We chat with author Cat Sebastian about The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes, which is a stunning tale of a reluctant criminal and the thief who cannot help but love her, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Cat! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! I live in the southern U.S. and spend most of my days reading, talking to my dog, and spending time with my kids. I write queer historical romance. I read basically everything.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I’ve always told myself stories in my head but I never tried to seriously write anything until I was in my 30s. I sat down to write my first book with what in retrospect was a completely bananas thought: seeing as how I read so many books, surely I could just write one (spoiler: no). But my first book wound up being the first complete story that I ever wrote for anyone else, and I loved doing it—I love telling stories that give happy endings to people who don’t always get them in fiction.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first specific book I remember reading was probably one of the Babysitters Club books. I loved that series—the local bookstore used to keep a copy of each new book behind the desk for me to pick up and I’d read it that day.
One book that made me want to become an author, and also made me really care about romance storytelling, is Courtney Milan’s The Governess Affair because at the time it was totally unlike any historical romance I’d read: it’s a consent-driven, character-driven love story between two ordinary people (and it’s lovely).
A book I can’t stop thinking about is Gideon the Ninth. Since reading it and Harrow, there’s an entire channel in my mind that’s dedicated to thinking about that universe (and also wondering what on earth is going on). I’m awaiting Nona with almost literally baited breath.
The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes is the second instalment in The Queer Principles of Kit Webb series, which is out June 7th 2022! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Bisexual disasters doing their worst
What can readers expect?
It’s the story of a woman who falls in love with the man writing her blackmail letters, and a man who is the worst blackmailer ever (and who has a convenient weakness for women who write him mean letters). When she kills her husband and needs an accomplice to help her run away, she turns to the only person she knows who has any experience with crime—her blackmailer.
Where did the inspiration for The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes’ plot come from?
I love epistolary novels and I just kept thinking of two characters falling in love with one another through blackmail letters. Like, in order for that to work you’d have have two characters who are pretty committed to making terrible choices. I knew from the beginning that Marian was going to be prickly and difficult and that Rob was going to be warm and charming and in love with her from page one, and it all fell into place from there.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
The events in this book overlap with the events from The Queer Principles of Kit Webb, and it took a lot of finessing to make sure everything from both books lined up neatly. In an ideal world I might have figured all this out before drafting the first book but that very much did not happen.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I love when characters talk with one another about books. I mean, this is how I interact with most of my friends, so it always feels real to me. And I love exploring how different characters take away totally different messages from what they read.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
With the caveat that this is advice that’s bad for me but works for other people, the worst writing advice I’ve received is to make your characters suffer. I just can’t do it and whenever I’ve tried, I wind up having to change it all in revisions. I make my charactes sort of gently uncomfortable, but nobody suffers. Soft landings for everyone. (I do love to read books where characters are put through the wringer, though!)
The best writing advice I’ve received (again with the caveat that this is what works for me) is to consider scrapping your first scene or chapter. For me, that first scene is often just me playing around in the universe, telling myself backstory, or otherwise flailng, and it’s probably useful that I wrote it, but it doesn’t need to be in the finished book.
What’s next for you?
I’m finishing up a book set in 1950s New York City at a newspaper and I’m so excited to be working in that time period! It’s due to come out in 2023.
Lastly, do you have any 2022 book recommendations for our readers?
I loved Emily Henry’s Book Lovers. I had pretty much every possible emotion over the course of that book.