When You're Writing a Thriller and the Twist Shocks YOU...

An exclusive Q&A I'm releasing from the vault about All Your Twisted Secrets, writing twists, my publishing journey, and more!

My debut novel, All Your Twisted Secrets, came out five years ago today, which means I’ve been a published author for five years, but also it’s been five years and five days since shelter-in-place began, and the passage of time makes ZERO SENSE.

But we’re not here to have an existential crisis!!! Instead, let’s celebrate this anniversary with the exclusive Q&A I originally offered to anyone who preordered the book, including never-before seen¹ explanations about the huge twist at the end. Yup. I’m talking about it.

VIP subscribers also have access to footnotes with unhinged commentary as I reread this interview five years later, where I spill tea on things I’ve learned about publishing since debuting. And also to celebrate, I’m offering 50% off your annual VIP subscription! (Offer expires 4/17/25.)

In All Your Twisted Secrets, six teens are locked in a room with a syringe of poison, a bomb, and a note saying they have one hour to pick one of them to kill, or they’ll all die. It’s WILD that a publisher let me publish this lmao. All spoilers are in the last section of this Q&A, and I’ll give you ample warning so you can avoid them if you haven’t read the book yet. Unless you like to know the endings of books early! If you’re one of those people who flip to the end first because THE TENSION’S JUST TOO MUCH, hey, there’s enough stress in the world—I’m not judging.²

Where you can buy the book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop

How did you get the idea for All Your Twisted Secrets?

One day, my husband and I were speculating the shortest timespan you could set a book or movie to. Could an entire book take place over just fifteen minutes? No way, that’s not enough time to accomplish anything! But what about an hour? What if you locked a group of people in a room for an hour? What if someone died after an hour? What if the trapped people killed that person? What if they had to choose someone to kill, or else they’d all die? We exchanged a look, like, “Bingo,” and I raced to my desk to scribble ideas for characters I could throw into this situation.

All Your Twisted Secrets takes place in one room over one hour. What were the challenges of working with such a tight locale?

The challenge wasn’t so much with the locale, but the time constraints. One hour is so little time to get to know each character! I thought interspersed flashbacks within the locked-room narrative would kill the tension as they confront this impossible choice, so instead, I alternated real-time chapters with flashback chapters³—all from Amber’s POV over the past year. These flashbacks get to the heart of the story: the characters’ relationships and how they deal with many of the pressures teens face today, from bullying to college admissions to losing a loved one—all while dropping clues about whodunit and who might die.

This structure was a beast. Each character’s arc stretches across two timelines, and each real-time chapter-ending cliffhanger feeds into the next flashback chapter, which spills into the next real-time chapter’s reveals and twists. Let’s just say, I learned the hard way that I should outline psychological thrillers first!⁴

You have six people in the room… how did you create your cast? Did anyone change from your initial vision?

Before selling the manuscript to my publisher, there were actually nine characters in the room: two who no longer exist, and Zane, who was originally locked in as well.

Originally, I didn’t have any Breakfast Club-like archetypes in mind. I wanted to lock varied personalities in the room so their competing priorities would clash and Amber would struggle to get everyone on the same page, but they weren’t meant to adhere strictly to these “queen bee” and “star athlete” and “stoner” roles.

Cutting characters was my most difficult edit. I didn’t simply delete their lines and scenes. Instead, I had the remaining characters absorb their dialogue, traits, and hobbies. If anything, it helped me make the remaining characters more dimensional.

Did you know how the mystery would end before you started writing it?

No. More on that in the spoiler section below.

What are some of the most effective techniques for building suspense?

Ending each chapter on a cliffhanger is one of my main strategies.⁵ It’s harder to do than you’d think without feeling contrived or like you’re intentionally withholding information to keep readers hooked. And each chapter builds in tension until I cut it off.

I also like to create a few overarching mysteries that span the full novel as well as mini-mysteries throughout to create these little cliffhangers. The payoff for each mini-mystery comes within the next chapter or two, otherwise readers will get frustrated. Providing some gratification along the way helps propel them through the narrative until the big final twist—or, in AYTS, the double-whammy twist.

We all have to kill our darlings sometimes. Was there anything dear to you that got cut from this story?

You mean, aside from cutting THREE characters from the room? ;-)

*Semi-spoiler alert* The protagonist, Amber, is an aspiring cinematic score producer. There are several tense scenes in the room where multiple characters grab for the syringe, and originally, in one of them, Amber heard music in her head as though she were subconsciously composing a score to the scene. In each round of developmental edits, my editor kept cutting the musical interludes, and I kept stetting her track changes. I wanted Amber’s career aspirations to serve a purpose in the room! But my editor was persistent in each draft until I finally caved. It was for the best to delete them, I think; it came off a bit cheesy.⁶

What was your publishing journey like?

*Checks watch* How much time do you have?

I wrote two manuscripts before All Your Twisted Secrets and didn’t research how to get published until I was ready to send that first manuscript… somewhere? Anywhere? I was vaguely aware that I’d need a literary agent, so I Googled how to get one and quickly discovered #PitMad—a Twitter⁷ pitch contest where agents “like” pitches as an invitation to query—coincidentally held later that week. I tweeted my pitch, and days later, I got my first offer of representation. Several offers followed, with agents throwing around phrases like “the next Hunger Games” and “probably a $200,000 advance.”

So I went on submission to publishers for the first time with sky-high expectations. At the time, I knew nothing about the industry or what to look for in an agent. I wasn’t even aware of how difficult it was to land an agent. I assumed publishing normally moved this fast. OH PAST-DIANA, YOU SWEET SUMMER CHILD.

That book wasn’t the next Hunger Games. That book didn’t get a $200,000 advance. After a year and a half on submission, that book didn’t sell at all.⁸

I was crushed. But even before the book didn’t sell, I realized my agent and I weren’t a good fit. So I parted ways with her and dove into the query trenches with my second manuscript. Two months later, I got an offer from a newer agent (who’s an absolute sweetheart, and we’re still buddies!). I signed with him, and he took two of my books out on submission, but neither of them sold.

Up until this point, I’d been holding out for a traditional publishing deal because I write young adult novels, and according to recent data, 60% of teens preferred print books, and fewer than 25% owned an ereader. Distribution to bookstores and libraries would be imperative to reach my audience, and it’s challenging to get distribution when you self-publish.⁹ But I was weary of rejection and constantly feeling devastated. I’d also been working at BookBub for about three years, and thanks to that job, I knew many authors who’d achieved great success by self-publishing. I also knew a lot about the process and how to promote a book. I felt confident I could do it.

So I parted ways with my second agent and started the process of self-publishing my first book. I even hired a copyeditor and started contacting cover designers. I was ready.

Around the same time, I finished writing All Your Twisted Secrets. My CPs said they loved it. A few told me it was the most marketable book I’d written and encouraged me to try for a new agent. But that would mean nixing my plans to self-pub; if I signed with an agent, they’d need to pitch All Your Twisted Secrets to publishers as my debut.¹⁰

After some soul-searching, I decided to give traditional publishing one last shot. Of course, that meant querying agents all over again. This time I was pickier about who I queried and landed offers from my top two choices after about three weeks. It felt like a dream come true. I signed with Jim McCarthy, and about six months later, I had a book deal with HarperTeen!¹¹

What was the editorial process like with your editor?

My editor, Catherine Wallace, is character development genius, and I’m so grateful to have worked with her on this project. Before she made an offer, she asked me to do a partial revision, a.k.a. an R&R—revise and resubmit. Her team wanted me to cut three characters and make a couple of other big changes. Once I turned in the first fifty revised pages, I continued editing the rest of the manuscript while waiting for her to bring the book to acquisitions—the meeting where executives from editorial, sales, and marketing decide whether or not to buy a book. By the time the deal closed, I’d sent her my first full revision.

Following the book deal, we completed:

• Developmental edits (two rounds): bigger changes like deepening characters’ motivations and relationships, and cutting or adding plot points. Each time, my editor sent me an edit letter—the first was eight pages, single spaced!—and made in-line comments using track changes.

• Line edits: sentence-level tweaks and other small points of feedback, all in track changes from my editor.

• Copy edits: spelling errors, typos, and grammatical mistakes, all in track changes from a copyeditor. I then stet any I disagreed with (e.g. “alright” to “all right”).

• First pass pages: my editor mailed me a printed manuscript so I could read the whole thing and catch any final errors.

What was it like to see your cover for the first time? Did you get to have any input?

First of all, I adore my cover! Many thanks to illustrator Evgeni Koroliov and designer Corina Lupp at HarperCollins for making it so stunning.

First, my editor sent me two mockups for different artistic directions and asked me to choose my favorite. One option was striking and would stand out on shelves (it had placeholder faces at that time), and the other was pretty but not very unique, so I picked the former. A few months later, my editor sent the striking version with my characters’ faces! We went back-and-forth with the illustrator and designer a few times to make sure two of the characters accurately reflected how I’d envisioned them, and to tweak the font. Seeing the final version was the coolest thing. I’m so proud this is the cover of my debut novel, and I love showing it off!¹²

Was there anything that surprised you about the publishing process?

Now that I’ve befriended many other authors, it’s wild to see how different the experience is imprint-to-imprint, or based on whether you’re a “lead title” or not (which is largely determined by how big an advance you got; a topic way too complex for this Q&A). A common bit of advice you get as an author is to “keep your eye on your own paper.” For the sake of keeping jealousy at bay, I agree, but I also think it’s important to be well-informed about what others’ experiences are so you know what to ask for in the future, or mistakes to avoid.¹³

What’s been the best part of the publishing process?

» I recently published an updated answer in its own post here!

It’s hard to choose just one. Connecting with readers has been incredible—I mean, that’s what this was all for! So whenever readers yell at me on social media about how my book made them scream or stay up way too late or throw my book across the room in shock, it makes my day. And I adore their bookstagrams and their excitement for this story. It’s truly been wonderful.

I’ve also loved connecting with and befriending fellow authors. It’s surreal to walk into a bookstore now and feel like I’m visiting my friends.

And of course, a stand-out moment was getting the blurb from R.L. Stine. When he emailed me his blurb, I was at work, and I literally started hysterically laughing and shaking at my desk. I couldn’t believe it. Growing up, I read every one of his Fear Street books, and many of the Goosebumps books, too. So having a blurb from him on the cover of my book is wild. Life can come full circle in some of the most astounding ways.

What’s been the hardest part of the publishing process?

» I recently published an updated answer here (the second half)!

Everything else. Just kidding. (lol am I?) My journey to get published was long and demoralizing; it was hard to feel like I wasn’t good enough, year after year. But in some ways, having gone through that pain makes getting published now all the more gratifying.

There’s also a lot of pressure as a debut author. There’s always another hill to climb (e.g., getting another book published!), and each hill seems steeper than the last.¹⁴ Plus, I’m a camera-shy introvert, and the prospect of doing signings and panels is daunting. It’s a good problem to have—I’m sure with time and experience, that will get easier, and I’ll get better at setting personal boundaries. But as a new debut, it’s all a bit scary!

*SPOILER ALERT*

The next section will be the Q&A about the ending, and it’s full of spoilers. Do NOT scroll down unless you’ve already read the book or are willing to find out the ending early. (You can buy it here: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop)

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

I’M WARNING YOU AGAIN JUST IN CASE.

SOOOOOO MANY SPOILERS INCOMING OMG 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱

😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱

ALRIGHT HERE WE GO.

Did you know whodunuit when you first started writing All Your Twisted Secrets?

While writing the first draft, I had a sense of the ending—something different than what it is now. But as I reached the second-to-last chapter, the true ending hit me like a ton of bricks. I’ll never forget writing the first line of the chapter titled “4 Hours Ago.” That line hasn’t changed since the first time I wrote it. I knew what I had to do. I knew it would make for the most delicious twist. But then I had to go back and rewrite the whole darn thing.

So what was this “completely different” ending?

As I mentioned earlier, there were originally nine characters in the room, and one was a boy who Diego ended up replacing in draft #2. This boy loved Amber and hated that she was with someone else. He hated how Robbie was a popular athlete who wanted to upturn Amber’s goals so she could follow him to college. He hated Sasha for being cruel to everyone. He hated Zane (originally in the room) for being more charismatic. He hated another character who no longer exists for getting better grades than him. I hadn’t worked through all of his logic yet, but he basically hated everyone except Amber, and wanted Amber all to himself.

By the time I got close to the ending, it felt very wrong to me. It didn’t give Amber enough agency to be manipulated throughout both the flashback and real-time chapters by someone she liked romantically who ended up locking everyone in the room for hateful and selfish reasons. In a way, it seemed too easy. Too trite. I never wrote the ending of this version—once I realized Amber was the prankster, I wrote that “4 hours ago” chapter and went back to the beginning to rewrite everything. It’s been Amber since the second draft.

Did you ever consider any other culprits?

Yes, while writing the first draft. But I knew it was Amber so early in the overall process that I only ever had that first draft to contemplate different endings. I did consider someone outside the room—someone like Phil getting revenge on people who bullied him. I also considered some wildly different options. An evil psychiatrist who wanted to test the scenario. Some sort of government experiment. They’re all in the Matrix. Aliens. I have Diego mention some of these as a nod to these considerations, but they were only ever fleeting thoughts.

Did you ever consider having the bomb go off?

Of course. I considered everything. But how on earth would readers react to an explosion mid-sentence and then—

Why did you kill Sasha?

*Wipes sweat from brow*

There were three reasons for killing her.

1. One major theme in All Your Twisted Secrets is that everyone makes mistakes and deserves a shot at redemption. This is why Amber wants Sasha, Robbie, and Scott in this scenario—all three have messed up, and she wants them to learn the repercussions of their actions and change their ways. Robbie and Scott learned their lessons. But Sasha didn’t learn hers twice. She didn’t learn after Maggie died; she bullied Priya even though she suspected Maggie had died by suicide, and that bullying had exacerbated Maggie’s mental health struggles. And she doesn’t learn in the room—that no one’s life is worth more—when she tries to murder Amber even after the bomb doesn’t go off. She’s so determined to come out on top all the time that the lessons never stick. So she got the axe—er, glass shard.

2. Some things in life don’t work out how you intended. No matter how much you prepare or think things through, or how much control you think you have, something you didn’t expect could come along and upend all your meticulous planning. Amber never wanted anyone to actually get hurt, but it happened. This is also why Sashas die before sputtering her last words to Amber. Real life isn’t like the movies. Real life is messy.

(Aside: As I type this, I have to laugh. When prepping for my debut book launch, I stressed and planned about every little thing that could go wrong. And now a global pandemic is sweeping across the globe, upending everything. REAL LIFE IS MESSY.)¹⁵

3. Come on. Someone had to die. I couldn’t promise this “either one of them dies, or they all do” scenario and have no payoff. I’d never hear the end of it.

Why does Amber turn herself in? What about USC???

If Amber believes everyone makes mistakes but deserves a shot at redemption, turning herself in is necessary for her character arc. If she tries to get away with everything, it defeats the purpose of her entire locked-room scenario. However noble her logic, she tried to force other people to change and abide by her personal moral code. She put others in danger, however careful she was to remove lethal elements from the room ahead of time. So she must redeem herself by facing the consequences of her actions. Real life doesn’t come wrapped in neat little bows, and neither does this book’s ending.

I always knew the ending would be polarizing. Unreliable narrators usually are. But I was willing to take that risk to tell a memorable story in a way that gave the FMC agency and allowed her to be flawed, make terrible mistakes, and learn from them.

What happens to Amber after she turns herself in?

Her fate is intentionally left open to interpretation! I wanted to make people think. What do you think should happen to Amber? What should her punishment be?

Will there be a sequel?

There are no official plans for a sequel at this time… but I’d love to return to these characters someday. That’s all I can say about that!

Thank you to my street team for sending in these questions!¹⁶ I had so much fun answering them. I hope you love this story as much as I loved writing it.¹⁷

And now for the extra commentary for VIP subscribers!