Millburn-Short Hills Magazine Spring 2020

down on the page and play with it; it's a shorter process that doesn’t require you to be always doing it. You don't have to write your novel every day, but it doesn’t hurt! There’s so much work to do. I try to be regimented and write for three or four hours in the morn- ing. Then I have other stuff I have to do. I don’t have any writing rituals — just sitting my butt down, with caf- feine nearby in a well-lighted space. WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR LOOKER? I was living in Park Slope [in Brooklyn], which we all know has several celebrity families living there, so you would often see people passing by who were famous. It was part of life there. This was at a time when I was feeling midlife-crisis-y. We were renting a fourth-ﬂoor apart- ment and not super happy where we were, and I walked by one of these glamorous people and thought, “We live right next to each other in the city, but we’re worlds apart.” That was interesting to me as an idea. Then the voice of the narrator popped up, and I imagined the darker side of things I was feel- ing versus garden variety envy; it was more serious and bitter than that. I went upstairs and started writing by hand. I couldn’t stop. DO YOU PREFER WRITING BY HAND OVER USING A KEYBOARD? I go back and forth. During the revision of my second novel that I’m doing now, I'm crossing things out and adding things, and it's so satisfying. DO FRIENDS AND FAMILY EVER ASK YOU IF THE CHARACTERS ARE BASED ON ANYONE IN PARTICULAR? People see themselves in what you write and think “Oh, that’s me.” For characters where I had no one in mind — there’s one character in particular — I’ve had several of my friends say, “Oh my god, was that me?” I’m like, “No!!!!!!” There’s a tendency in women’s ﬁction for people to think it’s autobiographical. It’s an occupational hazard. WHAT WAS IT LIKE GETTING REVIEWED BY HIGH-PROFILE PUBLI- CATIONS LIKE THE NEW YORKER? There’s a lot of anxiety around a book coming out, and it's hard to relax and enjoy it. Now that things have quieted down, I can appreciate it more than in the moment. WHAT’S IN YOUR FUTURE? My editor physically handed Looker to [the actress] Emily Mortimer, who has a production company with her husband called King Bee. She loved it and is going to be the executive producer on it for Entertainment One, which acquired the rights to develop it as a limited series for TV; they produced Sharp Objects for HBO. They have hired two women writers. One is a playwright, and they’re both super smart. This spring, I’m also ﬁnishing my master’s degree in library science at Queens College. I work very part- time at the South Orange Public Library now. I love helping people and being of service to the commu- nity. You’re sectioned off as a writer from everyday life, and it's nice to go into the library and be in the middle of the community, talking to people. I’m also trying to ﬁnish my second book, which is also dark, but I feel it’s lighter than Looker. There are a lot of voices, and more characters. WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO SOUTH ORANGE? We lived in Brooklyn for 10 years, and for ﬁve of those, we thought about moving. When our son was very little, we checked out Maplewood, but we weren’t ready to make the leap. We knew South Orange is a sister town, so we looked at houses and found a place we loved. We moved a year and a half ago. We can walk to the pool and our son is free to roam the neighborhood with his friends. It’s been an incred- ible change for our family. ■ MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE SPRING 2020 23

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