Originally posted at Dead Darlings.
My fellow Dead Darlings contributor and site editor, Cara Wood, sent along these questions in anticipation of the launch of my debut novel, Cottonmouths, on June 6, 2017. Echoing the work of authors like Daniel Woodrell and Sarah Waters, Cottonmouths is an unflinching story about the ways in which the past pulls us back . . . despite our best efforts to leave it behind.
How did the idea for this book originate?
Desire and crime were obsessions from my youth. I was addicted to my Grandma Ford’s historical romance novels (the more tragic, the better) and my Grandma Sue’s Crimes and Punishment: A Pictorial Encyclopedia of Aberrant Behavior (ask me about my Richard Speck night terrors!). My grandmas were rivals at the Maybelline factory in Little Rock, which heightened the drama for me. Continue reading at Dead Darlings →
