Q&A with Amy Fellner Dominy

  

 

 

Amy Fellner Dominy is the author of the new middle grade novel Monster Down Deep. Her other books include A House with No Door. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Monster Down Deep, and how did you create your characters Cassie, TJ, and Blue?

 

A: The idea came to life after I saw a news story about a 5,000-mile patch of seaweed off the Florida coast. The image of all that seaweed was so startling, it got me thinking. What if something was trapped in all of that goo? Or growing in it? Or hiding in it?

 

I visited an aquarium soon after and saw a Blue Wrasse—a type of fish with knowing eyes who seemed to watch me as I watched it. That fish was the inspiration for Blue.

 

Cassie was a different story. I was dealing with a new anxiety over hiking—something I’d been doing for years. I was embarrassed, even with my friends. I thought about how often we tell kids to face their fears and conquer them. But what if it’s not that easy? Cassie’s fear of the ocean was born from my own struggle.  

 

And TJ? He’s one of those magical characters who just appeared on the page as if he belonged—and he absolutely did!

 

Q: The author Lynne Kelly called the book a “memorable and compelling adventure about facing long-buried fears while standing up to protect an unusual creature...”  What do you think of that description?

 

A: I wish I had written it myself.  Lynne captured Cassie’s struggle to hide her fears rather than accept herself. It took another creature in danger, Blue, to give Cassie the courage to stand up for Blue and then for herself.

 

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

 

A: I never know how a story will end before I write it. Somewhere about halfway through, I start outlining and plotting more carefully. I knew the direction I wanted the story to go, but how to get there changed more than a few times.

 

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

 

A: I hope Cassie’s journey to self-acceptance will resonate for kids who are dealing with their own fears or trying to be who others what them to be.

 

I also hope readers will come away feeling empowered that they can make a difference in their worlds—no matter what it is they’re passionate about. Just in the world of ocean conservation, kids are putting their huge hearts to good use in clean-up and recycling projects. It inspired me to see that and shine a light on it.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Just this week I saw another news story that grabbed my attention—and my imagination. Too soon to say, but I hope it will be my next middle grade.

 

In the meantime, I have a new picture book coming on August 4 that celebrates nature and the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. It’s called A House with No Door, and I’m excited for that one, too.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I love to do school visits and I’m going to be offering free virtual visits in the fall in honor of Monster Down Deep. I’d love for educators to reach out and let’s see if we can arrange a visit to their class or school. amy@amydominy.com.

 

I also send out a newsletter once a month with the inside scoop about the publishing world and life lessons it’s taught me, as well as giveaways and offers. Sign up at my website www.amydominy.com/newsletter or click on the QR code:

 

Thank you so much for hosting me!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Mima Tipper

  

 

 

Mima Tipper is the author of the new young adult novel Channeling Marilyn. She also has written the YA novel Kat's Greek Summer. She lives in Vermont.

 

Q: What initially intrigued you about the actress Marilyn Monroe, and at what point did you decide to write Channeling Marilyn, which features her spirit?

 

A: For as long as I can remember I’ve been a fan of Marilyn Monroe’s films. When I was young, I’d see that one of her movies was on TV, and I’d always want to watch. I thought she was gorgeous and funny, and the films were a pure joy to watch.

 

I never thought much about Marilyn’s fandom until I was well into my writing life. Here’s what happened: I was looking at a fashion magazine with my then-middle-school-aged daughter when an ad caught my attention. It featured a young model done up to look like Marilyn Monroe, pin-up style. Then later in that same magazine, another image popped out, a pop star made up to look like Marilyn.

 

I thought: Damn! The woman’s been dead for over 50 years, and the world is still obsessed with her. That thought flipped a switch in me, and I began to imagine a story of Marilyn’s spirit looking down on this world; then I thought, what would happen if her spirit could come back?

 

Q: How did you create your character Lexa?

 

A: As I thought of a story that included Marilyn’s spirit, I had to think of who Marilyn’s spirit would visit if she could come back. Lexa’s character was the natural response.

 

The real Marilyn appeared to love children, and if her spirit would want or maybe need to help someone on this mortal coil, helping a young person—a young woman with self-image issues—seemed the most likely candidate. Lexa grew from there.

 

Q: The Midwest Book Review called the novel “a deftly crafted blending of paranormal fantasy, coming-of-age, and high school angst.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think MBR captured the essence of the book with that description. This is a story of a teen girl coming up on the huge transition of graduating from high school, and it was natural to write her as being full of yearning for that “something great” to happen during her senior year that would launch her into her life.

 

I loved exploring that wonderfully confusing time in a young person’s life, and also including a paranormal element that would push the character to make unexpected choices.

 

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

 

A: When readers turn the last page of Channeling Marilyn, I think that–even though they knew what was coming–they will be a little weepy. I want them to feel like they’ve been on a fun, delightful, heartfelt ride with Lexa and the delicious spirit of Marilyn Monroe, and that they are more willing to put their fears aside, and engage with their dreams and the world.

 

Also, I am a huge Marilyn Monroe fan, and part of me wrote this book to give her another story. I’ve enjoyed this journey and have enjoyed spending time with my idea of who Marilyn’s spirit would be. I want to share that experience with other fans, new and old.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now, I’m working hard on continuing to promote my first book, Kat’s Greek Summer, as well as launching Channeling Marilyn. It’s a bit of a challenge as I’m doing lots of talks and school visits around my first book, while keeping my eye on the bouncing ball of talking and writing about my second book.

 

I do have another book in the works as well—a YA novel based on a couple of Greek myths—and I hope to spend more dedicated time on that project once Channeling Marilyn is out in the world.

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: I want everyone to know that June 1, 2026, was Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday, and I encourage all to check local listings to see if any theaters in their area are celebrating this milestone with showings of her films on the big screen.

 

A couple of events in Vermont that I will be part of are showing her films, and I cannot wait to see some of my favorites the way they were meant to be seen. :)

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Mima Tipper. 

Q&A with Margaret Whitford

  

 

 

Margaret Whitford is the author of the new memoir The History We Carry. She held leadership positions in the nonprofit world for 20 years, and she lives in Massachusetts and in France. 

 

Q: Why did you decide to write this memoir?

 

A: I decided to write The History We Carry because I wanted to understand the origins of the emotional distance that characterized my relationship with my mother.

 

It also seemed to me that I had both a responsibility and an opportunity to do something with the stories about the past my mother had shared with me during the last decade of her life, many of which I had recorded. It felt as if she had given me the stories as a way to make sense of our relationship. The memoir is my effort to do that.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between you and your mother?

 

A: My mother's and my interactions were characterized by an emotional and physical distance. At the same time, I recognized that she loved me and hope she understood that I felt the same way. She never failed to support me in realizing my dreams. She believed in me and my abilities. I know she was proud of my accomplishments.

 

That said, the warmth I suppose I'd always wanted from her was rarely present. And my inability to appreciate her loving me in the ways she could further divided us.

 

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

 

A: My publisher, She Writes Press and Brooke Warner in particular, suggested the memoir's title. I liked it immediately because it conveyed a core belief that guided my exploration of my mother's and my relationship. The past is alive in the present. My mother's history shaped and is part of my own. I carry it within.

 

Q: The writer Sue William Silverman said of the book, “Courageous, precise, and ultimately both urgent and forgiving prose.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Sue is both a friend and a significant writing mentor to me. She supported my work on this memoir in its early stages, so her opinion on the final result is gratifying.

 

I think courage is essential when writing memoir because doing so often involves facing uncomfortable or painful truths. I strive for clarity in both my thinking and my writing, and it seems that Sue appreciated that.

 

And, finally, I hope my memoir is compassionate toward the people whose lives I explore on the page, including my own.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am in the early stages of writing a book exploring my husband's and my experiences as Peace Corps volunteers in Kenya.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: In addition to writing, I am a dedicated Francophile. With my husband, I divide my time between Massachusetts and France. I appreciate the ways in which making a home in a country other than the United States enriches our lives and challenges our perspectives. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Heather Cumiskey

  

 

 

Heather Cumiskey is the author of the new novel The Sooner I Go. Her other books include the young adult novel I Like You Like This. She lives outside Baltimore, Maryland. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Sooner I Go, and how did you create your characters Brynn, Micah, and Dahlia?

 

A: It began with wanting to explore a contentious meeting between two strangers in an elevator. Sparks fly, attitudes get heated. They think they’ll never see the other again until they meet up afterward, sitting across from each other in an interview.

 

When I learned more about who they were, Brynn and Micah’s story took on many layers. Especially Micah’s, who was inspired by my grandmother. She was institutionalized and her mental health was greatly misunderstood by her family.

 

Originally, Dahlia played a much smaller role in the book. Early readers of the manuscript went to bat for her character, wanting to know more. And I’m glad they did. Though flawed, I really like her character and that the novel turned into a love triangle.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book says, “Part grief narrative, part workplace drama, and part love story, the novel compellingly examines how loss, ambition, and mental health intersect and questions how one can move on in love when a traumatic past is still being reckoned with.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: At first, the grief narrative stopped me. I thought, did I write a grief story? However, I couldn’t deny the reviewer’s takeaway. My mom passed away before I wrote the book. Without realizing it, I was processing my own grief through all three characters.

 

I think it’s interesting that we go about our days as if everything is the same, almost in denial that this major event even happened, like the loss of a parent. But it all comes out in different ways whether we want it to or not, where we’re forever changed.

 

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

 

A: It shifted for me midway. Believe it or not, original drafts contained Brynn performing at the Flaming Flamingo in the final scene, not Dahlia. Brynn’s arc change rewrote the book and Micah’s and Dahlia’s fate.

 

I kind of love when that happens. When an idea emerges that piques my interest so, that I run with it. It made for a far more interesting writing journey and I hope readers feel the same.

 

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

 

A: Overall, I think readers will enjoy the ride. I hope the plight of the novel’s characters sparks compassion and conversation around the issues of mental health challenges and about families in denial of those challenges. Also, how we view individuals living with limited mobility and recognizing ableist microaggressions and biases in ourselves.

 

And lastly, I hope the novel brings to light one’s self-awareness when it comes to being an ally versus a savior. How a supportive ally quietly raises up marginalized individuals through empowerment and equity. And a savior will act out of pity or a desire for recognition, inserting themselves and marginalizing them further.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: It’s a YA novel, One of Us Is Lying meets The Usual Suspects. Four students expelled from different high schools are sent to finish the year at the same school. Within their first week, a student is discovered dead in the school bathroom and the four become suspects.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: If I can leave you with anything, I’d like to pay it forward to any aspiring writer who is grappling with self-doubt like I did for years. Give yourself some grace. We can be brutal with the stories we tell ourselves.

 

As Micah says in the novel, “I’d convinced myself that they didn’t want me, but the story I’d fabricated in my head was nothing but bullshit. All this time, my mom’s family was out there, waiting. Loving me from afar.”

 

Don’t believe what you’re telling yourself, especially if it’s unkind and holding you back. The story in you can’t reach readers until you sit your butt in the chair and start. It may be one ugly first draft and so what. Just keep swimming.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

June 4

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
June 4, 1928: Ruth Westheimer born. 

Q&A with Caroline Bock

  

Photo by Michael Bock

 

 

 

Caroline Bock is the author of the new novel The Other Beautiful People. Her other books include the story collection Carry Her Home. She is the co-president and prose editor of the Washington Writers' Publishing House, and she lives in Maryland.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Other Beautiful People, and how did you create your character Amy Greene?

 

A: Amy Greene, a driven marketing and public relations executive at a struggling but beloved cable network, torn between her work family and home, with all her secrets, is directly inspired by my own life. I spent 20 years working in the cable television industry at USA, AMC, BRAVO, IFC, and IFC FILMS.

 

The Other Beautiful People and Amy Greene are as much autofiction, autobiographical fiction, a blend of fiction and memory, as they are anything.

 

Q: This is your first novel for adults--how did writing this book compare to your previous experiences writing for younger audiences?

 

A: This new novel draws so much inspiration from my own life as the more straightforward fiction of the young adult novels.

 

The Other Beautiful People was a much more complex novel to write—because it is a much more sensual novel. In my young adult novels (LIE and Before My Eyes), there is the confusion of first love. But in The Other Beautiful People, there’s the fully realized, deeply felt knowledge of mature love with all its implications.

 

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

 

A: I really struggled with the title. One day, I was volunteering at my daughter’s high school theater production, and the theater teacher shouted out to the young actors that snack break was over by saying, “You, over there, beautiful people, time to rehearse,” and then to another group, “You, over there, the other beautiful people, time for the tech run-through.”

 

And it just struck me. I am writing this novel for all those other beautiful people, for all the below-the-line, behind-the-scenes people who make movies and theater, and really, all the arts, happen. So, in some ways, this title was a gift to me from a talented high school theater teacher. Thank you, Dr. Lazarus.

 

Q: The writer Mary Kay Zuravleff said of the book, “As her main character struggles to love and be loved, Bock captures the challenge—and wonder—of paying attention to our life as we live it.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love it. This is the first time I’ve written a novel entirely from a single point of view – The Other Beautiful People is all in the first-person point of view of Amy Greene.

 

She has spent her life trying to get past her traumatic childhood, trying to understand what it means to love and be loved, and now, at the top of her field, in her early 40s, her carefully managed world is breaking apart.

 

On the lighter side, she also sees the world through the lens of movies, especially classic ones, and compares everyone to their movie doppelgängers—Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Marlon Brando, and more—make cameo appearances as she tries to understand this crazy world we live in through the movies she loves.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Beyond all the promotion for this novel, I am writing a series of linked short, short stories. I’ve had a few published in SmokeLong Quarterly, Artwife, and The Hopkins Review, and the latter nominated one of my pieces for the Best of Microfiction 2026, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Diane Seuss selected it. Here’s a link to the story, Newsboy. The entire work-in-progress collection is entitled I Should Have Slept With Them All, so yes, more autofiction.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Just that I’m grateful that The Other Beautiful People is being published now. It’s the 25th anniversary of 9/11 this September. This novel opens in December 2001, and 9/11 has deeply affected the main character, Amy Greene, and her husband, Jack, as it affected my husband and me and so many others.

 

I never thought I would write about that time, but I guess I should learn never to say never about what I will write about. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Caroline Bock. 

Q&A with Ellen Baker

  

 

 

Ellen Baker is the author of the new novel Summerland Cove. Her other books include the novel The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson. She lives in Maine.

 

Q: You’ve said that the inspiration for Summerland Cove came from a glimpse you got of a family on their front porch. Can you say more about that, and about how you created your character Lindy and her family?

 

A: I was out walking one night in the summer of 2024 in a place I often walk near where I live in Midcoast Maine—an oceanfront loop of century-old cottages. When I passed an old yellow cottage, I spotted a family (I was sure I saw three generations) gathered on their front porch.

 

As a neighbor came out of his cottage with a plate of charcuterie and a bottle of wine—and, in a very Maine way, invited me, a stranger, to join the party—I thought what it might be like to return to a beloved place once a year to reconnect with extended family and neighbors.

 

Being from a small family myself and having moved around a lot in my life, it was enticing to imagine—and then, being a novelist, I started to imagine everything that could go wrong.

 

I decided that the family in my novel would be a summer family “from away,” and that, to make the stakes of the story higher, they would be planning a series of important celebrations. Then I thought that what could really go wrong would be that the guest of honor at the first event—a 50th birthday party—would not only not show up but totally disappear.

 

I wanted the centerpiece of the story to be the woman in the middle generation, and that’s when I created Lindy. She’s 47 at the time the story takes place, and she feels the weight of responsibility for all three generations of her family—for her aging parents, her nearly-grown children (especially her oldest daughter Hailey, whose wedding she’s planning), and for throwing a perfect 50th birthday for her husband (even though he’s told her he doesn’t want a party).

 

From there, I created the rest of her family to be people who would naturally increase the amount of pressure on her, which I think is realistic for women in that stage of life. She has children in their early 20s whom she loves but doesn’t understand, a husband who’s very distant, and parents in their 80s who need more help than they’re letting on.

 

Then I added in difficult in-laws and the legacy and complication and financial pressure of two family cottages—and then there’s her husband’s attractive young assistant. Lindy is in a difficult position all around, and she has to figure out how to deal with all of it at once.

 

Q: The novel is set in Maine--how important is setting to you in your writing? 

A: I would say setting is very important to me in my writing. I spent my first 35 years living in the Midwest, and my previous novels have been set there.

 

To me, setting totally defines the types of characters and families you’ll encounter in a story—and what problems they’ll create for themselves. The weather and landscape also become characters—especially in places like the Midwest and Maine.

 

In Summerland Cove, everything I’ve learned in the last 10 or so years living in a small community in coastal Maine forms the spine of the book.

 

Again, the setting defines what kinds of experiences the characters have had up to this point in their lives, what’s possible for them, and how they look at and interact with the world. And little details, too, as far as what a character might be concerned about (or doing or eating) at any given moment.

 

In Maine, we worry about tick-borne illnesses, the sun rises at 4:30 a.m. in the summer, restaurants are often closed by 8 p.m., you can stop along the highway to buy eggs (it’s always an honor system, a box of cash), and you’re likely to be eating oysters, lobster, and excellent Maine-made ice cream and gelato.

 

So, to me, the story should not only include those things, but it should also sometimes turn on them, so that, in the end, place influences the story and defines people’s experiences—just as it does in real life.

 

Q: How would you describe the relationship between your characters Lindy and David?

 

A: One of the things I loved most about writing this book was getting to experience Lindy and David’s relationship evolving over the course of almost 40 years.

 

As a young teen, Lindy admired him from afar as the older brother of her best summertime friend. He finally notices her in return when he’s 17 and she’s 14. So, they grow up together, in a way, and they have a beautiful summer romance—to a point.

 

Her mother is against the match, which makes Lindy even more determined that it’s right. Things happen to cement the bond (I won’t give those away!). Yet David, being only human, can never, over the years, quite live up to what young Lindy has imagined him to be.

 

So, at the time the primary action of the novel takes place, when she’s 47 and he’s turning 50, there’s a lot of water under the bridge and a lot of distance that’s been created between them—both by his awareness that he can’t live up to her expectations and simply by the fact that she’s been engrossed in raising their four kids for the last 25 years while he’s been working to support the family.

 

There’s much that they don’t see or understand about each other—and yet, despite all this, they are absolutely devoted to one another. That’s why it’s such a shock to her when he disappears—she had thought she had everything in their life under control; she had thought she understood what he would and would not do.

 

And when he doesn’t show up for his birthday party, it upends everything she’d thought was true about them, their love, and their family. I absolutely loved writing about them because they are so good-hearted, and yet they misunderstand each other almost completely.

 

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

 

A: The value of questioning assumptions about other people and the paramount importance of loving them through everything.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on another novel that takes place in the same fictional setting of Summerland Cove, Maine. The working title is Breakaway Cottage.

 

It’s about a different family in a different time period (2023 with flashbacks to 1990, versus, in Summerland Cove, 2010 with flashbacks to the 1970s and 80s). So, it’s a standalone book, but it's fun for me to be spending more time in Summerland Cove.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: The experience of writing this book was a rich one for me, as I got to imagine things that I haven’t gone through in my life—like having four kids and a big extended family and a summer cottage to return to generation after generation.

 

I also got to work through some things that I have gone through in my life, like depression, trauma, and relationship issues. I seem to always return, too, to questions of home, belonging, and community. And I love to explore the extraordinary ripple effects that small moments or decisions made by one person can have on an entire family or community for generations. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Ellen Baker.