Hi! Thanks so much for taking the time to read my book!
One of the key things that I tried to keep in mind while writing the truly supernatural elements was the perspective of each character who experiences the elements. What do they want to believe, when presented with something ambiguous? And how does that then become their truth?
It’s kind of like being in an empty house and hearing a door slam. I might roll my eyes and blame the wind and go back to washing dishes. If I was a ghost hunter, however, and I’d amped myself up for an investigation, I might be freaking out and immediately believe in a supernatural cause.
THE HUNTER’S DAUGHTER was an entirely pantsed book, so I found it easy to maintain that sort of ambiguity. The thing I tried to keep in mind was that, if a supernatural event happened, to control the number of witnesses so I could chalk it up to an unreliable narrator.
Though THE SISTER’S CURSE required plotting, I tried to do the same. There are other characters in both books who believe in the supernatural (the witches and Anna’s parents, for example). There’s always a logical explanation for what happens. But sometimes the characters’ belief in the supernatural is more fun.
I played with the idea of there being a psychological explanation for what Anna is experiencing, and invented a DNA anomaly that she has inherited. In the first book, Anna is very much searching for answers and questioning her perceptions. She believes that the DNA anomaly she possesses might be an explanation for why her world is unraveling. I wanted this to be ambiguous for her, for there to potentially be multiple explanations for her current experiences.
In the second book, she still resists the idea that something supernatural might be afoot. But her cosmology expands a bit, and she’s forced to view her case through the eyes of people beyond her father who believe in strange and supernatural things.
I still wanted her to be wrestling with the idea of inheritance and what choices Anna has available to her once she’s uncovered her memories. She has inherited very similar things from her parents, but how they are expressed is very different. Where she ultimately winds up is discovering that she is very much an independent entity from her parents, and there are points at which she can shape her own destiny in a concrete way.
It sounds like you were working full-time when you first started writing. What prompted you to set time aside to create your first novel? How did you balance writing along with your criminal justice career?
What was the process like for getting your first book published after it was completed? (Did you send it to agents or publishers, how long did it take to get it accepted, how much revision did it take once it was accepted – anything you’d like to share about the process!)
I use a lot of my background in criminology in writing, so that’s helpful. That and the mythology are really lodged in my brain, so I can just stay in flow without having to take many research breaks for that. What’s the old saying…write what you know?
But there are definitely areas that I need help with, so I get the chance to talk to people in other fields. Things like DNA, pharmacology, arson investigation. I also have to check in frequently with Nick’s medical processes and how much I’ve beat up my characters. A not-infrequent question is something like: “So if I shoot my charater in the leg, how long do they have before they bleed out if they miss the femoral artery? What if they hit the femoral artery?”
Other fun questions that I’ve asked people:
“So what’s the half-life of PCP in the human body?”
“How much does DNA degrade in a body exposed to the elements for a few decades?”
“How long it takes for a house to burn down with an accelerant in dry, ninety-degree weather?”
My search history is also outrageous and cause for concern that I’m either a serial killer or running a major criminal enterprise.
How interesting! I know your characters - Anna in particular - get roughed up pretty badly in your books, but I never thought about having to research the accuracy of that. I really appreciate your going through that effort. I can’t remember how many times I’ve read something and thought, “There’s no way he could do that with those injuries!”
Do you ever travel to a location - to research a setting, for example - or do you just rely in personal experience for that as well?
Hi Nicola, Your background and research is evident in the your writing. This is a sensitive question - have you ever interviewed an adult “child” of a serial killer? I suspect most live quiet lives and like your character, somehow alter their identity. The facts of their parent’s deeds would be lifechanging.
By the time I was writing THE HUNTER’S DAUGHTER, I’d been out of the criminal justice world for a few years. I was in between projects one summer, and thought it would be fun to try to write this story. For me, it was an immersive deep dive, writing in my garden, with minimal distractions. I know that’s not the case for most writers, and it wasn’t the case for me with THE SISTER’S CURSE, but I really treasure that time. I was really fortunate to have it.
For me, it’s important that the book doesn’t feel like work. When it stops being fun, I’m less likely to want to open the document or notebook. Getting into that space of flow is hard when I’m not looking forward to what I’m doing.
I have never interviewed an adult child of a serial killer. I am sure that it’s unimaginably traumatic to have a parent who committed such heinous acts.
There are few children of serial killers who have spoken out publicly. Most vanish from the public eye, and that would be what I would want for myself if I were in their shoes. It would be an unimaginable weight, and anonymity might be the only way to get out from underneath that oppressive shadow.
I get more appreciation for the fragility of the human body the older I get! I currently have a busted-up ankle about the size of a softball that’s in a really funky boot.
I do check in with medical professionals to make sure that my characters can still do the things they need to do. I mean, I love John Wick to pieces, but none of my characters can withstand the kind of damage that he takes on!
So the setting for these books was very similar to the place where I grew up. I had a very rural upbringing, and it was pretty magical for me. I’d spend summers out in a rowboat on the river, playing flashlight tag in the woods with my friends, and occasionally hearing bobcats shriek at night. I think it was a place I knew well, so I felt comfortable writing about it.
For the law enforcement settings, like the prison, crime lab, and jail, I drew upon elements of settings I’d seen in real life, too.
I was very lucky to have Caitlin Blasdell of Liza Dawson Associates as an agent. She knew immediately what to do with the manuscript and how it fit with the market. To my utter shock, it found a home with the wonderful Jen Monroe at Penguin Random House on the first round of submissions. It was truly fairy-tale stuff!
I was also very lucky that I did very minimal revisions for both my agent and editor. More so for the second book, but I think that’s the nature of having more folks involved in the process at the start. Like…in pitching the idea for the second book, it’s necessary to be able to express a summary of where the book is going and a general idea of what’s going to happen. It’s essentially moving from creating a book in a bubble on my patio to having more professional input, which is super helpful in organizing things.
I have not read either of your books, but I think I have seen every episode of Forensic Files on TV, so I am quite sure I will enjoy your novels. And a bit of supernatural adds to the mystery. They are both available at my library. Thanks for participating in the Q and A.
Thanks so much for dropping by! And I’ve also watched a lot of Forensic Files! It’s amazing how far forensic science has come in the last few decades. One of the things I learned in writing my books is that gas chromatography-mass spectrometry can be used in analyzing accelerants used in arson cases, often right down to the brand name of the accelerant used.
I think that writing a sequel book is much more difficult than writing the first book in a duology. I knew that I wasn’t done with the characters or the world in THE HUNTER’S DAUGHTER because I still had questions I wanted to answer, and I imagine that readers did, too. Writing a second book involves many more rules…I’d established how the world works in the first book, and there is naturally less freedom with what you can do in an established world. I also wanted to cover new territory, and there’s a balance.
I’m the proudest of the endings of both books. In THE HUNTER’S DAUGHTER, I honestly didn’t know who had committed the crimes until the end. With the ending of THE SISTER’S CURSE, I felt like I was able to bring Anna full circle in a natural way, to answer all of her questions about her past.
Do you have a support system (I mean, besides the cats)? Do you have a writing group, or people who routinely read first drafts of your work? Or do you generally just work on your own until a book is done?
