Q&A: Kelly and Kristina Mancaruso, Co-Authors of ‘Rumoured’

We chat with co-authors Kelly and Kristina Mancaruso about Rumoured, which is an exhilarating debut thriller perfect for fans of Ellery Lloyd and Lucy Clarke, full of delightful twists and turns and a fair share of easter eggs for the most devoted readers.

Hi, Kelly and Kristina! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourselves?

Kelly: Hey, Nerd Daily, thanks for having us! We’re two sisters born and raised in New York, but both live far away now—far away from New York and each other sadly, but writing stories together keeps us close.

I moved to the UK about thirteen years ago to do a master’s degree at the University of Nottingham and never left (fell in love with the beautiful countryside, pub life, and a very handsome firefighter I now call my husband). I now work as a copywriter for a popular software company while I moonlight as an author on evenings and weekends. If you ever have the chance to strike up a conversation with me, I can talk for hours about dogs (specifically my beloved cavapoo, Dany), Game of Thrones (Dany is named after Daenerys Targaryen, of course), Taylor Swift (Midnights and evermore have my heart), and Korean musical group BTS (I have a small BTS tattoo on my wrist and a large cardboard cutout of Park Jimin in my office). I’m also always up-to-date on the latest celebrity gossip, a guilty pleasure that helped inspire Rumoured along with my personal experiences of being a part of online fan communities.

Kristina: After working for years in Manhattan, I recently moved to Florida, where I live with my eighteen-month old daughter, photographer husband, and two German Shepherds. To quote Richard Gilmore, I’m an autumn 🙂 so while I love being close to the beach and Disney World (specifically Star Wars world!), I find myself really missing fall in New York this time of year. A random fact about me is that I used to want to be a singer-songwriter like Harlow Hayes and wrote many of my own songs. I even interned at Sony Music one summer, where I got to work on projects for Ciara and Miguel. I also love a good conspiracy theory, not because I believe them but because it’s fascinating to see what people come up with. It was so fun to then come up with our own wild conspiracies for Rumoured, while also citing some of our favorite real-life ones…

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

Kelly: Kristina and I have been living in our own little fantasy world since we were kids. We’re only fourteen months apart, so we’d often keep each other occupied by making up stories and acting them out for our parents, who lovingly humored us. It wasn’t until we were in our early twenties though that we decided to write a book. I remember Kristina calling me while I was in England, asking if I wanted to write a fantasy novel with her. Even though we had no idea what we were doing, we had a blast and became obsessed with creating worlds and characters.

Kristina: I started out as a songwriter, loving how I could tell a story through lyrics. And one day my love for reading and telling stories just clicked. I thought, hey, maybe I can write a novel instead of a song. It was a terrible first attempt I wrangled Kelly into, but ten years and four books later, we finally landed a publishing deal for Rumoured, which allowed me to combine songwriting and novel writing into one—the perfect debut.

Your latest novel, Rumoured, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Kelly: Fun, dark, twisted, layered, unhinged

Kristina: Lyrics, conspiracies, pop culture, fandoms, easter eggs (technically seven words, but phrases count as one, right!?)

What can readers expect?

Kelly: Readers can expect something in between a Taylor Jenkins Reid and Gillian Flynn novel. So, a glamorous celebrity world with mixed media elements, but with a much darker premise and darker themes.

The aim was to make readers feel like they’re reading about a real celebrity scandal as it’s unfolding, so the first half of the story is predominantly told from the point of view of entertainment reporter, Naomi Barnes. We really wanted to emulate that “falling down the rabbit hole” feeling when you first discover an artist or read a piece of gossip, so expect lots of tabloids, interviews, social media commentary, and more mixed media elements interspersed throughout the novel.

Kristina: We also spent a lot of time layering in Easter eggs and clues. So for any Swiftie sleuths or anyone else who loves searching for clues in their favorite artist’s music, keep an eye out for bold letters and other little clues from us, in addition to your normal plot clues.

Where did the inspiration for Rumoured come from?

Kristina: The initial idea sparked after Kelly called me asking what I thought ‘I Did Something Bad’ by Taylor Swift was about. She started going on about other artists like Halsey and Lana, noting how dark and ominous some of their lyrics are too and then we thought, wait a second, we’re thriller writers, why not create a dubious singer-songwriter who may or may not have done something bad, and then hide cryptic messages in her music?

Kelly: The way we like to describe Rumoured is that it’s inspired by the illustrious careers, alluring personas, and cryptic lyricism of iconic musicians like Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift and The Beatles. As Kristina mentioned, we started to notice this dark theme running throughout our favorite songs, even if masked by an upbeat melody, and before we knew it Harlow Hayes was yelling at us to tell her story.

I was also excited by the prospect of weaving in my personal experience with online fan communities. These spaces can be real safe havens for some, but they can also get out of hand. It’s so easy to get lost in the online world or hyperfixate on a star, and that was something else we really wanted to explore. And we thought it’d be interesting to throw a cynical journalist into the mix, someone who knows all that glitters isn’t gold, and someone who has seen first-hand what too much ambition and craving fame can do to people.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

Kelly: I really enjoyed writing Harlow’s lyrics. I’d listen to my favorite songs and imagine Harlow singing them, wondering what she’d be saying instead and why, and what kind of secrets she’d be hiding in her lyrics. It was also so fun going back and forth with Kristina on this. She would put melodies to some of the songs and send me voice notes singing little snippets. I’ll need to dig those out one day!

Kristina: Aside from writing Harlow’s discography, I loved writing Naomi. Especially toward the end, when you question whether she is losing her sanity or is actually catching onto the truth…

Can you tell us a bit about your process in co-writing Rumoured?

Kristina: When we first came up with the premise for Rumoured, we were busy working on a different novel, so while we finished that, we let the idea incubate. It wasn’t until about six months later that we finally started planning the book out properly. Over the course of the next year and a half, we not only wrote multiple drafts of Rumoured but also created an entire discography for a fictional pop star.

The best part about writing with your sister is that you can be brutally honest with each other and not take it to heart. One second you’re in a heated argument, the next you’re calling the other a genius. And we have a veto rule, so if we both don’t love something, it’s gotta go. But sometimes we can be stubborn and in that case the tiebreak will go to our agent or our editor.

Kelly: The planning phase always consists of us spending hours on the phone outlining together. We use a typical three act structure, so plot it out based on those beats. Then, when we’re ready to start writing, we just take elements of the story to work on separately. Kristina is a really great fast drafter—no fear of the blank page for her—so she’ll blast through a very rough first draft that I then go back and rewrite, add new scenes, etc. She’ll then go over my work, I’ll go over hers again, and we just continuously build on the other’s work until we’re both happy. We use Google docs so we can work in the draft at the same time.

We work in layers, so the first draft is getting the main story and characters down. The next draft is rewriting it with any major edits in mind, and then when that’s done, we look at all the other elements and strings as their own layers. So with Rumoured, in addition to Harlow and Naomi layers, there was a lyrics layer, a Colton layer, a Jade layer, a Faye layer, a Leo layer, a multimedia layer, etc. Basically, it’s just a way for us to look at the manuscript with a specific objective in mind and make sure every element is well developed and layered in properly.

What’s next for you both?

We are currently finishing up our next thriller novel, which will be released next year! It’s more of a traditional psychological thriller, a little darker than Rumoured, but still with a celebrity scandal at the forefront. This time though, we’re taking you to England and swapping pop stardom for the glamorous world of pro football (soccer) WAGs…

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?

Kelly: Oh there are so many! The Favorites by Layne Fargo was hands-down my favorite read of the year. As a historical fiction lover, I also loved The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden. And for thrillers, I loved I Did Warn Her by Sian Gilbert, Sun Trap by Rachel Wolf, Cross My Heart by Megan Collins, and This Book Will Bury Me by Ashley Winstead. My most anticipated read for the end of the year is definitely Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber.

Kristina: Ditto on the thrillers Kelly mentioned above! While I love reading and writing thrillers though, it can definitely take its toll, so I’ll be spending the rest of this year escaping into rom coms and romantasy. I just read Nightshade by Autumn Woods and really enjoyed it, so excited to read more dark academia as well.

Will you be picking up Rumoured? Tell us in the comments below!