Maintaining Tension, Pantsing A Thriller, and Writing The Next Cool Girl Speech with Andrea Bartz

The Manuscript Academy

We are so thrilled to talk with Andrea Bartz, author of The Herd and (out today!) We Were Never Here. We discuss how the work was inspired (by someone very nice and non-murderous on a vacation), what it means to write scary works as a woman, and how she maintains *just* enough tension throughout. Andi says: Hi! I’m Andi, a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. My debut thriller, THE LOST NIGHT, received starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist and was optioned for TV by Mila Kunis and Cartel Entertainment. My second novel, THE HERD, was named a best book of 2020 by Real Simple, Marie Claire, Good Housekeeping, and CrimeReads. My third thriller, WE WERE NEVER HERE, is coming in July 2021 from Ballantine. I’m also a journalist whose work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure, Marie Claire, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, USA Today, Elle, and many other outlets, and I’ve held editorial positions at Glamour, Psychology Today, and Self, among other titles.