In today’s Big Idea, author Gwenda Bond wants to pull off a heist — both in her latest novel The Frame-Up, and in the course of the post itself. Ready to be in on it?
GWENDA BOND:
Can I steal a moment of your time?
There, gotcha. If you like a heist as much as I do, hopefully you won’t mind too much.
My new magic heist book, The Frame-Up, started with an idea of an art heist (my favorite) centered on a painting with a complicated history. I knew the main character would be someone who had run from her past, and being recruited to steal this work of art would make her go back and confront it all. Quickly, Dani Poissant presented herself, the daughter who betrayed her infamous art thief mother and landed her in prison when she was a teenager. A prodigal returning to try to put the gang back together to do an impossible job…
Heist novels are almost as difficult to pull off as actual heists. I knew that from listening to friends who’ve written them tear their hair out for years. While I was thinking about my characters and following research threads about the history of women in painting academies and many other things, I also immersed myself in the genre, watching dozens of movies, reading all the classic examples I hadn’t.
I wanted to go into writing this book knowing exactly what works for me in heist stories and what doesn’t. Structurally, they always have three parts: setting up the heist, the heist, and the aftermath. The variations mainly involve on how long those parts are, which ones have the most weight, and the details where the devil lives. The best heists start with a lure, something the characters desperately want. Even better is when it’s something they desperately need. There’s also the question of, well, vibes. How does the story feel? Is it dire or breezy, sinister or stylish? Or a mix?
I also knew I wanted my thieves to have magic…
The Frame-Up: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s
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Source: The Big Idea: Gwenda Bond
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