Escaping from Houdini Author Kerri Maniscalco talks Card Tricks, Flipping Tropes, and Devil’s Deals with Stephanie Garber

Stephanie Garber: Last year when Hunting Prince Dracula came out I was so excited because I love all things vampire; I didn’t know how you were going to top that book. Now, you’ve written Escaping From Houdini and brought mysterious carnival performers and magical tricks into your murderous world, and you’ve done a marvelous job with it. I’d love to know how you went about researching all of this, or if you’re secretly a magician?
Kerri Maniscalco: Hahaha Can you imagine if I moonlighted as a magician? Better yet…we should totally take circus classes. That would be the coolest!
Garber: That would be so fun. And I can totally see you moonlighting as a magician.
Maniscalco: Unfortunately, no matter how hard I practiced some of the card tricks, I am ABYSMAL at them. Researching the magic acts was probably one of the hardest things from all of the books combined so far. Most magicians don’t want to give up their secrets, so it took FOREVER to find the engineering/mechanics behind them. But the card tricks? For those I got to watch YouTube videos for magician beginners, and it was so much fun!
Garber: You can tell you had fun! Now, I may have stalked your Twitter feed for this interview, and I may have seen a tweet where you wrote, “dear 2018, please allow female characters the same space to make mistakes and learn as you do male characters…let our ladies screw up; they deserve redemption arcs…” I loved this request, and I’m also curious: does this tweet have anything to do with Escaping From Houdini’s incredible leading lady, Audrey Rose?
Maniscalco: It definitely had to do with questions I’d been repeatedly getting in interviews about certain events that occur in Escaping From Houdini. The focus usually shifts to “poor Thomas…how could she,” and it’s a weird double standard. In media people generally root for the “bad boy gets reformed through love” trope. But when that’s flipped? If a young woman has ONE moment of doubt she’s shamed, and people rally to the young man who had the misfortune of loving this Very Bad Woman. (This goes doubly true for queer/femme identifying people and women of color.) This idea of perfection is not only unrealistic, but super unhealthy to perpetuate.
We all make mistakes. We’ve all questioned things we previously felt we’d never question. We’ve all hurt other people, intentionally or not. We’ve all been perfectly imperfect in some way. Those messy bits? They’re what help us to (hopefully) grow. I’d love for ALL characters to be permitted the space to redeem themselves—or not!—over the course of a book.
Garber: Yes! I am clapping right now. This answer is probably one of the reasons I always adore your characters. Escaping From Houdini introduces readers to one character I particularly enjoyed reading about—Mephistopheles. I’d love to know where your inspiration for him came from.

Maniscalco: Aww, thank you, Steph! And likewise! I cannot get enough of your characters and was SO excited to be inside Tella’s head during Legendary. And the new characters??? I am swooning hard over here! Bring on 2019 and Finale—I am so excited to see what other magic you’ve cooked up for us!
Let’s see…Mephistopheles took his stage name from the Faust legend. The story goes that Faust was bored and made a deal with the devil and sold his soul for wicked delights. (In the German legend, Mephistopheles is a demon employed by the devil and was sent to make the deal.) I knew I’d wanted an underlying tone of “Deal with the Devil” in this book because the carnival was going to be dark and Gothic, tempting the upperclass passengers to submit to their desires. The idea of this mysterious, tricksy magician who took on this infamous persona sprang to mind. I imagined him as if he were part Fae—everything out of his mouth is carefully constructed, and you always feel a little unsure of what you just agreed to.
Garber: Ooh! I love him even more now that you’ve said you liked imagining him as if he were part Fae—I can totally see that. And now I’m tempted to ask if you’ll ever write a book about the Fae, but that’s a little off topic, so I’m going to ask a question for all the writers out there—and for myself. I’m curious, what are some of the things you’ve learned since writing your first novel?
Maniscalco: Oh my gosh…I think since I’d written like seven trunked novels before, I imagined having the mechanics down pretty well. In reality, writing under a deadline is a much different beast. I’ve learned to be less rigid and structured when I’m drafting. I’ve also made peace with the fact that first drafts are messy, complicated heaps of words and ideas, and the real magic happens during revisions. It’s also okay to have your drafting method change with each book—throughout this whole series I haven’t ended up drafting any of them the same way. I’ve also learned to treat myself kindly—we’re not machines. Taking breaks and knowing when to pull back is one of the best/healthiest things to do. (That last bit is all thanks to YOU, dear friend!)
Garber: This is such good advice. Any last words for readers before they join Audrey Rose and Thomas Cresswell aboard the luxurious RMS Etruria?
Maniscalco: Above everything else, I hope for a few hours readers will fall under the spell of the Moonlight Carnival. That perhaps they might start to question the motives of their favorite characters. Maybe they’ll discover sleight of word is just as clever a trick as sleight of hand. I hope they root for both Audrey Rose and Thomas, and prepare themselves for a wild and bumpy ride.
Escaping from Houdini is on sale now.