PHOTO: Seraphina Nova Glass, bestselling thriller author and playwright, known for her psychologically rich characters and hauntingly atmospheric narratives.
Thrillers With Depth, Darkness And Dramatic Flair
Seraphina Nova Glass discusses writing atmospheric thrillers, crafting psychological suspense, and portraying resilient women who face hidden truths and dangerous turning points in tightly plotted, emotionally layered narratives.
Seraphina Nova Glass writes with the keen instincts of a dramatist and the depth of a novelist attuned to the shadows we carry. Her stories are not simply read—they’re inhabited, each one a taut blend of psychological suspense, vivid characterisation, and the kind of gripping, cinematic pacing that draws breath and won’t let go. With a background in playwriting and an MFA in Dramatic Writing, her work shows a masterful understanding of how structure and silence can be just as potent as plot.
Her novels often venture into the deceptive calm of close-knit communities, where secrets linger beneath polite smiles and locked doors. In books like On a Quiet Street, she crafts atmospheres so thick with tension they practically hum. The settings are never mere backdrops; they pulse with intention, becoming characters in their own right—claustrophobic, haunted, alluring.
At the heart of her fiction lies a fascination with human resilience—particularly that of women pushed to their emotional and moral limits. Glass doesn’t flinch from trauma or fear, but explores them with empathy, allowing her characters to unravel and rise in ways that feel both raw and fiercely authentic. Whether blending psychological thrillers with supernatural whispers, as in The Swamps, or layering mystery across shifting perspectives, she challenges us to look closer—not just at the story, but at ourselves.
With each new page, Seraphina Nova Glass reminds us that suspense is not just about what happens next, but why it matters.
How does your background in dramatic writing and directing influence the pacing and structure of your thrillers?
As a playwriting professor, I always told my students dramatic writing is like classical training as a writer. I think it’s very difficult to keep the interest of an audience these days when writing a stage play. You don’t see a lot of car chases, things blowing up, tons of scene changes—you can’t rely on any of that to keep an audience engaged, so it’s more of a challenge, and I think having that as my background makes me very in tune with pacing and dialogue and character development, so it’s certainly helped write a lot when delving into other writing mediums.
Several of your novels explore tight-knit communities hiding dark secrets—what draws you to these kinds of settings?
I love the idea of setting being an additional character in a story. I have come to love writing very atmospheric stories—creating a world where I want to spend time as I’m writing and hoping that translates to the reader. I want to transport the reader to a very specific place where they can feel and see themselves immersed in the setting. I think it gives a novel so much more depth and character.
How do you approach building suspense and maintaining psychological tension across multiple points of view?
I always prefer writing multiple POV’s. I think it actually helps build suspense because you can leave one character’s chapter on a cliff hanger, leaving the reader wanting to know what will happen next, and make that quick shift to another characters point of view. The hope, of course, is that the reader is a little annoyed for a moment because they want to turn the page and see what happens next and you’ve teased them…but that they become so quickly immersed in the new POV they have been handed, they forget all about that cliff hanger until that character POV comes back around. It’s a lot of fun to play with as a writer, but the challenge is making sure all of the POV’s are equally engrossing, or you could lose momentum and it could fall flat.
I’ve always been a plotter, so I tightly outline all of my books which really helps keep the suspense tight and making sure the twists and cliffhangers are well placed to ensure that tension is consistent.
Your characters often wrestle with trauma and buried truths—what challenges do you face in portraying these emotional journeys authentically?
I think deep down we are all empathetic beings. Even if we haven’t lost a spouse or have been faced with threats, or a missing loved one, or any kind of major imminent danger, we know what fear and loss feel like. I guess I approach each character that way. In the moment, how would they feel, how would they react? Of course you can only draw from your own well of experiences to some extent, but I think just being human allows me to connect with characters from across all walks of life and experiencing different types of loss or trauma.
In The Swamps, you blend paranormal elements with psychological thriller—what inspired that shift in tone and theme?
I started writing novellas in addition to my full length novels and was presented with the opportunity to lean more horror rather than thriller, and when I get permission to make the characters even more quirky and the story even more wild, I jump on it. It’s a little bit of an experiment right now, but it’s been really fun branching out a bit.
Your stories often include strong female leads facing extraordinary danger—what motivates your portrayal of women under pressure?
I always want to portray a female character that embodies intelligence and resilience. Of course, if they always made the right choices, it wouldn’t necessarily make for a great thriller, so they are also usually flawed and struggling as well. Writing female leads that are strong and quirky and capable instead of a supporting role in a man’s story is always a goal.
There is little more satisfying than creating an everyday person, going about their life and then dropping unthinkable adversity in their lap, throwing as many rocks at the character as possible and seeing how they respond and how the story unfolds as a result. I feel like I have the best job.
