Aggie Blum Thompson
Author Interview - Aggie Blum Thompson
Author of I Don't Forgive You
“I Don't Forgive You deals with the ramifications of shame, the stories we tell ourselves that may not may not be true, and the power of social media to wreak havoc on our lives. Allie Ross is an up-and-coming photographer struggling to fit in among the mom cliques in her new D.C. suburb. During a neighborhood party, Allie casually flirts with a neighbor, who then assaults her and calls her Lexi, an old nickname associated with a secret from her high school years. When the neighbor is found dead, the police accuse Allie of murder -- apparently she had a Tinder relationship with the victim. But Allie insists she never created a Tinder account, or the Facebook account that’s in her name. Someone is posing as her online, trying to sabotage her reputation among her neighbors, boss, and even her own husband. Allie realizes someone is trying to frame her, someone who knows about her past. She must come to grips with her darkest memories and prove her innocence, before her entire life is destroyed.”
Author Interview - Aggie Blum Thompson
Author I draw inspiration from: Nora Ephron. She was a reporter, an essayist, a novelist, a screenwriter -- and a wife and mother. And a hell of a chef. Her essays are like vitamin B shots for me, they revive me. I have a little black and white portrait of her on my desk, and whenever I am feeling sorry for myself for a bit too long, I look at it and think of something she used to say, that her religion was "Get Over It."
Author Interview - Aggie Blum Thompson
Favorite place to read a book: In the bathtub, with a cup of tea.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Franny from Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Author Interview - Aggie Blum Thompson
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: Pretty much as soon as I could read. I fell in love with books and storytelling at an early age. We were a very bookish family and no trip was complete without a visit to the local bookstore. Every Friday after dinner we would head off to the library to get that week's haul. My first novel was a seventh-grade tell-all with thinly veiled characters that was a huge hit at school until it was confiscated by Mr. Nagrowski during science class.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Paperback. They're light, portable, and I don't feel too bad when I drop them in the bath.
The last book I read: Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith
Author Interview - Aggie Blum Thompson
Pen & paper or computer: Both. I write a skeletal rough draft on the computer and print it out, but then I do the real writing by hand with colored pens. Little changes are made on colorful sticky notes but large sections that need to be rewritten are done so on special yellow graph paper, which I order in bulk. Something about the tactile nature of it makes me very happy -- the physical act of writing by hand seems to access a different part of my brain.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Miss Jane Marple, of the many Agatha Christie novels and short stories. I'd love to pop over for a cup of tea, or a glass of her Damson gin, and gossip about the neighbors.
Author Interview - Aggie Blum Thompson
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: Well, I used to be a newspaper reporter, which was fun. But in a parallel life I'm a documentary film maker.
Favorite decade in fashion history: The 1970s, New York specifically, which is my childhood. I have memories of my parents' friends -- these incredibly chic and sophisticated women in their wrap dresses and high-heeled leather boots, or turtlenecks and slacks and big sunglasses. Think Jackie O during her editor days. And trench coats forever.
Place I’d most like to travel: Italy! Tuscany to be precise.
My signature drink: Gin and tonic. As soon as it gets warm enough it's my go-to happy hour drink. Friends have to get me to break out of my box with newfangled artisanal gins that tase like freshly mowed grass, but I am a traditionalist and I haven't found anything I like more than Hendricks. When I'm feeling nutty, I might have a Tom Collins.
Favorite artist: William Merritt Chase. I love his landscapes of Long Island.
Number one on my bucket list: Live in Provence for a year.
Find more from the author:
https://www.instagram.com/aggie.blum.thompson
https://www.facebook.com/AggieBlumThompsonAuthor
Author Bio: Aggie worked as a newspaper reporter, covering cops, courts, and trials, with a healthy dose of the mundane mixed in. Her writing has appeared in newspapers such as The Boston Globe and The Washington Post. A native New Yorker, she now lives just over the Washington D.C. line in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband, two children, cat, and dog. Learn more about her and her writing at https://aggieblumthompson.com
