Q&A

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I can’t remember ever not wanting to be a writer! I was one of those kids who was writing poems, stories, and plays in elementary school. In high school I wrote a scandalous novella in middle school and revealing all the secrets of seventh grade. I put basically everyone I knew in it. It was a hit at school, until it was confiscated in biology class.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

I am an avid reader and I read across genres. We are experiencing a golden era of sorts in the world of psychological suspense — some of my favorites are Peter Swanson and Wendy Walker, but there are really too many wonderful writers to name. (Keep an eye out for fellow debuts Ashley Winstead and Laurie Elizabeth Flynn.) But I read way outside my genre — I love to read and reread E.M. Forster, Edith Wharton, Patricia Highsmith, David Lodge, Charles Bukowski, and Armistead Maupin. When I’m down or discouraged, I read Nora Ephron. And I am sucker for narrative nonfiction, especially if it involves crime — like Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.

How long did it take you to write your debut novel?

It took about two years. But that was the fourth novel I’d written and tried to get to published, so my journey is just a wee bit longer than just those two years!

What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk or habit?

My most interesting quirk or habit would probably be my color-coordinated drafting process. I write a skeletal rough draft on the computer and print it out, but then I do the real writing by hand. I curl up on the couch with coffee and colored pens and begin marking up my manuscript. Little changes are made on colorful sticky notes but large sections that need to be rewritten are done so on special yellow graph paper, which I order in bulk. What results is a messy, coffee cup-stained, colorful, and bursting at the seams piece of art. Something about the tactile nature of it makes me very happy. Color makes me happy, and I love the physical act of writing by hand, which seems to access a different part of my brain.

What is your biggest writing-related dream?

My biggest dream has always been to walk into some wonderful independent bookstore with my family, and see my book for sale on the table! I want my daughters to be able to hold in their hands this thing their mom has worked so hard on. I would also love to be somewhere far away, at a beach on vacation, or on the subway in another city, and see someone reading my book. That would be too cool.