Interrogation Room #39: Elisa Ludwig, author of PRETTY SLY

Today marks the release of our very own Elisa Ludwig's PRETTY SLY, the sequel to her heart-pounding debut, PRETTY CROOKED, about teenage thief Willa Fox.

PRETTY SLY, called a "crackling-good adventure" by Kirkus, asks the question, "What would you do if your mom disappeared and forbade you to come after her?"

In between celebrations for her launch, Elisa bravely agreed to an interrogation about her writing process.

1) Something I'm dying to know: How did you research the terrific scene where Tre teaches Willa how to pick-pocket in PRETTY CROOKED?

Heh heh. I used a combination of my own real life experience as a pickpocket victim, some shady websites and some very cool YouTube videos—there's a great BBC series called The Real Hustle, which gave me some interesting ideas for mixing up the thieving scenes. The reality is there's a lot of criminal how-to out there for the reading, but that could be a good thing, if people use it to avoid being victimized.

2) Can readers expect to see some familiar faces in PRETTY SLY (besides Willa and Aidan)? Did you pluck any smaller roles from the first book and give them a larger presence in the second book?

Yes, the principle characters are all there, though the Glitterati only have a bit part, which turns the catty quotient in this sequel way down from the first book! I don't know that anyone has a larger presence but even the main characters in the first book are pretty mysterious and secretive, so the second book deepens our understanding of them—but also raises many new questions ...

3) How much downtime did you have between books? Was it easy or difficult to return to characters from the first book? 

I think I finished PRETTY CROOKED in February and started PRETTY SLY in May or June. Not too much time had elapsed, and I was working on copyedits and things while drafting the sequel so that helped keep everything fresh. I loved coming back to the same characters. It was so much easier to start a book in a place where I already understood my characters and their motivations. Sometimes that process alone will take a few drafts. It allowed me to focus on the increasingly more complicated plot!

4) Was your high school experience anything like the experiences of your characters? Was there a clear-cut line between the haves and have-nots?

My high school experience was only similar in that I went to a private school and, as a middle class student, was very aware of class distinctions and how students communicated their status through clothing, cars, etc. While the mean girl behavior in my high school was much more subtle, there was certainly a sense that some (but not all) of the most privileged kids "ruled the school" socially. But I was definitely more of a fringe-y character than Willa. Like the Say Anything dudes say, "by choice, man." Or so I told myself!

5) What challenges did you face in writing SLY that were different from writing CROOKED? Was anything easier the second time around?

I think the challenge with SLY was to make Willa's experience more difficult and keep turning those screws. This book has much higher stakes: she's in greater danger and she's also facing some really difficult emotional truths. The tone here shifts as a result, and keeping that in balance with Willa's bubbly personality and the lighter feel of the first book was at times tricky. On the other hand, I felt really lucky that SLY sends things in such a different direction that it truly felt like a whole new adventure to write. As I said, the characters were much easier the second time around, and I think I had a much better handle on the structure of the story from the very beginning. Also, it certainly didn't hurt that I was working with the same brilliant editors, so I always had their voice in my head when I was drafting, keeping me on course.

6) When you wrote PRETTY CROOKED, did you always know it would have a sequel, or did you envision it as a stand-alone? If you did map out the sequel early on, how much did the finished product of PRETTY SLY compare to your original plan?

I always knew it would be a trilogy. Parts of PRETTY SLY were imagined originally as part of PRETTY CROOKED (through the first leg of their road trip, basically), but as time went on it became clear that Willa's time at Valley Prep really deserved its own book. That being said, all of the key clues except maybe a couple we added in copy edits were already in the first book when it came time to write the second. The third book was much more vaguely conceived going into it, and it probably changed the most dramatically in revisions—down to the actual answer to the mystery!

7) Besides Willa's vicariously satisfying Robin Hood-esque scheme of "spreading the wealth around" at her school, there is a second, overarching mystery about Willa's mother. When you have two (or three!) separate mysteries going on, how do you keep track of each person's head space at different points of their respective time lines? 

Oh, man. That's only the tip of the iceberg with this series! It can be tough, that's for sure. I wish I was one of those people who used Post-Its or a big magic marker or something, but truthfully, I just used a lot of Kanye West all-caps-esque notes to myself in the text as I wrote. Stuff like "REMEMBER: SHE ONLY KNOWS X,Y and Z, HERE!!!" and "HOW THE HECK IS SHE GOING TO COME TO THIS CONCLUSION?!!"

9) PRETTY CROOKED resolves certain plot elements perfectly, while still serving as a cliffhanger. Did you get any angry letters about the ending? Was it difficult to write a conclusion that leads directly into a new adventure?

Yes! Maybe not super-angry, but a lot of teasing and frustrating ones. My editors and I went back and forth about where to leave things, and ultimately decided on the cliffhanger, which has its old-fashioned charms. I wouldn't say it was difficult to write that ending but I maybe felt a bit guilty to do that to readers. I hope PRETTY SLY will satisfy them!

10) I love Aidan and Willa's banter, as well as Willa's friendship-chemistry with Cherise and Tre. Do you have particular techniques you draw on to keep your dialogue so sharp? 

Thank you so much! I like to read dialogue out loud (if no one else is in the house!) to get a feel for how someone might really say something. And it's definitely something I fine-tune in revision, stripping it back more and more, because most people speak much more efficiently than I actually write.

11) When is book #3 coming out?

March 2015!

Check out the trailer for PRETTY SLY, below, and then enter to win a free copy of BOTH BOOKS!




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Finding Tanner Halston

I've spent some time recently exploring another medium, film-making.  On a whim, I decided to film a live-action book trailer for SPIES AND PREJUDICE.  It would be easy, or so I thought.  I'd enlist my daughter to be in it, since she looks a lot like the main character, Berry Fields, and we'd shoot a scene from the first chapter at a local restaurant while she was home for my launch party.


I wrote a script, with a few establishing shots of the couple Berry spies on in the first scene, and Berry watching them while her voice-over references some internal monologue from the book.  I recruited a guy I work with and my daughter's roommate to play the couple, and all went well.

I edited it and sent it off to my publisher. They liked it, but then asked the question I'd been avoiding since I came up with the idea in the first place.  "Where's Tanner?"

SPIES AND PREJUDICE is a contemporary spy story with a bit of Jane Austen thrown in.  And I had just made a trailer with no Mr. Darcy.  It was like peanut butter with no jelly, fine on its own, but not nearly as good as it could be.

My daughter had already returned to college, and I was at a loss. In the scene, Tanner spies on Berry while Berry spies on the couple,  so it wasn't necessary to show them together.  I could shoot Tanner at the same restaurant and cut him in with the footage of Berry.  There was just one huge problem:  I didn't have an actor to play Tanner.

Finding a teenage Mr. Darcy is a tall order to begin with, and since I didn't know anyone who fit the bill, I was at a complete loss.  So I did what any enterprising sleuth would do, I searched the internet.  I found a casting agency in my hometown, and called them to see if they might have a professional actor to fit the bill.

The answer?  They might, but no professional actor would give me unlimited rights to use his image in a book trailer shot on an iPhone, whether I was willing to pay for the work or not.

My publicist suggested asking one of the guys who worked in the restaurant, but what were the odds of finding someone who fit the description of my arrogant, handsome teen, and who would give me rights to his image?  Also, how creepy would I seem when I approached with my iPhone?

So I put out a call to some dear writing friends and half-jokingly asked if they knew of any good-looking 18-25 year old guys who could play Tanner in my book trailer.  Within minutes, I had a name and a phone number.  A friend of a friend's son was home from college for the summer, and looking for something to do.  He was hired on the spot.

I was warned that his hair was "a little long" because he was growing it out for locks of love, but I figured that his long hair would make him that much more "Darcy-ish." (Plus, how adorable is that?) He turned out to be a great sport, and after another day of shooting, Tanner Halston, and my book trailer, came to life:

Talia Vance is the author of SPIES AND PREJUDICE, described as Veronica Mars meets Pride and Prejudice, as well as the BANDIA series (SILVER; GOLD) based on Celtic mythology.  You can find out more about her at www.taliavance.com

Interrogation Room #27: Megan Miranda, Author of HYSTERIA

I just finished reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. It isn't a book for a young audience, but I couldn’t ignore the number of weeks this book spent at the top of the NYT bestseller lists. The story centers around the disappearance of a young woman on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, and a missing person investigation that snowballs into a series of twists revealed through the eyes of two unreliable narrators.

An unreliable narrator is often defined as a narrator whose credibility has been seriously compromised. In some cases, the narrator is made unreliable due to mental illness. In others, the narrator is deceitful, intentionally withholding information from the reader. In either case, this narrative technique depends heavily on the author’s ability to create an early connection between the reader and the character, and then manipulate that relationship to keep the reader turning pages, even while the reader begins to distrust that character’s perception and interpretation of the events that follow.

Some recent examples of unreliable narrators in YA lit include:  Going Bovine by Libba Bray, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin, and Liar by Justine Larbelier. But I am particularly intrigued with Hysteria, a newly released YA thriller by Megan Miranda, which (like Girl Gone) employs a psychologically precarious and secretive narrator to tease out a terrifying mystery.

Today, we’re turning the bright lights of the SSA Interrogation Room on YA Thriller author, Megan Miranda. Megan is the author of Fracture (Walker/Bloomsbury, 2012), Hysteria (Walker/Bloomsbury, February 5, 2013), and VENGEANCE (Walker/Bloomsbury, 2014). She has a BS in biology from MIT and spent her post-college years either rocking a lab coat or reading books. 

Here's a little peek under the stunning US and UK covers of her new book, Hysteria!

Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can't remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn't charged. But Mallory still feels Brian's presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past. But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others. In another riveting tale of life and death, Megan Miranda's masterful storytelling brings readers along for a ride to the edge of sanity and back again.

Hysteria's protagonist has been found not guilty by reasons of self-defense for killing her former boyfriend. As the story unfolds, the reader is led at times to question Mallory’s innocence, as well as her state of mind. Why did you choose to present Hysteria through the eyes of an unreliable narrator?

First of all, thank you so much for having me! Honestly, when I started the story, I didn’t think, “She’s going to be unreliable.” And I don’t think I even realized it when I was drafting—I knew she was skipping things, or choosing what to say, or missing elements—but I didn’t put a name to it at the time. I think it’s a case of character and story reflecting one another. In this case, the story of HYSTERIA is able to exist because she’s unreliable. What is haunting/stalking her, and why is it happening? And she’s unreliable because of the story (she does not want to remember—or talk about—the horrible events that she was a part of). They developed off one another, and I don’t think either would work on its own.

As authors, we all go through our own discovery process as we develop our characters and get to know them well enough to write their stories. Was your process different in developing Mallory’s character as an unreliable narrator? In what way?

Mostly, it was the same way I’d develop any character—by discovering through writing. But in this case, a lot of the story elements have to do with the fact that Mallory isn’t sure if the things haunting (or stalking) her are real or not. So there was a secondary mystery, which is also part of the bigger plot—discovering who Mallory really is, but through first-person narration. So it’s not that my process differed so much—it’s more that the process took me in a different direction—more into her psyche. It became a process to unravel Mallory, along with the external mystery.

What challenges did your unreliable narrator present while you were writing Hysteria, and how did you overcome those challenges?

She’s a narrator who doesn’t necessarily trust herself. And if she doesn’t trust herself, how can the reader fully trust her, either? If the reader can’t trust her, how can they fully connect to her? (This is something that’s really important to me, as connecting to a character is the most important thing for me as a reader) I made the conscious decision that Mallory would never overtly lie to the reader. She’s unreliable, yes. But she does not lie, exactly. She’s vulnerable, and she’s honest in her perceived assessment of herself. Instead of viewing her primarily as someone who maybe shouldn’t be trusted, I tried to use that trait to make a connection. Not trusting yourself should be a horrifying thing—and I tried to have that feeling translate, through Mallory, to the reader.

What unique opportunities does your unreliable narrator present in the context of developing a thriller or mystery?

It allows you to create several mysteries within the same thread. What’s happening externally, and what’s happening internally? Are the things she’s showing us true? Are they all a product of her mind? Is the danger out there, or is it already inside her? In solving a mystery, she has to first overcome herself before she can overcome the external factor.

I also think having an unreliable narrator allows you to explore them more as a character inside the thriller (why are they this way?), which is my favorite part of writing.

As a reader, what are your favorite examples of stories featuring unreliable narrators?

Some of my favorite movies feature unreliable narrators/main characters (The Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense). As for books, well Gone Girl is way up there for me. Life of Pi is another. Most recently, Code Name Verity, which is unreliable because of its structure—the story is told as a written confession, but we know it’s given under duress, so the reader constantly wonders… is this true? I completely loved it.

What’s coming up, and where can readers find you?

Next up, I’ve got the sequel/companion to my first book (Fracture), which comes out in early 2014. You can find me IN PERSON here (I’ll be on tour for HYSTERIA end of Feb/early March). 

What writing secret will you reveal to us under the harsh light of the interrogation room lamp?

I rely on multi-colored sticky-notes and multi-colored pens (and caffeine) for revising. It probably looks like complete chaos to anyone else, but assigning colors to plot threads helps me balance, and follow each arc. And I like seeing it off the computer screen.

How do we know we can believe you?

No comment :)

Learn more about Megan Miranda at her website, follow her on Twitter, or like her Facebook page. And don't forget to enter our drawing for a chance to win a free copy of Hysteria! 

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Purchase Hysteria now:
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ELLE COSIMANO set aside a successful real-estate career to pursue writing. She lives with her husband and two young sons, and divides her time between her home near Washington, DC and a jungle tree house in the Mayan Riveria. Her YA novel NEARLY GONE will be published by Kathy Dawson Books/Penguin in Winter 2014, with a sequel coming in 2015. Learn more about Elle on her website, twitter, facebook, and Goodreads.

LAST CHANCE TO WIN! Mystery Monday #24: Pretty Crooked MYstery Swag Giveaway

This is the last week to get entered into our Pretty Crooked Mystery Swag Box giveaway!

To celebrate the release of  SS&A detective Elisa Ludwig's novel Pretty Crooked tomorrow, March 13th, we are giving away THREE Mystery boxes like the one pictured here!


To enter, simply watch the Pretty Crooked book trailer below and then snswer the question posed in the trailer in our comment section -- details welcome! Comments must be posted by midnight EST March 18th, 2012. Winners will be announced in our Mystery Monday post on March 19th, 2012.

Want to win a signed ARC of Pretty Crooked? Stop by the blog tomorrow, March 13th, to read Elisa's Interrogation Room transcript for details!