Q&A with Claudia Gray

  

 

 

Claudia Gray is the author of the new novel The Fatal Unpleasantness at Netherfield, the latest in her Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney mystery series based on Jane Austen's classic novels. She lives in Turin, Italy.

 

Q: Why did you decide to set your latest Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney novel at Netherfield, featuring the Bennet and Bingley families?

 

A: One thing I've learned while writing this series is that there's more than one reason Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's best loved novel. 

 

Yes, it has the unforgettable romance between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy--but it also has the most memorable and most entertaining supporting characters. There are just so many that we want to spend more time with; we want to learn more about what might have happened to them since the events of the novel. 

 

So even though I had written one book featuring some characters from Pride and Prejudice, namely The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, I still felt like we had more people to catch up with! Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Charles and Jane Bingley--they're too delightful to leave in the margins forever.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book said, “Gray peoples her tale with so many lively, complex, and vividly drawn characters, and involves them in such a variety of intrigues, that the reader’s attention will never flag. A new generation of heroes and heroines is bound to delight a new generation of Austen fans.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love it! Let's put it on billboards. T-shirts. Bumper stickers. Though I guess it's kind of a long bumper sticker, isn't it?  

 

Q: This is the fifth book in your series--how would you describe the relationship between Jonathan and Juliet at this point?

 

A: They've really been on an extraordinary journey, haven't they? 

 

Part of the fun of writing Jonathan and Juliet is that they're trying to obey so many of the conventions of the Regency era, yet at the same time, their murder investigations have necessitated all kinds of conversations and confidences that go far beyond what we think of as the ordinary Regency courtship. There's greater trust and mutual understanding, and a very deep affection.

 

And yet, the events of the fourth book of the series have put some very real obstacles between the two of them. This next book is the one where they truly have to decide how far they're willing to go for the sake of love.

 

Q: Do you have a particular favorite Austen character you enjoy reimagining?

 

A: There are so many of them! For this particular book I really enjoyed revisiting Mr. and Mrs. Bennet--his dry wit versus her irrationality--and especially Jane.

 

She's such a sweet and loving person but in the course of this novel I had to ask myself: what would it take for Jane to actually get mad? And what would it sound like when she did? I hadn't dreamed how much fun I could have with that.  

 

Q: What are you working on now? What's next in the series?

 

A: I've just finished the initial draft of book six in the series, namely Here Lies Sir Walter Elliot. As you've probably guessed, that's the Persuasion novel. 

 

In January I was able to visit Bath for a week and actually scout real locations, which is a rare luxury when you're writing primarily about fictional places. 

 

Until I was walking around Bath, specifically looking for places noted in Persuasion, I hadn't realized just how precise Jane Austen is in describing the place; you can literally trace the characters' paths through various neighborhoods. That should be coming out in summer 2027.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: This November I'm releasing an Austen-esque book that is not a part of the mystery series; it's a completion of Jane Austen's abandoned novel fragment, The Watsons.  

 

The beginning of that book is so tantalizing that I just couldn't stand the fact that we didn't know what would become of the characters--so I decided to do something about it! 

 

My goal from the beginning was to try to finish the book at least a little like the way Jane Austen herself might have finished it, to really try to guess where she might be going. So I re-read that fragment. I don't know how many dozens of times, but after a little while, a few themes started to make themselves known. 

 

Of course inevitably, some of my 21st-century mindset has crept in; nor was I suddenly visited with the pure genius of Jane Austen. But my hope is that it will feel a little like getting to read a new Jane Austen novel--even if I get remotely in the ballpark, I mean, what fun, right?

 

The Watsons will be coming out in mid-November, and fans of the mystery should definitely keep an eye out for it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Claudia Gray. 

Q&A with Lina Patton

  

 

 

Lina Patton is the author of the new novel The Lake Club. She is also an illustrator and a teacher, and she lives in Washington, D.C.

 

Q: You worked on The Lake Club for many years--can you tell us about that?

 

A: Writing The Lake Club has definitely been a labor of love.

 

I first started a draft in the summer of 2018 while I was working on a darker, more literary novel. I also had a different agent at the time who would take months to get back to me, so during that waiting period, I started a new, lighter project (which would become The Lake Club) to keep moving forward.

 

I had so much fun with the characters and disappearing into my memories of Minnesota, but I didn’t work on the manuscript seriously until four years later, after my darker literary novel didn’t sell, and I decided I needed to try something new.

 

But even then, it was a journey! I first wrote the book entirely from Augie’s POV, with Chat's romance playing a more central role. However, it felt too young, so after brainstorming with my now-agent, I decided to add Mrs. Crawley’s POV.

 

This was daunting at first, but it turned out to be really interesting because, at that point, I was in my 30s, years older than when I wrote Augie’s POV, and it felt poetic to add an older perspective at a later stage of life.

 

Still, that wasn’t the end. After adding that POV, I drafted several more versions to ramp up the tension and secrets. Let’s just say I learned to love revision!

 

Q: The novel is set at a lakeside country club in Minnesota--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: This is a great question. To be honest, while I have always been a visual person and love painting pictures in my mind as I write, I didn’t realize how important setting is to me until well into The Lake Club.

 

This might be because Augie’s voice came to me first, along with the pull to write about working at the country club (we love to see people at work in fiction!), but more and more, the setting became a huge part of the story.

 

I, of course, knew I wanted to showcase the beautiful lakes, but as I wrote the surrounding characters and lines of tension, I realized how much the specifics and nuances of the locale added to the story–not just the beautiful shimmering water and neon-green golf courses, but the passive-aggressive Midwest behavior, the wholesome facades, and the generational wealth (and secrets!).

 

As such, I am now more aware of how much setting plays into not only the atmosphere of a story but also the tools you have in your toolbox.

 

I’ve also been delighted to see how much readers enjoy the setting in The Lake Club, and I’ll definitely be thinking more intentionally about the power of setting moving forward.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic among your characters Danika, Augie, and Chat?

 

A: I have been using the phrase “off-kilter love triangle” to describe the three quite a bit lately.

 

I know that when some people read the back copy and see the description of “two women clashing over a cute male nanny,” they often assume it’s a Fatal Attraction-type fight over a guy’s attention. And while that is so fun–and true in ways–the triangle’s real tension comes down to power dynamics rather than your typical romantic competition.

 

They all hit a nerve with one another, whether touching on old wounds or unmet wants, which makes their relationships messy and nuanced–and a fun place to explore.

 

Q: The writer Kristy Woodson Harvey said of the book, “A juicy mix of rich people behaving badly and love in all its forms, Lina Patton reminds us that, no matter how convoluted things have become, the truth really can be a clean slate.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I am wildly grateful to Kristy Woodson Harvey for this blurb—I so adore her work and appreciate her generosity of spirit—and I think this description is a beautiful nod to each character’s true motivations.

 

At the end of the day, while everyone is hiding something and their actions may be questionable (to say the least!), I do think every character is trying to course-correct something from their past, and doing so out of love—whether for themselves, their family, or in pursuit of a greater moral reckoning.

 

I also appreciate how this description speaks to the many relationships in the novel, as we see all kinds of connections at play.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Speaking of setting, I’m diving back into my memories of living in Europe for book two! My husband is a Foreign Area Officer in the Army, and we spent four years in Germany and three years at the embassy in Kosovo.

 

While the novel is still in its early stages, I’m drawing inspiration from the embassy setting—which, in many ways, mirrors a country club, with its overlapping roles, complicated power dynamics, and everyone trying a little too hard to keep up appearances.

 

 I hope to share more details soon, but for now, I’ll just say I’m having a blast writing it—and readers can expect more soapy suspense and glittering bodies of water!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I wrote The Lake Club with the hope that, above all, people would have fun reading it. I wanted to create something relatable yet escapist, tender but not intense—something that checks all the boxes of a beach read while still offering stylish, breezy writing. I hope it brings you extra lakeside, poolside, or beachside joy!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Brad Barkley

  

 

 

Brad Barkley is the author of the new young adult novel The Reel Life of Zara Kegg. His other books include Money, Love. He lives in Western Maryland. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Reel Life of Zara Kegg, and how did you create your character Zara?

 

A: Part of the book goes back to being a kid in North Carolina, checking out Super 8 films from the library, titles like The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Screaming Skull, and running them through a projector in a darkened basement room.

 

My family would be upstairs watching regular TV, and I’d be downstairs watching Dracula all alone. There was something about that—the light, the flicker, the sense that what you were seeing was both present yet part of the past—that stuck with me.

 

Zara grew out of that space, but also out of an interest in what happens when someone has to grow up a little faster than they should. She’s smart, and she’s paying attention, but she doesn’t always know what to do with what she’s seeing.

 

That lag between noticing something and understanding it felt true to me, especially when it comes to relationships experienced at age 16.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Zara and Zachary?

 

A: They’re drawn to each other pretty quickly, but not in a simple or entirely stable way. Zara is trying to make sense of things, to get her footing again, while Zachary is harder to read. His stories don’t always add up, and part of what pulls her in is that mystery.

 

What they share is a kind of recognition in each other. They’re both dealing with more than they’re saying out loud. But they handle it differently, and that creates tension. At times they steady each other, and at other times they make things more complicated. That push and pull is really the relationship.

 

Q: The novel is set in Carolina Beach, N.C.—how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: Setting does a lot of work for me. I’m less interested in it as backdrop and more in how it shapes what can and can’t happen in a story. Carolina Beach in the winter is very different from the version people usually imagine. It’s quieter, emptied out, exposed.

 

I was also interested in working against the usual idea of a summer romance at the beach—everything warm, open, and idealized—instead setting the story in a place that feels closed off, a bit chilly, not especially ripe for romance.

 

But just as important is the theater itself. The Palace is a contained space, slightly out of time, where Zara can step back from her life and watch things play out at a distance. Up in the projection booth, she’s removed from everything, but also in control of what people see.

 

That combination of distance and control fits where she is emotionally. It gives her a place to hide, but also a way of looking at things she might not otherwise be able to face.

 

Q: The writer Ann Hood said of the novel, “If John Green wrote a novelization of the film Cinema Paradiso, it might very well be this one.” What do you think of that comparison?

 

A: It’s a generous comparison, and I’m grateful for it. I can see where it comes from—there’s a love of movies in the book, and the theater itself is a kind of emotional center for everything.

 

At the same time, I don’t think of the book as nostalgic in a soft-focus way. The movies matter to Zara not because they take her out of her life, but because they give her a way of approaching and confronting life the way we do in dreams or poems. They let her look at things that might be harder to face head-on.

 

If the comparison points readers in that direction, I’m happy with it.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’ve just finished revisions on a novel called AmericaLand, which my agent, Jenna Satterthwaite, is currently shopping around. It’s set in a failing theme park that recreates an idealized 1950s small town, populated entirely by lifelike AI “residents.”

 

Behind the scenes, the people running the park are trying to keep it—and themselves—from coming apart, even as the whole thing starts to feel more artificial than the machines they’ve built.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Only that The Reel Life of Zara Kegg is interested in ordinary life as much as anything dramatic. There are no dystopian stakes, no world-ending scenarios.

 

The conflicts are smaller, but I think in some ways they’re harder—the kinds of things people actually carry around in their lives. If readers find something recognizable there, something that feels true to their own experience, that’s about all I would hope for.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

June 16

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
June 16, 1917: Katharine Graham born.

Q&A with André Narbonne

  

 

 

André Narbonne is the author of the new novel Those Are Pearls. His other books include the novel Lucien & Olivia. He teaches at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

 

Q: How much was your new novel based on your own family history?

 

A: Those Are Pearls began as a series of emails to my mother. I asked her about her history growing up during the Great Depression and decided to distill that information into a short work of fiction that I would present to her.

 

The story “Margaret’s Great Depression” turned out to be the second chapter of a novel I did not yet know that I was writing. The work is almost entirely true.

 

In fact, at the end, I quote one of my mother’s emails verbatim:

Just before my mother died, I told her how lucky we were to admire rather than fear a storm, and I recalled our wait in the old Ford. I didn’t think my mother ever lied to me. She was hard at times, but I thought she would never lie. She looked me straight in the eye and said, “I was afraid.”

 

I didn’t think I could say it better, and I wanted the voice of the story to sound like hers.

 

Contrast that with the anecdote about the tart that dirties her pinafore, which is an invention. She told me about how she’d gone to see her grandmother, hopeful that everything she’d heard about loving and fun grandmothers would be true of hers, and later learned she was forbidden to visit again because she was too dirty.

 

When I sent my mother the finished story, she replied that her mother would never have wasted money on tarts. That led to a long discussion about the demands of narrative. “If I’m going to write this as a truthful fiction,” I told her, “you’ll have to put up with my lies.” She agreed and what followed was a compromise between history and fiction.

 

Here’s why I invented the tart: when first drafting the story, I was concerned that it lacked the sense of immediacy one gets from the ephemeral. I asked her what smell she most associated with Winnipeg in the 1930s, which is why the story opens with

Winnipeg is the Honeysuckle Bakery on the north side of Notre Dame. It’s the last years of the Depression and the smell of baked bread, doughnuts fills my childhood.

 

And that’s also why I invented the tart that leads to her ostracization. It was an invisible stitch.

 

At some point during our correspondence, my mother forwarded an email from my great-uncle Harry Short Jr, who’d passed not long after writing.

 

I include some of his email below:

My mother fell down the stairs while she was at boarding school. Fearing repercussion from her father, the head mistress kept it from her father until it was too late.to set her back in place. She was fitted with a very uncomfortable girdle but the curvature could not be corrected and she was left with a permanent hump in her back. She was not able to get rid of the girdle until she married and at that time she vowed never to wear it again. Her husband fell at work and hurt his head  and had to move to a cold climate. Mom said he had a tropical disease and at first they tried to medicate it with hot spices but soon told him he would have to move to a colder climate and at the time the coldest English settlement was in Winnipeg. Margaret's parents didn't want her to move. Her husband was too proud to ask for help. They sailed for Canada in 1910.

 

After I received this and another email he’d written, I decided to write a multi-generational novel. Because the majority of the book would now be about people long deceased, it would necessarily side with fiction, with narrative flow—invisible stitches—over fact.

 

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

 

A: I wanted to get it right. My research included reading death certificates, baptismal records, wedding licenses etc.

 

Harry Sr. fights in Jameson’s Raid, the misguided “excursion” that led to the Boer War. He was captured and ransomed back to the English. My research included reading the court transcripts from Jameson’s trial. I consulted the state environmental agency in South Africa about weather patterns and clouds, looked through 19th-C photographs of Cape Town and wrote Harry Sr. into the pictures.

 

To accurately describe the arrival of the family in Manitoba, I emailed the Winnipeg Railroad Museum and asked where they would arrive in 1910 and what would have been visible from the train.

 

What surprised me was how helpful everyone was. Almost all of my emails were answered.

 

Q: Can you say more about how you balanced fiction and history, especially as a family member, as you wrote the book?

 

A: So, I think I probably answered this above, but I’ll speak to the philosophical aspect of “getting it right.”

 

I wanted to avoid what I see as the pitfalls of presentism. I didn’t want my four protagonists to be heroically like us while their antagonists behave like they belong with a vengeance to their historical era. I clothed them all—protagonists and antagonists—in a world that existed in history without being dishonest in the way of, say, Dances with Wolves.

 

A more honest movie on a similar theme that came out around the same time is Black Robe. My ancestors went through astonishing calamities without losing their religion. I lost mine reading the papers and watching the news. I wanted to treat their beliefs with respect, not turn them into ahistorical cut-ups whose political sensibilities are informed by the Summer of Love—my complaint about Dances with Wolves.

 

What they share with this generation is that their beliefs are complicated. Not just characters in conflict, they are conflicted characters in conflict. My hope is that other members of my family who read Those Are Pearls see integrity in my fictions even if our adjectives differ.

 

Q: The novel took you about 25 years to complete--what was your writing process like?

 

A: As a rule, I don’t go to a blank computer screen looking for inspiration. I’m a plotter. I walk around with things before I write.

 

Once I understood that the novel would be primarily about four people I decided on a framework. The principle of construction was that of Matryoshka dolls. One character would be the inner doll that you arrive at last, but because it was a novel, not something constructed and tactile, the outside frames would be akin to the inner dolls. Perhaps none of this makes sense visually, but it’s how I imagined the overall story.

 

For about 20 years, my mother’s story was the inner doll/outer frame. Then Harry, Nan, and Frank in that order. I would write complete chapters that had their own dramatic arc. When writing a chapter, I generally completed the first draft quickly, spending more time on revisions. I wouldn’t walk from the work until I was content that the chapter was complete—fit to print.

 

When I did leave, I might leave for a very long time. During the course of writing Those Are Pearls I completed a Ph.D. dissertation, published a poetry and a short story collection, and a novel. I also published numerous articles on Canadian literature while raising four children. I could be gone from the manuscript for very long periods – maybe even a year.

 

I always knew that I would finish it. The characters kept me coming back. I also had solid encouragement. Alistair MacLeod read the first five chapters before writing the letter that helped me get my present job. Terry Griggs when she was writer-in-residence at UWindsor was very supportive, as was my writing group.

 

Perhaps more importantly, my family were onboard. They liked what they read. Some of the chapters I published in Nashwaak Review, Carte Blanche, The Prairie Journal, The Windsor Review. All of this encouraged me to return to the manuscript, and when I did, I was always happy to go back to that world in which my characters lived.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m currently working on The Selected Criticism of Archibald MacMechan. It’s another of my 25-year projects.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’ve completed a second collection of short stories, which I’m “pearling” for publication.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Talya Jankovits

  

Photo by Leah G. Photography

 

 

Talya Jankovits is the author of the new novel The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom. She also has written the poetry collection girl woman wife mother. She lives in Chicago. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom, and how did you create your character Etty?

 

A: The idea of the mundane and the stories that lie inside the ordinary has always interested me.

 

I am also fascinated by unlikeable characters, not just fictional ones, but the individuals who come into our lives, whether on the periphery or the epicenter, that cause chaos.

 

It always begs the question of what is motivating that individual to make particular choices that might seem reprehensible to us, and what experiences transpired along the way that shaped them into unlikable people. Thus, the life of Mrs. Etty Bloom. 

 

The character of Etty Bloom materialized out of nowhere one day as nearly a whole person — a very ordinary and unlikeable whole person. She became this manifestation of a conglomerate of unlikeable and problematic traits in people and of my observant lifestyle.

 

It was a snowball effect. She grew fuller and fuller so that by the time I sat down to write, she took the lead. What struck me as I followed her were the moments of profundity and existential struggles she faces, which facilitate empathy in the unlikable. 

 

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

 

A: The title and the character were a package deal. They appeared to me together. One informed the other. I knew I wanted to tell the story of this woman’s life from beginning to end, and I understood her life to be prosaic.

 

The title encourages us to find the remarkable in the unremarkable. Most of us will live ordinary and forgettable lives, but to live at all is remarkable in and of itself.

 

Q: The author Sarah Yahm called the book a “beautifully sad and unexpectedly funny representation of the myriad ways women retain a sense of self in the midst of a patriarchal society.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think it is an attentive and insightful examination of a component of this book. Etty frequents the fringe of her community, and though she very much loves her observant lifestyle, she is also a strong-spirited woman who challenges the status quo.

 

I took advantage of Etty’s character to explore many of my own qualms within observant Judaism, but I also wanted to share much of the beauty found in this way of life as well. Her character definitely elicits a cognitive dissonance.

 

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

 

A: Though I am an Orthodox Jew with Hasidic lineage, I was not raised in the same community with the same customs as Etty. There are many nuances in traditions and customs within Orthodox Judaism, and I had to familiarize myself with the ones specific to Etty’s community.

 

Many people were generous with their knowledge, specifically my husband’s cousins, who observe Hasidic Judaism in the same way Etty does. 

 

There is also a tremendous amount of Yiddish in this novel. My father speaks Yiddish fluently, but he never spoke it to my siblings and me, so I had to do a lot of consulting to do on the Yiddish.

 

Many Yiddish-speaking family members helped me with this, but one brother-in-law in particular proved instrumental, taking the time to check each word and phrase and assist with the transliteration. I learned there are different dialects of Yiddish, and no one way to transliterate. 

 

I am not sure anything particularly surprised me during my research since the world of Etty is not as foreign to me as it might be to most. I grew up visiting Hasidic communities in New York, specifically Borough Park, and my father and father-in-law both wear shtreimels. 

 

Perhaps the most surprising outcome was that I fell in love with the deeply flawed character of Etty.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am always in the middle of multiple projects. Right now, I am primarily focused on completing the final draft of another novel. This one deals with memory and has a bit of a sci-fi component to it.

 

Though it is a wildly different novel from The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom, it still begs the reader to ask similar questions: How do experiences shape who we are? What does it mean to live authentically?

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: This book faced a tremendous amount of rejection, hundreds in fact. Its publication is a testament to perseverance. I hope this serves as encouragement to anyone who is currently facing any kind of rejection.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

June 15

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
June 15, 1914: Saul Steinberg born.