Behind the Scenes with Paula McLain

Bonus Green Room Footage + Q&A with This Week's Guest

A Conversation with Paula McLain

Enjoy this chat with Paula including insights not covered in our on-air interview, which you can WATCH or LISTEN to now!

Also! Scroll down for bonus green room footage of Paula talking about the Paris catacombs and how she felt when she went down there.

For any aspiring writers out there, would you please share a short bit of writing advice?
My best advice is to read deeply and curiously—to surround yourself with books you wish you’d written, the highest possible examples of the genre you’re working in (or any genre, really). Also, don’t chase the marketplace or try to guess what readers might want. Start with the work that’s in you to write—the truest work. The world will tell you no in a thousand different ways. Somehow you have to keep the faith and keep going anyway. This is true at every level, not just for aspiring writers.

What is the last book you raved about, and what did you love about it?
Heart the Lover, by Lily King. She’s brilliant in everything she does, but this novel is particularly moving in its portrait of first love—never simple or saccharine. It also has one of those endings I didn’t see coming, but which felt totally earned and inevitable.

What can you tell us about your work-in-progress?