We chat with author Derek Milman about A Darker Mischief, which is The Honeys meets The Secret History in a work of dark academia like no other — a boarding school thriller about a queer teen from Mississippi who finds himself swept into a world of old money, privilege, and the secret society at the heart of it all.
Hi, Derek! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I grew up in Scarsdale, New York. I was a bookish kid who also loved old movies (and computer games). I started writing an underground zine and would sell it in area stores and solicit advertisers from local businesses. I’d ride around on my bike doing business! It was a lot of fun. I studied theater and English at Northwestern University. I wrote my first full-length play in a specialized writing program and we staged it in NYC the following year. I started out as a playwright, but I don’t think I was a very good playwright. It wasn’t the right medium for me.
I was accepted into the Yale School of Drama as an actor, and after I got my MFA, I worked primarily in TV and film. I did a couple of plays as well, and had a major national commercial run for nearly two years. I began writing again in late 2011. I wanted to gain some creative control back into my life. I felt like I had the right voice for YA, which at that time was penetrating the pop cultural zeitgeist with Twilight and The Hunger Games. I scribbled some notes during a trip to Montreal about a suburban kid who discovers a portal to a darker version of his own reality, called The Quintessence, in search of his missing astrophysicist father. I took more notes while I was out doing auditions during a long and lonely trip to Los Angeles, and when I returned to NYC, I drafted my first novel, which at the time was called The Gray Light Chronicles, a YA fantasy-horror. It took me about five months to write, and resembled, structurally, what Stranger Things did a few years later, which I found kind of hilarious. It ultimately took on many iterations.
It didn’t sell. It got close twice, with two major publishers, but it didn’t sell. I did get my first agent with this manuscript, however. And I was already writing what was to become my debut, Scream All Night, which is about a kid who inherits his family’s B-horror movie studio, set in a giant old castle. We got a double offer from HarperCollins for my debut, a rare set of circumstances where I was able to choose my editor and imprint. James Patterson published my second YA, with his imprint at Little, Brown, a queer thriller called Swipe Right for Murder. I had a lot of fun working with this team, and I went on a whole author tour, all across the country. The imprint folded during the pandemic. It took me seven years to write A Darker Mischief, which Scholastic ultimately picked up, to my great joy, and here we are.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
In grade school, and then middle school, I often took to the opportunities we had to write short stories with great relish, when we’d get those type of assignments. I’m not saying I was a ten-year-old George RR Martin or anything, but I would get lost in writing fiction, with the hours bleeding away, and nothing else had that effect on me, that ability to wholly transport me, where time would be lost. I wrote expansive stories, many of them set in outer space, and some with fantasy elements as well. I didn’t know too much about genre at that age. In any case, writing was just something I enjoyed ever since I was very young. There was definitely more of an innocence back then because I could just write whatever I wanted without being aware of acquisitions committees or trade reviews! Or the marketplace in general.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs
- The one that made you want to become an author: The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe
Your latest novel, A Darker Mischief, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Enigmatic. Romantic. Feverish. Aspirational. Serpentine.
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect a fairly twisty romantic thriller, with a passionate, and spiky, gay romance at its core. It is drenched in centuries-old boarding school atmosphere, and buried secrets, with a vintage feel, drawing from many sprawling classic novels that are influencing recent media like Ripley and Saltburn. Think desperate whispers in hidden corridors, whiskey-lit libraries, tall stained glass windows, windswept lawns, obfuscation, betrayals, esoteric ceremonies and rituals, and dangerous high-profile kidnappings.
Where did the inspiration for A Darker Mischief come from?
Back in 2017, a friend of mine gifted me a binder full of materials depicting a year in his life in a secret society at Yale. He assured me there was a book in all this, and slowly, one began to materialize for me—once I had figured out the central plot and the main characters. It grew from there, but it took years to fully flesh out and detail. The secret society at the heart of A Darker Mischief is based on this real one. I had to figure out how to transport a real one at a University to a fictional one at a boarding school, where the characters would have less agency. I wanted to explore a tangled gay romance in the context of rushing and being accepted by one of the most pretigious secret societies in the nation, immersed in arcane tradition, including diabolical challenges that slowly escalate, a celebrated boarding school that isn’t what it seems, and the dark side of the American elite.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I enjoyed writing the MC a lot, Cal Ware, because he reveals bits of himself as the story goes on, and the reader slowly realizes he’s holding onto as many secrets as the storied environment around him. He has quite the background. He has a guilessness and a fervor to him, but he’s extremely vulnerable too. Queer and disabled, from a poor family, and totally out of his element in the affluent world of Essex. Building his character was fun, as was many of the stories he tells. Luke was a great foil for Cal, and I had a ton of fun developing him as well—he’s a truly haunted kid. But I wanted to shine a light on a (more minor) character I haven’t spoken much about before: Pinky Lynch. Many readers will view him as strictly villainous, but I enjoyed the challenge of creating a level of pathos for him. He’s as charming as he is repellent, as funny as he is defeatist. Out of all the characters in ADM, he probably calls forth his literary forebears the most, from the teenage gangsters of Brighton Rock, to Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley, to one of the droogs from A Clockwork Orange—he even dresses the part.
This is your third published novel! What are some of the key lessons you’ve learned as a writer since your debut?
I’ve learned that no one book teaches you how to write the next book. Each book is its own animal, has its own unique engine, and it’s about learning the component parts of that particular engine to drive it forward. That for me, plot will usually spill out of characterization, and it’s helpful for me to get fully immersed in a project, watching movies related to the world, reading related books, and looking at art to further inspire me.
I’ve also learned that it’s important to take every risk I can, especially in the early developmental stages, because it tends to be easier to pull back later than to add in (at least for me). That nothing is impossible, it just takes that first word, and then the next word. I had a brilliant Shakespeare professor in drama school. When I had to perform one of Hamlet’s famous soliloquies, and the professor saw I was stumbling, which I didn’t usually do, he said something I’ve never forgotten. He said, “you’re looking at this speech as this iconic piece of text that so many famous actors have performed. But it’s really just the first line. And then it’s the second line. Don’t see it as a long monologue. Break it down. Plug into your intention. And go line by line.” And that’s really stayed with me. There’s a whole book in my head, but I just need to go line by line.
What’s next for you?
I completed a YA mystery called Stage Fright, about a girl whose mom is a Hollywood PA for a famous movie star-turned-wellness-guru (think Gwyneth and Goop) who attends a high-profile school for influencers at the height of the pandemic and is framed for a murder. Year of the Monster is a queer Frankenstein re-telling that would mark by adult debut. It’s pure blistering horror about two gay twins in a seasisde town and the mistakes we never leave behind. Johnny and the Jewels is a rom-adventure about an Italian kid from Long Island and his Jewish boyfriend, Asher, who steals a rare gem from his father’s diamond district store, so he can run away to Miami with Johnny—but instead they’re hunted down by a gang of jewel thieves, while Johnny is basbysitting a bunch of suburban hellions. I like to describe it as Adventures in Babysitting meets Uncut Gems. I’ve also started a story set in 1980s Los Angeles, about a troubled kid’s estrangement from his family, his coming out, and the psychological pull of his con artist mother cooking up another scheme.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
In YA, I enjoyed the speculative rom com Okay, Cupid, by Mason Deaver, and the brooding vampiric horror of The Ones Who Come Back Hungry by Amelinda Bérubé. On the adult end, I recently flew through Yellowface by R.F. Kuang and adored Big Swiss by Jen Beagin. I’m looking forward to reading Margot’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe, Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman, and James by Percival Everett.
