Sylvia Day Interview - So Close ~ JeanBookNerd

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Sylvia Day is the #1 New York Times, #1 USA Today, and #1 international bestselling author of over twenty award-winning novels, including ten New York Times and thirteen USA Today bestsellers. Her work has been translated into forty-one languages. With over twenty million copies of her books in print, she is a #1 best seller in twenty-nine countries. Day served as the 22nd President of Romance Writers of America and presently serves on the Board of Directors of the Authors Guild and the Authors Guild Foundation. Her work has been covered in Time, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, People, the Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, the Associated Press, USA Today, and Entertainment Weekly, among others. Her bestselling novel Afterburn / Aftershock was developed into a motion picture by Passionflix and released in November 2017. The documentary following her 2016 world tour, Beyond Words: Sylvia Day, was released in October 2018. Bestselling titles in Sylvia’s canon include Bared to You, Reflected in You, Entwined with You, Captivated by You, One with You, Wish List, A Touch of Crimson, Eve of Darkness, Seven Years to Sin, and more. The sequel to So Close and the final chapter of the Blacklist Duology will be entitled Too Far.

What drives the story in So Close, the first novel in your Blacklist Duology?
SO CLOSE opens with Kane Black accepting a woman as his late wife, despite her death having occurred several years before. This introduction of a new player within the family dynamic is the catalyst that drives the narrative of the primary characters: Aliyah, Kane’s mother; Amy, Kane’s sister-in-law; and Lily, the woman who may or may not be his wife. As these women pivot around each other, we discover that all of them are harboring dangerous secrets and personal agendas.

Beyond your own work (of course), what is your all-time favorite book and why? And what is your favorite book outside of your genre?
Possibly Shanna by Kathleen Woodiwiss—I named my daughter after the titular character—but I could give you a different answer on a different day. Outside of my genre, I would say the writings of Edgar Allan Poe.

What themes did you bring from your romance writing that still apply to this psychological thriller?
My themes are always survival and unconditional acceptance, showing how survivors build defense mechanisms that alter how they interact with the world, then how they eventually recognize those defenses and the triggers that engage them, and work to either heal or double-down.

How do you see the Romance genre changing as more genres crossover and new ones appear?
A romance novel covers the evolution of a partnership through communication, transformation, and sacrifice as the primary plot driving the narrative. Further, romantic leads must be heroic. They may not start that way, but through that transformation I mentioned, they become the heroes of their fairytale. The setting, time period, secondary plotlines, etc., are irrelevant to whether a book is a romance. So, I would say the romance genre doesn’t change. However, misunderstanding what a romance novel is has led to some books being mislabeled as a romance by both the author and readers.

So Close will be followed by its sequel, Too Far. What can you tell us about the sequel?
TOO FAR is the second half of the story, not a sequel, so you’ll get the answers to the questions that surfaced in SO CLOSE.

Fans are taken with your vividly drawn female characters, why do you think that is?
The women in my books have relatable flaws. They’re also self-aware, maybe not in the beginning, but they get there. We connect with characters who accept responsibility for their thoughts and actions.

How do you hope to impact your readers?
I hope to make readers contemplate. When they finish one of my books, I want them to continue thinking about the story and characters. I try to end at a point where the readers finish the journey in their own minds, like a choose your own adventure, while still leaving them with a sense of finality and satisfaction.

Meet the Characters
Kane married his dream girl, and his life became a nightmare when she died. Lily made Kane want to be the best version of himself, and while he achieved that in honor of her memory, his victories are hollow because his reason for transformation isn’t there to witness it or celebrate with him.

Aliyah, Amy and Lily are primary POV characters and they’re great examples of toxic femininity. They’re also unreliable narrators. All three women’s lives haven’t gone in the directions they’d once hoped for, and they haven’t pivoted well into their new circumstances. They’re all strong, wily and will do anything to achieve their aims.

Witte is the most objective observer, but that doesn’t mean he’s telling the reader everything.

Writing Behind the Scenes
When I begin writing, I have a general idea of where I want the story to go and then the characters take it in another direction. I’ve learned to see myself as more of a narrator than a creator. The characters tell their story and I just type fast enough to keep up.

In the early years of my career, I would juggle multiple projects at once. Now, I may sketch out a particularly vivid scene from a secondary work, but I focus on one main story at a time

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Crossfire® saga comes the beginning of a twisty tale of obsession and rage, as a trinity of women protect what they covet at any cost.

You can’t believe all of them, but can you trust any of them?

Widower Kane Black is still ruinously married to his late wife, Lily. Grief has hollowed him… until he sees a woman with his wife’s inimitable beauty on the streets of Manhattan. He whisks her up to his towering penthouse, protectively under guard, nestling her in dark opulence where Lily’s memory is a possessive beguiling force.

Aliyah, Kane’s mother, deals in science. There are too many questions, too few answers, and too much at stake. “Lily” has dangerous control over Kane and there can be only one queen on the throne.

Amy, Kane’s sister-in-law, has been bloodied by deceit and betrayal, and she’s devolving into murderous rage. She’s paid too high a price and now intends to claim what she’s owed.

Three women, linked by buried secrets, circle the man who unquestioningly accepts the return of his beloved long-dead wife. Kane is happier than he’s ever been, and he’ll do anything to stay that way.

Propulsive and sly, So Close is a lushly gothic novel of domestic suspense with the emotional intensity, scorching sensuality, and complex exploration of female trauma that are the hallmarks of multimillion-copy international bestseller Sylvia Day.

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