A self-described “literary omnivore,” New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger does not consider herself a plotter (someone who plots their books in advance), nor does she consider herself a “pantser” (someone who doesn’t plot their books in advance and instead flies by the seat of their pants).
If anything, Unger, of Florida, considers herself a gardener.
“To me, it’s like a seed that gets planted, it grows, you give it light and air, trim some little branches, and a flower comes out,” she said. “I don’t write with an outline. I have a very vague idea what the book’ll be about. I have very strong character voices in my head… Those are the voices I follow through the narrative. I don’t know what’s gonna happen day-to-day. I don’t really know what the book’s about. I definitely don’t know how the book’s gonna end because if I did, I wouldn’t be able to write it. I write for the same reason I read: I want to know what’ll happen to the people who’ve been living in my head.” She added, laughing: “That’s how I’ve been doing it since I was 19, so it’s been so far, so good. I’ll stick with that.”
Unger – an alumna of the New School for Social Research in New York City, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in writing and literature – recently released her latest psychological mystery-thriller, “Close Your Eyes and Count to 10” (Park Row Books $30), which has earned immense advanced praise from critics and fellow authors alike. She will sign copies of her new book at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library, located at 325 N. Michigan St. in Toledo on Thursday, February 27, at 7 p.m. Please register today for this event. The price is $23/ticket.
The impetus to write “Close Your Eyes” came from two places. The first was when she, her husband, and their daughter were vacationing in the Azores, an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atlantic Ocean. It was their first big trip after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were about to hike the rim of a volcanic lake and this huge storm just swept in from out of nowhere,” she recalled. “It rained out the trail. We had to race back to our car. On the way back from our rained-out hike, we came across this structure in the middle of the forest; it was this gigantic, abandoned hotel. I would later learn it was built in the 1980s and had gone bankrupt like five years after it was built and it just sat there. It was empty and had been looted and covered with graffiti with all this foliage growing over it. There were these big signs – ‘No Entra!’ In any language, it was clear, ‘Don’t’ come in here. It’s dangerous.’”
Still, the Ungers did and began exploring the hotel.
“It was just crazy,” said Unger. “The wind was whipping through all these open spaces and the structure was just cracking. There was no way I wasn’t gonna be writing about that! There was just no way! I knew when we stopped in, this was absolutely gonna be in my next book.”
Unger was also intrigued by the concept of YouTube celebrity – the idea of people who are living their lives online in front of all these followers, many of whom are kids. This was fascinating to Unger because it’s so different from how people of her generation experienced celebrity.
“We were obsessed with actors, musicians, writers, artists. YouTubers just have this whole following of fans because they’re a personality,” said Unger. “I’m always exploring technology in my novels – not the actual technology but the way it rewrites how we relate to each other. What is the impact of somebody who grows up right in front of the camera? A lot of these YouTubers are super young, and they grow up on broadcast in a way that was never experienced when we were kids; we didn’t have that 24/7 availability of a computer all the time.”
She continued, “I remember a time before smart phones and tablets and the internet, but there’s a generation of people who do not; they’ve never known anything else. I’m just really curious about that. What is the impact of living life for and in front of the camera? That was the other thing on my mind and the two things collided and became (‘Close Your Eyes’).”
In “Close Your Eyes,” extreme adventurer and reality TV host Maverick Dillan invites contestants to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, who seek shelter in an abandoned hotel. This turns the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be.
One of the contestants is Adele, a single mom whose husband abandoned her and their two teenage children amidst criminal allegations and is on the lam. She is desperate for money and reluctantly signs up for Dillan’s competition. Once she’s vetted and approved and is subsequently in the thick of it, Adele learns that in the blurry lines between the virtual and the real that the only person she can trust is herself if she is to survive this deadly contest with the entire world watching.
With all her books, Unger is willing to explore the darkness within people but does so with empathy. She’s also willing to experiment. One of the ways “Close Your Eyes” is different from her other novels is that it’s more action-oriented than usual.
“Another way it’s different because it’s told in ways I haven’t told a story before,” she explained. “I always do multiple perspectives. In this case, part of it is being told from podcasts, part of it is being told from vlogs, part of it is being told through the social media platform in the book. It has all these different ways of telling the story. We narrate our experiences on Instagram. We have video diaries. We listen to podcasts. We’re getting all these narratives in all these different ways. It’s just the way the story told itself. There’s so many different layers to it. Are you being honest? Are you being honest when you’re doing a video diary? Are you being yourself when you’re broadcasting live? When is it true? What is true? What is real? How and when are people most authentic? Or are they? Those are my big questions explored in this book.”
Unger is hard at work on her next novel but didn’t reveal anything about it. Her previous novel, “Confessions on the 7:45,” has been optioned and is being adapted into a series on Hulu. Jessica Alba (“Dark Angel”) is attached to star in it with Eva Longoria (“Desperate Housewives”) attached to direct. She had no further news to share.
“I’m just the author, so I’m the last to know. I just provide the source material as it were,” said Unger, laughing.
She spoke about what makes her books stand out in a crowded marketplace.
“There’s a lot of talented people out there writing great books. Many of them are my besties. I don’t know how they stand out. I’m very focused on character; that’s one of my major curiosities. That’s where I focus almost all my attention as a writer. I don’t know if that makes me stand out… You have always have to strike that balance between plot and character, but it’s always been tipped a little bit more towards character for me. I empathize with my characters and be from the inside looking out instead of the outside looking down. I don’t know if those things separate me (from other authors), but those are the things I focus on the most when I’m writing.”
One of the most exciting things for Unger is having a fan in Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played the titular character on 1997-2003’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” praising her books on social media.
“Buffy is a fan!” said Unger. “I’m like a teenager again! I am beyond fangirling!”
For Unger, the best part of writing is just that – writing.
“It’s one of the greatest joys of my life,” she said. “I live for the blank page. I love talking to readers who have allowed my characters into their hearts and into their minds. They are as real to them as they are to me. That’s another big blessing. You write your book and it’s yours; there’s a version of it that belongs only to me. But then, it goes out into the world and everyone who reads it, it’s a book that belongs only to that person. That’s like a contract between the writer and the reader. Readers bring something to the story that is unique to them. When I meet them at a book signing and hearing from them, that’s always very moving. That’s a blessing to me. I’m very grateful; I never wanted to do anything else with my life.”
For questions or more information about Unger’s visit to the Toledo Lucas County Public Library, contact 419-259-5330 or visit toledolibrary.org.
Visit lisaunger.com.
