Annie Fox
I am thrilled to have interviewed author Annie Fox, who shared with us details of her writing life, her book ‘ The Little Things That Kill ‘, which was released on 13th February 2024, and answered a few fun questions. This post contains affiliate links.
Annie Fox is an educator who teaches kids to get along better with themselves and everyone else. Biggest claim to fame – Since 1997 she’s answered more than 60K teen questions online and at live events throughout the U.S., as well as in Italy, Germany, Thailand, Singapore, and Japan. Most help requests she receives come from 12-17 year-old girls looking for a fix for a friendship/romance gone terribly wrong.
Her non-fiction books include the award-winning Middle School Confidential book and app series. Her debut YA novel, THE LITTLE THINGS THAT KILL (Electric Eggplant, 2024) is available in ebook, print, and audiobook.
1) Where did the inspiration for your book come from?
The inspiration for my debut YA novel, THE LITTLE THINGS THAT KILL: A Teen Friendship Afterlife Apology Tour, came from a newspaper article in 2013. The story featured a very young girl who took her own life. Tragic as that was, the story stayed with me because of its mention of the dead girl’s so-called friends and the hint that they might have had some culpability in her state of mind at the time of her death.
I was insatiably curious about these other girls, but when my research hit a dead end (so to speak) and my questions went unanswered, I did what all writers do, I began speculating. That led me to create my own answers and the novel was born.
2) How did you plan out the plot?
Because The Little Things That Kill is written from three different perspectives I needed to use color-coded index cards at the start to keep track of the individual storylines. Later on I used Keynote software to build a “slide show” of scenes… like a digital storyboard.
There is a lot going on in this novel and I found it challenging to keep the whole of it in my head. The trickiest part was when storylines overlapped and narrators are unreliable due to faulty memories and/or because they were lying to themselves or others. The color-coded system helped keep track of the story and also to indicate where I seemed to be staying with one character’s perspective too long before returning to the POV of the others. So it helped me stay balanced.
3) When did you choose the title for your book?
I originally called the novel The Afterwars because the story’s focus was on the dead girl’s revenge. During my second major revision, I realized that my protagonist needed to progress beyond anger and bitterness to forgiveness and acceptance of personal responsibility for her own actions and to make amends to those she had hurt. That’s when the new title and subtitle came to me. THE LITTLE THINGS THAT KILL: A Teen Friendship Afterlife Apology Tour.
4) How did you come up with the names for your characters?
The names just came to me. And the names that came stuck. If you believe in such things (which I do) characters speak to writers. Our job is to listen.
5) How did you go about researching the content for your book?
The only parts of the novel that needed researching were the “witchy” parts since one of my main characters is a practicing witch. While I made up the wording for all of her spells and rituals, I wanted to be respectful of the other aspects of her practice. That required my researching details like the colors of candles for different purposes as well as herbs and crystals, etc. I also did research on aura reading.
6) What made you choose this genre?
I’m a fan of the kind of story that includes emotional growth, ghosts, thought-provoking paranormal elements, karma, after life/past lives, reincarnation, magic and redemption. So I wrote a book that I would like to read.
7) How long did it take you to complete your book?
Ten and half years. It started as a NaNoWriMo project in 2013. During that first month I wrote 30K words. I worked on it intermittently over the years. Parked it for long stretches. Wrote and published a non-fiction book (The Girls’ Q&A Book on Friendship). Began another novel. A children’s book. Then, during the pandemic, I returned to THE LITTLE THINGS THAT KILL and committed myself to finishing it. With the help of two different editors, I was able to bring the book to a place where it was finally ready for prime time.
8) Can you describe your book in three words?
Afterlife Apology Tour
9) What’s the hardest part of being a writer?
For me, the most challenging part of the writer’s life is working over, around and through the obstacles that every story will throw at you. And having the sustained confidence and stamina to know in your heart that you’ve got the skill to create something meaningful and if you continue to show up at your keyboard and do the work, and continue to listen to your characters, your story WILL tell you how it needs to be told. One more thing, along the same lines: “When the muse shows up, make sure she finds you working.”
