Mikki Brammer

I love unlikable characters if they're written well.

You know, I love a woman who's navigating a mess of her own making.

But I think also I do want my characters to frustrate you.

Like I do want you to, in both cases, I want you to be like, oh, why can't she realize that she can, you know, this is in her control when she's kind of like, oh, no, no.

society's put me in this box i'm not like and so you really are frustrated and you really want her to to break out of it and that is the the journey that you're about to see hopefully if it pulls off but i do try to increase the pacing as the book goes on so you do feel like it's a kind of not a sprint but it's a very easy ride to the end rather than plowing through it because i do understand what that's like as a reader

Yeah.

And I do, that's it.

I'm glad you picked that up because it was very much about how women, you know, make themselves small or put everybody's needs.

Yeah.

But I also did want her to have a tiny bit of a martyr complex, you know, that comes through.

That is a bit frustrating that she's like, oh, well, I'm a good person.

Not that she consciously thinks that, but.

you know there is that validation that comes from giving up the lemon cake as well which again I wanted to be frustrating like I don't want you to because I think a protagonist that you just love the whole way through and you're cheering for them everything they do is not that interesting because then you don't get to experience their growth and to me like

the growth is always the most interesting part of the novel, even if they don't necessarily get the thing they want.

As long as they've evolved, then that makes that satisfying for me.

contain this piece from the past in its own chapter I think that again comes from the travel writing thing of really immersing you in that moment whereas if it's in the scene then you kind of have to

move into it, they become reflective.

And like, I remember when, whereas here you just turn the page and you're in that moment.

And I did the same in Clover.

And I just wanted to make those feel like really vivid reflections and moments.