20 Questions is a Q&A interview series with authors, musicians, and everyone in between, celebrating experiences both shared and individual in the messy game of being human.
“Writing, for me, is about chasing ghosts and peeling off masks. I have Hanna-Barbera to thank for that.” John Copenhaver’s debut novel Dodging and Burning won the 2019 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery. The Savage Kind, his second novel, won the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBTQ Mystery and was a finalist for Left Coast Crime’s Best Historical Mystery. He is also a co-founder of Queer Crime Writers and an at-large board member of Mystery Writers of America.
Copenhaver’s work has appeared in CrimeReads, LitHub, Writer’s Digest, Electric Lit, The Gay and Lesbian Review, PANK, Washington Independent Review of Books, and others. He teaches fiction writing and literature at Virginia Commonwealth University and is a faculty mentor in the University of Nebraska’s Low-Residency MFA program. He grew up in the mountains of southwestern Virginia and lives in Richmond, Virginia with his husband. His latest novel, Hall of Mirrors, is the sequel to The Savage Kind. I got to know John on a new edition of 20 Questions.
What is the earliest memory you have of wanting to be a writer?
My compulsion to tell stories pre-dates my seeing myself as a writer. When I was eight or nine, I began drawing comic books. Eventually, I got into D&D and loved being a dungeon master, making up the adventures. I didn’t like the pre-fad adventures at all. I also began writing screenplays for my friends and directing them in these crazy murder mystery stories. At some point in high school, I realized that all this added up to was telling stories, and the most efficient way to tell stories was to write fiction.
What time of day are you most inspired?
Usually in the late afternoon. I used to be a morning writer, but the anxiety of the looming “to-do” list means I need to get some of that out of the way to write.
Favorite book of all-time?
It is impossible to answer. Different books have meant different things to me at different times in my life. If forced to answer, perhaps I’d say The Razor’s Edge by Somerset Maugham because the book is about how we choose to live our lives and how, in the end, we always get what we want — or, perhaps, a better way of putting it, what we ask for. It contains my favorite final paragraph in literature; I think about it daily, and it has shaped my perspective on life.
What’s one vice you wish you could give up?
Social media. It’s soul-sucking and indulgent at the same time. It’s the junkiest of junk food. But I need it to promote my books, so there you go.
One movie that will always make you cry?
The Sweet Hereafter, directed by Atom Egoyan. It’s about a terrible school bus accident in a small Canadian town. It is a deep and complex exploration of grief in the face of tragedy, but it’s also about how grief can transform us and make us see life as sweeter. The sweet hereafter isn’t heaven; it’s living on, knowing how fleeting and precious life is. It’s haunting and always crushes me.
What’s the most challenging part of writing for you?
Aside from finding uninterrupted time to write, which is every writer’s problem, I find the first fifty pages of a novel the most difficult. This is partly because, in a mystery, so much has to be embedded in the opening. Also, openings guide the reader, teaching them how to read the novel. There’s a lot that I need to build in. Finally, there’s the emotional hump to get over: Is this a good idea? What am I even doing here, writing this crazy story?
The best book you’ve read in the last year?
I will cheat on this one a little and say Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. I teach it in a Queer Literature course, so I’ve reread it many times. But it’s a beautifully structured and brilliantly crafted short novel. I read a lot of contemporary fiction, which is quite good, but nothing compares to Baldwin’s work. We all should be reading him all of the time.
All of your novels thus far have been in the historical crime genre, but written from a queer perspective. What inspired you to want to write crime and mystery books featuring queer main characters?
I love the mystery genre, but historically it’s been unkind and deeply prejudiced against queer characters, so in part, I wanted to write complex queer characters back into a canonical time for our genre, especially the hard-boiled crime novel, and reclaim some of that space. We’ve always been here, and our lives have always shaped and, at times, guided mainstream straight culture. We need to be represented as a part of our collective past, so that’s why queer characters are the center of my work.
The last series you binge-watched?
Baby Reindeer, which I loved. I’ve not seen a series that addressed stalking with such complexity, where the victim seems unable to release his victimizer for a complex set of reasons. It’s not always easy to watch, but it’s absolutely compelling, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Smarter, pulls-no-punches psychological dramas, please!
The best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
In writing (or art of any sort), don’t always-or-never something. In other words, while there are important guidelines for how to write fiction and they should be absorbed and understood fully, be wary of an instructor who says, “Always do ____” or “Never do ____.” That’s not sound craft advice and can limit your creative expression.
If you could have one writer, dead or alive, to compose your obituary, who would it be and why?
Virginia Woolf — because it would be a long, beautifully wrought, heavily subordinated sentence that will most likely baffle on the first reading. That’s what life is most like in general, and mine is no exception — baffling the first time through! And it will take many rereadings to be understood.
Your latest novel Hall of Mirrors is the second in a trilogy, but you say the books can be read as standalones. What made you want to write more than one book featuring the same characters?
As I was writing the first book in the trilogy, The Savage Kind, I knew I had more to say about Judy and Philippa and wanted to trace their development from teenagers to young women to finally grown women during a particularly difficult time to be an independent-minded woman, especially if you’re queer and, in Judy’s case, mixed race.
I also had more to say about my villains, Adrian Bogdan and Moira Closs, who return in Hall of Mirrors, and the persistence of evil and how atrocities can occur in the name of state security. In my books, the personal and the political are deeply interwoven, so tracing those connections across a decade seemed interesting. The third and final book will be set in 1963, the year after the Cuban Missile Crisis and the year of the March on Washington. Judy and Philippa will overgo another transformation as we enter another tumultuous decade.
One song that you will never be sick of?
“Just Like Heaven” by The Cure. It’s dark, romantic, and has an undeniable hook. It’s the perfect pop song by my favorite musician.
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, how would you explain the importance and significance of queer visibility in literature and media right now?
It’s always been important, and now that we have a degree of visibility — consider great films like All of Us Strangers or Passages or that Justin Torres won the National Book Award for Blackouts — we need to fortify and grow that visibility because there are political forces who would like to see us vanish, chiefly because of how the LGBTQ+ community challenges gender norms. It seems to be less about what we do in the bedroom these days and more about how we question patriarchal norms, which threaten certain power structures. Anyway, to grow as a culture, we must change, and to change, we need LGBTQ+ voices present in all aspects of life.
What’s your current read?
I’m reading Lev A. C. Rosen’s The Bell and the Fog. He’s a great queer YA and historical mystery writer, and we’re doing an event together on my book tour for Hall of Mirrors. This novel is a perfect example of queering hard-boiled crime fiction. So well written and a blast to read.
You’re stuck on a long flight. Which world-famous musician would you want sitting next to you and why?
Taylor Swift, of course! Seriously, I’d love to know what’s on her mind now. Does she comprehend how much cultural power she has now? How will she use that power? Does it fuck with her creativity? I love her music, like many, but I’m interested in her as a cultural figure.
Favorite quote of all-time?
Once again, this is impossible to answer, so I’ll pick one quote. Oscar Wilde: “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Yep.
A self-care ritual you would recommend?
Acupuncture. Seriously, it changed my life.
Favorite board game?
Clue. Obvious but true.
What can we expect to see next from you?
I’ve almost completed a contemporary haunted house novel — a haunted town, really — about my complex relationship with nostalgia. I also want to complete the final book in my trilogy, Hall of Mirrors, the second book. I have an outline; now I need to write it!
Follow John Copenhaver on Instagram and Goodreads, and find his latest novel Hall of Mirrors wherever you buy books.
Jeffrey Reads 