A modern love-hate story, “In the Margins” dissects the he-said-she-said decay of a relationship.

Tell us about it.
Allie and Liam tromp bare-footed and free through their final year as undergraduate students, immersed in a shared love of literature and carelessness. Despite their worship of words, life’s most essential phrases are never uttered, and their inability to address the subtext of themselves culminates in a sordid dance of infidelity and self-destruction.

After a decade of separation and forced forgetfulness, Allie and Liam clash once more as they attempt to rehash their history and pen their story. It is through their work that their mutual truth becomes clear; all stories need to be told, if only for the sake of finally emerging from between the lines and discovering what memories look like in print.

Written in alternating viewpoints over many years, this is the breakdown of a self-destructive relationship.

That forces us to ask: what genre is it?
Literary fiction.

With alternating viewpoints the central characters become very important. Tell us about them.
Allie is an indulged young woman who can’t identify what it is that she wants in life. As a result, her reaction is to abuse the person who means the most to her. All in the name of self-control, she denies herself the most meaningful relationship of her life. Years later, she revisits the tragic events of her past, in an effort to find redemption.

And Liam?
Liam is a fool in love. He says it all with the comment “Ask any emotionally deformed guy why he is the way he is and his story will invariably start with the same, sorry excuse: ‘well, there was this girl…'” He loves Allie more than himself, and subsequently allows himself to be drawn into her self-destructive cycle. When they reunite years later, he seeks the will and strength to forgive himself, and subsequently, Allie.

You seem more sympathetic to him than you are to Allie.
Liam is based on every man I’ve ever loved, including my father.

Allie is based on every woman I’ve ever disdained, including myself.

We don’t mean to limit your readership, but what demographic did you have in mind when you wrote the book?
College students and well-read adults who care about the composition of words and the nature of sub-text.

Have you written any other books that we should read next?
“In the Margins” is my first novel.

Tell us about yourself.
I’m the founder and managing editor of Crack the Spine Literary Magazine. Our motto is “given the choice, we will always select madness over method.”

I write fiction for the same reason that I pick scabs and rearrange my furniture at midnight.

Choose madness over method. Now that’s a philosophy to live by!
Do you have a website?

My personal website: www.kerrifarrellfoley.com
My travel website: www.thehippieandtheyuppie.com

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kerri.foley
Twitter: @KerriFFWriter

What’s next? Another novel?
I’m currently working on a new novel set in a gated community in Florida. Through the families living there, we find themes of racial prejudice, privacy concerns, and gender equality.