Zoje Stage: Authors Interviewing Characters

SOMETHING OF A CALLING

Detective Andy Cooper is about to retire. She isn’t sure what’s next … perhaps traveling in the RV she has yet to buy, with a dog she doesn’t currently own. Perhaps gardening near the ever-shrinking patch of woods behind her house-once the cable company’s backhoe is removed.

She’ll need to do something, if only to distract herself from how empty her life has become. After the murder of her young daughter by a drunk driver. After the divorce. After the realization that all she has is her job and that she’s about to lose that, too.

Everything changes when bodies begin to turn up. Murdered, but how? Not by knife, gun, or any obvious weapon. Instead: teeth marks. Chunks missing. Like they’d been chewed on. And not by humans.

As she’s struggling to solve her final case, an unexpected new friendship seems like just what Andy needs. Where she is detached from life, Fiona embraces it. Where she is a homebody, Fiona roams. Yet the women are drawn together by a shared love of nature and wildlife. Until Andy learns the dark truth behind Fiona’s smile. A secret that threatens to unravel the world as she knows it.

INTERVIEW WITH DETECTIVE ANDY COOPER

Zoje: Since I suspect our chat is going to get more serious, let’s start on a lighter note. What do you think is your greatest talent?

Andy: I would say staying calm under pressure. I’m pretty unflappable, which serves me well when I have to investigate a difficult or unpleasant crime scene. 

Zoje: What do you think is your most unappreciated quality?

Andy: My dry sense of humor. Apparently a lot of people don’t understand a deadpan expression or delivery. Even that probably didn’t come across as funny… 

Zoje: Do you ever wish you’d lived in a different time or place?

Andy: A different time? Probably not. The history of humanity has been consistently disturbing. I don’t think there’s ever been an “ideal” era. As far as another place…? What’s that expression…wherever you go, there you are? But seriously, it’s easy to romanticize a quaint French village or a charming little coastal community, but I’m not so naïve as to believe utopia exists anywhere. Though to be in a country with universal healthcare often sounds appealing.

Zoje: I’m curious if something specific led to your decision to retire? You’re good at your job, you seem to find it at least moderately fulfilling. But it doesn’t seem like you were that excited about leaving it behind—no plans to seek out that quaint French village or anything like that—so why do it?

Andy: I was getting weary—you know, same old, same old. And even though Longdan isn’t a bustling metropolis with endless crime, seeing the worst of people—or people on their worst days—gets exhausting. So I felt in my bones that it was time to make a change, and retiring seemed like the first step. I figured once I had my time to myself I’d be able to tap into a dormant desire and sort out the next chapter of my life.

Zoje: It didn’t really work out as you expected.

Andy: No. But I have clarity now about my purpose, as surreal as that may be…given the circumstances.

Zoje: Do you wish now you’d finished up just a couple weeks sooner, and avoided this final homicide case?

Andy: Yes and no. It’s easy—and tempting—to avoid hard things. Easy to let stuff fall on someone else’s shoulders—their problem, not mine. But that’s part of the quagmire with the environmental situation we find ourselves in. Someone was always going to have to pay the price, and it could only be pushed off to the future for so long. But at the end of the day, I’m glad it was me, glad I was there to help unravel things. I’ve never felt as needed as I do now. 

Zoje: Do you worry at all about what the future—the world’s future—is going to look like, with all the changes ahead?

Andy: As cynical as this may sound, it all could’ve been worse. I know people don’t like to think in apocalyptic terms, but the trajectory of human civilization was unsustainable without serious changes. And we’ve known that for a long time. Yes, the new world order will be devastating in certain ways. But it leaves the possibility of reestablishing a more equitable future. I’m sorry that this is a painful change, but reality was already painful.

Zoje: … 

Andy: What?

Zoje: It still sounds pretty apocalyptic.

Andy: There isn’t a less serious way to talk about the destruction of all life on earth.

Zoje: Fair point.

Andy: And at the end of the day, that’s what I’m working to avoid.

BUY SOMETHING OF A CALLING HERE

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Zoje Stage is a USA Today and internationally bestselling author of psychological thrillers (Baby Teeth, Dear Hanna, Getaway), psychological horror (Wonderland, Mothered), and offbeat books of dark whimsy (My UnderSlumberBumbleBeast, The Girl Who Outgrew the World). She’s been a “Book of the Week” author in People, and a Bram Stoker award nominee. Her books have been named “best of the year” by Forbes Magazine, Library Journal, PopSugar, Barnes & Noble, Book Riot, BookPage, Bloody Disgusting, and more. She lives in Pittsburgh with her cats.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Interviews, On Writing