The Mystery of Lifelong Friends

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: This is such a tender subject.  And if you’ve never thought about it, it means you have lifelong friends. And I mean–lifelong, not just dear and relied on, or not just necessary for your very existence, or beloved, or remarkable. I mean: Lifelong.

And this is something the amazingly talented and truly wonderful Jessica Strawser–a dear and relied-on and beloved and remarkable friend, necessary for my very existence–and I have in common. See if you do, too.

The Mystery of Lifelong Friends

by Jessica Strawser

 

When I was a kid, my family relocated several times, zigzagging Pennsylvania as my dad navigated job transfers from one corporate region to another. At the time, I hated moving—so much, in fact, that any time my parents said we needed to talk, their faces serious, I’d cross my arms and demand to know right then: “We’re not moving again, are we?”

 

(The next time we moved, they actually broke the news by saying, “Um … it’s about that thing you’re always worried it’s about.” Oh, the surge of dread.)

 

Of course, I came to understand this upbringing had its upsides. It builds character to hold your head high and walk into a school where you don’t know a soul, to learn to make new friends quickly, and even to spend summer days curled up with a good book because you haven’t met the neighbors yet. It helped me grow into a person who wasn’t afraid to go after what I wanted, even when it meant striking out on my own to get it.

 

There was one big thing I missed out on, though.

 

I never kept a childhood friend close. I have wonderful friends I’ve known since high school or college, people I’ve stayed in touch with for decades … but not a single lifelong friend.

 

You know the kind I mean: The kind you bond with in kindergarten when you discover you have matching lunchboxes, and grow with through the awkward years of adolescence, sharing all the big firsts: first kiss, first heartbreak, first time away from home, first job, first love …

 

The kind who will stand next to you at weddings and baby showers and funerals and your own kids’ graduation parties, trading inside jokes about old bad haircuts no one else remembers anymore, and who will always, always be able to say she knew you way back when, at virtually every age.

 

So many of us are drawn to stories of that kind of friendship, and they’re some of my own favorites: I’ve cried over Beaches and Firefly Lane with the best of them. But for me, I think those kinds of characters have always held a bit of mystery, too.

 

What would it really be like, to have a friend who shares so much of your history?

 

 A friend who knows your secret hopes and dreams as well as her own … but might not share the same ones for herself (or even for you)?

 

When we say a friend is like a sister or a brother, do we really mean it? Or will there always be a difference? Will a friend always be, by definition, someone that—as circumstances change—one of you might walk away from, lose touch with, or otherwise leave behind?

 

Some people say to write what you know. I say to write what you wish you knew.

 

So maybe it was inevitable that I’d come to write my own story of lifelong best friends… and wrap them in a mystery. My seventh novel, Catch You Later, focuses on two women stuck in their dead-end Midwestern town who would do anything for each other—but who want very different things out of life.

 

Lark and Mikki work night shift at the interstate travel stop and make up their own rules for making the best of things in the middle of nowhere: 1) Say yes as much as possible, and 2) Keep your eyes open for a ride out. So when a stranger drops in heading to a destination beach wedding and spontaneously invites Mikki to be his plus one, it’s no real surprise to Lark when Mikki takes off her apron and gets in his car right then … that is, until she fails to return. And Lark’s worst, loneliest nightmare begins.

 

Eight years later, Lark is finally getting her life back together for the sake of her young daughter and Mikki’s lovably prickly grandma, who can no longer care for herself. But when the stranger who drove off with Mikki reappears looking for her, nobody knows what to believe—Lark most of all.

 

Structuring this book meant weaving together two very different best friends’ points of view across the miles and over the years: Readers get to ride along with Mikki as she gets in the car that fateful night, then flash forward to Lark searching for her in the aftermath. Many early readers have said that as much as they enjoyed unraveling the cold case of what really happened to Mikki, they loved feeling a part of their lifelong friendship more.

 

I dare say that when I came to writing it, I agree.

 

JESS and HANK : What about you, Reds and readers?  Do you have a favorite “best friends” story, whether a book, a movie, or from your own life? We’d love to hear about it. 

 

Jessica Strawser is editor-at-large at Writer’s Digest and the USA Today bestselling author of seven popular book club novels, including Almost Missed You; Not That I Could Tell (a Book of the Month pick); A Million Reasons Why; The Next Thing You Know (a People Magazine Pick), The Last Caretaker (an Amazon Editors First Reads selection), and Catch You Later, new October 22, 2024. She lives with her husband and two children in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for 2024. Find her on Instagram and Facebook @jessicastrawserauthor.

 

MORE ABOUT CATCH YOU LATER

 

One impulsive decision changes the lives of two best friends forever in a powerful novel of suspense by the USA Today bestselling author of The Last Caretaker.

If Lark and Mikki didn’t have each other, they’d have nothing in this miserable town. So the best friends stick together, working night shift at the highway travel stop, going nowhere fast. Until a stranger drops in, heading for Florida, and Mikki impulsively leaves with him, never to be seen again.

 

Eight years later, Lark is finally getting her life back together for the sake of her young daughter and Mikki’s lovably prickly grandma, who can no longer care for herself. People have almost stopped blaming Lark for Mikki’s disappearance, and she’s engaged to the nicest guy on highway patrol. But when the stranger who drove off with Mikki reappears looking for her, nobody knows what to believe.

 

As the search reignites, Lark fights to find out whether Mikki is really missing or doesn’t want to be found. But piecing together the chain of events set into motion that fateful night could threaten everything—and everyone—Lark has left.

 

“Strawser increases tension by telling both stories propulsively, leading readers hanging from one chapter to the next…Readers will flock to this fresh take on the missing-girl trope.” —Booklist (starred review)

Starting Fresh

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Are you going to have ANY time off in the next week? Saturday, maybe, when the guests have gone and you are down to the last snibbles of turkey, and you think…hmmm. I need a really really good book.

After you've taken care of all your holiday obligations, who is going to take care of you? Well, who better than a marvelous brilliant author, one who will carry you away with a completely immersive and relatable story.

When you snag that moment to take care of yourself this holiday week (if it is for you) or if not, when you simply capture some time just to take care of YOU–what better than the amazing Jessica Strawser’s new THE LAST CARETAKER?

She is too modest to tell you it has been an Amazon NUMBER ONE novel, and it is still a Kindle First (whoa, such an honor! And it means you can–briefly–get it free! Before the book is published in hardcover on Dec 1!) CLICK HERE!

Plus. Please do let me add that Jess is a dear true friend and colleague--hilarious and wise and such a brilliant teacher and editor…an amazing author and a wonderful mom and wife and and I am honored to introduce you to her.

And today she’s asking a very provocative question…what if you have the chance to start from scratch? Have a life do-over? Hit your personal UNDO button? See what you think.

The Appeal of a Fresh Start
by Jessica Strawser


Why is it, I wonder, that so many great stories begin with a character gearing up for a fresh start—a clean break, a do-over?

A fresh start, of course, can come in myriad forms—undoubtedly that’s part of the appeal. The concept is at once familiar and fantastical, in fiction and in life. Maybe it’s been forced upon a character: They’ve been fired, evicted, or cheated on, left to fend for themselves, lost whatever they held dear. Maybe they’ve gained something: inherited a house in some faraway place, or scored one last chance at a career, romance, or dream that seemed out of reach.

Or maybe they’re on the run, and they don’t know where they’re going—only that they can’t turn back.

Does it all speak to some secret longing we all have, when things get rough, to fantasize about what it would be like to toss it all and start from scratch? To wait for our letters from Hogwarts to summon us away from our ordinary lives and let the real adventures begin?

Or is it, in fact, the opposite: a fear that we can’t imagine ever having to walk away and rebuild our lives, and yet we know just how fragile the things we hold dear we really are, how everything can change in the blink of an eye?

Maybe we’re afraid that if we reach for a fresh start, we’ll get more than we bargained for.

For better or worse, maybe we’re right.

As a novelist, I’ve written plenty of fresh starts before, big and small—but never have I had more fun on the page than with my latest, The Last Caretaker, which begins with a woman named Katie (I’ve never met a Katie I didn’t like) reeling from her divorce. She and her husband co-owned a business, and their lives are so entwined that extracting herself seems impossible.

Enter her old pal, Bess, a free spirit who works at a sprawling nature center conveniently located hundreds of miles away. It so happens the resident caretaker on their most remote property has quit without notice, and the job comes with a furnished farmhouse. The gig is Katie’s if she wants it… and so what if she isn’t “a nature person”? Bess will help her fake it till she makes it.

But from the moment Katie arrives, something seems off. The house looks as if the last caretaker never packed up. And when a woman in distress shows up in the middle of the night, expecting a safe place to hide, it’s clear caretaking involves duties that aren’t exactly in the job description.

Will Katie find the courage to join this underground network she’s unwittingly stepped into—finding a new sense of purpose in the process? Or will her new home never feel safe until she can figure out what happened to the last caretaker?

Writing this picture of Katie’s new life, I thought a lot about what it really means to start over in every sense. It was a moving journey full of surprises (for me and Katie both!). So I’d love to know: Why do you think the idea of a fresh start piques our curiosity? And do you have a favorite story—true or fictional—that begins this way?

HANK: And listen to this: Jess is offering an advance copy!

Join our discussion in the comments for your chance to win an advance copy of The Last Caretaker! (One winner will be chosen at random by the end of the day Nov. 24, 2023. U.S. mailing addresses only please.)

 

Jessica Strawser is the author of five previous book club favorites: Almost Missed You, Not That I Could Tell (a Book of the Month selection), Forget You Know Me, A Million Reasons Why, and The Next Thing You Know, a People Magazine Pick. Her latest, The Last Caretaker, releases December 1, 2023. She is editor-at-large at Writer’s Digest; a popular speaker at writing conferences; and a freelance editor and writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and others. A Pittsburgh native and graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, she lives with her husband and two children in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she served as 2019 writer-in-residence for the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library. Find her on Facebook @jessicastrawserauthor, Instagram @jessicastrawserauthor, and Twitter @jessicastrawser.

DON'T Forget this!

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HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Grip lit. Domestic suspense. Suburban noir. Psychological suspense. Readers are devouring it! (Luckily for me….)  Twisty plots, relatable (if vulnerable) characters, deception, manipulation, gaslighting—no one can be trusted. Well, it’s my favorite kind of book. (Luckily for me…)

And one of my current favorite favorite books was written by a favorite favorite author, the brilliant Jessica Strawser. I truly don’t know how she does it—writer, editor, mom, wife and all around amazing woman.

It’s called Forget You Know Me, and it begins with a video chat. Think about that. What might the other person see happening in your life—that they’re not supposed to see? I ask you—is that a brilliant idea or what?

Jessica’s on book tour of course, but she and I chatted before her whirlwind began. But she’ll pop in today of course, and maybe we can get her to tell the story of the person who emailed her about her hair.

HANK: Welcome, Jessica! I completely LOVED the opening premise. (In fact, let me admit, I was grumpy with myself for not having thought of it.)  Plus it was so realistic and so plausible—did something like that really happen to you?

JESSICA STRAWSER: When the idea for this book came to me, it was ONLY that opening scene (and not from real life, thank goodness, but from the mysterious ether of my overactive imagination). Typically my stories grow from a central question or theme I've been mulling over for a long time—years—and I then debate where exactly the pages should begin. It was quite different to start from such a vivid picture, from such a specific point at time, so much so that I resisted at first. But the idea grabbed me and would not let go, I think because of exactly the lure you mentioned: 10 different writers could start with that scene and write 10 very different stories of what happens next. And I'd like to read them all.

HANK: Oh, that's a great idea. (Should we edit an anthology, hmmm?) (Seriously.) (It's a good idea.) (In our spare time.) I know we don't want any spoilers, but tell us a bit about your book!

JESSICA STRAWSER: Yes! Look for the sequel, No Seriously Really Forget You Know Me This Time, just as soon as we uncover this mysterious “spare time” of which you speak!

The story opens when two long-distance best friends, Molly and Liza, are trying to reconnect over a video chat, and the webcam captures a heart-stopping moment no one was meant to see. Liza jumps into action, willing to do anything to help her friend—but is hurt when Molly’s response is icy, raising more questions than answers. 

Through the alternating perspectives of Liza, Molly, and Molly’s husband, Daniel, we’ll soon learn the secrets that have been driving them all apart. But whose confessions hold the answer to what really happened that night? And—at the heart of it all—when a friendship or a marriage gets this close to the brink, can anything pull it back?

HANK: Because Jessica is being modest,  and so you can know a bit more about the story, here’s what it says in the promo materials:

In the next “masterful” (Publishers Weekly) novel from "the gifted Jessica Strawser" (Adriana Trigiani)--a video call between friends captures a shocking incident no one was supposed to see.

The secrets it exposes threaten to change their lives forever.

Molly and Liza have always been enviably close. Even after Molly married Daniel, the couple considered Liza an honorary family member. But after Liza moved away, things grew more strained than anyone wanted to admit―in the friendship and the marriage.

When Daniel goes away on business, Molly and Liza plan to reconnect with a nice long video chat after the kids are in bed. But then Molly leaves the room to check on a crying child.

What Liza sees next will change everything.

Only one thing is certain: Molly needs her. Liza drives all night to be at Molly’s side―but when she arrives, the reception is icy, leaving Liza baffled and hurt. She knows there’s no denying what she saw.

Or is there?

In disbelief that their friendship could really be over, Liza is unaware she’s about to have a near miss of her own.

And Molly, refusing to deal with what’s happened, won’t turn to Daniel, either.

But none of them can go on pretending. Not after this.

Forget You Know Me is a “twisty, emotionally complex, powder keg of a tale” (bestselling author Emily Carpenter) about the wounds of people who’ve grown apart. Best friends, separated by miles. Spouses, hardened by neglect. A mother, isolated by pain.

One moment will change things for them all.

HANK:  Ooh, right? Jessica, there's a thread of "best friends" in the book--how much do you think "best friends" matter in our lives, and why was that interesting to you? Adult friendships are so—complicated.

JESSICA STRAWSER:  I’m reaching a stage of middle life, I suppose, where I find myself observing how drastically friendships can change over time—sometimes through nothing more than circumstance—but also how important they are, in spite of the fact that we sometimes give them a backseat to spouses and children and the general busy-ness of life.

I’ve written about close friends in all of my novels—I like to think of characters in terms of their relationships, and friendships are particularly interesting because they can be so influential but also so malleable. 

In this one I wanted to follow not just friends but also spouses who have a lot of history, a lot of love, but aside from that haven’t been very honest with each other, or themselves, about what’s going on in their minds—enough that they’ve broken the tight seal of that bond.

I know a lot of people grappling with that sort of gray area, wondering whether they can reverse a relationship that’s falling apart. It was fun to give these characters something that forces them to stop brushing things under the rug and confront each other, for better or worse.

HANK:   Not giving it away--but did you know the ending before you started? How do you want your readers to feel?

JESSICA STRAWSER: I knew the very basic ending but not how I would get there, or—key in this particular novel—what it would feel like when I did. I’m always leery to say how I want readers to feel (it’s up to them, not me!). But I do like stories that leave me thinking about them hours and days after I’ve turned the last page, so it’s always a compliment to hear I’ve achieved that.

HANK: So, Reds and readers, are you as enthralled with this kind of book as I am? I love that these conflict happen to real people, in real situations, that the stories are riveting and chilling—but entirely  plausible. How well do we know the people around us?

Do you read domestic suspense? (Or what do you call it?) Tell us your favorites—it’d be great to have some reading suggestions!

And a copy of FORGET YOU KNOW ME to one lucky commenter!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Jessica Strawser (jessicastrawser.com) is editor-at-large at Writer’s Digest, where she was editorial director for nearly a decade. She’s the author of the book club favorites Almost Missed You and Not That I Could Tell, a 2018 Book of the Month selection and Barnes & Noble Best New Fiction pick. Her third novel, Forget You Know Me, is out this week from St. Martin’s Press. She has written for The New York Times Modern Love, Publishers Weekly and other fine venues, and is a popular speaker at writing conferences. She lives with her husband and two children in Cincinnati, where she is currently serving as the 2019 Writer-in-Residence for the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Connect with her on Twitter @jessicastrawser, Facebook @jessicastrawserauthor and Instagram at @jessicastrawserauthor.