Literary Hub

Sheltering: Janelle Brown on Confinement, Suspense, and Snowstorms

On this episode of Sheltering, Maris Kreizman speaks with Janelle Brown, author of Pretty Things, the new thriller. Brown’s new book includes her protagonist being stuck in a Lake Tahoe house as a snowstorm rages around them, and she notes the parallels between her character’s confinement and all of ours. Brown and Kreizman also talk about fashion in quarantine and managing writing time while being stuck with family. Brown’s favorite local bookstore is Skylight; please purchase Pretty Things through their website, or through Bookshop.

From the episode:

Maris Kreizman: Is there a question you hoped you might get asked on your book tour that I can ask you now?

Janelle Brown: Whenever I’m asked this question, I always just think about what I like to talk about—what I like to talk about is how my books are cross-genre. I’ve been marketing as a thriller/suspense writer, and my first two books were not thriller at all, they were more Jonathan Franzen-esque social satire/domestic drama. And then I wrote a mystery-ish novel, and this one is more thriller-ish. So sometimes people ask what it’s like to be a genre writer and I don’t really think of myself like that, each one has been different than the last.

More from Literary Hub

Literary Hub2 min read
Edith Vonnegut On The Love Letters Of Kurt And Jane Vonnegut
On July 2, 1945, on the way from France back to Camp Atterbury, Indiana, Kurt stopped in Washington, D.C., to see Jane and convince her to break it off with her other suitors. They continued on to Indianapolis together, as Jane wanted to see her moth
Literary Hub9 min read
On Bourbon, Books, and Writing Your Way Out of Small-Town America
For years I drove back and forth between Mississippi and Kentucky to spend time with the bourbon guru Julian Van Winkle III, sometimes for a day or two, sometimes just for a dinner. We talked about our families and about my business and his business
Literary Hub25 min read
A New Story By Rachel Kushner: “The Mayor of Leipzig”
Cologne is where cologne comes from. Did you know that? I didn’t. This story begins there, despite its title. I had flown to Cologne from New York, in order to meet with my German gallerist—Birgit whose last name I can’t pronounce (and is also the na

Related Books & Audiobooks