![]() ![]() ![]() NP: I’ve learned everything about the craft of writing from my work as an editor and ghostwriter. What have you learned from your day job at Simon & Schuster in Canada that helped you write your novel? I love Lisa Jewell for her spellbinding domestic suspense, Fredrik Backman for his wild pairings of characters, Gail Honeyman for creating a lovable prickly cactus of a protagonist in Eleanor Oliphant, and Ashley Audrain for her deep questioning of the meaning of motherhood in The Push. NP: The list is so very long, but I do love authors who are able to move my heart and engage my mind at the same time. TW: Which authors have inspired you the most? Of course, there’s also another kind of satisfaction that comes from not being able to guess-from being surprised by and satisfied with the author’s ingenuity. It’s the reader’s job to figure out “whodunnit,” and if they can do so before the end of the book, a particular satisfaction is gleaned. ![]() NP: Reader participation! The beautiful thing about the genre is that readers are immediately cast as the lead detective. TW: What is it that attracts you to classic murder mysteries? I didn't know it at the time, but I'd just begun my debut novel. I grabbed a pen and a napkin, and wrote the prologue in a single burst. But what did I know about her? On the plane home a few days later, my protagonist Molly’s voice came to me. By cleaning my room every day, she knew so much about me. It occurred to me then what an intimate and invisible job it is to be a room maid. She gasped and jumped into a shadowy corner, my jogging pants half-folded in her hands. NP: I was on a business trip to the UK in 2019 when I entered my hotel room and startled the maid who was cleaning it. How did you come up with the plot and the character of Molly? TW: Congratulations on the publication of The Maid. ![]()
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