June 2017

Last month I published my novel New Boy, a retelling of Shakespeare’s Othello, and did things a little differently. Here’s what changed:

Normally I write historical novels. New Boy is set at a school in Washington DC in 1974, and so is more nostalgic than historic.
Normally I make up the characters and plot. Here Shakespeare handed them to me.
Normally I write with adult readers in mind. This time I thought of everybody, figuring young people might respond to the story too.

It can be hard for readers to respond to change. You read a writer, you think you know them, then POW, they send a book out into the world that is completely different. It’s the same with artists, actors, musicians. We want what we've come to expect from them, except just a tiny bit varied so it doesn’t seem like they’re repeating themselves.