Questions About Kennig & Gold

by Christopher M. Struck (Goodreads Author)

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Answered Questions (8)

Please ask me anything you want to know about the book. For example, why does Danny get so angry at Cynthia’s mother?

Christopher Struck There are a lot of factors that have been revealed at this point of the novel, but mainly Cynthia’s mother, Winifred, sees Daniel as a fortune hunter …moreThere are a lot of factors that have been revealed at this point of the novel, but mainly Cynthia’s mother, Winifred, sees Daniel as a fortune hunter and utilizes two key differences between Cynthia and Daniel that have slowly been drifting to the surface of the novel to provoke him. He takes the bait and picks the fight.

These are religion and politics. One of the driving forces for writing the novel was a longitudinal study I read (in 2016) that showed that in 1950, families were essentially 100% okay with cross-political relationships and not okay with cross-religious relationships, even if they were both part of Christianity. This is indeed part of the novel and creates a lot of complicated subtext throughout the story.

Saving religious and political subtext for another discussion (due to this complexity), the point is that from Winifred’s perspective, Cynthia is forbidden from seeing Daniel, in a situation where Cynthia requires her mother’s approval, especially when factoring in the inheritance. Daniel immediately regrets losing his cool (like many modern pundits who walk out on interviews) and goes to church in the following scene.(less)

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Please ask me anything you want to know about the book. For example, why does Danny joke and call Cynthia’s hair like Einsteins?

Christopher Struck People tease their lovers and friends, but the main reason this allusion happens in the novel is because Cynthia is really smart and I like to continu…morePeople tease their lovers and friends, but the main reason this allusion happens in the novel is because Cynthia is really smart and I like to continue to pile on references to that intelligence wherever possible. In addition, Cynthia’s dad used to call her his little Einstein, and Danny is doing this too because he remembers that.

At the time of the novel, 1948, Einstein was a worldwide celebrity greater than any we know now. There are stories of the hoards following him blocking out entire main roads of traffic as if seeing him was better than going to a Coachella concert, and his image is still prevalent today. I got these factoids out of a book, and the reason this applies to Cynthia is that I imagined she would have been the next Einstein given the opportunity. After hearing a lot of readers take Cynthia for granted though, I often wonder if I should have given her more opportunities to brag about things like awards won, but I think that’s not her character. She’s a lot more substance than that.(less)

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Please ask me anything you want to know about the book. For example, Marcus is not technically an investigative journalist. Why does he call himself that when inner monologuing about his career?

Christopher Struck This is actually one of the only Easter Eggs in the book, and it is a reference to a late 90s movie I loved. You might remember the line, “As long as …moreThis is actually one of the only Easter Eggs in the book, and it is a reference to a late 90s movie I loved. You might remember the line, “As long as you make a name for yourself as an investigative journalist, no matter how many friends you lose or people you leave dead and bloodied along the way.” It’s farcical in that context as well as slightly here, but really Marcus just likes that movie too.(less)

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Please ask me anything you want to know about the book. For example, did you have an editor, because the book seems different than most modern books?

Christopher Struck Yes, I think all published novels are edited and copy edited. In this case, there were three rounds of edits. In the first round, I went line by line …moreYes, I think all published novels are edited and copy edited. In this case, there were three rounds of edits. In the first round, I went line by line with the main editor, great guy and very informative, getting into details such as whether a subordinate clause following the object of the sentence was a post-modifying verb phrase or a nonrestrictive clause as the latter requires a comma and the first doesn’t. I also tried to maintain a lot of the original dialogue differences between characters in punctuation as I feel that was where a character’s syntax mattered. However, with the next two rounds, I mainly accepted changes without being so strict, because the argument was reader comprehension of context would be improved. There are still some places people get tripped up, because for example, it is weird for characters to ever misspeak in film or TV even though it is common for normal people in every day life to do so. So, in this emotional situation, early in the book, one of the two main characters slows things down and trips over the words when delivering a fateful line. We’ve changed the punctuation there in each round I think, but I think the message is clearest now. When love is on the line, even the smooth talker needs to take a breath. The final text does still follow strict guidelines surrounding complex punctuation to follow styles of Mark Twain and Elmore Leonard.(less)

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Please ask me anything you want to know about the book. For example, how did writing about musical theater help you write this novel?

Christopher Struck It didn’t. I wrote this book entirely before learning really anything about theater. I had been a sometimes audience member for a variety of different…moreIt didn’t. I wrote this book entirely before learning really anything about theater. I had been a sometimes audience member for a variety of different types of productions over the years as my parents loved the arts, but writing this book is actually what led me into musical theater and not the other way around. Thankfully, what I’ve learned about the music scene after seeing roughly 350 shows in the last couple years validated what was in the book, based off of my initial background research. If it hadn’t, I would have changed it. But, my research had been solid.(less)

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