About the Author: “Nora Neus is an Emmy-nominated producer, author, and journalist specializing in people-centered stories. Her multidisciplinary work, focused on some of our world’s most challenging issues, aims to amplify voices and motivate change” (Bio from author’s website).
Find Nora Neus on the following platforms:
Nora Neus: Hi again! I saw your wonderful review the other day and I’m so grateful! And yes— the lesbian flag colors on the dresses [were] totally intentional. That was Julie’s idea! Good catch.
Vanshikha Vij: Who would you say are your biggest literary inspirations and how are they reflected in your writing style? What were some of your favorite childhood books? Do you think they’ve impacted the way that you write your own work?
NN: Wow, I have so many literary inspirations I’m not sure where to start. My earliest inspirations were the children’s books my mom and dad read [to] me, and then the early readers like The Boxcar Children that I read myself once I was a little older. As a teen, I loved Nancy Drew books and stories of powerful women. As an adult, I read widely across different genres and I think that really helps my writing.
VV: What is your favorite genre to write and what is your personal favorite text that you’ve written?
NN: My favorite genre to write in changes depending on whatever I’m working on at the moment! I think it might be history and historical fiction. I love learning more about the past and how it informs our situations today.
VV: How do you find the right balance between fact and fiction? What are some things you’re absolutely not willing to embellish or stray from when it comes to real people in fictional stories? What was the hardest part about creating Renegade Girls?
NN: I did an enormous amount of research for this book, probably too much! The best source of all were the actual writings and photographs from my real life main characters, as well as the writings of other stunt girls in this time period. I read Nell’s entire real life series, which provided the basis for the plot of the book. Other books, including Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s Girl Stunt Reporters by Kim Todd and Front-Page Girls by Jean Marie Lutes, helped greatly. I also was able to visit the real life Alice Austen’s house at Clear Comfort in Staten Island, which is now a historical site and museum, which made writing the scenes in my book set there so much easier!
The stunt girls were only popular for a surprisingly brief amount of time, and were soon discounted as “sensational” reporters. Perhaps there’s some truth to that claim for certain stories or certain reporters, but I don’t think it’s fair to paint all stunt girls with that broad brush. These women, often young girls, were doing brave undercover investigative reporting at considerable risk to themselves. I don’t really use undercover tactics in my own reporting, but I do work with and have an enormous amount of respect for “fixers,” a journalist who knows a specific community or area especially well, which is essentially the role Lucia plays in Renegade Girls. For example, when I reported from Ukraine at the beginning of the Russian invasion, we hired local Ukrainian journalists to help us find stories, track down sources, and translate interviews.
As a journalist, I felt very uncomfortable at first making things up about real people! My last book, Muhammad Najem: War Reporter, is entirely factual, a memoir about a real person co-written with Muhammad himself. So this is a different genre: truly fiction, even though the two main characters really existed. By fictionalizing parts of this history, I was able to tell a moving, entertaining, emotional, and powerful story about brave young women working to better their community while representing marginalized queer people as the heroines.
VV: I absolutely loved seeing the versatility in Nell and Alice’s friend group. Were they also inspired by real people or were they purely fictional?
NN: I was immediately enchanted by the story of Nell Nelson when I first read about her in about 2017. As a female journalist myself, I’d heard of the famous Nellie Bly, but didn’t know there was a whole cadre of young women undercover reporters who came after her known as the Stunt Girls. I remember thinking “Nell Nelson and the Stunt Girls” would be a great name for a band! And I actually first wrote a picture book biography with exactly that title, but publishers found the topic of her investigation, child labor, to be a bit much for readers that young. Super fair! But I couldn’t stop thinking about Nell, and when I came across the story of Alice Austen, a queer female photojournalist from the same era, I knew I wanted to combine their stories for an older reading audience.
Vanshikha Vij, Pine Reads Review Writer