We chat with author Caitlin Starling about her new novel Last To Leave The Room, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Caitlin! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m a horror and speculative fiction writer based out of the Pacific Northwest! I have a hard time sticking to one subgenre, and I also balance writing time with way too much knitting and hanging out with my spouse, young kiddo, and two ridiculous cats.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I’ve been writing in some form since I was around eight years old, when I wrote my first (Sailor Moon) fanfic. I got serious in high school and started doing NaNoWriMo. For a brief time in and after college, I convinced myself that trying to write professionally was so unlikely to succeed that it wasn’t worth trying, but I kept the fire burning with more fanfic. And then I wrote The Luminous Dead, and here we are!
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!
I have a terrible memory for this sort of thing, but I loved Animorphs as a kid. I’d been reading for years before that, but that’s the series that stands out. (But if I had to guess for earlier, I’d wager it’s Winnie The Pooh.)
For wanting to become an author, Anne Rice’s vampire series takes a lot of the credit.
And it’s been a few years since I read them, but Vita Nostra and The Library at Mount Char take up a lot of brain space, rent free!
Your latest novel, Last to Leave the Room, is out October 10th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Work-From-Home Doppelganger Horror. 🙂
What can readers expect?
Claustrophobia, gaslighting, and meal kits.
Where did the inspiration for Last to Leave the Room come from?
It’s a COVID book that’s not a COVID book – the protagonist, Tamsin, ends up spending most of her time in her house, working from home, and rapidly losing her sense of identity and reality without the outside world to stabilize her. I drafted it in late 2021, after a year and a half of working from home, and a year of living in a new city I literally never went out into. Tamsin’s also based on a very old character of mine, though from much earlier in the story I’d always pictured for her. Let’s just say that in her original incarnation, she’d already Gone Through It.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I have a massive crush on Lachlan. She’s menacing and attentive and caring and dangerous all at once, and she and Tamsin have some deliciously vicious chemistry together. Every scene she appears in was an absolute delight to write.
This is your third published novel! What are some of the key lessons you have learned when it comes to writing and the publishing world?
To trust myself! At this point, I’ve got a pretty well trained sense of how to make a story. I outlined this one from the beginning, and then I just sat down and wrote. I was going through some pretty heavy personal stuff while I wrote the first draft, and my only option was to just show up, do the work, and trust the process (and my subconscious).
What’s next for you?
I’m working on another contemporary horror novel, which I’m describing as hospital gothic. So expect more isolation, more surgeries, more drugs, and a healthy dose of oh gross.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I recently read The White Road by Sarah Lotz, which is a perfect pairing to my first book, The Luminous Dead. Physical extremes, sanity slippage, caves, and a voyeuristic fixation on death. Also, mommy issues.
Also, if you haven’t read Sarah Gailey’s The Echo Wife, and you’ve been reading this interview and making grabby hands, get yourself a copy. The Echo Wife and Last To Leave The Room are close cousins, dealing with doubles, ambition, and gendered expectations of personality and behavior.
