New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub makes her trade paperback debut with a fast-paced thriller in the vein of Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs and Megan Collins’ The Winter Sister. Here, a family making a fresh start moves into a house which was the site of an unsolved triple homicide–and are watched by an unknown person…
We chat with Wendy about her latest book release The Other Family, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Wendy! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I grew up in a large, close-knit family in Dunkirk, NY, in the heart of the Great Lakes snow belt, moved to New York City after college to become an author…and did. J Three decades and nearly a hundred novels into my career, I’m grateful to make a living telling stories, and work hard to keep them fresh and entertaining. I live in a vintage 1920s Sears catalogue house with my husband, a couple of cats (give or take) and occasionally, depending on circumstances and pandemics, one or more twenty-something sons.
Welcome to 2022! What are you looking forward to over the next 12 months and have you set any goals or resolutions for the year?
Oh, yes, and most of them are probably the same as yours, and the rest of the world’s! I plan to spend more in person time with loved ones, and get back to traveling. There are so many family, friends, and colleagues I’ve been longing to hug, and I’m hoping to occupy a beach chair beside a warm sea and/or an aisle seat on a transatlantic flight sometime in the year ahead!
When did you first discover your love for writing?
February, 1973. School 4, Dunkirk, NY. Mrs. Pizzolanti’s Third Grade Classroom.
How’s that for specificity? But that’s where it all began, with the first writing assignment I ever received. I wrote an essay about my obsession at that time, Abraham Lincoln, and my teacher praised it, saying I was a talented writer. I went home from school that afternoon and announced to my parents that I was going to be a writer when I grew up. I never wavered from that goal. You might say I was obsessed. I’m pretty Type A.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
- The first I remember clearly was one of those orange biographies from the Childhoods of Famous American series—it was about Clara Barton, and I remember a scene involving :::shudder:::: leeches.
- The Little House series inspired me to become an author, when I realized they were autobiographical and that the oh-so-relatable heroine, Laura, had grown up to do just that. I wanted to be just like her.
- The one I can’t stop thinking about? I pretty much remember all the books I read in childhood; I’ve kept them and added to my collection over the years–I comb used book stores, vintage shops, and the internet for the beloved titles I borrowed from the library but never owned.
Your new novel, The Other Family, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Twisty, domestic, standalone, complex, blindside!
What can readers expect?
The unexpected. As in any effective suspense novel, things aren’t as they seem, and clues that will keep you guessing, but even when you think you’ve figured it out—you probably haven’t. The story unfolds in multiple viewpoints, like most of my novels, but in a more streamlined format than I’ve used before.
Where did the inspiration for The Other Family come from?
The final twist came to me first – a “what if” that captivated me and nagged at me. I knew it would be challenging to pull it off, and would need a certain kind of plot, setting, characters…those elements came later—in essence, this book wrote itself in my head in reverse, the beginning coming after the end.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing this particular novel and how you were able to overcome them?
I had finished my previous novel in February 2020 and was up for a new contract, so I began working on this one in March 2020—just as life as we knew it ground to a halt. I live in the New York City area, the first pandemic hotspot.
I’m used to working from home, but literally overnight, my household became a crowded isolation zone– my husband and older son were also here working their advertising jobs remotely, and we had to move my younger son, a college senior at the time, back home without warning to finish his courses from his childhood bedroom—he was understandably horrified and miserable. We were all stressed and claustrophobic and by turns frustrated, angry, fearful…it was just a traumatic time, and of course it wasn’t just us—it was universal.
So that spring, there were times when working on THE OTHER FAMILY felt like an escape, and times when I just could not focus because life was just overwhelming. In ordinary times, I process stress, nurse my long-damaged spine, and clear my head for the writing day with a daily pre-dawn hourlong lap swim, but of course the gym was closed, so that complicated things. In our area, each household had to designate one person for supermarket runs, and that was me. Supplies were short, and I was suddenly solely responsible for the care and feeding of four previously self-sufficient adults (and a couple of cats). I had to strategize my missions—and then, you know, spend a few hours Lysoling the bananas afterward–when it was still possible to get Lysol.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I really enjoyed writing about the city—I mean, I live right in the suburbs and am used to constantly popping in and out of the city, but suddenly, I was cut off—it might as well have been located on another continent. But as I wrote the book, I was able to transport myself back to ordinary days in familiar places. Making the setting come alive for readers was, I think, a way of reminding myself that it was all still out there somewhere.
And I loved writing the teenaged daughter, Stacey—self-proclaimed Howell family blacksheep, and true crime afficionado. Her obsession with Lizzie Borden was inspired by my own at that age (and it used to make my parents a little nervous!).
You’ve written more than 90 novels. What are some tips and tricks you’ve taken onboard over the years when it comes to writing?
If you want to sustain a writing career, you can never afford to step back, relax, stop doing the work. It’s a job like any other, and demands productivity. Whenever I sell a novel, I look at my calendar and plot out exactly how many words I need to have written each week so that I can meet my deadline. Often—and currently—I’m working with two different publishers and have multiple books under contract. So it takes careful planning, and a lot of basic math, which was never my strong suit. I put a weekly word quota on every Friday of my calendar, and I know that if I blow it one week, those words will be added onto the next week to keep me on track.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently writing a new standalone suspense novel for Harper/William Morrow, about a trio of former college roommates who chip in for lottery tickets during a girls’ getaway reunion—and win an astronomical jackpot! But before they can claim their prize, the one holding the bearer-specific winning ticket disappears. And I just finished writing the fifth title in my Lily Dale Mysteries series, THE STRANGER VANISHES, coming from Severn House later this year—the fourth, PROSE AND CONS, was out last month.
Lastly, do you have any 2022 book recommendations for our readers?
Yes! Brand new or coming in the next few weeks: Laura Lippman’s story collection SEASONAL WORK, Alafair Burke’s thriller FIND ME, Kellye Garrett’s mystery LIKE A SISTER, or for those who prefer true crime, Sarah Weinman’s SCOUNDREL.
You can find Wendy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Goodreads, as well as at her website,
