Tasha Coryell: On Falling in Love With Villains

Tasha Coryell lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with her husband, son, and greyhound. She holds an MFA and PhD from the University of Alabama. Her stories, essays, and poems have been featured in a multitude of journals, and Love Letters to a Serial Killer is her first novel. In her free time, Tasha can be found running, cross-stitching, and watching copious amounts of television. Follow her on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

Tasha Coryell

Photo © Emily Covington Photography

In this interview, Tasha discusses Love Letters to a Serial Killer, her advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Tasha Coryell
Literary agent: Katie Greenstreet
Book title: Love Letters to a Serial Killer
Publisher: Berkley
Release date: June 25, 2024
Genre/category: Thriller
Previous titles: Hungry People: Short Stories
Elevator pitch: Frustrated with her job prospects and personal life, Hannah falls in love with an accused serial killer after corresponding with him through letters. Things take a turn when he proposes to her after he’s found not guilty and she needs to figure out the truth before it’s too late.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I was in a period of reading a lot of true crime and I was interested in the women that fall in love with killers. I wondered what would happen in a scenario where a woman fell in love with an accused killer who was then released. Would she be disappointed if he turned out to be a normal man? In certain cases, women love accused killers because they’re convinced of their innocence, but I don’t think that’s true all of the time. People have a certain affinity for monsters.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

Love Letters to a Serial Killer originally started as a 1,500-word short story called “If I Kill You, We Can’t Be Together” in 2016. I read the story at a reading where it was well received, and I started thinking about turning it into a novel. When I started writing, I was teaching college English full time and newly enrolled in a PhD program. I tried to tell myself that I didn’t have time to write a novel, but I found myself very driven by the idea. I wrote the first draft in daily 250-word segments whenever I could grab small moments of time. I was doing a lot of academic writing in my PhD program and working on the novel felt like eating candy in comparison. When I finished, I put the novel aside for a few years while I wrote other things. It wasn’t until the end of 2021 that I picked it up again. I find it great to read my own writing at a distance because it feels like someone else wrote it and I’m able to let go of my insecurities. That gave me the confidence to query agents. I signed with my agent in March of 2022 and she sent book out on submission in October 2022. Now it’s 2024, which means that it was an eight-year process from idea to publication. It took longer for the book to get published than it did to finish my PhD.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

This is my debut novel, so the whole process was a learning experience for me. I’d previously published a short story collection with a small press, and my husband is a nonfiction writer with a number of books at small and academic presses, which is a very different experience. For a number of years, I taught a novel writing course to undergraduates at the University of Alabama, and it was very fun getting to live out scenarios that I’d told them about in the abstract. I didn’t tell many people that my agent was sending out my book because I know things don’t always work out, but I updated my students throughout the process. Intentionally or not, I think that publishing is very opaque, and I wanted to give them transparency as I gained it myself. In particular, I’ve found it enlightening to see the difference in the U.S. and U.K. markets.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

When I started writing, I didn’t know if William was guilty or not until the very end. I prefer to let characters guide me to what they want to do. I can tell if I’m headed in the right direction if the writing is easy. When things become difficult, that’s a signal that something went wrong, and I need to backtrack. I did a lot of writing that didn’t make it into the final draft of the book. I don’t mind writing things that will never be published, as they’re in the book even if they aren’t literally in the book. My dad asked me recently if William is actually guilty and I told him that he has to read the book. He didn’t like that response.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

A friend read a proof of the book earlier this year and she immediately texted me to tell me how relatable Hannah’s dating life is and talk about which vampire on Vampire Diaries is the hottest. It was the perfect response. I want readers to relate to Hannah’s millennial experiences, but also talk about evil fictional hotties that they love despite their better instincts. Not everyone can relate to falling in love with a serial killer, but almost everyone has a villain that they love. For instance, I was horribly attracted to the entire cast of “Succession.” That’s why the show was so enjoyable. Everyone was so evil and hot.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

I have something that I call “good brain time,” which is when I’m functioning at my best and I try to reserve as much of my good brain time as possible for writing. It’s easy to fall into a trap where you say something like “let me do these five tasks so that I can focus on writing” and then never end up writing at all. The other tasks can wait until you’ve written something. You can do the other tasks with the dregs of your brain. Outside of my family, writing is the most important thing in my life.

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