverent, arresting sculptures that also serve as incisive political commentary. In that particular exhibition at the Guggenheim, he’d suspended his sculptures from the museum rotunda like this enormous mobile. It was so bold and forceful and it utterly took my breath away. (Google it, you can still find images online.)

At the time, I was finishing up yet another draft of Reconstructing Amelia—my fifth unpublished novel—all of them written in a similar epistolary fashion with multiple narrators and shifting timeframes, a style I had been told repeatedly was fundamentally unsellable. And had, in fact, not sold. In fact, I’d already been told if I wanted to ever sell Amelia, I needed to pick a lane and simplify the story, take out all the social media elements and make it from a single character’s point of view. I distinctly remember standing in that soaring Guggenheim rotunda, all those insane, brilliant, beautiful Cattelan sculptures floating overhead, and thinking: You know what? I’m not changing a fucking thing.

Visit Kimberly McCreight's website.

The Page 69 Test: Reconstructing Amelia.

The Page 69 Test: The Scattering.

The Page 69 Test: The Collide.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sarah Zettel

Sarah Zettel is an award-winning author. She has written more than thirty novels and multiple short stories over the past twenty-five years, in addition to hiking, cooking, stitching all the things, marrying a rocket scientist, and raising a rapidly growing son.

Zettel's latest novel is A Mother's Lie.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Hopefully a lot. When we talk about food, the saying goes we eat with our eyes first. It’s the same with a book. The cover and the title are what pique the interest first, especially if the author is new to the reader. So, I plan my titles fairly carefully, usually with a lot of help from my editors.

What's in a name?

Like the title of a book, the name is one of the first impressions the reader is going to get of the character, so, it’s very important. A name can denote race, ethnicity, time period, and class. I take a long time to pick out a character name, and may end up changing it as the draft develops and I get to know the character better.

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

Very. My teenaged self wrote exclusively fantasy, science fiction and horror. She never even considered writing contemporary suspense.

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

Actually, the really hard part is the middle. The middle wanders. It’s the place where all the lovely side thoughts I’ve had try to settle in. I have to keep cutting and redirecting it so I’ve got a straight line between the beginning and end. I do, however, tend to rewrite the beginning more than the end. By the time I actually get to the end, I usually know where I need to be.

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

I expect all my characters have a connection to me, whether I see it or not. But they are from the same brain that shaped the rest of my life, so nothing I create can be seen as fully separate from the experiences that helped shape me. The question is, which part of me do they come from? It could be from hopes, fears, aspirations, or memories, but probably, for most of them, it’s probably some combination of all of these. Some times I’ll recognize it, sometimes I won’t.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Travel, definitely. The people I meet and talk to. Reality is always going to be weirder and more amazing than anything an author can imagine. Music. Current events, or attempts to hide from current events. History.

Visit Sarah Zettel's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Florence Gonsalves

Florence Gonsalves is the author of two books of young adult fiction, Love and Other Carnivorous Plants and Dear Universe.
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In 2015 she graduated from Dartmouth College where she majored in Philosophy, while taking as many poetry classes as she could.
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Her work experience ranges from publishing in NYC, to farming in Maine, to one really bad holiday shift at UPS. She currently lives in Portland, Maine.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Initially I was calling Dear Universe The Opposite of Seventeen because Cham is experiencing hardships that feel antithetical to the fun, carefree existence associated with her age. Though both my agent and editor liked The Opposite of Seventeen, with each draft that title felt a little more convoluted and detached from the heart of the story. I wanted the title to be a big clear statement that demands the reader’s attention the way Cham demands the attention of the universe in all her pleas to it throughout the novel.

What's in a name?

When I’m starting a book, I find myself latching onto a quirky name with a funny backstory for the protagonist so I can get a sense of who she is. Though the backstory didn’t make it into the final draft of Dear Universe, this is why Cham uses a nickname: “Don’t call me Chamomile or I’ll have to tell you about how my mom named me after her favorite goat and I’ve spent the last seventeen years living up to the legend of the three legged, one eyed Chamomile Sr. who survived cancer and coyotes and lived to the ripe old age of nineteen by figuring out how to nurse on her own teet.”

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

My teenage self would be shocked to see me writing a story that revolves around a father with Parkinson’s disease. I never acknowledged my dad’s illness as a teen, and truly hoped to never have to talk about it ever. That being said, teenage me would forgive 27 year-old-me thanks to the romantic plot line in Dear Universe. I always wanted to read stories where someone fell in love, believing then as I do now, that romantic love is the only reason it’s better to be a human than a house cat.

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

I struggle more with endings than beginnings, though truthfully I make a lot of edits to both in the many drafts it takes me to get to the real story. I believe, though, what Joan Didion says in “Goodbye to All That”: “It’s easy to see the beginnings of things and harder to see the ends.”

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 big old hunk of myself in Cham. My dad does have Parkinson’s disease and a lot of Cham’s hardship stems from real things that happened to me and my family. I can’t seem to write a character that isn’t some version of me in a parallel or perpendicular universe, and Cham – with her anger, sass, and imperfections – is no exception.

Visit Florence Gonsalves's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kylie Logan

Kylie Logan is the national bestselling author of the Jazz Ramsey Mysteries, The League of Literary Ladies Mysteries, the Button Box Mysteries, the Chili Cook-Off Mysteries, and the Ethnic Eats Mysteries.

Her new novel, The Secrets of Bones, is the second Jazz Ramsey Mystery.

My Q&A with the author:

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

I hope my titles convey the flavor and energy of a story. For The Secrets of Bones I wanted that “secret” part not only to let readers know it was a mystery, but also so they got a sense that the mystery isn’t simply So-and-So clunks So-and-So over the head and kills him. Secrets to me imply knowledge. Knowledge implies familiarity. Suddenly the mystery—the murder—is personal. As for “bones,” again, wanted the mystery to be clear, but that word is especially important because Jazz Ramsey, my heroine, trains and handles cadaver dogs and of course, bones are one of the things they’re trained to find.

Do I sweat picking a title? Absolutely. For me, the idea for a book never fully comes together until I have the title. I spend a lot of time playing with and discarding titles until I come up with exactly the right one.

What's in a name?

Names are vitally important, especially in a mystery series. Listen to mystery readers talk and they’ll often refer to a series by the main character’s name. The Bosch books. Or the Gamache books. As a writer, that tells me I need to come up with a name readers are going to remember and immediately identify with my series. Jazz Ramsey’s name fits the bill. Not really sure where I came up with Jazz, just I knew I wanted something short and snappy. She’s a no-nonsense woman who is devoted to her volunteer work as a cadaver dog handler. I couldn’t picture her as anything but Jazz. But of course, names can also be used to convey family dynamics. Jazz’s mom always calls her Jasmine. That tells you something about their relationship.

I went through more gyrations with other characters in the series. For instance, Jazz’s boyfriend, Nick Kolesov, was originally Dan Warren. I came to my senses on that one when I realized that the city of Cleveland, the setting for the books, is actually a character in every story. Cleveland is gritty. Cleveland is interesting. The city’s population is an amalgam of ethnicities and cultures. It’s what makes Cleveland so unique. Dan Warren was way too white bread a name for a Cleveland cop. Once I got Nick’s name right, I knew more about him, his background, his family.

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

Hmm…intriguing to think about! My teenage self was always reading. I loved historical fiction (Dorothy Dunnett’s Game of Kings is still a favorite), so I suppose I would have imagined myself writing something similar. Something heavy on research—I love research. Something set in the British Isles—I’m a confirmed Anglophile. And yet, I always loved mystery, too. In fact the first books I published were historical romances set in England and they always had a twisty turny plot that included some mystery. It took me a while to realize that the mystery was what I really wanted to concentrate on. But then, that teenage self, just like the adult self, always loved Sherlock Holmes!

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

While no part of a book is easy to write, beginnings give me an opportunity to lay out the scene, re-visit characters, set up what’s going to happen. Endings, especially in mystery, are tricky things. All the loose ends need to be brought together, and every one of them needs to make sense. I am an outliner so I spend a lot of time planning every book and I have some idea where a book is headed before I start into the writing. Even so, The Secrets of Bones is the first book I’ve ever changed drastically from the ending I had planned. I’d thought about another murderer all along and yet as I was writing, I realized that just wasn’t right. It’s a sobering experience, that’s for sure, when that sort of realization hits you over the head and you need to read over everything and see what needs to be changed, what can stay, and what absolutely has to go.

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

I hope my characters aren’t at all like me because I’m not all that interesting. I sit in front of my computer all day. I stare into space. I don’t have Jazz’s drive or energy or her patience with training dogs. I’m not nearly as kind and understanding as Sister Eileen who is the principal at the school where Jazz works. I’m not crazy over-the-top like Jazz’s best friend, Sarah. Or as willing to put my life on the line to keep the city safe as Nick is. I think rather than being like me, my characters are a mixture of people I’ve known throughout my life. I take a little of this person, a little of that person. The looks of one, the way another one walks. It’s kind of like baking a cake, throw the ingredients in, mix them up, and come up with a finished product that’s the sum total of all the different parts!

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Family, certainly. My dad was a Cleveland Police detective. He’s the one who first introduced me not only to Sherlock Holmes but to the art of detection. Early in his career, Dad worked in what was called the Auto Bureau. On his days off, we’d ride around in the car together and search for stolen cars. There was usually an ice cream cone involved, too. Not sure what that’s called in psychology, but I think it means that when I think of solving crimes, it brings back a lot of good memories.

Visit Kylie Logan's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Demetra Brodsky

Demetra Brodsky is an award-winning art director and designer turned writer. She has a B.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and lives in Southern California with her family of four and two lovable rescue dogs. Dive Smack, her debut YA thriller, is dedicated to the Monarch butterfly she once saved from the brink of death.

Brodsky's new novel is Last Girls.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The original title of Last Girls was The Juniper Sisters. I never even imagined another title until my agent suggested we pick something that was more in line with the book’s genre (thriller) and we took that thought to the publisher. The story of the Juniper sisters and how they came to be named was such a huge part of their backstory that I was a little resistant to the change, if I’m being honest. I made long lists of alternatives, my agency threw some suggestions into the mix, and we went back and forth with the publisher until we found something that stuck. There are several places in the book where the term last girls comes into play. For example, in chapter one their mother tells Honey, “You could be the last girls on this compound.” I can’t confirm or deny if that’s true. You’ll have to read the whole story to find out.

What's in a name?

Honey, Birdie, and Blue Juniper. They are unusual names, aren’t they? More like nicknames than something you might see on a birth certificate. If I gave you the whole story of how and why they have these names, I would seriously mess up some major plot twists for you. I hate to be this vague, but you’ll have to read the story to find out. Remember, the tagline for the book is This is how their world ends. Not how the world ends. I know this is a big tease without a payout, but you’ll have to trust me. The mystery is on this one is worth the wait.

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

Naming characters is one of my favorites parts of the process and I can’t wait for you to meet Honey, Birdie, and Blue. They display a helluva of a lot of grit. A necessary trait I think we’re all displaying these days, given our current global health crisis. Honey, in particular, is probably the most like me, even though in my family I’m the youngest of my parents three daughters. Writers have to put something of themselves in their characters, even when they’re not carbon copies, so we can draw from our own emotional experiences. Still, while writing them, I took special attention as to not give them similar emotional characteristics to each other so I could differentiate their voices in my head. Because of that, I had to dig deep into my psyche. I hope that spilled onto the pages for you, the uniqueness of each of the girls, despite their close relationship. Honey is ruled by big R responsibility and curiosity. She’s not one to take answers at face value, nor is she quick to trust. I struggle with some of those traits myself. I have a strong drive to finish and see things through, to keep promises, and do what’s right, and protect the people I love. And like Honey, I have the heart of an artist. I’ve made so many paintings that I’ve given away or left behind. If I’m being honest, I’m also impulsive like Birdie. Quick to anger, but able to admit when I’m wrong. And like Blue, I have a deep love for animals and a need to find solace in my own thoughts.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Last Girls was inspired by so many things that were non-literary. I’m the kind of writer that does lots of research before I can even begin putting words on the page. Because of that, I tend to write twisty, multi-threaded stories, which makes my influence list fairly long. Music? Check. Movies? Check? Family? Check? History? Check. Politics? Check. Check. Check.

Here’s a list of the influences you’ll be sure to find in one form or another between the pages of Last Girls. Hang on to your seat, folks. It’s a wild ride.

· Mother, by Pink Floyd

· The current political climate and thoughts on our POTUS

· The beauty of the Pacific Northwest

· Falconry and Hawking

· Archery

· Weapons usage, ballistics, and wounds

· Red Dawn

· Doomsday Preppers TV Show

· Prepper slang

· Booby Traps

· Bunkers

· Tinctures and Poisons

· Group Dynamics

· Survivalist

· Kidnapping

· U.S. Military terminology and slag

· High School and advanced chemistry

· Rattlesnake Venom Usage

· Devil’s Breath, a Columbian Mind-Control Drug

· Homesteading and Animal Husbandry

· Street Art techniques

· Chemistry

· Pigpen Cipher

· Psychiatric experimentation performed by universities on students

· The Arts (primarily painting, embroidery, and comics)

· Family Dynamics and Birth Order

· Operation Paperclip: a covert affair where roughly 1,600 German scientists were brought to the U.S.A. to work on America’s behalf during the Cold War

Visit Demetra Brodsky's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Demetra Brodsky & L.B. and Ponyboy Curtis.

--Marshal Zeringue

Brady Hammes

Brady Hammes lives in Los Angeles by way of Colorado and Iowa. His short stories have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Guernica, The Rattling Wall, and Harper Perennial’s Forty Stories Anthology. His debut novel The Resolutions is now out from Ballantine/Random House.

He’s also an Emmy-Award winning documentary film editor whose most recent project, Tom vs. Time - about NFL quarterback Tom Brady - won a 2018 Sports Emmy. Before that, he edited the feature film Social Animals, which had its world premiere at the 2018 SXSW film festival.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title works on a couple different levels. All three of the my characters have run their lives into the ground and are now forced to correct their crooked paths. So in a way, they’re all resolving to do better, though the mechanics of that process elude them for most of the book. The novel is also set around the holidays, with the final scene taking place on New Year’s Day, so the idea of a resolution seemed sort of fitting. The title actually came late in the process. When I sold the book it was called The Bygones, and it wasn’t until about a year before publication that we arrived at this new title.

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

Very. I was not a particularly bookish kid, so I don’t think my teenage self would have even considered that I might someday write a novel. I came to fiction fairly late - I didn’t really start until I was about 30 - so this isn’t something I’ve been working toward since I was a kid.

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

Endings are harder for me. With The Resolutions, the ending didn’t change too drastically - at the least the very last scene - though the entire third act of the novel went through many different iterations. I always knew how the book would end, but the circumstances leading up to the end were less clear.

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 be lying if I said I didn’t pull from my own life. But that doesn’t mean my characters are autobiographical. One of my characters is a ballerina and one is a research scientist, and I can assure you I’ve never danced on stage and I’m terrible at science. A lot of research went into those parts of the book, but the underlying feelings of loneliness and career stagnation are things I can relate to. I think Ann Patchett once said something to the effect of, “None of it happened, but all of it’s true.”

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Everything from my Midwestern youth to neo-classical music to my travels throughout the world. This book was written over a long period of time starting when I was much younger, and in a different place in my life. Although the concerns of the book aren’t ones that are as relevant to me now, I still think the book stands a good reminder of a specific period in my life, and hopefully one that others can relate to as well.

Visit Brady Hammes's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

John Farrow (Trevor Ferguson)

John Farrow is the pen name of Trevor Ferguson, who has written numerous novels and plays, all to extraordinary acclaim. His Émile Cinq-Mars crime series has been published around the world and cited by Booklist as "one the best series in crime fiction today," while Die Zeit in Germany suggested that it might be the best series ever.

Farrow's newest novel in the Émile Cinq-Mars series is Roar Back.

My Q&A with the author:

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

A title should haul its weight. Roar Back suggests a battle, one with a history, where the hero of the piece has suffered a serious setback, and where he now embarks on a quest to win what was lost. The words are meant to convey action, and a motorcycle wheel on the cover in combination with the word roar, suggests a biker component, and not geriatric or recreational types. In a quiet moment, the hero provides further dimension to the title as he contemplates roaring back against any part of society that does not permit others to live in peace. The reader, hopefully, is onside by then, roaring back in concert with our protagonist.

What’s in a name?

A lot went into naming Émile Cinq-Mars. Although he’s become the central detective in a series of novels, initially he had to carry a big book and I was searching for a unique and impressive moniker. He’s French, but it’s a rare surname in the language. Its origins are unknown, and that’s been useful. Some say it derives from a corruption of Saint-Marc, perhaps a village once, or that Cinq (five) might refer to the fifth son of a Marc or Mars. The bad guys like to directly translate his name into English, March the Fifth, as a way of trying to irritate or diminish him. But I also was naming him after a real cop and a genuine folk hero, who preceded him in time, one Captain Jacques Cinq-Mars of the Montreal Night Patrol. When he retired, the police force was revamped so that someone like him would never prosper again: the bureaucrats seized control. I brought a guy like him back, in fiction. My guy revived the real man’s aura and moral comportment, although not his methods. I could go on, but that’s the point: the name leads me into places and helps me to bounce with it from pillar to post, and he isn’t confused with anyone else.

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

Given that my teenage reader self was engrossed in Dostoevsky and Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Wolfe, et al, he’d be taken aback by this turn to crime fiction. On the other hand, that kid would probably nod affirmatively that of late my crime fiction, as in my earlier literary fiction, has found its way back to the old neighbourhood, the tough streets of Montreal. The crime fiction is a way of evoking those streets and my older self is happy to get it done. The first literary novel my kid-self read, at age eleven, was In Dubious Battle by Steinbeck, and the union quarreling, and sudden violence, of that novel struck a chord that resonates to this day in my own crime stories.

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

I do not map out a novel, I refuse to know what it might be about, so I’m patient with beginnings. They need to be evocative enough and sufficiently compelling to excite me to continue. Consequently, they’re rewritten a couple of hundred times before I proceed. In Roar Back, two men meet in a coal cellar where there is not a speck of light. They cannot see one another. They cannot see a hand an inch from their eyes. The deprivation of the senses is discombobulating and in that environment, one man grills the other, to see if he’s fit for a secret mission. Evocative, and if I feel it myself I trust that the reader might also. As importantly, I need to sense that the book that’s coming is worth at least a year of my life.

Dramatic and somewhat surprising endings are fine in themselves, but the most important aspect for me is that they feel natural. What happens during the novel is interwoven with who the characters are and what choices they make, as well as what they endure and, when fortunate, overcome. How things wrap up and how the threads knit together must feel inevitable and follow the same rule. This author will not manipulate an outcome. The characters themselves determine how the matter is resolved. They’ve taken over the book. Their passions, their faults and failures, their intelligence, their lusts, their courage: through these aspects, the ending is determined. By them, not by me.

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

My principal character is French, Roman Catholic, a cop, a horse whisperer, very tall, absolutely brilliant intellectually with the strength of a battalion. I hope I’m not the opposite of all those things, but I am none of them. To put myself into a novel I’d have to write about writers, an idea that makes me ill. Now, do I catch glimpses of myself here and there? Admittedly, there are moments a person can share, or steal, going from a real-life scene to a version of it on the page. I can make use of an anecdote that’s too priceless to pass up, and perhaps an insight of mine passes muster and finds its way into a character’s head. In my case, it’s more likely that the lesser characters pick up these tidbits. For me, the challenge of writing is being in another’s skin, and the danger of writing is to recreate a better self to represent one’s own self. I endeavour to be successful at avoiding the latter and being faithful to the former.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

As a teenager in a jazz bar (illegally), among hookers and heroin addicts, gangsters and losers, a great American jazz musician complained to another musician sitting at my table, “The vibrations in here are low.” (Ah, sixties lingo.) The musician at the table nodded, then later said privately, “The vibrations in here? That’s his job.” From that, I took it to heart that my job was to pick the reader up and drop him off at the next station. Not to ask the reader to tolerate shallow characters or run-of-the-mill prose, wooden dialogue or stories we’ve all read before. A musician taught me that my job is to deliver, and I still resort to music often, to sustain me through a long novel, to invigorate my work if I’m dragging, to electrify the creative juices, and to get me dancing. The dance of life ought to be on the page, and music of all sorts helps me get there.

Visit John Farrow's website and Trevor Ferguson's Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Roar Back.

--Marshal Zeringue

Brigit Young

Brigit Young, born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has published poetry and short fiction in numerous literary journals. She is a proud graduate of the City College of New York, and has taught creative writing to kids of all ages in settings ranging from workshops at Writopia Lab to bedsides at a pediatric hospital. Young is the author of the middle grade novels Worth a Thousand Words and The Prettiest. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughters.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The title of my novel, The Prettiest, sets up the reader’s expectations for the focus of the plot, which involves a list of the top fifty prettiest girls in the eighth grade, and it immediately puts the reader into a competitive state of mind. However, this ultimately works as a misdirect, getting young readers to think about who “the prettiest” is and who decides such a thing before leading them to discover that such a descriptor doesn’t really exist in any objective sense.

What's in a name?

Names are so important to me that I just had my second baby and I’m tempted to have a third just so I can come up with another name. This passion for naming applies to my fiction as well, though I don’t follow the same formula every time. Sometimes a name simply comes along with the vision of a character, and sometimes the sounds are important poetically, capturing the inner song of the person. Most often, though, the societal connotation of the name is what matters. In The Prettiest, Eve is the main character’s name for three reasons: first of all, she embodies certain aspects of the female experience, and therefore the name of the “first woman” suits her. Secondly, she’s number one on a list of “prettiest” girls, so I’m playing with the idea of being first. And lastly, as is mentioned in the book, although the biblical Eve is often seen as merely a sinner, there’s another interpretation that depicts her as the “first rebel,” a reading Eve eventually embraces when she fights back against objectification.

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

My teenage self would expect nothing less from future me than a feminist children’s book that sticks it to the man, but she’d probably be confused as to why there was so little cursing.

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

If you’re a woman, you’ve probably been in a conversation at some point about whether you’re a Carrie, a Samantha, a Miranda, or a Charlotte, or which Golden Girl, Disney princess, or Spice Girl you are. The truth is that we are all of them. Each of my main characters express a piece of me, a sliver of myself heightened and highlighted.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

When I was writing largely short fiction, I found myself inspired by the melancholy of old French films like Jules and Jim and Contempt (yes, I can hear how pretentious that sounds). As a novelist of middle grade fiction, I’m influenced almost entirely by my own memories and the young people around me. When they speak to me about their daily lives and inner worlds, I’m immediately brought right back to the feeling of hurrying to my locker as I try to spot a crush or avoid a bully. Despite some changes in the world externally, like the advent of social media and texting, the emotions of tweenhood are universal.

Visit Brigit Young's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Prettiest.

My Book, The Movie: The Prettiest.

--Marshal Zeringue

Cat Patrick

Cat Patrick and her family live near Seattle but spend as much time as possible four hours west setting marshmallows on fire and tangling kites in the curious town of Long Beach. There, Tornado Brain was born.

Patrick is the author of several books for young adults including Summer 2011 Kids Indie Next List pick Forgotten, which sold in 23 countries; ALA 2013 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Readers selection Revived; and others. Tornado Brain is her middle grade debut.

My Q&A with the author:

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

Tornado Brain was always Tornado Brain. The title does double duty in that it relates to an important scene in the book as well as tells readers quite a bit about the main character, Frankie. Diagnosed with autism spectrum, attention deficit and sensory processing disorders, the way Frankie acts sometimes can be like a tornado ripping through a small town. Her brain twists and turns in ways that can be frustrating to her—but a gift, as well.

What's in a name?

I obsess over character names almost as much as I did about my kids’ names—but Frankie was Frankie from the start. Short for Frances—but don’t call her that—the internet tells me Frankie means “truthful,” which is very fitting. Frankie tells the truth, even when people might not want to hear it.

Colette, Frankie’s missing friend, had a different name for several drafts of the book. I changed it because it wasn’t sitting right, but I still call Colette the wrong name occasionally…kind of like how I call my kids the cat’s name sometimes.

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

My teenage reader self might be a little surprised that I didn’t write a dystopian novel (I had a thing for Ray Bradbury) but likely not shocked that Tornado Brain is about embracing what makes you different in order to do hard things. The first book I wrote (and horribly illustrated), Dolly the Purple Spotted Dolphin, had a similar message—my third-grade self was proud.

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

Endings are usually harder for me, but I knew where this book was headed. Still, at one point, I considered changing the ending. I’m glad I didn’t.

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

I can relate to the mom in Tornado Brain as a mother of twin daughters who loves Long Beach, but I certainly didn’t write myself onto the page. That would have made for a very boring book.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Knowing and loving people with diagnoses similar to Frankie’s certainly influenced my character building in Tornado Brain. Activities like socializing and making and keeping friends can be challenging for kids and adults with autism spectrum and other disorders. I wanted to create a realistic character who may struggle sometimes, but who also has the unique ability to see things no one else is seeing—because of the way she’s wired, not in spite of it.

Visit Cat Patrick's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ed Ruggero

Ed Ruggero is a West Point graduate and former Army officer who has studied, practiced, and taught leadership for more than twenty-five years. His client list includes the FBI, the New York City Police Department, CEO Conference Europe, the CIA, the Young Presidents Organization, Forbes, among many others. He has appeared on CNN, The History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and CNBC and has spoken to audiences around the world on leadership, leader development and ethics. He lives in Philadelphia.

Ruggero's new novel is Blame the Dead.

My Q&A with the author:

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

The combination of title and cover art have to compel the reader to want to find out more.

Blame the Dead is actually lifted right out of a line of dialogue in the novel. When the protagonist, Lieutenant Eddie Harkins, starts investigating the murder that kicks off this story, the comment he hears most often about the victim is that “he got what he deserved.” The dead man’s colleagues don’t seem to care about bringing the killer to justice. But that’s not an option for the lawman, Harkins, who says, “You can’t blame the dead guy for his own murder.”

There’s more than that to the title, of course. The verb “blame” is weighted, smacking of accountability, a little dash of guilt, maybe a bit of vengeance. And using the word “dead” lets readers know that this is high stakes stuff. I like that the title is staccato, a little rat-a-tat-tat. The second book in the series is Comes the War, and my wife refers to the third book, which I’m only now laying out, as Verb the Noun.

What's in a name?

In my Author’s Note I talk about my grandmother, who landed at Ellis Island in 1905, an unmarried, uneducated twenty-two-year old who did not speak English. Decades later, three of her sons served during WW2. Many of my characters are the children or grandchildren of immigrants, because those new Americans shouldered their share of the burdens.

My father’s parents were from Sicily, and my mother’s ancestors from Ireland. Those were the hyphenated Americans whose stories I was most familiar with, so many of my characters come from those backgrounds. The main characters are from the Philadelphia neighborhood where my parents grew up and met.

My protagonist, Eddie Harkins, shares a name with my great grandfather; and the main female character shares a name with my wife’s great aunt. I like weaving those threads through a story because they make me feel connected, and I hope they give the reader a sense of how connected we all are.

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

My teenage self wrote overwrought, over-long prose. I didn’t have the confidence to write simply, to trust that I could find the right phrase or word. Instead, I’d just pile on the sentences, hoping that something would break through the noise. I now have the courage to edit.

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

I write the chapters in order; not all writers do. I pay a lot of attention to the beginning because I know that, as a reader, I expect a lot from the opening. It has to grab me. Since I write the ending last, I’ve had 500 or so manuscript pages to think about it, to get to know the characters really well, to see the whole arc of the story. I love writing the ending and there is a terrific sense of accomplishment when I type “The End,” even though I know that’s actually the beginning of the (sometimes) arduous and critically important revision process.

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

When my kids were growing up, I was always surprised when someone made a big deal about how much we look alike. It was harder for me to see. Similarly, I don’t see a lot of me in my characters, though I have had friends make that observation. One Army buddy, a voracious reader I’ve known for nearly forty years, said the protagonist of Blame the Dead, Eddie Harkins, shares my values. In real life, I don’t want to spend a lot of time in the company of people whose values I don’t respect, so I guess it makes sense that the character I most want readers to love is a likable guy. I hope I’m like that.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

The vast majority of my work, both fiction and non-fiction, features military people. I draw on my experience with soldiers when I create fictional characters: what they sound like, what they worry about, their quirks and idiosyncrasies, their generosity or—sometimes—meanness of spirit. In my fiction there are little vignettes that come from my actual experience or from stories shared with me by other veterans. Generally, the more outrageous, funny and implausible an event seems, the more likely it was drawn from real life.

Visit Ed Ruggero's website.

Writers Read: Ed Ruggero.

My Book, The Movie: Blame the Dead.

The Page 69 Test: Blame the Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue