The Martian Chronicles.Ender’s Game.Oryx and Crake.

I also lovedThe Handmaid’s Tale.Margaret Atwood is really good at spanning that chasm between literary fiction and genre.

Schwartz first cut her teeth with a series of humorous books.

Dana Schwartz

My impulse as a writer is just to do what I’m most excited about, she says.

Together they solve mysteries, exhume corpses, and, of course, dabble in romance.

Youve said being a Tumblr-loving, My Chemical Romance-listening teen partially inspired this book.

How did your emo girl origins manifest intoAnatomy: A Love Story?

I was a very good suburban girl.

But I did have that element of myself where I thought liking My Chemical Romance was rebellious.

I always gravitated towards theatrical emo music.

I like things with context and story.

I love concept albums.

Now, in retrospect, there’s sort of an earnestness that I was attracted to.

Even loving something as a teenager, there’s an earnestness to that.

Im usually a little snarky or sarcastic.

The internet isnt exactly a breeding ground for earnestness.

What intimidated you most about allowing yourself to go there?

It was like, Am I a good enough writer?

Am I disciplined enough?

Your work is so chameleonic.

Have you ever been pressured to stay in your lane?

But the problem is I’m genuinely interested in all these things.

I really love historical fiction.

I’m like, No, I just like history.

So I think my guiding principle has been following my genuine interest.

Theres also a lot of societal pressure on writers to pursue literary fiction.

To be the next Sally Rooney.

But you have such a passion for genre writing.

How did you cultivate that?

So I feel like I sort of channeled that insecurity into jokes.

It also goes back to wanting to write the things that I love.

I startedNoble Bloodbecause I love spooky, macabre history.

BetweenNoble BloodandAnatomy: A Love Story,youre doing a ton of research.

How do you toggle between the two projects and, in turn, how have they informed one another?

Thanks toNoble Blood, I have spent a lot of time in the 1800s.

It’s all based in fact.

ForAnatomy, I also had to learn a lot about early surgery.

Whats the strangest rabbit hole you went down in your research process?

I learned a lot about a man namedIgnaz Semmelweis, who was a doctor who delivered babies.

He realized that women who were having children delivered were dying of what they called childbed fever.

I think that’ll help?

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.