We’re Talking Suspense with Author Laura McHugh on June 15
June 2, 2017 —
Laura McHugh’s first book, the suspense-filled novel “The Weight of Blood,” drew praise from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, and critics compared her style to that of Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” and Daniel Woodrell’s “Winter’s Bone.” The Columbia resident followed that success with “Arrowood,” and will talk about the book and her writing process from 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday, June 15, at the Schweitzer Brentwood Branch Library. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
McHugh gives you a sense of her Southern Gothic mystery in this six-question Q&A with the Library.
"Arrowood" has a similar psycho-suspense feeling as "The Weight of Blood." What did you pull from for inspiration for this tale? When I was a child in Iowa, a twelve-year-old boy disappeared from his paper route in Des Moines. It was the first time I realized that such terrible things could happen to children, and it had a lasting impact on me. Two years later, a second boy disappeared from his route. Neither of them was ever found. I never forgot them, and I drew from these crimes when I created the character of Arden, whose family has been destroyed by the disappearance of her sisters, and Josh, so obsessed with unsolved missing-persons cases that he runs a website to keep them in the public eye. I also drew a great deal of inspiration from the hauntingly beautiful old river towns along the Mississippi River in Iowa, where the book is set.
Tell us what the story is about. When she was eight years old, Arden Arrowood witnessed the kidnapping of her younger twin sisters, who were never found. Nearly twenty years later, Arden returns to her childhood home and is confronted with evidence that something is not quite right about her recollection of that terrible day. Is it possible, after so many years, for Arden to unravel the mystery of her sisters’ demise and find a way forward from the tragedy that destroyed her family? On a larger scale, the story is about nostalgia and loss and the slow, sad death of so many small towns across the Midwest.
Did the subject matter of "abducted" children pose a particular writing challenge for you? No, I follow missing-persons cases in the news and I don’t feel that avoiding the topic makes it any less terrible. I have children of my own and I try to talk to them honestly about the dangers of the world without scaring them so much that they’re afraid to leave the house. I hope that I’ve partly succeeded.
What role did libraries play in your life? In the writing of "Arrowood"? Libraries have been very important to me throughout my life, especially as a child who loved to read but couldn’t afford to buy books. Reading sustained me through a tough childhood. At this stage of my life, I am a certified book hoarder, buying more books than I can read, but libraries are still my refuge, a place where I can go to work on my own writing. I wrote much of my first book at the Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia.
What do you enjoy most about being a writer? So many things! I am grateful that I finally have a job that I love. One of the things I love most is meeting fellow readers and writers. I get to travel a bit and do events, and there is nothing more fulfilling than connecting with someone who has read your work, or meeting one of your writing heroes. I recently had the honor of sharing the stage with the legendary Anna Quindlen. As I began to interview her, she broke in to tell the audience how much she had enjoyed my books. I’m grateful every day that I get to do this for a living.
What kind of story are you working on now? My third novel is about a tragedy that tears apart a small, rural Missouri town. Of course, there are far worse things going on in this town, and this tragedy is going to bring them to the surface…because I simply can’t have a nice town full of good people. My writer’s brain won’t allow it.