LISA BRACKMANN: At some point after I finished writing BLACK SWAN RISING, my lovely agent told me that I was not allowed to write about World War III.
I did not intend to write a book that was “ripped from the headlines” when I started work on BLACK SWAN RISING. And it was more than slightly disconcerting to see things that I’d written
as fiction repeated time and time again on the nightly news in full, awful reality. Friends started calling me “Cassandra.” And as we all know, it’s no fun being Cassandra.
So I guess my agent really has nothing to worry about. Cassandras can only predict, not change the outcome. But I think for my next book I will write something hopeful and healing, just in case.
I wrote the first chapter and a very rough outline of BSR in mid-2014. I was inspired by several things: an incredibly expensive and polarizing congressional campaign here in San Diego, in
what was at the time a swing district, the then unexamined link between misogyny and violence against women and mass shootings —“incel” was a self-characterizing term used on obscure message boards back then – and GamerGate, an organized campaign of harassment and at times violent threats against women and their allies in the gaming industry. Which, at the time, was not taken very seriously but provided a template for the Alt-Right and their online harassment and organizing. What’s even worse? That white supremacists found incel and gaming forums the perfect recruiting grounds for their racist movement.
(you can find out more about the genesis and setting of the book here)
None of that is any good in a novel if it isn’t anchored in characters and story. Writing about “issues” in fiction can all too easily become didactic and dull – the real-life stuff has to be embedded deep in the bones of the book and in individual human struggles. I hope I did that with BLACK SWAN RISING. I’m very fond of the characters – ambitious Casey Cheng, struggling to find meaning from her own tragedy, deeply damaged Sarah Price and Matt Cason, each in their own way searching for connection with others that they can’t quite make, existentially frustrated Lindsay Cason, who can’t figure out how her life went off-track and where to lay the blame. And I hope the plot is suspenseful and involving. But it’s not a story that ends with any easy answers. As I was writing the book, I kept asking myself, how do I wrap this up? How do I
solve the problems that the book posits? And I realized that I simply could not. The closure the characters sought was still a ways down the road.
A lot has happened since I wrote this book. We’ve had three and a half years of a disastrous presidency that has polarized our nation even beyond what BLACK SWAN RISING portrayed. Before, the book was a description and a prediction, my attempt to put some of the seemingly disparate pieces together to create a picture of where I thought we were heading. I think of it now as a prequel of sorts to the times we are living in today. I hope that our country has a
happier sequel in its future — I have to believe that we do.
Lisa Brackmann is the NYT best-selling author of the Ellie McEnroe trilogy (ROCK PAPER TIGER), and suspense novels GETAWAY, GO-BETWEEN and BLACK SWAN RISING. Her books have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Strand Critic’s best-first-novel and Amazon’s Top 100 Books of the Year and Top 10 Mystery/Thrillers. Her work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Travel+Leisure, Salon, LARB, and CNET. She lives in San Diego with a cat, far too many books and a bass ukulele, and plays a regular bass in a local band. You can find her at www.lisabrackmann.com
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Rising-Lisa-Brackmann-ebook/dp/B089ZN4DFL/ (new ebook)
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Rising-Lisa-Brackmann/dp/0738759473 (old HC)
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Rising-Lisa-Brackmann-audiobook/dp/B07GWYFKJ9/ (audio)
DEBS: Readers, stop in and welcome Lisa!
I wonder, since you note your fondness of the characters [and their need for closure], if you’re contemplating a sequel of sorts to “Black Swan Rising?”
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for the question!
ReplyDeleteProbably not. Without giving away too much, I tried to leave the characters in places that seemed appropriate to their situations. Also...I'd have to do a ton of research! I had some great sources to help supplement my knowledge of political campaigns (I've done some volunteering) and in particular the world of TV news, where I didn't know much at all (anything I got wrong is my fault, not my sources'!). If I revisited any of the characters, I'd have to dig deeper into those worlds, and I am not sure I could bring the insider depth it would need. Also...when I was talking about closure, a lot of that for me was about the state of our own nation, given our very deep divides both politically and culturally. At the very end of the book one of the characters asks themselves, "How do we fix this?" There's no easy answer.
But I would like to write another book set in San Diego, post-pandemic. Maybe a couple of the characters might make appearances...
Lisa, sorry I did not get to see you at the abruptly cancelled LCC!
ReplyDeleteThat was my first time in San Diego. Although I was in SD for 2 weeks, the rapid closure of attractions and then restaurants after that weekend certainly prevented me from trying more craft beers and doing all that I hoped to experience!
Great cover on the new version of Black Swan Rising! It is definitely a challenge to bring together and portray serious real-life issues plaguing our world in a way that is not too depressing (or scary).
As you said in your reply to Joan, I do hope you write another book set in SD. I would love to virtually visit SD until I can go back there again in person.
Grace, I am so bummed we did not get to hang out! San Diego really is a great city. I think you're in Canada -- are you in Vancouver? In a way SD and Vancouver remind me a bit of each other.
DeleteAs for BSR, I wrote most of it in 2016. It was deeply strange to watch political events unfold as I wrote. Very scary for me as a writer, worrying that by writing something I would make it happen (which is pretty narcissistic of me :D). I guess I'm more superstitious than I realized.
Take care and hope to see you for real some day soon!
Yes, Lisa, I live in Canada, but alas not in Vancouver but in Ottawa, our nation's capital. So I was glad to spend my last 5 days in San Diego physical distancing at various beaches. I managed to visit Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, Coronado, and La Jolla before flying back to land-locked Ontario.
DeleteI did download the new version of BSR today. That being said, it will sadly remain on my TBR until later on in the summer. I have a scary number of ARCs to read this month.
Hope to see you again at another LCC or Bouchercon next year or beyond!
I hope so too, Grace! I couldn't be more bummed about what happened this year -- my two main conferences, both in California. I'm skeptical we will be "back to normal" next year, sadly. Maybe by Bouchercon.
DeleteI'm glad you got to see some of San Diego, at least. Not the best weather but it probably made that social distancing at beaches a lot easier.
One of these days I will see more of Canada -- I've only been to Vancouver (thanks to LCC) and there are so many places I'd like to visit.
Thanks for buying BSR! I really appreciate it :)
Yes, I experienced more rainy days in San Diego and temperatures only in the 50s or 60s but the beaches were still fairly busy. Sadly, they closed all the museums at Balboa Park after March 12. I did have a 7-day Balboa Park pass and managed to visit about 10 museums before LCC but still had a few more on my list. Next time...and more great eats, too.
DeleteI hope you can visit more of Canada some day. Vancouver is lovely and we really lucked out with the sunny weather at last year's LCC there. But my hometown (Toronto) or Ottawa and Montreal are also popular tourist destinations that have been devastated by the pandemic and lockdowns.
Grace, I am determined to visit! Soon, I hope. Not traveling is a tough one for me.
DeleteUnderstandable how difficult it would be to write a sequel to BSR, but I do hope you will write the post-pandemic book and include some characters.
ReplyDeleteThank you! it's weird because though I have some vague ideas for said book, it's one of those few situations where waiting to write it isn't procrastination -- there isn't much sense in doing speculative fiction when you can just wait and see what the reality will actually be like.
DeleteWelcome, Lisa. I'm not sure how I haven't read your books yet or met you at a conference, but I'm about to remedy the book part.
ReplyDeleteI never knew that definition of black swan - and had to look up incel (now I need a shower...). The new book sounds stunning. I love San Diego and lived in Ocean Beach for a while when I was young. But please do write something hopeful next time so it will come true!
Hi Edith, and likewise! I keep thinking the crime fiction world is sort of small and then I realize there are so many great writers I haven't yet met!
DeleteI love Ocean Beach! I was born and raised in SD, moved away for a few decades and came back -- OB is still one of my favorite communities. Spent a lot of time there when I was a kid (lived in Point Loma and in OB in those crazy apartments on W. Point Loma with all the Tiki architecture).
Hopefully we will have conferences again in the not too distant future and meet!
Welcome to Jungle Red, Lisa. I've ordered BLACK SWAN RISING, and I look forward to a virtual trip back to San Diego. It's one of my favorite places on earth. Maybe I'll watch "Some Like It Hot" for the 17th time this afternoon as I continue to isolate!
ReplyDeleteHi Ann, and thank you for the welcome and the book order! I should explain that with Midnight Ink folding I got the rights back to the book and just came out with a new eBook -- there will be a PB too (the audiobook rights were separate, thankfully). San Diego is my home town though I spent decades away. It's nice to be back. It really is a great city and though a lot of the sprawl development makes me sad, in many ways I like it even better than I did when I was a kid. More diverse and interesting -- and you can't beat the craft beer. :)
DeleteHere's hoping you can get back for a non-virtual visit soon!
Good Morning Lisa. BSR will be waiting for pick up for me within 24 hours. Lucky me. I am with you in hoping the pendulum is about to swing back towards respectful listening. I reflect that some of the protest songs from the '60s now sound like paeans for peace. (listen to Everyday People). Dystopian novels used to comfort me. I would think..we aren't there yet. Today it seems as if one can find a black swan on every corner. Thank you for joining us to help us ponder our today.
ReplyDeleteHi Coralee! I will say that I did not actually have "global pandemic" on my checklist.
DeleteI went to one of the demonstrations in town last weekend. It was beautiful, completely peaceful, and one of the more moving experiences of my life (and everyone was masked up, thankfully! Still a risk but one that I felt was worth it -- and I was impressed by the caring attitude of the marchers and organizers). I get that there is a lot of anger, much of which I understand, but I do prefer the power of peaceful unity.
Take care -- we will get through this somehow.
I remember taking a graduate course in philosophy and learning about “black swans” - building that idea into a dystopian novel with compelling characters is very smart. Wondering if you found yourself feeling depressed as you were writing it?
ReplyDeleteHallie, I enjoyed your reading at last night's Noir at the Bar NE. And thank goodness Crowdcast did not cut off Julia's reading. Edwin and Daniel have done a great job hosting these virtual events over the past few months.
DeleteI ended up missing N at the B last evening, because my work ran late. Rats! I'll have to catch it via the recording...
DeleteI'm so sorry I had to miss it. I'd forgotten that my book club was also meeting virtually at the same time.
DeleteShoot, Hallie, I didn't know about Noir at the Bar NE!
DeleteI think when I am writing a book, a lot of the time I'm in research and, well, writing mode -- it's about craft so I'm a step removed from my feelings. I've dealt with a lot of pretty depressing content in my books (Rock Paper Tiger for instance dealt with the War on Terror and Abu Ghraib type abuses). For whatever reason I feel obligated to wrestle with it. With this book, there were times when I was writing it and real life things kept happening close to what I was writing, and that kind of freaked me out. I went to a bunch of political events and there was one time I couldn't help thinking, "ANYONE could walk in here and shoot two sitting congressmen. It would be easy." Stuff like that. But our democracy depends on openness and access to our elected officials, so what could be done?
Anyway, I think for me it's more when I've finished a book that I get depressed, or at least exhausted by it all. I have not really been in the mood to write a book since I finished BSR, and it's been...3 1/2 years. I've done some writing here and there, non-fiction stuff for $, work-for-hire script, that kind of thing. But mostly I've been playing a lot of music and taking long walks. For me as a writer, there gets to be a point where I have to just stop and let the well refill a bit, which is where I've been these past few years.
Do you find that you get to that point? Or are you able to keep going and find inspiration without that kind of pause?
Lisa, welcome to JRW. What a great looking cover for the subject inside. Your book sounds terrifying.
ReplyDeleteI have certainly read many dystopian stories over time, but never thought in a million years that we'd be living in one. It's so true that the leadership during the last few years has been beyond dreadful, but the fact that so many, many of our fellows still see it as "working" is insane. Can the lessons of past wars be ignored so blatantly, bad behavior excused, horrible lies be believed? Is there a new "Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Ministry of Propaganda" out there right now that people are buying into heart and soul? Unfortunately, yes.
Black Swan Rising is on my TBR list. I do hope you follow it up with something that gives us all hope for a different future. Now, I'm going to take a look at some of your other books. I have lots of time to read these days.
Hi Judy! I am SO happy with that cover! It's by the designer who did the Midnight Ink cover, which I also loved. This one I think I might love even more! It really captures the mood of the book IMO. The artist is Shira Atakpu and she is so talented!
DeleteAnd I join you in puzzlement and at times despair. I really feel like we are living in two different countries sometimes. The other side of that though is that I really think most Americans want peace and progress and prosperity for all. And that maybe we are coming to a place where the meaning of "E Pluribus Unum" is becoming more clear. Out of many, one. It doesn't mean we all become the same, it means that our differences and diversity are our strength.
Here's hoping. It could still go either way But I am a bit more optimistic than I've been in a while. Hell of a way to learn a hard national lesson, but I think events have shown that there is an appropriate role for government(s) and that competence is actually pretty damn vital.
Hang in there. Take care...this is going to be very hard but I hope there are better days ahead.
I hope your powers of hope are powers of prediction, Lisa. We need some peace, goodwill, and understanding in this country.
ReplyDeleteHi Liz! I'm actually somewhat hopeful, more so than I've been in a while. I don't think it will be easy and I think there will be some bad times ahead -- but I think an awful lot of people not inclined to speak up or make waves have had enough and want to make things better. Here's hoping.
DeleteI'm thoroughly intrigued by your book, Lisa, and am girding my loins to read it.
ReplyDeleteAmanda, it is a page turner. Great suspense! And the characters are very well drawn--they really pull you in.
DeleteThanks, Amanda! Yeah...I guess it's sort of an upsetting book. :D But entertaining, I hope! I usually write with a lot more humor though and I could not find a lot of funny for this one.
DeleteLisa, it seems you have a rare gift of prescience. Does it feel burdensome to you, that you got this so right?
ReplyDeleteThe incels are terrifying bullies. That they are banding together, armed, instead of moping around in Mom's basement like they used to, is a level of terrifying that is off the charts.
Karen, I feel a lot of "getting it right" involves paying attention to what's going on around the murky edges of society. We crime fiction/thriller writers have the advantage in that we don't have to extrapolate too far forward, unlike most science fiction.
DeleteAnd yes, the whole idea of incels is simultaneously ridiculous and terrifying.
Hi Karen,
DeleteWell, I missed "Russians" and "global pandemic," so there's that. :D
And yeah, it's kind of exhausting at times. I think because as a writer, and maybe some of the Reds can chime in here, some of us feel like we are writing to EXPLAIN things. Not in a didactic way. As I said above, if this stuff isn't embedded deep in the story, then you haven't written a novel, you've written a polemic. But when I was writing this, a lot of time I felt like, "Hey! Look! LOOK AT WHAT IS GOING ON! This is bad! We need to pay attention to this!!" And of course, it's very rare in the life of most novelists that we write something that actually has the power to change these problems we see. Every once in a while someone manages to capture a zeitgeist or channel something significant that's able to move people but a lot of the time it feels like shouting out in the darkness.
In the case of this book, yeah, I think the experience of writing it combined with what happened to the publisher made me need to take a break from it all for a few years. I've found a lot of comfort getting back to playing and writing music -- a form of emotional expression that satisfies in a way that's different from writing books.
Wow. Just scanned a Vox article on Incels. Great premise for a book and I look forward to reading Black Swan Rising.
ReplyDeleteThank you! And the scariest part to me is how white supremacists have found that the misogyny of the incels makes for a perfect recruiting tool.
DeleteLisa, I love that we met all those years ago at 20th Century Fox! And I'm sure it was the tour for Water Like a Stone, which would have made it 2007. I'm trying to remember which book took me to San Diego, but I loved what little bit I got to see.
ReplyDeleteI know Black Swan Rising (love the title, love the cover!) had a bumpy road to publication. Have you been working on another book through this process?
Lisa is on California time, so will be joining us when she's had her coffee!!
Gawd, I feel like such a slacker! There's my "California time" and there's my "I am a night owl" -- I usually start working around 10 am, and here I got my coffee and sat down and you all have been so busy!
DeleteYeah, "bumpy" is accurate. At one point we had a big house interested, the editor went up the food chain, it took a long time and ultimately they came back with, "You know how we thought the book's timeliness and relevance was so awesome? Now we think it's TOO timely and relevant and will just make people sad." (I paraphrase but you get the idea). Then the wonderful Terri Bischoff at Midnight Ink stepped in and acquired the book. A month after BSR was published, the parent company made the decision to fold MI and that was that. So the book kinda went into a black hole. I'm glad to finally be getting the book out again!
I've had a terrible time writing since then -- not writing per se, I've done a lot of work for hire. But writing a novel after that whole experience, not so much. I have about 100 pages of one that wasn't really working and I wasn't all that enthusiastic about writing. I decided, either consciously or un, that I really needed time to recoup and relax and refill the well. I've been playing and writing music again after a very long hiatus and really getting a lot of satisfaction out of that, along with occasional beer money. :)
It was lovely meeting you at 20th Century Fox! At the time you were one of the first authors whose books I read whom I actually met -- I was just a bit star-struck! I hope you can get back to San Diego soon!
Lovely to see you here, Lisa, and to be able to give the book the shout out it deserves. Please don’t write any books about giant earthquakes, tsunamis or alien invasions. I have all the worry I can handle right now
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, and that is a promise! No earthquakes, tsunamis or alien invasions!
DeleteBlack Swan Rising sounds great. To my surprise, I'm still enjoying dystopian, worst-case-scenario books and movies even in our current reality, so I'm looking forward to reading this! Although I do agree with everyone else that maybe you should stay away from negative predictions in your next novel, just in case!
ReplyDeleteCindy, I haven't been reading too many worst-case scenario books (a genre I love!) but I've still been glues to the screen by disaster movies. I even watched CONTAGION back in March, thinking, "They got that right...okay, that's right...yep, that's happening..."
DeleteHa, Julia, Rick made me watch it the beginning of February. I'd seen it when it came out but forgotten how terrifying it was. And that was definitely a "black swan" moment.
DeleteThe fact that I'd watch Matt Damon read the phone book helped, however:-)
Julia, I also watched Contagion back in March, when all this started! And did the same fact-checking as you. And Debs, I'd watch Matt Damon read the phone book right along with you.
DeleteI wonder if by watching/reading "worst-case" movies/books, it's comforting in a way because, okay, this is giving voice to my fears, and this is as bad as it will get. Some form of catharsis, maybe?
DeleteAll that in mind, hope you enjoy BSR, Cindy!
Lisa, welcome to JRW and congratulations on Black Swan Rising! We chatted on Facebook about how to get to the trolley from the hotel where the mystery conference was in San Diego. Hopefully, we can do that after the pandemic is over. It will be a while, I think. Back to your book and the worst case scenarios...
ReplyDeleteAs a general rule, I refuse to read novels where women are the victims (too many IMHO). However, I will make an exception to read your book because it sounds so interesting!
Speaking of worst case scenarios in novels and news headlines, I was reminded of two things. Years ago when I was a kid, I remember my father telling me about a novelist saying that he wished that he had never written a novel about an airline hijacking because after that novel was published, people started hijacking airplanes. I am not so sure about that. Even if the novelist did not write about that, I think someone else would still have the imagination to do that!
And I remember seeing a fictional book in the bookstore about a member of a Nazi Youth who got into the USA after the war, become a US citizen, and become the President of the United States! I do not know who the author was.
Stay safe, everyone!
Diana
Diana, was the fictional president's motto "America First?" ;-/
DeleteJulia,
DeleteAs I recall, no. I only read the back jacket summarizing what the story was about. The ARC of the story was that the President was under the radar and acted like an American. No one knew about his Nazi youth past!
Diana, I wonder if that was the Philip Roth book, Plot Against America?
DeleteHi Diana! I remember our trolley discussion. Yes, here's hoping we will all be meeting in person soon!
DeleteAgain, without giving too much away, I hope that BSR shows women's power in response to those who try to make them victims.
As to whether fiction informs reality, or vice-versa...at one point in BSR, Casey wonders if by giving something a name, she's helped make it real. I don't know the answer. I do know at one point the Pentagon, I think it was, created a round-table of thriller writers to brainstorm about potential threats. Storytelling is a way of making sense of the world that is uniquely powerful, IMO.
Karen, it may have been the Philip Roth book. It had a photo of a white man with gray hair on the cover. Not too tall.
DeleteHi Lisa! Hoping that we will get a chance to meet after the pandemic is over! Good to know about BSR showing women's power in response. Yes, I agree that storytelling is a way of making sense of the world that is powerful.
DeleteLisa, congratulations! This sounds absolutely terrific. How did it feel to write it, though? Empowered, frightened? Did it make you feel a bit in control? That you were writing it in the midst of what already felt like chaos… What was that like? but again, congratulations!
ReplyDeleteI think it mostly felt weird! Especially as I'd put the book aside for a time to write GO-BETWEEN (complicated publishing reasons) so a lot of BSR was written in 2016, and it was just...creepy. I had some real-life settings in the book that I had to fictionalize a bit just to make myself more comfortable -- there was one in particular where after I'd written the book I saw a community fair that was pretty much exactly how I'd pictured the one in the book and...let's just say it freaked me out. That and how plausible it really is to, say, disrupt elections.
DeleteSatisfying? I don't know. As mentioned in the post, it's not the kind of book where I could solve the problems it posits by "The End." The book's final scene very much captured how I was feeling at the time. I don't want to describe that too much but am happy to send it to you if you'd like!
I think ultimately the positive message of the book is resilience. The characters deal with all kinds of difficulties and find ways to go on in the face of it. I'm concluding that life in general is a bit like that... :)
Welcome and congrats Lisa! I think you are so right to say that an author can't go in wanting to write about "issues" without the book becoming a lecture. Your solution--characters--is so obvious and spot on. Yes please write another one quickly that describes all the good things that are coming:)
ReplyDeleteThank you for having me! And I will try!
DeleteLisa, congratulations on Black Swan and good wishes for its success. Were you scaring yourself as you wrote it? Or did it help you to get your justified worries captured on the page? Or - yikes - both? I am having a similar experience, trying to write something new with more suspense and less of a traditional mystery. Though all my books have some background in real social issues, this idea is bigger, more in the news, inspired by a link I have to an organization with some recent reputation smirching events. It seemed very current when I started, but SO MUCH has been happening, so fast! Real events might be outrunning our imaginations. (How is that possible?)
ReplyDeleteI think...for me...writing a book like BSR is in part a way to make sense of things to myself. Add craft to that and it all gives me a little bit of detachment to deal with frankly horrible things (a lot of my books have difficult subject matter. For whatever reason I'm drawn to it. Usually there's more humor though!). But there were definitely times that I freaked myself out while writing it! I'd go into certain settings IRL and think, "It would be so easy for someone to walk in here and shoot two sitting congressmen." Things like that. I'd start to wonder why we hadn't seen MORE of this sort of politicized violence.
DeleteMy prediction now is, "just give it time." I'm deeply worried about the November elections. I do not think the extremists intend to go quietly.
And yes, we do seem to be living through a moment where EVERYTHING is happening so quickly! I think that's one of the reasons I'm waiting to write another book until after we've made whatever transition it is that we are going through right now.
Best of luck getting your book done! That's a tough situation to be in, as a writer.
Thank you for such a thoughtful response. Much appreciated.
DeleteLisa, this sounds absolutely terrific, and I'm glad readers are getting a second chance at it. You didn't mention it in your post, but I notice you're one of the many talented authors who were stranded when Midnight Ink publishing was closed by its owner. That's a situation as scary to writers as incels, gun violence and political corruption! So congrats on moving forward from that!
ReplyDeleteHAH! Yes, indeed! The whole Midnight Ink thing was really really sad. Some super talented and passionate people working there who got stranded as well. I guess I was more fortunate than most in that I only had the one book there (the rest of my titles are with Soho, which thankfully is still going strong!). I'm very glad to have the rights to BSR back. While I don't expect to make a ton (any?) money with this, I'm happy that the book is back out in the world!
DeleteFirst, thank you so much for having me, Reds! Second, I feel like such a slacker! I'm on the west coast and I'm a terrible night owl, and you all have been busy! :) But you probably would not want to read anything I would come up with earlier in the morning before coffee.
ReplyDelete