The Escape Game, co-authored by TAMARA MOSS and MARISSA MEYER, is a new YA crime novel set in an Escape Room themed game-show. But it’s all fun and games until someone ends up dead.
We caught up with the two authors to find out what’s on their shelf.
MEET MARISSA MEYER AND TAMARA MOSS
What book are you reading now?
TAMARA: I can’t read during intense deadline periods because every spare second goes to the manuscript. But I’m halfway through A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders, which I’m very much enjoying.
MARISSA: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, so I can explain to my 11-year-olds why we are not getting them smart phones.
If you were stranded on a desert island and you could only have three books – what would they be?
TAMARA: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff because there’s so much in there – it would take years to parse through it all. A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon because it’s hefty and full of epic world-building that I could spend forever swimming in. And (is this cheating?) a non-fiction book on how to survive on a desert island.
MARISSA: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, because that would at least keep me occupied for a while.
Where is your favourite place to read?
TAMARA: My hammock!
MARISSA: On a floatie in the pool.
Do you read one book at a time or multiple?
TAMARA: I like to have multiple on the go – one hefty (often fantasy), one fast-paced (YA/MG/thriller), one non-fiction, one poetry.
MARISSA: Same. I am almost always reading one fiction and one nonfiction, listening to something on audio, and reading something to my kids.
Do you use a bookmark or fold the corners of pages?
TAMARA: Bookmark… often a sticky note or receipt or whatever I find closest to me, even though I own roughly ten thousand bookmarks
MARISSA: Bookmark – I have a lovely collection of fanart bookmarks that readers have given me over the years.
Where did you get the idea for The Escape Game?
MARISSA: My family was doing an art heist-themed escape room in which we were supposed to be thieves trying to steal the Mona Lisa. There was a large trunk in the room, and I thought–what if we opened this and there was a dead body inside? And what if we had to solve the clues and puzzles not only to escape the room, but also to solve the murder? I was already under contract for a few other books, but I loved the idea so much that I couldn’t resist pitching the idea to Tamara a few days later.
TAMARA: When Marissa sent me her idea, I was so excited, I immediately jumped on board!
What was your co-writing process? Would Marissa write one chapter and then Tamara take over?
TAMARA: Marissa is an excellent plotter so we had every scene planned out before we started. Then we would write a chapter each, getting through the book in half the time thanks to our opposite time zones.
MARISSA: Though the first draft did go fairly smoothly, the challenge of this book was really in the revisions, as we worked hard to layer in motives, clues, red herrings, and increasingly complex puzzles. We’ve gotten very comfortable at editing each others’ work and bouncing ideas off each other when we get stuck on a difficult part of the story.
Who was your favourite character to write in The Escape Game?
TAMARA: What a mean question!!!! All of them have their fun elements, but I admit I did love digging into Sierra’s crunchy personality.
MARISSA: I also love Sierra’s snark, but Beck is probably my favourite. I love writing a sunshine character!
Did you go to escape rooms as research, and did you solve them?
TAMARA: Yes, I go to escape rooms as research. I wish I could go to more but trying to round up my friends, who have jobs and kids, for a session continually proves to be very difficult! Most of the time I escape… narrowly.
MARISSA: I have been to many escape rooms and now have my kids addicted to them, too! We almost always escape, but sometimes we have to ask for more hints than I would like.
What book character would you be, and why?
TAMARA: This one stumped me for ages! After entirely too much thought on it, I’m going with Nova from Renegades (by Marissa). Nova doesn’t have to sleep and she’s got a lot of kickass skills.
MARISSA: LOLing Tamara’s answer, because that series was entirely spurred on by my (probably unhealthy) obsession with wishing I never had to sleep. Alas, I am not a supervillain.
As for the question, I’d have to go with Elizabeth Bennet. I just want to swan around the English countryside and make Mr. Darcy pine over me!
If you could meet one author (living or dead) – who would it be and why?
TAMARA: Terry Pratchett had such insightful ideas about the world, but always written with humour. I wish I could’ve bought him a drink and had a chat.
MARISSA: Roald Dahl – he wrote so many of my favourite childhood books and was hugely influential to me.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Marissa Meyer is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of ‘The Lunar Chronicles‘, Heartless, ‘The Renegades Trilogy’, and Instant Karma, as well as the graphic novel duology Wires and Nerve. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and a MA in Publishing from Pace University. In addition to writing, Marissa hosts The Happy Writer podcast. She lives near Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and twin daughters.
Visit Marissa Meyers’ website here
Follow Marissa Meyers on Instagram here.
Tamara Moss grew up in Perth, Western Australia. She has a BA majoring in Asian Studies and taught primary school for ten years. Inspired by her students’ love of adventure, Tamara wrote a middle-grade series starting with Lintang and the Pirate Queen. Her next novel, The Escape Game, is a YA murder mystery co-authored with NYT-bestselling author Marissa Meyer.
Tamara also writes adult crime and thrillers under the name Tamara M. Bailey.
Visit Tamara Moss’s website here
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