Meg Shaffer is the USA Today bestselling author of The Lost Story and The Wishing Game, which was a Book of the Month finalist for Book of the Year as well as a Reader's Digest and Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and has been translated into twenty-three languages. Shaffer holds an MFA in TV and Screenwriting from Stephens College. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and two cats. The cats are not writers. Her latest novel is The Book Witch, and she recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.
What was your inspiration for The Book Witch?
Hi, Daryl! Great to be talking with you again!
The Book Witch was a veritable feast of inspirations. Every day, like stone soup, something new went into the story. The basic premise—a young woman with the power to jump into and out of stories—came very early in the process. After that, I asked myself what stories I wanted this magical young woman to visit, and right at the top of the list were Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and a Nancy Drew mystery.
Also, I realized that in The Wishing Game, I explored the reader's fantasy about living with or being friends with your favorite author. And in The Lost Story, a character gets to live in the fictional fantasy world she created as a refuge for herself. So what was the next logical reader fantasy to play with? Dating your real book boyfriend, of course! So that’s The Book Witch.
Are Rainy, Duke, Maxine, or any of the other characters in the novel, inspired by or based on specific individuals (beyond those based on their literary counterparts)?
I certainly lent Rainy my own sense of humor and my penchant for having crushes on fictional detectives. And years ago, I read about a real English Earl who left the UK, moved to New York, and became a police officer. I can only assume he had the title but not the money.
Your biography says that you and your husband, Andrew Shaffer, have two "feline familiars": MoonPie and Gizmo. Can you tell us a bit about them? Did they influence or inspire Rainy's familiar Koshka?
MoonPie and Gizmo aren't just our cats. They're our coworkers. When we work from home, they always make sure we take plenty of breaks (to pet them, play with them, and give them treats). They're great for morale, too. My MoonPie (black cat, female) is very adventurous, like Koshka. My orange boy, Gizmo, likes to sleep by my side as Koshka sleeps with Rainy. Neither of them can read, alas, unlike Koshka, but they do enjoy cuddling with us while we read.
How did the novel evolve and change as you wrote and revised it? Are there any characters or scenes that were lost in the process that you wish had made it to the published version?
The book went through about a half dozen drafts. The rewrites were extensive and exhausting. Some stories hold their cards closer to their chest than others. But ultimately, there was only one scene that broke my heart to cut, and that was an encounter Rainy had with the Count of Monte Cristo. My husband pointed out that the Count was so romantic and handsome, readers might want Rainy to end up with him instead of the Duke of Chicago, so the poor Count had to go.
In The Book Witch, Rainy talks about, and visits, books from practically every genre and mentions a ton of characters and writers. How did you decide what/whom to include or leave out? Are there any references that, ultimately, you weren't able to include?
There's a scene early in the book where the fictional detective, the Duke of Chicago, has a "traumatic entry" into the real world, and he starts spouting off lines from other books, poems, and plays as his brain adjusts. I made sure nearly every line he quoted was a hint to the ultimate reveal in the story or spoke to the themes. I did cut, however, one reference to my book The Lost Story. I already had a few references to The Wishing Game, and I didn't want to overdo it.
If you could bring 5 characters from their novels into the "real" world, who would they be?
What a fun question!
Off the top of my head…Miss Marple, Poirot, and Sherlock Holmes, if only to solve all the cold cases in the world.
Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia for obvious reasons.
And the Count of Monte Cristo if he’ll take me to dinner.
What are the top 5 books you would want to visit? A specific scene in any of those titles?
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I'd love to see Aslan's triumph over the White Witch.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. I'd love to meet the Three Witches, and the Happy Medium, and of course, Aunt Beast.
After that, it's a three-way tie—Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, the Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, and any Star Trek novel so I can meet Captain Kirk, Mister Spock, and my hero, Lt. Uhura.
When/how did you discover Nancy Drew, and what was the first book in the series that you read? How many of them have you read? Do you have a favorite of the series? A favorite of the authors?
I confess I wasn’t a Nancy Drew fan as a kid. She seemed so perfect and out of reach for a weird, sloppy little kid like me. It wasn't until I was older and learned the books I was given were the rewritten Nancy Drews, and the original ones had a much more complicated and reckless Nancy. Now that I'm older, I really appreciate the spunk that Nancy Drew showed in the 1930s stories.
In your acknowledgments, you mention that you did a bit of research about the Nancy Drew series and its authors for The Book Witch. What was the most interesting or surprising thing that you learned during your research?
I'd always believed there was Nancy Drew for girls and the Hardy Boys for boys. Until I did my research, I had no idea there were dozens upon dozens of different book series in the early 20th century for kids. It was a boom time for early Young Adult fiction. In fact, the character Penny Nichols in The Book Witch is a reference to one of those sorts of forgotten teen mystery series from that era.
Your biography also says that, in addition to being an author, you teach creative writing. Where do you teach? Does your work teaching writing inform or influence your work as a writer? If so, how?
These days I mostly teach online, but sometimes I do teach in person. Most recently at the Carnegie Center in Lexington, Kentucky. I learn something new every time I teach, but really, what hits me every time I'm in a classroom is how hungry aspiring writers are to get their stories out in the world. That inspires me and makes me take my work even more seriously. I am living their dream, and I want to live it to the fullest.
If/when The Book Witch is adapted to a film or series, who would your dream cast be?
You won't believe this, but I haven't given that a moment's thought. I couldn't begin to cast the characters. I see them in my head, and Rainy is just Rainy!
What’s currently on your nightstand?
I’m currently devouring I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (Hayes, Terry)! The writing is so addictive, I blinked, and suddenly I was only on page 100!
What is the last piece of art (music, movies, TV, more traditional artforms) that you've experienced or that has impacted you?
I read about three books and watch about five movies a week! An artist always has to be filling the well with great art. My husband and I are participating in stand-up comedian Anthony Jeselnik's online book club. We've loved all his selections, but were particularly taken with Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night. I've also started watching and have become obsessed with the 1967-68 British TV series The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan.
The last time we talked, in 2024, about The Last Story, when I asked what you were working on, your response was: "A new book, and it's giving me headaches! Typical." Was that book The Book Witch?
Yes! And it was a headache! But so rewarding to finish it and see it come out into the world and touch readers' hearts.
What are you working on now?
A Christmas story! Which is an odd thing to be writing in April.
