FAQ’s:
(starting with the lighter stuff)
What did you read growing up?
Anything with a riveting mystery, or elements of the supernatural, or a far-flung adventure, or, better yet, all three! (Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, Goosebumps, etc.) In fact, spooky middle grade was what I set out to write before gritty young adult contemporary lured me into its clutches. That said, I plan to one day revisit writing in that middle-grade age range because I loved—and still love—the spirit and adventure of those books so much!
What do you do when you are not writing?
I love riding my scooter bike anywhere and everywhere—to the beach, farmer’s markets, or just running errands in town! Beachcombing for sea treasures is another personal favorite where I search for well-tumbled marbles and beach glass, or interesting rocks and shells. I’ve also recently gotten into archery—a recurve bow—so practicing the intricacies of form and technique makes me feel like Katniss Everdeen! And decorating cupcakes delights me, which is hilarious because I usually can’t eat them due to food allergies, but I love decorating them to theme for friends’ birthdays. Outdoor concerts, yin yoga, long strolls through beautiful old cemeteries—sign me up! I also love parties that involve elaborate costumes, and I could decorate for Halloween or Christmas all year long!
If you could spend time in one magical writing location, where would you choose?
I’ve always wanted to do a writing retreat on Star Island, which is a part of the Isle of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine. There is this amazing, giant, old hotel there with large porches overlooking the sea. It seems like an ideal place to nurture creativity and maybe even generate some pretty solid atmosphere for a novel. Who’s with me??
If you could have one fictional sidekick for an epic adventure, who would you choose?
Sparky the bat, of course! She’s the loyal sidekick to Erica Strange, the female superhero from the graphic novel pages in AFTER THE INK DRIES. My protagonist, Erica Walker, draws Erica Strange as her alter-ego, in an attempt to find the strength she’ll need to survive her trauma. Sparky the bat is fiercely protective of Erica Strange while also being adorable. Emma Vieceli, the genius artist behind these incredible illustrations, captured Sparky and Erica Strange perfectly and exactly as I’d envisioned them both. I’m forever grateful to Emma!
What inspired you to write AFTER THE INK DRIES?
I came to write this story while studying literature and creative writing in grad school, with an emphasis on trauma. At the time, there was a flood of stories in the media of young, high-school-aged women getting assaulted, then being bullied and harassed by their classmates in the aftermath, often resulting in these young women tragically taking their own lives.
I think you would be hard-pressed to find a woman who hasn't had to deal with sexual harassment or assault to some degree. (And, of course, men and non-binary individuals as well, though they aren't the focus of this particular book.) So I drew on both personal experience as well as events I'd either heard about or witnessed in both high school and my undergrad, then set out to write a story that blurred the boundaries of anything clear cut. For example, we have all been told to report when assault or rape occurs, but what exactly constitutes assault or rape, and what happens if you don't want to report something like that for fear of further persecution or concerns for one's own safety? And who should be held accountable in such events? Obviously, the perpetrators, but where does the line between perpetrator and bystander get drawn? Those questions and more compelled me to discover and write Erica’s and Thomas’s stories.
How long did it take you to write AFTER THE INK DRIES?
All said and done, about 7 years, but definitely not working on it the entire time! I started writing the opening chapters in 2014, but, back then, I was also working my way through two graduate programs simultaneously as well as nannying part-time for two amazing families. It was a busy time, and I didn't get to dedicate tons of time to creative writing. But the book ended up being one of my thesis projects, for Hollins University, so towards the end of my time at grad school, I was able to focus much more exclusively on it. And after completing both programs and moving East, I took a full year to polish it while querying agents. And once I found my agent, I did more edits with her before sending it out to editors. After receiving what's called an R&R, a "revise and resubmit" request, from one editor, I did yet more edits specific to her brilliant notes, and she liked the revisions so much she bought the book! A happy ending to all those years of eeking out whatever writing time I could get (not to mention working through all those edits)!
What’s a fun fact about AFTER THE INK DRIES?
Aside from it having kickass superhero illustrations? ;)
This book had two different titles until we landed on the published one. The title while I was drafting was THE HOLLOW THAT REMAINS, but that ended up feeling too bleak. Then it was FINDING ERICA STRANGE, which I liked but also, you couldn’t really tell what the book was about from the title alone, not even its genre or intended audience. Then after going back and forth with my editor for several weeks, and lists upon lists upon lists of possible titles, my husband at the final hour says, “What about AFTER THE INK DRIES?” and I was like, “Ooh, yeah! LONG AFTER THE INK HAS DRIED!” to which he replied, “No, just AFTER THE INK DRIES.” So, of course, I wrote down both as possibilities on yet another long list of titles, and they picked his out of them all! And I love it. It really does encompass so many aspects of this book—Erica’s passion for comic book animation and the Erica Strange illustrations themselves, but also the words written on Erica’s body, and even Thomas’s love for songwriting. And, of course, by the end of the book, all of those things have been irrevocably altered.
Why did you choose to include Thomas’s point of view in AFTER THE INK DRIES?
I’ve gotten a little bit of pushback for that, to be honest, and I can respect that. But after giving it much thought, I knew why I needed to include Thomas’s point of view. It wasn’t to give voice to a potential perpetrator but rather because I didn’t see many books out there that have a story about assault from the male’s point of view without him being portrayed as a total monster. And I’m not saying that that portrayal is right or wrong. What I am saying is that I don’t believe that any young man who picks up a book like that is going to see himself in that portrayal. He’s going to say, “Wow, that’s awful that happened” (or at least I’d hope he would), but he might also say, “That could never be me. I’d never do something like that.” And I wanted to write a book that involved the added complication that one of the boys involved purported to really like and care about the girl, and yet he participated in something so awful and unforgivable against her. How does this “nice guy” come to reconcile that about himself? How does he own up to it and take responsibility for his actions, if he even does?
The story I was trying to tell is this: How does a young girl live on in a body in which choices have been taken from her, and how does a young man own up to his unforgivable actions, especially ones he didn’t believe himself capable of committing in the first place?
What’s the craziest thing you’ve done in service of your writing?
While writing the first draft of AFTER THE INK DRIES at my summer session in grad school, I actually wrote on my body in Sharpie; it was the same markings—the names and crude drawings—that Erica finds on herself upon waking after the horrible-house-party-gone-wrong. Logistically, I wanted to get it right and consistent in terms of what markings Erica would be able to see from her vantage point, how long the marker would last, what places would start to rub off first, if you could scrub it off in a shower, etc. But what I ended up learning was far more than just that. I learned—to some small degree—what it felt like to be her; the electric shock of remembering when I’d forget for a time what was on my body, then I’d remove an article of clothing and see it all over me like a gut-punch. Or I’d have some letters peak out of my sweatshirt sleeve during class, and it would remind me, so viscerally, what it must’ve felt like to be her. It was heart-wrenching. Utterly heart-wrenching. But it really did cause me to double down on my motivation to write this story and know it needed to be told.
How did it feel to hold that first novel in your hands?
Getting the Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) for AFTER THE INK DRIES and seeing how it had all come together as a book was absolutely thrilling. But, truthfully, what blew me away above and beyond even that was when I got to see the illustrations come to life while working with the artist, Emma Vieceli, to finalize the illustrated storyline in the novel. Emma's a genius comic book illustrator, and her rendition of my protagonist's alter-ego superhero, Erica Strange, and her sidekick bat, was exactly as I envisioned them both. And because the illustrations mirror the emotional trajectory of Erica Walker trying to cope with her traumatic experience, I got choked up seeing them take shape and solidify, especially the moment both Erica and Erica Strange feel like all is lost. It was such a satisfying moment, both for the story and me personally. I even made myself a poster of all sixteen illustrations that I have hanging in my office because they're so brilliant and moving to me.
Both your first and second novels deal with heavy subject matter—sexual assault and molestation. Why tackle such dark topics, and does it ever get to you?
I'm not a dark person, I promise! I’ve just felt compelled to write these heavier books, at least for now, because I want adolescents and even pre-adolescents to know they’re not alone in the very real, very adult things they’re having to face each and every day.
But, yes, writing my first two books was emotionally challenging at times, both because I was learning how to write complete novels for the first time as well as grappling with such difficult subject matter. You really have to put yourself inside the darkness of your characters’ minds in order to go deep and have the book feel like a genuine and lived experience, which means sort of inflicting their trauma on yourself and dwelling in it till you get it right. But through this experience, I’ve learned the magic of stepping away for a breather, both literally and physically, as well as the importance of self-care. This includes long walks, talking through the harder pieces with people in my life that I trust, and keeping both eyes on the goal, which is for these books to find their way to the readers who most need them, who yearn to see themselves reflected in a book and to be told that they can get through the tough stuff, and that, no matter how awful life may seem in the moment, they can make it through to the other side. Because, as my dedication says, “this book is for anyone who's ever been stripped of choice, who's needed to borrow strength to survive.” And if I can give voice to their pain and give them hope, then it will have been worth having to wade through all that darkness myself in order to write them and give them my all.
What project are you working on currently?
Now that all revisions for my second novel, THE SECRETS WE KEEP, are behind me, I’m drafting my third novel: a psychological thriller about a young woman who survives a plane crash and is dealing with impossible grief and shame about her past actions. That’s all I’ll say at this point! I’m also brainstorming a fourth and fifth novel in the same genre (all stand-alone).