The brilliant Heather Young splashed on to the scene with her critically-acclaimed and Edgar nominated The Lost Girls. Her second book, The Distant Dead was nominated for this year’s Edgar Award for Best Novel.

1.     Please tell us about your debut novel.

My debut novel was THE LOST GIRLS, which was published by William Morrow in 2016. In 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans disappeared from her family’s summer lake house in northern Minnesota and was never found. Her disappearance, and the secrets and betrayals that led to it, haunt her two older sisters, who spend the rest of their lives in the lake house, each for reasons of her own. Sixty-five years later Lucy, the only surviving sister, finally tells the story of what happened to Emily, in a journal she will leave, along with the house, to her great-niece Justine, who herself is on the run from her own troubles.  

2. I’ve read that only 4% of the people who start a novel, finish writing it. Why do you think you beat the odds?

I read that statistic, too, when I was about halfway through my manuscript, and it gave me a lot of motivation (“Don’t be in the 96 percent! Be in the 4 percent!”). But honestly, I think the only difference between people who finish a novel and those who don’t is that the ones who finish are the ones who sit in the chair until it’s done. You’re not a better writer because you finish; it’s more a testament to determination and cussedness and slogging through even when it seems hopeless. It’s also important to recognize and celebrate the achievement of finishing a novel in and of itself, regardless of whether it’s any good or whether it gets published. Writing a novel is hard. So if you do it, do something really nice for yourself. You deserve it. (I bought myself a pair of killer black leather boots that I LOVE.)

3. Was your debut novel the first book you wrote?  (Any prior efforts hiding on your hard drive?)
No; it was hard enough just to write the one! 

4. What helped you become a better writer? Any books or resources you found helpful

There is a lot of trial and error involved in becoming a better writer. You need to write terrible prose, read it, hate it, and rewrite it, over and over and over. I also learn a lot by reading other people’s books with a pencil in my hand, making margin notes about character, scene, pacing, foreshadowing, and other craft elements and trying to apply what works to my own manuscript. For books on craft, I love The Stuff of Fiction by Doug Bauer, The Kite and the String by Alice Mattison, and all the craft books by Charles Baxter.

5. What was your process like getting an agent? 

I spent about six months writing my query letter and researching agents using AgentQuery.com and the Poets & Writers agent database. Then I sent an initial batch of ten letters and hoped for the best. I was lucky in my timing: my letters landed in the agents’ inboxes the day a massive blizzard shut down New York, so they were housebound and took that opportunity to look in their “slush piles”. My eventual agent asked for my manuscript that afternoon.

6.     How did you celebrate when you learned your book would be published?

I am quite fond of bourbon in general and Manhattans in particular, and what better cocktail to celebrate a New York publisher buying your book? I also remember the look on my daughter’s face when she came home from school to the news that the book I’d spent half her childhood writing was going to be published. She was so surprised and proud, and it was in that moment that I felt all the joy and relief and wonder that eight years of invisible and solitary work, done in the quiet hours I could carve out from my life, had culminated in an actual book deal. 

7. What was the most exciting moment involving the publication of your debut novel?  (The moment you first saw the cover? The call when you learned when it was being published? When you cashed your advance check?

There are two indisputable high points for any debut author: the day your agent calls to tell you the book has sold, and the day you get your copies of the actual book in a box from the publisher. There is nothing that can rival those moments, not even the advance check — though I have to put in close third place my publication day reading at my favorite local independent book store, with over a hundred friends and family members in attendance. 

8. What’s your best advice for someone who wants to be published?

My best advice is not to think about being published, at least not while you’re actually writing your book. Write your best story, and write it as well as you can. Do it for the joy and satisfaction that the writing process brings you, and take the time to do it right, even if it’s many years. If you do that, then when you finish you will have a book you will be proud to see in print, and a book that is, consequently, more likely to get published. Only when you get close to the end should you think about the business of publishing: finding an agent, etc. 

9. What are you currently reading? Or, what's one of the best novels you've read lately?

I’ve just started Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart, and so far, it’s living up to all the hype. 

10. What are you working on now?  Any projects coming out soon?

I’m working on my third book now. It’s another literary-style mystery, this time set in a small Iowa town during the Second World War. I’m hoping it will offer a different take on that war than the many World War Two novels that have come out in the last few years.

To learn more about Heather Young, check out her website and follow her on Twitter.