What inspires you to write? Where do you get your ideas?
Usually, a character comes to mind first. Once I catch their voice, I start thinking, what is the worst thing that could happen to her? And then I can come up with a plot.
Tell us about your book.
Call Me Elizabeth Lark is a thriller about a mother who’s been waiting at her seaside inn for her missing daughter for decades, and the woman who walks in with her son and claims to be her. It’s twisty suspense with lots of family secrets.
Tell us about your writing journey and how you got where you are today.
Oh, wow. That is a long story, but I’ll give you the abridged version. I wrote my first novel in 2016. It was awful! I had written short stories, but I simply didn’t (yet!) have the knowledge to craft a novel. I studied up on craft, wrote a few more books, and sent off over 100 queries. Lots of rejection, but I developed thick skin. When I completed Call Me Elizabeth Lark, I knew it was “the one.” Sure, I worked on it for a couple of years before landing my agent and publishing contract, but truly I just knew that this was the one to keep working on, keep polishing.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Keep at it. This is not a fast or easy process. Rejection is part of that process. Going in knowing this is going to make it a whole lot easier. Always be working on the next project. Revise obsessively and don’t query too early. And find your community; writers who are supportive, kind, and can help you hone your craft are invaluable.
About Call Me Elizabeth Lark
Your daughter went missing twenty years ago. Now, she’s finally back. You thought she had returned a few times in the past, and your husband tells you she’s not the one, but you feel it in your bones.
Now, what will you do to keep her home?
Twenty years ago, Myra Barkley’s daughter disappeared from the rocky beach across from the family inn, off the Oregon coast. Ever since, Myra has waited at the front desk for her child to come home. One rainy afternoon, the miracle happens–her missing daughter, now twenty-eight years old with a child of her own, walks in the door.
Elizabeth Lark is on the run with her son. She’s just killed her abusive husband and needs a place to hide. Against her better judgment, she heads to her hometown and stops at the Barkley Inn. When the innkeeper insists that Elizabeth is her long lost daughter, the opportunity for a new life, and more importantly, the safety of her child, is too much for Elizabeth to pass up. But she knows that she isn’t the Barkleys’s daughter, and the more deeply intertwined she becomes with the family, the harder it becomes to confess the truth.
Except the Barkley girl didn’t just disappear on her own. As the news spreads across the small town that the Barkley girl has returned, Elizabeth suddenly comes into the limelight in a dangerous way, and the culprit behind the disappearance those twenty years ago is back to finish the job.
About Melissa Colasanti
Melissa Colasanti is a mother and an author. She has a BFA in fiction from Boise State University. Her writing has appeared in Lithub, Memoir Magazine, The Coffin Bell Journal and others. She is the Stephen R. Kustra scholar in creative writing for 2019 and was awarded the Glenn Balch Award for fiction in 2020.
Connect with Melissa via her website, Twitter, or Instagram.
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