Author2Author: Chelsea Cain & Susan Kandel, pt. 4

Thanks again to Chelsea and Susan for taking the time to chat with each other and let us sit in on their conversation. If you're around this weekend, keep your eyes peeled for a special bonus round of questions and answers.

Chelsea Cain: I loved what you did with the mystery in Not a Girl Detective. Your reveals were so perfect. I think I might have actually said "Ah!" a couple of times. Do you have any advice to a struggling thriller writer on how to pace the reveal of information? I assume that you plot everything out on note cards or something else similarly responsible?

Susan Kandel: In a previous life, I was working on a dissertation on contemporary art, and racked up the note cards like nobody's business. I think I must have written at least 5,000. I was the model of a responsible academic. But I never did finish that dissertation. Flash forward to my novels: no note cards, barely an outline, whole new philosophy of irresponsibility. Contrary to what you've been finding with the thriller, I didn't know who did it with the first book until I was writing the second to last chapter.

You obviously have to be aware of pacing (and I have years of All my Children to thank for that), and peppering the text with clues at regular intervals, but I find planning every detail in advance not only makes the story feel stale, it shuts down all sorts of avenues that open up in the process of writing. My m.o. involves plotting out two-three scenes at a time, and then seeing where I am by the end of that chunk and going from there. I do a lot of research first, and that material is what inspires me in spinning the plot.

You have a fantastic sense of humor. I loved the description of an aging Ned in his Members Only jacket and mullet. And you know your way around an adjective: I particularly enjoyed Nancy's later in life "bottle-titian" hair. Which other writers do you find particularly funny or inspiring?

Chelsea Cain: I find you inspiring. I'm going to print out your description of your writing process and paste it on the wall behind my computer. I'm a real high brow/low brow reader: I love Henry James and I love Us Weekly. Some favorite funny types include Hunter S. Thompson, David Sedaris and Dorothy Parker. (When I was a freshman in college I auditioned for a play and I decided to memorize a Dorothy Parker first person essay as my monologue. We were supposed to limit our monologue to three minutes--mine was 14. I remember looking out at the director at about minute six and seeing him look at his watch. I still had eight minutes to go. He looked at his watch four more times. Talk about brutal. Even great material like Parker's suffers mightily at the hands of an awkward pony-tailed co-ed.)

Reading for inspiration is tricky. I try to read stuff that is very different than what I'm writing because otherwise I find I start channeling some other author's voice. Really anything that is excellent inspires me. I love reading a book and thinking: my God, this is a book by a writer. I'm finally reading Saturday, and it's just so, so writerly. Every word feels carefully considered. That inspires me. Also, poetry, which sounds dorky and it's funny because I don't write poetry at all. Okay. There was that one poem after Kurt Cobain died. But I was just processing.