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| Photo by Deidhra Fahey Photography |
Amber and Danielle Brown are the authors of the new novel Zetas Till We Die. Their other novels include Perfect Little Lives. They are twins, and they live in Los Angeles.
Q: What inspired you to write Zetas Till We Die, and how did you create your character Priscilla?
A: We really wanted to create a story about a fictional Black sorority because they’re underrepresented in the book world. This project was the perfect opportunity because a reunion setting was ideal for igniting all the drama.
Like our second book, Perfect Little Lives, Zetas Till We Die is a thriller that intertwines a past murder with a present-day mystery. But this time the stakes are even higher because bodies start turning up dead.
Creating Priscilla was a key part of bringing this story to life. She’s our anchor, the president of her chapter, the Beyoncé of the group. But even though she’s always been well-adored, an ‘it’s girl, this story shows the other side of her kind of popularity and how what you see on the outside doesn’t always match what’s really going on in the inside.
Like all of the female main characters we create, Priscilla is very strong-willed, smart and flawed. We wanted her to seem like a real person, navigating the ups and downs of life, marriage, female friendship and tragedy the best she can.
Q: How did you collaborate on the book? Can you describe your writing process?
A: Before any actual writing took place, we had a very long, intense (but also very fun) conversation where we discussed characters, plot, theme, tone and the overall vibe we were going for.
That way we both were on the same page of the direction of the project and once we agreed on all of the big stuff, we jotted everything down into a joint Google doc. It wasn’t a strict outline, just all the major beats we knew we wanted to hit. This step was mostly to prove to ourselves that we had a solid idea on our hands.
The actual outline came after the idea was green-lit by our editor, which honestly was just a paragraph-by-paragraph description of every scene we needed to actual use the plot and major character moments. This includes any pertinent relevant details, nothing fancy or professional.
We then wrote out what we call a skeleton—the structure of all the major scenes and all the dialogue, which mostly stayed the same in the subsequent drafting stages. After that we wrote the actual first draft which didn’t take long since we’d already worked out all the kinks. It’s really downhill after we complete the skeleton.
When it comes to editing, we both took turns in a Google Doc, writing comments to each other and making suggestions. Once we came to a consensus on everything, we sent it to our editor.
Q: Without giving anything away, did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: We never know exactly how a novel will end when we start writing. We have a general idea of the direction we’re heading, but we don’t worry about finalizing the ending until we get there. It’s much more exciting this way.
We’ve written a lot of thrillers and while we always try to make them stand out from either other, writing in the same genre can get sort of repetitive so in order to keep the writing process fresh and suspenseful, we leave the details of the climax and resolution open until we reach that point. For some writers, this might be anxiety-inducing, but for us, it feels liberating.
With Zetas, we always knew who the killer would be because that was the impetus of the story, but the specific scenes that would lead up to the climax and details of the final twist reveal came together as we drafted.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: We hope readers have fun with this one. It’s super-fast-paced, features a broad cast of equally flawed and dynamic characters, multiple twists and turns, plenty of reveals and reversals, and out of all of our books, this one has the most surprising ending. It’s not outlandish, but we think it’ll definitely make you go, “Okay, how did I not see that coming?”
But as important as delivering a great ending is, creating a thrilling ride that makes the book impossible to put down is just as crucial as pulling off a final reveal that no one ever saw coming.
Our goal is always to keep readers constantly on the edge of their seats. We want them to be continually guessing who the killer is, trying to get ahead of the plot twists but also getting deeply invested in the interpersonal drama of the characters.
Also, in more ways than one, the big theme of the book is how you can ever really know what a person is going through, so our defaults should be to be kind. That’s a message we’re passionate about and hope readers walk away with.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Our next book is completely different than anything we’ve ever done. It definitely leans more psychological horror, which has been fun to dive into so far. It takes place in a single location over one week and there’s a lot of drama going on. And there’s a couple resists we’re super excited about.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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