About the book
What would you do if you discovered you had a half-sister you never knew existed?
In The Secret of Joy
About the author
Melissa Senate lives on the coast of Maine with her son and their menagerie of pets. She’s the author of eight novels (seven women’s fiction and one young adult) with two on the way. Visit her website (http://www.melissasenate.com) for more information and she’d love if you became her friend Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/MelissaSenate) and followed her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/melissasenate).
I asked, Melissa answered
A: What's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you? Bonus question: have you ever used it in a book?
M: When I was nine years old, I lived in a borough of New York City on a busy street. Right across the street was a school yard with a huge handball wall that was all the rage for kids. But: I wasn’t allowed to cross the street without asking an adult to walk across with me. So, my little friend Jackie and I asked a man in a suit with a briefcase to cross us, and he said: “I’ll take you across the street if you show me where I can find a bathroom.” That was our cue to run, but instead, we took him to the basement of my apartment building. LIKE IDIOTS. (Well, nine-year-old idiots.) We watched as he opened his briefcase and took out a big needle and something that looked like rope (at the time, we didn’t realize this was about drugs). We stared at each other for a split second and bolted. From that day on, I was allowed to cross the street by myself.
For the bonus q: I write chick lit/women’s fiction, so that particular bit has not found a way into my fiction, but I’ve found that what I do work into my novels is the impact of the emotion I’ve felt. That fear—and the fear for my friend—has manifested itself in interesting ways when describing all kinds of fear in my books.
A: Mystery writers often give their characters an unreasoning fear - and then make them face it. Do you have any phobias, like fear of spiders or enclosed spaces?
M: I lived in New York City apartments for such a long time that I didn’t realize I would be afraid to live in a house with doors and windows that opened on the ground floor. It’s taken me five years of living in a small town in Maine to stop worrying that someone will come through the windows.
A: Do you have a favorite mystery book, author, or movie?
MS: I love all kinds of mysteries, from cozies to hardboiled. I do have a special fondness for Janet Evanovich.
A. At its heart, every story is a mystery. It asks why someone acts the way they did - or maybe what will happen next. What question does your book ask?
M: The Secret of Joy asks: If a half-sibling you never met, never knew about, came knocking on your door one day, how would you feel? P.S. This very question was inspired by an email I received out of the blue that said: I think you might be my half-sister . . .
A, Is there a mystery in life that you are still trying to figure
M: Motherhood. No annotating required.
