My interview with Lisa Unger renewed within me the desire to just write, and see what happens. During my interview of her on Saturday, September 26, 2009, she talked about how her novels hold, “…a strong thread of domestic danger.”
Lisa then discussed a concept: “We don’t truly know the people we love an trust,” that spirals within her novels.
In Lisa’s latest novel, Die for You,” the major character Isabel, a writer like Unger, discovers that it is not simply whom those she loves that she least understands as well as she had believed. Much remains for Isabel to learn about herself too.
“Isabel feels that as fiction writer she sees the details,” Lisa says “…particularly those small ones that in the unguarded moment,” reveal who a person is at their core.
When her husband goes to work one morning and never returns, calamity, crime, and suspense ensue. These are all the things that destroy convention and humble us.
In the process of searching for her husband Isabel, as do all interesting and engaging heroines and heroes, comes to know and comprehend herself at depths she never realized.
Perhaps this is the work of all writers, to learn about ourselves as we expl0re the human hearts of our characters. We accomplish this by simply writing. And watching what happens.
What questions about humanity draw you to writing, and reading?
What role does suspense play in your writing?