Authors Interviewing Characters: Lee Kelly interviews Liz and Britta from With Regrets

September 5, 2023 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

Authors Interviewing Characters: Lee Kelly interviews Liz and Britta from With Regrets

Seven courses, seven guests, twenty-four hours that will obliterate everything.

When recent NYC-transplant Liz Brinkley and her husband are invited to an exclusive soiree by their neighbor, “lifestyle guru” Britta Harris-Che, Liz’s immediate thought is hell no. Britta is insufferable, and Liz is wary to leave her young children with a barely-teenage babysitter. And yet she RSVPs anyway, trying to extend an olive branch to her withdrawing husband, who seems desperate to get in with the cliquey elite.

They’ve barely made it through their first round of champagne when a “red alert” comes through their phones, and every channel on the television tells the same story: strange atmospheric masses, reported to look like “glimmering clouds,” have been spreading through major U.S. cities and killing anyone they touch. Authorities have just one clear directive: Find shelter. Immediately.

A collective panic seizes the dinner party—all the guests have children at home—but leaving now means certain death. Instead, the group launches into survival mode, grabbing supplies to take shelter in Britta’s wine cellar. But everyone has very different opinions about the best plan from there . . . and some of the secrets the guests are keeping may prove just as dangerous as the threats outside.With Regrets is equal parts Big Little Lies and Bird Box, a suburban drama wrapped in a 24-hour story at the end of the world.

—

Thanks so much for being here today, Liz and Britta. It’s great to find you both alive and well, especially after the catastrophic events of a few months ago. Should we get the easy questions out of the way? Who’s the main character of the novel, With Regrets?

Liz and Britta (simultaneously): Me.

(Britta side-eyes Liz.)

Britta: Well. That’s awkward.

You’re both residents of the town of The Falls, New Jersey—a small, tight-knit, vibrant community, or at least it was before the glimmering cloud phenomenon. And yet you hardly knew each other before Britta’s Sunday Soiree dinner.

Britta: Which is precisely why I invited Liz in the first place. My husband Joel and I have lived in The Falls for almost eight years now, and we’re a very welcoming, open family, true pillars of the community. Given that Liz is such a lone wolf, I only thought it right to include her—

Liz: You invited me because I’m an author with an Instagram platform and you hoped my social media presence would boost your brand.

Britta: Oh please. That was just a silver lining!

Liz: And I’m not a ‘lone wolf,’ I just don’t belong in this town—I swear, The Falls feels like a sorority that I somehow forgot to pledge.

But Britta’s Sunday Soiree changed everything for you, didn’t it, Liz? In fact, can we talk a little bit about that fateful night of April 3rd—the night of Britta’s party?

Britta: My intention, as I mentioned, had been to bring neighbors together. But it was also a working dinner, as I’d planned to showcase my personal brand to a guest who works at the lifestyle company, Clementine. Although the event turned into such a headache, I tell you: so much drama, even before the glimmering clouds. The catering squad was down a chef, my husband and I had been fighting, several people canceled last minute—

Liz: Funny how Tom’s and my invites came last minute.

Let’s talk more about those glimmering clouds. Can you share how you felt when the news first broke that a dangerous phenomenon was spreading rapidly across the Eastern Seaboard?

Britta: Honest to God, first feeling: annoyance. So much work, planning, preparation rendered naught in an instant.

Liz: I was terrified. Like any sane person. My husband Tom had insisted we go to this party, even though the babysitter who showed up to watch our kids was all of about twelve. I’d been trying to check on them during the first course—

Britta: Which was squid and chorizo. Expertly paired with Cava.

Liz: But service was scrambled. There was this inhuman, haunting sound emanating through the line. We got the news alert at the same time, ordering us all to stay inside.

Britta: So instead, everyone had the ingenious idea of running into the streets.

Liz: Our children were at home! Of course we were going to leave!

Britta: If you’d stayed, we wouldn’t have lost poor—

Let’s avoid spoilers, ladies.

Britta: Right. Apologies.

Liz: That moment on Little Falls Road when we first tried to escape . . . (Liz swallows). It haunts my nightmares.

I can’t imagine how you must have been feeling. Although I tried, of course. I hope I got it right.

Britta: Is this really about you? Trust me, it was far more nerve-wracking to live through the apocalypse than to write it.

Sorry for being insensitive—though, um, speaking of insensitive, Britta, some guests have mentioned you took advantage of them, filming the trauma of the night and posting it to your Instagram platform. Can you comment on that?

Britta: (blushes) As an influencer, I need to be willing and able to use whatever life throws at me. To reflect upon and repackage big life developments as content and share that content in a way that inspires and comforts my followers.

Liz: In other words, yes she took advantage of us on the worst of our lives, and yes, I almost throttled her because of it—

On that note, why don’t we wrap it up? Thank you both for your time and . . . maybe I’ll see you in a sequel?

Liz: I don’t know. I barely got by last time under your watch.

Britta: And we’ll clearly need to sort out who’s headlining.

—

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Lee Kelly is the author of City of Savages, A Criminal Magic, and The Antiquity Affair (co-authored with Jennifer Thorne). Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Gingerbread House, Orca, and Tor.com, among other publications, and she is an MFA candidate at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. An entertainment lawyer by trade, Lee lives with her husband and two children in New Jersey, where you’ll find them engaged in one adventure or another.