Tell Me One Thing

December 1, 2022
Aspiring photographer and artist Quinn is passing through rural Pennsylvania when she crosses paths with nine-year-old Lulu. While their interaction is brief, Quinn snaps a couple of frames of Lulu, and one troubling image entwines the two for years to come. Quinn, back in New York City, struggles to find her footing as she pursues her creative endeavors while navigating feelings for lifelong friend Sam, a relationship that becomes increasingly complex as he descends into drug abuse. When Quinn strikes up a connection with an established artist, it is the photographs of Lulu that generate interest, much to Quinn's unease over unanswered questions about what became of her young subject. Lulu, meanwhile, experiences a harrowing, abusive childhood, with odds against her at nearly every turn in her attempts to escape the trailer park. After her mother is imprisoned, Lulu is sent to foster care and later juvenile detention, where she pursues ill-fated love. Schlottman's vivid first novel alternates between Quinn's and Lulu's journeys as photographer and subject grapple with harsh realities, tough questions, and the elusiveness of hope.

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November 28, 2022
Two women’s paths cross and their lives are forever altered in Schlottman’s dynamic, character-driven debut. In 1980, amateur SoHo-based photographer Quinn Bradford travels to Philadelphia with her boyfriend on a drug pickup run. While there, she spies Lulu, a young girl posed atop a trucker’s knee dangling a cigarette, and captures the moment with her Instamatic. The image becomes her “golden ticket” and catapults Quinn’s career and notoriety to unforeseen heights. Four decades later, with Quinn’s popularity swelling demand for her work, the now-iconic Lulu and the Trucker image commands a high price at auction. In a parallel narrative following the moment of the snapshot, Lulu deals with a hardscrabble childhood living in a trailer park with her mother, a sex worker who’s addicted to drugs and resentful of Lulu’s burden. A crisis point arrives in the present day, when Lulu attends a retrospective of Quinn’s work, hoping to question Quinn as to why she never kept in touch. Schlottman acutely nails the misty, gold-hued atmosphere of the 1980s, and deeply explores themes of class and privilege. Though a surprising conclusion fumbles some of the narrative momentum, the ending is poignant nonetheless. This thought-provoking work will put readers on the lookout for what the author does next.