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WORK TITLE: Are You Sleeping
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://kathleenbarber.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married.
EDUCATION:Graduate of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, lawyer, and yoga instructor. Previously practiced bankruptcy law at law firms in Chicago, IL, and New York, NY; also a registered yoga teacher.
AVOCATIONS:Traveling.
WRITINGS
Are You Sleeping has been published in France and Russia.
Are You Sleeping is being adapted into a television series for Apple TV by the production company Hello Sunshine.
SIDELIGHTS
Kathleen Barber grew up in Galesburg, Illinois, and practiced bankruptcy law before turning to writing. Her other primary interest is traveling; in fact, Barber and her husband spent a large part of 2014 backpacking across Africa and the Middle East. Commenting on the change in her career during an interview with Leah Ferguson for Ferguson’s self-named website, Leah Ferguson, Barber noted: “I’m extremely lucky in that I’m able to write full-time right now, so I treat writing as though it’s a more traditional job: writing during the customary workday, logging the time I spend writing and doing other writing-related tasks like book promotion, and limiting the amount of non-writing things I do during ‘work hours.'”
Barber’s debut thriller, Are You Sleeping, was inspired by the popular Serial true-crime, investigative journalism podcast. Barber became interested in learning more about the families featured on Serial. She noted in an interview with Kate Brandes for the 17 Scribes website that she was “listening to the podcasts, visiting the website to look at the supporting materials, searching for Serial-related hashtags on Twitter, frequenting the Serial subreddit, and so forth,” and added: “When I caught myself conducting a Google image search to see what some of the people involved looked like, I was sort of horrified. I realized I had been thinking about them as characters in an entertaining drama, rather than … real people who were part of a … real tragedy.” Barber went on in the interview to note that writing the first draft of her debut novel “basically started as a way for me to work through my own Serial obsession.”
Are You Sleeping revolves around a woman whose father was murdered thirteen years earlier. Then the woman unexpectedly finds her family and her father’s death the focus of a popular podcast called Reconsidered. Josie Buhrman is fifteen years old when her father is murdered and has spent years trying to accept his death and her mother’s subsequent decision to join a cult. In addition, her twin sister Lanie, who was once so close to Josie, goes on a drug binge and ends up betraying Josie. Josie changes her name and for many years travels the world trying to come to grips with her past. Then she meets Caleb and falls in love.
Living in New York with Caleb, Josie has settled into a life that she hopes is far away from her past. However, she has kept her past traumas secret from Caleb. It is investigative reporter Poppy Parnell who reveals that past via a podcast reopening her father’s case. The podcast ends up questioning the guilt of the seventeen-year-old neighbor boy, Warren Cave, who was convicted of the murder, largely due to the eyewitness testimony of Lanie. As the popular podcasts continue, Josie’s mother commits suicide, leading Josie to return home to Chicago for the funeral. Meanwhile, Lanie is married to Josie’s former boyfriend, living “a comfortable, Stepford-like existence,” as noted by a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Josie begins to realize that she has to confront her past and the strong possibility that she does not know the real truth behind her father’s death. It turns out that a box left behind by her mother containing jewelry, clothing, and a book will also “wind up being a Pandora’s Box,” as noted by Kathleen Barber in a review for the NPR: National Public Radio Website.
Throughout the book, Barber mixes excerpts from the Reconsidered podcast with chapters narrated by Josie. “Barber weaves a twisty tale that will grip readers,” wrote Susan Mortiz for Xpress Reviews. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Are You Sleeping “an interesting effort to critique society in this age of unfettered access to other people’s stories.” A Publishers Weekly contributor noted the novel’s “intense plot,” and Barber’s “emotional look at the dynamics of a family forever scarred.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2017, review of Are You Sleeping.
Publishers Weekly, June 12, 2017, review of Are You Sleeping, p. 42.
Xpress Reviews, August 4, 2017, Susan Mortiz, review of Are You Sleeping.
ONLINE
Crime by the Book, http://crimebythebook.com/ (August 21, 2017), “Author Q&A: Kathleen Barber, Are You Sleeping.“
Daily Northwestern Online, https://dailynorthwestern.com/ (January 24, 2018), Charlotte Walsh, “NU Alumna’s Novel Are You Sleeping to Be Made into TV Series Starring Octavia Spencer.
Kathleen Barber Website, https://kathleenbarber.com (April 24, 2018).
Leah Ferguson Website, http://onevignette.com/ (February 16, 2018), Leah Ferguson, “Just Five Questions with Kathleen Barber.”
NPR: National Public Radio Website, https://www.npr.org/ (August 6, 2017), Bethanne Patrick, “A Podcast Reopens Old Wounds in Are You Sleeping.”
Register-Mail Online, http://www.galesburg.com/ (January 10, 2018), Robert Connelly, “Galesburg Native’s Book Picked up for TV Series.”
17 Scribes, http://17scribes.com/ (July 6, 2017), Kate Brandes, “Interview with Kathleen Barber, Author of the New Suspense Novel, Are You Sleeping.
Kathleen Barber was raised in Galesburg, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law, and previously practiced bankruptcy law at large firms in Chicago and New York. When she’s not writing, Kathleen enjoys traveling the world with her husband.
Kathleen Barber was raised in Galesburg, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law, and previously practiced bankruptcy law at large firms in Chicago and New York. When she’s not writing, Kathleen enjoys traveling the world with her husband.
Last Updated: July 6, 2017 by katebrandes
Interview with Kathleen Barber, author of the new suspense novel, Are You Sleeping.
We are delighted today to be talking with debut author, Kathleen Barber, about her novel Are You Sleeping.
Please describe what your book is about.
A woman whose father was murdered thirteen years ago suddenly finds his death (and, by extension, her family) the subject of a popular podcast. When an unexpected death forces what’s left of her scattered family back together, she’s forced to confront her past and the lies upon which she built her future.
Share a teaser sentence or two from your novel.
“The truth is complicated.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Jo. The truth is never complicated. It’s just the truth. Circumstances may be complicated, but the truth is always black-and-white.”
[N.B. This is one of my favorite lines from the book, and it’s on the back of the UK cover.]
What do you want people to know about your book?
I have been writing about these characters – Josie, Lanie, and Adam – for literally decades. I have written so many terrible drafts of their story (including one draft as a NaNo novel in 2009), and so I’m so, so happy to have finally found their plot.
What did you learn about yourself while writing this novel?
Not exactly while I was writing the novel, but just before it: I had been listening to Serial, and by “listening,” I mean that I had been listening to the podcasts, visiting the website to look at the supporting materials, searching for Serial-related hashtags on Twitter, frequenting the Serial subreddit, and so forth. When I caught myself conducting a Google image search to see what some of the people involved looked like, I was sort of horrified. I realized I had been thinking about them as characters in an entertaining drama, rather than very real people who were part of a very real tragedy. I generally think of myself as an empathetic person who is concerned with other people’s feelings, and so I realized that if I was doing that, surely many other people were too. And so the first draft of the current version of ARE YOU SLEEPING basically started as a way for me to work through my own Serial obsession.
What was your timeline from drafting to publication?
As noted above, I’ve been playing with these characters for decades. However, once I found their plot, things moved fairly quickly: I began drafting in October 2014 and began querying in April 2015. I got some feedback from agents and spent most of 2015 revising, and then I signed with my agent in February 2016. More revisions followed, and she sold the book in April 2016. Publication followed 16 months later in August 2017!
What is your favorite part of writing (drafting characters, making up scenes, plotting, developing emotional turning points, etc). Why?
Inventing characters is hands-down my favorite part of writing. I’m really not sure why; it’s just been something that I’ve always enjoyed. I mean, when I used to play The Sims, I always invented really long, complicated backstories for my Sims and would keep track of their affairs in a notebook (when, really, I should have been making sure that they weren’t setting the kitchen on fire again).
Briefly, where did the idea for your book come from?
[see above, in the “what did you learn” section]
When do you do your best thinking about your work in progress?
In the shower, obviously! Sometimes public transportation, or the elliptical. Really, anywhere that I don’t have access to my computer or a pen. My muse is a slippery little devil.
Share something people may be surprised to know about you?
My husband and I spent the better part of 2014 backpacking across Africa and parts of the Middle East. (Come to think of it, this is probably how Josie ended up in Tanzania … )
What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten?
I love that Jodi Picoult quote: “You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” It’s so true. It’s so important to just get some words on the page, and to not be too precious about them.
What’s next?
I’m always writing, so hopefully I’ll have something new …
aysfinal
ARE YOU SLEEPING
Serial meets Ruth Ware’s In A Dark, Dark Wood in this inventive and twisty psychological thriller about a mega-hit podcast that reopens a long-closed murder case—and threatens to unravel the carefully constructed life of the victim’s daughter.
Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family’s reputation and with good reason: her father was murdered, her mother ran away to join a cult, and her twin sister Lanie, once Josie’s closest friend and confidant, went completely off the rails and stole her high school sweetheart. Josie has finally put down roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb, and that’s where she intends to stay.
The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past—starting with her last name.
When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a mega-hit podcast that reopens the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie’s carefully constructed world begins to unravel. Meanwhile, the unexpected death of Josie’s long-absent mother forces her to return to her Midwestern hometown where she must confront the demons from her past—and the lies on which she has staked her future.
Available August 1, 2017 with Gallery Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster).
AUTHOR Q&A: KATHLEEN BARBER, ARE YOU SLEEPING
August 8, 2017
I’m absolutely thrilled to share a Q&A with Kathleen Barber, whose exceptional debut thriller ARE YOU SLEEPING released last week, and was an instant hit for me! ARE YOU SLEEPING is a seamless blend of podcast-inspired storytelling and a modern, on-trend psychological thriller. This book makes the perfect end-of-summer binge read! If you missed my review of ARE YOU SLEEPING, you can catch it here.
Read on for the book's plot summary and my conversation with Kathleen Barber, whose debut thriller ARE YOU SLEEPING is on sale now!
ARE YOU SLEEPING - PLOT SUMMARY:
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The only thing more dangerous than a lie...is the truth.
Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family’s reputation and with good reason. After her father's murder thirteen years prior, her mother ran away to join a cult and her twin sister Lanie, once Josie’s closest friend and confidant, betrayed her in an unimaginable way. Now, Josie has finally put down roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb, and that’s where she intends to stay.
The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past—starting with her last name.
When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a mega-hit podcast that reopens the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie’s world begins to unravel. Meanwhile, the unexpected death of Josie’s long-absent mother forces her to return to her Midwestern hometown where she must confront the demons from her past—and the lies on which she has staked her future.
Q&A: KATHLEEN BARBER
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Crime by the Book: First things first: congratulations on your debut thriller, Kathleen! I absolutely loved ARE YOU SLEEPING, and am just thrilled to have this Q&A up on Crime by the Book. Let’s start at the beginning -- what inspired you to write ARE YOU SLEEPING?
Kathleen Barber: Thanks so much! I’m huge fan of your site, so I’m delighted to be included! I’ve actually been writing drafts about ARE YOU SLEEPING’s protagonist Josie and her twin sister Lanie for years—but I didn’t find the story I thought they deserved until I started listening to the “Serial.” I got hooked during the first season—the one investigating the 1999 murder of Baltimore high school student Hae Min Lee. I spent a huge amount of time that fall thinking, reading, and talking about not only the podcast but about the underlying case. I was so invested in the podcast that I almost forgot it wasn’t just telling an interesting story—it was describing a very real tragedy that had happened to some very real people. That realization really inspired me to think about what it’s like to be on the other side of a popular case like this—one where the incident has crossed over from the realm of criminal justice to that of pop culture.
CBTB: If you could describe ARE YOU SLEEPING in three adjectives, which adjectives would you choose?
KB: This is such a hard question! Tangled, exposed, tense.
CBTB: I’m an avid listener of true crime podcasts, so naturally my personal favorite element of this book is the homage it pays to those shows! ARE YOU SLEEPING flips the script on true crime podcasts, focusing on the podcast’s subject rather than the podcast’s host. Could you share a bit about this decision? Why not write a psychological thriller focused on the podcast host?
KB: My decision to write from this perspective had a lot to do with how I myself consumed “Serial.” When I was listening to the podcast and reading about the underlying case, I spent a lot of time hanging out in corners of the internet where armchair sleuths gather—places like the dedicated subreddit and other forums. Reading so many theories about the case and its participants, almost all of which were extended by casual podcast listeners with no investigative training, made me think about how this constant discussion would affect the people involved in the case—or any case that drew a lot of media attention. I imagined it would feel really invasive, and I wanted to explore that in the characters. Poppy Parnell, the podcast’s host, has her own story, but it wasn’t the one I wanted to tell at this point.
CBTB: Speaking of podcast hosts: your fictional podcast host Poppy Parnell seems so lifelike—I could practically hear her voice in my head while I read the “transcripts” of her show. Are you a podcast listener yourself? Was it a love of podcasts that prompted you to incorporate this element into your thriller?
KB: Strangely enough, when I started writing ARE YOU SLEEPING, the only podcast I had listened to was “Serial.” Before “Serial,” I didn’t really get podcasts. I’m a very visual person, and I couldn’t figure out the appeal of audio-only mediums—I didn’t listen to audiobooks, either! I couldn’t figure out when I was supposed to be listening to podcasts, either. I was puzzled by the whole thing.
But my brother kept suggesting “Serial” to me, and so I finally gave it a try ... and I was hooked. I realized my earlier question about the when answered itself—I could listen to podcasts while exercising, while transiting from place to place, while cooking, even while showering if I turned the volume up loud enough! Now I’m a big fan of podcasts—I use an app to organize the ones I like to listen to, and even write myself notes if there’s an episode of something I want to listen to.
CBTB: On that topic: were there any particular podcasts that you listened to for inspiration while writing ARE YOU SLEEPING?
KB: I didn’t listen to anything while I was writing—when I’m writing, it’s hard for me to consume anything other than, say, The Great British Baking Show. But most things that have a storyline are difficult for me to consume while I’m writing because the stories will worm their way too deeply into my skull, and then they’ll get mixed up with the stories I’m trying to tell. Once the first draft is done, however, other people’s stories are safe again for me—and so during the editing process I listened to a bunch of different podcasts, particularly true crime podcasts.
As I mentioned, I wasn’t much of a podcast listener before I started ARE YOU SLEEPING, so I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do in order to make the book’s podcast feel lifelike. I listened to so, so many, but my favorites (other than “Serial,” obviously) were “The Generation Why Podcast,” and “Missing Maura Murray.” I love how “Generation Why” tackles a different subject in each episode, and I’m hooked on “Missing Maura Murray” because her disappearance is such a puzzle.
CBTB: As previously mentioned, this is your debut novel! (Congratulations again!) Have you always aspired to novel writing?
KB: Yes, always! As a kid, I used to drag around this electric typewriter—I’m sure I’m dating myself by admitting that I started writing before home computers were common—and write what amounted to The Babysitters Club fanfiction on it. I’ve never been able to not write—my class notes always had ideas for stories or snippets of dialogue scrawled in the margins, and even when I was working as a lawyer, I’d sometimes have to turn off my billing timer and scribble out a scene on a piece of scratch paper. Having a published novel has been a dream I’ve had for literally as long as I can remember, and so it feels so incredibly surreal to have ARE YOU SLEEPING out there in the world!
CBTB: Are you a crime fiction reader as well as writer? If so, what are a few of your most-recommended crime reads? If you’re not a crime reader, what’s your genre of choice?
KB: I read across all genres, but I do have a special place in my heart for crime fiction! My most-recommended read is ALL THE MISSING GIRLS by Megan Miranda (I love the reverse timeline!), and I’ve spent a lot of time this summer talking about both THE LYING GAME by Ruth Ware (I love all her books, but this one was my favorite—I stayed up all night one night to binge on it!) and UNRAVELING OLIVER by Liz Nugent (this one is so disturbing, in the best way).
CBTB: What are you working on next? Can readers look forward to another psychological thriller from you in the near future? (I hope so!)
KB: It’s still kind of early days, so I don’t know how much I should say (things can change so much with a work-in-progress!), but I’m definitely working on something!
Thank you very much to Kathleen for taking the time to answer my questions so thoughtfully, and to her publisher for facilitating this Q&A! I'm thrilled to be able to share it with CBTB readers today.
Kathleen Barber was raised in Galesburg, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law, and previously practiced bankruptcy law at large firms in Chicago and New York. A registered yoga teacher and incurable wanderer, when Kathleen isn’t writing, she enjoys traveling the world with her husband.
Her debut novel ARE YOU SLEEPING was published on August 1, 2017 by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. It has also been published by Pan Macmillan in the UK, Corbaccio in Italy, and Heyne in Germany. It is forthcoming from HarperCollins Ibérica, Michel Lafon in France, and Neoclassic in Russia.
Galesburg native’s book picked up for TV series
By Robert Connelly
The Register-Mail
Posted Jan 10, 2018 at 11:46 AM
Updated Jan 10, 2018 at 2:28 PM
GALESBURG — Kathleen Barber said things had begun to slow down after a whirlwind 2017 before she received news her crime thriller will be adapted into a TV series.
In early August 2017, the Galesburg native had her first book, “Are You Sleeping,” published, which led to book signings and interactions with readers on the East Coast and here in Galesburg and Peoria. She even read to students within Galesburg District 205 buildings in September 2017.
Amazon has described the crime thriller as an “inventive and twisty psychological thriller about a mega-hit podcast that reopens a murder case and threatens to unravel the carefully constructed life of the victim’s daughter.”
It continued, “The only thing more dangerous than a lie ... is the truth.”
Barber was raised in Galesburg and graduated from Galesburg High School in 2000 before going on to the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law. After that, she practiced bankruptcy law at large firms in Chicago and New York. She now lives in Washington, D.C.
At the start of 2018, Barber’s agent let her know that her book had been picked up by Reese Witherspoon’s production company, Hello Sunshine, to be adapted into a TV series for Apple, which is launching its own streaming platform.
The thriller drama will feature Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, who has starred in “The Help” and “Hidden Figures,” and the show will be created and written by Nichelle Tramble Spellman (“The Good Wife,” “Justified”), according to Deadline, which broke the news of the TV series.
Additionally, Sarah Koenig, host, creator and producer of “Serial,” the true-crime podcast that helped inspire Barber in her writing, will consult on the series.
Barber has had a film agent since before the book hit store shelves.
“I knew they were working on my behalf to try to make something like this a reality, I just never really believed it until pretty recently, when I heard from them that all this kind of exciting stuff had come together with Reese Witherspoon’s company and Octavia Spencer and Apple,” she said.
“It was really hard to believe until I actually saw that announcement come out (on Deadline) and for the first time, it was really real.”
While her book had attracted movie interest, Barber preferred the TV series avenue.
“I really liked the idea of seeing it as a series and I really felt that the team that Hello Sunshine and Chernin Entertainment, when I was talking to them, just really got the book. I really believed in their vision and got really excited about seeing their series,” she said.
Barber further said “it’s really a dream come true” with having Witherspoon’s production company picking up the series. She remembers going to the movie theaters for Witherspoon’s movies in high school and having movie nights in college with her sorority sisters.
“I’ve always been a fan of her career, and particularly more recently, when she has kind of moved into the producer role and has really been active in finding great stories about women and really championing women as artists,” Barber said.
The Galesburg native also is excited about the TV series possibly being on the ground floor of Apple’s new streaming platform.
According to Deadline, Apple’s video programming is expected to feature projects it gets with straight-to-series order, such as a morning show drama slated to star Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston.
Barber expects to hear about milestones of the TV series from her film agents as the process plays out.
But this means more attention on her second novel, which she has been working on for a few months.
“I’m working on the next book right now and I sat down this morning to look at this and was like, ‘Oh no, this needs to be so much better now.’ There is going to be so much more attention than the first book,” she said.
Robert Connelly: (309) 343-7181, ext. 266; rconnelly@register-mail.com; @RConnelly_
NU alumna’s novel ‘Are You Sleeping’ to be made into TV series starring Octavia Spencer
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Source: Bonphotage
“Are You Sleeping” author Kathleen Barber.
Charlotte Walsh, Reporter
January 24, 2018
A&E
Kathleen Barber (School of Law ’08) had been writing in her spare time for years, but it took a major life adjustment for her to start working seriously on her first novel.
In 2014, she and her husband decided to quit their jobs at law firms to backpack around the Middle East and parts of Africa. It was during this transition that Barber finished her debut novel, “Are You Sleeping.”
“We needed to quit our jobs because we really needed to clear our heads,” Barber said. “But I was like, ‘If I can write this book and sell it, that’s what I want to do instead of finding another job.’”
Barber’s novel, “Are You Sleeping,” tells the story of a woman named Josie whose family falls apart after her father’s murder. Years later, a popular podcast reinvestigates her father’s death and forces Josie to confront her past.
The novel was published in August 2017 and will be released in paperback this March, Barber’s publicist Meagan Harris said. It was recently picked up by Reese Witherspoon’s production company, Hello Sunshine, to be created as a series for Apple TV. Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, star of “The Help,” “Hidden Figures” and “The Shape of Water,” is set to act in the series. It does not yet have a release date.
Barber said she is thrilled that Witherspoon’s company — which has previously developed other female-driven books like “Big Little Lies” and “Gone Girl” into visual thrillers — will be involved in the production of the show. Based on talks with producers, Barber said she felt Witherspoon’s team intimately understood “Are You Sleeping” and its characters.
“(Witherspoon) is somebody that really champions other women as artists and has really made a considerable effort to get women-centered stories out there,” Barber said. “So it felt like a really good fit for ‘Are You Sleeping.’”
The novel delves into America’s fixation with murderers and true-crime stories, Barber said. Inspired by the podcast “Serial,” she said she wanted to know more about the families involved in these narratives. Sarah Koenig, the host and producer of “Serial,” is set to consult on the series in an advisory role, according to Deadline.
Barber said having her novel developed into a television series rather than a movie will allow for more character development. She said her story will be a bit more “quiet” than a movie like “Gone Girl,” and will focus on one woman, Josie, and how the murder has affected her.
Lauren McKenna, Barber’s editor and the executive editor of the Gallery Books Group, said she is excited that artists like Witherspoon are using books as inspiration for their art.
“In today’s book world, it takes something like a TV show to make a book explode onto a bestseller list,” McKenna said. “So I’m thrilled about this.”
Barber said her experience with the novel and television series has been “pretty crazy.” Her husband has returned to work at a law firm, while she is devoting her focus to her writing.
While Barber said she is excited to see what the production will do with the book and its characters, she still sees the book as something that lives in the confines of her computer.
“I know (the novel) is out there in the world and people are reading it, but still it feels to me like this Word document of things I made up,” Barber said. “It’s pretty wild to know they will be taking it and bringing it to life.”
Email: charlottewalsh2021@u.northwestern.edu
Twitter: @charwalsh_
Just Five Questions with Kathleen Barber
posted on : february 16, 2018 posted by : leah ferguson 0 comment
Let’s meet Kathleen Barber, author of the psychological thriller Are You Sleeping: she was raised in Galesburg, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law, and previously practiced bankruptcy law at large firms in Chicago and New York. When she’s not writing, Kathleen enjoys traveling the world with her husband.
A bit about her debut novel, Are You Sleeping:
Serial meets Ruth Ware’s In A Dark, Dark Wood in this inventive and twisty psychological thriller about a mega-hit podcast that reopens a murder case—and threatens to unravel the carefully constructed life of the victim’s daughter.
Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family’s reputation and with good reason. After her father’s murder thirteen years prior, her mother ran away to join a cult and her twin sister Lanie, once Josie’s closest friend and confidant, betrayed her in an unimaginable way. Now, Josie has finally put down roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb, and that’s where she intends to stay.
The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past—starting with her last name.
When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a mega-hit podcast that reopens the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie’s world begins to unravel. Meanwhile, the unexpected death of Josie’s long-absent mother forces her to return to her Midwestern hometown where she must confront the demons from her past—and the lies on which she has staked her future.
Doesn’t that sound good? But wait! There’s more!
Are You Sleeping is being developed as a series for Apple. Created and written by Nichelle Tramble Spellman, the series will be produced by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and Chernin Entertainment/Endeavor Content. Octavia Spencer is set to star, and Sarah Koenig, the creator and producer behind true crime podcast “Serial,” will consult on the series.
I am honored to have Kathleen Barber here today for Just Five Questions. She’s a fellow member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and though we met briefly at a recent retreat in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I’m delighted to get to know her better here. If you haven’t yet read Are You Sleeping, I wholeheartedly recommend doing so soon. It’s a page-turning thriller, and I have a feeling that once the Apple television series is released, it’s going to be something everyone‘s talking about.
Now, on to Just Five Questions:
When faced with setbacks or rejection with your writing, what was something that made you push through?
No matter how many rejections I’ve accumulated (and it’s been a lot), I’ve never had a problem continuing to write. Writing is so inherent to who I am that I can’t not write, and so, while rejections have dented my self-confidence at times, they’ve never stopped me from writing.
Continuing to submit work to agents and for publication, on the other hand, was a bit more difficult. Ultimately, I kept doing it because I felt like I had nothing to lose. Sending email queries cost me nothing but time, and the potential for reward was so great. After the first dozen rejections or so, I realized that no agent was going to send me a personalized note telling me I was the worst writer she had ever seen or otherwise mock me, and that realization helped melt any remaining reluctance I had to continue querying.
I did spend a couple of years querying a coming-of-age story before I wrote Are You Sleeping, and I eventually pulled that one from queries once I was ready to query AYS. I still really like that first story, and I still work on it sometimes, but now I write it just for myself.
What methods do you use to balance the quiet life a writer needs to work with the necessary business of being a person with friends, family, and social responsibilities?
I’m extremely lucky in that I’m able to write full-time right now, so I treat writing as though it’s a more traditional job: writing during the customary workday, logging the time I spend writing and doing other writing-related tasks like book promotion, and limiting the amount of non-writing things I do during “work hours.” It’s an ideal set-up and I feel really fortunate to have it—when I was working full-time as a lawyer, the balancing act was much different and much more complicated.
Back then, the only way I was able to get any writing done was by carving out a weekend day to spend on writing and ignoring everything else. I once read this profile of Wendy Williams, and it included a mention of how she takes (or did, at the time this article was written) Sundays for herself. She spends so much of the rest of the week working and being “on,” but on Sundays, she doesn’t leave the house and instead spends the day in her private room doing only what she wants. I’m paraphrasing here because it’s been years since I read this, but the general idea stuck with me and was the model for how I would fit in my writing when I was working full-time: On (many) Sundays, I didn’t leave the apartment, and I just worked on my writing.
I think a lot of busy creative people reading this will appreciate the permission to take that time for themselves. Speaking of time, what is your morning routine?
I don’t keep a set routine—I let how I’m feeling that morning dictate how my day begins. Some mornings I wake up with an idea in my head and ready to jump directly into work, and some mornings I need a bit more time to get going. The one constant, however, is that I always start with breakfast! I have never understood people who don’t eat breakfast; I always wake up starving. I usually have an English muffin with peanut butter, an apple, and some coffee, and that keeps me fueled for a morning of writing.
What’s your favorite form of exercise? (And on the flip side, what’s your favorite way to be lazy?)
I’m a fan of the elliptical machine—I’m usually in desperate need of cardio in the late afternoon, but I hate running so the elliptical is a good compromise. I also really like yoga, which makes me feel strong both physically and mentally. (Random fact: I studied yoga in India and am certified as a teacher at the 200-hour level, but I don’t currently teach.)
My favorite way to be lazy is definitely to lay on the couch (or the floor if I’m feeling really lazy) and watch old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’ve watched some of my favorite episodes so many times that I can practically recite all the lines from memory; hence, re-watching them requires extremely minimal mental effort. (And sometimes after a long day of writing, that’s about all I’m feeling up to!)
Do you have any go-to methods for eating well? (And on the flip side: what are your food vices?)
When I’m really deep in writing a story, I tend to get annoyed at having to pause to eat and am tempted to just nibble on animal crackers all day. I try to combat that with smoothies—I like to make a smoothie with almond milk, spinach, banana, and frozen berries, and that’s convenient because I can just sip on it while I work. Depending on how hungry I am and what else I’ve eaten that day, I might add some peanut butter for protein.
The aforementioned animal crackers are definitely a food vice—I buy them in those big tubs from Trader Joe’s, and it’s so easy to nibble on them all day. Also, those chocolate-covered acai-blueberry things are a huge downfall of mine. When I buy them, I hide the bag so my husband doesn’t see how fast I go through them—it’s embarrassing!
Thank you to Kathleen Barber for bringing such honesty and writing encouragement to leahferguson.net (not to mention that gorgeous cover of the Are You Sleeping paperback). If Trader Joe’s suddenly wonders why its sales of chocolate acai-blueberries have gone up, at least we’ll know why! Are You Sleeping can be purchased through Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Indiebound (and as always, if you can take a moment to leave a review on a book you’ve read and enjoyed, it is very much appreciated!). Learn more about Kathleen at her website, or through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Barber, Kathleen: ARE YOU SLEEPING
Kirkus Reviews. (June 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Barber, Kathleen ARE YOU SLEEPING Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (Adult Fiction) $26.00 8, 1 ISBN: 978-1-5011-5766-0
A young woman makes a great deal of effort to distance herself from her past only to have it reawakened by a podcast.After her father was murdered 13 years ago, her mother ran off to join a cult, and her twin sister betrayed her, Josie wandered aimlessly around the world, working odd jobs and avoiding serious entanglements. Then she met Caleb, and they began to build a real life, settling into jobs and friends and an apartment in New York--but she didn't tell him about her past or even her real name. Her sense of peace is shattered when she learns that Poppy Parnell, formerly the force behind a true-crime blog, has released a podcast in which she questions the guilt of the boy convicted of killing Josie's father. As more episodes of the podcast drop, Josie's mother commits suicide; when she's summoned home to Chicago by her aunt and cousin for the funeral, she learns that her twin sister, Lanie, is now married to her own former boyfriend and lives a comfortable, Stepford-like existence. Forced to confront the past for the first time in more than a decade, Josie also must face the fact that she may not know the truth about what happened to her father. The most relevant and interesting aspect of this novel is its exploration of the power of the podcast. Debut novelist Barber acknowledges that she was inspired by Serial, and her novel asks the reader to reflect on his or her own complicity when the people involved in a real-life crime story are dragged back into the limelight years later by that kind of journalism, and the impact it can have on their lives. Beyond this, however, Barber's mystery is somewhat lackluster, and the characters lack true depth. An interesting effort to critique society in this age of unfettered access to other people's stories.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Barber, Kathleen: ARE YOU SLEEPING." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A493329338/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=06ded9e3. Accessed 14 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A493329338
Are You Sleeping
Publishers Weekly. 264.24 (June 12, 2017): p42.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Are You Sleeping
Kathleen Barber. Gallery, $26 (336p) ISBN 978-1-5011-5766-0
A true-crime podcast provides the catalyst for the reexamination of a murder in Barber's inventive debut. In 2002, college professor Charles Buhrman was shot to death in the kitchen of his Elm Park, Ill., home. A 17-year-old neighbor, Warren Cave, was convicted of the murder, based on eyewitness testimony by Lanie, one of Charles's teenage twin daughters. Charles's death devastated his wife, Erin; Lanie; and her sister, Josie. Erin joined a cult, abandoning her daughters to her sister. The once-close twins became estranged--Lanie began to act out and use drugs, and she betrayed Josie, who ran away and changed her last name. In 2015, Josie's quiet domestic life in New York with her boyfriend, Caleb Perlman, explodes when broadcaster Poppy Parnell launches a podcast dredging up the murder, claiming that Warren is innocent. And Josie is pulled back into the family drama following her mother's sudden death. The intense plot and character studies are enhanced by an emotional look at the dynamics of a family forever scarred by violence. Agent: Lisa Grubka, Fletcher & Company. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Are You Sleeping." Publishers Weekly, 12 June 2017, p. 42. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495720652/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=26c529d6. Accessed 14 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495720652
Barber, Kathleen. Are You Sleeping
Susan Mortiz
Xpress Reviews. (Aug. 4, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Full Text:
[STAR]Barber, Kathleen. Are You Sleeping. Gallery. Aug. 2017. 336p. ISBN 9781501157660. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781501157707. F
[DEBUT]A tragic past rarely stays in the past--or buried. Barber's first novel begins with Josie Buhrman thinking she has moved far beyond her father's murder 13 years ago. His killer is serving time in prison, thanks to her estranged twin sister's eyewitness testimony. But Josie is shaken to her core when she comes across journalist Poppy Parnell's popular podcast, which is reexamining the case. Is the convicted murderer innocent? Did her sister, Lanie, lie about whom she saw? Will Josie be able to tell her boyfriend the truth about herself and where she comes from after so many years of lying? Josie must reconsider her father's death and the people connected to it if she is to have any hope of finding a peace that will allow her to move forward with her life. Verdict Barber weaves a twisty tale that will grip readers as they follow Josie confronting a past she finally cannot escape. Highly recommended for fans of the podcast Serial and authors such as Ruth Ware and Paula Hawkins.--Susan Moritz, Silver Spring, MD
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Mortiz, Susan. "Barber, Kathleen. Are You Sleeping." Xpress Reviews, 4 Aug. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A502508162/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7cd83e94. Accessed 14 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A502508162
A Podcast Reopens Old Wounds In 'Are You Sleeping'
August 6, 201710:00 AM ET
BETHANNE PATRICK
Are you sleeping
Are You Sleeping
by Kathleen Barber
Hardcover, 336 pages purchase
Bethanne Patrick is a freelance writer and critic who tweets @TheBookMaven.
A quandary: There is an absolutely thrilling dilemma baked into Are You Sleeping, a debut thriller from Kathleen Barber. However, not only can I not discuss it without revealing too much — I'm not even sure if it's meant to be a dilemma, or if it's an oversight by the author and her editors. If the former, it could have used more framing; if the latter, someone needs several lashes with a red pencil for overlooking things.
Back to that problem of framing: All of this novel could use more of it. Why has narrator Josie (short for Josephine) Buhrman been out of touch with her family for so long? Yes, we know her father Chuck was supposedly murdered by a local "goth" teen when she and her twin sister Lanie were 15 years old, and that her mother ran off shortly thereafter to join a Californian cult known as the Life Force Collective. But when Josie gets a call from her first cousin Ellen about a new podcast that purports to investigate Chuck Buhrman's death, their easy communication jars with Josie's private view of Ellen and her superficial ways: "She remained exactly as expected: collagen-filled lips pursed, wearing a familiar expression of disdain as she surveyed the unwashed masses." Hasn't the long decade since Josie left Elm Park, Ill., affected her relationships with the people she left behind?
The idea of a podcast based on a previously solved murder is timely, given the popularity of Serial and its ilk, and the idea of a novel about a podcast based on a previously solved murder sounds like publishing gold. "Reconsidered: The Chuck Buhrman Murder" is a podcast hosted by one Poppy Parnell, whose character is treated more superficially than Ellen's Botox: "'Can I quote you on that?' Poppy asked, pulling some equipment from her bag." Anyone who would begin an investigative series like this might, just might, have more expertise than Poppy at appearing sympathetic and engaged. The tension ratchets higher when Josie's mother hangs herself — and everyone wonders if it's because of the podcast.
What the characters lack in depth the book makes up for in pace. Barber cuts in and out of past and present with expert precision.
Yes, I'm straying from the core of the book, which is about Josie and her sister Lanie's relationship — and I'm straying because their characters, like Poppy's, and Ellen's, and all the rest, are one-dimensional. We understand very little about how Josie recovered from losing her boyfriend Adam to Lanie (Adam and Lanie are now married and parents to a seven-year-old daughter; did Josie really not know any of that?), or how a mild-mannered college professor like Chuck Buhrman might have been attracted to a woman like Melanie Cave, the mother of his convicted killer.
What the characters lack in depth the book makes up for in pace. Barber cuts in and out of past and present with expert precision, perhaps evidence of her background as a bankruptcy attorney. Transcribed episodes of the "Reconsidered" podcast, along with Twitter and Reddit commentary from listeners, demonstrate how easily we can all get involved with (interfere with?) the lives of others today. For example, at the funeral-home viewing for Josie's mother, acquaintances tweet out observations about the family. No one is safe from prying eyes.
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Except someone who disappears into a cult that prohibits all contact with the outside world (one of the book's rare funny moments happens when a Life Force Collective member named Sister Amamus agrees to meet Josie at a Dairy Queen, and insists that Josie pay for her Blizzard treat before talking). But as Josie's renewed contact with Lanie runs the gamut of emotions from quiet sweetness to deep chaos, a box arrives from the Collective containing their mother's effects, mostly beads and clothing and a few books. It will wind up being a Pandora's Box for sure, but how and for whom?
All will be revealed — or will it? By the time Josie understands her family's sad and complicated story, there's more sadness to come. The twins' mother suffered throughout their childhood from "melancholy" ("She was always fragile," Josie says), and not always able to care for them in a consistent manner. Has her unstable mental health been passed on to her daughters? Which brings me back to that dilemma. If it's deliberate, it's one of the most subtle sleights of hand I've seen in a novel of suspense, and proves that there are some places inside the human mind even social media can't reach.