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husband at loose ends after his recent retirement her challenging mother encamped in a granny pod in the backyard and an adult sister who still needs to be chased after with all that on her plate she doesn t have a minute to figure out what she wants out of life to her lily has a charmed life she s a beauty with a handsome husband a thriving business no responsibilities not a care in the world but lily sees it differently more than anything she wants the kids the long marriage and the white picket fence the life her big sister s has it s not until they get to alaska that they realize they are seeing each other through rose colored glasses now out in the rugged terrain with wild animals and physical challenges they must shake off the lifelong labels of the big and little sister and learn to overcome their issues and reconcile their differences if they are going to survive the wilderness and each other do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings which do you change more i always start a story with a basic idea for a plot what is the story about in the case of big lily two sisters take a trip to alaska then i ask myself what does the main character or in this case the two main characters want i knew one sister wanted to get lost as far away from home as possible and the other wanted to get away and find herself then i ask myself how do i make it as hard as possible for my characters to get what they want as vladimir nabokov said the writer s job is to get the main character up a tree and then once they are up there throw rocks at them for bridget and lily there were endless emotional and physical obstacles wild animals treacherous trails outdoor plumbing to navigate in alaska all to say i always know how my stories begin and more times than not the start of the story stays set in addition i like to have a general idea of which rocks to throw aka the middle of the book but i do spend time figuring out how the characters are going to get out of the tree in a way that will be a satisfying ending to them me and my readers although when drafting a book anything can change that s the beauty and fun of writing do you see much of yourself in your characters do they have any connection to your personality or are they a world apart as a big sister myself i ve always been fascinated with birth order theory and the more recent conversations around eldest daughter syndrome i m a classic firstborn in charge organized goal oriented and reliable with a skosh of perfectionism and a dash of anxiety i wanted to write a story that let me delve deeper into the subject i created bridget so she could do the work for me i let her figure out whether being a second mother to her little sister was a lifelong commitment and whether she could rewrite her narrative if the one she d carried with her all her life no longer suited her visit lisa roe s website marshal zeringue posted by marshal zeringue at 12 05 pm wednesday august 5 2026 jon st denis jon st denis pseudonym for j sydney jones is a former journalist in europe filing stories from austria italy france greece and ireland formerly a college professor in california st denis writes compelling historical mysteries with thriller and international espionage elements st denis s new novel is killer art my q a with the author how much work does your title do to take readers into the story titles are always hard for me not hard to come up with but hard to weed and finally come up with the right one killer art was no different i am reluctant to list its initial title so utterly bland so non descriptive pictures at an exhibition see what i mean i just could not come up with something more specific and besides the music to that mussorgsky piece sticks with me so guilty twice bland non helpful title plus plagiarism though titles do not have copyright in which case why didn t i just call it war and peace i stuck with that bland title for several months opening the file daily to those dreary words at the top of the ms adding a tweak here and there to the body wondering why it was so hard to sell this one then it just came to me something with more zip that could actually give the reader an idea what the book is actually about killer art using killer in its double meaning good art and literally deadly art which is at the very center of the novel killer art once i was there i also toyed with art to die for but i immediately felt that this new title could give readers a better idea about what the novel is about where it s going and publishers clearly felt so as well repackaged with a new title killer art sold within a couple of weeks it didn t hurt the book also has an ai angle to it what s in a name my protagonists in killer art are a youngish couple the guy anglo the woman of chinese ancestry i wanted the male to be a largish nice guy with professional chops as a former journalist for the new york times i ve always liked the name sam very down to earth and i gave him a family name that is a bit more distinctive worthing he s worthy valued my female protagonist has a first name that sounds a bit different maybe even foreign vika though she was born and raised in the us last name of chen to make it clear of heritage and she is as equally talented as sam one of the youngest ever curators at moma how surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel my teenage self would be absolutely dumbfounded by my novel and by my chosen career my teenage self played golf and football and opened books only for school reading i was a good student but i was not a reader at all when i wanted entertainment i turned on the tube my current self is still a bit dumbfounded at my choice of career do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings which do you change more beginnings for sure many years ago i was what people call a pantser flew by the seat of my pants no outlines let inspiration reign i enjoyed the sudden inspirations that came as a book developed organically and originally in first draft but that sort of flying blind does have drawbacks such as completing a damn book i am in the plotter camp now so i know where the book is going i can build creative juice for each new daily installment i know how it will end but beginnings now are hard for me as i want to draw readers in immediately i need to create a sense of urgency or wonder or at least interest and that sort of takes the pantser mentality every book is its own animal and there are no recipes to follow do you see much of yourself in your characters do they have any connection to your personality or are they a world apart actually i was going to mention this above under the what s in a name question killer art has a couple at the center that is somewhat drawn from my own life a first for me sam has a bit of me in him while vika more than a bit of my wife in her what non literary inspirations have influenced your writing i take inspiration wherever i can get it with some works such as my viennese mysteries series it was most definitely history and the city of vienna itself that inspired me at other times i might read some news that acts as a trigger music helps but as a daily inspiration not for the entire arc of a novel killer art was inspired by some of my own teaching experiences both in europe and the us and also by the rise of ai of which i must admit i am no great fan here ai generated artworks are at the center of the murder mystery visit jon st denis s website the page 69 test killer art writers read jon st denis marshal zeringue posted by marshal zeringue at 10 05 am sunday august 2 2026 rachel peterson rachel peterson graduated from miami university of ohio with a degree in english and creative writing born and raised in ohio she started her career in advertising before spending nearly a decade in new york city as a marketing executive for technology companies an avid traveler peterson now splits her time between manhattan and the midwest where she lives with her husband ken their dog olive and horse hope her new novel is killing sadie my q a with the author how much work does your title do to take readers into the story now this is a juicy question the title of killing sadie is at first glance a pretty obvious summary of the novel but just like our unreliable teenage narrators and the twisty lies they tell to the police and themselves nothing is quite as straightforward as it seems the title is designed to pull readers in immediately with what happened but the truly unexpected and shocking question that matters most as readers dive into the world of sadie cooper is why what s in a name the names i choose for our cast of characters in killing sadie are a mix of random pulled from a hat names plus a handful that carry a deeper meaning either for the character or for me for example liz is a wild child from ohio by way of alabama who goes by this casual nickname that fits with the identity she built for herself unlocking a few rungs on the social ladder via her bestie sadie but her full name is elizabeth amelia stratton which is much more formal almost victorian it creates an interesting juxtaposition between how she s seen and who she really is or how she sees herself this is such a vivid callback to the teenage experience meanwhile the name for one of my personal favorite characters detective sloane budd was chosen as a nod to the nickname of one of my family members now gone who loved a great mystery and had such an unforgettable personality how surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel honestly my teenage self would be entirely unsurprised and incredibly excited to get her hands on the limited edition copy killing sadie reflects so many of the emotions experiences and even stereotypes that came along with my teenage years growing up in a small midwestern town minus the murder of course when working on building my characters for killing sadie i leaned on my old high school journals which somehow still exist to remind myself of what it really felt like existing in the world i was building i think in many ways this novel was written by and for the teenage girl i used to be a bold curious theater kid figuring things out with her friends do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings which do you change more beginnings tend to be much easier and i strangely love that first blank page feeling mainly because once i have a story mapped out there is always a single line or a burst of dialogue that pops into my head that just screams to me i tend to write at a very frenetic pace so while i know how the story is going to start and end how we get to the dramatic conclusion is always more of a blank slate adventure endings are a little bit trickier for me because there are so many little details especially in a thriller that need to fall perfectly into place luckily my brilliant editor has such an incredible eye for detail which has led to some interesting discussions wait did that character really shower three times in a single day do you see much of yourself in your characters do they have any connection to your personality or are they a world apart wow this is the kind of question i ve always been dying to ask my favorite authors there are multiple unreliable narrators in killing sadie her bestie liz her boyfriend ben her twin jayne and even sadie herself and each one of them is so unique i think it s impossible not to inject a little bit of ourselves into the characters we create and although no character is a carbon copy of my teenage self there are definitely bits of my personality and interests scattered around and dialed up for example sadie and i share many of the same favorite 80s and 90s movies and jayne and evan are equestrians like i am liz definitely picked up some or all of my more intense and emotional teenage angst i think readers allegiances will change throughout the book based on the scene and their energy some days we are totally jayne others totally sadie what non literary inspirations have influenced your writing oh gosh the list is long it always starts with music for me a majority of my writing includes multiple povs and i create a separate playlist for each of my characters in terms of killing sadie i can t hear a top ten pop track without thinking of sadie or 90s alt rock without thinking of jayne or rock country without thinking of ben as an equestrian i spend a ton of time at the barn training and riding horses which is more about tuning into anything but writing but i know that time away from the laptop is so rejuvenating and translates to better pages i m also a major film and broadway fan and the glamour drama and theatricality of old hollywood is always a fun place to go for inspiration after all everything about teenage life when you re living it feels so worthy of the big screen visit rachel peterson s website my book the movie killing sadie writers read rachel peterson marshal zeringue posted by marshal zeringue at 12 05 am thursday july 30 2026 callie rowland callie rowland is a fantasy author based in louisville ky her debut fields of asphodel will publish on august 1st 2026 followed by her sophomore novel gate of nightmares in summer 2027 she holds a creative writing bfa from spalding university where she served as co founder and editor of the undergraduate literary magazine the opal rowland daylights as a proofreader at a marketing agency she spends most of her free time reading and writing but she also loves thrifting baking and exploring the historic district where she lives when she s feeling brave she even hangs out with other people she is the proud mother of a spider plant named lucifer a pothos named lilith and a cat named lewis who she suspects is the guardian of realms my q a with the author how much work does your title do to take readers into the story my favorite thing about the title fields of asphodel is its double meaning asphodel is the name of the protagonist and the fields of asphodel where the souls of unremarkable mortals reside in the ancient greek underworld plays a major role in the story the title suits its genre s convention think of books like the song of achilles by madeline miller and ariadne by jennifer saint but my publisher initially wanted to swap it for something more pronounceable which i completely understand i ve met many people who don t know how to pronounce asphodel and i secretly didn t either until i looked it up we toyed with a few options but in the end nothing better prepared readers for a book about the daughter of hades and persephone who upon being forcibly engaged to the god of death attempts to escape her mother s fate by kidnapping her husband to be thus putting the worlds of both gods and humans in peril what s in a name fields of asphodel started out as a straightforward hades and persephone retelling in which persephone kidnaps hades instead of the other way around when i decided to instead write about their children so that ...