Carol Goodman: I Always Immerse Myself in the Voice of My Narrator
In this interview, author Carol Goodman discusses how her love of gothic literature helped inspire her new thriller novel, Return to Wyldcliffe Heights.
Carol Goodman’s rich and prolific career includes novels such as The Widow’s House and The Night Visitor, winners of the 2018 and 2020 Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. She lives in the Hudson Valley, NY. Follow her on X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.
In this interview, Carol discusses how her love of gothic literature helped inspire her new thriller novel, Return to Wyldcliffe Heights, what she swore she’d never do again after completing the novel, and more!
Name: Carol Goodman
Literary agent: Robin Rue, Writers House
Book title: Return to Wyldcliffe Heights
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Release date: July 30, 2024
Genre/category: Thriller
Previous titles: The Bones of the Story, The Disinvited Guest, The Stranger Behind You, The Sea of Lost Girls, The Night Visitors, The Other Mother, The Widow’s House
Elevator pitch: Jane Eyre meets The Thirteenth Tale. Agnes Corey, a young assistant editor at an independent publishing house, travels up the Hudson River to a reclusive author’s crumbling estate to transcribe the sequel to her beloved Gothic suspense novel, which also happens to be Agnes’s favorite book. Agnes discovers a house full of secrets that someone doesn’t want to be revealed.
What prompted you to write this book?
A love of the Gothic—from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre to Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca to Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic—and the world of books and publishing in general.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
The idea had been stirring around in my head for several years, but from the time I proposed it to my editor to when I handed in the draft—about a year.
Yes, it changed a lot from conception to completion. As I explored some of the locations in the Hudson Valley, including an old women’s prison, I kept coming across stories of forgotten young women whose lives I wanted to see reflected in this tale. And the narrator, Agnes Corey, took me to places that I hadn’t anticipated.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
In going through successive edits of the book, I realized what a difficult task I had undertaken to include the three timelines that I saw as belonging to the story. My editor helped tremendously with nailing down the chronology, but I came out of this book swearing that I’d never do three timelines again! We’ll see if I keep to that promise.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I always immerse myself in the voice of my narrator. In this case, Agnes Corey, is a young woman who’s had a very hard life, from being abandoned by her mentally unstable mother to having to navigate the social welfare system. I wouldn’t say that I was surprised by her anger, but I had to constantly meet that anger and follow where it took Agnes even if the decisions she makes were sometimes painful to watch.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
First and foremost, the delicious joy of the Gothic that I have enjoyed in so many books. (I mention a few above but I’d also like to give a shout out to Sarah Waters, B.R. Meyers, and Emily Carroll.) The atmosphere of the Gothic—crumbling old houses, fog, cliffs—is one that immediately induces in me a dream-like state. But the Gothic is also about unearthing buried secrets and finding yourself in a complicated and scary world. I hope that accompanying Agnes Corey into the dark and out into the light again, my readers will find hope for their own difficult journeys.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Read! Widely and eclectically and passionately. Then find what gives you the most pleasure in reading and try to pass that on in your own work.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
