An Interview with Caleb Roehrig, Author of White Rabbit

April 4, 2018 | 3:00 PM

An Interview with Caleb Roehrig, Author of White Rabbit

By Team Fierce Reads
An Interview with Caleb Roehrig, Author of White Rabbit

White Rabbit is almost here! ????To celebrate the upcoming release of this thrilling new novel from one of our favorite mystery writers, we’ve asked Caleb Roehrig to answer some questions about his latest book.

What makes Rufus Fierce?

Rufus faces a lot of adversity: He’s an outcast, he’s poor, and he has a history of emotional and behavioral problems that, at the outset of White Rabbit, he’s only recently gotten under control. What makes Rufus fierce, in my opinion, is the way he faces up to these challenges and refuses to let anyone else’s judgments of him based on these aspects of his life determine how he feels about himself. Buffy the Vampire Slayer once said, “The hardest thing in this world is to live in it,” and I believe what makes any of us fierce is staying true to ourselves while we’re here.

If you'd met Rufus when you were a teen, would you have been friends?

This is a difficult question to answer! Teenage me would probably have been intimidated by Rufus’s intensity (and might just as easily also have had a crush on him), which would have meant I’d have been really shy around him. However, Rufus’s best friends in White Rabbit were very much inspired by the kind of people I spent all my time with in high school, and as that means he would be part of the same sphere of people I gravitated to as a teen, we likely would have been friends!

What's one fun fact most people don't know about you?

I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do! In middle school I started to figure out how cool fight scenes were in the movies, and I had this fantasy of becoming some kind of amazing action movie hero, kicking people in the face and doing Crouching Tiger–style stunts all up and down the walls. It didn’t quite work out that way, and in most arenas I am definitely still more of a lover than a fighter, but I committed to the discipline. I passed the test for my first degree black belt in the eighth grade and was actually already starting to work towards my second degree in the ninth grade… but then I discovered theater (or, rather, the thea-tah finally discovered me), and my life changed direction overnight.

What's your favorite part of being an author?

There are a lot of perks to being an author. For example, I wear my pajamas to work, I can take as many breaks as I want, and I can even call in sick for, like, weeks at a time without getting into trouble! Unless I have a deadline or five, in which case I am in a constant state of panic. But, all jokes aside, the best part about being an author is seeing your imagination take on actual shape and dimension when you put your ideas onto the page. For a writer, nothing is quite as special as reaching those two perfect words—the end—and knowing that someone, somewhere, is also going to experience the story that’s been living inside you. It’s a kind of magic.

Which 3 fictional characters would you choose for your Scooby Gang and why?

First and foremost, I would pick Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Not only does she have super powers and a fantastically dry wit (my favorite kind), but she has lots of experience leading a Scooby Gang of her own. My second pick would be Dana Scully from The X-Files because having an adult around is never a bad idea—particularly one with an analytical mind and sharp investigative skills, as well as experience with firearms and martial arts. Last but not least, I would pick “A” from Pretty Little Liars. This might seem a controversial choice, but consider! “A” knows literally everybody’s dirty secrets and they know how to manipulate people into doing what they want AND they have no qualms of conscience about any of it. Strength, smarts, and deviousness—what more could you ask for in a support crew?




White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian—the guy who stomped his heart out like a spent cigarette. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian turns up out of the blue, saying they need to "talk." Things couldn’t get worse, right?

Then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. He and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney.

April swears she didn’t kill Fox. Rufus knows her too well to believe she’s telling him the whole truth, but April has something he needs. Her price is his help. Now, with no one to trust but the boy he wants to hate yet can’t stop loving, Rufus has one night to clear his sister’s name... or die trying.

Start reading now.


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