10 Questions for Sash Bischoff.

By John Charles.
BLOG. First published March 7, 2025 (Booklist Online).

Sash Bischoff is a writer and theater director. She has written plays that have been developed at theaters throughout the U.S. As a director, she has worked on Broadway and off. Broadway/National Tours include Dear Evan Hansen, The Visit, On the Town, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Shrek. Sash grew up as an actor and won the National Arts Award (NFAA) for Acting. She currently lives in New York with her husband and their many pets. Sweet Fury is her first novel. Author photo courtesy of Beowulf Sheehan.

1. Who is Sash Bischoff when she is at home?

A hermit! Just kidding (mostly). 😀 But it is true that I’m most definitely an introvert at heart! Here’s a recipe for my version of a great work day:

• Sleep in! I am a G.R.U.M.P. when I have to wake up early.
• Brew Partner’s Coffee (Flatiron Roast!) on the stovetop in my Bialetti Moka Pot. My husband knows it’s wise not to speak to me until I’ve had that first sip.
• Head to the gym for a sweaty workout, followed by a steam room session and a nice hot shower. *Bonus points if I don’t have to do my hair and makeup and can just slip on a pair of comfy sweats for the day.
• Return home, and put my phone in another room, far away from my wandering eyes.
• Light sandalwood incense and listen to a ten-minute guided meditation to clear my head and focus my breath.
• Turn on inspiring music (no lyrics, please!) that drops me into the world of my current book, gather my two dogs and four cats around me (in my lap, on my shoulders, stepping on my keyboard—I’ll take it all!), and—inhale—begin to write.

2. What can you tell us about Sweet Fury?

Lila Crayne is America’s Sweetheart, a film actress adored the whole world over. At the start of the book, she and her boyfriend, famous film director Kurt Royall, have moved to the West Village to begin filming a feminist adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night, which will be shot in Montauk.

As she prepares for the leading role, Lila begins working with esteemed therapist Jonah Gabriel to dig into the trauma of her past. But as Lila’s perfect life unravels, the characters of Sweet Fury soon become entangled in a deadly game of revenge in which everyone, on screen and off, plays a part.

3. What five words best describe Sweet Fury?

Twisty

Literary

Suspenseful

Romantic

Dark

4. Did you find having previously worked as a director and actor helpful when it came time to write Sweet Fury?

Absolutely! One of the reasons I shifted from acting to directing was that I loved directing’s much broader scope. As an actor, you are one piece of a puzzle; as a director, your job is to put all the pieces of that puzzle together. Writing a novel is another form of storytelling, in which I get to build the characters, the story, and the whole world of the book myself. Directing theater gave me, among other things, an intimate understanding of pacing and tension, of motive and action and conflict, of theatricality and drama and stakes. Those skills helped me immensely as I taught myself how to write a suspense novel.

Without telling tales out of school, I will say I’ve witnessed and been subjected to prejudice as both an actor and a director. It’s common knowledge that for female actors in theater and film, there’s an emphasis on being young, beautiful, small, and thin. This was very much my experience as an actor. The constant judgment of my physical appearance was a major source of anxiety and self-loathing, and it’s one of the reasons I ultimately chose to leave acting behind. When it came to directing, I found that the old boys club is still alive and well in the theater world. There are, thank goodness, a handful of women who’ve made their way to the top. Some of them are wonderfully supportive of other women; others have a reputation for going out of their way to do just the opposite, likely to protect their hard-won gains. As a director, I became very good at shapeshifting, transforming myself in order to get ahead. In Sweet Fury, I push this idea to its breaking point, exploring the dangers and consequences of such gamesmanship.

5. After having done so much research into F. Scott Fitzgerald and his work for Sweet Fury, what are your thoughts about him now?

From the time I first read The Great Gatsby in high school, I loved Fitzgerald’s writing. His uncanny sensitivity, his lush lyricism, his ability to capture the romantic beauty of life with words alone left me awestruck.

“In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars.”

“It was dark here in front; only the bright door sent ten square feet of light volleying out into the soft black morning.”

If those lines aren’t heartbreakingly beautiful, I don’t know what is.

As I became deeply acquainted with Fitzgerald the writer and Fitzgerald the man, I began to understand his shortcomings. I take issue with the racist, classist, anti-Semitic, and sexist ideals in his books; of these, Sweet Fury attempts to address the misogyny in his writing. To be fair, Fitzgerald was writing a century ago; he was a product of his time. But does that mean we should give him a pass? Should we continue to revere him as the Great American Writer? Or should these failings be addressed? Sweet Fury is my attempt to do just this.

6. What are the books that made you fall in love with reading?

When I was little, it was the classics: Charlotte’s Web, The Yearling, Anne of Green Gables, Beautiful Joe, and of course, Harry Potter. I remember reading each Harry Potter book aloud to my mom as they were released with all the different character voices and accents (I was an actor, after all). In recent years, I did this all over again for my stepsons, who would beg me for just one more chapter! It was a wonderful full-circle moment.

As an adult, some of my favorite books that I return to again and again for inspiration are:

Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff

A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara

The Hours, by Michael Cunningham

The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

Three Women, by Lisa Taddeo

Three Junes, by Julia Glass

A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore

A Widow for One Year, by John Irving

A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan

On Beauty, by Zadie Smith

The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer

7. What role have libraries played in your life?

My whole life, I’ve seen libraries as a sanctuary, a safe haven. As someone who was never religious, the experience of entering a library is what I imagine it feels like to attend church. I cherish the sacred quiet, that unique musty smell we all recognize, the sense of excitement I feel every time. There’s always a new story to discover, a new world in which I can lose myself. And in the silence, there’s community—a sense that others in the library are likely there for the same reason: perhaps they feel, as I do, that reading is one of the most important and meaningful parts of life.

8. What is the best piece of writing advice you have been given?

Here are a bunch of clichéd truisms, all of which I believe in deeply:

Like anything, the more you practice, the better you’ll get. If you can, write every day. If you can’t, write as often as possible.

Read constantly. Choose your books well. And read books on writing. As someone who used to write without knowing where the story was going, I am now a staunch convert to bulletproof, detailed outlining. Some say it hampers your creativity; I couldn’t disagree more. For me, it’s the scaffolding that acts like a jungle gym on which I can play freely. The creative possibilities are endless.

Be ruthless with yourself, tireless in pushing yourself to be better. Your writing can always be better. Keep taking yourself to task, and don’t get precious with what you’ve written. Find at least one smart reader you really, really trust, and when they give feedback, listen to them.

Like many writers, I received countless rejections, countless times I was told in so many words that I wasn’t good enough, that I didn’t have what it takes to be a published author. But deep inside me, I thought—I hoped—that maybe I did. Don’t allow anyone to convince you to give up, if this is what you truly want in your heart of hearts.

And lastly, get rid of as many adverbs as possible. It’s a dumb rule . . . but it really is true.

9. What is next for you as an author?

I’m currently working on another book that will be published by Simon & Schuster. It’s set on an island off the northeastern coast of America, spans multiple generations, and treats the island as a microcosm of our country as its community grapples with the climate crisis. It is also, in some ways, a modern feminist adaptation of a Greek tragedy.

10. How can readers learn more about you and your work?

You can visit my website at www.sashbischoff.com, or find me on Instagram: @sash.bischoff. If you have a book club and your group decides to read Sweet Fury, invite me to pop into your meeting! I would love to meet you, and hear your thoughts on my book.

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