From Cult to Crown: Interview with Taylor Stevens on How She Wrote A Hit Thriller

TODAY is the release date for The Informationist (Crown/Random House), a thriller by debut author Taylor Stevens which will probably be topping the NYT best-seller list (yes, I've read it, and it's fantastic.)  Taylor is the friend of a friend, so graciously agreed to stop by my blog and answer writing questions, like just how do you go from growing up in a cult to writing a smash thriller published by Crown, with foreign rights even purchased? Just how does that happen?

Q: The reviews on this book are amazing. Starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal. Feature stories galore--Associated Press, even Vogue! The results are in and you're a hit. What does that feel like?


A: Somewhat surreal, actually. My life and everything that led up to writing and getting published could have come straight out of a Chicken Soup for the Soul book—one of those things you read about happening to other people, but never consider happening to you.

Q: Taylor, your book is a compelling thriller set in Equatorial Guinea and the jungles, towns, beaches and forests of Africa. How were you able to write about such a mysterious place with such detail?

A: I’d lived in Equatorial Guinea for over two years and had also spent several months in Cameroon, so I had been quite immersed in the location. When writing THE INFORMATIONIST, my initial motive, even before I had characters or a plot, or any idea really of what I would write, was to bring this tiny country to life for readers who might never have the chance to visit.

Q: Family Circle magazine says: "Stevens' debut novel is as compelling as her actual back story." How much of the story--or Vanessa Munroe--is similar to you and your childhood?

A: Not a whole lot, although we do share some commonalities: The hijacked childhood, having no home to return to, and always being the outsider looking in.

Q: Were all the parts about the government structure, tribes, etc. accurate, or how much detail was fictionalized? How much research did you have to do, in other words?

Most of the Malabo scenes were drawn from real experience, and these were some of the most difficult parts of the book to construct: the issue wasn’t painting the landscape, but dampening it enough to avoid turning the book into a travelogue, and to keep the action moving. Considering that I’d lived in Equatorial Guinea for over two years, I had to do more research than one might suppose.

Q: Just how did you write such a strong book, with a strong character as your heroine? Did you outline, map, plot, or let it be character-driven? Any methods you used?

A: When I started, I had no idea what I was doing. I’d never taken a writing course or studied creative writing, and because the religious cult that I was born into and raised within didn’t believe in education, I hadn’t even managed to get through 6th grade English. I didn’t know how to plot or how to build characters, and I learned this through the experience of writing THE INFORMATIONIST.

Q: Did you write the first draft and then revise, or did you revise as you go along?

A: I had to revise more than I’d like to admit, and typically did this as the story progressed. Again, when I first started, I had no idea what I was doing. I had no plot, no characters, only the location in which the bulk of the story would be set, and this meant learning as I went, which also meant a lot of re-writes just to keep the first parts of the book consistent with the latter parts as the quality improved.

Q: How long did this book take to write? Did you write everyday?

In all, it took about two years, while I juggled being a full-time mom. I didn’t always manage to write every day, but I tried to. (continued after pic)

(Crown photo)
Q: How did you go about finding a publisher and agent? How long did that take?

I searched for agents using the same process that had taught me about the publishing industry: The Internet. Through websites that listed literary agents, blogs, online Q&As, and so forth, I built a short list of names who were still seeking new clients, who preferred email submissions, who represented my genre and who were with reputable agencies. I wrote two query letters in drastically different styles, and unable to decide which one read better, queried five agents, alternating between the versions. I then waited two to three weeks before querying another five agents. I went through the same rite of passage that most people go through: the waiting, the silence, the nothing. But then, as the weeks went on and I was up to fifteen query letters sent, the responses started coming. I received a few rejections, but I also received four requests for partials, and from those, two offers of representation—one offer from each of the two versions of the query letter.

Q: You're working on book two about Vanessa Munroe. Any hints as to what the setting/plot will be here? Will you have Vanessa let down her guard a little bit this time...maybe make her a little more vulnerable or change a little bit of her character at all? I found her amazing because she was crazy-strong and found myself wondering if she could be more real, or if that's the allure--the mystery of the heroine.
A: THE INNOCENT, the second installment in the Michael Munroe series, draws heavily on my childhood of having been raised within The Children of God, an apocalyptic religious cult. Although the story is fiction, it’s based on truth and probably the closest I’ll ever get to writing an autobiography. As far as Munroe, herself, to me she has always been who she is as the natural result of her storied life, and I imagine that as the arc of her experiences develops in print, we will see parts of her that we haven’t yet seen and understand better what drives her choices.

Q: What's your advice to other writers? Any words of wisdom to share?

Don’t listen to the people who say you have to know someone or have connections in order to get published. I wasn’t in a position to attend writers’ conferences or meet agents in person to pitch a book. Neither was I well read enough to track down the agents of authors whose books I liked, and my one favorite author was already dead. I couldn’t even afford the postage to SASE. My only option, really, was to cold query agents by email, which, if you believe the naysayers, is impossible.

Q: And, how were you able to write this and still meet the demands of life as a mom?

It was certainly a juggle. Now that my kids are in school, writing is easier. I am my most productive at night and into the wee morning hours, but since I’m up early in the morning in order to get them off to school, and since I don’t function well without sleep, this also means I’m rarely able to access my most productive hours. Instead, I work around their schedule, and by work I mean mostly procrastinate until I realize that they’ll be home from school any minute, at which time the noise level will return to filled-stadium loud, so I’d better actually put some words down. Sometimes the words are even worth keeping.#