Kelsey Cox: Check in With Your Novel on a Regular Basis
In this interview, author Kelsey Cox discusses cutting an entire POV in the process of writing her new thriller, Pretty Dead Things.
Kelsey Cox (she/her) received her MFA in fiction from Purdue University and works from home in the Texas Hill Country. You can often find her writing at Mammen Family Public Library, chasing around her two young daughters, or watching British mysteries with her mom and aunts. On nights when bedtime goes as planned, she enjoys curling up on the sofa, glass of wine in hand, and a book with complicated characters and a killer twist in her lap. Follow her on Instagram.
In this interview, Kelsey discusses cutting an entire POV in the process of writing her new thriller, Pretty Dead Things, her advice for other writers, and more.
Name: Kelsey Cox
Literary agent: Stefanie Lieberman, Janklow & Nesbit
Book title: Pretty Dead Things
Publisher: Minotaur / SMPG
Release date: July 7, 2026
Genre/category: Thriller
Previous titles: Party of Liars
Elevator pitch: Secrets emerge as a Texas beauty pageant turns deadly in this rich and addictive novel with a jaw-dropping twist from psychological suspense author Kelsey Cox.
What prompted you to write this book?
My books always begin with two things: the thriller concept and the "heart." I need both before I feel like I have enough to dig in.
The heart came first this time. My daughters were about to start school: pre-k and kindergarten. It was going to be a monumental change for us. I mean, I’d had two under 2 in the pandemic. I worked from home. I hadn’t gone to the bathroom by myself in years. Now, my girls would be apart from me for eight hours a day? They’d have their own worlds separate from mine, form relationships I wasn’t part of, have experiences I couldn’t control.
It's healthy and exciting. But it’s also slightly terrifying.
I knew that’s what I wanted to explore. The push and pull between a mother’s instinct to protect and control, and a daughter’s need to become her own person. For a thriller, that meant I needed a mother who takes that impulse somewhere dark.
Then a family member signed her teenage daughter up for the Texas beauty pageant circuit. And I’d found my commercial hook. I texted her immediately, asking for all the dirt and if I could tag along to a pageant or two. Because what better lens for exploring a controlling mother-daughter relationship than the world of pageant moms?
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
Two years from pitch to publication. My original idea remained intact, but the shape of the book changed multiple times. The biggest shift happened when I was about two months from my first deadline. I had a nearly completed draft that just didn’t feel right. So, I made a major cut: I removed an entire point of view character. It was painful for two reasons. One, I loved her (she may, one day, find her way into a future book). Two, she took up a lot of real estate in the draft, which meant cutting her sent me essentially back to square one with very little time left.
But the moment she was gone, I knew I'd made the right call. The book came into focus almost immediately, and I wrote like a madwoman to hit my deadline.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
Pretty Dead Things is my sophomore novel, the first book I’ve ever written from inside the publishing machine. That was a completely new experience. It was the first time I could read reviews for one book while I worked on another. I told myself I was prepared for criticism. I’ve spent years in workshops and query trenches, so I have pretty thick skin. But I hadn’t thought to protect myself from positive feedback. The Instagrammers who posted the loveliest reviews. The readers who emailed and DM'd me, showed up to events, brought cards and handmade gifts, invited me to book clubs, bared their souls to me. I had found my readers, and they were excited for whatever came next. That was an entirely different kind of pressure. I felt a deep responsibility toward them and didn't want to let them down. But the more I chased that feeling, the harder the writing got.
Eventually I had to go back to the beginning: I wrote my debut with no idea if anyone would ever read it, which meant I wrote the exact book I wanted to read. That was how I'd found my readers in the first place. So, I had to return to that headspace. I had to write the book I loved first, and trust that they would follow.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
There are always surprises in the writing process. That’s one of the things I love so much about writing. I start a book thinking I know everything: the twist, the theme, the characters and exactly what they’ll do. But I don’t.
I write, mainly, out of curiosity. I’m deeply curious about people, about why they are the way they are, and why they do the things they do. When you put a character on the page and get genuinely curious about them, they naturally become more complicated, more nuanced, more lovable (no matter how heinous). They become human. And humans don’t always behave according to the outline. Surprise.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I always hope my readers will be entertained, that they'll have fun unpuzzling the mystery, that the twists will shock them but feel inevitable in hindsight.
Pretty Dead Things is a fast-paced thriller set in the back-stabbing world of Texas beauty pageants, but underneath that, it's a story about grief, and how the loss of one person can quietly reshape an entire community. That's the part I hope lingers after the last page.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Check in with your novel on a regular basis. It’s a variation of the “write every day” mantra, but less intimidating. Because sometimes “writing” feels impossible. And sometimes “every day” actually is impossible. Believe me. I know. I’m a mom. So, instead, I “check in” most days. I don’t worry about word-count goals. I just do something. Sometimes that means writing a scene. Sometimes it means staring at the screen and questioning all my life choices. But checking in keeps the novel alive in the background of my mind—while I'm washing dishes, taking a shower, walking the dog. It's always there, quietly working. So, when I do get hours of uninterrupted time, I'm ready.
