Authors bring murderous good fun as fans flock to local book store
There’s nothing like a good old fashioned murder to pique curiosity and bring rubberneckers in droves. Holly Jackson, known for the series A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (AGGGTM) and Five Survive, made her way down to Green Bay on April 6 to talk about her newest book, The Reappearance of Rachel Price. Accompanied by Amanda Linsmeier, the author of Starling, Jackson addressed a variety of issues during a Q&A. A discussion panel included questions about characters, how the new book compared to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, and plenty more.
Linsmeier asked different questions, specifically about how Jackson made The Reappearance of Rachel Price and what her inspiration was to write the book.
“I don’t start writing one word of the book until I know what happens in every single scene, every single twist,” Jackson said.
Both authors have different methods to planning and processing the making of a full book. When talking about the main character from The Reappearance of Rachel Price, Jackson explained how she would start to make these characters, ironically holding a passion for making hateable but loveable characters.
Jackson’s way of making her newest book included listening to a plethora of different true crime podcasts, especially ones that featured the disappearances of people. She would then figure out the title, working backwards from the podcasts and planning out the reappearance, instead of the disappearance.
“The title was the first thing I came up with, I was walking my dog, and whenever I do anything I have to have a true crime podcast in my ears,” she said.
After focusing down on the title, Jackson then made out all the acts and main twists on multiple sheets of paper, picking up act 1 through act 4 and writing the story completely. After Jackson finished talking about her writing process, she began to address A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Jackson mentioned how the new TV show would be coming out in 2024, and the trailer would come around in a few months.
“It’s even worse in the TV show, by the way,” she said.
The show will be coming out soon, but it still needs work. Jackson also explained how she would be in a couple scenes in the show.
After the Q&A with Jackson and Linsmeier, Barnes and Noble employees called off wristband numbers to get books signed. Linsmeier would also go on to sell and sign books for guests who had come to the panel and signing. During the book signing, Jackson continued to speak to all the kids and adults who had come.
“I’m often thinking ‘they're not going to let me publish this, this is so graphic and horrible, teenagers are gonna read this,’ and then they do,” the author said.
The community loved seeing the authors in town, and adored that she had traveled from London to Wisconsin to sign and talk about her new book. The community’s favorite part of the event was getting to ask Jackson multiple questions about herself and how she goes about writing all of her books.
Many guests asked if there would be more to come in the future, to which Linsmeier assured the crowd that there would.
“I did a little digging, and I know you started a little clearing journey with an adult manuscript,” she said, alluding to more page turning mysteries to come.
by Kayden Brandt
Published April 29 2024
Oshkosh West Index Volume 120 Issue VII