Hi everyone, it's Maureen Lee Lenker,
a digital writer here at "Entertainment Weekly,"
and I am so excited for our conversation today.
Because I'm going to have best selling author Alyssa
Cole joining us to discuss the release of her new thriller,
"When No One Is Watching" which comes out today.
So we're going to have her on here any minute,
and we're going to be talking all about this great new book
which has been described as, "Get Out"
meets "Rear Window" which I can say
is a very accurate description of the book.
Although it's definitely unique in its own right as well.
[THEME MUSIC]
Hi, Alyssa.
Hi.
How are you?
You look--
I am good.
You look very summery.
Can you hear me OK?
Hello?
Yeah, there's a little bit of a delay, I'm at the beach,
and my phone was working earlier, but--
[GIGGLES]
No worries, I'm very jealous that you're
at the beach, that's amazing.
I was like, this is maybe the only day I
can get away with not working.
[GIGGLING]
Love It.
Well, as I said when I logged on to people who are just joining
now, we're here today with Melissa Cole
talking about her new thriller, "When No One Is Watching."
And if you are looking to jump into September
and the beginning of fall with a scary read,
then this is definitely the book for you.
[GIGGLING]
Alyssa, the book is described as "Get Out" meets "Rear Window."
Were either of those things touchstones
or inspiration points for you?
Or did it start somewhere else?
Those were inspiration points.
I was kind of going for something
that was like "Get Out," kind of a social thriller.
And something that would be a commentary on the world
that we live in.
And with Hitchcock, I grew up watching Hitchcock films,
and I think like everyone, I had Turner Classic movies
on the cable system, so that was a big influence
when I was a kid.
So I was just aiming for something creepy
and "Rear Window" is such a classic,
but with kind of a modern twist.
Yeah, absolutely.
And the thriller, as you said, it's a social thriller,
and it really deals with gentrification
which is the very hot button, thorny issue,
and a very complex one.
How did you decide that was what you wanted to tackle
or that would be good fodder for a thriller?
Well, I've actually been wanting to write something
about gentrification for a while, and I do it by default.
It's a sub, subplot, it was going to be a larger
part of the plot, but the romance was the primary driver
of that story.
Got it.
So when this project came along I was like, OK,
this is something I can really dig into the gentrification
and get a little scary with it.
Yeah, and Sydney and Theo are so different and so
distinct in their voices, even though they become really
essential rocks for each other.
How did you find or hone in on each of their voices?
Because I just always love the writing when you have
characters who are so distinct, and you can really tell when
you've switched from one to the other.
Well, with them I kind of just took a few passes of the draft,
trying to really-- like Sydney's voice
came to me pretty directly.
I just was thinking, channeling a lot of being fed up,
and dealing with a lot of issues.
And I just tried to think of everything that went into--
[AUDIO OUT]
--for Theo.
Theo being someone who has moved around a lot,
who has hidden a lot about himself,
and who is kind of a chameleon, and just kind of getting
into what about them would mesh really well and what wouldn't.
Yeah, well, as I said at the beginning, it's very scary.
There are a lot of suspenseful and tense moments throughout.
How do you go about writing scenes?
Do you have to go hide under your covers for a little bit?
[GIGGLING] What's that process?
For me, I really try to lean into things
that I would find really scary and then lean into them
even harder.
And hope that people didn't get mad at me,
and hope that other people found them scary.
There's the scene in the Uber, which
is somewhat based on something that happened
to me when I was in LA.
It wasn't that it wasn't as scary as that, it was
a little scarier in some ways, because the guy was
wearing a Disney world, Goofy hat with the ears.
And then just that sensation of like, yeah,
you get in people's cars, and you have
no idea what they might do.
So just thinking of these everyday scary things
and then heightening them.
Yeah, that scene especially-- that's every woman's worst
nightmare especially.
There's is social contract and we expect it to be upheld,
but there's really not a lot saying it's going to be.
[GIGGLING]
The turn of events through the course of the book
is terrifying, but also I think made terrifying by the fact
that it is so believable.
Did you get any pushback, or did you have any ideas
yourself where you were like, no,
that's too evil or too strange?
I had some points where I was like, I could take
this a different way and a darker way
even than what was in the book, but I also didn't want
the book to be traumatizing.
Because that's something I've had
to think about, even with my "Loyal League" series,
for example.
Like showing bad things, showing things that are suspenseful
or anxiety inducing, but not making
the readers upset or leaving them upset
when they finish the book.
Yeah.
Well, speaking of finishing the book, the ending,
without spoiling it, is very much not tied up with a bow.
And there's kind of a sense that the fight has only just begun,
so why was it important for you to end on that note?
I think because in reality it's
something that can't be really said, OK, this is done,
and this is defeated.
Because we see even what's going on around the world right now
and what's going on in the US right
now, even with the election, you can't just elect the new person
and say OK, mission accomplished, everything's
going to be OK now.
There are just so many different things
that go into gentrification, that go into oppression
that there are going to be like thousands
of small battles, tiny battles that add up to victory,
hopefully.
It feels like the things that this book is talking about
and that Sydney is screaming about,
these Black lives that are disappearing,
she feels like she's crazy, because nobody
else is noticing.
We've finally reached that point in America
where everybody-- not everybody-- more people are
screaming along with Sydney.
Does that feel strange to have this book
coming out when it's even more potent
or vindicating in any way?
Well, it feels a little vindicating,
but it does feel a bit strange and a bit too on the nose.
[GIGGLING]
Too timely, but I'm glad it's happening that more people are
starting to see what's going on and to pay attention, which is
kind of what the book is about.
To pay attention about what's going on in your community.
Yeah, I swear I think you're psychic or something, Alyssa,
because you know you had the first "Reluctant Royals"
which had a very Wakanda-like nation coming out when
"Black Panther" was hitting.
And the next book in your "Reluctant Royals"
timed nicely to the royal wedding of Harry and Meghan.
Now you have this book coming out in a more unfortunate bit
of timing, but you've got that magic touch
when it comes to making your release
timed to current events.
[LAUGHING]
I'm like, I need the world to get with the happy parts
of the books--
[LAUGHING]
Stick with the happy parts only.
Yeah, well, additionally, you have this app in the book,
OurHood which is sort of a slightly more sinister version
of the Nextdoor app, and I just feel like being at home during
the pandemic, you see on social media all the time,
it's just rampant all the time with neighbors nit-picking
and reporting on each other, because they
have nothing better to do.
Where did the idea for Our Hood come from,
and do you think the worst tendencies of that
are exacerbated right now?
Yeah, that was the other weird thing seeing
all of the Karen videos and neighbors
being mean to black kids for no reason.
I chose to make OurHood app, because I kind of
wanted to have something that connected
everyone in the neighborhood.
And also something that showed the varying viewpoints
of people in the neighborhood, and also
how something that could be used for connection and community
can also be used for more nefarious means.
Yeah.
A lot of people have probably come to know you
as a romance writer, and this is your first suspense
novel coming out.
But of course, a lot of your romance
that you were talking about, the "Loyal League"
have a heavy suspense and an element of tension.
But what was it like to flip the switch and make romance--
there is some romance here, but it's definitely
tertiary to the suspense.
What was it like to flip the focus
and instead of having the suspense
in the background, have the romance be in the background?
It was fun, it was nice to switch it up a little bit,
because I still got to have both worlds in the book.
But it was interesting adding a bit more mystery
to the romance, because there isn't that guarantee
of whether they'll be together or whether they
are even meant to be together.
Because in romance, generally, these two people
are meant to be together for this amount of time.
And also getting to explore the gray areas
that I wouldn't in a romance.
At the beginning Theo is in a complicated relationship,
that's something I would never put in a romance.
You nomally have to be cleanly out of the relationship.
So it was fun getting to do stuff
like that with the romance, but also
lean more into the scary and anxiety-inducing stuff.
Yeah, absolutely.
Was there one scene that was the most anxiety-inducing
for you to write?
Yes, but I can't--
it's a spoiler, so I can't.
I'm trying to think of a way to talk about it without spoiling,
but stuff with family and friends
was the most anxiety-inducing for me.
Got it.
Yeah.
Do you want to write more after this?
I do, I think I have a lot more ideas for things
that I would want to write, and people seem to like it.
I want to, yeah.
Awesome, I'm going to ask a couple of little quick,
follow-up questions here, but then I
do want to give people watching the chance
to ask questions too.
So guys, while I'm asking these last few questions,
go ahead and start popping your questions in the comments,
and we'll try to get to a couple of them.
So first of all, what are your own favorite thrillers--
both movies and books?
Favorite thriller books--
I really love Rachel Howzell Hall's series, her detective,
"Lou Norton" series set in LA with a female detective.
When I was a kid, I was reading Walter Mosley,
so that was a really old school favorite.
Mary Higgins Clark, of course.
Newer thrillers-- Kellye Garrett who writes "Hollywood
Homicide," and I'm blanking.
Nalini Singh's "A Madness Of Sunshine"
is one of my recent favorites.
And she's another romance author who is dipping her toes
into guerrilla writing.
Nice.
Obviously there's a lot of real things in this book
that are scary, but what's something small, not
big picture that scares you?
[GIGGLING]
Right now in real life thinking
about the infrastructure.
I guess it's small, unfortunately,
compared to everything else going on in the US,
but thinking about the infrastructure
that is just wasting away while other thing are going on.
So that's a small big thing, I guess.
Since the book has these two movie
pags with "Get Out" and "Rear Window,"
do you have any ideal casting in your head?
I do.
Nicole Beharie for Sydney.
Nice.
And for Theo--
honestly, I could see--
it's not really super described like him in the book,
but I can Jake Gyllenhaal doing it.
Ooh.
Just because he's kind of like a weird but unpredictable kind
of guy.
You know who I pictured in my head when I was reading was
Matt McGorry from "How To Get Away With Murder"
and "Orange Is The New black "
Oh yeah, he could do that too.
Yeah, because he kind of has that soft aspect
of his personality that I think Theo has.
But I love Nicole, that's a great idea.
And of course, who wouldn't want to watch
Jake Gyllenhaal in a movie?
OK, go ahead and ask a few questions guys.
I'm going to look and see if I missed any while we
were chatting just now.
People are saying, please write more thrillers.
But just waiting to see if anyone
drops a question in here or not.
So Alyssa, are you going to spend the rest of your release
day at the beach?
No, I am going to go home and work unfortunately.
I was going to say, the beauty of virtual release day
is that you can do a book event from the beach.
[LAUGHING]
I was like, I need to get out of my house
right now after all of the lead up
to release week and release day, and I was like,
hopefully my phone works.
Nice.
OK, well, I think that should do it for us.
Again, the book is "When No One This Morning--"
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
What?
That was responding to your question.
What did they say?
No, it was a stupid question.
OK.
So the book is "When No One Is Watching" by Alyssa Cole,
and it is out today.
So check it out, it's available pretty much anywhere,
but check it out from your local [INAUDIBLE] bookshop
if you can.
And Alyssa, thank you so much for joining me today.
Congratulations.
Thanks for having me.
Bye, thanks to everyone who came.
Bye.
[THEME MUSIC]