Victoria Dillon is the author of the new novel Ava. She is also a pediatrician and a former research scientist, and she lives in Tennessee.
Q: What inspired you to write Ava, and how did you create your character Larkin?
A: I was inspired by the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022, following the Dobbs decision.
Years ago, someone I know was pregnant with a baby with a lethal birth defect. Because she lived in Tennessee, she wasn’t able to get an abortion and had to travel out of state. I was taken aback by the judgment she faced from family members and friends from her church for making that decision.
Her experience influenced Larkin’s character and shaped the questions I wanted the novel to ask about choice, compassion, and the consequences of governmental overreach.
Q: How did your background as a scientist and pediatrician inform the writing of the novel?
A: Larkin’s first job as a research assistant mirrors my own experience. I worked as a research assistant for four years before medical school, and much of the research she does in the book is work I’ve actually done. That’s why I’m comfortable writing about things like chicken eggs, embryo staging, and laboratory incubators.
What I didn’t know going in was much about backyard chickens, and I ended up learning a lot about how egg-laying is triggered and regulated. That mix of firsthand experience and curiosity helped the science feel grounded and accessible rather than abstract.
Q: The author Jill McCorkle called the book a “wise and accomplished blend of storytelling, science and social commentary that explores a woman's right to choose and the heartbreaking consequences when choice is denied.” What do you think of that assessment?
A: I love it. I’ve also loved getting to know Jill as a person after asking her to review the book—before that, I knew her only as an author I deeply respected.
Her description feels very aligned with what I was trying to do: use storytelling and science together to explore women’s right to choose, the real consequences when choice is denied, and the possibility of hope even when we feel powerless to change the laws around us.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: My hope depends on the reader. I think like-minded, nerdy feminists may feel a sense of validation and maybe even empowerment.
I also hope that people who might initially be put off by the book’s subject matter give it a chance and come away with a better understanding of the pro-choice community. Agreement may not be possible, but understanding would be meaningful.
Ultimately, I hope all readers gain a deeper appreciation for the difficult decisions women face as mothers along with an appreciation for science, especially evolutionary biology, and perhaps a newfound respect for chickens.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on a sequel to Ava called Avas. The name Ava means “little bird,” so I think the plural form is perfect for a continuation of the story.
My book ends on a hopeful note, but as more females with Ava’s egg-laying abilities reach reproductive age, new complications emerge. We begin to learn that incubating a baby may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Friends and family were shocked that I wrote a novel, since I never had aspirations to write a book.
Around the same time Roe v. Wade was overturned, I became very ill. After many visits with different specialists, I learned I had two rare autoimmune diseases: ankylosing spondylitis and Takayasu’s arteritis, which affects about one in two million people each year.
As a physician, I was stunned as I didn’t fit the typical demographic, and these diagnoses weren’t on my radar. I decided that if my luck could be that bad, maybe it could also be that good, and I could write and publish a novel.
Writing kept my mind occupied while my immune system decided it hated my joints and blood vessels. My immune system still hates me, but the medication is helping so I’m feeling pretty lucky overall.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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