Robbie McNeil's Hit List: An Author Interview with Brianna Heath

We're supporting women's wrongs this week by indulging in queer murder mystery Robbie McNeil's Hit List by Brianna Heath, out 24th March! Read our interview with Brianna to discover the secret behind crafting a good mystery, the importance of aromantic representation, and how she created the powerhouse that is contract killer Robbie McNeil.

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Thank you for joining us, Brianna! Could you start by introducing yourself?

Thank you for having me! I’m Brianna Heath. I’m a queer, neurodivergent author and I write stories about queer millennials who haven’t entirely figured out their lives—and who also commit a good deal of crimes. In my non-writing life, I do many things but most importantly, I’m dog mom to an incredibly goofy chaos gremlin masquerading as a border collie.

Adorable!

We would love to know more about Robbie McNeil's Hit List and what inspired you to write it!

Robbie McNeil’s Hit List started as a joke. A friend shared a playlist with a weird collection of songs and we were joking who that would appeal to and somehow settled on “artistic lesbians in karaoke bars doing murder,” which they felt should be a whole subgenre of queer fiction. So of course, I said challenge accepted and somehow managed to actually come up with a whole book about a pair of lesbian contract killers who run a queer karaoke bar and are working on staging their own musical in their spare time.

What drew you to the mystery genre in particular?

I’ve always loved reading mystery (I was a Nancy Drew kid!), and I have always been an intensely curious person. I am a scientist, which is basically just a fancy way of saying I’m always trying to figure out how and why things are the way they are. And I feel like that translates well to mystery as a genre, where you’re taking a reader along on this quest to understand the how/why of a crime.

Writing under this genre seems quite daunting. Is there a trick to crafting the perfect mystery?

Robbie McNeil’s Hit List was not the first book I wrote, but it was my first mystery. It definitely came with a learning curve! I also gave myself the bonus challenge of essentially writing a traditional murder mystery in reverse. We know from the outset who’s a killer—Robbie herself—and she gets pulled into this investigation into who her victim is.

I do think the core elements of mystery still apply. Every mystery is a puzzle, and the trick is making sure you’re showing enough of those puzzle pieces to intrigue the reader, but not revealing the full picture until everything comes together toward the end!

With “Be Gay, Do Crime” becoming a much-loved trope recently, I wonder if there are any other fun, “untraditional” plot devices in queer fiction that you’d love to put your own stamp on or establish as a new trope. The sillier, the better!

I love the idea of “unbury your gays,” whether that’s literal or metaphorical. Just flipping around that trope in a kind of silly, absurd way. And I also would love to write a “nomantasy” book—taking tropes and plot structures that are popular in romantasy and then dropping in an aromantic or aroace person who refuses to follow the script.

Are you a plotter or pantser, and did any additional, perhaps even unexpected, research go into this book?

When I wrote as a teenager, I was a total pantser, but when I started writing seriously again as an adult, I turned plotter, and I can never go back. In fact, the more books I write, the more intensely I outline each new one!

And all mystery writers have suspicious search histories, but oddly, I spent less time researching murder than you’d expect for this book. Robbie’s killer specialty is setting up deaths that look like an accident, so I ended up doing a lot of research on the many, many ways we are apparently all one wrong move away from terrible danger pretty much all the time!

Can you tell us a little bit about your characters? Which, if any, do you identify with most and why?

While Robbie gets her name on the cover, the heart of the story is both her and her queerplatonic partner, Dee. I knew from the outset that I wanted prominent lesbian characters, but there are, of course, a lot of ways people can identify with that label. Robbie is an aromantic lesbian. Her partner Dee is a transmasc lesbian who uses he/him pronouns. So, kind of by accident, I ended up writing two lesbian characters who don’t fit the typical mold many people associate with the label, but who very much are inspired by my own friends and celebrate the complexities and nuance of queer identity.

I absolutely relate to Robbie. I did a lot of research on how to portray an aromantic character accurately, and in the process, realized how much of what I read reflected my own experiences. I love Robbie for helping me learn that about myself. And through both being aromantic and neurodivergent, Robbie and I have had experiences of feeling like we were failing at things other people did so easily, or that our brains were broken somehow. But we both also found ways to accept ourselves and found the right people who accept us too.

And which characters do you hope your readers will connect with the most?

I’m always surprised by who people connect with in my stories. I think there are a lot of really fun characters in Robbie McNeil’s Hit List, and I hope their varying experiences and personalities mean that readers can find one they resonate with most, even if it’s not who I’d expect or predict. (I would absolutely love to hear from readers who your favorite is once you read the book!)

There are often discussions surrounding “likability” when it comes to queer women in fiction (support women’s wrongs!). First of all, what made you decide to put the reader in the shoes of a contracted killer, and secondly, how did you approach the heavier questions surrounding death and morality in this book?

Writing someone who’s committing just as many crimes as they solve (if not more) has always appealed to me far more than your typical law-abiding characters. But I also think Robbie and Dee are fairly unique within this subgenre of “women’s wrongs.” Neither of them are killing because they’ve been wronged in some way, but because they’re simply very good at killing—and don’t we all enjoy doing the things we excel at? At the same time, they have completely normal lives. They run a karaoke bar. They’re putting on a community theater production of a musical Robbie wrote. All the while, they have these lines they’ve set up mentally for themselves. Robbie has decided that killing on behalf of someone else in exchange for money is acceptable to her, while killing someone for personal reasons like revenge isn’t.

Obviously, that’s an extreme example, but I don’t think it’s an unfamiliar concept. We live in a world where our daily actions and choices may cause direct or indirect harm to others in ways we can’t avoid. Everyone has to do these mental calculations to figure out where our own moral lines are. And overall, the book handles these complicated issues around death, harm, and morality the same way many of us deal with heavy topics in our own lives: by balancing it with moments of joy and a strong heaping of humor.

Why was it important for you to centre queer and neurodivergent characters, and is there any representation you would love to see more of as a reader?

I didn’t start to figure out my queer identity until I was in my 20s and didn’t realize I was neurodivergent until I was almost 30. A huge reason it took me until adulthood was that I didn’t see examples in either my life or in media. I didn’t have characters I could point to and go, “hey, I feel that way too and that’s why.” So, I did what I think a lot of writers do and I started writing the stories I wished I could read: queer adults who’d made it past the growing pains of identity and coming out and who were accepted, loved, and living happy and fulfilling lives on their own terms. I wanted neurodivergent people who got the supports they need and who were loved for the way their brain works, not the way society wished it did. I would love to continue to see more stories like this (and ones where the characters' lives don’t revolve around romantic relationships)!

Because aromanticism in particular is still so underrepresented in media, do you find there are any common misconceptions about what it means to be aro, or even what it means to be in a queerplatonic relationship?

A big one for me that I’d love to see more representation of in media is allosexual aromantics. Aro and ace identities often overlap, but for people who aren’t super familiar with the concepts, their assumption is often that aro/ace identities always go together. It was also really important to me to show that as an aromantic person, Robbie isn’t broken or missing some essential part of the human experience. She has a joyous and fulfilling life that simply doesn’t include (or need) romance.

The concept of a queerplatonic relationship is also something I didn’t expect most readers would have heard of before. I’ve had people tell me I should’ve simply called them friends (or roommates!), but it was important to me to show that Robbie and Dee are in a long-term partnership and are committed to each other in a way that extends beyond a typical friendship. Most people are only familiar with that level of commitment within the framework of romantic marriage. But a fundamental part of queerness is the ability to break out of those expectations of what relationships or love or attraction can look like, so I hope this book can expand people’s understanding of the world a little bit.

Since the book is set at a karaoke bar, we have to know: what are the characters’ go-to karaoke songs, and what would yours be if you were in the book, too?

Robbie would rather not sing in front of people, but she has a dedicated playlist she listens to when she’s carrying out a hit (you can listen to that here), so she’ll happily sing along to that. Dee would do 'Feeling Good' by Nina Simone or pretty much any showtune. And if forced to sing in front of people, I’d probably go with 'Dreams' by Fleetwood Mac!

How did you come to publish with Poisoned Pen Press, and what has your experience been like with this indie publisher so far?

I got offers from two really lovely editors, but ultimately, the one at Poisoned Pen Press had an editorial vision that made ideas spark right away and had me really excited to work on the book together, so that sealed the deal for me!

She has been so lovely to work with, but not just her. A large part of why I went the traditional publishing route is because I honestly don’t think I have the bandwidth or organizational skills to do self-pub. I really appreciate having a whole team at Poisoned Pen Press working on this book with me—although, learning to let go and trust others with my book baby was definitely hard!

The one area I really wanted to stay involved with was the audiobook. I sent my editor a shortlist of dream narrators a good 8 or 9 months before the audio production process even began and said is there any way you can you get me one of these narrators? And Poisoned Pen Press made it happen! So, the audiobook is narrated by Mara Wilson, and she did a phenomenal job.

Have you come across any surprises or challenges in writing or publishing so far? How have you overcome them?

The biggest challenge for me has been balancing writing with publishing. It takes so much energy and attention to get a book out into the world. I didn’t realize how finite my capacity was until this whole process started pushing the limits. I write far less than I did before getting a book deal. I have another book I’d love to take on submission, but haven’t managed to finish revising, because so many other things have needed my time and attention. And unfortunately, I don’t have a great story of triumph here. I don’t at all regret taking this path, but I’m still learning to adapt to it all!

Our podcast focuses on media we’re currently loving. Are there any books, shows, movies, or games you’re enjoying at the moment? Any recommendations for our audience? Bonus points if it includes sapphics!

I drastically cut back on TV last year in favor of going all in on reading time, so I could keep you here for days listing off book recommendations. (I do post my favorite reads each month on my IG if anyone’s ever looking for more recs!) To keep it short, here’s two I’ve loved recently:

The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World by J.R. Dawson is a sapphic fantasy Orpheus and Eurydice retelling set in early 2000s Chicago that continues to live in my head rent free. I basically try to get every person I meet to read it, so welcome to the very non-exclusive club of people I’ve recommended this to.

Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie is a thriller about missing & murdered indigenous women. The tension and pacing makes it so hard to put down, and I love that the main character’s lesbian identity isn’t a plot device, just a facet of her character.

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About the Author

Brianna Heath is queer, neurodivergent writer whose books can be broadly described as “be gay, do crime” with queer millennials. Her stories center queer companionship and joy, and the lives and experiences of people who may not see themselves represented in media.

In her non-writing life, she works as a program manager for autism research and teaches seminars on disability advocacy and inclusion. She is on the board of directors for a nonprofit queer library that promotes and preserves LGBTQIA+ books and history.

Brianna lives in Northern California with Beau, her rescued border collie/gremlin, who, like her, has absolutely no chill. She can be found at https://briannaheath.com or on IG at @briannahwrites.