Author Megan Angelo joins us on the podcast this week to discuss her debut novel Followers. Megan tells us what inspired the story of Followers, how she created the fictional not-too-distant future of 2051 and grounded it in reality, and how her previous work as a journalist helped her craft the social-media-obsessed world within her book.
- Megan tells us about her career as a freelance journalist, how the process of writing a novel differed greatly from what she was used to, and how her previous work in entertainment helped inspire and inform Followers
- She explains the challenge of creating a believable not-too-distant future, how she kept herself from focusing too much on the research aspect of making her world feasible, and how she kept this fictional future grounded in reality
- She discusses the sources she drew on for inspiration and why she avoided reading speculative fiction while writing her own book in the genre
- Megan tells us what it was like being a new mom while writing her first novel, the challenges she faced trying to balance two small children and finding time to write, and how motherhood became a running theme throughout her novel and helped her find the human element within her futuristic world
- She gives us her predictions for the future of publishing and print media, and explains why she’s such an advocate for the survival of local newspapers
Useful Links
Megan’s Website
Megan’s Twitter
Megan’s Instagram
Followers
The Caroline Calloway Article from The Cut
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
Writers and Lovers by Lily King
Temporary by Hilary Leichter
Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin
Sugar Calling Cheryl Strayed
Beef House
Megan has written about television, film, women and pop culture, and motherhood for publications including The New York Times (where she helped launch city comedy coverage), Glamour (where she was a contributing editor and wrote a column on women and television), Elle, The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, and Slate. She is a native of Quakertown, Pennsylvania and a graduate of Villanova University. She currently lives in Pennsylvania with her family. FOLLOWERS is her first novel.
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