Tell us about your debut novel, Lost Lambs
Lost Lambs follows the Flynn family, each in personal crisis, as they grow up and unravel their town’s secrets.
Your comic voice has been praised to the skies. How important is humour in your writing?
Very. I think greater truths are often best articulated through humour. It is the jester’s privilege; the ability to speak truth to power under the guise of jest. The fool can make real change.
As the title suggests, there is a strong Christian theme. Your mother was a hospice nurse at a convent and your high school shared a campus with a rehab centre and a Korean church. Are you a believer?
I went to a Lutheran school growing up, which perhaps is what piqued my interest in Christian themes. My mother tended nuns but is not one. To her, God is as real as Santa Claus. She is retired now and gives tours of Renaissance art. I have my own higher power but it’s ever-changing and denominationless.
You read 14 Golden Age detective novels while writing the book to emulate the murder-mystery style. Do you have a favourite? What does the crime genre bring to the literary party?
The Big Sleep is masterful. Chandler defined the hard-boiled detective genre. Not only is it playful and witty but explores American corruption and moral decay. I learned a lot about plotting a complex crime caper from this book.
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How much research (into human trafficking and so on) did you do for the novel?
A great deal of research went into the book. I learned about the nuances of the shipping industry, about the pseudoscience of blood therapies, and about marriage because I have never been in one myself. I spoke to many people who were or had been in long marriages. What worked? What didn’t? Like science or economics, relationships are intricate systems that require investigation.
Who are your influences? Thomas Pynchon has been mentioned more than once
For this book in particular, I was thinking about The Corrections, The Nix, A Children’s Bible, Underworld, The Big Sleep, The Last Samurai, Donald Barthelme short stories, Eyes Wide Shut and the painting Vivienne Girls by Henry Darger.
Your character Paul Alabaster is a nefarious billionaire. What do you make of Elon Musk?
I was more interested in tech billionaires in general and the quirks that accompany unregulated financial freedom. When the mortal world is conquered, they seem to turn to immortality, digitally or in some cases, literally.
Tell us about your story collection, Earth Angel
I wrote Earth Angel when I was 23. Unlike Lost Lambs, it pulls heavily from my own life. I’d say it’s about love and connection at the end of the world.
Flynns and Cash sound Irish. Are your roots fresh enough to be meaningful?
My mother is Irish and Welsh, now trying to get her citizenship. I have never been but would absolutely love to.
Which projects are you working on?
I have just sold a second novel. More to be revealed soon!
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
Last year I travelled to Carthage, Missouri, to visit the Precious Moments chapel, a church dedicated to Precious Moments figurines, small religious statues depicting wide-eyed children. They fascinate me, as does all this kind of American Christian kitsch. An essay may be forthcoming.
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
From my writing teacher at Sarah Lawrence by way of Edward Albee: that a writer should work a nonimaginative job to save their creative energy for their personal work. I’ve followed this advice to some extent. I’ve worked in retail, service and did copywriting. I’ve delivered pizzas. I worked for a year at a literary agency marketing beach reads.
Who do you admire the most?
My mother. She raised me on her own, bought our house, put me through school and always encouraged me to be a writer even when the prospect seemed unrealistic. I hope to one day be a parent like her.
Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?
I just read a phenomenal galley: Offseason by Avigayl Sharp. I recommend everyone to buy her book when it comes out.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
I was stuck in Okinawa by myself for two weeks because of “typhoon season”. No planes were flying out to Taiwan, which was my next destination. I stayed with a Japanese woman who woke me up in the middle of the night to watch sea turtles hatch and make their way to the sea.
What is the most beautiful book that you own?
I’m the proud owner of an original Women and Men by Joseph McElroy. The book itself is lovely but beautiful in its scarcity (it’s prohibitively difficult to find a copy!)
The best and worst things about where you live?
London: the best part is the people there: my publishers, my friends Marina and Tessa, my boyfriend Christopher. The worst part is the weather, the time it takes to get places, and the mould. Oh, the mould.
What is your favourite quotation?
“Death is but a night between two days.” Joy Williams, The Quick and the Dead.
“You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they’ve exhausted every other possibility.” Winston Churchill.
Who is your favourite fictional character?
Seymour Glass in A Perfect Day for Banana Fish by JD Salinger.
A book to make me laugh?
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders.
A book that might move me to tears?
Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish.
Lost Lambs is published by Doubleday on February 5th
