Q&A: Michael Chessler, Author of ‘Mess’

We chat with author Michael Chessler about Mess, which is Marie Kondo meets The Real Housewives in this charming and perceptive story of a professional organizer to Hollywood’s elite who learns to find love and acceptance amid the messiness of life.

Hi, Michael! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I’m a native Angeleno. After I graduated college with an English degree, I was planning on going to graduate school in American Studies, but took a year off before applying and quickly realized I really liked not being in school. So instead, I ended up in the entertainment industry, forging a career writing, producing, and directing television. The entertainment industry has a lot of high highs and low lows, and requires you to prove yourself over and over again, which frankly can get a bit exhausting. I was feeling pretty burned out by the time the world ground to a halt during the Covid pandemic. The lockdowns allowed me to step back and regroup, and gave me the time and space to realize my lifelong dream of writing a novel.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

The books that sparked my imagination when I was a child not only made me want to read more, but also to write myself.  Earliest reading memories are of Dr. Seuss, whose exuberant wordplay is so delightful it’s practically addictive. I also was very impacted by Charlotte’s Web, which is above all a profoundly emotional story about (gulp) death. For an assignment in third grade, I wrote a story about an astronaut whose spaceship had crash-landed on a hostile planet. It was in the form of a letter from the stranded astronaut describing his final hours, a letter that ended abruptly when something catastrophic happened. (I can’t remember what that final incident was, and sadly, don’t have the story anymore!) I typed it up, weathered the paper it was on, then put it in a ziplock bag to make it look like something an archeologist had collected from the crash site years later. This was so fun and rewarding that it made me want to write and create more.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
• The one that made you want to become an author: Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West.

Your debut novel, Mess, is out August 12^th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Boxing feelings can’t contain them. (I hope a 5 word sentence isn’t a cheat!)

What can readers expect?

I hope they find the protagonist Jane Brown’s quest to learn how to be loving and joyful in our cluttered and chaotic world both relatable and moving. Also, that they enjoy the humor in how Jane’s judgments of people are constantly being subverted, as well as passing through the homes of an assortment of quintessentially LA characters.

Where did the inspiration for Mess come from?

I’ve always been interested in the ways people cling to not only material possessions, but also to emotions, memories, beliefs. When I read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, the animism of her organizational rubric—asking if an object brings joy, and if it doesn’t, sending it off with fondness and thanks—resonated with me. The way people approach physical clutter reveals so much about they deal with mental and emotional clutter, and I wanted to explore this.

A specific incident that inspired me was an actress I was working with was moving, and I suggested my niece—who is a professional organizer—could help her. To be clear, my niece is nothing like Jane. I wanted to center this story on a character who is perceptive and almost cripplingly self-aware, yet still somehow estranged from her own emotions. Someone who struggles to see past her judgments not only of others, but also of herself. Someone who is a Type A perfectionist—a mindset that can make a person their own worst enemy—resolutely determined to change.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

The chapters in which Jane works for Kelsey, a bubbly actress who was on a hit TV show about witches in the aughts, were among my favorite to write. They are such opposites, and Kelsey is always upending Jane’s assumptions about her. 

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

I took a writing workshop during Covid and wrote the short story that became the first chapter of Mess. Even though I hadn’t conceived it as such, when the other students asked me if the story was the beginning of a novel, I immediately saw how it would work and got very excited about the idea. The story arcs, structure, and tone were all so clear that I felt compelled to write it. This was good luck because the genesis was so organic that I was spared the step of staring at a blank page, trying to commence the herculean task of writing a novel.

However, I definitely struggled—and still do—to silence the negative voices in my head. I am an inveterate catastrophist. The simplest thing I could do to silence them was to commit a schedule: I would write at least a chapter a month, and meet a self-imposed deadline for the completion of my first draft.

What’s next for you?

I am working on another novel set in LA.

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?

I recently devoured both of Robert Plunket’s novels, My Search for Warren Harding and Love Junkie. They’re riotously funny, but also moving in a tragicomic way that sneaks up on you. I was left wondering why I hadn’t heard about this great writer sooner. I just finished Old Filth by Jane Gardam, which we read in my book club. It is such a fantastic book—so rich in detail, funny, and profoundly moving. It is the first novel in a trilogy, so I am looking forward to reading the next two, The Man in the Wooden Hat and Last Friends.

Will you be picking up Mess? Tell us in the comments below!