Maureen Johnson is the author of the new young adult novel The Vanishing Stair, the second in her Truly Devious trilogy. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times and Buzzfeed. She lives in New York.
Q: Do you think your
character Stevie has changed from the first book to the second?
A: She’s been through a lot,
and she knows she is on the right track, so her determination has increased!
She has more confidence. This will help, as her problems are only going to
deepen.
Q: Your Truly Devious series
has been compared to Agatha Christie and Harry Potter. What do you think of
those comparisons?
A: They are pretty exciting.
I mean. Yes. I kind of stammered, “Thank you?”
Q: How did you decide on the
structure of the three novels when it comes to revealing various clues?
A: Mystery novels are
puzzles—contraptions that have careful mechanics. So you have to place things
with a lot of care. And you have to track everything. The object put down in
book one may come up again in book three.
So it’s sort of like you’re
doing a three card monty or the trick with the ball under the cup where you
shuffle the cup around—you have always be aware of where your ace or your ball
is.
That being said, the actual
process involves a lot of post-its and notes and a dry erase board and pacing
around.
Q: How was this novel's title
chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The title has to do with a
riddle discovered in book one: Where do you look for someone who’s never really
there, always on a staircase but never on a stair. The book reveals the answer
to that riddle.
Q: What are you working on
now?
A: Book three! It’s the
document right under this one on the screen!
Q: Anything else we should
know?
A: Agatha Christie was a
surfer. Did you know that? She also faked her own death. HERO.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Maureen Johnson.
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