Jess Cannon: On the Importance of Escape in a Chaotic World
In this interview, author Jess Cannon discusses going from writing hard-hitting journalism to escapist fiction with her new romantic murder-mystery, A Zoom with a View.
Jess Cannon is the pseudonym of a failed academic who never made tenure but still manages to sleep great at night. She spends her days writing award-winning journalism and her nights plotting fictional murders. She lives with her family and an irascible blue heeler in Austin, Texas, where her funky community is a constant source of joy (and writing material). She has a PhD in literature from the University of Texas, teaches fiction and nonfiction at Wilkes University, and has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Teen Vogue, among others. She also co-hosts “The Beautiful and Banned” podcast with Christine Renee Miller. Learn more at Jess-Cannon.com, and follow her on Instagram.
In this interview, Jess discusses going from writing hard-hitting journalism to escapist fiction with her new romantic murder-mystery, A Zoom with a View,
Name: Jess Cannon
Literary agent: Mackenzie Brady Watson, at Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency
Book title: A Zoom with a View
Publisher: Dutton/Penguin Random House
Release date: May 5, 2026
Genre/category: Romance; mystery; cozy mystery
Previous titles by the author: As journalist Jessica Goudeau: After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America (2020, Viking) and We Were Illegal: Uncovering a Texas Family’s Mythmaking and Migration (2024, Viking)
Elevator pitch: Leo Holloway leaves an academic career in flames and moves back to her quirky Texas hometown to work as a real estate photographer—only to stumble over a dead body on her first day. When someone she loves is accused of murder, Leo teams up with a local detective (who is a lot more attractive than she remembered) to solve the crime, as well as uncover the truth about her high school boyfriend’s past and figure out what in the world her mom has been hiding under all that hairspray.
What prompted you to write this book?
My first two narrative nonfiction books were about genocide, displacement, and immigration around the world; writing them was the honor of a lifetime, but the research and interviewing processes were often dark, and I ended up with pretty serious secondary trauma. At night, to relax and try to take my mind off of what I was writing about, I’d either read murder mysteries or romances—something where the ending was always happy, where the chaos was contained, and everything turned out OK. I craved order in a world that felt increasingly out of control. As I was waiting on edits for my last nonfiction book, I told my agent, Mackenzie Brady Watson, I had an idea for a ro-mystery of my own and she loved it from the beginning. In between edits on that book, I started this one.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I had the original ideas a few years ago: We have two competing Facebook pages in our neighborhood, and they cause so much delightful and petty drama—often at school pickup or neighborhood parties, I would joke about writing a mystery based on these dueling Facebook pages. When I thought about adding in a snark Subreddit that critiqued “cringe-fluencers,” the book just wrote itself. Leo Holloway stepped into my mind whole: As someone who has had a non-traditional relationship with academia (I teach in a low-residency MFA program but moved straight into writing instead of trying to get a tenure-track job), I knew I wanted a detective who was great at research but terrible at living her life. It doesn’t help that there are two cute guys vying for Leo’s attention and her mom has more secrets than she does makeup (which is saying a lot for Karina!). The actual writing of the book took a little over a year from the start of the first draft until we sold it at auction in 2024—I’m so grateful to my agent, who edited many early drafts, and my editor, Grace Layer at Dutton, who is a dream to work with and has made this book so much better at every stage.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
We don’t have sticker packs or social media character cards in narrative nonfiction! Though I’ve published two other books, the process for this book has felt very different: I wrote a draft of the novel instead of selling it on proposal, so the revision and editing process once I signed with Dutton felt very in-depth and fast. At one point in a marketing meeting evaluating the gorgeous book cover by Nate Burton, apparently the publishing team started chanting, “More blood! More blood!” (they did, in fact, add more blood on the cover). It’s an odd thing to go from writing hard-hitting journalism to escapist fiction and I didn’t expect how much fun it would be!
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
This book is intentionally a ro-mystery (like a romantasy combines romance and fantasy, this book and others in this subgenre combine romance and mystery). A lot of cozy mysteries have romance elements—a love triangle involving a hot detective is a common trope—but I wanted to hit the familiar beats of both genres. That meant paying attention to a lot of storylines and ensuring the dramatic moments hit at just the right times, which was a lot harder than I anticipated. It was also really, really rewarding. Like Leo, I felt like I was tinkering with a mystery of my own: Could I bring these genres together in a way that felt smooth, polished, and effortless? I’m in awe of the writers who have gone before me, both in romance and cozy mysteries—these genres are often dismissed as easy because they’re “escapist fiction” (usually intended for women), but to write a book that anticipates the form readers expect and still does something surprising every time? That says something crucial about the world around us and still makes us feel good in the end? That takes an enormous amount of work—which most of these writers will never get enough credit for. I’m so grateful for the many, many authors whose work I got to learn from by reading their brilliant, enjoyable books.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
The first answer was obvious to me the whole time: A lot of joy! I know firsthand how important “escape” can feel, especially in a world that feels increasingly chaotic. I wanted to give readers what so many writers gave me—a chance to let my brain sink into a world where the bad people are always caught, where the community is always protected, and where the protagonist learns to love herself and love others. I realized the second answer when I finished the book: I wanted to show people what it looks like to have a diverse community that’s not afraid to laugh at itself where everyone can be their true, quirky selves. The community in Blue Oak is modeled very much on my real-life community in Austin. People come from all walks of life and they often look very different from one another, and things aren’t always perfect, but at the end of the day, we’re neighbors watching out for each other so that everyone can be safe and thrive. There are a lot of stereotypes of Texas out there right now (for good reason, as I talk about in my nonfiction books!). But this is the Texas I know and love: a place where our hearts are bigger than the sky and where we always take care of each other.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Be a good literary citizen! Writing can often be a solitary activity, and no one understands the “I woke up at 3 am with a wild idea!” feeling like another writer. We have to connect with one another and help each other in this ever-changing, often-opaque industry; this is especially true for writers who face fewer obstacles to publication or success (for reasons of race or class or education or connection or any number of things). I’ve learned that my favorite writers are often generative and generous people who fling doors open for others. When they leave the room, other writers only have lovely things to say about them. Writing beautiful books matters, but it’s even more important to be the kind of person who writes a beautiful story with your life.
