Elizabeth Maxwell

Elizabeth Maxwell lived for a long time in the east until one particularly snowy February when she couldn’t take it anymore, packed up her angry cat and moved west. She’s been hanging out in the Northern California sunshine ever since. (Well, except for a decade in San Francisco where it was foggy all the time but the restaurants were really good so there was that.) Maxwell currently lives in Davis, CA with her husband, two kids and the same angry cat (who is now 97 cat years old.)

Her debut novel is Happily Ever After.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Maxwell's reply:

I’m about half way through Doctor Sleep by Stephen King and it’s completely taken over my life. I love the way King can take the perfectly ordinary and make it so creepy. From the moment I pick up one of his novels, I’m on edge, waiting for the thing under the bed to reach out and grab my ankle with a cold, slimy claw.

What brings me back to Stephen King time and time again is how much I like his characters. Thrillers are too often populated with throw aways who are put through the paces so we can all just hurry up and get to the exciting parts. King takes his time, building his characters, layering them with the pain and pleasure of life until they feel like friends. So of course you can’t turn away now. You can’t leave them to face the menace alone. And you know whatever is out there, whatever is coming, it’s going to be bad.

Visit Elizabeth Maxwell's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Happily Ever After.

--Marshal Zeringue