As fans of thriller author Tarryn Fisher know, nothing is off the table in her stories of resilient women, nuanced villains, and page-turning twists. In her latest novel, An Honest Lie, a carefree celebratory weekend in Vegas takes a sinister turn when protagonist Rainy’s buried past follows her to the slot machines.
PW sat down with Fisher to chat about everything from her sources of inspiration and her writing process to what keeps her up at night.
You write on your web site that you “write about villains.” Do you find them more interesting than heroes/heroines? Are they harder to write?
They are emotionally exhausting to write but they’re a hell of a good time. The writing of the hero tends to be predicable because they’re driven by their morality, but you never know what a societal villain will do. They’re driven by their own code of survival and that makes for a fascinating story.
You first made your mark as a self-published author. How has traditional publishing changed your perspective?
My perspective as a self-published author was: work hard, get better, do it for the love of writing. It’s much the same being a traditionally published author, but now I also do it for everyone’s love of reading, and that’s significantly more pressure. My audience is my boss.
What are your sources of inspiration as you’re creating new thriller storylines?
I’ve been inspired by everything from a television commercial, to the pattern on a blanket. I’ll see or hear something striking and create a storyline around it. I don’t understand it, it’s just the way my brain works.
Your heroine’s history catches up to her in An Honest Lie. The feeling of needing to hide a part of our past is certainly relatable to many readers. How did you channel this aspect of your character’s psychology?
I believe a woman’s beauty lies in her ability to survive the vicious and remain magnificently alive to talk about it. There should be no shame in telling ones story. I wanted to create a character I could gently lead out of that specific internal conflict toward emotional freedom.
Do you always know which direction your books before you start writing, or do you allow the story and characters to determine their own fates?
I never know and I never want to know. I’m a free faller. If the character is interesting enough they’ll write the story for you.
Readers are savvy. Is it difficult to deliver twists that they won’t see coming?
I don’t even think about the reader when I’m writing; what I’m experiencing is between me and the world I’ve created. Sometimes the character tells me the twist early in the process, other times I have to wait until the book is almost finished, but I’m always the first one to be surprised. I figure there are millions of people with the same reading taste as me, if I can shock myself my reader will feel it too.
What keeps you up at night?
Only too much caffeine…
