What's the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?
We live in an era of curation. We curate our feeds, our resumes, and our dating profiles, presenting a polished, invulnerable surface to the world while hiding the messy, terrified human beneath. I wanted to take that impulse to its absolute extreme. The character of Aura was born from a single question: What happens when a woman decides to turn herself into a work of art so she never has to feel pain again? I wanted to explore the intersection of high intellect and primal hunger. Aura believes that if she can analyze desire, if she can name it, categorize it, and charge a fee for it, she can control it. She uses the language of art history to distance herself from the act of sex, turning intimacy into a transaction. But the body has a way of telling the truth that the mind tries to hide. Writing this book was an investigation into the difference between being looked at and being seen. It is about the fortresses we build to protect ourselves and the terrifying, beautiful relief of letting them burn down.
If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of your book, what would they be? (Meant to be fun. Skip if you need to!)
Mirrorball maybe?
What's your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
I am a fantasy nerd myself. I read/listen to escape, so I tend to be drawn to the fantastical.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
I absolutely cannot wait to listen to Book 8 in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. After that, I am planning to go back through The Stormlight Archives.
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
It might surprise readers that my favorite scene isn’t one of the high-heat encounters in a penthouse or a hotel suite. It’s a quiet moment in a dusty shop. For the first 19 chapters, Aura is a character defined by disintegration. She is taking herself apart, piece by piece, and selling the fragments to her clients. She views her life as a “collection of broken things.” Writing the scene where Arlo, the bookbinder, forces her to sit down and physically sew a book signature together was the turning point for me as the writer and for her as the character. There is a line where Arlo says, “A book has a spine. It has integrity. All the pages, they have to hold on to each other.” That was the moment the metaphor became literal. Until then, Aura had been trying to write her life with her mind, using her skills in analyzing, curating, and distancing. In this scene, she has to use her hands. She has to pierce the paper and pull the thread. It is a moment of profound, non-sexual intimacy that is actually more vulnerable than any of the nude scenes that came before it. I loved writing it because it is the antithesis of her life as “Aura.” It’s a messy, tactile lesson. It is also the moment she realizes that she doesn’t just have to document the ruin of her life. She can actually build a new structure to hold it. It’s the moment she stops being a loose collection of pages and starts becoming a book in her own right.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
I have a faithful Bichon Frise who is my constant writing companion. He listens to my ideas attentively!
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
Never take those you love for granted and cherish each day with them!
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
We are often unwittingly the architects of our own cages!
Isa Brevine is the author of the new book The Client Book: A Catalog of Hungers
Connect with Isa Brevine
