Q&A with Danielle McKechnie

  

 

 

 

Danielle McKechnie is the author of the new novel This Changes Everything. She also has worked in film and television, and she lives in Vancouver.

 

Q: What inspired you to write This Changes Everything, and how did you create your character Ellie?

 

A: I had been writing circles around a character named Ellie for a long time. I called her an “LA-lien” because she was a Canadian transplant chasing a dream, struggling through the realities of life in Los Angeles.

 

I’ve always been drawn to the idea of crossroads in a person’s life. The Sliding Doors moments where you could have gone one way, but you chose another.

 

Now it’s years later, and the dust has settled, have you accepted the decisions of your past? Do you regret losing the ones you let go? And are you okay with the person you became because of that one choice that “changed everything?”

 

Q: The author Jessica Siskin said of the book, “A funny, gripping, and honest love story that is just as much a self-love story. This Changes Everything is about what happens when the people who have shaped us never really leave us.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I was blown away by what Jessica said. I write to try to understand the world around me, how others may live their lives, the choices they make, and the intentions behind them. I write to try to understand myself, and to feel like someone else may have understood my intentions with this book is a rare gift, one I don’t take for granted.

 

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 knew how it would end, but there were many changes along the way. I try to write with characters’ motivations and objectives, letting those push the book forward. There’s the larger objective that runs through the heart of each character, the smaller objective that carries us from scene to scene, and the obstacles along the way.

 

While I’m writing, one character's motivation might conflict with another’s, creating an unexpected roadblock and, therefore, drama. So, for me, the most important part of my process is understanding each character's history and who they are at their core. I may have an ending, but I don’t necessarily know how each character will get me there.

 

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

 

A: Ellie McCain, Rory Campbell, and Ben Winters are more than just their love story, but it’s love that defines them.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on my next love story! Shh… It’s a secret ;) 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Melissa Payne

  

 

 

Melissa Payne is the author of the new novel In This Life or Another. Her other books include Memories in the Drift. She lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write In This Life or Another, and how did you create your character Rusty?

 

A: I love stories that live in the liminal spaces between what we know and what we don’t. For Rusty, this means questioning whether his 60 years have made a difference or if he’s squandered his time by doing nothing of significance.

 

When he takes a bullet to save the people of a small Colorado diner, Rusty finds himself in an in-between place where he has the chance to see what his life might have been like if he’d only done more.

 

The character of Rusty developed partially from a vision I had of a man eating out every single night of the week. I wondered why he was always alone and what got him to this point in life. Did someone wait for him at home? Did he pine for something he couldn’t have? Was he content or unhappy or desperate for a change?

 

Sometimes it only takes an image to spark all the questions we need to create a story. 

 

Q: We’ve talked about setting in our previous interviews--how would you describe the setting in this new novel?

 

A: Like many of my novels, In This Life or Another is set in a small Colorado mountain town. There’s just something about the landscape here that inspires me – whether it’s from the steadiness of the mountain horizons, the capriciousness of our weather, or the variety of our small towns that welcomes those who love the land, the dreamers, the workers, and anyone looking for an escape.

 

It’s a symbiotic partner to a story that explores the human condition, because the other setting in this novel is the internal landscape of our hearts and minds. The unexplored places where we hide our deepest fears and uncertainties. The place where we all must stand alone at some point or another.

 

I enjoyed the process of watching Rusty navigate this new landscape and ultimately have to face his own truth, especially against the backdrop of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.

 

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

 

A: In the in-between, Rusty looks back on his life and also experiences firsthand the life he might have lived if he’d made different choices. Rusty wonders if this other life would have been easier or less painful or more fulfilling. But there are similarities between the two lives and some events that happen in both regardless of his choices.

 

The title is a direct quote from his mother, who says it in an effort to explain to Rusty that some things, like losing a loved one, grief, and regret, are a fact of life that happen to all of us – in one life or another.  

 

Q: What was it like to write about a character caught between life and death?

 

A: It was fascinating to explore this topic from the viewpoint of a fictional character. These are hard questions for all of us, and the truth is, until we get there, none of us truly knows what happens after we die, and that can be unsettling and even frightening.

 

So to create a world for this character where he explores what might be available to him after death was an intense exploration of my own hopes and fears and insecurities.

 

It was at times fun to write and at other times reassuring to imagine how our purpose and existence, small or large, might affect people we love and even those we don’t know very well. And at times, it even made me take stock of my own life. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m so excited about my next book! First, because it’s set in the very real college town of Athens, Ohio, in 1998, which happens to also be around the time I was a student there. So it’s an exploration of my own memory and of a place I called home for six very formative years.

 

While I was in graduate school, my program had offices in what had once been known as the Athens Insane Asylum. Actually, it’s had many, many names, but after it closed its doors, the university purchased it with plans to renovate the historic buildings and put them to new use.

 

It’s now known as The Ridges, and it has always fascinated me both for the eerie beauty of its buildings, the beautiful land that surrounds it, and for its long, complicated history and the many, many untold stories of the patients who were treated there.

 

This new story is about a woman who’s hurt everyone she loves and has to learn how to forgive herself and heal a decades-old family mystery when she sets out on a path to give the dead of the Ridges a chance to tell their stories.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Melissa Payne. 

Q&A with Judy Sandler

  

 

 

Judy Sandler is the author of the new memoir What Kind of Mother: A Reckoning. It focuses on her son's mental illness. She is the creative nonfiction editor for The Stonecoast Review and The Awakenings Review, and she lives in Maine. 

 

Q: In your book’s acknowledgments, you write, “I didn’t mean to write a book.” How did you end up writing this memoir?

 

A: I received my MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Stonecoast, at The University of Southern Maine. Every few weeks I had to turn in 25-30 pages of writing to my mentor.

 

I wasn’t working on a particular project or book when I entered the program, as many students were. I started out writing essays about random experiences, but soon realized I was avoiding the thing I most needed to write about.

 

Later, I learned the expression, “Write about the thing you don’t want to write about.” For my packets, I started to hand in pages about these experiences raising my son, as well as my reflections on my own upbringing by my parents.

 

When it came time to write my thesis at Stonecoast, I put these essays together and turned them in to my thesis advisor. He told me, “These are great, but you have told your son’s story, now you have to tell your story.”

 

It took me a few years to understand what he meant—the difference between my son’s story and my own story, but once I digested that idea, I realized I had a book that could be the one I was looking for, but could not find, when I went through these experiences.

 

I went back to my thesis and changed the voice and the perspective to make sure the story was my story: what was happening to me, in my body, around me, what I said, what I heard. And in that way, I wound up with a memoir that reflected my story of raising my son.

 

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

 

A: The working title for this book was “How Did We Get Here?” I still like that title, but my main reader for this book, Susan Conley, suggested I think of a title that was more specific to me as a mother and the questions I ask of myself throughout the book. I think “What Kind of Mother” more accurately reflects the voice in the book, which is that of a mother’s story.

 

The title is also meant to ask the question rhetorically, as in, “What Kind of Mother? All kinds of mothers”—because the decisions I made as told in this story, are decisions I believe all kinds of mothers would make, and that is the point: to share my story of raising my son with severe mental illness so that this story does not remain silent, surrounded by stigma. I hope that by publishing the book all kinds of mothers will feel to tell their stories of mental illness in their children.

 

Q: The writer Morgan Talty said of the book, “[T]his is art, this is literature with a capital L, literature built on the foundation of emotion, the very thing that allows any reader to connect to.” What do you think of that assessment?

 

A: First, I am flattered by Morgan’s words. I think the assessment is accurate though.

 

In reference to the book being described as “literature,” I wanted the reader to feel the experience in the same way that I did. In order for that to happen, I decided the chapters should be concentrated, powerful descriptions, without a lot of explanation about background.

 

I think readers are smart and figure out the back story, if the writer pushes on with the scenes with enough pace and vivid detail. The book is written in the same way I remember events, which is not necessarily chronological, but feels more fragmented and whip-like.

 

And then, in reference to the book being “built on the foundation of emotion,” I feel like I achieved that goal. If a writer does not tell the truth in a piece of writing, the piece will not succeed in connecting to the reader, it won’t resonate.

 

In telling my truth and not running away from the emotion, I believe the book is made all the more relevant to any reader, and particularly a reader experiencing the same situations with a child.

 

It’s a great feeling when an author like Morgan Talty nails what a writer was trying, all along, to do in the writing of a book.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope people take away from it?

 

A: To write a memoir is to make yourself vulnerable in the world. Emily Rapp Black, who wrote The Still Point of the Turning World about her terminally ill son, reports that she often was told, “I would die if I were you,” from other mothers who had read her story.

 

Along the same lines as “I would die if I were you,” I often get the comment, “You are so brave.” But I did not write this book to be brave, or to focus attention on my story.

 

In fact, the desire to publish the manuscript came more out of a frustration with my own shame and silence. I think I was tired, no, I was exhausted, from pretending mental illness had somehow escaped my family, and all was perfectly fine.

 

And when I started to look closely, I realized not only was I not alone in my experience of having a child with mental illness, but chances were very good (one in five, according to National Alliance on Mental Illness) that the people I with whom I was speaking had a child, mother, sister, brother, husband, who also had a mental illness.

 

I suppose publishing this story makes me vulnerable, but I prefer to think of it as just telling the truth. If more people told the truth about their relationship with mental illness, writing a book like this and putting it out there would not have to be considered an act of bravery. 

 

Q: What are you working on next?

 

A:  I am working on a nonfiction researched book about an incident that occurred in an independent school in Baltimore. I hope it will be titled “How Did We Get Here.”

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Megan E. Freeman

  

Photo by Laura Carson Photography

 

 

Megan E. Freeman is the author of the new young adult novel in verse The Secret to Belonging. Her other books include Alone. Also an educator, she lives in Colorado and in Texas. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Secret to Belonging, and how did you create your protagonist?

 

A: I was having breakfast with my friend, the author Olivia Chadha, and we were talking about places we lived growing up. I mentioned having lived in Norway as an exchange student in high school, and she said, “I want to read about that.” I went home and pulled out old photo albums and letters, and I began to write.

 

From even the earliest drafts, I played with placing the reader directly inside the protagonist’s experience. I went back and forth with using first-person voice and second-person voice, but I ultimately chose second-person because I liked the forced intimacy it created. I liked the sense that the reader was being cast as the main character.

 

Q: The School Library Journal called the book a “searing, character-­driven exploration of family obligation and the pain of being left behind.” What do you think of that description? 

 

A: I think that description gets to the heart of the story. The book is about a young person figuring out who she is in relation to her family and who she is when she’s removed from them.

 

It’s about understanding codependence and finding agency, and making decisions about managing the collateral damage that addiction causes to members of a family. It’s about being left behind, but it’s also about choosing to leave, and that’s a powerful—and empowering—choice to make.

 

Q: You’ve also written middle grade novels--do you have a preference between middle grade and YA?

 

A: When I’m writing, I don’t really think in terms of categories, so I can’t really say I have a preference. Stories come to me and I explore them, and I hope readers will find and connect to them.

 

Some of my books are considered “upper middle grade” or “young teen reads,” and my books often have characters whose ages span from 11-17. Ultimately, I trust my publishers to know how to categorize them so librarians and educators can help readers find them.

 

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

 

A: That’s actually a funny story. Originally I had a one-word title that I really liked, and that was what we called it for a long time. (I think I’ve been writing poetry for so long that I’m always trying to use as few words as possible.)

 

But it became obvious that readers of Alone and Away would likely confuse it with that series, so we needed to come up with a phrase instead.

 

I was swimming laps one morning, and I was thinking about all the nuances inherent in the original one-word title. It came to me that the core idea was really about belonging: a young person trying to figure out how and where to belong, and how to create a sense of belonging for herself. Once I hit upon that idea, the rest of the title fell into place.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Currently I’m working on edits for Snakebit, a middle grade novel that is scheduled for next fall. It will be my first book written entirely in prose, and it’s very different from my other books. It’s set in South Texas in 1980, and it’s inspired by stories from my husband’s life and family growing up. I love spending time in that world with those characters.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’m very excited for the third book in the Alone series, which comes out in February and is called Afar. It’s another companion novel, like Away, and all three books can be read in any order, or each can stand alone.

 

It’s available for preorder now, and one of my middle grade beta readers summed up the series this way: “Alone is an adventure, Away is a mystery, and Afar is a thriller.” I think that’s pretty accurate, and I hope readers will love the new book when it comes out.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Megan E. Freeman. 

Q&A with Melanie Abed

  

 

 

 

Melanie Abed is the author of the new middle grade novel Zombie Zoo, the first in a new series.  

 

Q: What inspired you to write Zombie Zoo, and how did you create your characters Felix and Ninja?

 

A: Felix Fizzystyxx started talking to me before I ever put a word down. He was already fully formed — lanky, curious, always cataloging, always taking notes.

 

He crouched in a pantry in the back of my mind for weeks before I finally sat down to write him onto the page. He built his tree fort. He stitched his field journal together by hand. It was his idea to ask for Cookie's leftover spinach water to dye his vest green.

 

And then, almost as if she'd been waiting for the right moment, Ninja walked into the story.

 

Here's what most readers won't realize yet: Ninja was already a character I'd written about — elsewhere, in another version of a much bigger universe I've been quietly building for years.

 

In Zombie Zoo, she's younger. She's still herself, but earlier in her story. And once she showed up in that hallway and started giving Felix tips he didn't ask for, I couldn't stop writing.

 

They were talking inside my head all day. Eventually I just had to start writing it down.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between them?

 

A: Here's something I don't say out loud often: Felix and Ninja are both parts of me.

 

Felix is the observer — the cataloger, the pattern-noticer, the kid who trusts data because data doesn't lie. Ninja is the instinct — the sharp read of a room, the trust-your-gut fierce independence, the one-liner that lands before you knew a joke was coming.

 

And that's exactly why they work. Felix wants to measure the puzzle; Ninja wants to leap into it. She pushes him past the edge of his comfort zone, out of the tree fort and into the mess. He keeps her from charging in blind. She gives him tips he never asked for; he double-checks every one of them. They frustrate each other constantly, and they're better together than either would ever admit.

 

(My husband swears there's a little Felix in him too. And Doc Brunne is the wacky-professor mentor I've loved since I was a kid — I couldn't resist giving Felix and Ninja someone brilliant and slightly unhinged to look up to.)

 

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 know how the series ends: Book 5, and every book in between. The whole arc is mapped, even the parts I haven't drafted yet.

 

That doesn't mean the road to Zombie Zoo was a straight line. There were several versions of this book, going all the way back to 2017. I actually wrote the first draft in two weeks, in a fast, feverish sprint — and then it sat on a shelf. For years.

 

The version you're holding today looks very different from that first draft. It went through evolutions, edits, rethinks, and quiet revisions while I built out the larger universe around it. But the destination? The destination has always been the same.

 

That's the funny thing about knowing where a series is headed. It gives you the freedom to let the individual books breathe — to let them become the best version of themselves without losing the thread that ties them all together.

 

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

 

A: Honestly? First and foremost, I hope kids just have a lot of fun. 

 

Then I hope they start sleuthing — looking at the world the way Felix does, questioning the way Ninja does. I hope they notice things they didn't notice before.

 

And then I hope they go outside. Head to a library. Pick up books on maps and field guides. Look into Ninja's kind of quiet, observational spycraft. Zombie Zoo isn't trying to teach anyone anything on the surface. But if it sparks a kid to go learn something on their own? That's the whole ballgame.

 

Q: As you noted, this is the first in a series--can you tell us what's next?

 

A: Books 2 and 3 are already fully drafted — I just need to dive into developmental edits. The rest of the series is outlined and waiting.

 

Book 2 opens in the Tub territory of Bloom, specifically the harbor town of Bloomnesia. Felix and Ninja are off to investigate the barrels and a mysterious figure named Manifest Max. You'll meet new characters, see an old one (I won't say who), and the mystery escalates fast into a brand-new adventure with a whole new set of puzzles.

 

The quirky humor is still there. So are the maps. So is the slow, careful reveal of what's really going on underneath all of this.

 

I've got working titles for both Book 2 and Book 3. But I'll keep those tucked away for now.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: There's one more layer tucked into this world that I want to mention. 

 

Over the years, I've been lucky enough to work alongside some truly treasured friends — people who shaped me, made me laugh, and stayed with me long after our paths diverged.

 

Every so often, one of them slips into the story. A scrambled name. A gesture. A tiny detail only they (or someone who knew them) would recognize.

 

These are always positive. Always affectionate. Little winks and Easter eggs woven into the fabric of Tub. Some of these friends are still with me. Some are not. Either way, I like knowing they're there — quietly present in a world I love, honored in a way that feels right.

 

If you ever read something in Zombie Zoo and think, huh, that felt very specific — there's a chance you just met one of them.

 

I post on Instagram @bymelanieabed, but here's the real tip: sign up for my newsletter. That's where I share stories from the Tub Guardians — tales that took place before Felix and Ninja ever set foot in the hallway with a puddle of green goo. If you like secrets — and let's be honest, who doesn't? — you'll learn a lot before anyone else.

 

We also have activity pages on the website melanieabed.com and educator guides for teachers, homeschoolers, and librarians. We're always working on more, because we love the community of future sleuths who are showing up for this story.

 

Felix and Ninja are just getting started. Come along for the ride.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. This Q&A was conducted in partnership with The Children's Book Review. And there's a contest: Ten lucky readers will each win a signed paperback copy of Zombie Zoo. One grand prize winner will receive an epic swag haul: a signed hardcover copy, bookmark, postcard, sticker sheet, Tub Explorer Pin, a sample of Tub's Green Goo, and a Make Your Own Glow-in-the-Dark Green Goo Kit.  

Sept. 9

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Sept. 9, 1828: Leo Tolstoy born.

Q&A with Christine Wells

  

 

 

Christine Wells is the author of the new novel The Lost Perfumes of Paris. Her other books include The Paris Gown. She lives in Brisbane, Australia. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Lost Perfumes of Paris, and how did you create your character Élodie?

 

A: I am not sure when I first decided I wanted to write a book about women in the French perfume industry.

 

As a teenager, I visited the Fragonard factory in the south of France and learned something of the manufacturing process, but it was the artistry behind creating perfume that fascinated me.

 

I had heard it said that something about women’s biology gave them a less acute sense of smell than men. Was this true, or was it one of those myths used as an excuse to exclude women from yet another profession?

 

My research showed there were women as early as the 1950s who defied convention to create iconic perfume.

 

Élodie was inspired by the whispers that perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï, a member of the Guerlain family, was not permitted to work as a perfumer in the family business because she was a woman. She didn’t let that stop her becoming an award-winning perfumer, and she now has her own atelier with several stores internationally.

 

I learned that Patricia de Nicolaï was president of an intriguing organisation called the Osmothèque, literally a library of scent, whose archives contain thousands of fragrances that have been created throughout history. That sparked the idea for The Lost Perfumes of Paris.

 

As for creating Élodie’s character, I never quite know my characters until they walk onto the page and start speaking. It is part of the magic of writing fiction for me!

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Élodie and her father?

 

A: The relationship between Élodie and her father, Fabrice, is a difficult one. It is baffling to her that Fabrice is as prejudiced against female “noses” as many other men in the industry, despite the fact that her mother, his late wife, Aurore, was a legendary perfumer.

 

I think there is a great shock that comes to a girl or young woman when she realises that, even though her father claims to love her dearly, that love does not encompass respect for her as an equal to the male of the species.

 

However, Élodie comes to learn that Fabrice’s attitude is about more than mere prejudice, and her struggle to prove herself to him is the driving force of the story.

 

Q: How did you research the novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: I always read a lot around the subject, of course, and several interviews with perfumers, both male and female, were helpful in understanding the industry as well as the science and the creativity behind perfume.

 

I particularly enjoyed the lyricism of perfume critics’ reviews and amassed quite a lexicon of words to describe scent, many of which are similar to descriptions we would normally use for taste.

 

Of course, I had to try my hand at creating perfume myself, so there was some very enjoyable “hands on” research involved, too!

 

I was surprised to learn that perfume was still being made throughout World War II—in fact, the war drove innovation in synthetic molecules because of the short supply of raw materials. Apparently, perfumers tend not to be prejudiced against using these synthetic ingredients in their creations.

 

Q: The writer Kerri Maher said of the book, “I learned so much about perfume as I rooted for Elodie to triumph in her chosen, male-dominated profession.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Whenever I write historical fiction, I am mindful never to bore the reader with great swathes of information that might only prove interesting to me. The characters and the story always come first. However, I am very pleased that Kerri, who was so kind as to endorse this book, found she was learning about perfume along the way.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am working on two books at the moment—one historical and one in a different genre altogether. More, I cannot say at this moment but stay tuned!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I would like to appeal to your readers to support flesh and blood, real human authors by buying their work.

 

I am told that Artificial Intelligence is not yet capable of writing coherent, long-form fiction, but I imagine the day will come when AI books will be promoted on a par with the novels that we authors have slaved over for months or years.

 

The only power we readers have to stop this trend is the power of our wallets, because profit is the only thing the people behind the push to replace humans with AI understand or care about.

 

Thank you for the opportunity, Deborah. I hope your readers enjoy the interview.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Christine Wells. 

Q&A with Meihan Boey

  

 

 

 

 

Meihan Boey is the author of the new novel The Enigmatic Madam Ingram. She also has written the novel The Formidable Miss Cassidy. She is based in Singapore. 

 

Q: The Enigmatic Madam Ingram is the second book featuring your character Miss Leda Cassidy--did you know when you wrote The Formidable Miss Cassidy that you'd be returning to her story?

 

A: Yes and no! The Formidable Miss Cassidy was written on a whim during the Covid lockdowns, and I have been very grateful for the warm reception she received then, and still does now.

 

That said, because I wasn't sure this would get anywhere, the original draft was enormous, easily three times longer than it really needed to be for a first book.

 

I'm a huge fantasy nerd, and I grew up with ‘70s and ‘80s fantasy, which featured anything from five to 20-plus brick-sized novels, and still saw the need for multiple appendixes, supplementary glossaries, magic and monster bibles, and the like. 

 

Miss Cassidy, Mr. Kay, and their world were created in a very similar way, with a tremendous amount of backstory and detail I didn't end up using in the first book.

 

When I had the chance to write a sequel, most of this backstory went into The Enigmatic Madam Ingram, which not only clues the reader in on what exactly Miss Cassidy is, but also how she wound up as a governess in 1890s Singapore, of all places.

 

There are two Madam Ingrams, Rose and her daughter Letty. Rose, Miss Cassidy's nemesis, is from the Malay Archipelago, and without giving too much away, she is connected to what I believe to be our region's most horrifying hantu (supernatural being).

 

In our part of the world, magic is regarded to be natural, real, dark, dangerous. Rose's and Letty's stories are a cautionary tale against those who don't afford this the respect it compels.

 

Q: What inspired the plot of this new novel?

 

A: The biggest and most obvious inspiration is the work of the Brontë sisters! Jane Eyre is my favourite novel of all time, and The Enigmatic Madam Ingram is my love song to Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. They have influenced and inspired not just myself, but every reader who has loved them for the past two centuries.

 

Anyone remotely familiar with the Brontës will see it. There is an isolated madwoman, a wild windswept moor, a giant dog (Emily Brontë had a giant dog), a dissolute husband, women who hide, women who refuse to hide, women who hide in plain sight, and ghosts that transcend time and space.

 

A secondary inspiration is a real historical figure who appears in the book, the famous courtesan Cora Pearl - to me, the ultimate example of a woman who refused to hide.

 

Q: How did you research this book, and did you learn anything especially surprising?

 

A: To be honest, there was no research done specifically for the book. Being both a history nerd and a fantasy geek, most of what is in The Enigmatic Madam Ingram is from stories, histories, and mythology I have known, read about, and loved for decades.

 

The only details I needed to align were specific dates and ages. Because this is not strictly historical fiction, I wasn't aiming for 100 percent factual accuracy.

 

I did include a location that I found absolutely fascinating when I first visited it - the Standing Stones of Steness. I'm always boggled by standing stones and henges, but this one henge is absolutely otherworldly, and such a perfect spot to be a fairy gateway that turns into a supernatural point of contention.

 

Q: How did you create your character Letty Ingram?

 

A: Letty Ingram is a blend of Brontëan heroines, with a dash (or more) of the uniquely Malayan version of the monstrous feminine. She starts off as an innocent Helen (Anne Brontë's heroine in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) who comes to realise that she has put her love and trust in a monster.

 

Trauma shapes her into a rigid yet secretly tempestuous Lucy Snowe (from Charlotte's Villette). Like Cathy (from Emily's Wuthering Heights) she finds she has let others make terrible decisions for her, the consequences of which may lead to her end.

 

Rose Ingram, her Mama, is the all-consuming monstrous Tiger Mother who lurks in the soul of every Asian child, with the added terror of being supernaturally empowered!

 

Small fun fact - their last name, Ingram, was originally taken from Jane Eyre's nemesis, Blanche Ingram.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am working on a couple of stories set within the same universe, though at this stage, I don't know yet if they'll get anywhere!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: The Mr. Kay & Miss Cassidy novels are a completed trilogy. The third book is The Mystical Mister Kay, which has won a couple of literary awards in Singapore, to my eternal gratitude. The Mystical Mister Kay arose directly from a residency I did in Norwich, and is set in a barely-disguised version of Norwich called Tolwich.

 

Mister Kay, the Chinese-Singaporean merchant who is in stubborn pursuit of Miss Cassidy, travels to the U.K disguised as an Oriental Mystic (that is, he pretends to be in yellowface), and finds himself embroiled in the mysterious murder of a Southeast Asian princess, and the sinister motives of a peculiar couturier called Mr. Ruby.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Meihan Boey.