Kit Frick: Finishing the First Draft Felt Like Winning a Gold Medal
In this interview, author Kit Frick discusses the eight-year process of writing her new mystery novel, Friends and Liars.
Kit Frick is a MacDowell Fellow and International Thriller Writers Award finalist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA from Syracuse University. She is the author of the adult suspense novels The Split and Friends and Liars, the young adult thrillers Before We Were Sorry (originally published as See All the Stars), All Eyes on Us, I Killed Zoe Spanos, Very Bad People, and The Reunion, and the poetry collection A Small Rising Up in the Lungs. Kit loves a good mystery but has only ever killed her characters. Honest. Visit Kit online at KitFrick.com, and follow her on Instagram.
In this interview, Kit discusses the eight-year process of writing her new mystery novel, Friends and Liars, that changes in the story that took place in those eight years, and more.
Name: Kit Frick
Literary agent: Erin Harris
Book title: Friends and Liars
Publisher: Emily Bestler Books / Atria (Simon & Schuster)
Release date: December 2, 2025
Genre/category: Mystery/Suspense
Previous titles: The Split, Before We Were Sorry (originally published as See All the Stars), All Eyes on Us, I Killed Zoe Spanos, Very Bad People, The Reunion, and the poetry collection A Small Rising Up in the Lungs
Elevator pitch: Friends and Liars is an insidious thriller about four estranged friends trapped in a powerful family’s deadly games at a luxe estate in the Italian countryside. Nothing is as it seems at the palazzo on the lake, and it soon becomes clear that their secrets—and their lives—are in danger.
What prompted you to write this book?
The initial spark for Friends and Liars came during a fall getaway to the Hudson Valley. My husband and I were hiking up to a breathtaking mountain house built on a lake in New York State, and I had the idea for getting a group of characters together there, former college friends reuniting following the mysterious death of a classmate. I’d recently attended a college reunion, so that was also on my mind—how you can be so terribly close with certain people during a period of your life, especially one as intense as college, then fall steeply out of touch. The idea transformed quite a bit—the mountain house became a palazzo, the Hudson Valley lakeside setting became Lake Como, Italy, but the estranged college friends remained, as did the death of their classmate, heiress Clare Monroe, which still haunts them five years later.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I think it took around eight years for this particular book. I took some furious notes following my return home from that trip to the Hudson Valley, then set the idea aside. I was in the process of publishing my first novel, a YA suspense called Before We Were Sorry (originally titled See All the Stars) and the mountain house idea, much as I loved it, took a back seat. Ideas for other stories crept in, and I forgot about my estranged college friends for a while. Then in 2022, I pulled my notes out and began to reimagine the setting and jot down some ideas for the mystery surrounding Clare’s death. That’s when Friends and Liars began to truly take shape.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
The publishing process was very smooth, thank goodness. Friends and Liars is the second book in a two-book contract with my publisher, Emily Bestler Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Having already gone through the editorial and production process with the team there for my first adult novel, The Split, and for five previous young adult novels at one of S&S’s children’s imprints, I knew what to expect. While I wouldn’t say there were any surprises, there are always learning moments. With Friends and Liars, I’m learning for the first time about putting out a book as a trade paperback original. I thought there would be quite a few differences, and perhaps fewer opportunities when it came to review outlets or store placement, but that hasn’t been true at all. I love a paperback, and I love offering that lower price point to readers right out the gate, so I’m excited we’re going this route with Friends and Liars.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
Friends and Liars will be my eighth published book (seven prior novels and one poetry collection), but it’s my first written as a parent. In perhaps very unsurprising ways, that monumental life change changed things quite a bit when it came to my writing process. I had revised two books following the birth of my daughter, but Friends and Liars was the first I’d tackled from scratch. My schedule was upended, my thoughts were scattered in weird and wonderful and difficult ways, my body was unfamiliar, and I had a book due in how many months?! It was a writing challenge unlike any I’d faced before—because the story didn’t care about any of that. It refused to be easy, refused to hand me any free passes. I had to muddle through it and solve the knotty plot problems and character dilemmas just as I’d always had to do, pre-parenthood. Finishing the first draft felt like winning a gold medal. Revising was easier. Once the story existed, flawed but complete, I began to feel the old confidence return.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
Friends and Liars is so soapy and fun! Most of all, I hope readers will be swept away in the delightful work of attempting to solve a mystery and the fabulous palazzo-on-Lake-Como setting. It’s Italy in the summertime, among the unspeakably wealthy, and some very dark secrets are about to be revealed.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Develop a thick skin and stay flexible. If your goal is a long career as an author, those two qualities will serve you well. It’s hard to get by without them.
