--> HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I know you can’t see me (luckily) but I am jumping up and down. One of my very favorite authors is visiting today—the brilliant Louise Candlish, whose amazing blockbuster OUR HOUSE made everyone terrified about what they’d find when they returned home.
In OUR HOUSE, our heroine comes home to find a new family moving in! She’s told—your house has been sold, didn’t you know that?
When I read that premise I thought: fabulous! Then I thought: no way she can pull that off.
But she did.
Now I am equally enthralled—and completely freaked out—by her newest and equally sinister thriller THOSE PEOPLE. Where –imagine this—the new neighbors seems to be, well, not quite the people you’d welcome to the neighborhood.
When I read that premise I thought: fabulous! Then I thought: no way she can pull that off.
But she did.
And here's Louise herself to tell us all about it!
HANK: The people who live next-door are always fascinating, but I love how you also reveal we don’t always know what’s going on under our own roof, either. It’s no surprise that shelter is so elemental, but what drew you to—what should we call it—real estate noir?
LOUISE CANDLISH: I love that label - here in the UK, my books have been called property porn lit! Well, we’ve been reading unsettling stories with domestic settings for centuries – as you say, it’s one of those elemental fears, to be under threat in the very place you are entitled to feel safe. What drew me particularly was the 21st-century power of property, especially in affluent cities and suburbs, where values have soared and the home has taken centre stage, earning more that the humans and dictating key life decisions. I also love neighbourhood stories because they’re all about status – all the hierarchies that exist in the working world also exist in our communities, they’re just differently coded.
HANK: Yes, neighborhood codes—driveways, and lawn decorations, and grass mowing and weeds. Lawn signs. Trash. Loud music. Ah. It can be so clear! Now, I know you’ve been asked this a million times, but your plotting is so intricate, and there is a surprise around every corner. Dare I ask whether you outline? Whether you know the ending?
LOUISE: The central idea comes first, then I plot the story, loosely at first, and, yes, always knowing the ending. Then I gradually add layers. I keep timelines and live lists of scenes. I have to say each book is a slightly different process for me because I like to try something new each time and a lot of it is instinct and experimentation. I am lucky to have excellent editors in the US and UK who help tighten the plotting with each draft. Those People got quite bloated and I was advised to lose 15,000 words in the middle, so inevitably that had an impact (I always say, if readers saw our books before editors got involved, it would make their hair curl!)
HANK: Lose 15,000 words in the middle! Ah! You are brave. But wow, whatever you did, all good. We promise we will never reveal any names, but just theoretically, did any of these experiences in THOSE PEOPLE come from real life? We just had a new neighbor move in, then to threaten to cut down much of our beloved 250-year-old sugar maple! It made us feel almost helpless.
LOUISE: That’s awful. I’m afraid cutting down trees without consultation is very common. Just a couple of days ago, someone else told me this happened to them and they were completely bereft. Often, it’s done when the disputing neighbour is away, which is very cowardly.
HANK: Exactly! For days I held my breath every time we turned on to our street, for fear he’d chopped it while we were gone. So far, so good .Anyway. Back to your book.
LOUISE: No single incident in the book is directly lifted from my experience, but I am confident this or something similar will have happened somewhere near all of us, including the deaths. To be honest, my research has shocked me. People will get violent over trivial infractions like parking and fence-building. When I considered ways in which my character might be murdered by a neighbour, I was spoiled for choice. (Here, we don’t have guns, so there’s that, at least!)
HANK: Hear, hear. As you were talking about this book before publication, did you hear other stories of possibly-terrifying neighbors? Because so much of the apprehension is of what someone might do, someone close by so you don’t really know, and whose actions you can only imagine.
LOUISE: Yes, I’ve heard many first-hand accounts of just this, the fear of the unknown, the low-level menace. And, of course, now we know how accessible and affordable spyware is – your neighbour could be watching or listening more closely than you think! To be honest, the party animals and power tool-wielding DIY fanatics are preferable because at least you know what you’re dealing with.
HANK: True! Is the neighborhood where this takes place a real neighborhood? Or based on one?
LOUISE: Lowland Gardens is not a real neighborhood, it’s a composite of several neighborhoods in South London, where I live. It’s not an established ‘posh’ area, but an up-and-coming one, with lots of aspirational families. The residents see themselves as early settlers, setting the tone, laying down the law. But just as they’ve landscaped their paradise and established its social hierarchy, along come intruders with no intention whatsoever of playing ball.
I didn't know the exact ending, as in the final scene, the last line, but I know who is doomed and who might have a chance at resuming normal life!
HANK: And along those same doomed/normal lines—do you ever have bad writing days? (Ha.) What do you say to yourself when that happens?
LOUISE: I think all writers have bad writing days, don’t they? There are more of those than good ones! I have a policy of planning work on a weekly basis, not daily, so if I’m having an off day or simply get distracted by other duties (or pleasures), I can catch up. The key is to never beat yourself up about it. The moment you panic, you risk seizing up.
HANK: Oh, that is such good advice! And it’s certainly working out for you—you and OUR HOUSE just won the British Book Award! (Was it a surprise?) Lee Child won an award as well, and he said: “Half my brain is saying how crazy it is to get a prize for having the best time ever.” Do you feel that way?
And they’re called—Nibbies?
LOUISE: They are – the award is a big golden nib! Though Lee Child and I both won, that’s probably where the parallel ends. He has been living the dream for a long time; he is one of our gods. I think if OUR HOUSE had been my first novel, I’d be thinking ‘Hey, this is pretty easy. Instant recognition.’ But it was my twelfth and so more a case of, ‘Finally!’ I’m a bit of a poster girl for perseverance. I really didn’t expect to win the Nibbie, it was a crazy, wonderful experience.
HANK: THOSE PEOPLE is just out now in the US—hurray! It’s chilling and clever and unsettling and gorgeously structured. What do you want people to know about it?
LOUISE: Thank you so much! I want people to know that when they feel murderous impulses towards a neighbor, they are not alone. These feelings are natural. But please, please don’t act on them.
HANK: More good advice! Thank you, Louise, and congratulations!
Reds and readers, I know we’ve talked about neighbors before (::cough:: tree man ::cough::). But Louise talked about neighborhood codes—have you ever dealt with those? Had someone tell you to take down your plastic flamingos? (Actually, someone did that around here a few years ago—insisted a neighbor take down the flamingos from her front yard. We are all so appalled we all put them in our yards, too. There were hundreds of them. It was pretty hilarious.)
What are the codes in our neighborhood? Stoop sitting—yes or no? Lawn parties? Fireworks? Laundry on lines? Lawn signs?
And a copy of THOSE PEOPLE to one lucky commenter!
(US Only please! I know, it’s awful, but the international postage is more expensive than the book itself!)
***************************
Sunday Times bestselling author Louise Candlish was born in Hexham, Northumberland, and grew up in the Midlands town of Northampton. She studied English at University College London and worked as an illustrated books editor and copywriter before writing fiction. She is the author of twelve novels, including the thriller Our House, winner of the British Book Awards 2019 Crime & Thriller Book of the Year and a #1 bestseller in paperback, ebook and audiobook.
Those People will follow in hardback in June 2019.
Louise lives in Herne Hill in South London with her husband and teenage daughter. Besides books, the things she likes best are: coffee; TV; cats and dogs (equally); salted caramel; France (especially the Ile de Re); Italy (especially Sicily); tennis; Vanity Fair magazine; 'Book at Bedtime'; lasagne; heavy metal; 'The Archers'; driving towards the sea (but not into it); anything at the Royal Opera House; white wine; Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (or, failing that, a Starbar); using parentheses, semi-colons, and Oxford commas.
Find out more online at www.louisecandlish.com, and on Facebook at LouiseCandlishAuthor, and on Twitter at @louise_candlish.
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HANK: The people who live next-door are always fascinating, but I love how you also reveal we don’t always know what’s going on under our own roof, either. It’s no surprise that shelter is so elemental, but what drew you to—what should we call it—real estate noir?
LOUISE CANDLISH: I love that label - here in the UK, my books have been called property porn lit! Well, we’ve been reading unsettling stories with domestic settings for centuries – as you say, it’s one of those elemental fears, to be under threat in the very place you are entitled to feel safe. What drew me particularly was the 21st-century power of property, especially in affluent cities and suburbs, where values have soared and the home has taken centre stage, earning more that the humans and dictating key life decisions. I also love neighbourhood stories because they’re all about status – all the hierarchies that exist in the working world also exist in our communities, they’re just differently coded.
HANK: Yes, neighborhood codes—driveways, and lawn decorations, and grass mowing and weeds. Lawn signs. Trash. Loud music. Ah. It can be so clear! Now, I know you’ve been asked this a million times, but your plotting is so intricate, and there is a surprise around every corner. Dare I ask whether you outline? Whether you know the ending?
LOUISE: The central idea comes first, then I plot the story, loosely at first, and, yes, always knowing the ending. Then I gradually add layers. I keep timelines and live lists of scenes. I have to say each book is a slightly different process for me because I like to try something new each time and a lot of it is instinct and experimentation. I am lucky to have excellent editors in the US and UK who help tighten the plotting with each draft. Those People got quite bloated and I was advised to lose 15,000 words in the middle, so inevitably that had an impact (I always say, if readers saw our books before editors got involved, it would make their hair curl!)
LOUISE: That’s awful. I’m afraid cutting down trees without consultation is very common. Just a couple of days ago, someone else told me this happened to them and they were completely bereft. Often, it’s done when the disputing neighbour is away, which is very cowardly.
HANK: Exactly! For days I held my breath every time we turned on to our street, for fear he’d chopped it while we were gone. So far, so good .Anyway. Back to your book.
LOUISE: No single incident in the book is directly lifted from my experience, but I am confident this or something similar will have happened somewhere near all of us, including the deaths. To be honest, my research has shocked me. People will get violent over trivial infractions like parking and fence-building. When I considered ways in which my character might be murdered by a neighbour, I was spoiled for choice. (Here, we don’t have guns, so there’s that, at least!)
HANK: Hear, hear. As you were talking about this book before publication, did you hear other stories of possibly-terrifying neighbors? Because so much of the apprehension is of what someone might do, someone close by so you don’t really know, and whose actions you can only imagine.
LOUISE: Yes, I’ve heard many first-hand accounts of just this, the fear of the unknown, the low-level menace. And, of course, now we know how accessible and affordable spyware is – your neighbour could be watching or listening more closely than you think! To be honest, the party animals and power tool-wielding DIY fanatics are preferable because at least you know what you’re dealing with.
HANK: True! Is the neighborhood where this takes place a real neighborhood? Or based on one?
LOUISE: Lowland Gardens is not a real neighborhood, it’s a composite of several neighborhoods in South London, where I live. It’s not an established ‘posh’ area, but an up-and-coming one, with lots of aspirational families. The residents see themselves as early settlers, setting the tone, laying down the law. But just as they’ve landscaped their paradise and established its social hierarchy, along come intruders with no intention whatsoever of playing ball.
I didn't know the exact ending, as in the final scene, the last line, but I know who is doomed and who might have a chance at resuming normal life!
HANK: And along those same doomed/normal lines—do you ever have bad writing days? (Ha.) What do you say to yourself when that happens?
LOUISE: I think all writers have bad writing days, don’t they? There are more of those than good ones! I have a policy of planning work on a weekly basis, not daily, so if I’m having an off day or simply get distracted by other duties (or pleasures), I can catch up. The key is to never beat yourself up about it. The moment you panic, you risk seizing up.
HANK: Oh, that is such good advice! And it’s certainly working out for you—you and OUR HOUSE just won the British Book Award! (Was it a surprise?) Lee Child won an award as well, and he said: “Half my brain is saying how crazy it is to get a prize for having the best time ever.” Do you feel that way?
And they’re called—Nibbies?
HANK: THOSE PEOPLE is just out now in the US—hurray! It’s chilling and clever and unsettling and gorgeously structured. What do you want people to know about it?
LOUISE: Thank you so much! I want people to know that when they feel murderous impulses towards a neighbor, they are not alone. These feelings are natural. But please, please don’t act on them.
HANK: More good advice! Thank you, Louise, and congratulations!
Reds and readers, I know we’ve talked about neighbors before (::cough:: tree man ::cough::). But Louise talked about neighborhood codes—have you ever dealt with those? Had someone tell you to take down your plastic flamingos? (Actually, someone did that around here a few years ago—insisted a neighbor take down the flamingos from her front yard. We are all so appalled we all put them in our yards, too. There were hundreds of them. It was pretty hilarious.)
What are the codes in our neighborhood? Stoop sitting—yes or no? Lawn parties? Fireworks? Laundry on lines? Lawn signs?
And a copy of THOSE PEOPLE to one lucky commenter!
(US Only please! I know, it’s awful, but the international postage is more expensive than the book itself!)
***************************
Sunday Times bestselling author Louise Candlish was born in Hexham, Northumberland, and grew up in the Midlands town of Northampton. She studied English at University College London and worked as an illustrated books editor and copywriter before writing fiction. She is the author of twelve novels, including the thriller Our House, winner of the British Book Awards 2019 Crime & Thriller Book of the Year and a #1 bestseller in paperback, ebook and audiobook.
Those People will follow in hardback in June 2019.
Louise lives in Herne Hill in South London with her husband and teenage daughter. Besides books, the things she likes best are: coffee; TV; cats and dogs (equally); salted caramel; France (especially the Ile de Re); Italy (especially Sicily); tennis; Vanity Fair magazine; 'Book at Bedtime'; lasagne; heavy metal; 'The Archers'; driving towards the sea (but not into it); anything at the Royal Opera House; white wine; Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (or, failing that, a Starbar); using parentheses, semi-colons, and Oxford commas.
Find out more online at www.louisecandlish.com, and on Facebook at LouiseCandlishAuthor, and on Twitter at @louise_candlish.
