Ten questions with Meagan Jennett
Publisher’s Weekly, in a starred review, described Meagan Jennett as a “writer to watch” and praised her “stellar debut.” In this interview, Jennett describes how the influences of film, ghostwriting and her own psychology contributed to her publishing debut.
1. Please tell us about your debut novel.
At its heart, it’s about two women: Nora and Sophie. They live in the same small town in Virginia, and both work in male-dominated fields – Sophie as a bartender, and Nora as a cop. One night, Sophie snaps, and begins the killing rampage that the action of the story hinges on; all the while, she and Nora are building up a friendship. The story is about them circling around one another; it’s also about where they diverge. For me, it was an exploration of feminine rage and grief, and what would happen if someone did kick open that door to revenge? Would you go through it?
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?
The true answer to that probably delves a bit too deep into my personal psychology, but the short answer is two things: stubborn grit and grief. I was a track athlete throughout high school and college, and one thing you learn maybe too well as an athlete, is how to keep going. I still run to this day and have often thought writers should do some sort of sport, if possible. Pushing up hills when I’d rather walk, or just getting out of bed for a run at all some days was a huge help to me when I wanted to quit writing. I also had a friend tell me he didn’t think I could finish the book. It’s amazing what a great motivator the desire to prove someone wrong can be! On a more serious note, I’ve lost a lot of people in my life, all but one of them young. A few passed due to freak accidents or illness, but too many fell victim to the hard sort of lifestyle a lot of people in the restaurant industry live. Another friend was murdered, which was horrific. So, it sounds trite but one thing I’ve learned is that life really is very short, and you never know when you’ll speak to someone you love for the last time. I guess, more than anything, I needed to finish this book for them.
3. Was your debut novel the first book you wrote? (Any prior efforts hiding on your hard drive?)
It’s actually the 17th! I worked as a ghostwriter for years, churning out those cheesy paperback romances about brooding men and plucky heroines. Everything about them is totally different – the writing style, the plot, the characters. It was great fun, and I have a lot of respect for the authors who work in romance. Ultimately though, I wanted to tell different sorts of stories, and I wanted to write in my own voice, however that manifested itself once I gave it some space. So You Know Her is my first just for me.
4. What helped you become a better writer? Any books or resources you found helpful?
Stephen King’s On Writing is excellent. I love how straightforward he is: if you want to be a writer, you need to read, and you need to write. While writing You Know Her, I read Alexander Chee's Edinburgh and Stephen Graham Jones' The Only Good Indians a few times each. Both of them are incredible writers, and they were doing something with language and narrative in those books that I wanted to study. I also watched a lot of movies. I was working two and three jobs while I was writing You Know Her, and so there were a lot of days I got home and I was too tired to focus on a book. I’ve always been a sucker for a good ghost story, and I found that horror films, specifically arthouse horror, has some of the best storytellers I’ve ever come across. I learned so much about writing through essentially studying film. Some I would recommend are: The Wailing (Na Hong-jin), Lake Mungo (Joel Anderson), and His House (Remi Weekes).
5. What was your process like getting an agent?
I was getting to a point with edits where I knew I had the book in the best place I could get her on my own. That was one of the hardest parts of the whole process – knowing when to stop editing. So, I set myself a must-finish date by booking the tattoo I’d promised myself I’d get as a reward, and I literally started querying the morning of that appointment date! I used Query Tracker, which is such a useful website for finding agents, I absolutely recommend it. It lets you find agents in your genre, country, etc, and then tracks your submissions so you know who has them and where along the process you are. I submitted to three agents in my first round, waited a month, got one rejection. I submitted to three more. Within a week, I had a full manuscript request from Mark Falkin, who I ended up signing with. I was very lucky. I hit everything at the right time, and I found an agent who aligned with me on the vision for the book and the type of writing I want to do, and who’s been in my corner, so to speak, right from the beginning.
Photo credit Mike Kroph
6. How did you celebrate when you learned your book would be published?
I took my mom’s dog on a walk. I was in between degree programs at the University of Glasgow (where I am now, pursuing a DFA), and I didn’t have a car so when she and my sister went to work in the morning, I was left stranded at home. She’s got this little mutt, he’s some sort of jack russell-corgi mix named Homer, and going on walks is his Favorite Activity Ever, so that’s what we did. It was strange timing, because we had just come home from my grandmother’s funeral, so I don’t know that I can say I really celebrated until my launch night a few weeks ago.
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?)
I think it was the launch night, to be honest. Nothing quite felt real before then. Or, maybe not real, but I’m the sort of melancholy personality that doesn’t trust anything until I’m holding it in my hands. That was pretty emotional. And it was so lovely travelling back to my tiny hometown of Crozet, VA and celebrating with people who’ve known me for decades. I’m embarrassed because I was so overwhelmed with feels that I forgot half of their names – not a great look when they ask you to sign their book! We had the launch at Bluebird & Co., which is this wonderful little bookstore that’s only been open about a year. Flannery and Chelsea and all their staff are just the most lovely human beings. They’ve been so supportive right from the day I introduced myself and told them about the book, and they made the whole launch day such a special experience for me.
8. What’s your best advice for someone who wants to be published?
You have to believe in yourself, because no one else needs to. It sounds bleak, but it’s true. The arts are so undervalued, everyone’s got an opinion on what you’re doing or how you’re choosing to spend your time. It can be demoralizing. So, you have to believe in yourself, always. Find whatever little flame of hope lives in your soul and protect it. And, find your community, surround yourself with people who inspire you. I’ve been lucky enough here in Glasgow to have been adopted by the local poets. I go to their readings and launches and perform at open mics. They inspire me, as artists; I’ve learned so much from them. From my perspective, poetry is a space where I get to do writing for fun – there’s no stakes for me at those open mics, I can take my spaghetti and throw it at the wall. And that’s really what writing should be at the end of the day, right? Why do it if it’s not fun?
9. What are you currently reading? Or, what's one of the best novels you've read lately?
I’m currently reading Rachel Eve Moulton’s The Insatiable Volt Sisters, and loving it! It’s about two sisters who grew up on an island and were separated until their father’s death brings them back together. There’s ghosts and mysteries and flawed female characters, it’s been a perfect book to kick off my summer with. On the other end of my bookshelf, I’m reading a collection of Hugh MacDiarmid’s poetry. A big part of my DFA research centers around the movement of Scots language in southern Appalachia, and the oral storytelling that grew from that. MacDiarmid was a brilliant Scottish poet who in a lot of ways spearheaded the reclamation of Scots as a written language. If you’re an English speaker and want to test out reading in a new language, Scots is a great one to mess around in – it’s close enough to English that you won’t be totally lost, but there are some great new words and phrases in there, enough to keep you on your toes.
10. What are you working on now? Any projects coming out soon?
I’ve got two things simmering that are connected. My DFA project is, in a nutshell, a study of who we in America would call the Scotch-Irish (they cringe when I use that term here in Scotland) diaspora into a tiny part of Virginia known as Sugar Hollow. There’s a sad history there, of the creation of Shenandoah National Park. I’ve become interested in the way that group carried Scots language with them, and how they kept history through oral storytelling, or “craic” as they might say on this side of the pond. So, that project is looking like it’ll end up some sort of hybrid poetry-essay thing. The second project is my next novel. I don’t want to say too much about it as it’s still very much in its infancy, but I’m creeping a little further into Sugar Hollow, and seeing what I find.