After “The Christie Affair”

Nina de Gramont has lived every writer’s dream. Her book, “The Christie Affair,” a historical fiction novel about the real-life 11-day disappearance of Agatha Christie, debuted at No. 5 on The New York Times Best Sellers list in February 2022. That same month, it landed on Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club list and went on to become an international bestseller. The book was so popular I received two copies as birthday gifts.

From her office at UNCW, where she teaches creative writing, de Gramont discussed what led her to become an author, her writing process and how she came to write in multiple genres.

“I will say that, like I think pretty much all writers, I did have an early and immediate passion for reading. From a very young age, I read voraciously. I was the kid under the covers with the flashlight,” de Gramont says.

Early affirmation of her writing helped her decide to pursue it as a career. In 2001, before leaving Massachusetts for Wilmington, where her husband and fellow writer David Gessner had accepted a job in UNCW’s Creative Writing Department, she wrote and published “Of Cats and Men,” a collection of short stories.

Once here, she enrolled in UNCW’s Creative Writing MFA program. Busy raising a daughter and taking classes, it wasn’t until seven years later that her first novel, “Gossip of the Starlings,” came out. It led her to explore a genre she may not have chosen otherwise.

“My first novel was for adults, but it was about teenagers, and some of the editors who read it thought it read more YA [young adult]. At the time there was such a demand for those books, and since I had accidentally almost written one, I thought I’d write one on purpose. I will say that I love teenagers — they’re very fascinating and darling … so it was kind of a natural fit,” she explains.

She went on to write four YA novels and two more novels for adults. Once again, she explored new genres. “The Last September” was a mystery, and “The Christie Affair” was historical fiction, although de Gramont is quick to point out that the latter could be considered a mystery as well.

“I’ve always admired writers who do something different every time. With my new book, I tried to do something different enough so that it would be challenging and entertaining to me,” she says.

When enjoying a good book that flows adeptly from page to page, there’s no hint to the reader that the author’s writing journey was anything but effortless, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I think my biggest challenge is getting critical voices out of my head, realizing that the first draft is not going to be very good,” she says. “But I love rewriting — when I have a full draft and I can set about making it the best thing that I’m capable of. That’s when I start having fun, but first drafts are difficult for me — that sort of necessary working out the story.”

“It’s not really a challenge anymore, but early on, the challenge was just not really believing or understanding that that kind of consistency was necessary,” she continues.

De Gramont credits her husband for bringing some structure to her writing.

“I think that he had a big effect on my writing process because I’m naturally kind of a wait-until-the-muse-hits kind of person,” she says. “And then, once I was living with him, I saw how disciplined he was about getting up to work … because, you know, if you’re supposed to be writing and you’re not, and you hear the click, click, click, click from another room, it’s very motivating.”

In 2013, de Gramont became a faculty member in UNCW’s Creative Writing Department, where she teaches fiction. She dispels the recently fashionable notion that Gen Z is lazy and disinterested.

“All of my students are super passionate and really dedicated, and great fun. They just get better and better,” she says.

De Gramont often pulls from real-life experiences. In a previous interview, she stated, “I borrow things from real life, things I know and remember, and then I change them wildly. Over subsequent drafts, the story moves further and further away from my own memory and closer to what would work best for the novel.”

As it happens, her upcoming book, “Peregrine Hill,” is inspired by her great-grandmother, who entered into a forced marriage with her great-grandfather when he was 57 and she was 19.

“It was a really, really unhappy marriage, so the story stayed with me, and I sort of took the bare bones of that situation,” she explains.

The book is set in the early 20th century in the Northeast, and de Gramont traveled to New York and Rhode Island extensively while researching it.

“I really like going to the places where the novel takes place. It always gives you unexpected gifts that end up informing stories in ways that you didn’t see coming,” she says.

The launch of “Peregrine Hill” will take place at the Cameron Art Museum on Nov. 11 from 7-8 p.m. The event is free; go to cameronartmuseum.org/events to register.