Nita Prose, THE MYSTERY GUEST: A Maid Novel
[0:02]Hi, I'm Zippy Owens and you're listening to moms don't have time to read books.
[0:06]This 30 minute podcast features a new author interviewed by me every single day, 365 days
[0:12]a year for about 30 minutes.
[0:15]I am also the publisher for Zippy Books, which publishes 12 books a year in fiction and
[0:21]memoir.
[0:22]Our books are already out now.
[0:23]You can check it out on zippybooks.com.
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[0:31]features.
[0:32]That's at zippymag.com.
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[0:43]11th Street in San Monica.
[0:45]I hope that you are able to enjoy some of our other offerings.
[0:49]But this here podcast is the basis of all of it and started in 2018.
[0:54]And no matter what I do, this is basically my favorite thing.
[0:57]Enjoy.
[1:03]Need a prose is the author of the mystery guest, a made novel.
[1:07]Needa is also the author of The Made, which has sold over 1 million copies worldwide and
[1:12]was published in over 40 countries, a number one New York Times bestseller and a good morning
[1:16]America book club pick, The Made won the Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction
[1:21]and was an Edgar Awards finalist for best novel.
[1:24]Welcome, Needa.
[1:25]Thank you so much for coming on mom's turn and time to read books to discuss the mystery
[1:28]guest, a made novel.
[1:30]Thank you so much, Navee.
[1:31]I'm so excited to be here.
[1:33]Oh, yay.
[1:34]So exciting.
[1:35]So as we're talking, this will come out after the book has come out, but we are a week
[1:39]away from pub day.
[1:41]How are you doing?
[1:42]Watching people know about like the week before pub day from even such a huge author
[1:47]is yourself.
[1:48]How does it feel?
[1:49]So the really weird thing that you'll understand, Zippy, is that, you know, there's this
[1:53]period of time when you're done the manuscript and you're waiting for your pub day where
[1:57]nothing's going on.
[1:58]And it's just crickets.
[1:59]And you're thinking, oh my God, what have I done?
[2:02]I've wasted my time.
[2:03]This is going to be an absolute disaster.
[2:05]And then like a couple of weeks before your pub date, it's like somebody turns on this
[2:11]magical light switch and, you know, your inbox is filling up and there's all these requests
[2:16]and people, you know, want to talk to you.
[2:19]And then you're like, ah, I don't really want all of them.
[2:23]And it's so exciting and it's so wonderful.
[2:26]And of course you want that feedback, you know, for me, the second I'm done, the
[2:29]book.
[2:30]It's not mine anymore.
[2:31]You know, it belongs to the reader is I don't feel it's mine.
[2:35]And so I'm so excited to have that feedback and to hear people thoughts, go to bad, we'll
[2:40]leave.
[2:41]Yeah, the switch has turned on.
[2:43]Let's just say switches turned on.
[2:45]Here we go.
[2:46]Okay.
[2:47]So Nita, tell us about the mystery guest and when you decided to continue on with some
[2:54]of the element, how did was this the plan from the beginning with the maid?
[2:58]No, not at all.
[2:59]She's shaking your head.
[3:00]Okay, tell me the whole story when this came to be and then how you figured out the plot
[3:05]and, you know, just tell me the whole thing.
[3:07]So no way.
[3:08]I never planned this to be a series, not exactly.
[3:10]I knew there was more room in those characters to tell more about their lives.
[3:14]But truly I had so much going on trying to, you know, write the debut that I didn't think
[3:19]too much past that.
[3:21]And once it was published, a lot of my readers were saying exactly the same thing.
[3:26]I want more Molly.
[3:28]Molly, Molly, Molly, and I got the comments so often as to my publishers that eventually
[3:33]we got those phone calls like, would you, would you write more Molly?
[3:38]Would you?
[3:39]And I had to think about it because, you know, with a character like that that readers,
[3:45]you know, some readers have come to love, I didn't want to do injustice to her.
[3:50]I didn't want to disappoint readers and give them less while trying to give them more.
[3:54]So I said at the time to my agent and my publishers, I'll try.
[3:58]You know, and if I can figure out a storyline that I think, you know, honors that character
[4:03]and that readers will enjoy, then I'll do it.
[4:06]But if I can't do it, if I can't figure it out, you will never see that manuscript
[4:10]come out of my desk, ever, ever, ever, I won't do it.
[4:14]So you know, that took some puzzling and eventually I got it.
[4:17]And it was really strange how it happened.
[4:20]Because I have a habit of doing this.
[4:22]I will have these moments that are like these touchstone moments when everything comes
[4:27]together and I have no control over it whatsoever, which is really, really frustrating.
[4:32]So the moment for this book happened in UK and I was on tour for the maid and I went
[4:39]to a museum outside of Brighton in a little town called Luz and it was a castle museum.
[4:45]And in that museum, I came across the most unusual display and it was in a glass
[4:50]box, two items.
[4:53]One was the mummified body of a rat and beside that rat, a single silver spoon.
[4:58]And I thought, what the heck is this?
[5:00]And I read the label and in fact, this was a commemoration of a servant girl who had once
[5:06]worked in the castle and was unceremoniously dismissed from her position after having been
[5:12]accused of stealing silver from her bosses.
[5:15]Well, she denied it.
[5:16]She said she never did such a thing, but she was rock-martched out the door.
[5:20]And then many, many years later, when they were renovating the castle, the builders opened
[5:24]up the walls and lo and behold, what did they find?
[5:28]The mummified body of a rat and beside it, a single silver spoon.
[5:34]And that became the commemorative, you know, a display for this poor maid.
[5:39]And for me, that was the spark city.
[5:42]It was like suddenly my imagination ignited.
[5:44]I started to think again about what it means to be an invisible worker, whether it's
[5:48]a maid or somebody else and to toil away and to be so disregarded and to be always
[5:55]accused of something or accused in a way of not being good enough.
[6:00]And that became the ignition for the mystery guest.
[6:03]Wow.
[6:04]That's amazing.
[6:05]Do you have pictures of that?
[6:06]Did I miss them?
[6:07]Are they on social or something?
[6:08]I do.
[6:09]I haven't posted them on social yet, but I can happily send you something.
[6:11]Okay.
[6:12]See, that's amazing how your brain can just start going, right?
[6:16]It's just a little.
[6:17]Yeah, one thing is like nugget and you have no control of it over it, which is the most
[6:21]frustrated thing.
[6:22]You just have to wait for it to come.
[6:24]It may come.
[6:25]It may never come.
[6:26]And such as the life of a writer.
[6:28]So then once you got the nugget, did you just did it, what happened with the writing process
[6:32]itself?
[6:33]Did you just like bang it out?
[6:34]blah, blah, blah.
[6:35]It was like flowing or did you then stop to say, okay, well, if this is this way, how
[6:38]should I do the rest of this and then like what was the process for the rest of it?
[6:42]Well, then it's a lot for me, it's all about the questions.
[6:44]What should have that nugget?
[6:45]It's like, okay, now this delivery is a moment and then a hundred thousand questions
[6:51]around it that I have to resolve through narrative.
[6:54]And for me, that's really the fertile ground of knowing and not knowing.
[6:57]I knew a couple of things.
[6:59]I knew that the past and the present in this story, Molly's childhood would be the key
[7:04]to solving the mystery in the present tense.
[7:07]So Molly journeys back in time and she goes back to this luxurious, if somewhat foreboding
[7:12]mansion where a famous writer happens to live and he's reclusive, he's a bit odd and
[7:19]she has a 10 year old, has to engage with this man.
[7:22]And she comes to understand the dynamics not only of her and her grand, but of a very
[7:29]important things that shaped their identity at a very early age while grand was working
[7:35]in a maid in this house.
[7:37]And that really comes to play in our understanding of the present tense mystery when a writer
[7:44]guess who drops dead, very dead on the T room floor at the Regency Grand.
[7:49]But of course, Molly has a history with this man.
[7:51]I mean, the way you tied it out together, I was like genius, this genius.
[7:57]I couldn't, you know, anyway, it was just kidding.
[8:00]Chef's kiss.
[8:01]It was great.
[8:02]Thank you.
[8:04]When did you, how did you start writing to begin with?
[8:07]Like where did this come from in your own life and did you always know you wanted to be
[8:10]a writer?
[8:11]I know you've been an amazing editor and all of that, but just like talk about your
[8:14]whole history.
[8:15]Yeah.
[8:16]So as you know, I do have a history as an editor.
[8:19]I'm still an editor to this day because I must be a masochist and I absolutely love that
[8:25]process.
[8:26]To me, it's like ying and yang writing and editing are really the same thing.
[8:30]It's engaging with narrative and trying to solve story problems.
[8:34]And I love it.
[8:35]I'm not really good at anything else.
[8:36]I can tell stories.
[8:38]I can help other people tell stories and that's it.
[8:42]That's all I can do.
[8:43]And so everything I've ever done has to do with one of those two things so it really does
[8:48]feel like ying and yang to me.
[8:50]So in terms of writing, I've written for a long time just in a different way.
[8:56]You know, some of them might work with my writers, not always, involves ghost writing
[9:01]or very close collaboration with celebrities or politicians or people who may not have
[9:08]writing experience but have a memoir in them.
[9:11]And so my job is to become them in a way.
[9:15]To channel their voice, to really get a thorough understanding of who they are as people
[9:19]and what story they want to tell or have to tell that will move an audience.
[9:24]And through that ventriloquism, I think I honed my craft as a writer.
[9:31]And I think also I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of the other novelists and other
[9:37]writers who I've worked with who have allowed me to help them with their stories, not
[9:42]as any ghost but as an editor.
[9:45]And that has sharpened my understanding of the mechanics of story and how readers connect
[9:51]to characters, to worlds and to plots.
[9:55]And I am so grateful to have that best, you know, master's program.
[10:00]in the world, which is really those one-on-one relationships with writers. It's amazing.
[10:05]Wait, so can you share some projects that you're really proud of or any stories about the books
[10:10]you've edited? The books have edited? Oh my gosh, I'm proud of so many of my writers. It's actually
[10:16]hard to choose. So one who I'm very proud of recently is Liz Nugent who wrote Strange Sally
[10:23]Diamond and has, you know, a host of other brilliant novels unraveling all of her line weight.
[10:28]And she is the darkest of dark writers. And she is has this ability to understand women's
[10:36]deepest nightmares, envision them on the page, and somehow, you know, expel them from us as though
[10:44]they were polterguests. And I think that kind of takes a bravery and an intuition that is unusual
[10:51]and my work with her has been so wonderful. And she's one of these delicate, delicate writers
[10:57]who, you know, hands in a draft that is near perfection. And so my job is really just,
[11:04]it's this little shift here, shift there, asking the right questions to just complete it,
[11:09]let her open her mind to complete the vision that she intends. And that is hugely gratifying.
[11:15]And then I would say on the nonfiction front, there was an author I worked with quite a
[11:19]few years ago now who was the lead singer of a band in Canada that was, you know, really important,
[11:25]great big C and his name is Alan Doyle. And he's a new from Lander and bless new from Lander's,
[11:31]they are the best kind as they say there, meaning the best kind of people. And he came in saying he
[11:38]didn't know how to write brilliant songwriter. And he would deliver, we would talk and talk about
[11:43]the chapters and what we would want to see there. And he would deliver to me a haiku, you know,
[11:49]it'd be 60 words. And I'm like, what am I supposed to do? This is not a chapter. But of course
[11:55]a songwriter is going to deliver songs. And then through this process of getting him to expand and
[12:01]understand the needs of what a chapter is within a memoir, he came to be able to write the book himself
[12:09]in such beautiful prose and doing such justice to the Newfoundland zeitgeist, which is its own
[12:16]peculiar and beautiful creature. And that is a book I'm so proud of because I didn't write it.
[12:23]I came in with a certain, you know, set of parameters that I expected I was going to, you know,
[12:30]fulfill. And I didn't have to because he was such a good storyteller that he could learn the
[12:37]mechanics of an entirely different genre. That is so amazing. Yeah, it was cool. Tell me what you're
[12:43]excited about. That isn't what you're working on now. Like when you're just like getting out of
[12:49]work, getting out of literature, I know this is what you're good at. And that's wonderful. But like,
[12:54]let's say you're just like, okay, I'm promoting my book. I'm dealing with all my authors. I just
[12:58]need a break. Like what do you do? Okay. So this is going to make sense to you, I think. Okay.
[13:04]I go to something that has no words where I cannot use that skill at all. I dance. Oh, I love that.
[13:14]And I dance because it is a language and I love language, but I cannot use my mouth. I cannot use
[13:21]words. I can't afford sentences. It's a language of the body that is a different spiritual animal,
[13:27]but very related, I think, to communication. And so I'm a salsa dancer. I love Latin music,
[13:34]particularly. And I feel when I'm dancing that I can fly, I feel like there's no gravity
[13:43]that holds me down. I have a freedom and a zen sort of feeling in my head of openness and space
[13:51]and freedom. That is so cool. That's what I do. It's the counterbalance to all that scrutiny that
[13:56]we do as writers on the page. Yeah. You made me just want to get up and dance, by the way. Let's do it.
[14:02]Let's do it. Put it on some music. All right. Really surprised people.
[14:06]Yeah. Really. What happened in your podcast with me? Well, you're not going to believe this,
[14:11]but we ended up bouncing dancing. Readers, you just never know what's going to happen.
[14:18]You never know. You just never know. Oh my gosh. So when you were, like, when you were a little kid,
[14:25]did you know this is what you were going to do with your life? You know, I knew in that weird way
[14:30]that you know when you don't know. When you can't really do anything else, life sort of leads you
[14:34]there. You know, I tried math. That was a disaster. Never do that again. Come on. I can barely add
[14:40]so I think I did know it was a matter of figuring out where that would land exactly. Journalism, law,
[14:49]writing, but I always wrote and I loved to write. It's just I couldn't name. I never was one of
[14:55]those kids who could say, I'm going to be a writer one day. No, it wasn't that. I would have said
[15:00]I like writing and I like words. You know, so that discovery came later and I'm not a young
[15:06]right? I, you know, finished my debut novel at the tender age of 49, 50, I think, whatever,
[15:13]something like that. So, you know, I came to it later, but it has, it has always been there.
[15:19]That's amazing. I know I keep, I have this novel coming at and I'm like, well, it took me
[15:23]till I was 47. I look at all these 25-year-olds and I'm like, oh my gosh, I know. I have a deep envy.
[15:32]They put us through such cruelty when they're 23 years old and they write a brilliant novel.
[15:37]How did you do that? I did not have the wherewithal or the wisdom to be able to put anything on
[15:46]a page that anyone would want to read. So I'm always very impressed with the young people who
[15:51]have that ability. Me too. I feel like I need to start my recruiting early because I do feel like
[15:57]you can tell by, I don't know, fourth grade maybe who wants to be a writer or who has that itch in
[16:03]them, you know? Yes, it's early. I think that's true. I think that's true. Yeah. So if you see me
[16:09]scouting out, you know, fourth gradeers too. Do you like to write a book for me in like 15, 20 years?
[16:15]Okay, good. Here's my card. That's awesome. Oh my gosh. So when you're so busy writing and editing,
[16:22]do you ever read just something that's not, do you read for pleasure as well, things that are not
[16:27]on the list of things you have to read? I do. You know, these days I must say it's really a lot of
[16:33]manuscripts and it's really only on holidays that I can, you know, do that. Oh, I'm going to go to
[16:39]the airport store and I'm going to buy three novels. I don't know what they'll be and this is going to
[16:45]be so delicious because I don't have to read them. I want to read them and that is, you know,
[16:51]that is a rare privilege for an editor writer because so often we have the deluge of manuscripts
[16:58]on the one hand and the deluge of early copies on the other. But I must say I do love being an early
[17:05]reader. I don't know how do you feel about that. I love getting a galley and be one of the first
[17:10]readers 100% so exciting, really exciting. I know I have all these stacks of books, you know, by
[17:16]month and like then books I read and then I have this little stack over here and it's like
[17:19]books I just want to read. You know, like they're not coming on my podcast. Maybe they're not
[17:23]even alive. Do you know what I mean? Like they're just like, I just want to read these ones but I don't
[17:26]know when I'll ever get to them. But I haven't asked forationally there. Yes. And then that feels
[17:31]good to leave that space open for the possibility of picking up something. Yes. Yeah. That does not
[17:36]work. Did you do research into hotel life and all of that to get such a great sense of the vibe,
[17:45]the characters, where there's specific hotels you had in mind? Yeah. Okay. So the first part
[17:51]did I do research? Yes. I guess I've done research for quite some time. So the first research that,
[17:56]again, I didn't think about it until I was asked that question along the way with the maid.
[18:01]But many years ago I did a book as an editor with a butler and he was a butler to many, many
[18:09]famous people, Oprah, Jackie, oh, just an incredible roster of people. And he, you know, taught me
[18:18]all about that world that is doubting that BS on the one hand, but some kind of modernized in
[18:25]another. It's one of the few places a hotel where we can still have that hierarchy and feel
[18:32]quote unquote comfortable with it. Where we're not so comfortable anymore in contemporary society
[18:39]with those very obvious stratified hierarchies. So that sort of somehow lodged in my brain.
[18:47]And I certainly came to use a lot of what I learned about hotels from him. So yeah,
[18:52]your second question about that. Were there certain hotels in particular? My favorite thing is when
[18:58]readers decide what the hotel is. So very often I'll have readers come up to me and say,
[19:04]I know what hotel that is, you know, that's the Baglionian London. And I say, you're right,
[19:09]you're absolutely right. And then someone will say, oh, yeah, that's the Waldo for this story in
[19:15]US. I'm like, sure, yes, it is. And I absolutely love it. It is one of the weirdest compliments
[19:21]to me because my goal is to have the reader participate to just draw in the faintest lines of what a
[19:28]luxury hotel might be like a boutique hotel and for them to complete that with their imaginations.
[19:33]And so I love it when they do that. But as for what hotels really inspired me, there were a few.
[19:39]There was, you know, one in Toronto, one in the UK and one in the US that sort of merged in my mind.
[19:46]But maybe the most important one is the King Edward Hotel in Toronto because I work at Simon
[19:54]Schuster now. But for years, I worked at Penguin Random House and down the street was the King Edward.
[20:00]tell. So every day that I went to work, I crossed by that hotel with its red carpeted steps
[20:06]and it's portly dormant who stands in his podium with his cap and his great coat and his
[20:10]crests. And I walked by him every day five days a week. And he would tip his cap at me. And I would,
[20:19]you know, nod at him. I never met him. We never spoke. We never had a conversation,
[20:25]but somehow I felt like he was watching over me. And I saw him do things. I saw him, you know,
[20:33]deal with drunk rock stars and be abused by very wealthy people and all kinds of horrors. This
[20:42]man endured with so much grace and dignity that he gave to that hotel. And somehow this man who was
[20:52]a complete stranger felt almost like a grandfather to me. This man, I didn't know. And in that
[21:00]weird way that things find their way into books that are truths and untruths at the very same time.
[21:07]Mr. Preston was born into both a maid and the mystery guest via that ephemeral daily contact
[21:15]with a total stranger. Does he still work at the hotel? I haven't seen him in years. So I switched
[21:21]publishing houses. And I never, I didn't walk by there anymore. And I have not seen that man
[21:26]in a long time. I think he's been replaced by young Ems now. So maybe you should march over some
[21:32]copies and check it down. If I, you're the inspiration for this massive best-selling book,
[21:39]who man who never spoke to me, just saying that. This is your claim to fame and you don't even
[21:44]know it. And then he, you know, demands royalties and that to me, maybe not the greatest guy.
[21:53]Next thing you know, he's like living in the penthouse suite at the hotel and all this one.
[21:56]Turning into Mr. Black. Yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh. Will there be more maid novels?
[22:02]An excellent question. And I think I could answer that the same way I did after the maid.
[22:07]Only if I can give readers more instead of less. I know readers want more. And I have to
[22:14]figure that out. I have to find a new landscape and territory that will satisfy. And for me,
[22:20]that's always about a mix of genres. You know, there's mystery on the front. But what, what's on
[22:24]the back? I love to Frankenstein too, genres together. So I'm thinking about that. I am indeed
[22:30]thinking about that. And if there might be a dramatic third closure book, but we shall see.
[22:37]Only if I can figure it out, Zippy. I have utter faith in you that you'll figure it out.
[22:41]And I'm looking forward to seeing what all the other colors in the set will be.
[22:45]I feel like you should just keep going. Why limit it to three? Just like, keep it to home and get the
[22:49]crease. Like, come on. I mean, come on. Life is short. Keep going. Do you have any advice for
[22:55]aspiring authors? I do. And I find it's advice people don't want, but I'll give it anyway. Go for it.
[23:03]It's read. My biggest advice is read. Reveraciously and I'm never asleep. Read not only for your
[23:11]own pleasure and entertainment, but read to dissect how writing works. Read the scenes that moved
[23:17]you and that made you forget who you were and where you were when you read them. And try to understand
[23:22]how the writers did that because there is so much magic in that ability. And you can learn from it.
[23:29]You really can. Read veraciously and, um, niversally. I mean, come on. If that's not a writer
[23:35]thing to say, I don't know. I mean, I thank you so much. Congratulations on the mystery guys. Good luck
[23:42]with the publication. And I will be reading for you. Oh, thank you so much, Zippy. Take care. Bye.
[23:49]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't forget to
[23:53]follow me on Instagram at Zippy Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Also sign
[23:58]up for my newsletter at zippyowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors
[24:03]on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan. In fact, texture sound for the sound
[24:08]editing. And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and
[24:12]now trim music.