Q&A With Maggie Thrash 

Maggie Thrash is the author of Honor Girl, Strange Lies, Lost Soul Be At Peace, Strange Truth & coming out on March 19th Rainbow Black. 

Q: Maggie, would you like to tell the readers a little bit about your book Rainbow Black, & what makes this novel unique from your other ones?

A: Rainbow Black is my first work of adult fiction. It’s also my first book that isn’t set in the South. I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, but I now live in New Hampshire, where Rainbow Black is set. I wanted to explore the New England spirit in all its coldness and beauty, the way it’s still haunted by America’s Puritan ghosts. It was the perfect setting for a novel about the Satanic Panic⎯a real-life phenomenon that occurred in the late 80s where people all over the country started believing in a conspiracy theory that preschool teachers were committing Satanic ritual abuse on children.   

Q: Where did the idea for Rainbow Black come from?

A: I was too young to be aware of the Satanic Panic while it was happening. By the time I was a teenager it had been mostly forgotten except for a vague idea leftover in people’s minds that Dungeons and Dragons was dangerous. Moral panics are usually litigated at the most disposable edges of society: the tabloids, talk shows, twitter. They trend for a while, then are thrown away like trash without ever being resolved. I wanted to write a very intimate, very detailed novel from the point of view of a girl who gets swept up in one of America’s moral panics. I wanted to explore what happens to the people we throw away like old newspapers as soon as the story isn’t trendy anymore. 

Q: How long did it take for you to write Rainbow Black? Did it take just as long for you to write your other books?

A: It took much longer to write Rainbow Black⎯almost 14 years. My other books took between 6 months and 2 years to write.

Q: Are you currently writing your next book & if so can you reveal any details about it?

A: I’m in a chaotic stage where I’m trying out lots of different ideas. I don’t know exactly where I’ll land.

Q: Does Hollywood have the rights to your work?

A: I currently own the rights to all my work.

Q: What lessons do you hope readers take away from your novels?

A: I don’t write books to teach lessons, but, if anything, I would hope the reader of Rainbow Black might come away from the book feeling inspired to be less judgmental toward others, and toward themselves.