Meet Darcie Chan! An interview with the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Mill River Recluse

Darcie Chan

Today I am thrilled to welcome the amazing New York Times
and USA Today bestselling author, Darcie Chan! First of all Darcie,
congratulations on the huge success of your novel, The Mill River Recluse!  For people who haven’t read it
yet, could you tell us a bit about it without giving too much away?






Thanks very much, Katheryn. 
The Mill River Recluse is the
story of Mary McAllister, a woman who has suffered from severe social anxiety
disorder her entire life.  As a result of
certain events that occur in her youth, Mary’s condition worsens until she
becomes a virtual prisoner in her marble mansion that overlooks the tiny town
of Mill River, Vermont.  The townspeople
are completely unaware that she keeps a secret, one which will change all of
their lives.










What do you think have been the biggest factors in the
success of The Mill River Recluse?


As of the date of this interview, more than 600,000 copies
of The Mill River Recluse have been
sold, which is still shocking to me.  I
think several factors contributed to result in that level of sales, but in
particular, I think having a very low price (to encourage readers to take a
chance on a completely unknown author), running features on large ebook-related
websites and blogs (to introduce the story to readers), and being a story that
resonates with readers (to an extent that I never anticipated or imagined) are
the three things that really served to get my novel on an upward trajectory.



Many authors use social networking sites such as
Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads to promote themselves and their work. However,
you don’t appear to have used these sites as much as other writers. Can I ask
why this is? 



I’ve definitely used these sites – I have a Facebook author
page, a Twitter account, and a Goodreads account – but I’m still a relatively
unknown writer, and I don’t have the huge followings that many other authors
have.  Those followings take time to
build, and since The Mill River Recluse
is my first novel and hasn’t even been out there for a year yet, I see myself
as being at the beginning of this process. 
Also, until very recently, I had very limited free time, which I devoted
mostly to writing and not social networking. 
Happily, that has changed.



How has the massive success of your novel changed your
life?



Until very recently, I worked full-time as an attorney.  I never expected to change careers – I always
thought that I’d spend my entire working life in the legal profession, and that
writing fiction was something I’d continue to do in what little spare time I
had.  However, the success of The Mill River Recluse has resulted in
an extraordinary opportunity being extended to me – a chance to write
full-time, as my career, which is something I’ve dreamed about being able to do
since I was a little girl – and to succeed with that opportunity, I believe I
must absolutely give writing the best effort I can.  I made the extremely difficult decision to
give up my “day job” and focus on writing full-time because later on in my
life, I did not want to be in a position of looking back at the writing path I
might have taken and asking myself “what if?”



I believe you are working on a second novel at the moment.
Could you tell us something about it? 



Both my second novel (currently in progress) as well as my
third novel will be set in the fictional world of Mill River, Vermont, and
published by Ballantine Books (a division of Random House).  The second novel introduces a new story and
some new characters, but many of the characters from The Mill River Recluse are involved in the story as well.



When you are not writing, what do you like doing in your
free time (if you have any!)? 



In no particular order – I love to cook, play piano, read,
garden, and travel.  I also have a
toddler son, and I love spending time with him – which is also something I’m
able to do more of these days!



What advice do you have for other authors out there? 



Write the best story you can . . . revise and edit it until
it shines . . . and never, never give up.



Finally, do you have any parting comments that you would
like to share with us?



My favourite quote is by Henry David Thoreau, who said “Go
confidently in the direction of your dreams.” Life is fleeting and precious,
and I think that’s good advice, especially for writers.



And lastly, I’d just like to thank you, Katheryn, for the
opportunity to have an interview on your lovely blog. J



You are most welcome!  Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all my questions and for telling us about your amazing book. I can’t wait for the next two to come out!



You can find out more about Darcie Chan at the following sites:



On the web: http://www.darciechan.com



On Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/Darcie.Chan



On Twitter: https://twitter.com/DarcieChan