Make Nice

A conversation with Ryan Effgen, author of Make Nice

What drew you to the Lake Michigan inspired setting?
My family actually had a little reunion at a hotel that served as the inspiration for the setting, which is a famous hotel in Mackinac Island, Michigan. In part, I was drawing off some personal impressions of that location. Also, in this era of social media where you’re going to see everyone’s vacation photos whether you want to or not, Mackinac Island has remained under the radar. So, I thought the setting may feel new and a bit different to many readers. Probably the most notable feature is the lack of cars. There are lots of horse-drawn carriages and buggy rides, which makes things feel a bit like you’ve stepped into the past. In a way, this tied into what the characters are experiencing: This island was an important part of their childhood, and now this is their first trip back. There’s a sense in which they are stepping back in time and reopening their childhoods, and so the antiquated setting felt appropriate for the story.

Each sibling is living through a crisis of sorts while coming together to remember their mother. What do you think it is about family gatherings that make us take stock of our lives?
I think it’s because your family has been there since the beginning. As a grown-up, you present to the world something along the lines of a fully-formed self. We’re all a work in progress, but by the time you’re an adult, you’ve established a personality and a way of being in the world. And your family members are the ones who really know what that entire journey has been (and they’re the ones who are best able to take you down a peg as well). And so I think regrouping with family can prompt you to consider where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going.
For the family portrayed in this novel, one of their quiet tragedies is that no one feels like they can just show up and say: Things aren’t going so great. They all want to project a slightly better image of themselves. But even fudging a bit about how things are going is a way of taking stock: you’re declaring what you wish your life was.

What inspired you to write the character of Pete as a snail scientist?
My wife’s cousin is our nation’s foremost snail expert. I’ve only been around him a handful of times—at weddings and family gatherings—and he often would wander off and dig in the dirt to see what he could find. I found that so intriguing and endearing: on one hand, he’s a scientist and he’s stepping away from a wedding to do his job…but there was also a bit of childlike wonder about it, this grown man on his hands and knees, digging in the dirt. I will also note that I did not consult him while writing the book, and there are likely some details that will have him rolling his eyes.
Apart from the real-life inspiration, I am always fascinated when a family member has an interest or aptitude that no one in their family shares. This seemed appropriate for the novel: these siblings may be cut from the same cloth, but they are very different people.

What family drama stories, if any, inspired you while writing MAKE NICE?
I didn’t really have any conscious models that I was following, but when I read this question, the thing that popped into my head was this made-for-TV movie called The Gathering from 1977 that my parents used to watch around Christmas every year. It portrays a family of grown-up siblings gathering at their parents’ house for the first time in a long while, and you can see the characters gearing up for it…strategizing…preparing their armor, in a sense. I actually didn’t think about it until just now, but I saw it so many times as a kid that it’s probably embedded in my writing DNA, so to speak. The idea that a family gathering isn’t necessarily pure joy…that it may entail little power struggles, microaggressions, and attempts to gain approval.

What do you hope readers take away from spending time with the Pickford family?
One of the blurbs on the back of the book includes the phrase: “the perfect novel to make you treasure your own imperfect family.” I really love that. My family often drives me nuts, and yours possibly does as well, but there may be some comfort and humor in witnessing a portrayal of a complicated family working through its issues and finding a way to…well…make nice. I also personally appreciate stories where characters land in a place that is outwardly worse but inwardly better. By that, I mean they may have endured some immediate, material setbacks, but their lives are now on a better, more correct path.

Where did the inspiration for MAKE NICE come from?
I actually had the title before I wrote a single word of the book. I have an affinity for old movies with snappy dialogue, and the phrase “make nice” feels like it’s from that world. It has some punch to it. Conveniently, it worked for what the novel’s about. To “make nice” is to get along strategically, even if you feel an impulse to do otherwise. So that’s where the title came from. In terms of the subject matter, I found myself thinking about the idea of family: What is it, exactly? What obligations do we have to each other? How do those obligations shift over time as we start our own families and maybe lose a parent? Questions like that were on my mind a lot…and whenever you have a topic that you keep returning to, it’s a pretty good sign that you’ve got something to work with.

The story is told through multiple points of view. What was that writing process like? How did you craft the voices of each of the characters?
Crafting the voices was actually a lot of fun, and I felt very comfortable switching from one character to another. Because the point of view is in what gets called “close third-person,” we get the characters’ thoughts in addition to their dialogue, and their thoughts need to be in that character’s voice as well. I think it all starts from having a clear sense of who the characters are. For example, because Corey is always broke and scrounging, he’s going to be thrilled about free coffee at the hotel. Because Ash is a contemporary young teen, she’s going to be annoyed that the hotel’s gift shop only sells “old people snacks” and not the flaming hot chips and ultra sour candy that kids her age are hooked on. Which is to say: the characters are all in the same place, but they’re locking in on different things.

MAKE NICE is full of truly hilarious moments. Did you intentionally try to make the book humorous, or did that happen naturally?
I aspired to make the book humorous, and I hope people have a few laughs along the way. Comedy can be tricky in fiction. I don’t know that I would want to read 350 pages of a pure farce. At some point, I think something real needs to be at stake—something that really matters to the characters—to sustain a narrative in a satisfying way. That said, I have a notepad app on my phone that I use to jot down sentences and phrases that cross my mind that make me laugh. The sort of things that make you think, “Ha! That’s good…I hope I get to say that someday.” A dozen or so of those found their way into Make Nice.

What’s next for you?
I’m at work on a novel about a married couple on a road trip. Starting out on a new novel is a harsh reminder that the early part of this process can be particularly rough…but things can come together if you keep showing up.