Louisa Luna is the author of Two Girls Down and The Janes (both featuring Vega and Cap) as well as Brave New Girl and Crooked. She was born and raised in San Francisco and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughter.
Today, to celebrate the recent release of her novel Hideout (the third in the Alice Vega series), Louisa Luna is on the blog to take on our Ten Terrifying Questions! Read on …
1. To begin with, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
Born and raised in San Francisco, California until the age of 18, then spent a few months in Los Angeles, then to New York City for college and never left.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
When I was twelve, I’m pretty sure I wanted to be Ripley, Sigourney Weaver’s character from Alien. Someone fearless and smart. At eighteen, I think I wanted to be a writer but mostly for the attention. And then at thirty I still wanted to be a writer, still for the attention but also because I’d found out by then how nice it is to make something good.
3. What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you don’t have now?
I think I believed in a capital-f Fate back then, that everyone’s course, especially mine, was charted in a certain direction. I don’t believe anything like that anymore. So I’ve become a lot more skeptical in my old age but also there’s an empowerment to it, so I don’t mind letting go of that one.
4. What are three works of art – this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc – that influenced your development as a writer?
It’s difficult for me to think in those terms because I think everything, all books, movies, shows – any art that I consume and witness and view is contributing to my development as a writer and as a human – it’s all going in and landing in my psyche, and then I’m either consciously or unconsciously incorporating it into my work. So here are three pieces I find inspirational and authentic:
I’m a huge, massive George Saunders fan, so it’s hard to choose one thing by him but it has to be his collection of stories, Tenth of December. Ottessa Moshfegh’s Eileen is just so unique and dark and delightful, and she got that tone just right – a magic trick. Lastly, how about two faces of Philip Marlowe: Robert Altman’s film adaptation of The Long Goodbye and the Bogart/Bacall film The Big Sleep. Before I started writing the most recent Vega book, I watched both of them numerous times. I love the language; I love the mysteries; I love how dark they are and how each character is a little hall of mirrors.
‘I want them to finish the book and have a feeling that they know something or feel something they might not have expected to know or feel.’
5. Considering the many artistic forms out there, what appeals to you about writing a novel?
Easy: I get to control everything about it. Granted, I have an editor and an agent and a publishing team, but I get to be in charge. Now you know a lot about me!
6. Please tell us about your latest novel!
Hideout is the third book in the Alice Vega series. Vega is hired to find a counter-culture (American) football hero who disappeared thirty years earlier; she traces him to a small Oregon town where she kicks the hornet’s nest of the local white nationalist cell and finds a whole lot of trouble. Luckily, she’s used to that.
7. What do you hope people take away with them after reading your work?
I want them to feel something. It doesn’t have to be what I feel when I wrote the piece – I just want them to be moved. I hope that it’s in a positive way, and that they’re entertained, but I want them to finish the book and have a feeling that they know something or feel something they might not have expected to know or feel.
8. Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?
Many people! But the first who comes to mind is the author Donald Ray Pollock. He dropped out of high school and then worked in a paper mill for 30 years and then decided to become a writer and went back to school as an adult. His first book was published when he was 55. His stuff is gorgeous and bleak and poetic, and any time in my career I’ve felt sorry for myself or too old to be writing books and working a day job I think about him and how there’s no excuse at any time not to keep going.
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
Ha! No, not really. Write the next thing, and the next. That’s all there is.
10. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Same as #9. Write the next thing, and the next. That’s all there is.
Thank you for playing!
—Hideout by Louisa Luna (Text Publishing) is out now.

Hideout
Alice Vega: Book 3
In this riveting novel, the fearless and resourceful private investigator Alice Vega is hired to track down Zeb Williams, an athlete who went missing over thirty years ago after a famous loss. Zeb's mysterious disappearance has earned him a cult following and still haunts the marriage of his ex-girlfriend.
Estranged from her partner and ex-cop Max Caplan, Vega heads alone to a small town in the Pacific Northwest of the USA where Zeb was last seen, and where an anxious community is threatened by a local hate group...
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