Q&A with Janet Kintner

 

Photo by Jennifer Anderson

 

 

Janet Kintner is the author of the new memoir A Judge's Tale: A Trailblazer Fights for Her Place on the Bench. She lives in Victoria, Canada, and San Diego, California. 

 

Q: Why did you decide to write this memoir?

 

A: I had a lot of available time during Covid, and I was thinking about all the changes I saw in my 50-year career as a lawyer and judge. I saw how much more difficult it was for women to get justice when we were not in positions of power in the legal system, including me when I was the victim of a terrifying crime.

 

Those were hard lessons, and I didn’t want them to get lost. I thought if I didn’t write about these stories, they could very well be forgotten and we could go back to where women were excluded from being lawyers and judges, which I am convinced would hurt all women, including victims of crime, witnesses, and parties.

 

Q: The author Wendy B. Correa said of the book, “This courageous memoir recounts Kintner’s fight for fairness in a system stacked against her and her relentless belief that justice belongs to everyone.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love it. Wendy gets me. When I became a lawyer, almost everybody said they would not hire a woman lawyer--government agencies and private law firms. I didn’t give up and I finally got a job at Legal Aid of San Diego, representing low-income people.

 

My pay was modest compared to most lawyers’ incomes. But I got a chance to prove myself and I loved almost all my clients. I specialized in consumer fraud and my clients were victims of fraud. They were often single parents working hard to support a family with very little money. I talked about some of my favorite clients and cases in my book.

 

Although I was new and young, I went up against some of the biggest law firms in town. I felt justice belonged to everyone, not just the wealthy.

 

Some of the judges were rude to us female lawyers. I had a judge who mostly ignored me and was solicitous of the male lawyers in a big law firm on the other side. The judge refused to follow the law, but I could prove my case, and I didn’t give up.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: Writing the book took me back in time. I had to relive the unpleasant things, like when I was a victim of crime, and justice was elusive. That was painful.

 

But there were good things about writing it too. I invited to my home some people who were key characters in my book—and in my life, like the investigators who helped me prepare my cases. I talked to others on the phone.

 

We talked about the old days, and they helped refresh my memory about some details. It was heartwarming to renew our friendships and catch up on each other’s lives. Sadly, some have passed away since our visits, so I’m especially glad we got together. I feel it’s important to preserve their legacies in my memoir.

 

I hope readers will be impacted by my descriptions of what it was like before women had positions of power in the legal system. That was a difficult time for women, especially for female victims of crime but also for all women. It stayed that way until more women were lawyers and judges.

 

I trust people will read my book and see the importance of having women in leadership positions and work to keep them there. I also hope readers will be inspired to find a way to help others in need and work to make the world a better place.

 

Q: What do you see looking ahead for the justice system in the United States?

 

A: I really don’t know. I thought we were progressing well toward equality for women and all people, which I thought was good. I also hoped we would have high-quality judges, who would be independent, competent, fearless, strong, incorruptible, nonpolitical, fair, and who would follow the rule of law and their oath to uphold the Constitution.

 

But there are some people who don’t want that, so the future of our justice system depends on who is in power. I think we all need to get involved, vote, and make sure good people are elected who will give us a quality justice system, because judges are elected or appointed by elected officials.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am working on writing a humorous fiction book.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Yes, I am working on passing on kindness. We all need to do that. I feel bad when friends and family members say they get depressed and worry about what is happening to our world. We all need to be kind to each other and remember we have more in common than what divides us.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with James Sulzer

 

 

 

 

James Sulzer is the author of the new novel All That Smolders. His other books include The Voice at the Door. He lives in Nantucket, Massachusetts. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write All That Smolders, and how did you create your character Peter Christie?

 

A: I was inspired to write All That Smolders in memory and in honor of my mother, who loved mysteries and was a huge Agatha Christie fan. Like Agatha Christie in some of her books, I set this mystery on an island.

 

I did so for a number of reasons. For one thing, who doesn’t love reading about a beautiful island? Also, an island is a place where people think they know everything about each other but are often ignorant of their deepest secrets—a situation which creates all sorts of interesting points of tension and intrigue.

 

My family and I have lived on Nantucket Island for over 40 years, so I know a bit about island life. But I didn’t want to copy characters I knew here. Instead, in creating the characters for this novel, I drew on my knowledge of the ways that the dynamics of island living affect people and their interactions.

 

I created the character Peter Christie largely by feel. I sensed that he needed to begin the story in a not-great place, that is, incomplete as a person in some ways. A person who knew he had messed up and needed to turn his life around but didn’t really know how to do that.

 

I also thought it would be interesting if Peter Christie’s personal growth could, in some way, help him solve the central mystery in the story, the murder of the lawyer Chester Danville.

 

I thought it would be a nice nod to Agatha Christie to have Peter be her (fictional) great-great-nephew. That allowed him to reflect on mysteries in general and, more to the point, to refer to the brilliance of his ancestor as he looked for help in solving the murder—and also, he hoped, in winning back Haddie.

 

Q: What influence did Agatha Christie’s writing have on the novel?

 

A: In getting ready to write this book, I read a baker’s dozen of Agatha Christie’s novels, hoping to understand her artistry and the workings of her smooth sleight of hands.

 

I picked up some major guidelines: have five to seven possible suspects, each with motives and opportunity; embed a few seemingly minor details that turn out, in retrospect, to be crucial to solving the murder; give the characters an edgy realism (that is, don’t sugar-coat them).

 

Style-wise, I appreciated Agatha Christie’s relatively simple, direct sentences and selective but meaningful descriptive details. She lets her characters’ hidden motives lurk behind the sentences, creating a world with depth and complexity. Naturally, I tried to emulate all that in All That Smolders.

 

Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I did not know how the story would end before starting to write it. I had a sense that the story would build to an exciting climax and, probably, that the murder would be solved. In truth, I didn’t even know about most of the characters until they showed up in the course of writing the story and they began to take on weight and importance.

 

Here’s one thing that didn’t turn out as planned: I had thought that writing a mystery would force me to pre-plan the chapters and clues, which might be good discipline for me. But already by the time I completed the first chapter, my outline for the novel had fallen completely apart.

 

As it turns out, my writing is probably at its best when the story insists on taking its own shape.

 

Which brings us back to a question about Agatha Christie. In her mystery writing, was she always a pre-planner extraordinaire? It was a surprise to me to learn that no, she was not. In fact (as the narrator in All That Smolders informs us) Agatha Christie later said she was halfway through The Crooked House before she knew who the murderer would be.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Peter and Haddie?

 

A: Troubled but hopeful. Though Haddie is a few years younger than Peter, she is more mature, and also more certain about what she expects from a relationship. I think at first she doesn’t realize the extent to which Peter is carrying baggage that keeps him from being anything close to a model boyfriend.

 

For her part, she’s a bit of a hard-edged New Englander of the old style, despite her gentle ways—a trait that might not always be helpful in starting a relationship.

 

Peter is starting to realize the extent of his dysfunction, and the arc of the story is defined by his attempts to transcend the trauma of his past. He gives it his all to solve the murder, in part because he hopes to show Haddie that he is worthy of her.

 

This is a tricky scenario for him, as there’s no guarantee that he will find success either in solving the murder or in getting her back—and it turns out to be a perilous situation as well.

 

Toward the end, I think Peter has a sense that he’s making progress as a person, but he still isn’t sure where he stands with Haddie. The last scene or two probably gives some clarity on that. Peter seems hopeful. And Haddie? We will see in the sequel.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am writing the sequel, entitled All That Matters, set in the year 2000 on the same island, with many of the same characters 20 years later.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: The first scene—Peter as a young boy outside his parents’ bedroom, overhearing sounds of abuse and suffering—is a direct transcription of what I heard when young.

 

I guess by the time I approached this novel, many decades later, my life had reached the point where I could finally write about this freely—the event and its effects on a child growing up. Recreating this painful memory unleashed a well of deep emotion, which I hope gives the novel some real depth and feeling.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Michael Kardos

 

Photo by Megan Bean

 

 

Michael Kardos is the author of the new novel Fun City Heist. His other books include the novel Bluff. He lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Fun City Heist, and how did you create your character Mo?

 

A: Although Fun City Heist isn’t autobiographical, it’s a mashup of several things that are personal and important to me. I was a fully committed drummer for most of my 20s. I played in an original band, cover bands, even a Springsteen tribute. I knew lots of guys like the characters in Fun City Heist. I understand their dreams, dreads, and heartaches. Also, the beach town/boardwalk setting was key. Boardwalk life is sort of hard-wired into my skull.

 

I wanted to write a rock-band book that “gets it right”—that is, one that gets to the heart of being a musician, or more broadly, the heart of being any artist where one’s passion and ambition and love bump up against the realities of a world that is essentially indifferent to one’s passion and ambition and love. Mo Melnick, my narrator, embodies all that. Plus, he has an understanding of the baked-in absurdity of the world he inhabits.

 

The crime-novelist part of me couldn’t resist the fun of a “band of musicians” becoming a “band of thieves,” especially when they are fundamentally ill-prepared for the job. There seemed to be a real similarity between a band trying to beat the overwhelming odds of making it in the music business and pulling off a successful heist. In both, you have to go on faith, to some degree, because the odds are way against you. (And what better alibi is there than being on-stage, performing?)

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Mo and Johnny?

 

A: Chapter one in the book describes their relationship like this: “We were never pals. For a long time, we were much closer than that, childhood best friends who’d started a band, and then we were at each other’s throats, and then he left me and the other guys and betrayed us all.” Mo and Johnny are kind of like brothers who have to work together after 12 years of estrangement. 

 

Q: The writer Peter Swanson called the book an “expertly paced thriller, equal parts thrills, low-key comedy, and well-earned heart.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Well, Peter Swanson is a hell of a thriller writer, so his depiction means a lot. The book is essentially about relationships: between the band, and between Mo and the daughter he’s never known, so I especially appreciate the “well-earned heart” part.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I started writing Fun City Heist in the dark days of 2020—I found myself reading authors whose humor and ethos were fundamentally humane and were, for me, an antidote to what I saw as a prevalent cruelty and nihilism. Same with the TV/movies that I, and lots of others, gravitated toward: There’s a reason why Ted Lasso became so popular.

 

Now it’s 2025, and we’re experiencing a new, different set of dark days. I have no clue where we’re headed. My hope is that this book will do for readers, in some small way, a bit of whatever it’s done for me.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on a hodgepodge of things: new novel, a couple of short stories. I’ve also been working on a couple of middle-grade books that I hope will see the light of day at some point because I really like them.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Dec. 4

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Dec. 4, 1835: Samuel Butler born.

Q&A with Sara Gothelf Bloom

 

Photo by David Aldera

 

 

Sara Gothelf Bloom is the author of the new novel Just Enough to Start Over. She spent many years working at the Heidelberg Opera in Germany, and now lives in Brooklyn. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Just Enough to Start Over, and how did you create your cast of characters?

 

A: At the time of writing Just Enough to Start Over, I’d been living and working in Germany for almost 30 years. It was a time when Germans of my generation were reviewing the role of their parents and grandparents in the Second World War.

 

As a singer of Yiddish songs, I toured the country and my concerts often included songs of the ghettos and KZ camps. I became interested in understanding how ordinary people—Jews, Germans, Russians—caught in a time of historic catastrophe rebuilt their lives following the War.

 

My main characters, the Dubrovsky family, are apolitical until the wave of terror flooding their country threatens their existence and they are forced to leave. As refugees, their survival depends upon finding the strength to begin new lives.

 

Q: The writer Jay Parini said of the book, “This beautiful and deeply moving novel takes us through a very hard time in history, but there is so much soul on display that one can only rejoice.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Jay Parini is a professor, a poet, and the author of several wonderful books including Benjamin’s Crossing, an extraordinary historical novel. What do I think of his description? A positive review from him was truly a reason to rejoice!

 

Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The theme of resilience has always interested me. How does one begin to heal from adversity, from terrible loss? What personal qualities help move us from suffering?

 

Max Beckmann, one of several historical figures who appear in the novel, continued to work in exile, producing hundreds of paintings after his reputation and livelihood were destroyed. The Dubrovsky sisters and their fictional cousin, the Austrian expressionist Marie Louise von Motesiczky (like Beckmann, an historical figure), are artists as well.

 

In exile, although little of their material comfort remains, they haven’t lost their artistic sensibility or their will to create. This is who they are and what they need, and it’s enough, just enough to start over.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: Doing the necessary research for the novel was great fun. The characters’ lives span the entire 20th century in five different countries.

 

In Mannheim, the Dubrovsky sisters’ birthplace, I found several accounts of the city during the War. The Berlin Art Library was the source of an excellent biography and the catalogue raisonee of Marie Louise von Motesiczky. (This comes with a warning—once one begins to learn about her family and early 20th century Jewish life in Vienna, it’s very difficult to stop.)

 

For Russian history, I read Konstantin Akinsha’s Beautiful Loot. His account of the Soviet army’s Trophy Brigade—also historical characters—became the basis for the plot dealing with plundered art.

 

The 42nd Street Library in New York provided memoirs by refugees who’d lived in Shanghai, the Dubrovskys’ interim landing place, and newspaper articles from the time of the fascist dictatorship in Argentina. For these last two segments of the novel, I was also able to interview personal sources.

 

Especially? All of it!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Although the novel’s main characters are Jewish, their history inseparable from Jewish history, my intention was to have the Dubrovskys stand for those who build new lives following historical trauma. With that in mind, I hope Just Enough to Start Over will speak to a larger community.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Barbara Caver

 

 

 

Barbara Caver is the author of the new memoir A Little Piece of Cuba: A Journey to Become Cubana-Americana. She is also a film and television production executive, and she lives in New York City.

 

Q: What inspired you to write A Little Piece of Cuba?

 

A: For my whole life, I have been curious about my Cuban heritage and how it shows up in me, but the inspiration to write this book came after I visited Cuba in 2017.

 

The trip was only five days, and I don't even speak Spanish, but I did not feel like I was visiting a foreign country; I felt like I was being welcomed home. I wanted to tell a story about heritage and cultural connection that is deeply felt in one's soul. 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The last line in chapter five inspired the title choice. The line is, “Even if I didn’t realize it at the time, I was living in a little piece of Cuba.” The journey of the book is my quest to find a little piece of Cuba inside myself and to realize that there were little pieces of Cuba threaded throughout my life. It means to me that I am and have always been more Cuban than I thought.  

 

Q: The author Madhushree Ghosh called the book a “memoir rich with cultural and political narratives and threaded with an intense yearning to belong.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Madhushree's description really nails the book's central themes, namely how cultural differences and heritage stories fit into our daily lives, how politics and history shape how we see ourselves. Ultimately, every cultural quest is a journey to belong to a family that's bigger than yourself. 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: Writing this book gave me great confidence in myself as a Cuban American. I may not be what you expect when you think of a Cuban American woman but this is who I am and who I am is Cuban.

 

I hope that the book causes readers to reflect on their own family narratives and heritage. I know this book has landed for a reader when they immediately begin to tell me a story about their grandmother from another country or their struggles learning English. Everyone has a cultural narrative to share and I hope this book encourages people to share it with pride and generosity.  

Q: What are you working on now? 

 

A: I publish a Substack called Tiny Escapes with Barb several times a month that continues to explore the question of how travel informs self-discovery. I also can't wait to get back to my still-unfinished novel about a modern-day good witch and the young woman whose life she saves. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: December 4 is a big holiday in Cuba honoring the Catholic St Barbara and the Santerian lord Chango, and the tour for A Little Piece of Cuba kicks off in New Orleans at the Garden District Book Shop this December 4.

 

I am also traveling to my hometown, Columbia, South Carolina, to Boulder, Colorado, and to Miami, Florida, and hosting events in and around my home in New York City in December and January. The book is available on December 2 where books are sold.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Dana Fredsti and David Fitzgerald

 

 

Dana Fredsti and David Fitzgerald are the authors of the new novel Tarou: The Fall. Their other work includes the Time Shards trilogy. They live in Northern California. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Tarou: The Fall?

 

DFr: The world of Tarou: The Fall was introduced in "Queen of Swords," a short story I wrote in 2009 about the mythical Kingdom of Swords in the realm of Tarau, populated by warriors and where women fight in a tournament for the dubious honor of marrying a tyrannical king and bearing his children. The story was in an anthology called I Kissed A Girl and, as the title suggests, it does not end well for the king. 

Fast-forward to 2022.  Dave and I were invited to write a story for Weird Tales #366, the Sword and Sorcery issue. The result was "Maid of Steel” and in it, we expanded the world of "Queen of Swords," adding three additional realms and a Middle Kingdom—the latter having been destroyed 200 years prior in a cataclysm that reshaped the continent and unleashed abominations from the bowels of the earth. Because…who doesn’t love abominations from earth’s bowels? 

When we had the opportunity to pitch a novel to Weird Tales Presents, Dave and I decided that we wanted to play in the world of Tarou some more. This time we thought it would be fun to go back 200 years and tell the story of the cataclysm that destroyed the Middle Kingdom.

 

DFi: Another irresistible idea was that all our classic Tarot imagery were half-remembered echoes of another world. It was so much fun to bring that fantasy world to life, and giving all four realms and the high kingdom that ruled over them their own individual personalities.

 

The Tarot suits lent themselves very well to what we wanted. We had already established that Athamé, the kingdom of Swords was (of course) a harsh warrior culture. Wands/Staves fit the bill as our mysterious wizardly kingdom. We made Cups our emblem of Beauchalice, basically a pastoral medieval France known for its wine, cuisine and horses; while Coins/Pentacles became “Pentaclys,” a five-city league of merchant Great Houses (and another of five lesser houses), all evocative of early renaissance Florence.

Oh! We also have to give a shout-out to our Art Director Jeff Wong for including so many perfect Tarot art illustrations in the book, as well as bringing our rough scribble of a map to glorious life.

 

Q: How did the two of you collaborate on the novel, and were you both familiar with Tarot beforehand?

 

DFr:  We’d co-written two short stories (both for Weird Tales magazine) and the Time Shards trilogy for Titan Books over the last…er…seven years. So we’ve pretty much worked out all the knots as far as collaborating.

 

We both bring different strengths to the writing table and we’ve learned what battles are worth fighting when we disagree on something and when it’s better to trust the other person and let it go. And the times we just can’t agree on an issue, we leave it up to our editor to play Solomon.  

 

I’ve been into tarot since my early teens—a lot of females of my generation went through a phase in our teens/early 20s where we were drawn to the Wiccan religion because it empowered women.

 

I also performed at a lot of renaissance faires and met a lot of really interesting men and women who read tarot back in the day, and I really wanted to do my own readings. I bought the Cat People deck and that started a healthy tarot deck collection that I still have all these years later. 

 

I also have a lot of books on the subject, along with the booklets that go with each deck, so we had a ton of research on hand when we decided to integrate more tarot symbolism into the novel.

 

DFi: Dana is a black-belt in Tarot compared to me. I had virtually no exposure to it growing up. Being raised Southern Baptist, of course I lumped Tarot along with all the other sinister tools of the occult…

 

I think my biggest surprise while researching was that the cards began as simple playing cards in Renaissance Italy—and that they are still just used as regular playing cards in many parts of Europe. The whole fortune-telling aspect to Tarot didn't arrive until centuries later.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

DFr:  Dave and I do a lot of our plotting/character and story arcs on walks or long drives, and in the case of Tarou, we actually did figure out the ending before we started writing the book. When we got to that point of the book during the writing process, we tinkered with the original idea a bit but it’s pretty damn close to it.

 

DFi: What Dana said. I will just add that some of the character arcs evolved far differently than initially imagined. It’s so funny when your characters go off script and take you places you never saw coming…

 

Q: The author James Rollins said of the book, “It’s Dungeons and Dragons. It’s sword and sorcery. It’s as dark as it is bright.” What do you think of that description?

 

DFr: One of the best blurbs I’ve/we’ve ever received for any of our books. I absolutely love it. And I like to think it’s accurate. I also loved that he referenced Fritz Lieber’s Fahfrd and the Grey Mouser in his blurb ‘cause that is some classic sword and sorcery there!

 

DFi: Absolutely. Having a bestselling writer of his caliber tell you “Sometimes a novel reminds me why I love to read epic fantasy” gave us both chills—What an honor!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

DFr: A short story for an urban legend anthology set in Flint, Michigan (don’t drink the water!), a horror/fantasy novel developed from a script I wrote with another horror author a while back, and a horror novel based on a short story I wrote for the upcoming cryptid/urban legend issue of Weird Tales magazine and also on a monster—Ol’ Nal—that I created for my Lilith series. I killed him in Hollywood Monsters (the third book in that series) but had so much fun writing the character that I decided I needed to bring him back.

 

DFi: Speaking of short stories, Dana and I also have a creepy little co-written story (“Transplant”) in the upcoming special Mad Science issue of Weird Tales magazine.

 

For my part, I’m hard at work co-writing a new nonfiction book with Canadian author Karis Burkowski. This one is on the problematic relationship between Judeo-Christianity and women throughout history. We retell biblical stories from several female characters’ POV and discuss their back story, and also present some very moving poetry from stellar poets like Danielle Coffyn and others. Our working title is Clearly Written by Boys: A Woman’s Guide to the Bible.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

DFr & DFi: Thanks for talking with us! Readers who love Tarou: The Fall can look forward to more adventures set in this post-cataclysmic grimdark fantasy world…

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Dec. 3

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Dec. 3, 1895: Anna Freud born.

Q&A with Christina Kovac

 

 

 

Christina Kovac is the author of the new novel Watch Us Fall. She also has written the novel The Cutaway. A former television journalist, she lives in the Washington, D.C., area. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Watch Us Fall, and how did you create your characters Lucy, Addie, and Josh?

 

A: The idea for the four roommates in Watch Us Fall first struck years ago, while I was hiking three hours from the city on Assateague Island on the Maryland coast.

 

Along a back bay trail, I stumbled on a tall tree with four girls on its limbs, legs tangled, laughing and bumping shoulders. They were joyful. Their holds were precarious. I was so scared they’d fall, I couldn’t watch. I hiked on. 

 

But I kept thinking of them. What if, in a novel, those girls were older, post-grads? Maybe they lived on my favorite cobblestone street in one of the Georgetown rowhouses I’ve peeked inside. Could one character have a secret too heartbreaking to face? Another that refuses to tolerate a lie? They became Addie, Lucy, Penelope, and Estella. 

 

Josh is a composite creature from the many TV reporters I’ve worked with in my journalism days, the good ones who still did the news the right way.

 

He’s also a bit of a fantasy: I gave him good looks, a JFK Jr. mystique, Ronan Farrow’s relentless brilliance, and voila, Josh Egan, son of former presidential candidate, now 31-year-old TV reporter madly in love with Addie. 

 

Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: I started working on, and thinking about, Watch Us Fall during the height of the pandemic, a time of terrifying disinformation and relentless attacks on science and facts and books—attacks that unfortunately have only increased with speed and vitriol. 

 

As I was writing the novel, I kept wondering about the personal costs of lies. If we turn away from truth, what would this mean for our closest, most cherished relationships? How would we love? What are we left with if we chose lies over truth? When does holding onto a lie turn into delusion?

 

The title came out of those questions. It feels like a falling action—doesn’t it? If we can’t face the truth, how do we not fall apart? 

 

Q: The writer Angie Kim said of the book, “Christina Kovac masterfully combines a twisty missing person mystery, a heartbreaking love story, and an insightful exploration of the nature of obsession and trauma.” What do you think of that description, and how did you blend the various aspects of the novel as you wrote it?

 

A: It was really kind of her to say. She’s my favorite writer, and I admire her so much. 

 

Missing people, love, obsession, trauma, feel to me perfect themes for a psychological suspense thriller, which Watch Us Fall is. Josh goes missing, that’s the basic plot, and the four friends do try to find him.

 

But it’s very much a love story: Addie and Josh are wildly in love, even as their relationship falls apart. The four best friends—Addie and Lucy, but also Penelope and Estella—love each other like family, some more obsessively.

 

There’s a bit of a love triangle going on: the love between your friends in conflict with the love with your sexual partner, a common conflict for young women in their mid-20s. How obsessively the characters navigate those feelings—the interpersonal stakes—raises the novel to psychological suspense level. 

 

What I really like about these characters is the lengths they will go to for each other. They will do anything for each other, which is also what’s scariest about them.

 

Much of their over-the-top response has to do with their own past traumas seething and wriggling in the deep underground of the story. Subconsciously, I think, they’re trying to heal themselves through love for each other; to redeem themselves and get do-overs for past mistakes made, which unfortunately causes lots of tragic current mistakes.  

 

Q: Did you need to do any research to write the book, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: I read a lot of psychological articles in medical journals about re-enactments—which is the psychological need some people feel to throw themselves into situations similar to their past traumas to finally get a sense of redemption, or to gain control of feelings of powerlessness.

 

I found these psychological theories surprising (and scary) and fascinating. The research made me reconsider how much people look at present-day events through a lens of past experience. Maybe we all struggle with our own pasts we can’t shuck. Maybe we ought to be a little less judgmental and a lot more curious about other people’s hurts, was my thinking. I hope I’m more thoughtful. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My third novel! I’m so happy and excited. It’s another D.C.-based crime thriller with psychological elements. This one is set in the largest neighborhood in the city, Capitol Hill—which is so vibrant and diverse, economically, racially, socially, the whole gamut.

 

It’s family versus family, which is really fun. The question for this next novel is: what wouldn’t you do to keep your child safe? 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: If you’re in D.C. on December 2, come see me at Politics and Prose! I’ll be in conversation with Angie Kim, best-selling author of Happiness Falls. My full schedule of events will be posted soon to my website and announced in my newsletter shortly. Click if you want to sign up! 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Christina Kovac. 

Q&A with Tracy Clark

 

Photo by Bruno Passigatti

 

 

Tracy Clark is the author of the new novel Edge, the latest in her Detective Harriet Foster series. Clark is also an editor, and is a Chicago native. 

 

Q: What inspired the plot of Edge, your new Detective Harriet Foster novel?

 

A: I can’t wait for inspiration. What if it never came? I just go out and try to find a story that might have some energy to it and go with that.

 

For Edge, though, I ran across a small story in the paper about a new party drug that had sickened a couple of 20-somethings in a bar. The victims survived, I think, but it got me thinking about what would happen if there was a bad drug out there, people were dropping like flies, and what the police could do about it?

 

Q: How do you think Harri views her career at this point?

 

A: Harri is not enthusiastic or gung-ho about her career, or about anything for that matter. She’s just plodding along doing what she has been trained to do for the department she works for.

 

She does solid work, she doesn’t sluff off or take shortcuts, she’s by the book and a solid cop, but there is an innate cynicism to her, a grounded attitude about the difficulty of her profession. It’s hard work, it takes everything for her to do it, but she keeps pushing at it, knowing she’s making at least some kind of difference.

 

Her partner, Det. Vera Li, brings the enthusiasm. Li is bucking to make police superintendent one day.

 

Q: How did you research this novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: I Googled opioids, their treatment, their effects, and took a look at the stats on ODs and the pervasiveness of party drugs. There’s a new one popping up almost every day and most of those who take them have absolutely no idea what’s in them. It’s like playing Russian roulette with your life.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

 

A: I don’t write to relay messages or shove themes or worldviews down readers’ throats. I write complicated people trying to get through their lives while knee-deep in trenches I’ve dug for them.

 

Dead bodies? Sure. Crime? Yep. An interesting cat and mouse pursuit? Love it. But bottom line, my goal is to write a solid, entertaining crime novel. Period.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m writing You’ll Never Find Me now. It’s due out December 2026. This is my first standalone novel. Different kind of pace, different rhythm, much different feel. I keep wanting to dump a body on the page and have to stop myself. I’m working the delete button on my keyboard like crazy. I think it’s true, writers of murder mysteries are born not made.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Nope. I think you’re good. Writers aren’t as captivating as people think they are, which is probably why that writer trading card brainstorm I had at 13 wasn’t a good idea. LOL.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Tracy Clark.