Written by Mackenzie Manley, Content Specialist, Downtown Main Library
Speed check — the Library’s Meet the Author: Madge Maril is fast-approaching.
Make your way to the Downtown Main Library on Sunday, June 1, from 2-4 p.m. for an exclusive ticketed event with Madge, whose debut novel Slipstream releases on May 20 from Simon & Schuster. Backdropped by the high-speed world of Formula 1 racecar driving, the novel follows documentarian Lilah, who teams up with driver Arthur Bianco to plot revenge. But will the pair become something more?
Before penning the romance, Madge worked as a beauty and fashion journalist, with bylines appearing in Harper’s Bazaar and Cosmopolitan, among others. She also previously worked on the Library’s Brand Team!
Event Details
Go behind the scenes at Meet the Author: Madge Maril to hear a lively discussion and engaging Q&A segment. A book signing will conclude the event.
To attend the event, purchase Slipstream through our official link: Supportchpl.org/slipstream. Your ticket will include a paperback copy of Slipstream. Proceeds benefit The Library Foundation.
Catching Up with Madge Maril
The Library's content specialist, Mackenzie Manley, caught up with Madge ahead of the event to chat about her journey to publishing Slipstream, her love for the romance genre, and the novel’s Formula 1 setting. This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
Mackenzie: As a debut author, how would you pitch Slipstream as a must read?
Madge: Slipstream is a must read if you are into contemporary romance and sports romance, as well as historical romance. I thought a lot about historical romance and what I loved about the books that I read growing up.
Mackenzie: Slipstream is a sports romance with a fake dating storyline. What tropes and devices did you hope to play with in Slipstream?
Madge: I’ve been describing it as fake dating spitefully, which is something that I’ve wanted to write for a long time. I love a scheme, a plot, or a plan. With fake dating, a lot of the time, the friend group or family of those characters don’t know what’s happening. I was really into this idea of: They’re fake dating and all of their friends are in on the scheme.
I thought it would be so much fun. [There’s also] forced proximity. Arthur and Lila, the two main characters, are together in every scene, every chapter.
Mackenzie: Your bio describes you as a journalist who fell back in love with fiction through fandom. What fandoms specifically brought you back to that mind space?
Madge: Specifically, it was the Star Wars fandom, Reylo [the ship name for Rey and Kylo Ren], and falling back in love with reading fanfiction during the pandemic. After 2020, I think so many people, especially women, had that experience. I would love a study on how we all go there!
It’s super cool to see the way fanfiction is opening doors for people.
Mackenzie: Are there any Reylo books that you specifically love?
Madge: That’s a hard question because there are so many! Of course, Ali Hazelwood. My mentor, Liana de la Rosa, is an incredible author and self-proclaimed Reylo. So many of my friends and authors that I love, I met through fandom.
They’re all incredible: Kate Goldbeck, Tristen Crone, Thea Guanzon of The Hurricane Wars.
Mackenzie: Speaking of fandom: Formula 1. Were you a fan of it before writing the novel?
Madge: In my own way, yes. Because I was a beauty and fashion journalist, I got to know F1 through the luxury sphere and partnerships. I always knew about and liked it, but I’m not a fan casually. I’ve never liked anything normally in my entire life, so when I say I wasn’t a huge fan, I mean that I wasn’t looking for merchandise on eBay at 3 a.m. — which is something I do for Formular 1 now. (Laughs).
Over the course of researching and writing [I fell] even more in love with [F1], which is reflected in a cool way in the book.
Mackenzie: And how did writing Slipstream change your perspective on Formula 1?
Madge: The thing that I initially loved about Formula 1, I only grew to love more while writing Slipstream. I think there are three types of Formula 1 fans: There are people who come to it through the drivers, people who come to it through the cars, and then there’s the people that come to it through the rules.
The rules are something that I don’t think you understand how amazing it is until you get into it. I told my friends that it’s like when your friend is telling you all the rules to the new board game they bought and you’re just sitting there like, ‘Oh my god, I’ll never remember all of this, and I’ve already blacked out.’ (Laughs.)
I grew to appreciate everything on such a deeper level: the complexities of the sport, the athleticism of the sport, and even just researching the exercise routines that the drivers have to do to withstand the force in the car. You can’t learn about that to write about it and not say, ‘Oh my god, that is impressive!’
Mackenzie: Why did you choose Formula 1 as your backdrop to this particular romance?
Madge: It fell in place in a serendipitous way. I first had the idea as a football story because I had the idea at a football game, but I didn’t love that for this story because I knew right away that there would be a camera woman and it would center on image and sports narratives. I wasn’t sure how football would play into that...
When I was thinking of other sports and got to Formula 1, it was so ‘Oh, yeah,’ because Formula 1 has luxury partnerships, it’s on television, there’s a documentary series — many of them — and there’s a movie coming out this summer.
It has such a close relationship with media, image, camerawork, and trying to finally fully breakthrough to the American market. It was just like, yeah, that would be so much fun to play with for [Slipstream].
Mackenzie: What advice would you give a debut author as a writer with a book now under her belt?
Madge: When I was first pursuing writing books seriously, I felt this fire inside of me, and this determination, to write novels. If you feel like that, if you know what I’m talking about, then you can do this, because it is so hard. There are times when it does not make logical sense to write novels even in the way that it takes so much time.
You have to pick times where it’s like, ‘Am I going to hang out with my friends or am I going to write? Am I going to go on a walk and exercise or am I going to write?’ You have to make these decisions on a microlevel for years. It takes years to do this.
But if you know that you pick writing, and you have that drive, then you will do this. There’s never a question in my mind.
Mackenzie: Tell me about your protagonist. How did you shape Lilah?
Madge: Lilah is a documentarian and she’s a big film buff. She’s very serious. She’s vegan, Buddhist, and kind of nerdy. She is the one that came so fully formed into the story, same as Arthur, in the sense that there are aspects of Lilah I relate to.
Mackenzie: Not only have you worked as a journalist, but you’ve worked at CHPL! How has your past work influenced your current fiction writing?
Madge: I was so inspired to write Slipstream while working at the Library because it’s such an amazing, large, and historical institution. Working at the Library gave me insight into being a part of something that is bigger than myself... The pride I felt working for a big place gave me insight on what it would be like to be on a Formula 1 team, and to join that world, as Lilah does through the book.
Mackenzie: And speaking on CHPL, what does it mean for you, as an author, to have your previous workplace host an event for your debut novel? How cool!
Madge: It’s an honor, and it’s full circle. It makes me way to cry every time I think about it. It was never a question in my mind that, of anywhere I could have a release party — if I was even lucky enough to have one — it would be at the Library. The dedication, the work, the effort, the enthusiasm, and the joy inspired me so much as a writer.
Mackenzie: Are there any books that you’ve read recently and would recommend?
Madge: Right now, I’m working my way through Lord of the Rings, if you’ve heard of that. (Laughs). That’s my big read at the moment. I also just got my fellow Simon & Schuster author Debbie Urbanski’s book titled Portalmania. It’s a collection of short stories. She’s a really brilliant speculative fiction writer, so I can’t wait to work my way through it.
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