The co-authors of The Ending Writes Itself talk publishing, their longtime friendship and why they joined forces on their new novel
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Meet-cutes aren’t just for rom-coms—they can apply to friendships too. Prime example: About 15 years ago, Cat Clarke was scrolling Twitter when she read that fellow author V.E. Schwab was going to be visiting her hometown of Edinburgh, Scotland. Sensing they might have a lot in common, she reached out and offered to take her around town. “I showed up, and Cat showed me this magical day,” Schwab recalls. As Clarke jokes, “We’re very different, but we are the kind of people open to new friendships with total strangers!”
Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that the pair has joined forces in a new way: collaborating on a novel under the pen name Evelyn Clarke. It’s so buzzy that Stephen King declared on social media that “it’s clearly in the running for the best mystery of 2026.”
The Ending Writes Itself (out April 7) is the quick-witted story of six struggling authors who spend a chaotic weekend on a private Scottish isle vying to write the perfect last chapter of a deceased author’s final book. The winner gets fame and fortune, but not without first, ahem, making a killing. “Knives Out was a big inspiration in terms of the tone,” Clarke says, referencing the 2019 film. “I love mixing darkness and humor.”
Still, the satire-thriller-whodunit is a bit of a genre departure for the authors. Schwab—her first name is Victoria, but Clarke refers to her as V—is the bestselling author of fantasy favorites such as the Shades of Magic series, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and the acclaimed The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Clarke started her career writing coming-of-age fiction before pivoting to screenwriting (Ten Percent, Good Omens).
But joining forces was truly one for the books. “V promised me it would be a lot of fun,” Clarke says. “It was hard, but it was fun. She kept her promise.”
These days, the onetime strangers live less than a mile from each other in Edinburgh. They both hopped on a Zoom call to talk to Reader’s Digest about being literary partners in crime.
This story has been edited for length and clarity
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Reader’s Digest: So how did this co-authorship come to be?
Cat Clarke: V flourished in her authorhood and kept getting more and more famous and successful. I was plugging away at young adult novels and getting less and less successful, and decided to flee publishing in 2018. Then, a couple of years ago, V came over for dinner one night and said she had an idea for a book. At first, she was like, “Why don’t I write the book, and you write the screenplay when I’m done?” The next day, she was, “Oh, no, that’s a lot of work. You have to write the book with me!”
V.E. Schwab: I had this very tiny kernel of an idea that was a bit of a locked-room situation. But I thought it would be good for us because it involved publishing. Between the two of us, not only do we have 15 years of experience, we’ve seen every aspect of publishing and have been venting about it to each other. No one else could have done this project with me.
Reader’s Digest: Is it fair to say the storyline was therapeutic for you?
V.E. Schwab: Oh, it was a huge catharsis—I’d like to think for both of us, because Cat was like, “I left for a reason!” The thing is, the story is entirely fiction, but every single anecdote that the writers talk about at their dinner table has happened either directly to us or to one of our closest friends.
Reader’s Digest: Let’s hear an example.
V.E. Schwab: Millie talks about how the year that her debut novel came out, the publisher put in the same amount of money into three other books with the same premise and then waited to see which one took off so they could financially bail on the others. That happened to me in my debut class in 2011—I think Harper[Collins] bought six angel books for $100,000 each and then waited to see which ones had legs.
Reader’s Digest: What’s the story behind the pen name?
Cat Clarke: First we came up with “Evie Clarke,” which was sort of a combination of V’s first name and my last name. See what we did there? Then we decided it seemed like the name was too fun and light. Evelyn has a bit more gravitas.
Reader’s Digest: But why keep it a secret at all?
V.E. Schwab: When we first sat down to write it, we thought, Look, it doesn’t even have to be good. We just need to get something on paper that we can adapt. But we’re both perfectionists and take immense pride in our work. We are not psychologically capable of half-assing anything. Originally, the moniker was just there to give us freedom from the pressures of our own identity and to not feel beholden to anyone in the industry. Then we began to become really increasingly proud of the work we were doing. Do I wish we could have had an opaque pseudonym and the world would never have to meet actual Evelyn Clarke? Of course. It would have been delightful.
Reader’s Digest: Did Stephen King blow your cover when he gave that blurb?
V.E. Schwab: No, our reveal was always going to be three weeks later. But when he said that, I wanted to be like, “It’s me! It’s me!” I almost ruined the entire marketing plan.
Cat Clarke: It was very exciting. We celebrated that one, didn’t we?
Reader’s Digest: How did the collaboration work? Did you trade off writing chapters?
Cat Clarke: For the most part, we were sitting together at my kitchen table. We plotted it all out together and sort of came up with a blueprint. We didn’t want to, like, each take characters—we wanted to have our hands on all of it. So I would take a pass at a chapter, and V would go over it and change things, and then I would go back again.
V.E. Schwab: It wasn’t less work, but it was less lonely. I don’t really love when I read a co-authored book because I can tell who wrote what. It pulls me out. So we really wanted Evelyn to feel like a new voice that was an amalgamation of both of our voices. We each have specialties: Cat as a screenwriter is incredible at dialogue and the pacing of scenes; I’m extremely pedantic about prose.
Reader’s Digest: Tell me a little bit about your friendship.
Cat Clarke: This is a tough business, so we bonded over that at first. Then we grew closer. We have a shared humor—V is American, but she has a darker British sense of humor, like I do. So we like laughing at the absurdity of publishing and our journeys. When we hang out, V brings her dog over. My dogs get annoyed. There are a lot of pets.
V.E. Schwab: One thing I learned early about being friends with Cat is that we have to go into dinner dates with “an agendy.” We talk about publishing and headlines. Then we talk about food and cooking and exercise.
Reader’s Digest: How have you been there for each other?
V.E. Schwab: Our business encourages isolation. That’s why creative friendships are so important, and it’s really rare when you can have a creative friendship with full transparency. We talk about contracts and royalties and “How much did you make for that?” It’s so nice to have someone who’s a really nice sounding board and can help you solve a problem. You don’t feel like you’re cheating on someone else’s paper, you know? We’ve just always been there for each other. And we’re going to toast each other when things are going great and when things are bad.
Cat Clarke: Our friendship is not transactional in any way. I knew V before she was V.E. Schwab, famous bestselling author. And I think when you gain the level of success that V has had, some people turn up suddenly wanting to be friends who weren’t interested in being your friend a few years ago. You have to be really wary of those people. There’s a value in having people who essentially don’t give a shit about anything. That’s what our friendship is based on.
Reader’s Digest: Does that mean Evelyn Clarke will return?
V.E. Schwab: She will! As we were finishing up the draft, I told Cat, “You know, we’re probably going to want to do a two-book deal.” Cat was like, “Absolutely not.” She left the room and came back five minutes later and was like, “OK, but what if?” And I was like, “We got this. I got her hooked in!”
Reader’s Digest: It’s time for your literary lightning round! Best book you’ve read recently?
Cat Clarke: Under the Hammer by Samantha Dooey-Miles. It’s a hilarious debut crime satire.
V.E. Schwab: How to Read a Tree by Tristan Gooley
Reader’s Digest: Describe your ideal reading spot.
Cat Clarke: Bed, cozy, hot water in a mug.
V.E. Schwab: Corner of a coffee shop, latte.
Reader’s Digest: What’s the last book that made you cry?
Cat Clarke: Buckeye by Patrick Ryan
Reader’s Digest: Which book will get anyone out of a reading slump?
V.E. Schwab: I don’t know if that exists.
Cat Clarke: I think that’s personal. But reading nonfiction gets me out of a reading slump.
Reader’s Digest: What is a book from another author you wish you had written?
V.E. Schwab: Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Cat Clarke: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Reader’s Digest: Which book do you recommend more often than others?
V.E. Schwab: The Count of Monte Cristo. For writers, it should be the closest thing to mandatory.
Cat Clarke: My current one is The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden. I came late to the party, but it’s very big!
The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke
Six authors. One private island. A contest with a massive payout. And a twist you'll never see coming.
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