Authors Interviewing Characters: Carol Plum-Ucci

INSANE POSSIBILITIES by Carol Plum-Ucci

Carol Plum-Ucci is the award-winning author of INSANE POSSIBILITIES, an intense psychological thriller and family drama. INSANE POSSIBILITIES introduces Toby Kellerman, an 18 year old facing a tough recovery after surviving a push down a well. Stuck in a hospital bed, he tries to unravel an even tougher mystery — was his near-fatal fall the act of a local, vengeful ghost? Or did one of his beloved younger sisters try to kill him?

Character Name: TOBY KELLERMAN, PROTAGONIST

How would you describe your family or your childhood? 

Normal. But doesn’t everyone think their family is normal?  My sister Grace, 15, is the life of every party. My sister Trinity, 11, is special needs with selective mutism, who falls on the ground in a trance and scratches her face when she gets upset. Grace called it her “snake thing” when we were younger because the noise Trin made was hissy and even more scary than the scratching. Was this normal? No…but by normal, I guess I mean that people in your family do what you expect them to, when you expect them to do it. 

What was your greatest talent?

My greatest talent was making peace between Mom and Grace when Grace became a teenager, and her mouth suddenly grew exponentially. I’m also talented at reading my little sister’s mind, because that’s the only way to know what she’s thinking. Neither of those facts give me bragging rights–I don’t know why it’s so hard to say the things you’re good at. Other people would tell you I’m a champion diver and swimmer, accepted to the Coast Guard Academy. 

Significant other?

At 18 I can only tell you about my girlfriends. My most embarrassing moment happened in 7th grade when I asked Jana Kline to the island hoagie shop for hoagies. Maybe my third bite in, I realized that I left my phone and my wallet on the kitchen counter and could not pay for this. I choked and spit a massive glurt of ham and cheese into Jana’s hair. That was right after spilling my coke. Yeah, yeah, I’m too sensitive, but it was sophomore year before I went out with anyone else. 

Where do you live?

My family has lived In Port Dingo, on a barrier island off of South Jersey, for about three generations.  My dad is a sea captain who’s gone a lot. Now that beach houses are so popular, it’s hard to imagine the day when people were afraid to live on the barriers because there were no bridges, no roads, and a hurricane could kill everyone.  But in 1902, several sea captains built on Port Dingo, thinking their families could weather all the hardships if they built together and had each other’s backs. My family owns one of those three original houses. 

Do you have any enemies?

I never thought so—until I’m spending seven weeks in something akin to a body cast, trying to figure out who pushed me down the well. 

Do you have children, pets, both, or neither? 

When Trinity was five, she got mauled by a dog.  She had more than 40 stitches and has the scars to this day. So we became the family that would never have pets. It did always feel like something was missing from our house. Think of that all-American family with the three kids and the golden retriever.  Only there’s no golden retriever. 

What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?

When Trinity got mauled by the dog, it was kind of my fault.  We were on family vacation at Lake Indor. Only 11 years old myself, I thought it was a genius move to stick Trinity in this fenced-in backyard of what looked like a deserted house while Grace and I tried to cross the monkey bridge over the rapids. We didn’t see the dog or notice that this “deserted” house had an air conditioner in the upstairs window that was running.  

Trinity’s scars were like a flag that waved in my guilty face every day for years.  Most kids’ armpits are shaped like a hollowed-out egg.  Trinity’s was shaped a cone. It comes to a point. I wouldn’t say I ever got over my guilt for being that stupid. We just moved on. 

What keeps you awake at night?

When I was five, my grandma on my dad’s side died in a mental institution, having suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.  Supposedly I had met her a couple of times but was too young to remember.  I only heard enough hushed-whisper stories from my parents that when she died, I got scared she was coming into my room at night. It was just this sudden feeling like I was being watched.  My mom solved it by putting a fishtank in my room.  I got used to watching them swim around their blue-green world if I woke up, and I never had another problem—until I was recovering in the hospital this summer from my trip down the well. In my room, drawers started opening and closing by themselves and things started moving around.  Try watching that while you’re immobilized. 

What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?

I know that somebody pushed me down that well. I did not fall. It’s like, I’ve got my choice between my little sisters, a priest, and a dead witch. I’ve got nothing but insane possibilities, so why not pick the one where no living people get hurt? . 

—

Carol Plum-Ucci is best known for her young adult novels that explore themes of psychological suspense, mystery, and the complexities of human nature. Her debut novel, The Body of Christopher Creed, won a Michael L. Printz Honor Book Award along with many other national honors. The novel’s dark, atmospheric tone and exploration of identity and social alienation resonated with young readers, earning Plum-Ucci a spot as a notable voice in contemporary YA literature.

Following her debut, Plum-Ucci wrote six successful novels, five of which won national awards. She has twice been a finalist in the Edgar Allan Poe Awards and has received seven citations from the American Library Association.

Plum-Ucci was raised in a funeral home on a barrier island in South Jersey. Both her home and the island have fed her dark side, of which she says, “I do not write horror. I just love to play with the dark.” Her stories transcend age groups, appealing to readers of all backgrounds who are interested in layered characters and thought-provoking themes.

She lives near Atlantic City, NJ, with her family.

INSANE POSSIBILITIES

The night before his eighteenth birthday, Toby Kellerman fell ninety feet down a well. Seven weeks passed in what he describes as “suspension h***,” a rotating bed for spinal cord injuries compounded by bone breaks. Able to move only his arms and watch life through an adjustable mirror, Toby had plenty of time to think about how he got there. Somebody had pushed him.

He could clearly remember running footsteps as he stared into the black well with his two younger sisters. They’d been on family vacation. Nobody knew them. There was no motive.

An Anglican priest, on an evening stroll past the site, saw the brother and two sisters but nobody else. It had been dark. The police started to believe the attempted murderer could have been one of Toby’s sisters. Grace was a bouncy, bubbly 15-year-old with a ton of friends. Trinity was “special.” With a stratospheric IQ, the 11-year-old had trouble talking and was considered a cutter, thanks to a compulsive habit of scratching her face. But Toby had developed a special bond after she’d been mauled by a dog six years earlier.

With the help of a girl on his rehab ward, Toby begins to see that the accident smells of a haunting. He never paid much attention to local Lake Indor rot about a witch with a meat hook, but investigation has him realizing that the 18th century orphan likely died falling down a well…and likely the same well he went down.

It’s not a comfortable position, being totally confined, while things start to move around the room, drawers begin to open and shut by themselves, and someone or something keeps pulling off the sock in his blind spot and scratching his leg.

Where is the truth? Has he unwittingly picked up a malevolent spirit, or is he imagining it all to protect his beloved youngest sister?

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Category: Interviews, On Writing