I was wondering what you thought the recent verdict would do to book sales, too. I remember reading your opinion about Becky Hill’s interference and the fact that the verdict should have been overturned. Seems like it’s a pretty cool thing to make a statement like that - in print for all to see - and have it validated well after-the-fact.
I tend to agree with you that the Murdaugh murders being in the news right now can only help sales. Plus I’m sure any retrial will be months down the road.
Do you think you’ll try to attend a retrial? It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes to seat a jury, given all the publicity. I think a new section for the paperback would be cool & I hope that works out. I’d buy it!
… and considering the story kept evolving as you were writing the book, how did you know it was complete enough to submit? Did you have to rewrite chapters as more information became available? Were you able to make changes after submission?
What surprised you the most during your investigations and interviews?
What was your personal reaction to investigating the crimes and others like it? Did it disturb you or depress you, or was it simply fascinating?
I also know you had a pretty serious stalking situation going on that you wrote about in GIVE ME EVERYTHING YOU HAVE. Did writing that book give you any insight into writing THE FAMILY MAN? And what did you think when your stalker wrote her own book about the experience?
You’ve written novels, short stories, poetry, and at least one screenplay, as well as nonfiction. As someone who can’t even master one genre, I’m very impressed by authors like yourself who write so broadly and with so much skill. Was tackling this variety of material a deliberate decision (an “I really need to branch out” kind of thing) or did one thing just coincidentally lead to another?
What’s your favorite genre to write in? Which of your books are you the most proud of?
I am most curious has to why she did what she did? That’s a story in itself I think. I think a chapter in the paperback would be an added feature that a new reader would be fascinated. But what are your plans for those of us that devoured your previous book. Will there be another book or article beginning with the retrial??
Thanks!
Thinking hard about covering the retrial. It will depend on scheduling etc, but I will definitely want to include something about it for any future edition of the book.
Yes, things evolving all the time and large aspects of the case still unanswered. No real illumination yet of the role of opioids, or of Cousin Eddie, or the police chief Greg Alexander, or the Cowboys gang, or the still missing millions, etcetera etcetera. Some of these may never be answered (I doubt many of them will even come up at the retrial). So you have decide what your main interest is, and mine was in AM himself. I felt that with the prison tapes, his testimony on the stand, and his long monologue at the financial crimes hearing, I had what I needed.
The biggest surprise for me were the extraordinary forgiveness speeches by the former clients AM had systematically ripped off. I’ve never witnessed anything like it.
Certainly disturbing, always fascinating. I didn’t think it was getting me down until after it was all over, when I realized it had a sort of cumulative effect. It does seem that spending a lot of time and thought on terrible deeds leaves you a bit darkened.
Writing the stalking book did give me some understanding of how important it is always to try to let the evidence speak for itself (rather than simply opining), but it also showed me how useful other stories and texts can be in terms of analogy. I used a lot of literary material (from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to Strangers on a Train) in my stalking book. Less in the Family Man but I did find Emmanuel Carrere’s book The Adversary (about another Family Annihilator) extremely useful as a sort of sounding board, and I threaded aspects of it into my own narrative.
I didn’t mind my stalker writing a book. Everyone’s entitled to do that. The last I heard from her was a sort of apologetic note claiming the whole thing was based on a misunderstanding. Since then I’ve put it behind me.
To me it’s just a matter of following your interests wherever they take you, saying yes to things as often as possible, trying to engage with the world as thoroughly as you can. Screenwriting is its own thing - fun because it’s collaborative but not really an end in itself - but for me prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction all very similar. They make similar demands and offer similar pleasures. You just try to say whatever you have to say as dynamically and economically as you can.
I love all the genres, though I haven’t been writing poetry in recent years. There’s a certain kind of large, socially capacious novel that I’ve always had an ambition to tackle, and that’s what I’m working on now. The Family Man was perhaps driven by some of that ambition - a desire to engage in worlds outside my own personal experience. I found it really exhilarating to do that and I’m proud of the result.
Yes - a lot of people would like the answer to that! The appeal ruling seems to attribute it mainly to greed - wanting a guilty verdict so as to sell more copies of her book and be able to afford a lake house. That may be true but I think she was also, in her own mind, playing a part in some biblical battle between good and evil, and got seriously carried away. The more worrying thing is that she clearly wasn’t acting alone in some of her attempts to rig the jury. I’m writing an article about that right now and I think that’s where the story will go next.
I don’t plan to write another book on the case, but I may well cover the trial and will probably include an update section in future editions of The Family Man. So glad you enjoyed it!
If you ever met me you would think that there is no way this woman reads true crime! But I do. Of course, the Murdaugh case has been front and center, and with a granddaughter living near Colleton County, I was hooked.
I haven’t read your book yet, but it is on order at my library. Thanks for visiting with us. You are answering all the questions I had in mind.
You mention that you’re writing a novel right now. Is it related to the one you’d gotten stuck on while writing THE FAMILY MAN, or is it a different one?
You also mentioned that when you started TFM, you had become “increasingly uninterested in books that didn’t revolve around some real or imaginary act of malice.” Has that changed for you in the years since? And do you still “have a resistance to the notion of evil” or did that change as a result of your involvement with this book?
I’d like to talk some about your older catalogue. I was surprised to see how much poetry you’ve published. Was that where your interest in writing started? Or did you start as a novelist who also wrote poetry?
What was the process like for getting your first book published (The Silver Age in the UK, Delirium Eclipse in the US)?
What was it like learning your novel, Seven Lies, was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2006? How did you find out about it?
Glad to hear it - and I hope you enjoy the book!
Please let Kim know when your article is published. I am anxious to read your thoughts and facts on her part in the rigging.
No, that was an attempt to do a fairly conventional crime novel and it just wasn’t working. The novel I’m working on now is the more wide focused project I mentioned in another reply. It does have a crime element, but it’s basically about the 1970s London world I grew up in. I published a section of it in the Paris Review a few years ago, under the title ‘Helen’, if anyone’s interested.
I think I’m over that really dark phase in terms of what I like to read, though I have to say if I’m in the mood for some pure entertainment I’ll still always choose a noir over a comedy.
I do still have a resistance to the notion of evil, in the sense that I think there’s usually a prosaic explanation for the bad things people do. But the Murdaugh case really did seem to defy that. Something about it still goes beyond panic, greed, even callous self-preservation. It chills me.