Paris, France
May 2014
An author sits at a café in Montparnasse, drinking champagne, thinking about murder.
Over the course of the week, in cafés and restaurants, from the hills of Sacré-Coeur to the bowels of the Metro, from Versailles to the swanky streets off L’Arc de Triomphe, after miles upon miles of walks along the Seine, to the shadow of the sparkling Tour Eiffel, a book is born. A story of betrayal and danger. A story of need and desire. A story born in a homely black notebook, the kind Hemingway used, because the writer is a romantic who likes the old ways when it comes to storytelling.
* * *
I went to Paris looking for inspiration, but didn’t know I’d return with a real story. I had page after page of notes on the idea of a woman obsessed by a stranger’s murder at Sacré-Coeur, and how her life derails when she can’t leave it alone. The idea grew from day to day. It was an in-between story, the one I couldn’t let go, even though I had other book responsibilities. I worked on it every free moment, then dedicated last summer to it, until the idea became a story, and the story became a novel.
Which, for the first fifteen months of its life was called, aptly, if not uncreatively, The Paris Novel. Eventually, it became more vicious, more visceral, more real: Lie to Me. A much more evocative title, don’t you think? It’s certainly more fitting to the story.
I went back to Paris again last year so I could capture the magic I’d felt when I started the book. Large swaths of the story were written in Hemingway’s old haunts. There is an energy to these dark bars and sunny cafés; the spirits of the literary masters linger on for those who wish to honor them. I have no doubt my words were influenced by their presence.
Lie to Me was a huge challenge for me, the biggest one thus far in my career. I stretched my wings in completely new ways. My book journal is full of reversals and new ideas, many of which were abandoned as the story grew. I have several notebooks full of notes and plans and snippets of dialogue. It’s very fun to read these nascent thoughts; the enthusiasm is clear. Even now, several months removed from finishing, it bleeds through the page.
I am so excited to share Ethan and Sutton’s story with you. I had a specific goal in mind with this story—stretch myself beyond my limits. My daily to-do list had a permanently starred entry: Be willing to take one more step with LTM. I have, and I’m thrilled to take you along with me.
J.T. Ellison
Nashville
November 2016