Saratoga Schaefer Celebrates Launch Party for Novel Debut at Northshire Bookstore March 19

SARATOGA SPRINGS — “Yes, that’s my real name,” says first-time author Saratoga Schaefer, with a laugh. “It was less awkward when I would come and visit for the summer, but now that I live up here I have to explain it to everyone.”

The debut novel by Saratoga Schaefer will publish March 18 and the very next day will be celebrated with an in-person book launch in Saratoga Springs at Northshire Bookstore. 

Titled “Serial Killer Support Group,” protagonist Cyra Griffin, who lives in a less-than-stellar studio in Jamaica, Queens, swallows the rage from the hand she’s been dealt following the murder of her younger sister by a serial killer: “She wanted to snap, but she had to choose her battles.” 

With the police investigation into the murder leading nowhere, Cyra follows the blood trail and finds her own way forward, infiltrating a support group for serial killers. The group has strict rules that come with a stern warning: Those who break any of the rules… will be killed. 

Where did the idea of a support group for serial killers come to Schaefer from? 

“I had read something once – and it was some throw-away line – that there was no such thing as a support group for murderers and that just locked in my head,” says Schaefer. “I started to think: OK, but what if there was? And what if specifically, there was one for serial killers? So, it was born from that. I found the concept intriguing. It was something I wanted to explore.”  

In the novel meanwhile, Cyra familiarizes herself with the serial killer mindset. She watches and studies, envisioning what it would be like. “She imagines staking his place out and, learning his habits, his comings and goings, figuring out his apartment number and memorizing the door code. When she was ready and knew they wouldn’t be disturbed, she would slip inside and knock on his door.”   

The book’s characters carry distinctive names – Sand Fly and Mistletoe, Whipworm, Pea Crab and Python.  “Sometimes my characters name themselves,” Schaefer says. “If something leaps out and seems to fit the character, then pretty much that decision is made for me.” 

The book’s publisher, Crooked Lane – distributed by Penguin Random House, bills the novel as a biting queer feminist debut thriller. 

Schaefer identifies as they. Cyra, the book’s protagonist, is told from the point-of-view of she. “I’m very interested in the female perspective, and I made a conscious decision to make Cyra queer – so that was the part of me that was in there a little bit,” Schaefer says. “I feel it’s no different than a female author writing from a male perspective or vice-versa, so I didn’t find it a very hard perspective (to write). It was more about the character than anything else.”

Schaefer, who grew up in Brooklyn, relocated about two years ago to the Saratoga area where she teaches yoga, hikes mountains and lives with an anxious dog and a possessive cat. So just how did the birth-name Saratoga come about?   

“When my mom was younger, her family had a house up here,” says Schaefer. “She spent her summers coming up and when she met my dad, she brought him up here. They both fell in love with the town and the track and then when they had their first-born child, they were like: well, let’s name them Saratoga.”  

Saratoga Schaefer will be at Northshire Bookstore at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 19. The event will include a talk about the debut novel “Serial Killer Support Group” with local writer Jennifer Dugan, a Q&A and a book-signing. Later in the week, Schaefer will be part of a flash tattoo event celebrating the publication of the book at Shark Tooth Tattoo, located at 72 Henry St., from 9 am – 1 pm  on Saturday, March 22. 

For more information about the in-person author appearance at Northshire Bookstore, go to: northshire.com.  For more information about Schaefer, go to: saratogaSchaefer.com.