We chat with author Allison Winn Scotch about The Insomniacs, which sees the lives of four sleepless strangers intersect late at night as they attempt to solve not just their own anxieties but also the mysterious disappearance of one of their own.
Hi, Allison! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m a NY Times bestselling novelist based in Los Angeles, where I’ve lived for the past fourteen years. The Insomniacs is my eleventh book (!!), which is hard to believe. I’m a new empty-nester, though it feels like my kids are home all the time anyway, and I have two rescue dogs who keep me very busy.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
My mom was an English teacher, so I was raised in a house full of books. I used to go to camp for the summers, and she would mail me vocab words. J (And to her credit, Soap Opera Digest summaries of Santa Barbara, since I was gone for most of the summer!) But the point is that I have always loved to read, and I’ve always had a bit of a wild imagination – I loved acting as well and did a lot of theatre as a kid, which I think really helps me get under the skin of my characters now. My high school teachers told me I was a strong writer, but I really discovered that I might be decent at it in college, when I landed a very coveted op-ed column that ran every other week. It was the first time I was independently validated, and it gave me the confidence to think I could make a professional go of it. Still, I got a typical 9-5 job out of college, which I hated. I eventually quit, started temping to pay my bills, and slowly transitioned to freelance writing back when magazines were in their heyday. From there, I tinkered with fiction on the side and about four years later, sold my first novel.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Blubber by Judy Blume
- The one that made you want to become an author: Anything from Steven King’s 80s oeuvre: they all taught me about the importance of voice, and even as a kid (I read King at a pretty young age, like, 11), I remember hearing his character’s voices in my head even when I wasn’t reading
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Station Eleven. Read it years ago and still think about it often.
Your latest novel, The Insomniacs, is out April 14th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Sleepless strangers become found family.
What can readers expect?
The book is about four insomniacs (goes without saying) who find each other in the early hours of the morning and decide to help solve each other’s problems to help one another get some rest. When once of them goes missing, they’re compelled to move mountains to find her. It’s the story about four insomniacs, yes, but it’s really a story about found family and about how nearly everyone you have ever loved in your life starts out as a stranger.
Where did the inspiration for The Insomniacs come from?
Like a lot of women my age (and a lot of people in the world right now), I am not a very good sleeper. I was staring at my ceiling one night at about three AM thinking: wouldn’t it be amazing if there was a network of people out there, a support group of sorts, that you could tap into during those lonely hours to feel less alone and talk about the anxieties that are keeping you awake? From there, I started moving the characters into place, and many drafts later, here we are!
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Yes, I loved exploring Sybil, who is about the same age as I am and also a new empty-nester. I’m finding that so many women at midlife are taking a step back and assessing how they want to spend the second half of their lives, and I really enjoyed doing this with her. I also loved writing Zeke, who is a major league baseball player who has lost his love for the game. The very first thing I wanted to be as a kid was a professional sportscaster, so this allowed me to dip into that world a bit. I also really enjoyed toying around with a superstar whose talent had always come easily to him, but also didn’t fulfill him any longer. Again, like Sybil, he was examining his life up until that point and thinking: what’s next?
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
Oh yes I did! I had to restart the book three times, the first two times tossing out about 150 pages each round. Wah. My editor and agent really pushed me to make this a plot-based book, which is something I’ve never done before, and I found it incredibly daunting. I can’t tell you the number of screeds I sent them telling them that I could not do it, I could not write this book. I’ve always written from a character-based perspective, as in, my characters drove the plot, so to flip that and have the plot (in this case, a missing person) drive the characters just sort of broke my brain. I overcame it by spending a lot of time away from my computer plotting move out like a chess board in my mind. Long walks listening to podcasts on cults, longer walks figuring out what would happen if I moved this piece here and that piece there. I still wrote every single day – I hold myself accountable daily when I’m writing a book – but I really had to take a few steps back and look at the overall structure and plot instead of just plowing through on instinct. The good news is that I’ve now figured out how to do it without feeling like I might have a nervous breakdown, so my next book is coming much easier!
What’s next for you?
I’m just about to finish my next book, which does not yet have a title, but it’s about a residential island that is exclusively for women, and what’s uncovered when their founder goes missing. I’m also really excited to share that an Audible adaptation of one of my books, BETWEEN ME AND YOU, is launching in podcast form on April 16th. It was produced by Kerry Washington and her production company and stars Jurnee Smollett. I wrote it with my friend, Pete Chiarelli, who is the screenwriter behind The Proposal and Crazy Rich Asians. If you love a romcom, I think this will give you your fix!
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
I’m super-excited about Robinne Lee’s Crash Into Me. I have the galley on my kindle and can’t wait to dive in. Also really looking forward to Steven Rowley’s Take Me With You, as I truly cannot wait for when aliens show up on our planet! I’m also currently making my way through the Dungeon Crawler Carl series on audio, and I’m excited for the four books I still have to go (with more on the way, I believe, yay!).
