PITTSBURGH — The idea for Sarah James' debut novel had been around in one form or another since she was 19. All it took was more than a decade to gestate into something tangible.
The 32-year-old Forest Hills native had always been interested in World War II, specifically the Manhattan Project that led to the U.S. creating the world's first nuclear weapons. During her undergraduate days, James came across a lecture by Manhattan Project theoretical physicist Richard Feynman where he discussed a raucous celebration following the first-ever nuclear detonation — except for one person, who seemed consumed by the horror of what they had accomplished.
"That was really interesting to me, the way all these smart people could lose sight of something so big," James told the Post-Gazette. "That was definitely something I wanted to explore."
James' exploration of that topic is available in "The Woman with Two Shadows," her debut novel about a budding physicist in New York City determined to figure out what happened to her twin sister after she goes missing on an Army base in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
As someone who writes more for her own amusement than to entertain others, James had to learn how to mold her quirky ideas into a form that readers could understand.
"It's like, people are going to read this?" she said of her mindset while writing. "To have something that you spent years of your life working on and ... putting all that attention to it, to have it finally out in the world is really exciting and cool."
James is a Woodland Hills High School graduate, former theater kid and diehard Pirates fan. Her father's office had access to Pirates tickets, and they were usually available because of how poorly the team was doing. She ended up going to a lot of Pirates games, which helped kick-start her "writer brain" with how many stories were playing out on the field at PNC Park during every game.
She majored in playwriting and American studies at Fordham University in New York City. After college, she moved to Chicago and spent three years focusing on her improv work with Second City and iO Theater. James then moved to Los Angeles for a screenwriting graduate program at the University of Southern California. She still lives in the LA area.
"The Woman with Two Shadows" began its journey as a play James wrote at Fordham. In 2015, she revived the concept as a screenplay during her first semester at USC. Ultimately, she decided that the story of Lillian Kaufman assuming her twin sister Eleanor's identity as she tries to solve the mystery of her disappearance would be best-served as a novel.
"It definitely works better as a book," James said. "You need to be a little more in the characters' heads than you could get in a screenplay."
Lillian and Eleanor's sibling dynamic is unspooled through flashbacks of their time in the Big Apple before Eleanor left for Tennessee. James is an only child, so she got a kick out of crafting their relationship and coming up with story beats that were "on the heightened side" to test the strength of their bond.
"Fun" isn't the word James uses to characterize the experience of writing "The Woman with Two Shadows." Between her improv background and editing the Medium humor vertical Slackjaw, she clearly gravitates toward more comedic pieces. This novel was a departure for her in terms of tone and intensity.
"A lot of the characters have a very dark worldview," James said. "To write their worldview, it just feels like a bummer sometimes to get into that headspace. It's very satisfying work, but is it more fun to write comedy? Yes."
She did, however, enjoy researching all the math and science to make the world these characters inhabit feel authentic. There are plenty of intricate math equations woven throughout. James got them from a textbook and assures her readers they're correct.
"I love research," she said. "To try to force my brain to understand some of the science stuff and then regurgitate it out in the mouths of characters who have their own motivations and emotions about what they're saying, that was fun for me for sure."
James is already hard at work on her next novel. She recently completed the first draft of another World War II period adventure set in Hollywood that she described as being a bit campier than "The Women with Two Shadows."
For now, though, sink your teeth into this thriller about a slightly less well-known aspect of the Manhattan Project.
As James put it in her final pitch: "It will make my mom happy if you buy the book."
