Q&A with Gin Phillips

From my Q&A with Gin Phillips, author of Family Law:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

This is my sixth novel, and it’s the first one where my original title has stuck. Normally one of the first things that happens in the publishing process is for my editors to tell me—in detail—why my title doesn’t work at all. Maybe I’m getting better at this. At any rate, Family Law has both an obvious connection to the story and a more layered one. The book follows the friendship between Rachel, a teenager struggling with the expectations of her very traditional family, and Lucia, a young lawyer who specializes in family law. So that’s a pretty obvious reference. But the book also looks at the reach and limitations of family: it’s a story about the mothers we’re born to and the mothers we choose for ourselves. So “family law” also works as a nod to our ability to expand the very definition of family.

That said, the title might lead readers to believe it’s more of a courtroom drama than it is. It’s a very straightforward sort of title, and it doesn’t necessarily convey lyricism and warmth and humor, all of which I hope are...[read on]

Visit Gin Phillips's website.

Writers Read: Gin Phillips (August 2017).

The Page 69 Test: Fierce Kingdom.

The Page 69 Test: Family Law.

Q&A with Gin Phillips.

--Marshal Zeringue