September 2024

An interview with Stephanie Wrobel, a quick trip through the Valley of the Kings, and recommending a beautifully shot serial killer film

Sep 30, 2024

1-3. Seti I's tomb in Valley of the Kings; 4-7. Ramses IV and Ramses IX tombs; 8-9. Queen Hatshepsut's temple

In case you haven’t seen me shrieking about it on Instagram, I went to Egypt and Jordan last month and it was the most amazing travel experience of my life. If I were going to try to tell all the stories from that trip in a single newsletter, I’d break Substack. But I wanted to share some photos from a very special episode of my trip, which was our visit to the Valley of the Kings in Luxor (known in the ancient world as Thebes).

The day we visited the Valley of the Kings, it was about 115 degrees 😎 which was A Lot to be climbing down into tombs, but also meant there weren’t long lines for any of the tombs. We visited Tut’s tomb first (tiny; one mural on the wall; not his original burial spot and potential evidence that he might have been assassinated) and came face to face with his mummy. Then next we ventured into the tomb of Seti I, the father of Ramses the Great (who lived to be 91 years old?!), the best-preserved tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Everywhere you look, the most gorgeous carvings and hieroglyphics in black and gold and blue and red.

I also visited the tomb of Ramses IX—considered one of the stranger tombs in the VoK; for example, his funerary carving seems to indicate doubt about whether his soul will pass into Heaven, leading Egyptologists to believe he might not have been all that good a dude; the ceiling of his tomb was also unfinished when he was entombed, pointing to a potential early death—and the tomb of Ramses IV, which is considered the “ideal tomb” for a Pharaoh—golden walls, a large blue mural on the ceiling depicting Nut, the goddess of the sky.

I also visited the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the first woman pharoah of Egypt (👊). Unlike subsequent woman pharaohs—or queen consorts—Hatshepsut is the only woman ruler to be buried in the Valley of the Kings and not the Valley of the Queens. Her temple depicts her as a living god, often masculine in appearance, and she’s buried deep in the rocks behind her temple (visible in the photo above).

Did you know it took about 20-30 years for pharaoahs to build their tombs? It was basically the first thing a pharoah undertook as soon as he (or, on very rare occasions, she!) came into power to ensure safe passage into the afterlife upon their death.

More Egyptian adventures to come!

Stephanie Wrobel is an international and USA Today bestselling author. Her debut, Darling Rose Gold, has sold rights in twenty-one countries and was a finalist for the Edgar® Award for Best First Novel. Wrobel grew up in Chicago and now lives in New York City (though soon to be West Coast!).

What tabs do you currently have open on your computer? Feel free to share as many or as few as you like.

All directly related to my current writing project: "110 Names That Mean Strength"; search results for "what do you call the brain malfunction where people die?" (answer: aneurysm—for the life of me, I couldn't think of the word); search results for "signs of concussion"; search results for "summer sailing camp instructor jobs"; Holland, Michigan Visitors Bureau; and always, always, always Thesaurus.com.

Side note: at least once per first draft, I search something morbid like "quick ways to die" without thinking—I'm writing thrillers, I have a lot of people to kill!—and am served a dozen links to suicide prevention centers. It's... not great. [Editor’s note: Been there!]

How did the idea for THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL come to you? Did it come fully formed, or did it evolve?

While thinking about how many thriller writers have paid homage to Agatha Christie in recent years, I brainstormed other suspense legends that I felt deserved the Christie treatment. I was most excited about Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Allen Poe. In the end, Hitchcock won for the boring reason that he’s more internationally known. (Apparently Poe is not that famous in the UK!) [Editor’s note: This is a travesty.]

From there, I started thinking about a Hitchcock-themed cruise. (I had recently heard about the Gone Girl cruise and thought it sounded incredible.) I wound up shifting to a Hitchcock-themed hotel in New England. The story unfurled from there.

What kind of research did you do into Hitchcock for THH?

Two nonfiction books were super helpful to get me into the head of the notorious director. The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock by Edward White is a biography but structured in a much more interesting and relevant way than your standard chronological storytelling. I also read Hitchcock/Truffaut by François Truffaut, a book-length conversation between the two directors. If you ever want to learn more Hitchcock’s themes, motifs, and obsessions, the Truffaut interview is a must-read.

And then, of course, there are Hitchcock’s movies. I won’t claim to have watched all fifty-three—likely closer to a dozen. When watched back to back, you really pick up on Hitchcock’s preoccupations and patterns.

What's your favorite Hitchcock film and why?

Probably Rope. The murder happens during the opening scene, and the rest of the movie is spent watching the two murderers try to prevent some party guests from discovering the victim’s body. This is a very simple premise with few surprises, yet I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I learned a lot about suspense vs. surprise from that film.

What's one book you wish you'd written?

Just one?! I’m going to pick a short story instead—Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” It’s, IMHO, a perfect story and the direction I’d like to move my own writing toward (subject-wise, vibes-wise, just all of it). I love that it elicited the most reader mail of any work of fiction The New Yorker had ever published. People were so furious about this story, and now we read it in high school.

Also also, my favorite first paragraph in all of fiction comes from Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, so I wouldn’t mind tacking my name to that one either. I guess I’ve chosen a book in the end anyway. [Editor’s note: This newsletter is turning into an unofficial Shirley Jackson appreciation site, and I’m not mad at it.]

What was the last piece of art—book, show, movie, whatever—that made you want to create something?

I actually keep a running list in a note on my phone. These aren’t the most recent, but they have had an outsized impact on me creatively: Chef’s Table: S4 E1 (Milk Bar), The Pixar Story documentary, Bohemian Rhapsody (movie), Whiplash (movie), We Have Always Lived in the Castle (novel), Promising Young Woman (movie), The Bear (TV show).

What have you learned about your process of writing now that you didn't know when you first started?

I am actively learning that writing speedily does not mean arriving at a finished book more quickly. Sometimes, in an attempt to reach whatever arbitrary daily word goal I’ve set for myself, I’ve not thought a plot point through enough before writing the scene. Because of this, my early books required a lot more drafts (seven, for my second book). I am trying to force myself to slow down with my WIP. This is hard for me because my brain is convinced that the slower the writing, the worse the results—meaning the prose doesn’t flow as well. I’m not sure there’s any validity to that impression. Insert shrugging emoji.

What factors have to come together for you to feel your most creative?

A good night of sleep. A quiet (ideally silent) workspace. A three to four-hour chunk of free time. No intrusions. By that last one, I don’t just mean people not interrupting me. I mean my clothes are comfortable, my chair/couch is comfortable, the temperature in the room/strength of the sun beaming through the window is comfortable. Basically I want to forget I have a corporeal form for a few hours.

What do you think people would be most surprised to discover you're obsessed with?

I’m guessing you mean obsessed in a good way, but my answer is obsessed in a bad way, and it’s (my own) death! It’s a borderline phobia that I have somewhat learned to manage through the years. I’m hoping to channel all of this angst into a book someday. [Editor’s note: Can’t wait to read it!]

What are you craving to see (or see more of) in books, movies, tv, or other art?

High-functioning deranged women!! Give me Misty from Yellowjackets. Give me Mia Goth in Pearl, Amy Dunne in Gone Girl, etc.

What would you like to shamelessly plug?

My newest book, THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL, comes out 9/24 in the US/Canada and 10/10 in the UK. It’s about a Hitchcock fanatic with an agenda who invites his old friends for a weekend stay at his secluded themed hotel.

I got to read THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL earlier this year and LOVED it! A perfect spooky, twisty thriller for fall. It just came out last week, and if you’re in the Los Angeles area, I’ll be in conversation with Stephanie at Zibby’s Bookshop on October 30, celebrating this book! RSVP for free at the link.

Scaachi Koul on why we’ve given Brad Pitt such a pass for his behavior.
Based on my friend Kate’s recommendation, I went to go see the immaculately shot serial killer thriller Strange Darling in theaters and really, really enjoyed it—as I did this article about the creative inspiration behind it.
Practically sprinting to the bookstore to pick this one up.
Loving Tracy Bealer’s Substack, True Crime Fiction, and this entry about the ethics of true crime tourism hits all my favorite true crime itches (it will never not be bizarre to me that there is a cocktail named after the Black Dahlia).