 Let's talk about Ann Stackhouse...
Ann Stackhouse is the narrator behind Nothing But The Truth. She's an aspiring true crime writer who, after experiencing some early setbacks in her career, is desperately looking for a way to write her way back into the literary spotlight. This is why she decides to pursue the Maxine Adams story, beginning a back-and-forth with a convicted serial killer to get the inside scoop on a case that Ann believes has never truly been written about in a way that explains the full story. My own personal joy in writing Ann, though, is that she is my homage to a much-loved real life true crime writer, who I have spent an awful lot of time writing about. Ann Rule started her true crime writing career with true crime and true detective magazines, where she published under the name Andy Stack. Prior to marrying, Rule's maiden name was Stackhouse; hence, the Ann of my story. The 'Andy' part of her initial moniker was adopted after her father, who she wanted to give credit to throughout her career, hence taking on his name for her earliest publications. However, the reason behind Rule's use of a male moniker is decidedly less emotional than this. Rule was forced to take on a male pseudonym after on her earliest editors told her that readers would take true crime stories more seriously, and read them with more enthusiasm, if they were written by a man. So, to secure a longer career in this realm, Rule's hand was forced into disguising her gender for her early years in writing, to gain a steady readership. That being said, Rule's star would rise - as a female writer - some years later when she wrote the Ted Bundy book, The Stranger Beside Me, that was the first book-length publication to be released about the Bundy story. The book has been revised and reprinted several times over since then, though it is just one of many gems in Rule's catalogue now, formed of well over thirty New York Times Bestsellers that she gathered up during her career. After spending so much of my academic life reading and critiquing Ann's work, when I decided to write my own novel about a hopeful true crime writer I wanted to find a way to stitch her into the story. I didn't want to "recreate" her, because I have some mixed feelings about weaving real people into fictional narratives. Naming my narrator after her felt like an appropriate balance, though, that allowed me to covertly nod to the influence Rule's writing has had on my own, even though we belong to different genres (I am pleased to say that my serial killer is very much a fictional one, unlike the many that caught Rule's attention over the years). Throughout Nothing But The Truth, Ann does her utmost to capture the truth of the story that she's working on - though Maxine Adams doesn't always make this easy - so she's far from an unreliable narrator. She is, however, a narrator with a double role: she is telling this story for me, and she is allowing me to bring a little bit more attention to an influential female writer who I have long loved, which is always a joyous thing to be shared among readers and writers. So there you have a little, a little bit more about Nothing But The Truth! We are fast-approaching the release of the novel, on March 11, so if you haven't grabbed your pre-order yet then there's still time to do so (by clicking here). As always, readers, thanks for your time, and let's catch up soon. Cx
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 'Why do you write?'
It's a question that has existed as long as the act of writing has, I'm sure. Readers, and indeed, other writers, are always interested in where ideas come from. So I thought it might be worth setting down, somewhere, the reason why I wanted to write Nothing But The Truth specifically. To start with, it may help to know a little more about the book. Nothing But The Truth is a crime fiction novel, but written in the style of true crime. The opening parts of the book are written in a journalistic style, documenting the crimes, the investigation, and the eventual suspect (who, we learn, was apprehended for the crimes). The part that follows is a much more intimate narrative from the perspective of the author of the opening parts of the book (yes, it certainly got a little confusing keeping track of who was the real author as I writing this). In this final part, Ann Stackhouse, meets with and interviews Maxine, a female serial killer serving a life sentence for having killed several men. Ann believes that Maxine - or rather, Maxine's story - will be her ticket to author fame. Maxine believes that Ann will be her ticket to something bigger, and much more dangerous... So, why this story? Well, I am obsessed with true crime culture. That 'culture' is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Of course, I am broadly interested in true crime as a genre. I spend my academic life researching and writing about it, in one way or another. So it was inevitable that this would seep into my creative working at some point, too; starting with A True Crime, into A Guilty Woman, and now again into this. However, I'm also interested in our cultural fixation on the genre. Everyone you speak to these days seems to have some appetite for true crime; even if they only listen to the occasional podcast, or watch the new hype documentary. My concern with true crime, though, is that it isn't always true. Over the years, many documentarians and authors have been discredited for their blatant disregard of the facts of a case or a criminal. This factualisation/fictionalisation means that some true crime works simply aren't what they claim to be. And that's where this book came from; an idle wondering one day, about the possibility of inverting this. If true crime can step into fiction, why can't fiction step into true crime? So I tasked myself with writing a book that was entirely fictional, but which readers might read as though it were fact. It's a literary trick of the eye, where the line between fiction and non-fiction collapses for the sake of a good story - or at least, what I hope is a good story - with true crime, and the affect(s) it can have on us, at its core. It was a complicated and confusing book to work on at times. But I can genuinely say that I had great fun writing in a style that felt totally new to me. I plan to write about Nothing But The Truth a little more, in this mini-series of blog posts, so there's definitely more to learn about the book in coming weeks. That being said, if I've managed to catch your intrigue with this first post, maybe you'll stick around to see the insights offered by the next one (and if I'm really lucky, you might even pre-order Nothing But The Truth in time for publication day). Thanks for your time, readers, and let's catch up soon. Cx |
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