Time is a precious commodity and some readers need to be hooked from page one. 's 2021 debut novel 鈥淔alling鈥� (Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster) begins with a sentence that blasts out of a cannon: 鈥淲hen the shoe dropped in her lap the foot was still in it.鈥�
The novel 鈥� about a pilot whose family will be killed if he doesn't crash the plane he's flying 鈥� had an equally fast trajectory to the bestseller list. With Newman's second book, "Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421," out Tuesday, she again starts with a bang: 鈥淲ill Kent opened his eyes just to see the engine explode.鈥�
In 鈥淒rowning,鈥� a plane crashes into the ocean shortly after takeoff and its survivors, including a father and his young daughter, race against the clock to be rescued before the plane sinks. The events unfold from various points of view because, as Newman says, 鈥渆very person is the lead character in their story, you put them in an enclosed environment on a plane, add a central conflict, and you've got a rich, fully fleshed-out (narrative)."
Newman says she's 鈥渙bsessed with the reader experience鈥� and feels satisfaction if her books are devoured in big gulps.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to just have a reader read a book, I want them to experience a story. When people say, 鈥業 stayed up till four in the morning reading, I couldn鈥檛 put it down and had to know what happened,鈥� nothing makes me happier."
Newman's books have also made her wealthy. Even before its release, 鈥淒rowning鈥� sold for $1.5 million to Warner Bros. in a bidding war. Newman gets to work closely on the adaptations, too: She is writing the screenplay for 鈥淔alling鈥� and will be an executive producer on 鈥淒rowning.鈥�
In an interview that's been condensed for clarity and brevity, Newman discussed why women in the action-thriller space are rarities and how working as a flight attendant for 10 years informs her writing.
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AP: You're one of a number of authors lately who gets to be involved in the Hollywood adaptation of your novels. Do you think that helps to keep the bones of the story intact?
NEWMAN: Definitely. I know this story backwards. That being said, it was also fascinating to get on these calls with directors and writers and actors and studio executives who know movies backwards. And to have them say to me, 鈥淗ere鈥檚 an interesting way that we could tell your story.鈥� It was eye-opening and humbling and inspiring to see all the different creative interpretations of a story that I had already told the best way that I knew how. Communication between the two is is crucial. The author is the natural go-between of those two worlds.
AP: Because not a lot of women find success, let alone opportunities in this space, do you feel you're in a unique place?
NEWMAN: These stories are the kind of stories that I want to tell, but they鈥檙e not the kind of stories that women usually get to write and that鈥檚 really exciting to me. You look at the books that I love and and the movies that I love, and you look at the screenwriters and they鈥檙e not women. There wasn鈥檛 a place for me in this world for a long time. As I was trying to get my first book out there, I faced a lot of rejection because of that.
AP: Your answer makes me wonder if you go by T.J. Newman, a unisex name, for that reason?
NEWMAN: It is not. My name is Torri Jan and I went by it because I wanted that little bit of space between public and personal. But, I hear all the time comments of, 鈥淗e wrote a great book. I like his book鈥� and 鈥淥h, I didn鈥檛 know she was a girl.鈥� It was an uphill battle to get where I am and I'm sure (gender) factored into it. I hope to show a way forward to the other women out there who want to write about massive, epic, explosion-filled, stories of danger and adventure and peril that women aren鈥檛 supposed to write about.
AP: I realize it's annoying to be asked about your next book after 鈥淒rowning,鈥� but will you continue with this genre?
NEWMAN: I won鈥檛 write exclusively airplane thrillers. They鈥檙e not the only stories that I have to tell, but I鈥檝e got a few more. You don鈥檛 work in aviation for 10 years and only come up with one or two good stories.
AP: For the nervous flyers out there, we look to the flight attendants for cues during turbulence, as they set the tone for the environment. Is that a good coping mechanism?
NEWMAN: I can tell you, we are aware of that. You can watch it as a flight attendant. The flight will be completely smooth and nobody鈥檚 looking at you and nobody is paying any attention to you. The second you hit some some genuine turbulence, all eyes are on you. You can feel it. You can feel everybody suddenly watching you, looking for that reassurance that 鈥淭his is normal, right?鈥� I love that moment, if I鈥檓 being honest, because it's the moment when everybody remembers what flight attendants are actually on the plane to do. We are safety and security professionals, first and foremost, full stop. And I think that gets lost a lot of the times because people think we鈥檙e just there for service.
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Follow Alicia Rancilio at https://twitter.com/aliciar
Alicia Rancilio, The Associated Press
