Madeleine Henry is the author of the new novel The Last Celebrity. Her other books include Name Not Taken. She lives in New York.
Q: What inspired you to write The Last Celebrity, and how did you create your character Fiona?
A: I was fascinated by celebrity culture, specifically by celebrities who seem more hated than loved. Even the darlings of entertainment can still draw intense venom in the comments sections of any E! News or Entertainment Tonight Instagram post. It’s a place of polarity. So, I started thinking about how that hatred might manifest at the extreme.
My intention with Fiona Hart was to craft a heroine who’s easy to root for. Fiona is a bestselling author, made famous by her underwater fantasy series, The Redfins.
She lost her parents in a car accident as a teen, and this has left her with an enduring internal homelessness. As a result, she views her closest friends as family. She has much deeper relationships with them, and would do absolutely anything for them--even risk her own life, against all odds.
Q: What do you think the novel says about today’s celebrity culture?
A: No spoilers 😊 I leave all conclusions up to my readers!
Q: Was the Nomen group in the novel based on an actual organization?
A: No, thankfully! The Nomen are an entirely fictional terrorist group.
As dark and gruesome as they are, though, I did want parts of their mission to resonate and strike a chord. Maybe we do, as a society, care too much about the famous elite. Maybe this obsession really does matter. I wanted the Nomen’s philosophical core to feel true and valid, even if the group’s methods are indefensible.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: The short answer is no, I did not know how it would end.
That’s because I wrote this novel out of order. First, I wrote several chapters from Fiona’s underwater fantasy series, The Redfins. Then, I wrote more than half of another targeted author’s novel. I kept zooming in at different points, then using all of that work to enrich the story and give it as much realism as I could.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am always at work on the next book, and hope to share more soon.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: For those who would like to keep up with my work, I share updates on my
social media (especially on Instagram, @MadeleineHenryYoga) and website, www.itsMadeleineHenry.com.
Thank you so much for learning more about The Last Celebrity!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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