Q&A with Corinne Sullivan

  

Photo by Ahdout and Sabrina Toto

 

 

Corinne Sullivan is the author of the new novel Yours Always. She also has written the novel Indecent. She is the senior news editor at Cosmopolitan, and she lives in Jersey City, New Jersey. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Yours Always?

 

A: I got the idea while watching a Netflix true-crime doc called Lover, Stalker, Killer about an online dating love triangle gone very, very wrong. I loved the idea of trying to capture the complexities of the twisty case in a novel…and perhaps even adding in an additional few twists along the way.

 

Q: The author Flora Collins said of the book, “Sullivan does an excellent job of wriggling her way into each character's head, making even the most despicable dating app user sympathetic to her readers.” What do you think of that description, and how did you create your cast of characters?

 

A: I’m all for unlikable characters, but I feel as though—if you’re trying to strive for moral ambiguity—those characters must at least be explicable in their actions, even if the reader doesn’t endorse them.

 

I like to create characters that are frustrating, stubborn, and even foolish at times, but still sympathetic in their own way despite their flaws.

 

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

 

A: Setting isn’t always of huge importance to me, but for this novel, the location really mattered.

 

Austin is rich with all these quirks and contradictions—the bats, the lake, the old money folks with their traditional Texas values amid the new money Silicon Valley exiles with their counter-culture spirit—plus, it’s hot, which always helps ramp up the tension.   

 

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

 

A: I thought I knew how the story would end (I had it all mapped out before I began drafting)...but as I approached the conclusion, I ended up deciding that the ending needed one final twist.

 

I also originally did not include Amanda’s perspective as part of the story but decided that her voice was needed.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have another novel in the works right now that’s once again inspired by a true story, following a new mother, a house fire, and a possible kidnapping plot. I’ve never written about the postpartum experience before (I’m a mother of two!), so it’s been grueling at times to revisit but also incredibly cathartic.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Yours Always is my debut thriller but my second novel. My first novel, Indecent, follows a recent college grad who takes a job at a boy’s boarding school, and while it’s not a thriller, it’s still plenty twisted. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb