t i K b u l C Book
n o i t a s r e v n A Cowith
Q. How did you come up with the idea to write Blood Sugar? My husband is a type 1 diabetic, which means he can die in the middle of the night from low blood sugar. It’s a real thing, so common it has a name: “dead in bed.” So one night I’m awake, can’t sleep, my husband is sound asleep first as always, and I start wondering . . . if he died, and I frantically called 911, would the police arrive and think I killed him? This might seem like a weird leap but my mind always wanders when I can’t sleep, and I imagine what if this or what if that. I am also a big fan of true crime and I know the spouse is often the first suspect. So then I started thinking about my day, my week, my movements. Would meaningless things like the fact that I texted our dog-walker twenty times that afternoon add up to motive, like an affair? And then I thought, wait, what if I actually had killed other people before, in my past, and gotten away with it. But now I’m being investigated by the police, for my husband’s murder, no stone left unturned! And in that moment, in my bed at three a.m., the plot for my novel, Blood Sugar, was born. My husband is totally fine by the way!
Q. Your decision to give your absurdly charming serial killer a career as a therapist was an inspired one. Why did you land on that choice and what led to that decision?
about
When I was a junior in college, I attempted to jump onto a moving Amtrak train because if I missed that train, I would have missed a class, and I was a very diligent student. I learned that trains appear to be moving much slower than they actually are because of their enormous size, and after I leapt into the air, hurling myself toward a door that was sliding open and closed, I only made it halfway in. My other half was stuck in the gap, the one we are supposed to mind, and to make a very long story short, I got fully sucked into the gap, then dragged under the train, then I fell six feet underneath the station platform. It was an absolute miracle or incredible luck that I survived. After my long physical recovery, I still had post-traumatic stress syndrome and started to see a therapist. Sitting on her couch week after week changed my life. My nightmares stopped, my mind quieted, and my existential crisis drifted away. And then I had so much more to talk about! Childhood, boyfriends, why the movie Edward Scissorhands put me in such an emotional tailspin. I loved going to therapy and have stayed in therapy for most of my adult life. Because I am a writer and tell stories, and my own therapists’ personal lives are so unknown to me, I couldn’t help but imagine their lives. What have they done? What have they seen? And this gave me the idea to make my heroine a psychologist. I wanted her to sit in a chair listening to others on the couch, while the
Author photo credit Sela Shiloni
reader gets to see a rare glimpse inside a therapist’s own mind.
Q. Without giving too much away, chronic illness serves as the narrative engine of Blood Sugar. How does this function as a source of narrative suspense? Because my IRL husband is a type 1 diabetic, my awareness of chronic illness in many seemingly healthy young people is broadened. Some days it is easy to forget his pancreas does not work, and other days are full of worry: blood sugar highs are very detrimental to his long-term health and lows are immediately life-threatening. Worrying about my husband, especially at night when he is asleep and might not feel a low blood sugar and slip into shock and die, and thinking about other chronic illnesses and the millions who have them, raises the stakes of everyday existence, making the oft mundane a life-or-death situation. My goal was that by using this somewhat ordinary disease to heighten the stakes, I would make the tension in Blood Sugar feel totally realistic and relatable, and yet still fraught and suspenseful. I think if done thoughtfully and truthfully, exploring chronic disease in fiction can bring insight into those who suffer and caretake, as well as bring added dire circumstances to the story.
Q. Though Blood Sugar is your debut novel, you’re a seasoned screenwriter and producer with credits on shows including GLOW, The Bold Type, The Carrie Diaries, and Neflix’s forthcoming To All the Boys series spinoff, XO, Kitty. How has the experience of writing this novel differed from writing for the screen? When writing for the screen, every moment costs money, so scenes need to be crisply poignant or dramatic or emotional or comedic and have a very clear purpose to move the plot along or deepen the character development. There is no time to meander. When writing this novel, I allowed myself the luxury to explore without worrying about budgets and page count. I dove
y d e g a r T + time y d e m o =c
into the characters and the world without fretting over pacing, to really express all the ideas in my head and delve into minutia and detail. This was a huge difference in my process. Then, because I wanted this novel to be as bingeable as an exciting TV series, I went back in to edit and I approached the rewrite like a TV writer—attempting to make sure every moment was meaningful to plot or character. I made the chapters short, as if they were scenes. I created twists and turns and reveals as cliff-hangers, thinking about them almost as if they were the ends to episodes. I also made sure no detail was superfluous and everything mentioned came back in a meaningful way. So no “real estate,” as we say with script page-counting, was wasted.
Q. You’ve also previously published a comedic memoir, How to Get Divorced by 30. What is the biggest difference between writing fiction and nonfiction? What is the key to writing across genres—fiction to nonfiction, comedy to noir—so seamlessly? I am a big believer in tragedy plus time equals comedy. Depending on the structure of the story I am telling, I can lean into the comedy or the tragedy/drama. My memoir definitely takes the bad times in my life and looks at them through a lens of humor, because I gave myself the time to reflect before writing it. In this novel, the heroine, Ruby Simon, is going through horrible events in real time. So we are with her in the rawest moments of her life. But she is also very self-aware and has a great sense of irony. She, too, believes tragedy plus time equals comedy, so she can think about her own past with humor.
The big difference between nonfiction and fiction is the difference between writing myself and creating a protagonist I fully understand but, most importantly, know is not me. I am very pale and basically allergic to the sun. So I always wear giant hats and long sleeves during the day, and I stay away from the beach and the ocean. In order to make Ruby different from me from the very first page of the novel, I made Ruby an ocean-loving beachgoer. By picturing her with tan skin happily swimming in the ocean under the bright sun, I could immediately see her as someone separate from myself and then tell her story, using many details from my own life to anchor that story and make it feel like it was rooted in reality. For instance, I am very exacting and organized, and I use one pen until that pen runs out. I also grew up in Miami Beach, like Ruby. I took parts of my personality and my past, then exaggerated them and twisted them and turned them inside out to create an original character whom I could admire and love and be a little afraid of, but who is certainly not me. I think the key to writing across genres is to always find a way to feel connected to the material, but also be removed from it enough to judge it honestly.
Q. Ruby murders those she sees as a threat to the people she loves most; as a result, she is the moral center of the book not in spite of the three people she has killed, but because she has killed them. How does it shape the book’s view of morality and justice? One exciting part of writing this novel was picturing the readers forming their own opinions of Ruby. I think each individual reader ultimately gets to decide if Ruby is the moral center. Or if she is misguided. Ruby would tell you it is more important to make clear decisions and then not regret them, than to morally judge decisions already made. I think humans have an amazing ability to justify any behavior. “I ate a bag of cookies because I ran a 5K.” “I lied because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.” “I only cheated because I was drunk.” And on and on. Ruby murders to protect her sister and herself and the world in general. She comes at it from a place she can justify. She does give people a chance; however, when she concludes there is a rotten egg, she feels no qualms about tossing it.
Q. At its core, Blood Sugar is a book about the extraordinary things people do for love. What is the role of love in crime fiction? Can love be a source of narrative suspense? If love leads to crime, it is clear, at least at the beginning, that the criminal is not a sociopath or out to inflict pain on others just for fun. There is a purpose for the crime and that purpose is universally acceptable. The role of love in crime fiction is to pull the reader in, make the decisions of the criminal relatable, make it okay to do something bad because it is for a good cause. In terms of narrative suspense, I believe love trumps all other stakes. Love is more important than money or power. We root for a bank robber to get away with it so he has enough money to pay for his mother’s medical bills, far more so than we would if he wanted the money to buy a yacht. Love can manipulate the context of criminal behavior so that justice and morals take on a new meaning.
Q. What’s next for you? I have a couple other novel ideas that have been rattling around in my brain, and I will write them. Both have been plotted and outlined and are patiently percolating in my laptop. Also, over the next year, I will be developing and writing a fictional dramedy TV series for MGM Studios about the secret life of a romance novelist in the 1940s. As well as co-show-running and writing XO, Kitty, a new series for Netflix that is a spinoff of their hit movie To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. I am thrilled to be so busy!
Reading group guide ] 1. Blood Sugar is narrated in the first person, allowing us to become entwined with
6.
Ruby’s inner thoughts and judgments. How
Discuss the role of therapy and therapists
did this affect your reading experience? Do
in Blood Sugar. Why do you think Ruby is a
you think that you would have felt differ-
therapist? Do you think she is a good one?
ently about Ruby if the story had been told in a different way?
2.
7. In the end, Ruby is saved from punishment by those who have benefitted from her
Many of the characters in Blood Sugar are
past kindnesses. What was your reaction
guilty of lying, both to protect themselves
to her acquittal? Do “good” actions ever
and others. Think of some examples of
make up for “bad” ones?
different lies in the book, big and small, and discuss if you think they are justified.
3.
8. What do you imagine happens to Ruby after the novel’s end? Do you think her
Did you identify with Ruby or have
habit of murdering once each decade
empathy for her? Did you find yourself
will continue?
rooting for her to get away with her crimes? Why or why not?
4. Compare and contrast the different ways that characters cope with their grief in
9. At its core, Blood Sugar is a book about the extraordinary things people do for love. What is the role of love in crime fiction?
Blood Sugar, taking a particular look at
10.
Ruby, Gertrude, and Gabrielle.
Do you think that the ending of
5. Though Blood Sugar is a suspense novel, it is at times quite funny and poignant. How does the novel play with genre definitions? Did it surprise you?
Blood Sugar is just? How do Ruby’s actions change our conception of morality and justice in the book?
ia r g n a s ] INGREDIENTS 2 tablespoons sugar 1 orange, cut into wedges 1 apple, cored and diced 1 lemon, cut into wedges ½ cup brandy ½ cup orange juice 1 bottle dry red wine (like Rioja) Garnish: orange wheel STEPS In a large pitcher, add the sugar, orange, apple and lemon and muddle for 30 seconds. Add the brandy and orange juice and muddle again for 30 seconds. Add the red wine and stir. Serve in a red wine glass with ice, and garnish with an orange wheel.
i n ti r a m a k d o v ] INGREDIENTS 2 ½ ounces vodka ½ ounce dry vermouth 1 dash orange bitters Garnish: lemon twist STEPS Add the vodka, dry vermouth and orange bitters into a mixing glass with ice and stir until very wellchilled, about 20 to 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Both recipes from Liquor.com liquor.com/recipes/classic-sangria/ liquor.com/vodka-martini-cocktail-recipe-5076791