Why Do We Love to Read About the Evil Rich? by Tara Laskowski

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I know, you're thinking that title doesn't seem to go along with our Christmas theme this week! But you're wrong, dear readers. Because you're about to get cash, or gift certificates, or just plain old "treat myself" and you KNOW you're going to want a gorgeous thriller to curl up with the day after Christmas. Lucky for you, Tara Laskowski's latest tale of the diabolical doings of the elite, THE WEEKEND RETREAT, is landing in bookstores on Boxing Day (the Feast of Stephen, for you musically minded.) It's set in my old stomping grounds, the Finger Lakes, y'all! But in a place I'm pretty sure I'd never get invited to. 

Tara's here today to tell us just why rich people behaving badly is so irresistible...

 

Our family saw Wonka this weekend at the theater. One of the elite chocolatiers, Fickelgruber, is only concerned about keeping his and his friends’ monopoly on the confections business. Money and power are his main—and only—focus. In fact, any time someone says the word “poor,” he physically contorts and “throws up in his mouth a little.” Suffice to say, everyone in the theater is rooting for his demise by the end of the movie.

It's fun to root against evil rich people, isn’t it? Why, though?

When I wrote my debut novel One Night Gone, I didn’t realize that writing about out-of-touch wealthy people was going to become a part of my “brand.” And yet the three books I’ve written so far have all kind of centered on, at their core, a group of affluent people who think they can get away with anything (and often do.)

People have said that they enjoy my books even if they love to hate my characters. And weirdly, I enjoy writing my characters even though they are, at times, absolutely despicable people. 

 

The characters in my stories often have a sense they are somehow above the law. That the rules don’t apply to them. Many times it’s because that’s true—they’ve managed to get away with something terrible in their past and they don’t believe it’s going to ever come back to bite them. It’s not even about their wealth as much as it is about their power. Power can go a long way toward people bending wills to get what they want. Power and influence can easily lead to corruption.

 

Take, for example, the Van Ness family in my latest novel, TheWeekend Retreat. They are an influential and somewhat notorious bunch who’ve managed to piss off a lot of people in their lives. They own an upscale winery in the Finger Lakes of New York, and they travel their every year to celebrate the birthdays of the eldest twin siblings. Of course, this year, things aren’t going to go as planned.

 

The Van Ness siblings are complete snobs, and yet they have a sense of entitlement that’s intoxicating. I enjoyed writing about them because they are delightfully awful. Harper owns an online beauty company and touts herself as a feminist even though she’s horrible to her all-female staff. Richard is a control freak who looks down on anyone he deems lesser than him. Zach is an entitled golden boy who has had pretty much everything handed to him his whole life. And their significant others aren’t much better—desperately trying to get a piece of the family’s wealth and influence or hiding other agendas. 

 

All that said, I love them and their horribleness. They were intensely fun to write because I know all their fears and vulnerabilities. Because beyond the airs they put on to protect themselves from hurt, they are people with insecurities and challenges. They make terrible choices, but they do it with a gusto. It’s hand-me-the-popcorn fun to watch them slowly march toward a downfall—and feel guilt and glee at the same time. Glad it’s not you.

 

And maybe that’s at the heart of why we like to read about rich people getting destroyed—it’s often self-inflicted. They bring it on themselves. They are out of touch with reality, they don’t realize their privilege, they are too ruthless—and those flaws make us feel like we’d surely never make those same mistakes. We can safely judge and condemn without ever worrying the same fate might happen to us. We say, “If I won the lottery, I’d do all the right things with the money” or “If I was independently wealthy, I’d never let it go to my head.”

But would we? Or would we be the stars in our own tragic thriller novel, destined to a terrible fate?

And would we—sipping our fine wine and laying into our satin sheets, staring out at the view off our terrace—really care?

Until it’s too late, that is.

 

Tara Laskowski is the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Award winning writer of both suspense novels and short stories.  You can read more about her at her website, follow her on Instagram as TaraLWrites and chat with her on Twitter as @TaraLWrites. Her newest thriller, THE WEEKEND RETREAT, will be out on December 26, 2023.

What ScaresWriters--Tara Laskowski

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It's such a treat to have Tara Laskowski here on JRW today! Her debut suspense novel One Night Gone won nearly every award in the book, and this month she has a new book that is just as terrific. And I think her topic today is very appropriate in the week leading up to Halloween! (Not to mention that I think she and the other writers she's quoted here have been eavesdropping on my thoughts...)

Here's Tara!

 What Scares Writers?

I’m fascinated by fear and the things that scare us. Fear is a leveling ground. It’s universal. It affects all of us. But like humor, the things that scare us are very particular. Our experiences in life shape our fears—I would probably not be afraid of earthworms if I hadn’t seen that horror movie where they come out of the showerhead, for example. So how does what terrify us define us?

Two years ago, I started a Q&A series on my web site called “What Scares You?”, where I ask writers and readers questions about their fears. The series has been illuminating for many reasons—I learn about new fears I’d never heard of before (such as trypophobia!), I recognize that some of my own fears are shared by many others, and I feel like I know the interviewees better after I read their answers.

For example, in interviewing Hank Phillippi Ryan, I discovered that we share a fear of jinxing ourselves by saying or thinking anything too positive. I’ve worked very hard to stop myself from destroying my own happiness, and yet I’m always worried that if I act too excited about something, the universe is going to come back and bite me. Even now, if I get really great writing news, I sort of tip-toe over into a corner and whisper, “Yay!” with a tiny fist bump, hoping no bad karma monsters will hear it.

For many writers I’ve talked to, the writing process itself causes fears and doubts to roar their ugly heads. We are scared of nearly every part of the writing process—from the blank page to the finality of turning our words over to the world—and those fears don’t really vary much from newbie to veteran writers. We’re all a ball of mess, basically.

But don’t take it from me. Here are some writer fears that have cropped up in my Q&As. Do you recognize any of these fears in yourself?

“I fear that instead of growing and challenging myself, I get stuck writing the same book over and over and over again. Also, that my ignorance and unconscious biases could lead to me writing harmful material. However, with that latter one, I hope that when I mess up (because everybody does) I will have the grace to acknowledge it and accept responsibility, then put in the work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

~Mia Manansala

“That nobody will want to read or publish my books anymore and my career will end.”

~Hannah Mary McKinnon

“The blank page. Because it’s a sign of unlimited possibility but also potential failure.”

~Alex Segura

“Every time I start a new story, I worry that my idea isn’t big enough, twisty enough.”

~Rachel Howzell Hall

“Every morning when I sit down to write I feel a little frisson of dread. I’m not sure why. I think it has to do with exposure—the sense that I’ll have to peel away the protective layer between my inner self and the world—and, worse, that there won’t be anything there when I do.”

~Carol Goodman

“There is always a moment about halfway into a first draft where I get scared that I’m not going to figure out the rest of it.”

~Michael Landweber

For me, one of the scariest writer-moments I had was having to toss aside an entire draft of the novel that later became The Mother Next Door and start over. It was horrifying to do it, even though my gut (and, well, my editor and agent) told me it was the right thing to do. Those were dark times, and even though it was tough, I did learn something from the painful process, and I know I grew as a writer.

Whatever scares us about writing, the most important thing is to try not to let those fears paralyze us. We may seem unique in our writer insecurities and our deepest, darkest, worries, but chances are other writers feel the same way. In fact, I’ve seen several writers on social media discussing their experiences throwing out entire novel drafts, and it’s a relief to know I’m not the only one. This is one of the reasons why I like to ask writers these questions—to make us all realize that we aren’t alone.

In casting light on our fears, maybe it’ll make everything seem a little less scary.

 

 TARA LASKOWSKI’s debut suspense novel One Night Gone won the Agatha Award, Macavity Award, and the Anthony Award. Her second novel, The Mother Next Door, was published in October 2021. She also wrote two short story collections, Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons and Bystanders. She has won the Agatha Award and Thriller Award for her short fiction and hosts the “What Scares You?” column on her web site. A graduate of Susquehanna University and George Mason University, Tara grew up in Pennsylvania and lives in Virginia. 

 For fans of Lisa Jewell, Aimee Molloy, and Joshilyn Jackson, an upmarket suspense novel from a multi-award-winning author about a tightknit group of suburban mothers who invite a new neighborhood mom into their fold, and the fallout the night of the annual block party, when secrets from the past come back to haunt them…

 

“A polished and entertaining homage to Big Little Lies and Desperate Housewives… The denouement is bonkers, but satisfying.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“A witty, wicked thriller packed with hidden agendas, juicy secrets, and pitch-perfect satire of the suburban dream.”
—Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Never Here

The annual block party is the pinnacle of the year on idyllic suburban cul de sac Ivy Woods Drive. An influential group of neighborhood moms—known as the Ivy Five—plan the event for months.

Except the Ivy Five have been four for a long time.

When a new mother moves to town, eager to fit in, the moms see it as an opportunity to make the group whole again. This year’s block party should be the best yet... until the women start receiving anonymous messages threatening to expose the quiet neighborhood’s dark past—and the lengths they’ve gone to hide it.

As secrets seep out and the threats intensify, the Ivy Five must sort the loyal from the disloyal, the good from the bad. They'll do anything to protect their families. But when a twisted plot is revealed, with dangerous consequences, their steady foundation begins to crumble, leaving only one certainty: after this year’s block party, Ivy Woods Drive will never be the same.

From award-winning author Tara Laskowski, The Mother Next Door is an atmospheric, campy novel of domestic suspense in which the strive for perfection ends in murder...

 

DEBS: I am shuddering at the thought of throwing out an entire draft of a novel!! Talk about a writer's nightmare!

READERS, tell us what you're afraid of!

 

P.S. Tara's WHAT SCARES YOU? interviews on her website are great! I am now addicted.

 

 

A Career-Changing Moment?

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HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  One of the most rom-com moments I’ve ever encountered in real life was last May at Malice Domestic, when wife and husband Tara Laskowski and Art Taylor were both nominated for best short story.

Now. I ask you, Reds and readers, is there anything cuter?

Tara won (she tied with FOTR Leslie Budewitz), as it turned out. It would have been fine anyway, since Art had already won about fifty million of them,  but the 2018 awards scales were further balanced in that he won the Edgar for the same story).

And they have the cutest son in the world—Dash. If you follow them on Facebook, and you should, truly, you will love him, too.

ANYWAY.

That might have been a career-changing moment—since Tara’s first novel ONE NIGHT GONE is about to come out—and you can pre order here—we’re probably about to find out. Or! Being here today might be one, too.  For you, too, Reds and readers.

Career-Changing “Aha” Moments

    by Tara Laskowski

A few years ago, I was discussing my then novel-in-progress with Christina Hogrebe, an agent at the Jane Rotrosen Agency. This was a book that I’d written and then rewritten and then rewritten again—a 500-plus page love story that spanned several decades and was set in my hometown in Pennsylvania.

Once I finished talking about that book and the other idea I had for a literary/women’s fiction novel, Christina paused for a moment. She then asked me the question that would completely alter my writing path forever:

“Do you read in that genre?”

I know people overuse the lightbulb-went-off cliché all the time, but I can tell you that if there was a lamp in my head, someone would’ve been in there yanking the cord with all their might. Because my answer to her question was “no, not really.”

Sure, I read widely. I like literary fiction. I like YA, fantasy and sci-fi. And I’ve certainly read and loved women’s fiction and romance. There were specific novels that had inspired my own manuscript. Crooked River Burning by Mark Winegardner was a big one (and you should really go buy that book immediately—it’s fantastic). Feast of Love by Charles Baxter. The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank. Running in Heels by Anna Maxted.

But this is not the genre, generally, that fuels my fire.

I love murder. Mystery. Suspense. Creepiness. I want to devour the novels of Tana French, Megan Abbott, Laura Lippmann, Paul Tremblay. The books I gravitate to in the bookstore are the ones with the creepy covers and even creepier premises.

So why wasn’t I writing the kinds of books that I would want to read?

After that phone call with Christina, I made a move that was a little devastating and scary. I shelved the two novel manuscripts I’d spent more than eight years on. And I started something new. Something creepy. Something I thought I would get excited about if I saw it on the shelf in an independent bookstore.

That something ultimately become my debut novel, One Night Gone, which is being published this October 1.

Christina’s question was what I call a career-altering “aha” moment for me. It set me on a new, unknown path, but I believe it set me on the right one. And like all moments of change, it was scary at first. And daunting. But I’m so very grateful for it.

As writers, I’m sure we can all easily point to “aha” moments we had about our writing. Maybe it was a beta reader who led us to realize that one of our characters could just be deleted from the manuscript. Or a workshop critique that shed the light on the true ending and resolution of a short story. Those “aha” moments are wonderful, and they prove that surrounding yourself with a good community of writers and readers makes you a better writer.

But fewer and rarer are the career-changing “aha”s. Sometimes they come because of a failure—a lost job, an unsold manuscript, a bad review. Sometimes they come when you’ve wildly succeeded at something you thought you were just playing around with.

Others, like mine, have been smaller in scope. The moment in college when I realized I was an English major not because I wanted to go to law school like I’d thought, but because I wanted to be…an English major. The time I won a flash fiction fellowship and realized my true joy was in crafting very tiny moments and perfecting that art.

They could be small acts of generosity or kindness from someone, or a perfectly timed question or comment by a well-meaning, savvy person.

Whatever they are, whenever they come, they are worth sitting up and listening to.

Because, like everything, you can’t really succeed unless you take a risk.

Do you have a writing-related career “aha” moment?

HANK: Oh, definitely. When my first draft of my first novel turned out to be 723 pages long, and an up and coming agent-acquaintance read it. (Can you believe it? She’s now the powerhouse Elisabeth Weed.) She said: "Cut 400 pages. I showed you what to cut from the first 50. Do the rest just like that."   And that seemed to work—that turned into PRIME TIME!

How about you, Reds and readers? A career 'aha" moment? And it doesn’t have to be about books.

ONE NIGHT GONE

Part electric coming-of-age story and part breathtaking mystery, One Night Gone is an atmospheric novel about power, privilege, and sisterhood. One sultry summer, Maureen Haddaway arrives in the wealthy town of Opal Beach to start her life anew—to achieve her destiny. But Maureen’s new life just might be too good to be true, and before the summer is up, she vanishes. Decades later, when Allison Simpson is offered the opportunity to house-sit in Opal Beach during the off-season, it seems like the perfect chance to begin fresh after a messy divorce. But when she becomes drawn into the mysterious disappearance of a girl thirty years before, Allison realizes the gorgeous homes of Opal Beach hide dark secrets. And the truth of that long-ago summer is not even the most shocking part of all...

TARA LASKOWSKI is the award-winning author of two short story collections, Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons and Bystanders, which was named a Best Book of 2017 by The Guardian. Her debut novel One Night Gone will be published in October 2019 by Graydon House Books. She is the editor of the online flash fiction journal SmokeLong Quarterly, an Agatha Award winner, and a member of Sisters in Crime. A graduate of Susquehanna University and George Mason University, Tara grew up in Pennsylvania and lives in Virginia.