Q&A with Kirsten Miller

 

Photo by Stewart Simons

 

Kirsten Miller is the author of the new novel The Women of Wild Hill. Her other books include the novel The Change. She lives in Brooklyn.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Women of Wild Hill, and how did you create the Duncan family?

 

A: All of my books are about women who overcome forces holding them back and decide it’s time to kick butt. My protagonists have tackled sexist employers, abusers of young women, book banners, and even a Confederate general.

 

Yes, my books are funny. Yes, the jokes can be raunchy. I like to throw in a bit of magic, too. My novels are meant to be entertaining. But I have a not-so-secret ulterior motive: I want to inspire women to change the world. We have the power, and we need to make use of it.

 

The Women of Wild Hill takes place in the same “universe” as my first novel, The Change. Here, women (particularly middle-aged women) are discovering strange new abilities (summoning storms, speaking to the dead)—and using them to seek the justice that so many women are denied in real life.

 

The title of the book refers to the Duncan family—five generations of women who have been growing increasingly powerful over the centuries. Now the time has come for them to take on the powers that be. I hope the Duncans can inspire the rest of us to do the same.

 

Q: Wild Hill is located at the end of Long Island--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: I often start with the setting. Every place (real or fictional) has a unique energy, and I want to use it to best advantage.

 

I spent years writing young adult fiction, and I often set my stories in New York City (where I live), because it has a magical energy that makes it easy to believe that anything could happen at any time.

 

I also love setting stories in small towns, where everyone knows everyone else and colorful family histories and life-long grudges can give a book like Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books a delightfully scandalous soap opera atmosphere.   

 

I placed the Duncan family estate, Wild Hill, at the end of Long Island because I’ve always felt the energy to be quite potent there. It’s a stunningly beautiful place where worlds merge—nature and the man-made, the uber-rich and the working poor, and (at least in this book) witches and oligarchs.  

 

Q: Why did you choose to place the story in the near future?

 

A: The future in which The Women of Wild Hill takes place is quickly catching up to us. The book starts with fires in Los Angeles. That chapter was written more than a year before several LA neighborhoods tragically burned to the ground. There are references to other ecological disasters that are headed our way unless we take immediate action.

 

I set the novel in the near future so readers understand how dire the situation has become—without making them feel like it’s completely hopeless.

 

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

 

A: When the book comes out, there will be a line on the cover: We’re All Witches Now. It’s true. Witches have always been women with power society didn’t think they should have.

 

The “witches” who were burned at the stake weren’t summoning Satan. They were healers, midwives, loudmouths, and property holders. Their true crime was having wisdom, knowledge, or resources that those in power saw as threats to the status quo.

 

Those of us alive today are the most powerful women in the history of the world. We have more financial, social, and cultural power than our ancestors could have dreamed of. And it’s become very clear that there are people who find that very threatening. So it’s time for ALL of us to find our power—and use it. Before it can be taken away.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have a bunch of projects in the works at the moment, but the one that’s likely to be published next is a satirical take-down of the Manosphere. Between the men’s rights gurus and the tradwives, I’ve had plenty of inspiration these days! 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: The best part of writing isn’t writing. It’s meeting booksellers, librarians, and readers. Check out the events page on my website (kirstenmillerbooks.com), and come say hi if I’m in your town! 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb