We chat with debut author Katrina Monroe about her “haunting and atmospheric” new novel They Drown Our Daughters, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Katrina! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Love to! I grew up in Florida, mostly the Tampa Bay area. I moved to Minnesota in 2012 to get married (same-sex marriage wasn’t legal in Florida at the time) and now live in Minneapolis. I love the seasons, but miss the ocean something fierce. I’ve always been drawn to the water, which tends to come through in my writing.
By day I’m a private investigator, which is pretty cool. Less cheating spouses and more following the money and digging up corporate dirt, which can be just as exciting. The write what you know rule says I should be writing PI mysteries, but there’s something about the supernatural that pulls me toward ghost stories.
I have two kids, both high schoolers with strong personalities. They’re hilarious and fun and frustrating and give me hope that the next generation will do something good with our world.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
That’s a good question. I don’t think there was an aha! kind of moment where I realized I loved writing. It was just something I always did. I wrote stories about a little girl and her leprechaun best friend when I was in elementary school (with accompanying illustrations), with some help from my babysitter who taught me how to use quotation marks. In high school I wrote angsty poetry, as one does, but it wasn’t until I was nineteen and already a mom twice over that I thought maybe I should be writing books. As I read, I would scribble ways I would have changed the story, or write in my journal little vignettes of characters I thought should have been given more spotlight. Eventually those vignettes became short stories, which became novels.
There have always been stories in my head, it just took me a while to recognize them for what they were, and to learn how to write them down in a way that made sense.
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 Babysitter’s Club: Kristy’s Big Idea by Ann Martin
- Lamb by Christopher Moore
- The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
Your debut novel, They Drown Our Daughters, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Gothic, queer, emotional, atmospheric, maternal.
What can readers expect?
I’m very proud to say that this book is a heavy hitter when it comes to atmosphere. My favorite stories have always been the kinds of books you can really sink into, so it was important to me that Daughters could stand up to those comps.
It’s a story about a family through the generations, as seen through the eyes of the mothers and daughters, about breaking the cycle of lies and neglect, so it’s an emotional read with a mystery at its heart. We root for Meredith because as the story unfolds we see how the deck was stacked against her from the beginning.
It’s also a ghost story, so there’s no shortage of frightening moments, but I think of it as horror the way Mike Flanagan’s Haunting of Hill House is horror—the hauntings are within as well as without, and, if I’ve done my job properly, you won’t be able to leave the story with a dry eye.
Where did the inspiration for They Drown Our Daughters come from?
Inspiration for the book came from a lot of different places. When I started thinking about what to write, I knew only that I wanted it to take place near water, that it would be gothic, and that a running theme of identity would take center stage. The setting came together very early in the process, after learning about the Cape Disappointment lighthouse. It’s a real place with a lot of really interesting history. At the time, my brother was living in Seattle and when I went to visit him we drove up the west coast to the Quinault Rainforest and a neighboring beach. Growing up in Florida I expected the coast to be all white sand and palm trees, but it was quite the opposite. Gray water and skies, abandoned beaches filled with dead crab corpses. It was a nightmare, and the perfect setting for a dark novel. I ran with it and didn’t look back.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
I’d say the biggest writing challenge with this book was weaving the narratives of the women that came before my main characters (Meredith and Judith). A lot of what I love about this book is its attention to how one woman’s experience can be colored by the perspectives of others. It was important to me that the stories of the past weren’t slipped in through dialogue or other clever information carrier—they needed their own stories told through their own points of view. The difficult part became when to include them in the narrative and how, and what it would mean for the main character’s actions afterward. It’s a lot to think about and a big ask for readers to get invested in so many perspectives.
Ultimately, I trusted that readers would understand why it was important. So much of the plot hinges on lies daughters are told by their mothers, which can distort the reader’s perspective of the past. Giving those women their own chapters, their own stories, I hope, makes for a more rounded reading experience.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
My favorite chapter to write was probably the final chapter, and not just because it meant the long, difficult process of writing a draft was over. Without giving too much away, I had invested so much feeling into the rest of the book and the characters, finally reaching a point of closure was surprisingly emotional. It was cathartic, and I felt like I could close the book on these women, knowing I’d done the best I could for them.
What helps to motivate you when it comes to writing?
Deadlines! I am such a dreamer that I could sit around and journal about a book idea for months and never start writing it. Knowing there’s a finish line I have to reach always gives me the right push.
This is your debut novel! Can you tell us about what the road to becoming a published author was like for you?
The road to publication was bumpy, as it is for most authors who try to “make it” in this business. I spent almost a decade writing and shelving manuscript after manuscript, honing my craft and seeking advice before I wrote something that got me plucked from the slush pile by my agent, Joanna Mackenzie. That was back in mid-2017. We shopped that first manuscript for months before I finally decided I needed to write something new. Daughters was that second book. I wrote it in a kind of frenzy, worried (needlessly) that my career would be over before it started if I didn’t get something sold.
For a long time, that one didn’t sell, either. So I picked myself up and wrote something else.
Miraculously, almost a year to the day after my now editor at Poisoned Pen gave Daughters a regretful pass, she contacted Joanna and asked if I would be willing to make some edits that would make Daughters (a cross-genre dark fantasy at the time) more suited for the horror shelf.
I had to do some soul searching before I committed—I didn’t know what horror was, apart from Stephen King and slasher films. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how oddly suited for the horror shelf my dark stories were. They’d always had horror at the heart of them, I just never realized, because horror is so much more than just what you see at the surface. It blows my mind how oblivious I was. Now it’s like a new world has opened up and I can’t wait to fill it with more stories.
What’s next for you?
More stories!
I have two contracted books coming out in the near future, neither of which have been formally announced yet. I can tell you, though, that the next one—titled Graveyard of Lost Children—is set to be released around Mothers’ Day 2023. This one is also about mothers, but focuses more tightly on the frightening aspects of new motherhood. I’ve taken the traditional changeling story and asked: what would happen if that child survived and had a child of her own? You’ll find body horror, ghosts, possession, and so much more. I’m mid-edits as I write this, and can’t wait to see it all shined up and ready for readers.
Lastly, do you have any 2022 book recommendations for our readers?
So. Many. In no particular order:
- Just like Mother by Anne Hetzel
- Florida Woman by Deb Rogers
- The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon
- Sundial by Catriona Ward
- Rabbits by Terry Miles
- When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
- Ghost Girl by Ally Malinenko
- Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart
- The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
- Hide by Kiersten White
- Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire
- One for All by Lillie Lainoff
- Our Wives Under the Sea by Julie Armfield
