I’m back!
Well, actually—I haven’t been anywhere, but I’ve been finding it
a bit difficult to keep my blog going. It’s kind of a good problem, in a
way—I’ve been finishing one project and beginning another (more on that below),
but that’s meant I’ve been away from the ‘Bean for too long!
Recently I was invited by Heather Gudenkauf to participate in a
blog roll, so this is the perfect time to make a return. If you don’t know
Heather’s books, you should definitely check them out. She’s the author of four
novels, including Little Mercies,
which releases on June 24. You’ll love it—I did!—it’s a
ripped-from-the-headlines story about the consequences of a single distracted
moment. I was thrilled to meet Heather recently at Book Expo America, and I’m
so excited for this book’s release. You can check out Heather’s website for her
answers to these questions. My answers follow…
1. WHAT AM I WORKING ON –
Right now, promotions are gearing up for The Fragile World, which publishes in October 2014. I was thrilled
to receive an ARC of the book recently—so now I know it’s real! It’s been so
much fun to visit with book clubs that have read The Mourning Hours, and I’m excited to introduce readers to my next
book, too.
I typically teach a summer session class, but I found myself
with unexpected (and welcome!) time off—so this is the perfect opportunity to
start researching and drafting Book #3. What sort of research, you ask? Well, this
month’s to-do list includes interviews with a paramedic, police officer,
prosecutor, defense attorney and school guidance counselor, and that’s just for
starters. I’m beginning to draft my ideas, which is always an exciting part of
the process.
2. HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM
OTHERS OF ITS GENRE?
My work falls into what is considered the “literary fiction”
genre. I do write for adults, but my years of teaching junior high and high
school have given me an interest and a bit of insight into a younger voice. In The Mourning Hours, most of the story
is told from the perspective of a nine-year-old girl. In The Fragile World, the narration alternates between 16-year-old
Olivia and her father. I love to consider how the same event affects people
differently, depending on point of view.
Overall, the events I focus on tend to fall into the category of
“could-be-real”—things that could happen to real people, somewhere. I’m
interested in how people deal with tragic circumstances and ultimately pick up the pieces of their lives. Henrik Ibsen famously remarked that all the material
he could possibly need was found in the Bible and the daily
newspaper—essentially, there was enough material there for any writer to mine.
I think I would add to that list a close observation of the people I encounter.
Real life is pretty fascinating when you look closely.
3. WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I DO?
I haven’t had a personal connection with either of the topics I
addressed in my first two novels—a missing girl and a dead brother/son—but once
I started brainstorming about the ideas, I found that I became very attached to
the people in the story. (They are fictional people, yes—which is one of the
things that make writers a bit strange.) At some point, the characters do begin
to seem very real to me, and I feel this responsibility to do justice to them
in the telling of their stories.
I also write to share a good story with readers, of course. I
was a reader long before I became a novelist, and I am grateful to many authors
and books for making me the person and the writer I am today. It gives me
goosebumps to think my work might inspire a reader in the same way.
4. HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS
WORK?
I mentioned that I’m in the “drafting” stage for my third book.
Right now I’m not so much writing the story as figuring out the backstory. Who
are these people, and what has happened to them before the reader encounters
them on page one? I have a file of questions to “ask” each character, and a
list of things I’ve learned about them. It may seem a bit tedious as a process,
but it allows me to really get inside the characters’ heads. When I fully
understand them, I can write them.
Once I’m into the story, I tend to set myself a word count goal
for each writing day. When I was writing The
Fragile World, I kept a Word document that was nothing but dates and
numbers—a way for me to keep myself motivated and encouraged during some long,
lonely hours. Day to day it never seems like much is happening with the story,
but to look back at 20,000 words written in the last month is kind of amazing.
Most of my writing takes place in the coffeehouses nearby my
home in Modesto, CA. I’ve simply found that I can’t focus at home—my pets need
to go in and out, the doorbell rings, something from the refrigerator is
calling my name. Weirdly, the chaos of a busy coffeehouse bothers me not at
all, and it gives me a chance to do a little people watching, too.
5. AND THE OTHER PART OF THIS
QUESTION, HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS NOT WORK?
I’ve heard—and read—about writers who outline their stories, so
that they know exactly what will happen next. I’m a bit jealous of this as a
process, but I have to say that it doesn’t work for me. I suspect that if I had
the entire plot outlined on a piece of paper, one of two things would happen—I
would be bored with the story and never actually write it, or I would decide to
change it all anyway as I went.
Instead of a strict outline, I have a general idea of where the
story might go, which often includes a few specific scenes. I like to start
each day with an idea of what I’m going to write, but beyond that, I let the
characters and the situations speak to me. This is the best part about writing,
the serendipity. Just by sitting at my laptop with my fingers on the keys, some
unexpected discovery will happen.
PASSING THE TORCH—
So, as part of this blog roll, I’d
like to introduce you to three writers I’m lucky to know. They’ll be following
up soon with their answers to the same questions…
I met Sarah Jamila Stevenson around
publication time for The Mourning Hours.
Sarah is the author of the YA novels The
Latte Rebellion, Underneath and the recently released The Truth Against the World. She writes a fantastic blog about
books, which you should definitely check out!
Last year I stumbled across The Longings of Wayward Girls by Karen Brown, and fell in love with the story. It was Brown’s debut novel, although
she has equally wonderful collections of short stories. I think what attracted
me most to Longings was the balance
of child and adult perspective, and the way that the events from our pasts have
a hold on our present situations. Read this book! It’s fantastically gripping.
Elizabeth Searle is an eclectic
writer and fantastic mentor, and I’m lucky to know her as both. If you’re
fascinated by our celebrity-obsessed culture, you’ll love her novella Celebrities in Disgrace and her blog by
the same name. Recently, she published Girl
Held in Home—a ripped-from-the-headlines, could-be-real tale of domestic
terror. Elizabeth is on faculty at the Stonecoast MFA program (University of
Southern Maine), and I was fortunate to have an early draft of The Mourning Hours discussed in her
workshop.
Thanks for reading – and now, go
check out these other authors!
