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ABOUT THE STORY
Shivering and bruised, a teen wakes up on the side of a dirt road with no memory of how she got there-or who she is. The police don’t know where she came from until a frantic man arrives at the station. He’s been searching for her for hours. He has her school ID, her birth certificate, and even family photos. He is her father. Her name is Mary. Or so he says.
When Lola slammed the car door and stormed off into the night, Drew thought they just needed some time to cool off. Except Lola disappeared, and the sheriff, his friends, and the whole town are convinced Drew murdered his girlfriend. Forget proving his innocence, he needs to find her before it’s too late. The longer Lola is missing, the fewer leads there are to follow…and the more danger they both are in.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
There’s something we should establish first: glitter is a color. Now that we’ve established this fact, we go back to our author Megan Lally who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family and four chaotic animals. Besides writing her own YA novels 'That’s Not My Name' (26.01.2024) and soon 'No Place Left To Hide' (07.02.2025), Megan coaches other writers through the writing process.
OUR LITTLE INTERVIEW
1. When and why did you start writing (YA) thrillers?
Probably around 2019? I’d been writing creepy stuff long before that but I got my agent originally for a YA horror in 2014, and I’d been working in that vein for a while. I switched to thrillers when I got the initial idea for 'That’s Not My Name' and realized I actually had a TON of thriller ideas from the hundreds of hours I’ve spent listening to true crime podcasts.
2. Our first impression of a book is important, it’s like meeting a new favorite person! I love beautiful covers, great titles, and fantastic back stories (and not quotes only). And can I just say: this title is amazing and fits the story perfectly! So I’m wondering… did you think about the title before writing or did this idea grow while writing?
No, the title was actually a late addition. This was one of those books where I could NOT figure out what I wanted to call it. For the longest time the document was titled “Daddy Issues” when I was drafting it, which my agent and I found hilarious considering what the story is, but ultimately not a great title to go out to publishers. So we brainstormed some random placeholder title and once it sold to Sourcebooks they pitched a few that I didn’t like at all, so I started going through my book playlist. That’s Not My Name by The Ting Tings was one of the songs on my playlist, so I pitched that as the title and it won everyone over! But I think the final title didn’t come into play until the book was almost fully revised.
3. Your first thriller is very well done - from the beginning until the very end, we have to know what happens! How did you come up with your main character Drew and the idea that he’s going to investigate Lola’s case?
The initial idea for TNMN was just a girl in a ditch by the side of the road. The opening chapter is actually the first mental image I had of the story, but I quickly realized just telling Mary’s POV wouldn’t be a very long book AND that it would be really hard to hold reader interest for a whole book of amnesia. So Drew came about as a way to solve that problem. When I already had Mary and everything she was going through, it was a natural progression toward “Who might be outside of this that’s dealing with this same problem in a totally different way?” The person who is MISSING someone, rather than being the person that’s missing. Drew fit into that mold very easily and he was actually the easiest of the two POV’s to write. He came into my brain almost fully formed with his angst and sarcasm and desperation to find the girl he loves.
4. 'That’s Not My Name' has multiple points of view, so here’s a difficult question: you could only write (and read) books with multiple POVs or single POV… what would it be?
Oh this is a super hard question. If I had to choose, I’d probably choose dual POV to write and read, because it allows for so many new angles to the story. Having said that though, my next book and the one after that are single POV. Haha.
5. Your next thriller 'No Place Left To Hide' will come out soon (07.02.2025) and here in Rennes we’re really excited! On your website, there’s written “Coming Early 2026… Untitled YA 3”... Can you please, please tell us a bit more about your third book?
I can’t say too much about it (especially because it isn’t written yet) but I can tell you that both TNMN, and NPLTH are set in the Pacific Northwest (here in Oregon) but my third one… is not. The characters are from here, but they’re on vacation, and things go very very badly. Hahaha.
Bonus question: what are you reading at the moment?
I recently finished 'The Debutantes', by Olivia Worley, which comes out in October and it was FANTASTIC. I’m also currently in the middle of 'A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder' on audiobook!
ABOUT THE BOOK
I cannot believe 'That’s Not My Name' is a debut novel! The beginning until the end are so well executed, the whole story just made sense. Sometimes with thrillers you’re like “yes sure” but this time it felt logical. By this, I especially mean the decision making process of main character Drew. The entire time I was reading (I read it in one day), I had to know what was going on and what was going to happen! Can’t go into many details because I don’t want to spoil the story (just trust me when I say it is that good and please read this thriller so we can talk about it). And, of course, the book is available in our shop.
Thank you, Megan, for answering all these questions! I still can't believe the title was a late addition!
Author: Megan Lally
Book: That’s Not My Name Publishing date: 26.01.2024 Website: Megan Lally Instagram: Megan Lally