Author Interview: Janelle Brown {& Giveaway!}

Readers, today I have something so fun to share with you. Have you ever read a book with such a great twist -- a book that obviously took much planning and plotting, and wondered how the author did it? I wonder this all the time. I wonder, too, what it's like to be an author -- to have a job where your career is based upon your own imagination (as a blogger, my work is based off the imagination of others and as a teacher, there's no shortage of imagination in my students). Today, readers, we have a guest here on TST to give us an inside peek at what it's like to be an author. 

Janelle Brown is the author of All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, This Is Where We Live, and most recently, one of this summer's most popular thrillers -- Watch Me Disappear. If you haven't already read Watch Me Disappear, you can read my review here. 

(Hint, I really enjoyed it. I sent Janelle this emoji --> 😱  in response to the twist. Sometimes, emojis are the best way to show your feelings for a book.)

AND readers, just yesterday, it was announced that Watch Me Disappear is going to be made into a movie. So I'll say it again -- you definitely want to read this book.

Janelle was kind enough to agree to answer some of my questions and we've teamed up to giveaway one signed copy of Watch Me Disappear from Janelle's personal stash! Read on for a peek into Janelle's author life and a chance to win the book!

Tell us about your path to becoming an author. Did you know you wanted to be

a writer when you were a child? 

I did! I’ve been a huge bookworm since the moment I could read; and as a little kid I

used to write and illustrate my own books. (Talking animals were heavily featured.) At

one point in first grade, my teacher made the offhand comment to me, “You should be

an author when you grow up.” I took that suggestion and ran with it, and never looked

back.

Although I spent my twenties working in journalism (I had staff writer positions at Wired

and Salon.com), I always knew that someday I wanted to really try to make a go of

writing fiction. So I took the fairly radical move of quitting my great journalism job in

2002, and went freelance in order to have time to start working on a novel. I took a

bunch of fiction-writing workshops; wrote and rewrote and rewrote and rewrote ad

nauseum, and by 2007 I’d finished my first book, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.

Can you tell us a little bit about your writing process? Do you have any special

rituals or circumstances that you need to be in place before you can write?

You know, there are writers that are totally ritual- and schedule-based, and then there’s

me. My only real ritual is a) coffee and b) reading over the previous days writing before I

start on fresh pages. Plus, embarrassingly, c) a fair amount of procrastination on the

Internet.

I have two young children and so my writing day is fairly circumscribed by their school

hours; but I try to go into my office every day to work. (I helped found a co-working

space for writers in Los Angeles, and about 20 of us work out of it.) But other than that,

I’m not a terribly disciplined writer. I always marvel when I read about those authors who

disable the Internet and then diligently produce 2000 words every single day because I

am so not that kind of author.

In a nutshell, I’m either “feeling it” and am totally inspired and know what I want to write

next -- in which case, I’ll often wake up at 4 a.m. raring to go and will write thousands of

words by lunchtime -- or else I’m unclear on where the book needs to go next. When the

latter is happening, I’ll sometimes go weeks at a time in which I barely get anything on

the page (but get a *lot* of posts up on social media.)

Where do you source your story ideas? Where did the idea for Watch Me

Disappear come from?

It’s really difficult for me to pinpoint where, exactly, each book idea comes from. Usually

it’s a long gestation process, with a lot of disparate inspirations – things I’ve read,

stories I’ve heard, people I’ve met that interest me as characters – slowly weaving

together until I suddenly “see” a story forming in my mind. Quite often, too, I’ll start with

what I think is an idea; and then as I start writing, the story will evolve until it becomes

something quite different.

I can say that one of the sources of inspirations for Watch Me Disappear was my

husband, Greg, who has temporal lobe epilepsy and has experienced these curious

audio-visual sensory seizures since he was a kid. That always fascinated me – that he

could see and hear and experience things that I couldn’t, that his brain could completely

alter his perception of reality. And then I watched the terrific movie “Take Shelter” –

about a man experiencing apocalyptic hallucinations who can’t decide if he’s crazy or

psychic – and it all wove together into the kernel of an idea about a teenage girl who is

seeing surreal things that she doesn’t quite understand. In other words, the story all

started with Olive’s visions/hallucinations, and it grew from there.

Watch Me Disappear has one of those endings that leaves readers with wide

eyes and open mouths. I think I actually yelled out loud at the very end. Without

spoiling it for future readers, can you tell us how you go about plotting a thriller?

Is there a method to writing such a good twist?

Oddly, I didn’t even realize I was writing a suspense novel until I got about a third of the

way into a first draft; I’d never written in this genre before and I had just imagined that I

was writing a domestic drama like my last two books, but with a mysterious element (ie:

Olive’s visions.). And then I had an epiphany one day that I was actually writing a

mystery; at which point I had to go back and tear the entire book apart and really think

about what that meant. I’ve always written very plot-driven books, but I knew that with a

mystery, action had to tick at certain moments, the plot had to twist at certain times to

keep a reader’s interest, and there had to be a sustained level of anticipation and

surprise.

That’s when I started seriously plotting the story – thinking about what needed to

happen, and when, and why. I put together some pretty elaborate timelines and a lot of

chapter-by-chapter character breakdowns (i.e. Jonathan and Olive’s emotional states

had to evolve with each new revelation about Billie; which then of course would effect

what actions they would take next.)

As for the ending – it changed three times during the course of writing the book. I had

two other ending ideas that just weren’t as effective; and each time I changed the

ending I had to tear the entire book apart again in order to rebuild towards the new

ending. But when I finally figured out what the proper final twist was, I knew I’d nailed it.

I wish I could explain some clear “method” for this but really it was just intuition -- plus

trying to think about what the obvious twists might be, and eliminate those out of hand.

I also have a terrific editor, with a good eye for mystery, whose insights I was able to

use to help shape a satisfying ending.

Tell us a little bit about your reading life. How does reading for pleasure fit into

your life when writing and reading are both part of your job?

I’m a voracious reader – generally a book or two a week. I keep a massive list of books

on hold at the library, throwing on anything that I hear about that sounds interesting. I

read mostly contemporary literary fiction, though occasionally I’ll hit up a nonfiction

book, or do a deep dive into older (20th century, mostly) fiction. Books either go on the

list because a reviewer I respect recommended a book, or enough people I know have

been talking about it, or my book club is going to be discussing it, or one of my friends

wrote it (which is always fun!).

In general, I almost always find reading a pleasure – it’s my favorite thing to do, so it

never really feels like “work.” I did find myself reading a lot of suspense novels while

working on this book, because I wanted to immerse myself in the genre and really study

how other authors assembled a satisfying mystery. But I’ve always had a real love for

well-written suspense novels (see: Megan Abbott, Sarah Waters, Gillian Flynn, Kate

Atkinson) so this was no hardship.

I find myself reading my favorite books twice – once for the sheer pleasure of reading

the story, another time to think about the author’s craft.

And I also often read during the day when I’m feeling “stuck” at work – sometimes, just

reading a few pages of a great book is enough to start feeling inspired again.

We love to share recommendations here on Top Shelf Text. Can you

recommend to us 3 books that you've loved?

Hmmm… So hard to know where to start!

Arbitrarily, I’m going to pick out some non-suspense books I’ve loved over the last year:

The Nix by Nathan Hill, Heat & Light by Jennifer Haigh, The Guineveres by Sarah

Domet, Euphoria by Lily King, Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. And for

suspense -- Ill Will by Dan Choan, You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott, and The Paying

Guests by Sarah Waters.

That’s eight, but once I get going I can’t narrow it down to just three!

***

Thank you so much Janelle, for chatting with TST readers!

Readers, I also asked (because I know you're probably wondering too), what Janelle is working on now. She said it's a little early to share any details, but we can expect another suspenseful story from her in the future. I'm sure you could guess this, but my response was an enthusiastic sign me up! 

***

Giveaway

One TST reader will win a hardcover, signed copy of Janelle's newest release, Watch Me Disappear. 

Open to U.S. AND Canada!

TO EARN ONE ENTRY:

Comment below with your recommendation for a novel with a great twist.

TO EARN ONE BONUS ENTRY:

Like the photo of Watch Me Disappear on Instagram.

Follow @topshelftext and @janellebrownie.

TO EARN A SECOND BONUS ENTRY:

Repost my Instagram photo on your stories or feed and tag me!

Giveaway closes on Saturday, August 12th at 9pm EST.

Winner will be announced on Sunday, August 13th!

GOOD LUCK!