Die For You by Lisa Unger
Lisa Unger novels take the reader on a journey inside the psyche of the American family. The dynamics and secrets that some families might share make Unger ask the question: How much can you really know someone? Her novel, Beautiful Lies, was nominated for a Thriller Award for best novel. Her latest, Die For You, continues the tradition of insightful and compelling thrillers. She talked to contributing editor Jeff Ayers about her background and her new book.What did you do before you decided to become a writer?
I've been a writer all of my life. I can't remember a time before I defined myself this way. But I never believed I could make my living at it - probably because that's what I was told. And on graduating from college, I needed to get a job - a real job, with a paycheck every two weeks! So I did the closest thing I could to actually following my dreams, I went into publishing and became a book publicist. It was a crazy job, but a really fun and dynamic one. My eight years in publishing gave me permission to do what I wanted to do. After all, I spent every working day promoting people who were doing it.
What prompted your switch?
So my publishing job just kept getting bigger and bigger and the amount of time I spent on my writing got smaller and smaller until I wasn't really writing at all. And then I had an epiphany. I realized one ugly day that everything about my life was wrong - I was with the wrong guy, I was devoting 110% of myself to a job I didn't love, and that I was letting the only dream I had of my life drift away. I realized that five, ten years down the road I was going to have to look at myself and say, "You know what? You never even tried." I couldn't live with that.
So I got serious about my writing, starting writing every day. That might mean getting up at four to write before work, or writing on my commute, or during my lunch hour, or staying in on weekends. It might be just a page or a paragraph - but I wrote something every day. And it took about a year and a half to finish that book. I started it when I was nineteen and finished it when I was twenty-nine.
How did you get your first book deal?
Even when I finished the manuscript, I didn't know what to do with it. I just kind of shelved it. I was a closet writer; no one at work knew I had these aspirations. I was happy just to have finished one and be working on another, figuring that I'd deal with the matter of publishing at some point.
But then I went to Key West to visit a friend and wound up meeting my husband - at Sloppy Joe's on Duval Street. It was really a Shazam! moment, truly love at first sight. And within six months, he had proposed, we both sold our homes and quit our big corporate jobs and moved to Florida. Before I left I sent my manuscript to my five top choice agents and held my breath. I figured I had enough money for a year where I would try to sell the one I wrote and write another.
Luckily, I was signed on by Elaine Markson (who, nearly ten years later, is still my agent) and she brokered a two book deal with St. Martin's Minotaur. I wrote four books for them under my maiden name, Lisa Miscione.
What sparked the idea for Beautiful Lies and its sequel?
Beautiful Lies was inspired by a postcard I got in the mail. It was one of those blue and white fliers - on one side there's an advertisement, on the other the picture of a missing child. I had a strange thought: What if I looked at this and recognized myself? The thought stayed with me and then I started hearing Ridley's voice.
But I was in a weird place at the time. My husband and I were talking about whether or not we wanted children. I was struggling with issues in my own family. And I was deep in thought about what it meant to be someone's parent and what it meant to be someone's child. And so something just clicked and I wrote Beautiful Lies. I didn't think there would be a sequel, but I couldn't stop hearing Ridley's voice and the unanswered questions at the end of Beautiful Lies - not to mention the beautiful lie I left dangling - kept nagging. So I wrote Sliver Of Truth.
The folks at St. Martin's weren't interested in that book. So while I was writing the fourth book in my contract with them, Elaine was shopping Beautiful Lies. Sally Kim at Shaye Areheart Books fell in love with it and I changed publishers. From Beautiful Lies forward I have published under my married name Lisa Unger.
How did the story for Die For You come about?
After Black Out, I was feeling pretty fried. It was my most intense writing experience and spending a year inside the head of Annie Powers was a bit unsettling, to say the least. My family and I did a home exchange and spent five weeks in Prague, where we just intended to chill a bit. But I was so inspired by that magnificent city, that I just couldn't keep myself from writing. I had this sense of the city as so regal, so beautiful but as a keeper of dark secrets. It was that vibe that inspired Die For You.
What is your typical writing day?
My golden writing hours are from 5 AM to Noon. I try to honor this as much as is possible with a three-and-a-half-year old running around - who also, for some reason, also likes to get up at 5 AM. I work as early as possible in the morning, so that I have the afternoons with my daughter when she gets home from pre-school at 12:30. But I often work at night after she goes to bed, if I didn't make the progress I'd hoped for that day. I wrote for so long while I had a full-time job and in all kinds of places - subways, buses, restaurants, meetings - that I have the ability to work anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances.
Why do you write about the themes of families and hidden secrets in the family structure?
I have no idea, really. This theme of domestic danger comes up again and again in my work and I don't have as much insight into why as one might imagine.
Statistically, stranger crime is at all time low. And the fact is, the greatest threat to women and children will generally come from someone they love and trust, someone who is sleeping under the same roof. And I suppose I have always found this idea very intriguing.
I had a pretty normal middle-class upbringing, no lurking secrets (that I know of), no violence, not even any particularly interesting dysfunction. So it's not a write-what-you-know scenario. I suppose it comes down to the fact that I've always been drawn to the dark side, the underbelly; what happens there fascinates me. And there's nothing darker or more frightening than discovering someone you love, who you trust completely, has a secret inner life, a dark past, a capacity for murder.
How has ITW helped you? What was your reaction to your Thriller nomination?
ITW is a wonderful writing community. I have felt welcomed and supported there in so many ways, more so than I have in any other group. Tess Gerritsen, one of my favorite people and writers, chose Beautiful Lies as a "Breakout Thriller" for Audible.com in association with ITW. Fellow ITW members such as Lee Child, Lisa Gardner and Joe Finder have all honored me with their support; I have been moved and humbled by their generous endorsements of my work. One of my short stories will be included in the next ITW Thriller anthology, True Thriller. I was "thrilled" to be invited!
As for the Thriller nomination - I was amazed and so excited to have been nominated. I was in such great company - Dan Silva, Stephen Leather, Joe Finder and Jeffrey Archer - that I just couldn't be disappointed when I didn't win. If I had to lose, I am glad it was to Joe Finder. He is such a lovely person and such a talented writer; he so richly deserves every accolade and success.
Contributing editor Jeff Ayers is the author of VOYAGES OF IMAGINATION: THE STAR TREK FICTION COMPANION Pocket
Books-November 2006. He frequently reviews thrillers for Library
Journal and regularly interviews authors for LJ, the Seattle
Post-Intellgencer, and Writer Magazine.
Even when I finished the manuscript, I didn't know what to do with it. I just kind of shelved it. I was a closet writer; no one at work knew I had these aspirations. I was happy just to have finished one and be working on another, figuring that I'd deal with the matter of publishing at some point.
But then I went to Key West to visit a friend and wound up meeting my husband - at Sloppy Joe's on Duval Street. It was really a Shazam! moment, truly love at first sight. And within six months, he had proposed, we both sold our homes and quit our big corporate jobs and moved to Florida. Before I left I sent my manuscript to my five top choice agents and held my breath. I figured I had enough money for a year where I would try to sell the one I wrote and write another.
Luckily, I was signed on by Elaine Markson (who, nearly ten years later, is still my agent) and she brokered a two book deal with St. Martin's Minotaur. I wrote four books for them under my maiden name, Lisa Miscione.
What sparked the idea for Beautiful Lies and its sequel?Beautiful Lies was inspired by a postcard I got in the mail. It was one of those blue and white fliers - on one side there's an advertisement, on the other the picture of a missing child. I had a strange thought: What if I looked at this and recognized myself? The thought stayed with me and then I started hearing Ridley's voice.
But I was in a weird place at the time. My husband and I were talking about whether or not we wanted children. I was struggling with issues in my own family. And I was deep in thought about what it meant to be someone's parent and what it meant to be someone's child. And so something just clicked and I wrote Beautiful Lies. I didn't think there would be a sequel, but I couldn't stop hearing Ridley's voice and the unanswered questions at the end of Beautiful Lies - not to mention the beautiful lie I left dangling - kept nagging. So I wrote Sliver Of Truth.
The folks at St. Martin's weren't interested in that book. So while I was writing the fourth book in my contract with them, Elaine was shopping Beautiful Lies. Sally Kim at Shaye Areheart Books fell in love with it and I changed publishers. From Beautiful Lies forward I have published under my married name Lisa Unger.
How did the story for Die For You come about?
After Black Out, I was feeling pretty fried. It was my most intense writing experience and spending a year inside the head of Annie Powers was a bit unsettling, to say the least. My family and I did a home exchange and spent five weeks in Prague, where we just intended to chill a bit. But I was so inspired by that magnificent city, that I just couldn't keep myself from writing. I had this sense of the city as so regal, so beautiful but as a keeper of dark secrets. It was that vibe that inspired Die For You.
What is your typical writing day?
My golden writing hours are from 5 AM to Noon. I try to honor this as much as is possible with a three-and-a-half-year old running around - who also, for some reason, also likes to get up at 5 AM. I work as early as possible in the morning, so that I have the afternoons with my daughter when she gets home from pre-school at 12:30. But I often work at night after she goes to bed, if I didn't make the progress I'd hoped for that day. I wrote for so long while I had a full-time job and in all kinds of places - subways, buses, restaurants, meetings - that I have the ability to work anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances.
Why do you write about the themes of families and hidden secrets in the family structure?
I have no idea, really. This theme of domestic danger comes up again and again in my work and I don't have as much insight into why as one might imagine.
Statistically, stranger crime is at all time low. And the fact is, the greatest threat to women and children will generally come from someone they love and trust, someone who is sleeping under the same roof. And I suppose I have always found this idea very intriguing.
I had a pretty normal middle-class upbringing, no lurking secrets (that I know of), no violence, not even any particularly interesting dysfunction. So it's not a write-what-you-know scenario. I suppose it comes down to the fact that I've always been drawn to the dark side, the underbelly; what happens there fascinates me. And there's nothing darker or more frightening than discovering someone you love, who you trust completely, has a secret inner life, a dark past, a capacity for murder.
How has ITW helped you? What was your reaction to your Thriller nomination?
ITW is a wonderful writing community. I have felt welcomed and supported there in so many ways, more so than I have in any other group. Tess Gerritsen, one of my favorite people and writers, chose Beautiful Lies as a "Breakout Thriller" for Audible.com in association with ITW. Fellow ITW members such as Lee Child, Lisa Gardner and Joe Finder have all honored me with their support; I have been moved and humbled by their generous endorsements of my work. One of my short stories will be included in the next ITW Thriller anthology, True Thriller. I was "thrilled" to be invited!
As for the Thriller nomination - I was amazed and so excited to have been nominated. I was in such great company - Dan Silva, Stephen Leather, Joe Finder and Jeffrey Archer - that I just couldn't be disappointed when I didn't win. If I had to lose, I am glad it was to Joe Finder. He is such a lovely person and such a talented writer; he so richly deserves every accolade and success.
Contributing editor Jeff Ayers is the author of VOYAGES OF IMAGINATION: THE STAR TREK FICTION COMPANION Pocket
Books-November 2006. He frequently reviews thrillers for Library
Journal and regularly interviews authors for LJ, the Seattle
Post-Intellgencer, and Writer Magazine. ThrillerFest
ITW's annual celebration of the thriller world is the largest event of its kind, a meeting place for authors, readers, budding writers, and publishing industry professionals.
For 2011, we’ll be back in the heart of New York in July with the ThrillerFest conference including CraftFest and AgentFest.
ThrillerFest VI will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
The dates will be July 6-9, 2011.
More information to follow.
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