Debut Author Snapshot: Suzanne Rindell
Posted by Goodreads on May 1, 2013
A New York City resident and a Ph.D. candidate in American modernist literature at Rice University, Rindell shares with Goodreads some of the period atmosphere that inspired her characters.

Suzanne Rindell: Flappers were true rebels, and I'd like to believe I would've been one, but I'm not sure I'm that cool in real life—I've always been kind of shy. Flappers were gutsy; they liked to break rules. Part of a flapper's sex appeal was her ability to shock and scandalize, all while maintaining a girlish, breezy, blasé attitude. She always knew how to make it look like she was having fun and didn't give a hoot what people thought!
In general I find the 1910s and 1920s captivating because it was an era of oppositions. There was a sizable generation gap between the young people of the day and their Victorian parents, and I believe this is always a key ingredient to any vibrant counterculture. In the 1910s and 1920s, you've got the older generation trying to carry on conservative traditions, instructing their children to behave like proper ladies and gentlemen, to mind their p's and q's and all that business. Meanwhile the younger generation is coming of age in a world that is rapidly changing all around them—modern innovations like electricity, telephones, and cars are changing daily life, and the world has been through its first "modern" war. In my opinion, the disconnect between generations ultimately translated into a period of social liberation, and along with great social liberation came greater freedom of expression and heightened creativity. I've always loved the ethos of the writers, artists, and designers of that era: Hemingway, Picasso, Coco Chanel, etc. There were a lot of major trendsetting trailblazers who were unafraid to bend the rules.
And...I suppose it also doesn't hurt that there was a lot of money and champagne flowing in the Jazz Age! I'm kind of a sucker for glamour, and the speakeasy scene, down-and-dirty though it might've been, still conjures up all kinds of glamorous images in my imagination.

SR: I was doing research for an academic dissertation on early 20th-century literature and culture, and one of the things I came across while sifting through various historical documents was an obituary for a woman who had worked as a typist in a police precinct during the 1920s. I was already fascinated with how the proliferation of the typewriter after the turn of the century meant more and more women were entering the workplace, and that this often meant women were working in places—like the police precinct, for instance—that had been historically dominated by men. After coming across the obit, I began imagining what it might've been like to work as a typist in that particular environment: all the things this woman must've seen and all the crime reports she must've typed up. Shortly thereafter, I started hearing Rose's voice, and I couldn't help but follow where that voice led me. I was further intrigued when I realized Rose was not exactly what she seemed. Hers is a distorted perspective. As I wrote, I became increasingly aware that she is an emotionally unstable individual, and I focused on working out the sources that account for how and why. From there, the book pretty much wrote itself.
GR: What's the secret to setting up twists in mystery writing? Any favorite novels with plots that surprised or impressed you with their craftiness?
SR: Well, I think it helps if you like puzzles. There's a lot of misdirection in The Other Typist, and I had to constantly remind myself which narrative threads were the false ones, so as not to get confused! I've also learned you really need to be unafraid to cut and edit things, even if it means having to reengineer a great deal of the rest of the plot. Have you ever played that game Jenga? Editing a mystery is kind of like that—you pull the wrong piece from the bottom of the stack of blocks and the whole thing falls down. But you can't be afraid to do it. When something needs to be cut, it needs to be cut.

GR: What's next for you as a writer?
SR: Right now I'm going like gangbusters working on a second novel. I don't want to say too much about it at present, but I will say it revolves around the Greenwich Village literary scene of the 1950s, and I'm having great fun with this new batch of characters!
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Book sound great, will be sure to pick this one up!

EDMUNDO: FROM CHIAPAS, MEXICO TO PARK AVENUE.

Cindy