Renee(Reneesramblings) asked Zoje Stage:

Baby Teeth was just so good! I wonder where the inspiration/idea for this book came from?

Zoje Stage Thank you so much, Renee! Maybe not surprisingly, it's a bit of a long story. I'll give you the highlights...

Several years ago, while I was still pursuing a career as a filmmaker, I wrote a script that I wanted to direct called "Hands and Knees." It involved a family similar to BABY TEETH's, but the theme was quite different: it was about a woman who was becoming overwhelmed by what she perceived to be the horrors of domesticity. As an intended film, it was geared more toward mood (cool, detached) and a cinematic look.

I had the opportunity to take the script to Independent Film Week in 2012, where I discussed the project with nearly 20 producers. After people read the script I noticed a recurring bit of feedback: people wanted less implied horror and more actual creepy bits, and to know more about what was going on with the little girl. ("Hanna's" character in the script wasn't nearly as developed, nor was the plot involving her battles with her mother.)

I decided later that same year that I wanted to try learning to write novels, and I spent the next few years engaged in that process (I wrote five books before BABY TEETH). The concept of "Hands and Knees" stuck with me, and when I finally felt able to bring my novel-writing skills to the project, I started fleshing out the characters, mindful of the feedback I'd gotten from producers years before.

BABY TEETH as a novel took on a life of its own - wildly different from the screenplay - when I made two key decisions: 1) to give Suzette Crohn's Disease (to increase her vulnerability and give her a weakness that her daughter uses against her); 2) to write the novel in dual POV, making Suzette and Hanna each the protagonist of their own story, and each other's antagonist. With these two developments, the characters and story took on a life of their own, and it became my job to "listen" to what they were trying to tell me.

flag