L.S. Stratton: Authors Interviewing Characters
IN DEADLY COMPANY
An incisive workplace satire and twisty murder mystery featuring a young executive assistant who realizes the peril in being diligently attentive to her boss’s whims.
As the assistant of the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, Nicole Underwood has plenty of tasks on her to-do list—one of which is the blowout birthday celebration for her nightmare, one-percenter boss, Xander Chambers. But when the party ends in chaos and murder and Nicole is one of the survivors, suspicion—from the investigators to the media—lands on her. Was she the reason for all the bloodshed?
A year after those deadly events, Nicole tries to set the public record straight by agreeing to consult on a feature film based on her story. However, on the set in LA, she’s sidelined by inappropriate casting and persistent, bizarre script changes, while also haunted by the events of that party weekend with visions of her now-deceased boss. It seems clearing her name isn’t so simple when the question of guilt or innocence is…complicated.
INTERVIEW WITH A CHARACTER
It’s not often that authors get a chance to interview their own characters. This was a fun chance to dust off my reporter fedora (I used to be newspaper crime reporter though admittedly sans fedora) to interview Nicole Underwood, former assistant of the now deceased Altruist Corporation CEO Xander Chambers and protagonist of my novel, In Deadly Company. I wanted to ask her about the fateful birthday weekend that made her so notorious and the movie that’s being made about those events. She doesn’t look like how most would expect a high-powered Manhattan assistant to look. She’s petite—only five feet, two inches—and looks like a college graduate in between classes with her white t-shirt, frayed jeans and long braids that she wears part up, part down, framing her heart-shaped face.
L.S.: Thank you for agreeing to do this interview, Ms. Underwood.
Nicole: Just call me Nikki. When anyone calls me Ms. Underwood, I look around and expect to see my mom nearby.
L.S.: (*laughing) I’ll call you Nikki then. You seem so laidback. I have to admit that I’m kind of surprised since I heard you don’t usually speak to the press.
Nicole: No, not usually. I don’t have anything against reporters. I’m just not a fan of some of the articles that’ve been written about me and about what happened that weekend at Maple Grove. That’s all.
L.S.: For the record, you’re referring to the murders that happened at your former boss Xander Chambers’ estate in New York during his birthday celebration a year and half ago, correct? And Mr. Chambers was one of the casualties.
Nicole: That is correct.
L.S.: Do you feel you’ve been misquoted in the past?
Nicole: Not necessarily misquoted. I just don’t like the spin that’s been put in the stories about the . . . well, the murders and my part in the whole thing. I can tell that some reporters came in with their own agendas, and they used my quotes to push a narrative. I’ve been burned too many times not to hesitate when I do these interviews.
L.S.: Speaking of narrative, I heard that now you have a forum to tell your story as you remember it. You sold the rights to your story and it’s being made into a major feature film, Murder in the Valley. Congratulations!
Nicole: Thank you. It’s all been a bit of a whirlwind. It felt like one moment I was signing a contract, and the next moment, the movie was being greenlit by a studio. I didn’t know things were going to move so fast. We start shooting next week.
L.S.: Well, there’s a lot of interest in your story. There are double crosses and secrets. It explores so many themes like the dysfunction of the modern workplace, power, and privilege. That should give plenty of material for any screenwriter to work with. I heard you agreed to be a consultant on the script as well.
Nicole: Yes, I’m a consultant, which is a new experience for me.
X: Are you excited?
Nicole: I don’t know if excited is the right word. It’s going to be weird watching people act out what was a very traumatic experience for me. I’m still going through therapy to process it all. Witnessing something that gruesome, and later having to defend your name in the media, is never easy. I just hope I like the finished product. Fingers crossed. (*holding up crossed fingers)
L.S.: Can you tell us about the film? What you know about it so far. How is it different from the documentary about that weekend? I heard the doc was number one for five weeks on Netflix, by the way. It was a big hit!
Nicole: Yeah, the public’s interest in the story has been overwhelming. The movie covers a lot of what the documentary talked about, but it’ll give you more background about me and how I started working at Altruist Corporation for Xander’s mom, Bridget. This is before I became Xander’s executive assistant. It’ll put in better context what was really happening at Maple Grove that weekend. The movie will also dive more into the relationships between the guests who were there at the birthday celebration.
L.S.: Yes, I know some of the relationships were very complicated. I don’t want to ruin the film for those who haven’t already read or heard about your story, but frankly, considering all that was happening behind closed doors at the mansion, it’s not that shocking how things came to a head that weekend.
Nicole: Well, it shocked the hell out of me! I knew they all weren’t fond of each other, but I didn’t know how many were capable of murder.
L.S.: You really had no idea what was going to happen? Not just a little?
Nicole: If you’re asking if I intentionally tried to get people to kill each other, then the answer is no. I’ve never lied about that to the police or in any of my interviews.
L.S.: But you have lied before. You kept a lot of secrets.
Nicole: That sounds like a statement, not a question.
L.S.: Just an observation. Even in your interviews, you admitted that you weren’t always honest. Not with Xander Chambers or his other party guests.
Nicole: No, I wasn’t. But I had my reasons. The movie will explain it all—hopefully.
L.S.: I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Thanks again for speaking with me today, Nikki.
Nicole: Thank you.
BUY HERE
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L.S. Stratton is an NAACP Image Award-nominated author and former crime newspaper reporter who has written more than a dozen books under different pen names in just about every genre from thrillers to romance to historical fiction. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband, their daughter, and their tuxedo cat.
Category: Interviews, On Writing
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