Caitlin Schneiderhan is a writer on the sci-fi TV drama Stranger Things, as well as the author of spinoff novels based on the Netflix series. Her YA debut, Medici Heist, a caper set in Renaissance Florence, follows a crew of talented teens as they scheme to rob the coffers of the corrupt Medici pope, Leo X—with a little help from renowned artist Michelangelo. We spoke with Schneiderhan about her formative first trip to Florence, favorite heists on the page and screen, and how she toggles between the different skillsets required for writing screenplays and novels.

The book is dedicated to your parents, “for showing me Florence and giving me the world.” When did you first experience Florence, and how did the city spark your imagination and this historical adventure?

It was pretty much a one-to-one. I was there in the spring of 2014 with my parents; we were visiting my sister who was studying abroad in Rome. And then we branched out to take in some other parts of Italy. I remember wandering around Florence with my parents and seeing all this incredible art and architecture and learning a little bit about the history of the city, but also kind of feeling like I was missing something. On one of the evenings, we went back to our Airbnb and I started poking around for more information. I stumbled across this PBS documentary series about the history of the Medici family—I watched it all. It sparked something in my brain. I was like, “Oh, this is what I was missing.” The history of this city is the history of this family. It’s kind of impossible to wrap your head around Renaissance-era Florence without also learning as much as possible about the Medici. And I think it was literally on the last night that we were in Italy: I was going to bed, and I pulled out a journal. For whatever reason, heist immediately sprang to mind. I wrote down the names of the main characters and their jobs [in the crew]. And then I just shoved it in a drawer for a couple of years. But those things have remained pretty much unchanged since 2014. So it’s been 10 years, which is crazy.

In the acknowledgments, you mention that Medici Heist began as a screenplay. How did you decide to switch gears to write it as a YA novel?

I had written it as a screenplay many years ago, and I loved it. It was a story I was really passionate about; I just thought it was a lot of fun. But something wasn’t clicking. I was wrapping up a job in 2020, so I had a lot of free time on my hands—as did we all—and I had gotten back into reading. Previously, I had read Six of Crows and a bunch of other more recent YA releases, and I was getting really excited about YA again. Looking down the long stretch of time to myself that I had in front of me, I was like, “Well, this is an idea that I have been passionate about for a very long time. So let’s see how it fits in this other medium.” And I think I sat down and wrote a chapter in a day—a very long chapter—and I was like, “This actually feels very good.” That was kind of a test run to see if I could actually do this, if I could flex those muscles. And, yeah, it was a success!

Like I said, Six of Crows was a big influence. But the real sort of actual caper inspirations tended to be films. I’m a huge fan of Ocean’s Eleven [the 2001 version]; I cannot count the number of times I’ve seen that movie, and I was reading the screenplay over and over again. I was also rewatching The Italian Job, which is great. And there’s this Spanish-language movie called To Steal from a Thief that’s another great heist story. And so all of those things kind of came together while I was looking for inspiration in terms of plot and pacing.

What aspects were challenging for you when working in longform prose, and what came more intuitively?

One of the things that is drilled into you in screenwriting is not to direct on the page. You are there to sketch out the basic outlines: here’s where we are, here are any important props that might be present, and any important blocking that the reader or prospective producers might need to know. Your focus is mostly on dialogue and character and plot. But in novel writing, you are the director, you are the costume designer, you’re the location manager, you’re the casting director—you are everything! And so that was an interesting and difficult transition, to be like, okay, I’m not supposed to just keep it as straightforward as possible. I actually have to flesh out this world, so that people who are reading it know where we are. And once I got the hang of that, it was a lot more fun, because it’s something that I haven’t really been able to do very much of in the last decade of my career. It was a very pleasant change.

What’s next for you? Is there a chance of the book coming full circle in a screen adaptation?

No one would love that more than me! I think we’ve got to take it up with Hollywood, though. I’ve got to strong-arm some people.

Right now, I’m working on another Stranger Things spin-off novel. My first one came out at the tail end of last year, and I have one that should be coming out at some point, hopefully. I’m also working on an animated Stranger Things show as the head writer. And I’m developing my next ideas with Feiwel and Friends, which should be fun.

Medici Heist by Caitlin Schneiderhan. Feiwel and Friends, $20.99 Aug. 6 ISBN 978-1-250-90718-9