Ask the Author: Rachel Howzell Hall
Answered Questions (16)
Rachel Howzell Hall
Hi, Cedric's mom! Thanks for your question. I'm fortunate enough to have a day job as a fundraising writer for a big medical center here in Los Angeles. That helps maintain my writing muscle. Also, I get up at 4:40 every morning to write before work -- it's really the only chunk of time I have. I used to write at lunch time, in my car, but with the quarantine (and my work parking lot is very dark) that's not ideal. I GET IT IN WHERE I CAN FIT IT IN lol. RHH
Rachel Howzell Hall
Hi, Sarah!
Thanks so much -- I'm so glad she resonated with you. There are no immediate plans to return to Lou, but like you, I love her and I hope that something happens that may allow me to pick her up again! In the meantime, my standalone THEY ALL FALL DOWN comes out April 9, 2019 -- hope you pick it up!
Best,
Rachel
Thanks so much -- I'm so glad she resonated with you. There are no immediate plans to return to Lou, but like you, I love her and I hope that something happens that may allow me to pick her up again! In the meantime, my standalone THEY ALL FALL DOWN comes out April 9, 2019 -- hope you pick it up!
Best,
Rachel
Rachel Howzell Hall
Woo hoo!! I'm CERTAINLY happy! Thanks for getting it. Hope you're well.
R.
R.
Rachel Howzell Hall
Ha! Hey, Chloe! Oh, yeah, they did. Tiny and Mrs. Busybody in Fuchsia -- they all called the city over and over again. Washington cleaned up several years ago, but then, it all fell apart again. Hoarders be hoarding, no matter what the City of Los Angeles says.
Rachel Howzell Hall
Hey, Stefanie.
I'm happy to answer that question! You know, I hope I do get to return to Syeeda -- she's a character now in my Lou Norton series but I think she deserves a series all her own! Thanks so much for reading.
R.
I'm happy to answer that question! You know, I hope I do get to return to Syeeda -- she's a character now in my Lou Norton series but I think she deserves a series all her own! Thanks so much for reading.
R.
Rachel Howzell Hall
Thanks so much for reading! I LOVE our part of town -- so much color and anxiety and struggles and successes there. CITY OF SAVIORS is coming out in August, and I'm tooling around View Park and Ladera Heights this time! Dulan's on Crenshaw makes an appearance in Lou's latest adventure!
Rachel Howzell Hall
Summer reading -- my only time to really, truly read for fun! I'll be starting Don Winslow's latest THE FORCE! I'll also be ducking into Meg Gardiner's UNSUB. Maybe I'll squeeze in Ruth Ware's first novel and some nonfiction -- although I read a lot of nonfiction throughout the year.
Rachel Howzell Hall
Hey, Jessica!
Thanks so much for reading Land of Shadows -- very happy that you enjoyed it! The Crase Crime Scene: as I imagined and wrote it, I wanted the setting to reflect the city's growth, Lou visiting her own sister's fate, a mix of old and new (the plot of land where the condos were built used to be something else), the condos themselves are a mix of house/apartment, the victim to be a woman-child -- nothing can be classified as one thing, contradictions in some ways. Hope that makes sense. If not, let me know! Thanks for asking.
Best,
Rachel
Thanks so much for reading Land of Shadows -- very happy that you enjoyed it! The Crase Crime Scene: as I imagined and wrote it, I wanted the setting to reflect the city's growth, Lou visiting her own sister's fate, a mix of old and new (the plot of land where the condos were built used to be something else), the condos themselves are a mix of house/apartment, the victim to be a woman-child -- nothing can be classified as one thing, contradictions in some ways. Hope that makes sense. If not, let me know! Thanks for asking.
Best,
Rachel
Rachel Howzell Hall
Great question!
I have a few, including a slight scar on my face that I got as a young kid but no one's ever said how it came to be.
The one mystery I'm toying over for a future story is this: there's a college ex-boyfriend. Nice guy but he was a little too lively for me. We parted as friends. Greeted each other on Facebook every now and then. He married and had kids. Taught middle school. Very involved in the community. His wife and kids go on a weekend trip. He stays home. They return -- and find him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. He committed suicide. Which... still stuns me. Because why? What led him down that path? How did his wife feel knowing that she and the kids weren't enough to keep him from doing this. A haunting story... and those are the kinds that, for me, always turn into novels.
I have a few, including a slight scar on my face that I got as a young kid but no one's ever said how it came to be.
The one mystery I'm toying over for a future story is this: there's a college ex-boyfriend. Nice guy but he was a little too lively for me. We parted as friends. Greeted each other on Facebook every now and then. He married and had kids. Taught middle school. Very involved in the community. His wife and kids go on a weekend trip. He stays home. They return -- and find him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. He committed suicide. Which... still stuns me. Because why? What led him down that path? How did his wife feel knowing that she and the kids weren't enough to keep him from doing this. A haunting story... and those are the kinds that, for me, always turn into novels.
Rachel Howzell Hall
Hey, FountainPenDiva!
Thanks so much for dropping by -- I love your name, and I LOVE fountain pens. And I also love writing about my part of town. You're right -- it is a complex, beautiful, vibrant place and I want the world to know about it!! I will not be at the Festival of Books. I'll be up north at the Walnut Creek Authors Gala. Have fun, if you're going. Should be better weather than last year (I see that it'll hit 90 on Saturday). Thanks so much for reading the Lou books -- can't wait to share City of Saviors with you in August.
Thanks so much for dropping by -- I love your name, and I LOVE fountain pens. And I also love writing about my part of town. You're right -- it is a complex, beautiful, vibrant place and I want the world to know about it!! I will not be at the Festival of Books. I'll be up north at the Walnut Creek Authors Gala. Have fun, if you're going. Should be better weather than last year (I see that it'll hit 90 on Saturday). Thanks so much for reading the Lou books -- can't wait to share City of Saviors with you in August.
Rachel Howzell Hall
Hi, Diane!
Thanks so much for the compliments and lobbying -- novelists can never have enough! I appreciate your tremendous support and I'm so glad that you love Lou and her stories. I'm having a great time writing her adventures! The next story, TRAIL OF ECHOES, will be out next year this time. Lou returns to the Jungle after a teenage girl is found dead on a trail in a nearby park.
Can't wait to share it with you!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend. I feel strange right now -- my daughter graduated from fifth grade and there's no homework to do... except for mine, which is finishing the first draft of the fourth Lou Norton novel.
Best,
Rachel
Thanks so much for the compliments and lobbying -- novelists can never have enough! I appreciate your tremendous support and I'm so glad that you love Lou and her stories. I'm having a great time writing her adventures! The next story, TRAIL OF ECHOES, will be out next year this time. Lou returns to the Jungle after a teenage girl is found dead on a trail in a nearby park.
Can't wait to share it with you!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend. I feel strange right now -- my daughter graduated from fifth grade and there's no homework to do... except for mine, which is finishing the first draft of the fourth Lou Norton novel.
Best,
Rachel
Rachel Howzell Hall
"Land of Shadows" came about through a lifetime of observation -- of women, in particular. Who we are around our parents and those who expect the best of us, and who we are when we don't have folks looking over our shoulders. So-called good girls and so-called bad girls are usually the same girls just on different days. I grew up with nice church girls who would date bad boys -- not so strange, right? Many grew out of that stage, while others didn't. And some of those girls had very tumultuous, sometimes violent relationships. I wanted to deal with that in this book.
Rachel Howzell Hall
Right now, I'm working on the third book in the Lou Norton series. Lou finds a murdered girl on a park trail and she has to figure out whodunnit! I'm at my favorite part of the revision process -- the third draft. Now, I really really know what the story is about. All the heavy lifting was done in draft two. I now get to focus on language and continuity and themes and all the rest -- using different colored highlighters!
Rachel Howzell Hall
Keep writing even when you think your work sucks. Cuz first drafts, especially, suck. But it will get better since you will revise and revise and revise. That's what writing is. And READ! Read everything. It expands your mind, lets you see how another writer is doing it right or not doing it well. And last, enjoy the process -- do it for the love and not for money. Money's great but spending time doing something you'd do for free is greater.
Rachel Howzell Hall
Getting to explore new worlds. Learning new things. Surrounding myself in words and books and pens and meeting other writers and readers who love words and books and pens just as much as I do!
Rachel Howzell Hall
Great question! I deal with writer's block by not having it! See, I have a full-time job, am the mom of an active 10-year old and sometimes, I have to sleep. That doesn't leave a time for writing -- an hour a day, every morning between 6:15 a.m. and 7:15 a.m. -- and no time for not knowing what to write. And since I want this new series to succeed, and since I know my time is limited, SOMETHING'S going down on a piece of paper every. single. day.
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