![]() NP: I’ve learned everything about the craft of writing from my work as an editor and ghostwriter. What have you learned from your day job at Simon & Schuster in Canada that helped you write your novel? I love Lisa Jewell for her spellbinding domestic suspense, Fredrik Backman for his wild pairings of characters, Gail Honeyman for creating a lovable prickly cactus of a protagonist in Eleanor Oliphant, and Ashley Audrain for her deep questioning of the meaning of motherhood in The Push. NP: The list is so very long, but I do love authors who are able to move my heart and engage my mind at the same time. TW: Which authors have inspired you the most? Of course, there’s also another kind of satisfaction that comes from not being able to guess-from being surprised by and satisfied with the author’s ingenuity. It’s the reader’s job to figure out “whodunnit,” and if they can do so before the end of the book, a particular satisfaction is gleaned. NP: Reader participation! The beautiful thing about the genre is that readers are immediately cast as the lead detective. TW: What is it that attracts you to classic murder mysteries? I didn't know it at the time, but I'd just begun my debut novel. I grabbed a pen and a napkin, and wrote the prologue in a single burst. But what did I know about her? On the plane home a few days later, my protagonist Molly’s voice came to me. By cleaning my room every day, she knew so much about me. ![]() It occurred to me then what an intimate and invisible job it is to be a room maid. She gasped and jumped into a shadowy corner, my jogging pants half-folded in her hands. NP: I was on a business trip to the UK in 2019 when I entered my hotel room and startled the maid who was cleaning it. How did you come up with the plot and the character of Molly? TW: Congratulations on the publication of The Maid.
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