Go ahead, hit me with your questions. Whatever you want.
Q: Your last novel, AS LONG AS YOU BOTH SHALL LIVE, came out in 2019. What have you been doing since then?
A: Not writing, obviously. BHAHAHA.
Just kidding. I’ve been doing plenty of writing since then, and I have had a few short stories and things publish in the meantime. But honestly, I’ve just been living in those years, and sometimes life is tough. And it turns out I’m not the type of writer who uses writing fiction as a cathartic, journal-like escape. I have to live, then I have to process, then I can write.
Q: What’s your writing routine like?
A: I wish I had a routine. I tend to write in shortish, frantic spurts that last anywhere from several weeks to months. During those times, I get up early and write while everyone else is asleep. I open my laptop at lunch and write a few thousand words. I stay up late and write in bed until I fall asleep.
But when I’m not writing, I’m really not writing. I’m reading and living and dreaming, and thinking about writing a lot.
Q: What are your top 5 favorite books?
A: Man, that’s a good one that I’ve been asked a lot, and it’s impossible to answer because it’s always changing. Sometimes I’ll finish a book and think it LITERALLY CHANGED MY LIFE, but then another one of those comes along. But I do have a few I always circle back to, and they are, in no particular order:
GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell. A classic. Long and beautiful and so intricate with details and history. (And people will kill me for this, but I enjoy the sequels that’ve come along, too.)
THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy. I started this book one evening, and it was about 3am when I got to the part when the man and boy pull open that cellar door to see what the noises are. CHILLS.
THE STAND by Stephen King. The people I got my MFA with will roll their eyes at this, but I LURVE me some King. It started when I was a teenager and my father enrolled in the “Stephen King Book of the Month Club,” or something, and I haven’t looked back since. But THE STAND does something I aspire to do—has a huge cast of characters and a complicated plot that come together so beautifully.
The ANNE OF GREEN GABLES series by LM Montgomery. Okay, I KNOW there’s like 9 books in the series, and I know that it’s an odd choice for me—but there’s something about that redhead and Avonlea that keeps me coming back. And if you’re not a kindred spirit—well, what are doing HERE?
Q-SQUARED by Peter David. Another choice that makes people laugh when I tell them. But, LISTEN. I grew up on Star Trek—although I’ll always be a TNG girl—and this novel not only tells a great story but is a masterclass in juggling several separate timelines and making it work.
Runners-Up: THE PAINTED VEIL by W. Somerset Maugham, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden, THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini, NOS4A2 by Joe Hill…and so many more. Too many to name.
Q: Coffee or tea while you write?
A: Coffee, 100%. But heartburn is a problem, so sometimes tea. Lemon balm or chamomile.
Q: What’s your favorite quote?
A: I have a few, but the one I like the best is tattooed on me: “The single irony of the existence of evil is that it inspires men to do good.”
It’s from a comic book, and this battle between good and evil is the foundation of superhero stories—and life too. It’s the reason why Superman puts on a cape. It’s why people protest at injustice. And it makes one helluva good story.