Danya Kukafka, author of 'Notes on an Execution' - Writer talks about the pressure of the second book, the process journal and how to feel the plot

This week, we chat to Danya Kukafka. Her first debut, 'Girl in the Snow', was released in 2017 and was extremely successful. It was a national bestseller, translated in many languages, and then the pressure came. The pressure of that difficult second book... how do you follow up on success?

Danya started to write furiously, and along came 'Notes on an Execution'. It tells the story of Ansel Packer, who is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he's done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn't want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. Through a kaleidoscope of women--a mother, a sister, a homicide detective--we learn the story of Ansel's life.

We talk about why her writing routine has changed since that book, how she's hopefully made it calmer and healthier. You can hear about her first idea for the story and how it was mostly the feeling of the plot rather than all the details that became clear.

We chat through her process journal, how working in publishing helps her write, and why what she thinks will happen in the book rarely comes true.

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