“I often have a central image in these books, usually an art piece,” said English Professor and writer Maria Hummel. “And for this book, it is a projection in the desert. A movie screen with the image of a woman sitting at her breakfast table eating cereal with a loaded gun.”
And around that image, Hummel has built Lesson in Red, a captivating thriller set in the dynamic world of the Los Angeles arts scene, and a companion novel to her 2018 Still Lives.
The story opens with the protagonist, Maggie Richter, back in her home state of Vermont, four months after the events of Still Lives (in which she became engrossed in the mystery of an acclaimed artist who went missing on the night of her own opening night gala). Maggie is unsure about whether she wants to return to Los Angeles. However, when her mentor calls her in search of “somebody discreet” to look into mysterious happenings at a prestigious L.A. area art college, she decides to move back west, to uncover the story of Brenae Brasil, a rising star in the art world who was found dead in her studio.
“I write novels because they give me worlds that I can control. I can take the emotional pieces and the ethical questions that I have about our world, and put them into a world that I can manage with characters that I can move around,” Hummel said.
And if you want to know what happens in this one, you’ll have to buy the book.
Whether writing thriller novels, poetry, or nonfiction, Hummel uses the process of writing as a way to make sense of the world around her and an opportunity for introspection. “It's a way for me to process what's going on in our world, in a fabricated one. And it's pretty addictive. I love it. Especially after the very uncontrollable set of years that we've had recently.”
Although there are common steps in the making her novels, “every project dictates the process a little bit,” and thrillers like Lesson in Red and Still Lives have required extra mapping and planning of ideas, because to successfully “play the suspense game with the reader,” she has had to plant red herrings and include clues hinting towards what’s really going on at the heart of the mystery.
Her advice to young aspiring writers is, first and foremost, to get into the habit of writing consistently, comparing a daily writing session to a runners’ daily mileage goals. “It's hard to establish a regular practice, but it's still possible to carve out wedges of time… If you consider yourself a writer, write every day.” She also recommends reading with a particular eye for structure, and observing how the authors you admire go about the technical business of constructing a novel.
Hummel also insists on the importance of having interesting experiences, in addition to establishing a writing practice, for finding inspiration and motivation to create. In fact, she credits the time she herself spent working at an art museum in Los Angeles as a big inspiration for Lesson in Red and Still Lives. “I was very immersed in the art world for five years. I wouldn't have been able to write the last two books that I did without that inspiration.”
For more information about Lesson in Red, tune in to a live public conversation hosted by Skylight books in June between Maria Hummel and Jessica Goldberg, who is currently working on adapting the novel’s predecessor, Still Lives, for screen.
Links to purchase Lesson in Red, Still Lives, and other publications can be found on Maria Hummel's Official Website
At UVM, Maria Hummel is an associate professor in the English department, and teaches courses in creative writing.
Gideon Parker is a Sophomore Anthropology student who likes a good story as much as anyone.