Q&A with Lauren Thoman

 

 

 

Lauren Thoman is the author of the new novel You Shouldn't Be Here. She also has written the novel I'll Stop the World. She lives outside Nashville, Tennessee.

 

Q: What inspired you to write You Shouldn't Be Here, and how did you create your characters Angie and Madelyn?

 

A: The original spark of the idea came from a couple thoughts that were rattling around in my brain: the first was, what does accountability look like for the rich and powerful? And the second was, what if a haunting wasn't what it seemed? I considered both for a while, and gradually the plot for You Shouldn't Be Here emerged. 

 

As far as Angie and Madelyn, I knew I wanted each of them to be wrestling with one of those questions, and that I wanted their personalities to be very different from each other. And I knew very early on that I wanted Angie to be a teenager, and Madelyn to be an adult.

 

From there, they emerged very organically. I wish I could say that I knew everything about them before I started writing, but the truth is that they each kind of told me who they were as I wrote their chapters. They each had very distinct voices in my head, which made them easy to write, but hard to tell them what to do. 

 

Q: The writer J.T. Ellison said of the book, “Madelyn is incredibly real, and her clever sleuthing skills bring to mind a modern-day paranormal Nancy Drew—righting serious wrongs and bringing justice to the land.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love that description! I do think Madelyn is very justice-minded, while Angie is more focused on her own personal interests, which is very typical for teens in general. It's hard to conceptualize just how big the world is as a teen, when it feels like everything in your immediate orbit is the biggest thing that has ever happened.

 

For Madelyn, she's a little older and has widened her perspective a little bit, but she's still very young and idealistic. I think that she just has a hard time wrapping her mind around the idea that injustice can just be the way the world works sometimes. She feels like there has to be a better way.

 

So she doesn't hesitate to throw herself head-first into this investigation, because she's certain that if she can just find the truth, surely someone will have to care. 

 

Q: The novel is set in a Pennsylvania town called East Henderson--is it based on a real town, and how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: It is and is not based on a real town! It's loosely based on the town where I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania. A lot of the regional references are based on that, but my hometown doesn't have the same political dynamics as East Henderson.

 

I like setting my books in fictional settings, largely because setting is so important. I like to invent settings that will fit well into the dynamics I need for my story, but I also felt like it was necessary to ground this story in a specific geographical region.

 

Eastern Pennsylvania felt like a good fit, not just because I know it so well, but because Pennsylvania has always been a contentious state politically. It felt like the type of place where someone like Doug Raymond could conceivably rise to power, while also being a place where it could still matter that he had engaged in so many heinous activities. Every option feels open there.

 

Q: What do you see as the role of the supernatural in the story?

 

A: I think that for many of us, the supernatural—be that religious or otherwise—tends to fit into the space of things we can't really explain. We have science, which tells us a lot about the world and how it works, but there are still questions that are left unanswered.

 

For some people, they assume we just haven't figured out the answers yet. For others, the answer isn't meant to be understood, because it lies beyond our realm of comprehension.

 

That's where I feel like the supernatural comes into play in my stories. It's not about giving my readers or characters a concise and indisputable explanation for why things are the way they are. It's more about leaning into that uncertainty, and figuring out how it fits into their worldview, and what they do with that information or belief or doubt.

 

All of us, at some point in our lives, will have to deal with things we can't fully explain, and everyone will react differently to those things. To me, the interesting part isn't really the explanation, but more the human reaction to those events.  

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I'm working on so many things! I've got a post-apocalyptic haunted house horror novel in the works. I'm co-writing a book with a friend that is a YA contemporary reimagining of a historical series of events. And I've been poking at an old manuscript of a superhero thriller. No idea which of these—if any—will publish next, but I'm excited about all of them.  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I love chatting with book clubs! If you're in the Nashville area and want to discuss one of my books, drop me a line, and I'm happy to stop by your meeting! And if you're located elsewhere, I'm always game to Zoom in. So if you have a book club and are interested in reading one of my books, definitely get in touch, and I will try to work it out!  

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Lauren Thoman.