When a family obsessed with true crime gathers to bury their patriarch, horrifying secrets are exposed upon the discovery of another body in his grave in this chilling novel from the author of Behind the Red Door and The Winter Sister.
We spoke with author Megan Collins about her latest release, The Family Plot, along with her writing process, inspiration, and more!
Hi, Megan! Please tell us a little about yourself!
I’m a psychological suspense author, and I live in Connecticut with my husband, Marc, and my dog, Maisy (follow me @megancollinswriter on Instagram to see non-stop photos of Maisy). Before I transitioned to a full-time author, I spent twelve years as a creative writing teacher, a job I loved and learned from in equal measure. I have an insatiable sweet tooth and a fear of just about everything (but especially spiders).
Did you always want to be a writer?
Yep! I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was six years old. My grandparents gave me a blank journal, which was really just a bunch of plain white pieces of paper stapled together, and I promptly filled it with my first story ever, “The Bad Cats.” I couldn’t believe how good it felt to write, to create something from absolutely nothing, to take that white space I’d been gifted and transform it into cats—I mean, characters. It was instantly magical to me, and all I wanted was to remain in its spell for the rest of my life.
What advice did you find yourself giving most often to your creative writing students?
Give yourself permission to write poorly. (I think this is the more school-appropriate way to talk about “shitty first drafts.”) So often I’d see students grow frustrated when the quality of their words wasn’t matching the shimmering spark of their idea, but I reminded them that bad writing is part of the process. Sometimes, we first need to get ugly words down onto paper in order to polish them into something pretty.
Can you give us an overview of your writing process? Has it changed much since your first book?
I start with a premise I can’t stop thinking about. If I keep circling back to it as I try to fall asleep, that’s usually a good sign. From there, I think about what kind of character(s) would benefit most from the journey that premise would necessitate. Then I try to figure out where that journey would end—what the final reveals would be, how the characters would change—and from there, I think of a strong midpoint: something that would turn everything even more upside down for the characters and launch them into a new direction that will get them to that ending point. Once I have those bare bones, I begin to fill out specific plot points, usually plotting according to the beats outlined in Jessica Brody’s excellent craft text Save the Cat Writes a Novel. Once I have a clear outline, I get to work on drafting.
My process has changed a bit since I wrote The Winter Sister in that, back then, I was working more from instinct, from the pace and rhythm I’d internalized from my own reading. I still follow those same instincts, but I’ve since developed the proper vocabulary to be able to talk about what I’m actually doing, which allows me to have a better understanding of each moment’s purpose in a book. For me, it feels like a more intentional method of writing.
What can you tell us about The Family Plot?
I’ll start with the elevator pitch: The Family Plot is about a true crime-obsessed family who becomes the center of a true crime themselves when they gather to bury their patriarch, only to discover the remains of their long-missing brother already in their father’s grave. Beyond that, I can tell you that the book takes place on a rocky, secluded island called Blackburn Island, which has a disturbing history, and it’s filled with secrets, suspicious characters, true crime references, and a deeply dysfunctional family. The characters in this novel are some of my favorite that I’ve created so far, and this was actually the biggest family I’ve ever written into a book. I had a lot of fun (and challenges!) playing with their dynamics, both one-on-one with each other and as a whole.
Where did your inspiration come from for this book?
I’m a huge fan of true crime, so it seems inevitable that I would write a book about characters as obsessed with it as I am. One thing I wanted to explore with this book is why so many people are drawn to true crime. What does it offer them? How does it help them? And, of course, how does it possibly hurt them? I also love islands with a small-town, almost claustrophobic vibe, which the fictional island in this novel definitely has, so it was fun (if not a little creepy) to inhabit this world each day as I was writing.
When you are writing psychological suspense novels, how do you set aside some of the dark themes and tragic events so that you can enjoy “real” life?
This is such a great question! As someone who has anxiety, I find that my novels are actually the place where I can put a majority of my fears and unsettling feelings, so in a way, it’s through the writing itself that I’m able to set aside and work through a lot of darkness. Also, it helps that I have the cutest dog in the world (in my not-at-all-biased opinion), so as soon as I step away from the dark moments of my books, I get to spend time with a playful, happy pup who cannot help but put a smile on my face.
When you have the opportunity to read purely for fun, who are some of the authors you reach for?
My auto-buy authors include Taylor Jenkins Reid, Tana French, Carmen Maria Machado, and Marisha Pessl. I don’t even need to know what the books are about. If one of them wrote it, I’m going to pre-order and set a mental countdown for it.
What is next for you?
I’m currently working on my next novel, which will be out in early 2023. It’s about a pair of very close sisters-in-law whose bond is tested for the first time when the man who connects them is the prime suspect in a high-profile murder, and one of them begins to doubt his innocence.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I had the immense pleasure of reading an advance copy of Mandy McHugh’s upcoming debut Chloe Cates Is Missing, which will be out in January. Besides being an addictive, exciting, and overall excellent domestic thriller, this book features one of the most deliciously disturbing characters I’ve read in recent years—and it’s a character that will definitely have people talking. I also recommend Amanda Jayatissa’s upcoming psychological thriller My Sweet Girl, out in September. It’s fresh and original and wildly suspenseful, with a voice that demands to be heard.
You can find Megan on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and also at her website.
