PRosé with special guest Christopher Swann

Christopher Swann’s novels have been described as “Southern murder mystery” and “rural noir”. They feature crimes and plot twists yet have readers wondering if he’s writing from his own experiences because the characters feel so relatable and authentic. His recent novel A Fire In The Night is a sequel to Never Turn Back.


His characters, he says, sometimes can drive the story by bossing him around. An example is Swann setting out to write a scene where the character had to eat peas for dinner, but it didn’t end up working out that way. “In my head’s she’s like ‘no’, he explained, “and I made her eat the peas – and the scene died. I kept writing words and they didn’t work”. He did end up coming to an understanding with the character, took away the peas, and then the scene worked out.


He told PRosé he takes extra care to name the characters in his novels so they don’t resemble anyone he knows in real life in Atlanta, where he is the English department chair at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School. This works, most of the time, he says. One name he carefully chose for a main character’s girlfriend, was Marissa. “I couldn’t name her after anyone I knew, or any students I taught, because she does some bad things. So I chose Marissa,” he said. This should have worked fine, however, the school threw a wrench in his careful planning. “While the book is with the editor, we hire a Marissa. I had to go to her and tell her the name was chosen before!” Thankfully, he said, she was understanding, and after getting to know her it seemed clear that she did not resemble the character that unfortunately shared her name.


Atlanta is home to many Southern writers, and Swann feels it is a great community to be part of. “I’ve been wanting to do this since I was 13, so I’m kinda late to this writer game,” he says. “I know there are jerks out there, or writers who are really egotistical or self-centered, but I haven’t met them yet. Everyone has been so supportive and helpful giving advice because they have all been there.” On publishing novels, he says, “it’s not a zero-sum game, your book sells, no one is going to be mad; you know, people buy more than one book at a time. We are happy to support each other. We love reading stories, and writing stories, and we support each other. It is a great community to be a part of.”


Listen to the PRosé podcast for more on Swann’s writing process, his next novel, and why we need indie bookstores.

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