What is your favorite TV program, past or current? That's a tough one. All in the Family, I love. I love All in the Family. The Honeymooners. The Twilight Zone.

Each of my novels began life as a series of stories, like sketches or studies a painter might make to clarify her ideas before embarking on the full mural. As a child of short story television -- Night Gallery, Twilight Zone, The Night Stalker -- and the 1980's music video culture, I get bored by continuing narratives that spool along like soap operas.

I talked to Roberto [Aguirre-Sacasa, the showrunner] about it in the very first audition. I was in a weird place and I had come off a binge of The Twilight Zone, so I had just come off this Rod Serling narration [in] every episode.

But honestly, there’s some part of me that thinks what I have been through is like a Twilight Zone episode where you could write your own headlines and they would become true. Now, for me, I might have added a couple things, like maybe sexiest country star, but not a lot else.