Monday, July 05, 2021

Q&A with Geoff Rodkey

From my Q&A with Geoff Rodkey, author of Lights Out in Lincolnwood: A Novel:
How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Lights Out in Lincolnwood is about as on-the-nose as a title gets. On an otherwise unremarkable Tuesday morning, the lights go out in the wealthy fictional suburb of Lincolnwood, New Jersey. And it’s not just the lights: phones, laptops, cars, and anything else with a circuit board suddenly stops working. With no warning or explanation, the modern world grinds to a halt.

This instantly upends the lives of everyone in the community, including the four members of the Altman family through whose eyes we experience the three days that follow. Disaffected marketing consultant (and clandestine day-drinker) Jen, her lawyer-turned-TV-writer husband Dan, overachieving high school senior Chloe, and underachieving freshman Max all struggle to figure out whether what just happened is a civilization-ending catastrophe, a temporary pain in the neck, or something in between. At what point should they quit worrying about their usual day-to-day problems and start focusing on more existential questions, like where to find food and drinking water? Should they try to flee town, or dig in and ride out the storm? And if their neighbors are already doing it, is it okay to...[read on]
Visit Geoff Rodkey's website.

Q&A with Geoff Rodkey.

--Marshal Zeringue