"I find the limits of my brain and time to be a constant frustration"

USA Today bestseller Stephanie Wrobel on getting into a film-studies mindset, being a "recovering plotter", and her fast-paced new thriller, THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL

Check out the collection of past Words With (Author) Friends, wherein I g-chat with an author and you get to read over my shoulder, and order Stephanie’s page-turning new novel, out now.

---

Stephanie: Hi! How are you? Thanks for having me!

Me: Thanks for chatting with me! I'm good, just on deadline and a bit frazzled (as usual lol). How are YOU? I can't believe you moved across the country and launched a book at the same time!!

Also frazzled! This is such a frazzle-y season!

Also house hunting right now because I am absolutely determined to give myself a nervous breakdown 🙂

Genuinely don't know how you do it!

But congrats on the move and CONGRATULATIONS on your USA Today bestseller, THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL!!! Can you share a little about it?

Thanks so much, Andi! And sure, it’s the story of a guy named Alfred Smettle. Alfred is a huge Hitchcock fan, so he decides to open a themed hotel in the White Mountains of New England honoring the infamous director. On the hotel’s first anniversary, Alfred invites a group of his former college friends for a free stay. He hasn’t spoken to any of these people in sixteen years—and for good reason. When they show up, Hitchcockian chaos ensues!

Such a fresh and brilliant premise! Where'd you get the idea from?

Side note: I'm lol'ing at Gchat's suggested responses, one of which is "I know nothing!"

lolll

I took a film studies course in college with a professor named Dr. Scott. There we watched North by Northwest, which was my intro to Hitchcock. After that, I watched a few of his most popular movies (Psycho, The Birds, etc.) and always wanted to do a deeper dive but never got around to it. Pitching and selling this book idea gave me the opportunity to watch movies in the middle of the day and say I was doing my job!

(The fictional Dr. Scott from the book bears no resemblance to real life Dr. Scott other than his name and profession.)

So fun! It's true, we get to deem a lot of things "research" as novelists, haha

I don't know about you, but all of my books have been excuses to dive into topics that fascinate me. First, Munchausen by proxy, then cults, and now Hitchcock.

Well, plus you've got the juicy setup of a reunion! I was just talking about this with someone—I am endlessly fascinated by friend-reunion thrillers.

How did you decide to take that tack with this?