Flora Collins: Cool Girl Thriller Writer Debuts New Novel, A Small Affair

Flora Collins, daughter of famed writer and former Vanity Fair Special Correspondent Amy Fine Collins, is making her own name in the publishing world as a thriller writer. Another seductive, character-driven plot, Flora’s second novel, A Small Affair, is just as palpitating as her first book, Nanny Dearest.

 

With a dose of Brooklyn cool—she lives in Brooklyn Heights—mixed with her Upper East Side, Chapin School breeding that’s still well enough intact, I can already tell by our phone conversation that Flora is the girl you want to be friends with. She is the perfect combination of witty, with a fun, I-don’t-take-myself-too-seriously demeanor mixed with a love for horror movies.

 

Inspired by the Chris Watts murders, the husband who killed his wife and two small children amidst a blinding romance with another woman, A Small Affair, which was published in December 2022, gives the reader a unique viewpoint from the perspective of the mistress.

 

While her inspiration originally came from a documentary about the Chris Watts murders on Netflix, Flora was mostly intrigued by what would it be like to be his mistress while all of this was unfolding. “They only interview the mistress for a brief moment, and she seemed oblivious to the fact that Chris was still quote unquote ‘happily married’ with these children. That really springboarded this idea that came out in book form exactly two years later.”

 

She initially made her publishing debut in November of 2021 with the now-popular Nanny Dearest, and Flora is just getting started. Having just come off a few book parties in New York and Florida, she is already hoping to publish another book in the foreseeable future.

 

Flora was a budding thriller writer from the ripe age of six, when she already realized she enjoyed scary stories, particularly because of the suspense. “I watched a lot of precocious movies growing up. A lot of Hitchcock and Stephen King adaptations and always read a lot of scary books as a kid. I have always been very drawn to that genre.”

 

Now, she is mostly just glad that she can thrill others. “I love getting the book into new people’s hands,” Flora says. “The most exciting part is seeing who is interested in it and who wouldn’t normally read a thriller or read in general even, and connects to it in some way.”

 

It’s safe to say that her favorite reads are psychological thrillers, especially those from her idol, author Megan Abbott, who penned The Turnout, amongst other dark thriller classics.

 

Though she might have moved to the next borough and is loving the coffee shops and public library in nearby Carroll Gardens, Flora still visits her parents frequently and credits them with fostering her creative abilities as a child. “Both my parents are in the arts. They’re not fiction writers, but they are big champions of the arts and are artists themselves, and they helped me on this trajectory of nurturing this talent of mine.”

 

When it comes to giving herself space to tap into her creative side, Flora has cultivated her own writer’s retreat. “I’m not an outline type of writer. I see where the story takes me, and when I am on deadline and have only a week or so to finish something up, I will rent an Airbnb in Beacon, New York, and write for a few days or a weekend. As a Vassar College graduate, I love the Hudson Valley. It has such a special place in my heart.”

 

Perhaps some of her other inspirations come from working out. “I love strength training, which has been really fun. It’s an interesting hobby because you get to see how strong you get after a period of time. I live alone in a walkup, and I just want to be able to lift my bags up three flights of stairs!”

 

Flora hopes to continue writing one book per year and currently also maintains a job as a marketing content manager at a tech start-up company. Of course, with film adaptations already in discussions, Flora’s future is still as thrilling as one could imagine.