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When I first encountered Anna Hoyt in 2009, we were both in a state of desperation. I was asked to write a story for a noir collection, to replace an author who dropped out. I’d never worked in that subgenre before, and I had a two-week deadline, so I was beyond daunted. But I was going to give it a shot.
Anna turned out to be a tavern owner struggling to keep her property from a variety of violent thugs, including her husband. I set the story in the 1740s because I knew what Boston would look like and was familiar with the taverns—and crimes—of the period.
What drove me was emotion: I was intimidated and...angry. At the time, there’d been more of the noise about female writers of crime fiction, how “their” cozy mysteries weren’t realistic, and how, with a few notable exceptions, women couldn’t write. It was bullshit then, as it’s bullshit now, but that anger drove me. And it’s fear and outrage that drives my main character, Anna Hoyt: she may own her tavern, but she’s far from free from the constraints of society and must learn to work around them.
She had a lot to lose, and in the course of that short story, I realized what she was willing to do to keep what was hers. Maybe it was my own panic to figure out how to get the story done, but in the end, Anna surprised me —and scared me, too.
And that's just fine. If a writer is unnerved by something she wrote, chances are, readers will be, too. I was pretty sure I’d never write another story featuring Anna; her life was too violent, and she was too unlike me for comfort. But I was encouraged to consider more stories, and eventually a novel with her—first by writer, editor, and critic David Ulin, and then, by my brilliant agent, Josh Getzler.
And in October, she’ll be here. I can’t wait for you to meet her. Brace yourself.
Next: What’s With That Creepy Doll?