April 2023
Stars Six Feet Under map, an interview with Shauna Robinson, and brains turned to glass
What’s new
Here’s a funny thing about me: I love true crime tours.
Maybe that’s not a funny thing, because I’m a crime writer. It’s probably more like a “no shit, Sherlock” thing. When I first moved to LA in 2015, I took a lot of them as a way to understand alllllll the different LA neighborhoods better, as well as understand some of the history of the city.1 And it’s not just LA—when I spent a long weekend in London last year with my friend Amy2, one of the highlights was the Jack the Ripper tour we took our last night in town.
Rewind to the beginning of the pandemic: My bubble and I were looking for things to do so I put together my own LA true crime tour, creating a route from the westside to the east, and putting together information about each stop. Another friend’s bubble decided they wanted to join; they followed us in a separate car and I called them at each stop so they could hear my spiel about the backstory behind each stop.3
It was a weird, surreal, morbid, fun moment in a horrible, surreal, morbid time in history.
It was also the moment when Salma Lowe, my main character for The Hurricane Blonde, was born—along with her tour of dead starlets for my fictional true crime tour outfit, Stars Six Under. And I’m so excited to share with you the route for Salma’s tour, design courtesy of Bookworm Stickers!
Isn’t it gorgeous?? (Morbid, too, yes.) Fans of The Lady Upstairs might also note a certain name on there that you won’t find on any real true crime bus tours…
If this piques your interest, you can preorder The Hurricane Blonde here. Or add to your Goodreads here. Or request at your local library here.
Early praise for The Hurricane Blonde:
“Sexy, twisted and dark, The Hurricane Blonde is both a gripping thriller and a scathing indictment of the industry of celebrity. Halley Sutton nails modern Hollywood Noir.” —Janelle Brown, author of I’ll Be You
“The Hurricane Blonde is the biting, brilliant nepo baby noir you didn't know you needed. Halley Sutton's sophomore thriller reads like a riveting true-crime tour with your smartest, most macabre friend, rendered with such evocative detail that you'll feel California sun on your face and feminist rage in your heart with every turn of the page.” —Layne Fargo, author of They Never Learn
Interview with Shauna Robinson
Shauna Robinson is the author of Must Love Books and The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks. Originally from San Diego, she now lives in Virginia with her husband and their sleepy greyhound. She spends much of her time reading, baking, and figuring out the politest way to avoid social interaction.
What tabs do you currently have open on your computer?
Oh boy, let’s take inventory. A few of my tabs include:
Return instructions for a Fitbit I bought online earlier this week. I tried to be a Fitbit person. It didn’t go well.
A lyric video for Shakira’s “Try Everything” from the “Zootopia” soundtrack. I normally write to mellow, moody music, but something about this song speaks to me and sometimes I’ll write with it on repeat. I will try everything, Shakira!
A Google search for the word “shill.” I was using the word “shill” in something and wanted to check that I was using it right. (I was! I love when that happens.)
An article about Formula 1 fangirls. I know very little about Formula 1, but I love fandoms and I’ll take any excuse to read about fandom.
What was the last piece of art—book, show, movie, whatever—that made you want to create something?
I was very late to the party when it came to Knives Out. I didn’t watch it until a couple of months ago, nearly three years after its release. The way it deviated from the typical mystery structure I was expecting inspired me to want to play with structure in the next book I write. (I haven’t yet. That sounds hard. And scary. But it was inspiring all the same.)
What was the best craft advice you've ever received?
You can’t edit a blank page. I think about that a lot whenever I’m stalling. It doesn’t matter if the first draft is terrible; it just has to exist, and you can improve it from there. Drafting is not the time for perfectionist tendencies.
What have you learned about your process of book writing now that you're on your third book? How has it changed since your first book?
It pains me to say it, but outlining is…helpful. For my first two books, I had a rough idea of the book I wanted to write, I outlined it halfway, and then I started writing the book, deciding I’d figure out the rest as I wrote. Which I did—but it took a lot of discarded words to get there.
For my third book, I had to submit an outline to my publisher first. A complete outline. None of this halfway nonsense. Writing a full outline was hard for me—everything felt so hypothetical. How am I supposed to know what these characters get up to if I haven't written them yet?! But once I pushed past those questions and wrote the outline, writing the book was an incredibly fast and easy process. I didn’t spend hours sitting at the computer trying to figure out what would happen next, because…the outline already knew. The outline is all-knowing. Praise be to the outline.
What are you craving to see (or see more of) in books, movies, tv, or other art?
Friendships! I love anything to do with friendship. Close friendships, unexpected friendships, friendships drifting apart or dramatically ending, ex-friends reuniting. Give me all the friendships.
[Editor’s note: And I feel very lucky to call Shauna a friend. She is hilarious—as you can see above—so smart, such a great writer, and taught me the art of reheating a pizza in a hotel room by blow drying it. LIFE LESSONS.]
My open tabs
This month I am:
Reading more about the destruction the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius wreaked on Pompeii and Herculaneum (brains turned to glass!).
Planning a trip to Chicago to see Layne Fargo, the Pompeii exhibit (brains! turned! to! glass!!), and an exhibit on the work of surrealist artist Remedios Varo.
Getting sucked into this LA Times long read of the fatal pas de trois between an ophthalmologist, a would-be actor, and a hairstylist.
Subscribing to the “Impersonal Foul” newsletter, which is like if you want regular sports coverage that’s also just gossip. Which is the only way I want my sports coverage.
Adding this late-night Roman bakery to my travel bucket list.
Need to point out that “true crime” itself is problematic even just as a term in the way that it prioritizes some deaths as both more newsworthy and also entertainment—just look at Missing White Woman Syndrome, when historically white women aren’t the group most likely to be targeted for violent crime. But better reading about this can be found here and here and here and here and here.
Best tips for a short time in London: Go to Dishoom, avoid Piccadilly Circus, don’t be shocked when you get COVID from the indoor ABBA hologram concert.
In the old incarnation of my newsletter, I shared the map for this trip; I might share again another time.