In this interview, Mariah discusses breaking writing rules in her debut short story collection, Extinction Capital of the World, her advice for other writers, and more.

Name: Mariah Rigg
Literary agent: Amy Bishop-Wycisk, Trellis Literary Management
Book title: Extinction Capital of the World
Publisher: Ecco
Release date: August 5, 2025
Genre/category: Literary Fiction/Short Stories
Elevator pitch: Magnetic, haunting, and tender, Extinction Capital of the World is a stunning portrait of Hawaiʻi—and a powerful meditation on family, queer love, and community amid imperialism and environmental collapse.

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What prompted you to write this book?

Growing up, I didn’t see a lot of positive depictions—or really, a lot of depictions at all—of Hawaiʻi in popular media. The depictions of the Hawaiian Islands I did see often reinforced settler colonial structures of sugar and pineapple plantations, extractive tourism, and the American military industrial complex’s occupation of the islands. As a child, I didn’t understand the extent of the harm perpetuated by these stereotyped depictions of my home. It wasn’t until my teens that I began to recognize my own role as a settler of Hawaiʻi, and to interrogate how the stories of the Islands I saw in popular media were used to occupy both the narrative surrounding Hawaiʻi, and the literal islands themselves.

Some of the stories in Extinction Capital of the World are written from my anger toward the people who have and continue to bastardize and colonize the Hawaiian Islands. But most of the stories are written from a place of deep love. I feel like I’m always repeating this wisdom, but I had a mentor once tell me: You write to the places you’re not. For the past five years, I’ve been writing love letters to Hawaiʻi. I’m not sure I’ll ever stop.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I wrote the earliest story—“After Ivan,” a queer love story between an American and Soviet Olympic kayaker, set just before the 1989 fall of Berlin—in February of 2020. I was halfway through my first year in the MFA program at the University of Oregon and had no idea how to write a short story, let alone a collection. I thought maybe I could sell “After Ivan” by stretching it into a novel, but as I continued to write stories, I found a momentum building.

I never set out to write a linked collection. But as I revised stories for my MFA thesis, I realized that what I’d thought had been separate lives was really a universe. Much like my own childhood on Oʻahu, the characters in my Extinction Capital of the World are hopelessly intertwined—through blood, marriage, work, friendship, the ʻāina, and over and over again, through love and loss. Only a third of the stories I’ve written between 2020 and now are in the final book. I think I queried at least three different times, with different arrangements of stories and different titles, before signing with Amy Bishop-Wycisk in 2023.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

So, so, so many! Writing a book and publishing a book feels like it requires two completely different parts of the brain—one’s creative and world-building, the other is a lot of admin. I’ve been lucky that my agent Amy Bishop-Wycisk, my editor Rachel Sargent, my publicist Nina Leopold, and my teams at Trellis and Ecco have been so patient and kind.

One of the most surprising and affirming things in this publication process is the number of truly amazing people I’ve gotten to meet. It’s so easy to fall into stress and anxiety when you’re working to get your book on shelves—will I get enough blurbs? Is my book in the hands of the “right” people? After the years of work I put into this book, is anyone even going to read or like it?

This past January, I was driving through Kentucky when my partner and I stopped into a record store to browse. If you’re ever in Louisville, you have to stop by Surface Noise. Part record store, part bookstore, part gallery, the place has rotating art exhibits, monthly readings, and shows. My partner is an extrovert, and he and the owner immediately hit it off. We found out that the owner is a poet—Brett Eugene Ralph, whose book Black Sabbatical, published by Sarabande, is an absolute banger—and that he’d studied at UMass Amherst with David Berman. Brett Eugene was thoughtful and funny, selling us Gabby Pahinui’s “Rabbit Island Music Festival” for a fraction of its value, and inviting us to do a reading at the store later in the year. I was pretty frantic about my book at the time, but what he said as I left the store helped me to reality check: “You’ve got to remember that we do all this”—he gestured and the records and books and prints in the store around him—“for the access it gives us to other artists. For the community we form.” And you know what? He’s so right.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

This book was at least three other books before it became this one. The biggest change between the first draft and the book that will be on shelves is the addition of “Target Island,” which opens the collection, and the titular story, “Extinction Capital of the World,” which closes the book out. I wrote these two stories the winter before I queried for the last time and honestly wasn’t thinking about how they’d fit into my larger body of work as I drafted them. I just wanted to play with form and voice. When I returned to each of them in the spring of 2023, I began to see how they were connected and knew that they’d have to be in the collection.

As I’ve gotten more comfortable writing short stories, I’ve been more willing to mess with form and point of view and voice. I’m grateful that the first draft of this book wasn’t published, because even though I love the stories that were cut from the collection, a lot of them felt more “traditional,” which contributed to a sense of repetition and even stagnancy in the collection. I wouldn’t say this book is weird, but my hope as a writer (and person) is to keep getting weirder. Breaking “rules” in my writing gives me the courage to do the same in my life.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I hope people will stop telling me about their vacations to Hawaiʻi. Ha. But really, I do hope that this book helps people to reconsider their role as consumers and perpetrators of settler colonialism in Hawaiʻi, the North American continent, and beyond. As Haunani-Kay Trask famously said: “The First world nations must still learn what Pacific Islanders have known for millennia: Upon the survival of the Pacific depends the survival of the world.” Now more than ever is the time to educate ourselves on the infinite ways that our struggles are connected.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Don’t count yourself out before you’ve even begun. There are enough people out there who want to knock you down a peg, and you don’t have to be one of them. Apply for every single thing you can afford (and always ask for fee waivers!), even if it feels out of reach, because you might just get it. Write the story everyone tells you won’t work, because if you’re interested in it, odds are there are thousands of other people who will be interested in it, too. Rejection hurts, and I’m not sure it ever gets better, but “no” is a lot better than wishing you’d done more, that you’d had the courage to believe in yourself.

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In this interview, Stuart discusses the grief at the center of her new literary novel, Ghost Fish, her advice for other writers, and more.

Name: Stuart Pennebaker
Literary agent: Christopher Combemale
Book title: Ghost Fish
Publisher: Little, Brown
Release date: August 5, 2025
Genre/category: Literary fiction
Elevator pitch: A young woman who’s recently moved to NYC finds herself haunted by her sister, who’s taken the form of a fish.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I never quite know how to answer this question. A lifetime of being utterly obsessed with books? A draft of a completely different novel that wasn’t quite working? A move to New York? A desire to write about loneliness that felt impossible to shake? Many boring (and not-boring) shifts at many different restaurants? A line from As I Lay Dying? A crush on a bartender that took me by surprise? Is that OK to say?

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

The novel was originally focused on the restaurant and Alison’s experience working there, but that changed when I realized why she had moved to the city in the first place, how desperately Alison needed to reckon with the grief of losing her family. I had the idea and finished the first draft relatively quickly, in the spring and summer of 2021, but had no idea how challenging I’d find the revision process. I am not a writer who outlines anything, so my first drafts are always very messy and in need of an immense amount of work. The cast of characters and central idea didn’t change so much but we’ve tried out many different sequences of events—beginnings are hard!—and I think the story now reflects more truly what I wanted to get across with Alison’s tendency to move inward and the people who are able to pull her into the realm of the living.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

I learned that there is a difference between the story one scribbles in notebooks and on computer screens and the product of a book. Writing the first draft of this story was a surreal, heady, singular experience; the book took lots of revising and many very, very smart people to make. I’m so grateful for all the perfect angels that work in publishing: from my agent to my editor to the publicity and marketing team at Little, Brown, and Grace Han, the artist who designed the extraordinary cover. Ghost Fish is a group project; I was and continue to be delighted by how many amazing people were willing to be on its team.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I never in a million years could have guessed that my first book would be a ghost story. The sister-as-ghost-fish appeared out of what felt like nowhere, as ghosts tend to do.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I do think this story is a summer book. It’s slim, water-resistant, somewhat oceanic, and I hope it’s one people are able to consume in as few sittings as possible, ideally adjacent to a body of water. I recently devoured Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley in such a way that I was completely immersed and the world almost looked like a different color once I came up for air—I’d be ecstatic if I could create that feeling for another person.

My secret hope is that it makes anyone who feels alone less so, or at least less lonely in their aloneness.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Oh, I don’t know, I still sort of feel like I’m starting from scratch every time I sit down to write! I guess I wish someone had implored me not to overthink every little thing. You can’t make anything out of a draft that doesn’t exist. But now that I’m thinking about it, I’m sure someone did tell me this and I ignored it for the circus of neuroses inside of my head. Try to make a smart and generous writer friend or two, if you can. That certainly helps.

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In this interview, Ed discusses the culmination of 25 years of writing short stories into his new collection, An Oral History of Atlantis, his hope for readers, and more.

Name: Ed Park
Literary agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit
Book title: An Oral History of Atlantis
Publisher: Random House
Release date: July 29, 2025
Genre/category: Literary fiction; short stories
Previous titles: Personal Days, Same Bed Different Dreams
Elevator pitch: Gilt-edged stories that slice clean through the mundanity of modern life. Characters bemoan their fleeting youth, focus on their breathing, meet cute, break up, write book reviews, translate ancient glyphs, bid on stuff online, whale watch, and try to find solace in the sublime.

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What prompted you to write this book?

These short stories were written across 25 years—my entire writing career. They came to me before, during, and in between my novels. It was incredibly freeing to play hooky from a longer project. I wanted these to be entertaining, crisp, perfect.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

Several of these stories were written in one go—a concept or a title was all I needed. Others took longer. I’d write like the wind for 10 pages, hit a roadblock, then put it in the metaphorical drawer, until I’d happen upon it again and remember what I found enchanting about it in the first place. Then I’d finish. Then, hopefully, I’d publish.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

These aren’t all the stories I wrote in that 25-year span; I left out some worthy stories that didn’t quite the collection’s vibe. I wanted An Oral History of Atlantis to have variety but also an interior logic. As I shuffled and edited my selections, I saw connections between them that I’d not been unconscious of while writing each individual story. Though not exactly a novel-in-stories, the sum feels satisfyingly greater than the parts.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Probably the two best known stories here (“Slide to Unlock” and “The Wife on Ambien”) were each written in an hour or so.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

The pleasure of an unimpeachable sentence. The shock or joy of encountering a single character across multiple stories. Laughter.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Write the kind of fiction you like to read.

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In this interview, Kate discusses how letting her characters guide her kept the writing process surprising for her new literary thriller, Until Alison, her advice for other writers, and more.

Name: Kate Russo
Literary agent: Nicole Aragi
Book title: Until Alison
Publisher: Putnam
Release date: July 15, 2025
Genre/category: Literary Thriller
Previous titles: Super Host
Elevator pitch: One the night Alison was murdered, Rachel could have stopped it. Until Alison is a novel about two young women growing up in Central Maine—one who lives and one who dies—and fraught relationship they shared.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I’ve been trying to write this novel since my 20s! (I’m in my 40s now!) It started as a short story, at one point it was a screenplay, then a short story again! Now, finally, it’s right as a novel. Experience is often my best motivator for writing. When I was in college, a classmate of mine was murdered. At the time I was the News Editor of my college paper. The novel draws on my experience (mostly lack thereof) of covering such catastrophic news. The protagonists, Rachel and Alison, both grew up in Central Maine like I did.  It felt crucial to tell the story of small-town Maine girls. There aren’t many out there.    

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

A long time. A version of this novel germinated in my early 20s. As I said, it took a lot of (incorrect) forms. I started writing the story as a novel toward the end of 2019. Even once I landed on the novel as the correct format, it still went through so many changes. I remember the first draft was in third-person, present tense. The published novel is first-person, past tense. My editors, Sally Kim and Tarini Sipahimalani, helped me envision the story as more of thriller. Earlier drafts were closer to general fiction. 

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

It’s always a good thing when your editor takes you just slightly out of your comfort zone. My first novel, Super Host, was literary fiction with a lot of humor. This is what I would consider my comfort zone. With Until Alison, my editors challenged me to lean into the feelings of uncertainty and guilt that are at the heart of the novel and make it more suspenseful. I was surprised to find this process fun! I was worried I didn’t know enough about police procedure and crime scenes to write a thriller, but it turns out, when writing from the perspective of a college journalist, it’s better to not know!

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Of course! The surprises are the best part. I always do my best to let my characters guide me. In this way, they always surprise me.  When I started the book, I identified most with Rachel, but the more drafts I went through, I felt closer and closer to Alison. Both young women surprised me with their cattiness and love for each other. If my writing isn’t surprising me, I know it’s nowhere close to where I want it to be. It’s done when I realize, Wow, this story feels bigger than me now.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

First and foremost, entertainment! That’s the joy of reading! Beyond that, I hope readers will connect with their younger selves. I think it’s a universal feeling to be haunted by one’s own past. I certainly am. Until Alison was a way to reframe the pain of adolescence. And second chances are the best! We should all give and receive more of them. If you have the chance to right a wrong, it’s a gift.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Entertain yourself. If you’re not enjoying what you’re writing, readers won’t either. If your writing is meant to be funny, then make yourself laugh. If it’s meant to be dramatic, let yourself be gripped. It’s not egotistical, it’s necessary. Writing is allowed to be enjoyable.

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Enough ink has been spilled explaining why the British Empire was an oppressive, tyrannical regime that I will not repeat all the evidence here. Though history is vast, complex, and sprawling, in this case it can be boiled down to a fairly simple representative statistic: that when the British arrived in 1600s, India produced over 20% of the world’s economic output; by the time the British departed India in 1947, it had dropped to 3%.[4] The UK experienced a nearly exact opposite trajectory in growth. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine what happened, and yet British academics and politicians appear to disagree:

• Andrew Roberts, Professor at King’s College London, 2021: “I don’t agree with the automatic assumption that the British Empire was evil. . . . In fact, I think it was very helpful for the development of the native peoples of the Empire.”
• Michael Gove, soon to be UK Education Secretary, 2009: “There is no better way of building a modern, inclusive, patriotism than by teaching all British citizens to take pride in this country’s historic achievements. Which is why the next Conservative Government will ensure the curriculum teaches the proper narrative of British History – so that every Briton can take pride in this nation.”
• Niall Ferguson, Senior Fellow at Harvard University, 2004: “Without the British empire, there would be no Calcutta, no Bombay, no Madras. Indians may rename them as many times as they like, but they remain cities founded and built by the British.”
• UK Foreign Minister Mark Fields on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, 2019: “I feel a little reluctant to make apologies for things that have happened in the past. There are also concerns that any government department has to make about any apology, given that there may well be financial implications to making an apology. I feel we debase the currency of apologies if we are seen to make them for many, many events.”

It doesn’t matter how much one rebuts every detail: India had strong industrial sectors before the British arrival,[5] India had its own education system before “Western” education,[6] Indian taxpayers funded the railroads while British shareholders received guaranteed dividends covering any investment and a hefty bonus.[7] Nearly a third of the British populace still thinks the empire was a good thing to be proud of, while half thinks it did no harm to colonized countries,[8] and many Americans think the worst of British colonialism was taxation of the thirteen colonies. Historical revisionism presents an easy, engaging narrative: Britain saved India, Britain deserves its bounty, Britain has no reason to make amends. The problem is not the facts. It is the story. And stories are best fought by stories.

Ten Incarnations of Rebellion flips this script, using alternate history to showcase the horrors of colonialism in a world parallel to ours. If history has been bogged down by a mainstream whitewashing of colonialism, alternate history cuts through those narratives by tweaking key details, showing the moral rot at the empire’s core. The story was inspired by a simple what-if. After their failures on the Indian subcontinent, the British Empire innovated new methods of oppression. They used these “improved” tactics to fight anti-colonial movements in their other colonies around the globe, from cutting off entire cities to imposing long-term curfews to placing dissenters in punitive prison camps. So, what if the British had used those tactics to prevent Indian independence?

Check out Vaishnavi Patel’s Ten Incarnations of Rebellion here:

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The book’s timeline branches from real history in the 1910s, with increased violent crackdowns on political parties, freedom of speech, and protest movements. By the 1930s in this world, the major figureheads of independence and their followers have been killed. Over the coming decades, this alternate history India is subjected to militarized rule, constant surveillance, language erasure, and cultural suppression. The main events of the novel take place in a fundamentally altered version of the 1960s, in a city robbed of its young men, where a group of young women take up the torch of rebellion. This is not alternate history done in the apologist way—that is, without tether to reality. While the events of the book are fictional, inventing subjugation does a disservice to the billions who have suffered under colonialism. In Ten Incarnations of Rebellion, every act of brutality, every tactic of oppression, every traitor and martyr, is inspired by real-life events that took place either in India or elsewhere.

The same is true not just of the sins of Empire, but of the struggle for freedom. India’s freedom movement is credited with being a nonviolent, inclusive movement. But there were also many freedom fighters who undertook violent operations, and their successes in terrorizing the British helped pave the way for the nonviolent movement’s victories. And while Indians of all creeds took part in the struggle, there were great rifts and injustices within the movement, on religious, caste, and geographic lines. In the West, where this history is often sanitized to the point that one must struggle just to show that colonialism is bad at all, it is nearly impossible to examine these nuances. How can you discuss fair criticisms of freedom fighters when the need for the fight itself is being attacked? By moving into an alternate history space, the protagonists of this story can face the same questions as their real-life predecessors—How do they reconcile the caste and religious divides within their people? Can they work with the British to improve their condition? When is violence justified?—without delegitimizing the struggle for freedom.

From India to Ireland and everywhere in between, the British left a trail of genocide, famine, engineered sectarian violence, cultural repression, and theft. And through programs like Operation Legacy, they have put records of their crimes into literal bonfires, hiding the truth from the light of day. It is this erasure that allowed them to build a new narrative for themselves. But this erasure also provides an opportunity: rewriting history to highlight and honor freedom movements. The fights of freedom movements and the legacies of colonialism are not confined to history. Even today, millions live under physical and economic colonialism—as but one example, the United States has “territories” that pay taxes but are unable to meaningfully participate in the election of the government taxing them. And billions continue to be affected by the laws and actions of their former colonial masters, suffering from centuries of deindustrialization, looting, divide-and-rule, and more.

There is no easy answer to healing the ills of colonialism. But until those of us living in the west can grapple with the true cost of our wealth and status, we will be the ones living in an alternate history.

Click to continue.

[1] Tombs, Robert. “In Defense of the British Empire,” The Spectator, May 8, 2020. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/In-defence-of-the-British-Empire/

[2] Jordanna Bailkin. “The Boot and the Spleen: When Was Murder Possible in British India?” Comparative Studies in Society and History 48.2 (2006): 463-494.

[3] Elkins, Caroline. Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya. New York: Henry Holt, 2005: 39, 359.

[4] See Tharoor, Shashi. Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India. London: Hurst, 2017; Broadberry, Stephen, Johann Custodis, and Bishnupriya Gupta, “India and the great divergence: An Anglo-Indian comparison of GDP per capita, 1600–1871,” Explorations in Economic History 55 (2015): 58-75.

[5] Clingingsmith, David, and Jeffrey G. Williamson, “Deindustrialization in 18th and 19th century India: Mughal decline, climate shocks and British industrial ascent,” Explorations in Economic History 45, no. 3(2008): 209-234.

[6] Dharampal (2000). “Introduction,” The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century. Goa, India: Other India Press. The availability of such pre-colonial education was extremely divided along lines of caste and class, but the British were not particularly active in fixing these—or indeed, any—forms of discrimination.

[7] Bogart, Dan, and Latika Chaudhary.  “Regulation, Ownership, and Costs: A Historical Perspective from Indian Railways,” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4, no. 1 (2012): 28–57.

[8] Matthew Smith, “British Attitudes to the British Empire,” YouGov Jan. 29, 2025. https://yougov.co.uk/society/articles/51483-british-attitudes-to-the-british-empire.

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In this interview, Danit discusses the 16-year journey from idea to publication of her new novel, Television for Women, on the differences and similarities in short story writing versus novel writing, and more.

Name: Danit Brown
Literary agent: Sorche Fairbank
Book title: Television for Women
Publisher: Melville House Publishing
Release date: June 24, 2025
Genre/category: Fiction
Previous titles: Ask for a Convertible
Elevator pitch: Television for Women is about one woman’s search for the person she used to be as she navigates the aftermath of childbirth and the way it unravels relationships, expectations, and even her sense of self.

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What prompted you to write this book?

Television for Women began with curiosity. Early in my teaching career, a colleague was dismissed for faking his Ph.D. While everyone else focused on the scandal, I couldn’t stop wondering about my colleague’s wife, who had recently given birth to their first child. They’d met around the time he’d received tenure, so how much did she know?  How did his lies affect her? Did she feel betrayed, or trapped, or both?

At the same time, I was new to both marriage and motherhood, which didn’t come naturally to me, and discovering that the transition was much messier than depicted in shows like “A Baby Story.” Why hadn’t anyone warned me about this? I wondered. Does everyone else know something I don’t?

Television for Women was my way of exploring what happens when the stories we tell ourselves about our life—stories like, “Of course I want a baby” and “I’m happily married” —fall apart. It’s about love, identity, and the lies we tell others and ourselves along the way.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

This is my first novel, and when I started writing it back in 2008, I suspected I was a short-story writer at heart and would never be able to write anything as long as a novel. The solution, I thought, was to game the system—even if I couldn’t write an actual novel, I could write something that could pass for a novel. I had, in fact, tried doing this with my first book, a collection of linked short stories, although I’d ultimately fooled no one. This time, I told myself, I would fake a novel by splitting my main character, Estie, into two. One character would be married to a professor who loses his job and befriends the old lady across the street, and the other character would be pregnant and ambivalent about motherhood and have a grandmother with Alzheimer’s. Fast-forward several years: My agent at the time didn’t like the project and decided to part ways with me. After a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth, I realized I had nothing to lose by just writing the novel as I’d originally envisioned it without worrying about filler. I went back to having just one main character, lost the old lady and the grandmother, and suddenly everything made a lot more sense. By then, 10 years had passed. It would take another four years of revisions before the novel found a home, and another two years after that to get it ready for publication.  All in all, then, this novel took a whopping 16 years from idea to publication.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

After a couple of years of on-and-off querying, I had more or less given up on finding a home for Television for Women. I had spent 14 years on this project, I told myself, and I had nothing to show for it. In a last-ditch effort, I signed up for an agent meeting through Grubstreet’s Muse and the Marketplace conference, which is how I met Sorche Fairbank, who would eventually become my agent. Soon after—before Sorche even had a chance to review my work, in fact—I received an email from Michelle Capone. Michelle had read the manuscript when she interned for another literary agent I’d queried, but now she was working as an editor at Melville House Publishing, and was the novel still available? I had heard other writers say that you never know how or when something will shake loose in terms of publication, and my experience with this novel seems to bear this out.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I was surprised to discover that time away from the novel was often as important as the time I spent with it. At times, I’d read a draft and conclude that I was a literary genius only to return to it a couple of weeks later and realize how much more work needed to be done. The opposite was also true, and infinitely more important: I would walk away from a draft in despair, and then weeks or even months later, I’d finally realize what needed to happen next. That thing inside you that compels you to write is always churning, even when you’re far away from your desk.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

This novel was my way of exploring what happens when the stories we tell ourselves about our life—stories like “Of course I want a baby” and “I’m happily married” —fall apart. I hope that Estie’s experiences will resonate with readers and, if they’re struggling with the transition to motherhood, help them feel a little less alone.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

You’ve probably already heard this, but I’m sharing it here because, if I’d only followed this advice, I would have avoided years and years of frustration: Trust your instincts and write the book you want to write. There will be plenty of time to worry about publication and finding readers later.

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In this interview, Erica discusses how working at The New York Times partially inspired her debut novel, Work Nights, her hope for readers, and more.

Name Erica Peplin
Literary agent: Alison Lewis, Frances Goldin Literary Agency
Book title: Work Nights
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release date: June 17, 2025
Genre/category: Literary fiction
Elevator pitch: A queer, love-starved office worker named Jane falls for a hot, probably straight intern named Madeline and makes a series of poor choices that derail her life in New York City.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I was a low-level employee at The New York Times in 2015 and I found myself surrounded by funny and flawed people that I wanted to write about. My personal life was simultaneously imploding (lots of romantic rejection and heartbreak) and although I didn’t start writing Work Nights until after I’d quit my job at the Times, I was still able to use some of my real-life experiences as inspiration for Jane, who struggles to “find herself” while balancing the sterile world of her corporate office with boozy nights in Brooklyn.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

Getting Work Nights from idea to publication took eight years. And yes! The book changed a lot. Initially, I wanted to imitate Jenny Offill’s brilliant Dept. of Speculation and write a slim book comprised of short observations about office life. I quickly realized that my favorite novels are all love stories and that’s when I knew my protagonist had to be obsessed with a girl at her job. And when one love interest didn’t feel like enough, I added a temperamental musician to the mix just to create a love triangle that was extra good and juicy.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

I’m still surprised this book is being published at all. It took years of revising to turn Work Nights into the book it is today, and even after my agent pitched it to publishers, there was a long period when we both thought it had been turned down. Hearing back from Gallery after I’d given up all hope for the book still feels like a dream. The other big surprise was seeing the cover. I’d sent visual inspirations to my editor, but I had no idea the cover would be so perfect. It makes me happy every time I see it.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I surprised myself constantly while writing Work Nights. Mostly, I was shocked that Jane’s decisions were so self-destructive. Slacking on the job. Lying to her friends. Ghosting dates from the internet. Jane is a mess, and I love her for it.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I hope this book makes people laugh. I also hope it provokes different opinions about Jane and her behavior, and which girl she should end up with in the end.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Persevere! I think half of becoming a successful writer is just not quitting. It doesn’t matter if you’re rejected a bunch of times or if you hate your own work sometimes. Just keep doing it and something will happen.

The post Erica Peplin: On Writing Messy, Lovable Characters appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Jennifer discusses the benefits of working with an independent publisher for her new literary novel, Just Emilia, her hope for readers, and more.

Name: Jennifer Oko
Book title: Just Emilia
Publisher: Regal House
Release date: June 10, 2025
Genre/category: Literary Fiction / Upmarket Fiction
Previous titles: Lying Together (published under maiden name, Jennifer Beth Cohen); Gloss; Head Case
Elevator pitch: Just Emilia is a time-traveling dark comedy about three women—a depressive teenager, a struggling middle-aged writer, and a lonely elderly woman—stuck inside a Washington, DC Metro elevator. As hunger, panic, and exhaustion set in, they come to realize that they are the very same person, each struggling with an unresolved trauma that continues to impact them at different stages of their shared life. Darkly funny and deeply moving, Just Emilia is a gripping tale of identity, regret, and self-discovery.

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What prompted you to write this book?

The idea initially came to me when I was briefly stuck inside a Washington, DC Metro elevator with a couple of strangers. I doubt it lasted for more than a minute, but that was enough time for me to wonder about who those people were and, should the doors fail to open, how we might be able to help each other get out. The doors did open, of course, but the idea tickled me, and I wrote the first sentence of what would become Just Emilia as soon as I got home.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

As I started to get deeper into the idea, it occurred to me that—for me anyway—the most difficult person to be stuck in a situation like that would probably be myself. So, the first sentence I wrote all those years ago is probably the only sentence that hasn’t changed.

The writing of the novel took place over many years, in fits and starts. That fateful elevator ride was almost a decade ago. It took a pandemic lockdown for me to finish the full first draft of the story. It took a few more years after that—and a small army of generous friends and early readers—to get it to the place it is now.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

My books have been published by a university press, a big commercial press, and self-published. This is my first experience working with an independent publisher. One of the best things about Regal House is how they value and promote community. They connect the seasonal frontlist cohorts together very early on. It’s made the experience so much richer. Our Summer 2025 cohort meets up regularly and we have a steady stream of emails going all the time. The group consists of writers of a mishmash of ages and experience—some have published numerous times and won awards, some have never had a book in the world before—and all of the novels are wonderful, each and every one (seriously! check them out!). The wisdom and support these other writers have given me has been tremendous.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

There were some surprises about where my mind took me, but it would require a spoiler alert to say much about that. Suffice it to say, there were plenty of days when I would finish writing and think to myself, “Where the hell did that idea come from?”

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

One early reviewer wrote that reading Just Emilia was a “thrill and a treat,” and I can’t really ask for more than that. (Well, someone else said “this is honestly one of the best books I have ever read.” That was nice to hear, too!). But more seriously, I hope reading Just Emilia opens up some conversations about the expectations and pressures we put on ourselves. If you could talk to your younger and older selves, what would you want to discuss?

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Writing is mostly a solitary activity, but it is so much better when you have a strong community of writers together on the journey.

The post Jennifer Oko: On the Community Focus of Indie Publishers appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Allison discusses how the delineation of genre informed her editing process with her new novel, The Phoenix Pencil Company, her hope for readers, and more.

Name: Allison King
Literary agent: Seth Fishman (The Gernert Company)
Book title: The Phoenix Pencil Company
Publisher: William Morrow / HarperCollins
Release date: June 3, 2025
Genre/category: Literary/Speculative
Elevator pitch: A young software engineer unearths a family secret involving long-forgotten magic and her grandmother’s experience running a Shanghai pencil company during WWII.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I had read Helen Zia’s incredible Last Boat out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution which got me thinking about my own family history and how little I knew about it. I knew my grandparents had run a pencil company that started in Shanghai then branched out to Taiwan, but not much other than that, and definitely not the historical context. I loved the idea of pencils too, as both a form of magic and an awesome piece of technology. So, The Phoenix Pencil Company really came from a desire to learn more about that period of history, and also because pencils are really cool.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I started writing in August 2020, and the book comes out June 2025, so just under five years. In the very beginning, it was a purely historical novel—there was only the one timeline, that of the grandmother growing up during WWII. I pretty quickly added the other timeline though, that of her granddaughter, a modern-day software engineer. Part of it was because the historical parts were really difficult for me to write. I wanted to do it, but also wanted to counterbalance it with something closer to my own experience. So, Monica, the granddaughter, is a lot like me—she’s an awkward software engineer with a very close relationship with her grandparents, and her narrative was also the perfect way to bring the speculative element to parallel the real world—while the grandmother has the ability to revive what a pencil once wrote, the granddaughter, as a software engineer, has all the capabilities of modern day data surveillance at her disposal.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

In retrospect this has become obvious to me, but I really started the process thinking of this book as a fantasy book. It wasn’t until I started querying agents that I started hearing that it was more of a literary book with speculative elements. That delineation between genres was definitely a learning moment for me, and did affect how I edited the book once it was acquired. I did more hand-waving instead of describing exactly how the magic system worked, and really beefed up the historical details. I still don’t think the book neatly fits into one genre category, but marketable genres had never been something I thought much about, but can see more clearly now.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I consider myself as having a pretty good memory, but I realized that’s not nearly enough if you’re trying to write something historical. I knew when big things had to happen, like when Japan would occupy the International Settlement of Shanghai, that was going to be a huge shift for my characters, and of course when WWII ended, and then the Chinese Civil War would restart. But that’s not enough to get across the feeling of a time period, and for that I had to really dedicate time to research and especially to note-taking, which is something I sometimes shirk because I think I have a good memory. Turns out I really don’t, and sometimes there’s nothing better than having a pen and paper next to you while you read! I did a whole edit pass where all I did was fill in more historical details, and I could not have done that without good notes.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I hope readers might consider stories and privacy more. A lot of the book is about the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter, where neither wants to share all of themselves with the other, for their own reasons. And I think that should be okay! I also think the desire to share stories is great as well, but things start to go awry when data hungry software is getting those stories too.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

If you live near a bookstore, go to their author events! I’m lucky to live near Harvard Bookstore which has author events almost every day. It’s an amazing and often free way to hear experts talk craft, to get a sense of literary trends in general, and to support your local bookstore.

The post Allison King: On Writing Between Genres appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(How I Write Compelling Characters in Spy Thrillers.)

Can two people love each other and still betray each other?  InThe Poet’s Game, Alex Matthews and his wife, Anna Kuschenko, are trained to use lies and deceit in the course of their intelligence work, and they ultimately contend with a dark secret that will forever keep them from being entirely truthful with each other. How does a couple that uses deception in the normal course of their professional duties, approach intimacy in marriage?  

The Secrets in Three Fictional Marriages

The marriages portrayed in The Odyssey, Rebecca, and Berlin Game artfully depict the tension between love and deception, and I studied the texts to see how the authors succeeded.

Odysseus’s wife Penelope, often described by the epithet, long-suffering, is surrounded by suitors seeking her hand in marriage during her husband’s 20-year absence. He is gone and presumed dead. Penelope defends against the suitors’ entreaties, but it becomes increasingly difficult for her to remain steadfastly faithful. When Odysseus returns, he appears in disguise as a beggar, recognized only by his household’s elderly swineherd. He hides his identity from Penelope. Is he suspicious that she betrayed him and he doesn’t want to reveal himself while he investigates? His deception is one of the epic’s curiosities, but Odysseus’s withholding makes their ultimate reunion more satisfying and Odysseus’s deceit adds dimension to his character.

Odysseus’s behavior is a good example of what John Le Carré said of complex characters: “The more identities a man has, the more they express the person they conceal.”

Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier’s 1938 romantic thriller, uses suspense and deceit in a marriage differently. The unnamed first-person narrator, a naïve young woman in her 20s who is a companion to an older woman in Monte Carlo, happens to meet a vacationing wealthy Englishman, Maxim de Winter, a 42-year-old widower. They fall in love, marry, and he brings his new wife back to his estate in Cornwall – Manderley. Maxim’s household servants, and particularly his spinster housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, take an immediate dislike to the young wife—comparing her disparagingly to the first Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, who died a year earlier in a sailing accident. 

At Mrs. Danvers’s suggestion, the new wife dresses in Rebecca’s clothes to please her husband, who mourns the dead Rebecca. But rather than please Maxim, he is angered. The new wife suspects something is not right in their marriage, but she is helpless to discover what is wrong. Only a freak storm one night that sinks a ship off the coast results in the discovery of the missing sunken sailboat, and Rebecca’s body. The discovery causes Maxim to confess to his new wife that his marriage to Rebecca was a sham. Rebecca was cruel and selfish, took many lovers, and on the night that he murdered her, Rebecca confessed she was with child from a beau.

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Layers of deceit are drawn back in the final scenes and all that was hidden from the narrator about Rebecca’s death comes to light, drawing Maxim and the narrator closer together. Jeopardy of the shared secret deepen their bond.

Len Deighton’s 1983 novel, Berlin Game, features the loving couple of Bernard Samson, a middle-aged British intelligence officer working for MI6, and his wife, Fiona, also an MI6 intelligence officer. They have two children, live a respectable middle-class London life that is filled with the demands of parenting, family and friend obligations, and office scandals of adulterous colleagues. Samson is charged with exfiltrating an important East German asset and in the process confronts uncomfortable evidence that there may be a KGB traitor among his MI6 colleagues. Samson’s suspicions of treachery are confirmed when he is arrested in East Germany as he helps his asset escape, and is confronted by his wife, Fiona, dressed in a KGB uniform. She joined the enemy as a young college student drawn to communist ideology.

The villain in Berlin Game is the wife. But, in spite of Fiona’s treachery, her relationship to Samson has all the appearances of an affectionate marriage with young children, an active social life, and the little intimacies of a hard-working couple. 

How the Secrets in Fictional Marriages Move Stories

In each of these marriages, one character’s lies and deceptions deepens the complexity of the relationship, and provide the surprises that make for a compelling story. One partner hides an important detail of their life, and the revelation of that detail operates to bring the couple closer together, or thrust them irreversibly apart. The reveal provides an insight into what a character wants from the spouse—Odysseus wants to test Penelope’s fidelity, Maxim wants to protect his new marriage, Fiona wants to hide her treason. Deception and a surprise reversal in the relationships propels the plots of these stories.

Exposition is helpful to establish scenes and context, but dialogue provides the beating heart of the relationship and deployed effectively reveals the dynamic between husband and wife. Dialogue is used to imply, suggest, and hide and always for the purpose of adding to the unstable relationship between spouses. When characters come in contact with each other, sparks fly and the reader is riveted by the uncomfortable arguments and unexpected intimacies. The appearance of trust masks the inconsistencies and lies that point to betrayal. The best scenes are laden with uncertainty.

A character’s hidden motives make use of complex maneuvers to maintain the dark secret, all the while under cover of a gauzy film of intimacy and love. The layering of intimacy and artifice creates three-dimensional characters who come alive on the page. 

Check out Paul Vidich’s The Poet’s Game here:

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