A Sunday Night Treat for Writers

Imagine you’re at your local coffee shop when the folks at the next table start talking about your favorite pastime. Not only that, all of them are absolute rock stars in the field. 

Then they invite you to pull up a chair and join them. 

That’s how it feels clicking onto The Back Room, a regular Zoom event during which four accomplished novelists are electronically herded into one room to talk about their newest books, 

how they overcome writing hurdles, and survive bad advice.

If you suspect, as with most such online events, that you’ll be just another anonymous lurker facing long odds that the question you posted in the chat will ever be answered, you’re in for a happy surprise. First, all attendees show up on video (or have the option). Second, if you want to ask bestselling novelist Joseph Finder where he got the idea for his latest novel (The Oligarch’s Daughter), or Kate White how it felt to have as a protagonist "a woman of a certain age" (I Came Back for You), you can ask them yourself, and you will look each other in the eye (well, on screen), when they respond. Yes, my friend, you are chatting (almost) IRL with some of your favorite authors. Third, the event is well-organized, the hosting is brisk and witty, and each author is given an equal opportunity to shine. (Did I mention it’s free?)

The event is the brain child of two extraordinary women, Hank Phillippi Ryan (top row, middle) and Karen Dionne (top right). I do not throw “extraordinary” around lightly. I could see Hank’s bio alone being redlined by a fiction editor as hyperbolic; strains credulity. It is hard to believe that while working full-time as an on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV Channel 7 (for which she’s won 37 - not a typo - Emmy Awards), Hank has managed to push out 17 thrillers (All This Could be Yours is her latest and, many reviewers say, best), translated into multiple languages worldwide. In between, you must get on her calendar well in advance if you want her as a literary moderator, teacher, host or presenter at conferences. She answers emails promptly and always looks flawlessly put together. She’d be wildly intimidating if she wasn’t so approachable and generous-spirited.

I first met Karen Dionne almost twenty years ago, when she hosted and I attended the Backspace writer’s conference in NYC. She was simply the kindest, sweetest person to all us aspiring newbie writers. When I ran into her recently at Thrillerfest, I found that had not changed at all. What had changed is that her own writing career took off. Karen’s domestic thrillers The Marsh King’s Daughter and The Wicked Sister were both published by a top five publisher. The Marsh King’s Daughter became a major motion picture released in 2023, starring Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn (watch it on Amazon Prime). 

I asked the women how the Back Room gig started, why they keep doing it, and who they’d most like to interview. Read on below for the answers (toward the end, Hank does reveal a little-known fact about herself that some might consider a flaw)…or better yet, look at the Back Room schedule and get yourself on the list (The next one is May 17th and you can get your invitation here.)

And if, like me, you end up craving more from the fabulous writing community Karen and Hank have built, you can follow their new After Hours in the Back Room Substack.

PM: Could you tell me about the moment you and Karen decided to do this together? Had you met at an event? 

HPR: Just as the pandemic began, Karen and I had book launches on the same day. We had been scheduled to do an in person event, but of course all of those were canceled. The host pivoted to a Zoom event, which was great, but it was set up as a webinar, so we could not see anyone who attended.

Afterward, Karen and I stayed online, and discussed how disappointed we were not to know who had attended our celebration, and we were not able to talk to them directly. We decided there had to be a better way to do an online book event, so we put our heads together – – we actually plotted and planned and experimented for several weeks!— and landed on the concept that is essentially still going strong today. 

KD: Honestly, we thought the Back Room would be a temporary solution to what everyone hoped would be a temporary problem. But after 5+ years, the Back Room is still going strong. 

PM: Could you share a real "wow" moment, something one of your guests said or shared during the webinar that was really surprising and/or memorable? 

KD: As a writer, I always take away something from our guests that I can use in my own work. For me, an experience that Tess Gerritsen related was eye-opening and has always stuck with me. I'm going to get the details wrong, but the gist of it goes like this: Tess was 80 or so pages into writing a book that she just wasn't in love with anymore. At some point, she realized that changing the gender of the main character from male to female (or female to male-as I say, it's been a while) was the solution. She did it, and everything started working again. But the really intriguing part was this: she didn't go back and rework those 80 pages according to the gender change, she just kept writing as if the character had been that gender all along.

Writers are always told to get the story down at the first draft stage and not to get caught up in editing what's already been written but to keep moving forward, and I think her experience illustrates that brilliantly.

HPR: Oh my goodness, every event has its own personality, it is so much fun to see how each panel evolves. We’re very careful to have a debut author, and a big name too, and as much representation of all kinds as we possibly can. Often the authors have never met each other, but sometimes they are, of course, already pals. We just never know! We have had at least two people – – John Lescroart and Cheryl Head if I remember correctly— and innumerable pets walking through the video. We love that!  We have had Sulari Gentill and other authors from New Zealand and Australia, and it’s always hilarious that it is already the next day where they are. We had Adam Hamdy from Mauritius, that was a first, and so many authors from the UK that sometimes we change the time to 5 PM ET so they don’t have to stay up so late. I remember Gilly Macmillan, who lives in the UK, had a 7 PM panel, which meant she started at midnight! She was a terrific sport about it, but we realized all we had to do was change the time to make it easier.

PM: Sunday nights, many of us like to chill out in our sweats and relax before the coming work week. Yet you guys show up, cheerful, prepared and perfectly coiffed. What fuels you to keep doing it?

HPR: Thank you for the compliment! We have so much fun, and we look forward to every event, and since we take turns hosting, it never becomes a chore. In fact, it has gotten more and more fun as the time goes by. 

KD: For me, it's the sense of community. About half our audience at each event are Back Room regulars. They look forward to our events, and we look forward to seeing them!

PM: Is there an author you haven't had on the program yet that you'd like to? 

HPR: Oh, great question. That’s an always-changing goal, and I would love to hear what your readers think, and who they’d like to hear. Karen and I are absolutely honored by how enthusiastic people are; we get lots of inquiries from authors and publicists, way more than we can ever host, and we are always thrilled with the eagerness of authors to participate. (Note: Hank never did give me a name. Smart woman.)

KD: There are too many authors we'd love to have on the program to count, and I'm not talking specifically about famous authors. We are currently hosting just one event a month, so we only have room for four authors. That's not very many compared to all the wonderful authors we'd love to host! (Another smart woman.)

PM: You especially, Hank, are asked/teased all the time about how many roles you juggle: full-time TV news reporter, prolific author, speaker, host/presenter (did I miss one?). I've met you, so I know you're not an AI avatar. But really, now, how do you do it?

HPR: I am laughing! You can do a lot out of love and passion and gosh, who doesn’t want to talk to authors about books and writing? Besides actually writing, that’s my favorite thing.

PM: Anything people would be surprised to know about you?

HPR: I am a terrible singer. Is that surprising? I know all the lyrics, and I am enthusiastic, but back in high school, our choir teacher told me to just mouth the words. How about this? I was vice president of the Midwest chapter of the national Beatles fan club. And maybe… I wrote a column for Rolling Stone magazine? But because of social media, I feel as if everybody knows everything about me these days!

KD: People might be surprised to know that like most writers, I'm an introvert. I absolutely love people, and I love hosting our Back Room events, but as soon as each event is over, I put on my jammies, pour a glass of wine, and just chill!

Check out The Back Room and After Hours at the Back Room. See you there!