Rick Kleffel from the Agony Column podcast interviews Lauren Beukes — author of Broken Monsters (see this week's review) — in fascinating detail, "Lauren Beukes discusses Broken Monsters, The Shining Girls, the supernatural and the all-too-natural, as well as the Internet and why her latest is not a criticism thereof."
I enjoyed the heck out of both her books I've read (and have the other two in queue for a rainy day). We started out talking about cities first, since she lives in Capetown, where she presumably spends some time with fellow Capetown writer Sarah Lotz. But Beukes most recent novels are set in Chicago and Detroit respectively. She'd lived in Chicago, which made the writing of 'The Shining Girls' less challenging. But Detroit was new territory, which meant travel and adventure as one can only find in Detroit.
We talked a bit about the Internet in recent fiction. Some writers are writing recent historical novels (essentially, pre-search engine and pre-cell phone) because it makes plotting a bit simpler. And that, to a degree was true about 'The Shining Girls.' But it's not the case in "Broken Monsters,' which embraces the Internet and uses it for a variety of plot points.
Oddly enough, some have suggested that 'Broken Monsters' is "anti-Internet." I must admit, I don't get that at all. Beukes merely admits that the Internet exists and that we use in the way that we use it. It is neither good nor evil; its simply human.
(Thanks, Rick!)
