RACHEL HOWZELL HALL

Interview by King Brooks of Black Page Turners

Behind The Book with Rachel Howzell Hall

Rachel Howzell Hall has been around for a while now, but I first found out about her and her work during the beginning of the pandemic with the release of her book ‘And Now She’s Gone.’ Ever since then, I have made it my job to always keep up with her next release. So, it was only right to sit down with her and interview her for this summer’s blockbuster release ‘We Lie Here.’

King Brooks: Where did the inspiration for ‘We Lie Here’ come from?

Rachel Howzell Hall: I wanted to tell a story about a woman who won’t be able to breathe, both physically and psychologically, until she discovers the truth – about herself, her family and the town around her. I wanted to tell a few origin stories because I’m interested in origin stories. We all assume our families are boring… until someone accidentally shares the wrong story, until you get DNA testing results or until you discover someone’s name missing on a birth certificate. I aimed for the Gibson family to be different than the Lamberts in These Toxic Things. Even with all the crazy swirling around her, Mickie knew that her parents were a harbor in life’s storm. In We Lie Here, Yara isn’t so sure of that.

KB: How long did it take for you to write it?

RHH: It takes me about nine months to write a novel before it’s ready to go to my agent. So, just like a baby!

KB: What kind of person is the lead character Yara Gibson?

RHH: I wanted Yara to be a storyteller, a woman who loves story but doesn’t even know her own story yet. She’s a woman paid to put words into people’s mouths, but at home, in Palmdale, she’s often rendered speechless. She knows so much, and yet…

KB: When you wrote the last word, what did you do afterwards?

RHH: I pushed away from my desk, closed some of my 10 million Google tabs, then sat on my couch and played a videogame. And then, I started thinking about my next story.

KB: What has writing this book taught you about yourself and others?

RHH: Families assume that blood excuses everything. They can treat you horribly, abuse your trust, (and your body, for some people) and if you speak up, then you’re disloyal. And I’m fascinated by this kind of…cult-like behavior. I think people are starting to shake that off some – and this also includes church families – because they realize how wrong and dangerous this controlling behavior can be.

KB: Please give the readers a brief bio on you and as a writer and author?

RHH: I’m the critically acclaimed author of the Amazon Charts bestseller We Lie Here, the Anthony-, Strand and International Thriller Award-nominated These Toxic Things and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize- nominated And Now She’s Gone, which was also nominated for the Lefty-, Barry-, Shamus- and Anthony Awards. The author of the Audible Originals bestseller See How They Run, and the Thriller Award- and Audie Awards-nominated How It Ends, I’m a New York Times best selling author of The Good Sister with James Patterson. I’ve also received acclaim for They All Fall Down and for my Detective Elouise Norton series.

I’m a former member of the board of directors for Mystery Writers of America and was a featured writer on NPR’s acclaimed Crime in the City series and the National Endowment for the Arts weekly podcast; I’ve also served as a mentor in Pitch Wars and the Association of Writers Programs.

I live in Los Angeles with my husband and daughter.

KB: What was life like growing up?

RHH: Like so many of my writer-friends, I was always that kid with a notepad, pen and book. I even wrote down commercials while watching TV. Thrillers just felt natural – I was always interested in all the noise and weirdness and wrongness of the world around me, and I hated how I held my breath for so much of it growing up. ‘What’s about to happen?’ was always a question I had and to make myself calm down, I’d plot out my exit or how someone would respond. As I grew up and as my mind matured, I was right in so many scenarios. Even now, I can tell what someone’s gonna do, if a new person at work will stay at the job or quit in six months. It’s that ‘What’s about to happen?” that drives all that I write.

KB: What kind of dreams did you have for yourself growing up? Have you accomplished those dreams?

RHH: I wanted to be a nun and a Marine as a very young child, only because I liked uniforms. And then, I discovered books and stories. I wrote my first play in third grade -- “A Blue Monday.” It offered a glimpse of my stories of the future. The heroine wakes up and everything goes wrong… I still have it. As a child and teen, I kept diaries, which still provide a great source of background material for my novels. Books and stories have always been important to me. My parents were always supportive of me – didn’t give me a hard time when I said I wanted to get a literature degree from college. They knew it was my dream to become a writer. And here I am!

KB: What is your writing process?

RHH: I think about stories for weeks until putting down the first word. Then, I do a lot of Googling to see if anything I’m imagining has happened in real life. I do this kind of pre-research for another few weeks. Then, I jot down random notes on any kind of paper – napkins, index cards, sticky notes – until I’m ready for the story burst. This is a general idea of what my story will be. Closer to a synopsis than anything. Then, I outline.

Once I outline, I start the first draft. My first drafts are always long-hand – I love the feeling of pen moving across a pad. Sometimes, I transcribe as I go, but I don’t do any major edits. I print out the second draft, read it, determine that it is a crappy draft. Then, I figure out if I’m close to the story I’d imagined. While I’m re-outlining, I’m also doing the bulk of research since I now know what I’m supposed to be writing. I do edits on paper for the next two drafts. On the last draft, I read it aloud to make sure it sounds right, that I’m not bored with any parts of it, to catch typos that can’t be caught with just the eye.

KB: What advice would you give to writers wanting to publish a book?

RHH: Do it because you love it. While it comes easy for me (relatively speaking, and when I compare myself against other people who don’t find writing easy at all), don’t worry if it takes you a little longer. Know that you will worry: if you’re doing it right, if your stories are interesting, if that sentence that people love… Is it really that great? You will fret about that. You will experience Imposter’s Syndrome. Turn off social media and write. The hot takes will be there waiting.

KB: If ‘We Lie Here’ is made into a film, who would you like to play Yara Gibson and others? Why?

RHH: Ha. Actually, I do “cast’ my books – usually at the second draft. By then, I know who my folks are and how they will interact with one another. Yara – Lovie Simone Oppong Barbara – Garcelle Beauvais Rob – Morris Chestnut Dominique – Hallie Bailey Felicia – Yvette Nicole Brown LaRain – Mo’Nique Shane – Tyson Beckford Ransom – Shad Moss aka Bow Wo Kayla – Kate Mara

KB: What makes you happy when you sit down to write every day?

RHH: Knowing that I can sit down and write every day, that I have the mental capacity and privilege to do that. I’m also happy knowing that my day job covers me in the event I can’t write novels, that I don’t have to be creative to pay bills.

KB: What book was a transformational read for you as a reader or as a writer?

RHH: It by Stephen King was transformational. I met kids in this state way over and up in Maine who were also scared of clowns and sewers. I saw myself in a place and in a group of people that I didn’t know but somehow did.

KB: And what’s next? Have you started working on your next book? What can readers look forward to?

RHH: What Never Happened is another discovery story. This time, a young obituary writer returns to Catalina Island to figure out the truth behind her family’s murder on that same island twenty years ago.

KB: When this life is said and done. What do you want your legacy to be?

RHH: “Rachel Howzell Hall worked her ass off.”