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Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Chevy Stevens shares her views on writing, the mystery/thriller genre and, in particular, her novel Always Watching.
Chevy - The Author, The Person
Still Missing was a phenomenal success. Have you grown accustomed to the fame yet? What has been different about writing subsequent novels (Never Knowing and Always Watching) from writing the first?
In my mind, I'm still the same person, so it catches me off guard when people comment about my success. When I was working on Still Missing, it was challenging because I had the fear of not getting published. When I was writing Never Knowing, the challenge was to write a worthy follow-up. I knew people's expectations would be very high, but I just tried to write the story that was coming to me, to the best of my abilities. For Always Watching, I tried to let go of everything and told the story that was in my heart.
What is a 'Day in the life of Chevy Stevens' like?
Before I had a baby, I used to be up first thing, often by six, enjoying a cup of tea while I caught up on e-mails and Facebook, then I'd head out for a walk with my dog, Oona. After we both had something to eat, I was back at my computer. The mornings were just for writing, then I'd deal with business tasks, marketing, and errands in the afternoon. If there was time, and I still had energy, I'd do some more writing before dinner. I didn't usually shut down until later in the evening, when I liked to collapse in front of the TV.
However, since I had my daughter, Piper, in December, there is no "typical day" anymore. For the first while, I didn't work at all, just enjoyed my daughter, and then as time went on, I started working a few hours each day. Now that she is a little older, I'm able to work for longer stretches, but I can't get up as early as I used to and I'm in bed by eight every night! Though it's challenging, juggling a career and motherhood, I feel very lucky that I'm able to work at home so that I can still be there when Piper needs me, and take frequent cuddle breaks! My husband is also on paternity leave and that has been a big help. Otherwise, I doubt I'd be able to get any work done.
What do you do to relax? Hobbies? Guilty pleasures? Surprising talents?
Relax? Well, most of my friends and husband could tell you that I don't relax very often. However, when I'm on a break from writing, my husband and I love to go camping and canoeing, which will be even more fun now that we are a family. My daily stress relievers are walks with our dog and reading. I also love watching my favorite TV shows and movies in the evening, but there hasn't been much time for that lately. Now that we have a child, I'm sure I'll be spending most of my free time with her. She is growing so fast already!
Chevy's Thoughts on Writing and the Mystery/Thriller Genre
Have you always wanted to write a book?
As a child, I often daydreamed about being a writer, and I remember writing a book about a mouse when I was very young. Reading was one of my main activities as a child—we had limited TV access. But in school, I was also very involved in the arts and intended to get a Fine Arts degree. In the end, I dropped out of college and started working.
Through my adult life I worked in sales, but in the back of my mind I would still daydream about writing a book. My grandfather wrote a memoir about his escape from Russia, Red Pilot: Memoirs of a Soviet Airman, and I bought a copy off the Internet. Sometimes I would fantasize about setting my book next to his. When I was in real estate, I wasn't very happy and didn't feel like I was living my life's purpose. I recall telling one of my aunts that I was sure I was supposed to have been a writer. She told me that it was never too late. After that, almost every movie I watched had an author in it, same with books, and I started dreaming in prose. I started writing a bit for myself, just short stories or snippets, and then I went away to an island for ten days with my dog and wrote some more. I loved that time and felt like that was how I wanted my life to look. A few months later the idea for Still Missing came to me when I was working at an open house.
What drew you to writing in the Thriller Genre?
I wasn't actually trying to write a thriller. The premise for STILL MISSING just came to me, and in the process of rewriting and shaping the story, I kept cutting out anything boring, then it became a thriller. It's important to me, though, that my books delve heavily into emotions, family dynamics, and real issues, and aren't just an exciting read.
What inspires your writing?
Really good stories, whether they're a TV show, a movie, or book, make me want to get up and write something. Emotions inspire me to write. If I'm feeling something very strongly, then I want to share it, or work through it by writing. Sometimes I'm inspired by real events. But it's not the event or the crime itself, it's the mood or the thoughts I'm left with as I imagine how those people must have felt, how they would deal with it.
Agatha Christie is to have said "The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes." When and where do you plan your books?
When I am actually sitting down to plot a book, then I'm working in my office, and charting it out on my giant white board. Sometimes I play music ( which I can't do when I'm actually writing a book) and staring into space, letting the story flow through my mind, or I'm typing out random thoughts and seeing where they take me. A lot of my brainstorming also happens when I'm walking with my dog, or driving around.
What kinds of things are on your desk or near your work space to inspire you?
This is such a great question. Let's see, I have to take a look around. Well, first I have a huge vision board in one corner, which is covered with inspirational photos and phrases that I've cut out of magazines, or things that I have written to inspire myself. One wall is covered with a whiteboard and the plot for my fourth book is drawn out. I also have a belt buckle on my desk that says "Chevy" which belonged to my father. I have a photo of me and my brother when we were kids, which helped inspire parts of my third book, and I have a photo of my husband and me on our wedding day. Propped against my lamp is my favorite photo of Piper, wearing an adorable monkey hat that a friend made for us.
On my other wall, I have a cork board that's covered with some special cards, a photo of my grandfather who was a pilot and an author, some inspirational quotes, photos of a river and the woods, and a few photos of my beloved dog Annie, who passed away a couple of years ago. On my bookshelf, I have a few more photos of family, and various items that have sentimental meaning, and the ITW award that I got for Still Missing.
One of favorite quotes, which is tacked to my cork board, is by Kurt Vonnegut.
"Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style."
I try to read that quote before starting each new book.
What are the essential ingredients in any good thriller/mystery novel or short-story?
For me, I'd have to say a riveting main character, who I care about, or at least identify with, and a worthy opponent, who scares me. Then it needs to have an exciting plot with interesting twists. I like books that have an extra layer, that delve deep into emotions, and are about real people. I don't just want to read something, I want to feel it.
Who is your favourite crime/mystery/thriller writer of all-time. Why?
There are so many I admire, but if I had to pick one, it would be Ed McBain. His characters were so real and gritty. He was also incredibly prolific, writing hundreds of books in his lifetime.
Who is your favorite fictional character from any book you've ever written--or read?
That would have to be Peekay from The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay, who sadly passed away last year. I read the book for the first time many years ago and I connected with Peekay instantly. His voice, his thoughts and feelings, resonated with me.
What makes a good villain?
They need to be intelligent, interesting, and of course dangerous. But most of all they have to be three-dimensional. If they are doing something terrible, I want to know why. I need to know what drives them or they are just cardboard cut-outs.
If you were asked to give one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be? Also, what is the one lesson you learned in writing Still Missing that you wish you had known beforehand?
Try to learn everything you can from lots of different sources—conferences, online forums, mentors, or whatever works for you. Keep an open mind, but find your own voice and what connects best with your style. I also feel it's crucial to find good sources of feedback, whether that's a critique partner or group, or a freelance editor. It's impossible to see everything that's wrong with your work and being critiqued can show you a lot about how you view the world. You also then have to learn how to evaluate feedback, to find what resonates with you, which teaches you to trust your own instincts.
I wish I'd known more about plotting before I wrote Still Missing as I'm sure I'd have saved myself a couple of years. But I had to go through that process to learn.
A Closer Look at Always Watching
Always Watching, like Still Missing, alternates between current and past events, which requires intricate plotting. What challenges did this pose to the writing process? Also, are you an outliner or do you prefer to let the story lead you?
It was very complicated to weave in Nadine's past memories. I'd like to say that I had it all plotted out and that it meshed seamlessly, but it took several rewrites. The biggest challenge was deciding what Nadine remembered, what had been blocked out, and then how to layer it all in.
I didn't outline Still Missing, but I have for every book since as I am now on contract, but usually a lot evolves and changes as I begin writing the book and get to know the characters. Always Watching changed quite a bit from the first outline. My fourth book, That Night, also alternates between current and past events. However, I've learned more about plotting with each novel and so my outline for this one was the most detailed by far. It sped up the writing process a great deal.
As with all of your novels, much of the book's subject matter is very dark. Did you find that writing such material affected your own psyche? If so, how do you separate yourself from your art?
I don't find that it creates a big problem for me, mostly because I am the one manufacturing the situations. And usually I'm working things out for myself, like grief or anger, so it's a cleansing process when I'm writing about these issues. Sometimes, though, a lot of the reading I do for research can be heavy and depressing, especially when you are dealing with atrocities committed upon innocent victims. So I have to take breaks and go for a long walk, or do something fun to clear away the darkness.
Nadine – the main character of Always Watching – will be familiar to your fans as the very competent and likeable psychiatrist from both Still Missing and Never Knowing. Was it always the plan to eventually write from Nadine's p.o.v. or was that an idea that developed later on? Was there anything interesting or hard about taking a back-ground character and making her a main character?
It was an idea that developed when I was working on the outline for Never Knowing. I thought that it would be interesting to see another character go through the therapy process, then I thought that I'd love to write Nadine's story for the third book. By the time I was finished Never Knowing, I was itching to know more about Nadine, and she was already developing a life in my own mind. The hard part was that I had to make sure she matched up with anything I'd said about her in previous books, so I wasn't starting completely fresh. But that was also the interesting part, because she was someone we had seen only through other character's eyes—she'd never even spoken! I really enjoyed writing from her perspective, and also setting the book mostly in my home town.
Much of Always Watching revolves around Nadine's memory (and missing memories) of living on a cult-like commune as a child. Did you do any research into cult and their survivors before writing? Were you inspired by any particular historical event or story?
I did a significant amount of research before, and while writing this book. I read up on the main cults that most people are familiar with through the media, but I went even deeper than that and read numerous books about people who had broken away from cults. I was having a hard time, intellectually, understanding how people could fall for some of these leaders. Eventually, I was able to comprehend just how manipulative the members of these cults and many spiritual or human potential groups can be, and how the basic human desire to belong can be used to against someone in a vulnerable state.
My inspiration, though, came from my home town. In the 1970s, there were a group of hippies who lived out at the river, near where I grew up. When I was thinking about Nadine's life, I wondered what impact it could have had if she had lived for a time with these people, and if they had been more than just a group trying to live off the land. What if they had started that way, but then something changed? I moved the time earlier, to the sixties, and the story evolved from there. I was also somewhat inspired by a book called Michelle Remembers, which was set in Victoria, and spawned the whole "Recovered Memory Therapy" movement. That book, and the psychiatrist who wrote it, was eventually debunked, but I thought it would be fascinating to write about a character who didn't believe in Recovered Memory Therapy, who in the end discovers that her psyche was hiding something so traumatic that it had affected her entire life.
Nadine – like Annie from Still Missing - is dealing with PTSD as a result of a very early trauma. What kind of research was required to portray PTSD realistically?
I had already done a lot of research into PTSD for my past two books, so I was familiar with the subject, but I had to go deeper into the theories behind "Repressed Memory Syndrome." and whether severe trauma can cause people to block a significant event from their memory. It's a very controversial subject and I found it fascinating.
Speaking of PTSD… It seems as though overcoming psychological trauma is central to many of your characters and novels. Was it more difficult to paint a picture of a psychiatrist delving into her own psychological issues – because of her professional knowledge – than it was when you were writing about regular people (like her patients)?
It was very challenging to write from the perspective of a doctor and it took an enormous amount of research. In my previous books, where I was writing from the perspective of the patient, I could just have them interpret the information they were given from Nadine, and how it related to their own circumstances. But I wanted Nadine to be as authentic as possible, so short of going to school for a degree in psychiatry, I had to try to learn as much as I could on my own, through books and online. I also had some great resources working in the psychiatry field who were willing to help.
I'm sure everyone wants to know… what's next for you? Is Always Watching the conclusion of novels set in Nadine's world? Will she be a continuing character? Will you start a new series or a standalone or foray into a new genre altogether?!
I'm currently finishing revisions on my fourth book, which is called That Night. It's a standalone, also set on Vancouver Island, but in Campbell River, which is a small community in the north end. That Night is about a woman, Toni Murphy, who was falsely convicted when she was just eighteen, along with her boyfriend, for the murder of her younger sister. After spending almost fifteen years in prison, she's finally on parole and trying to rebuild her life, but someone has different plans for her…
Unless otherwise stated, this interview was conducted at the time the book was first published, and is reproduced with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the copyright holder.
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