The publishing world is no stranger to the pseudonym. From the Brontë sisters to Stephen King’s stint as Richard Bachman, authors have long worn masks to explore new genres or escape the weight of their own reputations. But the arrival of 'Evelyn Clarke' offers a rare twist. She is not one person, but a composite character inhabited by two of the industry’s most formidable talents.
V.E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, is a titan of high-concept fantasy. Cat Clarke is an award-winning veteran of suspense. On paper, their collaboration on the new mystery The Ending Writes Itselfseems like a calculated power move. In reality, it began as a desperate vent session over day-old pastries in a Scottish kitchen.
In a recent interview with NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, the duo pulled back the curtain on this literary marriage. The project started when Schwab approached Clarke with an idea for a 'weird thriller' about seven midlist writers trapped on a private Scottish island to finish the final manuscript of a dead mega-bestseller.
The partnership required both women to break long-standing professional vows. 'I had left publishing in 2018, swearing never to write another book again,' Clarke told NPR. Schwab added, 'I had sworn that I would never, ever co-write a novel' and that she would never write anything without magic in it.
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What makes Evelyn Clarke unique is the refusal to 'divide and conquer' the workload. Most co-authors split chapters by point of view, but Schwab and Clarke describe their process as building and decorating a house together. 'We made a blueprint, and then we went in room by room, and we put down the structure, the floor, the walls,' Schwab explained. 'One of us would decorate, and then the other one would come in and be like, I don't like those curtains and then adjust it, and we would adjust over the top of each other until we were both happy with the scene.'
For the authors, Evelyn is more than a marketing too. 'It began as a kind of shelter for us to take,' Schwab told NPR, noting that the persona is 'incredibly liberating because it's Evelyn spilling the beans, not us.' Clarke agreed, noting that the distance helps them manage the vulnerability of the industry: 'If people hate the book, that's not us... it doesn't feel quite so personal.'
As for the book’s central mystery, Schwab, a writer who notoriously starts every project by writing the ending first, promises a 'magic act' structure. 'A good magician will let you see three tricks, and he'll let you see how the first two work so that you're convinced it isn't real,' Schwab said. 'And then you'll never figure out how the third one works.'
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