Ask the Author: Liz Coley
Answered Questions (16)
Liz Coley
Hi Sofia!
I love your comment that you were 2 when the series first came out. I "set" it in 2016, which was then the near future. Now that is so far in the rear view mirror. For a long time I thought about a fourth book and what that might be about. I that the idea I had might now seem like unfortunate stereotyping, so I would have to pivot to another plot. On the other hand, the pandemic flu carried by animals and transmitted as a deadly disease to humans--yeah that happened! I might return to Tor at some point. I'm mostly writing plays now, and currently trying to write my first musical. I've also got a bunch of unpublished YA novels that I may just about be ready to self-publish because they haven't captured an editor's heart. If I go that route, your help in rating and spreading the word would be gratefully accepted!
I love your comment that you were 2 when the series first came out. I "set" it in 2016, which was then the near future. Now that is so far in the rear view mirror. For a long time I thought about a fourth book and what that might be about. I that the idea I had might now seem like unfortunate stereotyping, so I would have to pivot to another plot. On the other hand, the pandemic flu carried by animals and transmitted as a deadly disease to humans--yeah that happened! I might return to Tor at some point. I'm mostly writing plays now, and currently trying to write my first musical. I've also got a bunch of unpublished YA novels that I may just about be ready to self-publish because they haven't captured an editor's heart. If I go that route, your help in rating and spreading the word would be gratefully accepted!
Liz Coley
You are now my favorite reader, Josephine!
This was actually a very difficult book to write emotionally, not because anything like this had happened to me, but because all of the characters and alters lived very much with me when I was writing, which I did in a very concentrated way. There's something about the binge writing one does for NaNoWriMo (an average of 1666 words a day--3-4 hours straight for me) that puts you in a very different head space and engages the subconscious as much as all the conscious research and life experience you brought to the table. I had done the research and thinking about this story for almost a year by the time I sat down in front of my fireplace to write it. I had invented the alters' individual stories nine months before I wrote them, during a long drive from Wash DC to Ohio. So I sort of drowned in the story while I was writing it. I've covered more specifics about my research and where the idea came from in the blog on my webpage if you want to take a deep dive. There's a post a ways down called "Highlights reel from Pretty Girl-13 blog tour" and some of those links are still working.
This was actually a very difficult book to write emotionally, not because anything like this had happened to me, but because all of the characters and alters lived very much with me when I was writing, which I did in a very concentrated way. There's something about the binge writing one does for NaNoWriMo (an average of 1666 words a day--3-4 hours straight for me) that puts you in a very different head space and engages the subconscious as much as all the conscious research and life experience you brought to the table. I had done the research and thinking about this story for almost a year by the time I sat down in front of my fireplace to write it. I had invented the alters' individual stories nine months before I wrote them, during a long drive from Wash DC to Ohio. So I sort of drowned in the story while I was writing it. I've covered more specifics about my research and where the idea came from in the blog on my webpage if you want to take a deep dive. There's a post a ways down called "Highlights reel from Pretty Girl-13 blog tour" and some of those links are still working.
Liz Coley
I have always dreamed of walking down the middle of the freeway, alone in the moonlight, not a car, not a person in sight. Now my dream has come true.
Liz Coley
This summer I got way into apocalypse and anthropology. I re-read The Stand by Stephen King and the Wool trilogy by Hugh Howey. Then I launched into Sapiens and Mothers and Others, which explore physical, psychological, and cultural evolution to tell us a lot about why we are the way we are.
Liz Coley
My gut answer is Narnia, because I spent my entire childhood looking for it. But I think now, I'd head for an outer space world, and just become an explorer, maybe a Liaden Scout.
Liz Coley
When I was a really little kid, I had a recurring dream of a Victorian mansion filled with lots of rooms where different things were going on. I would enter it by myself and try to make my way to the roof. Was it a real house from my memory? When I dreamed about it, I always knew it was the same house even if it looked different. Was it real or was it a symbol or was it a portal to another secret place? I had other dreams about secret rooms, one behind my bookcase, another through a hatch in the footboard of my bed. The rooms were always quiet, empty, and a little bit dusty with slanted light, and they made me happy. What were they really?
Liz Coley
My favorite fictional couple is Cordelia and Aral Vorkosigan. As individuals they are brilliant, honorable, and witty. Together they could hold an empire together--and did. (Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan series)
Liz Coley
My most recent book is my oldest one in many ways. The Captain's Kid was started as nighttime reading for my sons in 2002, and my first foray into the world of publishing. I love sci-fi, and I wanted to more entry level sci-fi stories to get them started. I wanted to share the "oh wow!" of space adventure and explore the question, "What would it be like to be a kid tagging along and living on a starship?" Years later, once I really learned how to write, I went back and wrote the story again in its current incarnation.
Liz Coley
Hit your head against the wall until the wall surrenders!
And by the wall, I mean publishing. Hitting your head against a real wall leaves visible bruises and may cause traumatic brain injuries. The publishing wall is much more subtle.
And by the wall, I mean publishing. Hitting your head against a real wall leaves visible bruises and may cause traumatic brain injuries. The publishing wall is much more subtle.
Liz Coley
Live in the world with open eyes and ears. The stories are all around us!
Liz Coley
Big project in the works! A read-along print and ebook edition to The Captain's Kid, currently serialized on YouTube by me, on the LizColeyBooks channel. A great pairing for reluctant readers or people with reading challenges.
Liz Coley
You are so sweet! I think it's because I really feel them while I am writing the words--you can imagine the emotional roller coaster. It's not acting--my daughter is the actor in the family--but I think maybe it comes from the same place of being able to live as someone else for a little while.
Liz Coley
Thank you so much! I have written some more psychological/medical stories and I am trying to get them published. Meanwhile, if you want some fun summer reading, try starting my Tor Maddox series. Her adventures are more external than internal, a little larger than life, but potentially real.
Liz Coley
I told a group of teenagers that I had really bad advice for them on this. "Don't tell your mom I recommended this," I said. "I daydream, procrastinate, and talk to strangers." Daydreaming over vegetable chopping, weeding, folding laundry, doing dishes etc is a great opportunity to let ideas sift through your head in an unforced way. Procrastinating by getting other things done first is a method of clearing your mental slate for the hard work of creating. And talking to strangers is a great way of getting in the mode of storytelling and curiosity.
Liz Coley
Immediately after finishing PG13, I wrote a sci-fi version of this theme that fascinates me--memory versus identity. I've also written another "dark psychological" story about the destructive power of regret. And a few more on different medical topics. Nothing is currently scheduled to be published but fingers crossed.
As to your second question, I've thought about Angie's final choice and whether there might be a much later story growing out of that choice, but for now, I will leave that to the imaginations of my readers.
As to your second question, I've thought about Angie's final choice and whether there might be a much later story growing out of that choice, but for now, I will leave that to the imaginations of my readers.
Liz Coley
You always have something to talk about at a dinner/cocktail party. No seriously. People are so curious about the process!
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Thank you so much for replying — I was sooo excited when I saw your response! I loved what you said about Tor Maddox being set in the nea ...more
Dec 18, 2025 07:22PM · flag