We chat with Alex about her heartfelt debut, The Truth About Ben and June, which explores the complexity of a modern-day marriage when a new mother vanishes one morning and her husband must retrace events of their recent past to bring her home.
Hi, Alex! When did you first discover your love for writing?
I knew I wanted to be a writer since, like, the age of seven. Some of my earliest memories, in fact, are of wandering my neighborhood barefoot while narrating fictionalized versions of my life in my head. All my old diaries are full – not with writing of my childhood – but made-up stories. It’s still surreal to me that I get to this everyday!
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!
Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Green Gables, The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Your debut novel, The Truth About Ben and June, is out June 28th 2022! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Heartfelt, tense exploration of marriage
What can readers expect?
When I had my first-ever call with my editor, she said something along the lines of “You’ve written a thought-provoking story of marriage and motherhood with the pacing of a thriller.” I thought this was pretty much the nicest thing anyone could say to me, and it’s exactly what I hope other readers will experience too.
Where did the inspiration for The Truth About Ben and June come from?
My most organic writing happens when I’m exploring my fears, and at the time I began this novel, my biggest fear was the ambivalence of entering into parenthood. In most capacities, I know what I want from my life, and yet, I’ve never known whether or not I want kids. As this is one of the biggest decisions anyone can make, ambivalence about it can be terrifying.
As a writer, I’ve dealt with this fear like any writer would—by pawning it off onto my unsuspecting fictional characters.
The book originated as one simple scene between two people who are deciding whether or not to have a baby. While these characters later became my protagonists, Ben and June, they started as nothing more than the two conflicting sides of my brain. Eventually, I decided they were going to have the baby and the rest of the book snowballed from there.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
When I showed the first draft to a handful of trusted readers, I got the feedback that one major plotline wasn’t working. I’d spent many long months on the draft and I was not only devastated, I had no idea where to go from there. I had no solution to the problem they pointed out.
I stopped writing and proceeded to think for the next five months. I thought and thought and researched and cried and thought. I even did the first half of The Artist’s Way—the program designed to reinvigorate creativity. Eventually that, coupled with my research, helped me come up with the storyline I have in the book today, but those five months were a form of writing hell I never want to visit again—although surely, someday I will.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
There’s a woman June meets towards the end of the novel named Brandi, who is a small-town ranch owner with a degree in land management and agriculture—and an affinity for the Russian Revolution. Whenever I wrote her dialogue, I’d narrate it in my head with a thick Texas accent, which led to some pretty unexpected and delightful lines.
What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
I started writing seriously when I was twenty-five and working as an editor at a boutique romance publishing company. I wrote my first manuscript during my lunch breaks and while it was pretty bad, I had proven to myself that I could, and now I had the bug. I wrote two more manuscripts before signing with my agent, the second of which was In Her Skin, which came out as an Audible Original in 2019. The next year, we sold The Truth About Ben and June, and here we are!
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
The best: Embrace the shitty first draft.
The worst: Write drunk, edit sober. (Writing’s hard! Don’t make it harder by being drunk.)
What’s next for you?
I had the very good fortune to spend most of the pandemic collaborating on a novel with the co-host of the Crime Junkie podcast, Ashley Flowers. All Good People Here is a dark and twisty thriller coming out this August, and I’m very much looking forward to that.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Always!
Long Bright River by Liz Moore – a gritty and grounded mystery with a big emotional center.
The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe – It’ll make you laugh and cry, both very hard. (Really, I recommend anything by Rufi Thorpe. I would follow her to the end of the earth.)
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett – A collection of essays by one of our nation’s treasures. (I would also follow Ann.)
