ALREADY THE MODEL OF A MODERN MAJOR AUTHOR--AND SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

by Hank Phillippi Ryan

 

Hallie Ephron is having a great time. Oh, you know she wrote those great Peter Zak mysteries--AMNESIA, GUILT and the rest-—with a writing partner and published under the name GH Ephron.

 

She taught us all how to write mysteries with her writers-necessity how-to called WRITING AND SELLING YOUR MYSTERY NOVEL. (She was my teacher in the only writing class I’ve ever taken. And I can truly say much that has happened to me in writing-world stemmed from that.)

 

She offered us nostalgia and community and a reading list for the future in 1001 Novels for our Every Mood.

 

 

She's the crime fiction reviewer for The Boston Globe.

 

Now: she’s written a thriller. Her solo debut. And it’s a knock out. Everyone says so. (Laura Lippman calls it “Unputdownable.”) And then--it seems like just hours ago--we got the word NEVER TELL A LIE is optioned by Hollywood!

 

So, Hallie,before you run out to buy something to wear on the red carpet--first, congratulations.  Second, you're proof overnight successes do not happen overnight.

 

Tell us more..!

HALLIE:

Sometimes, you store an idea away for decades before you can use it in a novel. I tucked away a house—one my husband and I fell hopelessly in love with a few, ahem, decades ago. It’s front and center, practically a character in my new book just out, NEVER TELL A LIE.

 

The house was a fabulous Victorian with six bedrooms, three baths, and zero closets. Its pristine interior walls were covered with the original leather wallpaper. Seven fireplaces were bordered with hand-painted tiles.  Opulent stained glass glinted in downstairs windows, and a bronze statuette of a beautiful woman, mounted in an elaborately carved newel post at the foot of a winding stairway beckoned with her siren’s song, distracting me from an exterior that hadn’t been painted for so long that the shingles looked sandblasted. From the disintegrating balustrades out front.  From seven leaning chimneys.

 

Who knew what it would cost to heat the house because the elderly man who owned the place had been living in the kitchen for years, sleeping on a cot and making do with a single light bulb and a wood-burning stove. Four of his black wool great coats flapped like enormous bat wings from a clothesline out back. (“Is he going to take his box of earth with him,” my husband asked.)

 

Fortunately for us, we were overbid, because our home repair skills were even more meager than our income.  Plus, I was eight-months pregnant with our first child and had not a clue what I had gotten myself into on that front, either.

 

I've never gotten that house out of my head and finally I've put it to good use. It’s David and Ivy Rose’s house in NEVER TELL A LIE. A woman from their past goes into it, and she never comes out.

 

HANK: Wait. Goes in and never comes out?

HALLIE: Vanishes completely. The police arrive a few days later asking questions
and snooping around...sorry, you'll have to read it to find out more than
that!

HANK:  You've won awards for your book reviews. As you were writing, was
Hallie-the-reviewer looking over your shoulder? You've won awards for your
how to write a mystery book. Was Hallie-the-how-to also in the room?

 

HALLIE:  I wish Hallie-the-reviewer were just looking over my shoulder.
Unfortunately she's take up residence in my head. Remember Anne Lamott's
great advice for writers, something like "hold your nose and write a shitty
first draft"? I find that really hard to do, and it makes the first draft
very slow going. Fortunately Hallie-the-how-to is a lot less present--mostly
she learns from my mistakes.

 

Hallie's website has the rest of the scoop--but she's here now to answer questions, give advice, and generally hang out with the friends of the Femmes.

Congratulations, Hallie! Is there another thriller in the works? Or is that secret?

 

Comments

[Mary]

Wow, congratulations on your Hollywood deal, Hallie! Cool. I love the idea for this. Any kind of house weirdness in stories appeals to me. Like Charlaine's The Julius House, Haunting of Hill House, that hotel in The Shining. Brrrr. Momm-y-y!

The siren on the post - now that's scary. If it was in my house, I would NOT walk past it at night when it might jump me. :)

[rosemary]

Way to go, darlin'! You and Hank are so accomplished I'm convinced you two never sleep...
So have you ever been back to the house?

[Hallie Ephron]

Yes, Hank,I'm working on a new novel, but it's barely begun.

And Thanks, Ro... fyi I am a prodigious sleeper. No, I haven't been back to the house, but I'm hoping when I call the owner and offer a signed book she'll invite me back.
- Hallie

[Dana]

Hallie, thanks for stopping by the Femmes'! And with what excellent news--congratulations!

Isn't it funny how the houses that got away haunt us? We bid on a house that was a fixer-upper, but were outbid. Can't remember much I liked about the house now (I love the house we ended up with), but I do recall it had an outdoor grill with a stone chimney. Inside the pit, on the ashes, was a small, imitation Mayan figurine. Weird. At the time I was writing SITE UNSEEN and it put me in mind of Mayanists... Later, I worked the grill and chimney into my sixth book.

Your "house that got away" sounds beautiful...perfect for haunting.

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Oh, thank you, Dana and Hallie. I'm searching for a new plot. Now I know--I'll just go house-hunting!

(But Dana: inside the pit??? That's weird.)

[Toni LP Kelner]

When Steve and I were house-hunting, we saw some wonderful fixer-uppers, but were fully cognizant of the fact that we can barely fix a sandwich, and kept looking.

It's probably just as well you didn't get the house, Hallie. You'd have been so busy fixing it up that you'd never have started writing!

[chimney liner]

Great post about chimneys. I found it to be very useful. I will have to bookmark your site for future reading.