"People have told me I'm 'brave' to talk about not selling my Russia novel, which seems ridiculous to me."

Bestselling author Karen Dukess on letting go of "shoulds", leaning into genre tropes, and her charming new novel, WELCOME TO MURDER WEEK

Hi, friends! A quick note before we get into this week’s author interview: As many of you know, I was one of three named plaintiffs in the Bartz v. Anthropic lawsuit that resulted in a $1.5 billion settlement for authors and publishers whose books were pirated and used as training data. You can read my op-ed about the settlement here as well as a profile of me and the case here. I encourage all authors to find out if their books are part of the class and file a claim if so; the Authors Guild has a comprehensive guide here. (As of 10/7/25, the claims submission site is giving some people error messages—hold tight, it’ll be resolved!)

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled Get It Write post!

---

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 Karen’s heartfelt new mystery, available now.

---

Me: Hello!

Karen: sorry! forgot about google chat!

Hi! No worries!!

How are you? Huge congrats on WELCOME TO MURDER WEEK!!

Thank you! It's been a fun launch overall!

So glad to hear that!! Can you share what the book's about?

The book is a genre blend -- it's about a 34 year old woman named Cath, who lives a very narrow life in Buffalo, New York and one day a few months after her estranged mother dies discovers that her mother had paid in full for the two of them to go to the English countryside to participate in a solve-a-fake-English-village-murder-mystery week. Unable to get a refund, she goes and shares a cottage with two other solo American travelers. Together, the three of them solve the fake murder mystery while also solving the real mystery of why Cath's mother wanted them to go there together. So it's a fake murder mystery, a real family mystery, and a found-family story, and there's also a little romance (handsome local gin distiller). It's a genre blend, for sure!

Such a fun mix! Where'd the idea come from?

The idea was inspired by a trip I took with my sister Laura to the English countryside. We stayed in a charming cottage in the Peak District and spent a week walking the footpaths to stately homes and castles, walking "the Jane Eyre trail," drinking tea, going to pubs, and indulging our Anglophile fantasies.

The whole time, I was laughing at myself for seeing everything through the lens of all the British novels I've read and all the Britbox/Masterpiece Mystery shows I've watched. I couldn't walk across the moors without imagining I was Jane Eyre or cross a field without wondering where my basket of goods a la Emma Woodhouse was.

I didn't think about writing a novel based in the English countryside until I got back to the States, failed to sell my second novel (a more serious novel based on my years living in Russia) and then decided that I had to write something totally different and totally fun. I wanted to feel as giddy and joyful as I did in England.

I thought of writing about a writing group that goes to England and has a similar experience as mine but a friend convinced me that would be deadly dull - a novel about writers writing - and somehow I hit upon the idea of sending some Americans to solve a fake murder mystery.

Wow! We'll definitely dig into MURDER WEEK more, but since I always love talking about the setbacks and emotional rollercoasters of this biz: Can you say a bit more about having to shelve your second book (especially after your debut, THE LAST BOOK PARTY, got such great reviews and everything)?