Interview With Novelist Keith McWalter

 

 

1.      What inspired you to write this book?

The book started as an open-ended sequel to my first novel, WHEN WE WERE ALL STILL ALIVE, in which the protagonist loses his wife to an accident. TELL ME AGAIN was going to be about the further process of his recovering from grief, until I witnessed what became the opening scene in the book: an old woman needs help pumping gas, and Conrad helps her, which leads to a conversation he never expected about his late wife, and a strong through-line that propelled the narrative.

 

I was almost finished with the first draft when my son-in-law, who is himself adopted and as an adult began an ultimately successful effort to identify and connect with his biological parents, directed me to Ann Fessler's "The Girls Who Went Away," a wrenching personal history of women who, through shame or coercion, gave up their babies to adoption in the years before Roe v. Wade. This amazing book sharpened my empathy for the teenage pregnancy plight of the young Sarah, who would become Conrad's wife but whose teenage trauma she never revealed to him.

 

2.      What exactly is it about and who is it written for?

It’s about a man’s recovery from grief with the help of friends, lovers, family, and the daughter-in-law he never knew existed. It’s for anyone who ever lost a loved one, either through death, divorce, distance, or the simple passage of time.

 

3.      What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book?

Four things: 

-A shared sense of resentment at the subtle forms of ageism that pervade society and constrain the lives of otherwise smart and able people.

-That the paths out of grief are many, often unexpected, but never traveled alone.

-That the things we think we know about those closest to us may be wrong, or woefully incomplete. So never assume you know the whole story.

-A desire to visit Paris.

 

4.      How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design?

The title went through many changes. Originally, it was “Reason to Believe,” which I thought perfectly captured the main character’s quest to find out if a shocking story about his late wife was true. But it’s just too common a phrase, both in song and in too many book titles, and implied a religious element that’s not part of the story, so I came up with a dozen or so alternatives, including “Past Believing,” “Useful Life,” and my other favorite, “Proof of Life” – but then the Guthrie abduction happened and rendered that one unusable. An editor at the publisher suggested “Tell Me Again,” and it grew on me. The cover, designed by Abbey Gregory, was one of several that were proposed by the publisher, and I liked it both for its abstraction, and the suggestion of a sky at dusk in the desert, which is where one of the crucial scenes in the book takes place. 

 

5.      What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!?

Well, yes, run! But also, work hard not only at writing itself, but at being a better self-editor. I mean that as regards the process of writing, but also the overall goal of your writing. Stop and ask yourself why you’re writing what you’re writing. If it’s mainly a commercial venture in the hopes of making money, then the odds of that outcome are so long that any rational person would stop and go open a stationery store instead. If you’re doing it for the sheer love of writing, or because you have a personal stake in a story that you think needs or deserves to be told, or simply to entertain yourself and some friends and relatives and network pleasurably with like-minded people, then that’s a different (and better) scenario, though still daunting. The one thing you must never, never do is assume you’ll be the one-in-a-million exception and actually make money by publishing a book.

 

All of this presumes that you’re a solid, competent, well-read writer and self-editor; many people are not, but have been led to believe by what I call the wannabe author exploitation industry that they are or easily could be. Read heavily in the genre you’re writing for and try to objectively observe how your writing compares. If you don’t passionately believe in the quality of your writing and the interest of your subject matter, it’s almost certain no one else will. 

 

The hard truth is that most of us are far more competent at something other than writing, and most of us can’t put our lives on hold for a couple of decades to better hone our writing craft. If you think you might need it, don’t hesitate to hire a reputable editor or “book doctor” to evaluate your manuscript and suggest revisions. Don’t rely on friends for this, as they too easily compromise their objectivity, their frankness, or both.

 

6.      What trends in the book world do you see – and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading?

I see three broad trends affecting the “book world” in its broadest sense: (1) the proliferation of publishing platforms; (2) the explosion of what I call the wannabe author exploitation industry; and (3) the onslaught of A.I. slop.   

 

The last ten to 15 years have seen the slow erosion of mainstream/legacy publishing and the rise of a wide array of alternatives, with self-publishing and hybrid publishing in the forefront. The astonishing success of a book like Theo of Golden, originally self-published and only later picked up by a New York legacy publisher, attests to this. But the hard truth is that we need fewer books of higher quality, not avenues of publishing for everyone, all the time, because the latter has allowed a really serious narrowing of “marketable” subject matters in fiction (dystopias, diasporas, time travel, romanstasy), and the constriction of the populations of authors, agents, editors and readers to – let’s face it – women.

 

Then there’s the growing market in wannabe author exploitation, which is basically a genetically modified bastard child of the legacy publishing industry that perceives that there is far more money to be made in offering various kinds of coaching, editing, networking, and publicity services to aspiring writers who are still laboring under the delusion, perpetuated by this industry, that there is a viable path to traditional publishing for the unknown writer if only they purchase the expertise or inside knowledge of a third party. The latest evidence of this is that the Association of American Literary Agents recently revised its ethics rules to allow agents (of which there are too many with too little commission revenue) to take money from clients in exchange for coaching, editing, etc. (inevitably giving rise to the conflict of interest that writers may hire them in the hope of representation). 

 

Finally, there’s the quagmire of A.I., which has already trapped several high-profile debut authors revealed to have used it to do their work for them, and which is giving rise to a horrifying tide of computer-generated slop that threatens to further degrade already degraded retail platforms and crowd out actual human authorship and creativity. So not a happy prospect all around. Like you said, run!

 

7.      Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book?

My mother’s sudden death from an E. coli outbreak over a decade ago was my wake-up call to an awareness of my own mortality, and eventually became the emotional foundation of my first novel, When We Were All Still Alive, to which Tell Me Again is a standalone sequel. I’d already written a short memoir, Befriending Ending, which related my experience of her last days and what it taught me about death and dying. But that was an exercise in facts and philosophy, and in this novel I wanted to get at the emotional reality of familial connection, loss, redemption, and solace, and how they interplay throughout life, in a way that my memoir hadn’t.

 

I had also reached a point in life where the subject of aging – its many unfairnesses and its great consolations – became a focus, and I wanted to try to depict how one man’s loves and friendships endure and change over the span of a lifetime and are there to save him in his late middle age. 

 

Tell Me Again elaborates all those themes, but with a strong, linear plot that’s propulsive and page-turning rather than merely “literary.” 

 

8.      How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to?

My style is a mix of lyrical and sardonic. I aspire to write with wry humor, arresting metaphor, believable conversations, and attention to social nuance. I prefer the first person POV. Authors whose style I aspire to include Catherine Newman (Wreck, Sandwich), Ann Patchett (Whistler, Tom Lake), Richard Ford (the Bascombe trilogy), Elizabeth Strout (The
Things We Never Say), Eric Puchner (Dream State), and James Salter (Light Years, All That Is).

9.      What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book?

By far the biggest challenge in writing the book was how to end it – or, put differently, how to answer the two main burning questions of the narrative: who is Sarah’s child? And who was the father? In various drafts I had three different answers for the first question, and two different answers for the second, with at least five different endings combining different permutations of those answers. The ending I settled on was one that I felt best balanced emotional payoff with believability.  The other challenge was keeping track of timelines, since the plot involves events that happened 50 years ago and various events and people’s ages needed to be synched with that premise.

 

10.  If people can buy or read only one book this week or month, why should it be yours?

I think Tell Me Again provides the reader with a unique combination of emotion, mystery, and surprise, all in a believable narrative package that takes an international, transcontinental journey ‘way out of the ordinary and back again several times, and lands readers in a more open, caring and inquiring place than where they began. What more could you ask of a book?

 

About The Author: Keith McWalter is the award-winning author of WHEN WE WERE ALL STILL ALIVE, a literary family saga reviewed by Kirkus as “precise and fluid, weaving characters, settings, and timelines together in a complex tapestry.” His speculative novel, LIFERS, was described by Harvard’s Avi Loeb as “a fascinating read," and by Kirkus Reviews as "sharp and perceptive SF". TELL ME AGAIN, coming this December, is his third novel. Keith’s essays and opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s the author of the essay blog MORTAL COIL and the travel blog SPOILED GUEST. A collection of his essays, THE PLASTIC BAG WILL NOT INFLATE: Letters from a Bi-Coastal Father, won the Writer's Digest Award for Nonfiction, and his family memoir, BEFRIENDING ENDING, was anthologized in the literary magazine Feathered Flounder. Keith grew up in Mexico and Pennsylvania, is a graduate of Denison University and Columbia Law School, and spent his nonwriting career as a lawyer in New York and San Francisco. He and his wife Courtney live in Granville, Ohio, and Sanibel, Florida. For more info, please see: https://keithmcwalterwrites.com

 

Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 11 million page views. With over 5,700+ posts over the past 15 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2026, 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum