The Reel Life of Zara Kegg

In *The Reel Life of Zara Kegg*, novelist Brad Barkley tells the story of 16-year-old Zara Kegg who is still grieving the loss of her mother three years after her death. Her dad decides to move them back to his hometown of Carolina Beach, North Carolina, where she gets a job as a projectionist at an old, rundown moviehouse called Palace Theatre. For Zara, the projection booth becomes a refuge where she can hide out and view the world quietly through 1950s and '60s sci-fi and horror films. She soon meets an oddly dressed boy named Zachary whom she nicknames Mr. Inconsistent, and the more time they spend together, the closer they become. Barkley continues, "...but things with Zachary don't quite add up. His behavior is a little erratic, his stories don't quite make sense, and she has to figure out what's going on with him as she's also figuring out whether this is someone to trust, sort of, her reentry point into real life again." With regard to his protagonist, Barkley admits he doesn't know how he came up with her distinctive name. "Character names always either just pop into your head or you struggle and you have to find a name, and you try out twenty of them and none of them sound right. So this is one of those that just popped into my head and I knew right away it was right."

When it comes to his writing process, Barkley explains that he doesn't plan out his stories or begin with an outline. As a pantser, he enjoys writing the story as it comes to mind. "...writing is a process of discovery. You find out what the book is about, you find out who's important to Zara... and I think the best writing comes from your subconscious mind, so I feel like I don't need to plan what's going to happen any more than I plan what I'm going to dream at night. My dreams are always way more interesting than anything I can make up, so I just trust that part of my brain to tell the story and my job is get out of the way. I always like to say, I'm the designated typist. That's my job."