1 Author, 7 Questions: L.M. Elliott

If you are a fan of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, I’ve got your new favorite historical fiction! Truth, Lies, and the Questions in Between is a chronical of 1973 – the year of the Watergate hearings, the Equal Rights Amendment, and Roe v. Wade – all told through the eyes of Patty Appleton. She’s acting as one of the Senate’s first female Congressional Pages, and finding that as the old ways and new polarize the women in her life she’ll need to forge her own path. We sat down with the author L.M. Elliott:

What was your initial inspiration?

It’s a little complicated! TRUTH LIES is my third docu-novel about a fraught political era, exploring the trickle-down impact of polarizing culture wars and inflammatory rhetoric on young adults—their friendships, their world view, their deciding who they want to be.  All three books feature older teens from opposite sides of the political spectrum learning to overcome biases pushed on them by their party or “clan.” To dare asking whether their personal heroes and national leaders are genuine or are their messages in fact dangerous hyperbole, manipulation, “otherizing” stereotype.

Because of the success of the first two (on McCarthyism and the Berlin Wall) my editor thought I should tackle Watergate, especially given growing similarities between Trump and Nixon.  I decided to zoom in on 1973, the year Senate hearings into the break-in and cover-up revealed one shocking wrongdoing after another. Gifting me stunning witness testimony in a court-room style drama to use as the novel’s factual spine.

Then—WOW—we realized 1973 was also the year of Roe, life-changing advancements for equality being pushed through by feminists (like women finally allowed to get credit cards without daddy or hubby signing for it) and the awful irony of the ERA’s expected fast-track ratification being suddenly derailed by other women (suburban housewives, marshaled by conservative author Phyllis Schlafly).

While I swing the spotlight from one issue to another as the story unfolds, the main on-stage action is whether traditionalist Patty can deal with questions that the Watergate scandal, her charismatic boyfriend, and new friend, the ardent feminist Simone, push her to consider. All overlaid with the political smokescreens and sexism of the time, the wedge of enmity driven between “libbers” and homemakers. Political divides and fearmongering which, infuriatingly, are resurfacing today.

My editor and I had foreseen how potent the parallels between Trump’s and Nixon’s power grabs. But not how poignantly relevant Patty’s (and her mother’s) struggles for self-determination would be to today’s fight for female autonomy and agency, the claims women wanting the right for individual choice is anti-family. The similarities of this election’s crude rhetoric, the emergence of TradWives and Project 2025, to the 1970s backlash crusade against the ERA are chilling.  As is J. D. Vance’s screed against “miserable childless cat ladies” to Schlafly’s damnation of “sharp-tongued whining unmarried women.”  My hope is Patty and Simone’s hard-won, bipartisan sisterhood offers readers hope and inspiration, as well as some healing, rueful laughter, in the coming months. (Give a listen to the novel’s Spotify playlist for some musical empowerment!)

Can you describe your writing process? Are you more of a pre-plotter or do you let the plot develop as you write?

Well, I’m definitely not “a pantser!”  I pre-plot—in my own, admittedly, geeky way. Filling my file cabinet with info and insights I glean from research, sorted into color-coded folders (by news reports, social expectations, music, clothes, “moral” arguments of the day). Those folders help me amass A LOT of “revealing details,” keeping them sorted and me on track as I write. A lifesaver with historical fiction, especially for Truth Lies, given the volume of issues I was exploring.  

I do all that before I write a single word. That’s my training as a magazine journalist (which I was for 20 years before writing my first novel). I “report” the story. Then that research tells me what to write—my themes, turning points, character types, dialogue.  I LOVE that part of writing. That’s the treasure hunt. And what sets my imagination flowing—following the ripples brought by dropping a fact into the pool of a growing narrative.

Here’s an example: Researching 1973, I was reminded of the wildly symbolic, do-or-die “Battle of the Sexes” between tennis stars Billie Jean King and self-proclaimed and proud-of-it “male chauvinist pig,” Bobby Riggs.  Riggs issued his challenge jokingly (although many men across the nation took it seriously and celebrated the cause): “I want to prove that women don’t belong on the same court as a man. . . don’t get me wrong. I am a big lover of women—in the bedroom and in the kitchen. But these days they want to be everywhere. . . This is Custer’s last stand. The lobber versus the libber.”

Yeah. That’s the way guys talked in 1973.

Their match turned into a frenzied national standoff.  Ninety million Americans watched that showdown on TV, making it one of the most viewed sporting events of all time.

Those facts told me to create a scene of a room full of women hanging on every stroke and bounce of the ball—beyond anxious for Billie Jean to win, to vindicate them and ward off smug comments about female inferiority from bosses or boyfriends or fathers. And to lead up to Patty’s deep emotional investment in that moment by making her an avid tennis player herself.

What was your historical research process like? Were there any bits of info that you loved but ultimately had to be cut from the book?

As you can tell from my other answers, research for me is one exciting, creative EUREKA after another. Take making Patty one of the Senate’s first female Congressional Pages.  I’d worried how I’d authentically connect two such enormous political groundswells—Watergate and the ERA—without seeming contrived. Research saved me.

Reading up on Congress led me to the fact 1973 was only the 2^nd year that young women had be allowed to be pages. Eureka! If I made my fictional Patty a Senate page, she could legitimately be a first-hand witness to its Watergate hearings. She could come from a politically active family, like pages typically did, so her life could plausibly be upended by the witnesses’ truth-bombs that cause her to question whether her own father—a diehard Republican fundraiser—had been involved in the nefarious slush funds hurriedly culled from campaign contributions to buy the burglars’ silence. And because in 1973 there were only a handful of female pages, these young women—whether they planned to be or not—were a symbol for women’s liberation.

There it was! My linchpin to connect those two enormous political moments in one character.

I then tracked down several 1970s pages, male and female, who were kind enough to talk to me about their experiences, even sharing yearbooks which provided wondrous world-building “revealing details” of daily life at the Page School, held then in the Library of Congress’ attic. (Including photographic reminder of the slightly ridiculous clothes and facial hair favored at the time!) 

You ask if I had to cut tidbits I loved? Interestingly, TRUTH LIES is one of the few times I haven’t faced the deeply frustrating reality of not having space for 40 percent of what I learned in research.  (A few of my 14 novels actually evolved from the “saved string” of previous works.) But here’s one detail that was felt a little too Monty Python to be included: It seems Nixon’s inauguration committee was concerned pigeons would roost on trees lining the parade route and drop poop on the expensive attire of contributors. So, they sprayed branches with a chemical meant to sting their feet so that if pigeons did land, they’d feel uncomfortable and fly away. Unfortunately, the chemical was so strong, they fell to the ground in convulsing heaps on the parade route. I don’t know, I found that disquieting scenario rather Shakespearean in its augury. A macabre metaphorical foreshadowing of what Nixon’s disregard for consequences and others was to bring in his second term.

The book is also illustrated by real-life headlines and photographs – what was it like choosing those pieces of historical ephemera? Was it a struggle to decide what ultimately wound up in the book?

YES! LOL. But well worth it. I think this photo essay extraordinarily powerful in its images, sophisticated design, juxtaposition of all sorts of nation-altering events, and its highlighting of mostly forgotten women who took on the patriarchy (like the 26-year-old attorney who argued Roe in front of an all-male Supreme Court, when women only constituted four percent of lawyers.)

The first step was to pinpoint major events that could be visual steppingstones in Patty’s arc of self-discovery. Then unearthing truly intriguing images to illustrate, in an eye-catching collage, the revelatory news of a specific month. The end goal being that the novel’s twelve chapter-months—punctuated with political cartoons, personalities, court testimony, pop culture—collectively provide the reader an evocative synopsis of a truly monumental year in American history.            When sorting images, I had to consider both editorial and visual aesthetics, string together an appealing, varied sequence, avoiding dull headshots, all while sticking to necessary space and budget constraints. Meaning an iconic (and costly) AP photo—(like that of John Dean’s swearing-in)—had to be counterbalanced with free, public domain photos or images from library collections willing to discount or  “donate” permission to print. Finding that one all-encompassing image (not two) to capture a political moment—meaning that one better be superb. All this a harder Rubix Cube than you might imagine.  I honestly spent as much time narrowing and shuffling photo possibilities, then negotiating their rights, as writing the narrative. But I’m also just as proud of it. Thanks to designer Kayla Escobedo and art director Keirsten Geise, it became a visually stunning story-telling montage.

The female relationships Patty forms, between her friendship with Simone and her changing relationship with her mother, felt so candid and genuine! What was it like tooling out those relationships while also exploring the political battle for women’s rights of the early 70’s?

Exciting! But also, honestly, of all the stories I’ve done, Truth Lies was probably the hardest to write. I needed to choreograph both a sweeping, full-blown political milieu while also fashioning intimate character duets that bring the political sturm und drang to a human and very visceral, relatable level.  Using the parlance of English Lit. majors—it was a macrocosm/microcosm kind of dance!

What guided me most were my decades as a journalist, writing long narrative, month-in-the-life-of “human interest stories.” Portraying an issue by profiling someone who had to survive it, ordinary people broadsided by crisis, who found extraordinary one-foot-in-front-of-the-other resilience to pull themselves and those they love back to their feet. “Everyday” heroism.

So, I’m thrilled that my heroines, and Patty’s evolving relationships with both her mother and Simone, rang true to you. That is, of course, Truth, Lies’ heartbeat.

I really enjoyed creating the back-and-forth between Patty and Simone. The awkward, bemused foot-in-mouth moments between the strait-laced, easily shocked, political-wife-wannabe young Republican (Patty) and the hip, brainiac musician, voracious-reader feminist (Simone), whose family couldn’t possibly control her opinions and statements if they tried! They each grow—in fits and starts—into being more compassionate, more open-minded, more confident in their individual self-worth, because of the influence of the other. It was very satisfying to help them find their way from grudging respect to a beautifully contrapuntal friendship—forged not because they agree on much of anything but because they stand by one another through crises wrought by the assumptions of men in their lives.

For Patty’s eventual reconciliation with her mother, she must come to understand Dot Appleton through small, often distressing discoveries scattered throughout the novel. Learning before-hidden realities of her mother’s life with Patty’s imposing father slowly explains why she might have become seemingly distant and rigid. Dot exemplifies the gilded-cage expectations for wives of high-profile men that so often spawned an undercurrent of despondency, first exposed in Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique—the explosive book that ignited the women’s revolution.

My main beat at the Washingtonian magazine was women’s issues.  I’d profiled survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault when such disturbing portraits were still a bit taboo. That experience, the hours of interviewing those brave women, deeply informed my portrayal of not only second wave feminists’ fight for equality but also the impact of psychological gaslighting on both Patty and her mother.  As well as the terrifying night that becomes the final turning point in Patty’s story.

What are some books you’ve been reading recently or would recommend?

I’m always reading a lot of nonfiction on a historical era I’m thinking of exploring next. But right now, I’m also—in preparation for a Women’s History Month event at Politics & Prose with the gifted author/columnist Monica Hesse—enjoying revisiting her beautifully woven works, including her recent The Brightwood Code.  For historical fiction recommendations in general, I always point to the deeply researched and poetic novels of Sharon Cameron (Artifice is her latest). And for a change of pace, if you’re looking for a delightful Rom-Com with a little ‘90s nostalgia to relax with over the holidays, do pick up The First Date Prophecy and its sequel The Road Trip Rewind, by Kate and Danny Tamberelli (yes, the Nickelodeon child-actor star). Both are witty, sweet stories and I smiled the whole time I was reading. (I’m exceedingly lucky that Kate, aka Katelyn Detweiler, takes time away from her writing to champion me as my agent.) 

What are you working on now? Any exciting ideas you can share?

This is the first time in 20 years that I need to be slightly mysterious about what I’m writing next. Please forgive! Because in researching one thing, I stumbled onto something else, a group of women artists I’ve never heard of before that I cannot believe haven’t been written about yet. I’m keeping mum so no one else gets the same idea! But please follow me on Instagram and watch that space for more.