Exclusive with Benjamin Stevenson
Gulli: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone—what a title, what’s the book about?
Stevenson: A family gets trapped in ski resort and finds a killer picking them of one by one. However, everyone in this has – at some point in their lives – killed someone already. How do you find a murderer, in a room full of killers?
Gulli: When did you decide you wanted to become a writer—you seem to have a very rich experience from comedy, publishing—is there anything else about you we need to know?
Stevenson: I have the cliche of having always wanted to be a writer, as I was a voracious reader as a child. I think the real key though was that I hit a point where there just wanted anything on the shelves that I thought was perfect for me to read. So I decided to fill that gap myself. Really, I write for myself.
Gulli: Who are some of the authors that have inspired you to write?
Stevenson: Arthur Conan Doyle, Anthony Horowitz, Jane Harper, and Stuart Turton spring to mind, among many many others.
Gulli: I lived in Athens during the 80s and as a kid, I got into a lot of those dramas—I think Flying Doctors and For the Terms of His Natural Life. What should American readers know more about the crime genre in Australia—oh by the way one of my favorite films is Swerve. I’m trying to say that this sunburnt noir is something so unique that it can’t be imitated by anyone else.
Stevenson: Our country is can be typecast as gigantic, barren, and dangerous. And while it is all of those things, we have such an amazing cross-section of humanity too. I think people who haven’t read Australian crime fiction before will be invited into a world and a landscape that is exciting and new, but it’s the human stories that are so well told by our writers that will keep them turning the pages.
Gulli: What has surprised during your career as a novelist?
Stevenson: How many emails I have to send! I gave up the day job to be a ‘full-time’ writer not long ago, and I’m doing less writing than before!
Gulli: Is comedy more difficult that creating a new novel?
Stevenson: Yes and No. Writing a good 20 word joke takes as long as writing a 2,000 word chapter. Though at least with a book, when it’s not going well (in the reader’s head) you don’t have to be there.
Gulli: Are you working on a new book?
Stevenson: Sure am! It will be announced soon.
Gulli: Greenlight has all these twists and they feel so organic—how did you manage the delicate balancing act of inserting enough twists to be just enough but not too much?
Stevenson: That’s a godo way of describing writing, because that’s all it is: balancing. Do I have enough twists, character moments, actions scenes, description, humor, dialogue etc. There’s no way to do it except to do what feels right. I do try to have a clue on every page though, so the number of twists is what’s needed to pay off all of those clues.
Gulli: How did you manage to cope during COVID?
Stevenson: I wrote a lot. I found it quite freeing because, in an upside down way, I wasn’t sure what would happen next so didn’t bother planning or trying to meet anyone’s expectations: I just wrote.
Gulli: Do you outline your books?
Stevenson: Intricately! I have about a 10,000 word plot breakdown that I write from.
Gulli: What tips would you give aspiring authors?
Stevenson: Read. But don’t just read what you like, read what you don’t like. Think about why a particular book isn’t working for you, how you would fix it. There is almost more to be learned from least-favourite books than favourite ones.
Gulli: I have to end with this—tell us your favorite joke!
Stevenson: Jokes never work written down! My favorite joke is Chapter 9 (in it’s entirety) of Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone. IYKYK.