Loaded Questions with Kelly Hewitt

Charles McCain author of "An Honorable German" - Loaded Questions Author Interview

2009-08-02T01:34:00.000-07:00

An Honorable German centers on Max Brekendorf, a young German naval officer during WWII who is serving on a battleship in the Atlantic and volunteers for the U-boat force. The German Navy and the submarine on which Max is serving during the war is heavily populated by Nazi loyalists causing a troubling situation for the book's central character in which he must choose between his morals and the increasingly powerful Nazi party. Charles McCain, in his debut novel, has written a book full of fascinating action sequences and great detail gained by years of research as you'll read below.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a Loaded Questions exclusive - an unprinted excerpt from An Honorable German!

Loaded Questions: This is your first novel; how are you enjoying being a published author? Are you heading off on a book tour?

Charles McCain: I'm still getting used to it. My biggest surprise is the interest people take in my life as a novelist. Given that I spend large amounts of time alone; reading or writing or thinking, my life as a novelist ain’t too glamorous. Everyone wants to learn the process of how I write a novel. They assume there is a “way” to do it; a step by step process of some sort which I follow. When I tell people it is a mystery to me how the novelist part of me actually works , they seem disappointed. I liken it to someone who cooks by feel and someone who cooks with a recipe. I write by “feel.” That’s all I know about it.

Writing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. By age ten I was writing about things going on around me. When I was fourteen I tried to write my first novel—didn’t get very far—and later on in my late teens I wrote two novels, which I threw away. The corollary to novel writing is novel reading and there were many years when I read two hundred or more novels. Curiously, I don’t read a lot of novels these days.

I wrote the initial drafts of An Honorable German in the early 1980s shortly after I graduated from college. I was 21, and determined to be a published novelist. My life took a different course for many years but I always felt that somehow I would seize the brass ring. So becoming a published novelist is the fulfillment of a life long dream. To have my talent recognized and to walk past a bookstore and see my book in the window gives me a warm feeling of satisfaction and achievement. Sometimes I read through my novel and think, “I wrote this!”

I’m not off on a book tour. As an unknown first time novelist, there is no way I can sell enough books to cover the costs to the publisher of a book tour. I’ll just have to wait until I’m famous! I do have friends in various parts of the country who are going to hold book signing parties for me after Labor Day and I anticipate those will sell a lot of books, partially because my friends will make it clear to everyone they invite that they have to but a lot of books.

A friend of mine in my home state of South Carolina went to visit with her priest several weeks ago to discuss several spiritual issues. Before starting their discussion, she made him buy go online and buy a book. Another friend was in a B&N in Manhattan and a man was standing next to her at the fiction table looking through a book and he couldn’t decide whether to buy it. She actually took it out of his hands and gave him my book and said a friend wrote it and he must read it. And he bought it!

LQ: You have written that the idea for this story first struck you in the late 70s when you came across a Time Magazine article from 1944 about German POWs escaping from a camp in Arizona. How detailed was your initial idea? Were you simply interested in exploring how the Germans came to be POWs in Arizona and where they were trying to go, or did were you struck by a more complete picture of the story you wanted to tell?

CM: I initially wanted to write the German version of The Great Escape. But first I had to get the men to the POW camp. Several Germans named in the Time Magazine article had been aboard the Graf Spee, including the leader of the escape, who had been the Senior Navigation Officer. I later corresponded with him. These men from the Graf Spee had escaped from Argentina in 1940 and had made their way back to Germany and served on U-Boats which is how they got captured. I discovered all of this through my research. The journey of these men from the Graf Spee to U-Boats to captivity in a POW camp in Arizona fascinated me.

When I plotted all that out over time, and wrote and rewrote different pieces of the novel, it finally became clear that the journey of the protagonist to the POW camp was the most interesting and longest part of the story line. But this was more of an unconscious process at the time. Only by looking backwards do I understand it.

LQ: The depth of historical detail in this book is amazing. What sort of sources did you look to in exploring German history? Did you focus primarily on history from the German point of view or did you just read anything you could get your hands on?

CM: Most readers tell me that they are fascinated by the small facts woven into the narrative. It helps them connect with the characters. I wish I could say I had this in mind when I wrote the novel but I didn’t. I just find small details about history to be fascinating and when I would talk to people over the years, they were always intrigued by the small details such as the Graf Spee having Chinese laundrymen aboard.

Slipping in those facts took a whole lot of thinking and rewriting. I liken it to painting with watercolors on an egg shell. I had to paint the history in very delicately, so delicately that people would not actually notice the history but simply come across a historical fact as a natural part of the story.

In terms of researching, I just read anything I could get my hands on for many years. I started reading about World War Two when I twelve so my interest in the subject arose early in my life. In college I majored in history and spent most of my spare time—when not being a delinquent—reading history and novels. One of the reasons I read so many books when researching is that “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

Hundreds of times I came across small facts that I never would have imagined—such as people in Berlin playing ping-pong during the war. Often I would plough through a five hundred page book like The German National Railway in World War II and find maybe one or two facts that were useful. But those facts were important to know. One of the facts that came from that book—actually its in two volumes (I will lend them to you if you want to read them!!)—was how trains in Germany during WW II were often made up of rail cars they had stolen from countries they had conquered. That is the kind of detail which gives that sense of verisimilitude and “you were there” feeling to the novel.

Additionally, I met a guy on the Deutsche Kriegsmarine forum who had recently retired from the German navy and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the German navy and of Germany. We got to know each other via email and both came to realize the other person was above board. Jürgen, his name, first asked me if I had seen the movie U-571 (with Matthew McConathy) and what had I thought of it? I told him I almost stood up in the middle of the movie and yelled, “this is all completely wrong!” That was his feeling and he said he would do anything to prevent another U-571 from happening so he would do anything he could to help me. He didn’t realize what he was getting into. BTW, U-571 was so historically inaccurate that for the first time ever, the Chief of Naval History for the U.S. Navy issued a statement saying the movie was highly inaccurate.

Jürgen was a huge help in many ways. He not only read the entire manuscript, he corrected mistakes in how I described a ship being maneuvered and informed me that in the German Navy, unlike the US Navy, officers did not swear in front of the men and that no one ever used the popular four letter word, with the letters ing often added. In fact there wasn’t a German expression for that. He also had me change such things as officers running to battle stations (German navy officers are instructed to never, ever run), and he corrected something I never would have thought of: German Navy officers never clicked their heels when receiving orders as did German army men. The reason: you would never bring your feet together on a ship since you could easily fall over.

He supplied several dozen small details, such as what type of cigarettes the officer’s smoked. His father had served in the German Navy in WW II and he had talked with his father extensively over the years about his service in WW II. Jürgen even gave me a copy of his father’s unpublished memoirs which also had fascinating details, many about cadet life in the 1930s. Jürgen read the entire manuscript and was an invaluable help.

In the last years I read or re-read German history books by the dozens and continue to do so to this day. I also bought a lot of stuff on EBay from the era such as books published by the German Navy as P.R. during the war and I looked at hundreds and hundreds of photographs. To write a World War Two epic from the German POV required that I know German history so well that I would automatically know how the different characters would have reacted to events around them. When writing, I almost had to temporarily became German. It sounds weird but if you are writing authentic historical fiction you have to be able to project yourself into the time you are writing about. This caused some confusion in the editing process.

Example: In 1943 a major British air raid on Hamburg killed 50,000 people. In the novel, the protagonist discusses this with several others and uses the figure of 200,000 people killed. The copy editor flagged that, which was his job, and pointed out that Wikipedia said only 50,000 people were killed.

I told him that he was absolutely correct. That it had been established after the war, that only 50,000 people were killed in the RAF raid on Hamburg in 1943. But at the time German newspapers, all of which were under government censorship, reported 200,000 people had been killed. Therefore, that would be the only figure the character would have know. The New York Times also used that figure in its coverage, claiming to have verified the figure with neutral sources in Berlin.

So when writing An Honorable German I had to know not only the actual facts of a situation but I had to know what the people of the era had been told since you can never, ever, write anything that gives the slightest hint that the characters have some foreknowledge of events since they don’t and couldn’t. That would break the “suspension of disbelief.”

We know who won the war and the history of the various events that make up the war, but the characters don’t. When rewriting the novel I watched like a hawk to ensure there was nothing in the narrative which was out of synch with the era. I originally had a florescent light in one scene and I tracked down when florescent lights started to be manufactured. They were not being made in the year the scene occurs so I had to change it.

And finally, I had to understand and be familiar with the entire war from several sides to write the novel. That involved reading a whole lot of books.

LQ: Would you ever consider writing about another aspect of German history?

CM: Right now I wouldn’t write anything outside of the Third Reich during the war years. There are so many untold stories about Germany in World War Two that I plan to stick with that for awhile. It took me years and years to acquire the knowledge I have.

LQ: Without giving away too many of the books details I thought that one of the most poignant parts of the story was when the character Max was in the American south. It is always interesting to see America through the eyes of an outsider but the contrast between the German and American societies and war experiences was really insightful. Was that exploration one of your goals when you sat down to write the book?

I really want to answer this question in a deeply profound and intellectual way so anyone who reads this will be impressed by my forethought and literary touch. Yet, truth be told,

I never thought of that until you mentioned it in your question. When I’m writing, I’m focused on three things: creating characters who are realistic, moving the story as fast as I can in what I call my “waterfall style”, and maintaining complete historical authenticity.

I never think about symbolism when I’m writing. I’m not sending a message. I’m just trying to tell the story in the quickest, most dramatic and factual way. Because I’m from the Deep South, and was living in Louisiana when I first wrote the drafts, and there were POW camps in MS which was right next door, it was easy to write those scenes since I knew exactly how people would have behaved and would have said. As sickening as it was, strict segregation was maintained all through the South during the war which often found white German soldiers eating in restaurants African- American G.I.s could not eat it. The Germans were the enemy but they were white. One of very key scenes in those chapters was a story told to me by an old timer in New Orleans in the early 80s.

LQ: You've said that one of the hardest things about finalizing this book was cutting sections that didn't move the story forward. Can you describe one of your favorite scenes that didn't end up making the final version?

CM: There is a scene featuring Max’s father, Johann which I really, really liked but cut down to a few sentences from a page and a half. He calls on Countess von Woller at her request to tell her details of how her oldest son, Ernst, perished at Verdun. She asks Johann such questions as “did he have a quick death, Sergeant Major?” “Did he suffer?” etc. And Johann assures her that he had a quick death.

But Ernst didn’t have a quick death. He took a piece of shrapnel through the side of his head which blinded him and drove him to madness with pain. It was horrible, Ernst tried to claw out his own eyes, he suffered terribly. As Countess von Woller asks these questions, the description of the actual events is told through interior monologue from Johann’s point of view. He keeps promising her on his oath as a Prussian soldier, or in the sight of God that Ernst didn’t suffer. Only we know he is lying about the entire incident to save her from the brutal truth. And its very moving and says a lot about Johann. But we already know that Johann is a sensitive man in his own way, that he had the deepest respect and admiration for “Herr Ernst” and that Johann took care of his men. So it wasn’t necessary to repeat it but it was a wonderful scene. I’ve attached it so you can read it. I guess it would be an “outtake.”

LQ: And to sort of piggyback on that question, because I am suddenly struck by the fact that books should come in collector's editions with "extras" much like DVDs do, I read that you created extensive histories and family trees for each character. How detailed did you get? What are some of the silly, random facts that you used to shape a characters world view that were never explicitly stated in the book?

CM: Hmmmm. I’m not sure about that. I worry it might destroy the “suspension of disbelief” which is so critical to maintain. I think it was Bismarck who said the two things you shouldn’t watch being made were sausage and legislation. I would add novels to that list.

Besides the family trees, I wrote down in detail how Johann met his wife, what her parents were like and what his parents were like. His wife’s parents had a large farm in Silesia and employed lots of farm workers which would have put his wife on a higher social level. I sketched out Johann’s military career.

I wrote how it was that Max met Mareth. I wrote scenes which weren’t intended to go into the book such as how Max lost his virginity, how the village priest keep wanting him to go into the priesthood and how strongly he resisted especially when he started to sleep with women. I wrote about Max stealing pipe tobacco from his father and coughing so badly he started crying and his father picked him up and walked him up and down in the garden till he got over the coughing fit. His father taught him to sword fight. Lots and lots of things like that along with a very specific timeline of Max’s life and what was going in Germany during each year of his early life.

I wrote down what Mareth’s life in Berlin would have been like during Weimar, the art she would have liked, shows that she would have seen, who her friends were, what kind of car she drove.

LQ: What's next on the horizon for you?

CM: I very much plan to continue with writing novels and hope I can make a living at it. I have always followed my interests in life and that has worked out for me. I’m even more determined to do that now because I was diagnosed with lymphoma three weeks after I signed the final proof of my novel. That was a trick of fate. With the help of the Almighty and the brilliance of the physicians at the National Cancer Institute, I was cured of that monster. But it was yet another reminder to me of how brief and fragile life is. No one knows the future so you need to enjoy the present and take risks in the present and not wait until everything is lined up since that never happens.

Pillars of the Earth Television Series Starts Filming

2009-07-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

I will have to apologize for the informality of this post but I have some very exciting news to share! According to the web page of acclaimed author Ken Follett his best-selling novel Pillars of the Earth is currently being filmed in Hungary and Austria as part of an eight-hour limited series! This may not be new news to some of you but it is to me so you'll have to bear with me. The news was even sweeter when I read that Ian McShane (Deadwood and the somewhat enjoyable but quickly cancelled Kings on NBC) will play the dastardly Waleran Bygod.

Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, who has helmed episodes of “Heroes” and “Saving Grace,” and served as Steven Spielberg’s first assistant director on “Saving Private Ryan” and “Schindler’s List,” is directing the series from a script by John Pielmeier (”Hitler: The Rise of Evil”), who also stars in the production.

As some of you may remember, I conducted an interview with author Ken Follett a few years ago before the release of World Without End, the sequel of sorts to Pillars of the Earth. We talked about Pillars of the Earth, fact that it had just been selected as an Oprah Book Club pick and the success that the novel continued to have over twenty years after its release. Click here to read my entire interview with best-selling author Ken Follett.

The cast, according to IMDB.com, is as follows:

Ian McShane as Waleran Bygod

Rufus Sewell as Tom Builder

Matthew Macfadyen as Prior Philip

Donald Sutherland as Earl Bartholomew

Eddie Redmayne as Jack Jackson

Hayley Atwell as Aliena

Natalia Wörner as Ellen

Robert Bathurst as Percy Hamleigh

Liam Garrigan as Alfred

David Oakes as William Hamleigh

Tony Curran as King Stephen of England

Sarah Parish as Regan Hamleigh

Skye Bennett as Martha

Götz Otto as Walter

Anatole Taubman as Remigius

Jody Halse as Johnny Eightpence

Kate Dickie as Agnes

Sidney Johnston as Little Brother Jonathan

David Bark-Jones as Francis

Sam Claflin as Richard

The series has yet to be picked up in the UK or the US but I have a feeling that we'll have news soon enough about how and where it will air.

So -- what do you think? Are you as excited as I am at the prospect of an eight-hour Pillars of the Earth series? Do you think the casting has been done well? (If not please do offer your own suggestions...) Do comment!

If you'd like a refresher on some of the characters here is a link to a handy family tree of the key characters in Pillars of the Earth from Follett's site.

Index of Author Interviews

2009-06-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

An index of over 50 Loaded Questions interviews with authors from a number of genres and literary backgrounds. Stay tuned for more updates.

Baker, Ellen - Keeping the House
Blixt, David - The Master of Verona
Brooks, Geraldine - People of the Books, Year of Wonders, March
Christopher, Nicholas - The Bestiary, A Trip to the Stars, Veronica
Delaney, Frank - Tipperary, Ireland, Shannon
Delors, Catherine - Mistress of the Revolution
Ebershoff, David - The 19th Wife, Pasadena, The Danish Girl
Emberley, Ed - Drawing Book of Animals, Make a World, Drawing Books of Faces
Epstein, Jennifer Cody - The Painter From Shanghai
Furnivall, Kate (Part One) - The Russian Concubine, The Red Scarf, The Girl From Junchow
Furnivall, Kate (Part Two)
Follett, Ken - World Without End, The Pillars of the Earth, Eye of the Needle
Galchen, Rivka - Atmospheric Disturbances
George, Margaret - Helen of Troy, The Memoirs of Cleopatra, Mary Queen of Scotland
Gortner, C.W. - The Last Queen, The Secret Lion
Groff, Lauren - The Monsters of Templeton, Delicate Edible Birds
Higginbotham, Susan - The Traitor's Wife, Hugh and Bess
Holdefer, Charles - The Contractor, Nice
Jecks, Michael - Dispensation of Death, A Moorland Hanging, No Law in the Land
Jordan, Hillary - Mudbound
Kent, Kathleen - The Heretic's Daughter
Kingman, Peg - Not Yet Drown'd
Kling, Kevin - The Dog Says How, Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn
Krasikov, Sana - One More Year: Stories
Lamb, Wally - The Hour I First Believed, She's Come Undone, I Know This Much Is True
Lasser, Scott - The Year that Follows, Battle Creek, All I Could Get
Leleux, Robert - The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy
Lewycka, Marina - The Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Strawberry Fields
Lipman, Elinor - Then She Found Me, The Family Man, The Pursuit of Alice Thrift
Mailman, Erika - The Witch's Trinity, Women of Ill Fame
Maloy, Kate - Every Last Cuckoo
Maxwell, Robin - Signora Da Vinci, The Queen's Bastard, The Wild Irish
Maltman, Thomas - The Night Birds
Mendelsen, Charlotte - When We Were Bad, Daughters of Jerusalem
Moore, Christopher - A Dirty Job, Lamb, Fool: A Novel
Moran, Michelle - Nefertiti, The Heretic Queen, Cleopatra's Daughter
Murphy, Yannick - Signed, Mata Hari, Here They Come
Niffenegger, Audrey - The Time Traveler's Wife, Her Fearful Symphony
Penman, Sharon Kay (Part One) - Here Be Dragons, Sunne in Splendour
Penman, Sharon Kay (Part Two) - Devil's Brood
Picoult, Jodi - Handle With Care, My Sister's Keeper, The Pact
Robison, John Elder - Look Me in the Eye
Roach, Mary (Part One) Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Spook
Roach, Mary (Party Two) Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
Russell, Mary Doria - Dreamers of the Day, The Sparrow, Children of God
See, Lisa - Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls
Stoller, Ty - The Monkey Jungle
Tinti, Hannah - The Good Thief
Varlow, Sally - The Lady Penelope
Vantrease, Brenda Rickman - The Illuminator, The Mercy Seller
Willig, Lauren - The Temptation of the Night Jasmine, The Pink Carnation Series
Winfield, Jess - My Name is Will, What Would Shakespeare Do?
Worth, Sandra - The King's Daughter, The Rose of York, Lady of the Roses

Elinor Lipman author of The Family Man: Loaded Questions Interview

2009-06-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

The Family Man marks Elinor Lipman's tenth novel. Lipman has made a career out of writing lightly comedic novels full of characters that are engaging, heartfelt and yet entirely human. Lipman's latest novel focuses on Henry Archer, a single openly gay attorney who's a stand up guy. The fun of The Family Man begins when Henry's life is entered, once again, by his shallow and hard to handle ex-wife, Denise. Henry's former wife finds herself on hard times and does precisely what she frequently did during their marriage -- attempt to get Henry to solve her problems. The heart of the novel, however, has to do with the relationship between Henry and Thalia, Denise's grown daughter whom Henry had contact with when she was a child. Henry attempts to make up for lost time as he and Thalia forge an amusing relationship that allows our protagonist to fully cope with the past and look towards the future.

Kelly Hewitt: Your novel Then She Found Me was turned into a feature film in 2007 starring and directed by Helen Hunt. I have also read that both The Ladies' Man and The Pursuit of Alice Thrift are also in pre-production. I always wonder how authors feel after seeing their literary works translated onto the big screen. How did you feel about the adaptation of Then She Found Me? To what extent, if any, are you involved in the production aspect of your two latest novels turned motion pictures?

Elinor Lipman: Actually, the latter two are not in pre-production; by now barely in development. Screenplay rewrites are in the works and directors are attached, but I am never sanguine about movie prospects because everything is nothing until it's something (a Jack Nicholson quote.) Then She Found Me took 19 years from option to screen, which explains my Hollywood pessimism. I did love my movie, though, and did not mind the changes from the book. I hear from loyalists all the time who think that the novel should have been, essentially, the screenplay. I direct the crybabies to something I wrote for Huffington Post when the movie came out. (Click here to read the article.)

KH: A fan of your novels wrote in a review that the best part of your writing is that you develop your supporting characters just as fully as your primary characters. This is something that I noticed too, it certainly makes The Family Man and your other novels more compelling and complete. Is that something you focus on or that comes naturally, the dedication to providing the reader with fully fleshed out supporting and primary characters?

EL: It's not something I focus on. My goal is always good storytelling and verbal economy. I'd like to think that if a supporting character feels fully developed it's not because I described his childhood or the wind in the trees outside his bedroom window, but because I found the right combination of telling details.

KH: In a review of your novel The Inn at Lake Devine the Chicago Tribune wrote of your work “Think Jane Austin in the Catskills!” In reviewing your latest novel, The Family Man, the Washington post dubbed the novel a “screwball comedy from 'an Austen-like stylist'”. You have been dubbed a modern Jane Austin on more than one occasion. How does that sit with you?

EL: Hmmm. How would one feel about being compared to a beloved and timeless author? Maybe: It is a truth universally acknowledged that any novelist in possession of her right mind would be thrilled.

KH: After writing nine novels you've probably been compared to all sorts of literary figures. Can you think of one that was crazy or totally off base?

EL: Actually, not all sorts of literary figures. Well, once a British critic wrote, "Imagine, if you can, a cross between Philip Roth and Melissa Bank." The L.A. Times said I was Larry David without the whining. I don't see that, but I loved it anyway.

KH: I am struck, after having read several interviews and features on you over the last couple of years, by the fact that everyone says the same thing. You're nice, cheerful, positive, upbeat and comfortably so despite the occasional ribbing of your son and husband. Why do you think that, in interviews and features on you and your career, there is such a focus, maybe even a hint of disbelief, on your good nature?

EL: I noticed early on that the bar is set pretty low in publishing. I called my agent's office once and said politely to a temp, "This is Elinor Lipman calling for X. Is she there?" The temp reported back to my agent, "Who is Elinor Lipman? She's the nicest person I talked to all day." See? Low expectations.

KH: Have you ever had the urge to play against type by writing that is unlike the traditional Lipman novel?

EL: Every time I think I've done that, woven death or anti-semitism or racism or villainy into the work, people still think it's funny. I'm told it's the voice. I do want to be seen as a good observer with a wry eye, but I'm always surprised at lines people laugh at when I'm doing readings in public. And believe me, I've been a judge for the National Book Awards, for the National Endowment for the Arts, for PEN this and that, so that I come away from the piles of submissions with no desire to go earnest.

KH: The Family Man marks your tenth published work since Into Love and Out Again in 1988. Looking back at twenty plus years of writing, has the process gotten any easier?

EL: No, not easier. On many days I think harder. One thing that experience has taught me is to know that having doubts about the material all the way through, and feeling lost and out of ideas is part of the process. It happens with every book. It helps to think--and to have my friends remind me--"Ha! That's exactly what you said about (fill in any past work)." Their mocking of the same old familiar doubts helps me put my hands back on the keyboard.

KH: I have not come across it used to describe any of your recent work but I wonder, how do you feel about the term “chick lit”?

EL: Hate it. I don't like it when reviewers use it and I especially don't like it when publishers market books that way.

KH: Your readers have expressed a great deal of admiration for the protagonist of The Family Man, the openly gay, stand up guy Henry Archer. As an author what draws you to a character like Henry?

EL: I can't really say I'm drawn to a character when I'm doing the actual drawing. I did know I wanted Henry to be sweetly paternal, a gentleman, old-fashioned and well-adjusted in a somewhat nervous fashion. I don't try to make political statements, but I did want readers to come away thinking, "What a decent man. Why can't all fathers be gay?"

KH: The Family Man has only been in bookstores a month or so but I am sure that some of your faithful readers are already wondering what's next for Elinor Lipman. Have you already begun work on your next project?

EL: Yes. I'm about 100 pages into the next one. That sounds like I'm a fast writer, but I finished The Family Man more than a year ago. This new one is also set in New York, and all I'll say is that the recession is nibbling at the edges of the story.

Upcoming Author Interviews: Colum McCann, Emily Listfield, Tess Callahan and more

2009-06-21T17:00:00.001-07:00

The Best Intentions by Emily Listfield
Published by Atria - May 5, 2009
352 pages

After tossing and turning all night, thirty-nine-year-old Lisa Barkley wakes up well before her alarm sounds. With two daughters about to start another year at their elite Upper East Side private school and her own career hitting a wall, the effort of trying to stay afloat in that privileged world of six-story town houses and European jaunts has become increasingly difficult, especially as Manhattan descends into an economic freefall.

As Lisa looks over at her sleeping husband, Sam, she can't help but feel that their fifteen-year marriage is in a funk that she isn't able to place. She tries to shake it off and tells herself that the strain must be due to their mounting financial pressures. But later that morning, as her family eats breakfast in the next room, Lisa finds herself checking Sam's voicemail and hears a whispered phone call from a woman he is to meet that night. Is he having an affair?

When Lisa shares her suspicions with her best friend, Deirdre, at their weekly breakfast, Deirdre claims it can't be true. But how can Lisa fully trust her opinion when Deirdre is still single and mired in an obsessive affair with a glamorous photographer even as it hovers on the edge of danger?

When Deirdre's former college flame, Jack, comes to town and the two couples meet to celebrate his fortieth birthday, the stage is set for an explosive series of discoveries with devastating consequences.Filled with suspense and provocative questions about the relationships we value most, Best Intentions is a tightly woven drama of love, friendship and betrayal.

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Published by Random House - June 23, 2009
368 pages

In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.

Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author’s most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.

Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth.

Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the “artistic crime of the century.” A sweeping and radical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence. Hailed as a “fiercely original talent” (San Francisco Chronicle), award-winning novelist McCann has delivered a triumphantly American masterpiece that awakens in us a sense of what the novel can achieve, confront, and even heal.

April & Oliver by Tess Callahan
Grand Central Publishing - June 3, 2009
336 pages

Best friends since childhood, the sexual tension between April and Oliver has always been palpable. Years after being completely inseparable, they become strangers, but the wildly different paths of their lives cross once again with the sudden death of April's brother. Oliver, the responsible, newly engaged law student finds himself drawn more than ever to the reckless, mystifying April - and cracks begin to appear in his carefully constructed life. Even as Oliver attempts to "save" his childhood friend from her grief, her menacing boyfriend and herself, it soon becomes apparent that Oliver has some secrets of his own--secrets he hasn't shared with anyone, even his fiancé. But April knows, and her reappearance in his life derails him. Is it really April's life that is unraveling, or is it his own? The answer awaits at the end of a downward spiral...towards salvation.

Lake Overturn by Vestal McIntyre
Published by Harper - April 21, 2009
448 pages

Lina and Connie are single mothers, neighbors in Eula's trailer park. Lina, the daughter of migrant Mexican farm workers, is trying to cope with her angry teenage son Jesús, newly returned after living with wealthy white foster parents. Connie, long abandoned, struggles with her literal reading of Old Testament laws against remarriage, especially when a handsome missionary visits her congregation. The women's younger sons, Enrique and Gene, are misfits whose mutual love of science offers stability and respite from schoolyard cruelties.

Determined to win the statewide science fair, Enrique and Gene devise an experiment involving "lake overturn," a real scientific phenomenon in which deadly gases collect and eventually erupt from a lake's depths. In their quest to discover if Eula could suffer from such an event, the boys come into contact with an odd assortment of locals, including the frail-hearted school principal with grand ambitions, a rich but lonely lawyer who finds love outside his marriage just as his wife is succumbing to cancer, and a woman tortured by a past of abuse and addiction who decides to turn things around by offering herself as a surrogate mother.

Sunnyside by Glen David Gold
Published by Knopf - May 5, 2009
576 pages

Glen David Gold, author of the best seller Carter Beats the Devil, now gives us a grand entertainment with the brilliantly realized figure of Charlie Chaplin at its center: a novel at once cinematic and intimate, heartrending and darkly comic, that captures the moment when American capitalism, a world at war, and the emerging mecca of Hollywood intersect to spawn an enduring culture of celebrity.

Sunnyside opens on a winter day in 1916 during which Charlie Chaplin is spotted in more than eight hundred places simultaneously, an extraordinary delusion that forever binds the overlapping fortunes of three men: Leland Wheeler, son of the world’s last (and worst) Wild West star, as he finds unexpected love on the battlefields of France; Hugo Black, drafted to fight under the towering General Edmund Ironside in America’s doomed expedition against the Bolsheviks; and Chaplin himself, as he faces a tightening vise of complications—studio moguls, questions about his patriotism, his unchecked heart, and, most menacing of all, his mother.

The narrative is as rich and expansive as the ground it covers, and it is cast with a dazzling roster of both real and fictional characters: Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Adolph Zukor, Chaplin’s (first) child bride, a thieving Girl Scout, the secretary of the treasury, a lovesick film theorist, three Russian princesses (gracious, nervous, and nihilist), a crew of fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants movie makers, legions of starstruck fans, and Rin Tin Tin.

An Honnorable German by Charles McCain
Grand Central Publishing - May 18, 2009
384 pages

When World War II begins, Max Brekendorf, a proud young German naval officer, fights for his country with honor and courage. With the unstoppable German war machine overrunning Europe, Max looks ahead to a bright future with his fiancée, Mareth.
But as the war progresses, their future together becomes less and less certain. German victories begin to fade. In the North Atlantic, Max must face the increasing strength of the Allies on ever more harrowing missions. Berlin itself is savaged by bombing, making life for Mareth increasingly dangerous and desperate. And as the Third Reich steadily crumbles, Nazi loyalists begin to infiltrate Max's crew and turn their terror on Germany's own armed forces.

Recognizing what his nation has become, Max is forced to make a choice between his own sense of morality, and his duty to the Reich. With its stirring, rarely seen glimpse of the German home front during WWII, vivid characters, and evocation of the drama and terror of war at sea, An Honorable German is a suspense-filled story of adventure, of love and loss, and of honor and redemption.

Scott Laser author of "The Year that Follows": Loaded Questions Interview

2009-06-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

The Year That Follows by Scott Lasser is a novel that delves into the lives of two related and yet entirely different individuals. On one hand there's the struggling yet intelligent, fiercely independent Cat who is a single mother living in Detroit. Then there's Sam, a man who knows his life is coming to a close as well as the fact that he's not done all that good of a job at many things especially where is daughter Cat is concerned. The lives of both Cat and Sam are changed forever when Wall Street broker Kyle -- Cat's brother and Sam's son, is killed in the attack on the World Trade Center buildings on September 11th, 2001.

In this third novel author Scott Lasser deals delicatly and yet honestly with both the tragedy of 9/11 and the equally unsettling tragedy occurs when families grow apart. The Year that Follows focuses on the paths of Cat and her father Sam, both flawed individuals, with a frank honesty as their lives draw them back together. Front and center is the theme of lost children, Kyle's death, Cat's withdrawn relationship with her father and in what is perhaps the most compelling of the novel's storylines Cat's search for the infant child her brother had just learned was his days before his death. Lasser does a very admirable job of telling the story of real people with real flaws attempting a real reconciliation.

Kelly Hewitt: I read on your blog (Scott Lasser's Blog) that you have been working to publicize the release of The Year That Follows and are doing a book tour. In a different post you wrote: “writing is not performance, not really, but writers are sometimes called upon to perform, live, in person. I’m glad of it. Sure, it’s what’s on the page that matters, but a writer’s physical presence can bring added attention to the words.” I am curious, how have your book tour visits been
going? Do you still feel the same about the necessity of an author to perform from time to time?

Scott Lasser: How’s the tour going? My view is this: anytime you can find a bookstore that wants to have you visit it’s going well. I’ve enjoyed the events so far, about half of those scheduled. I don’t know that there is a necessity for writers to perform, but I do think that every little bit of promotion helps, and readings and talks are part of that.

Television still seems the most effective marketing machine ever invented, but writers hardly show up there anymore. (We’re talking lack of invitations more than lack of willingness. Even Cormac McCarthy went on Oprah, one of the last venues.) In fact, it seems likely that the publishing houses will start producing webcast interviews and the like, a relatively cheap way to reach readers. In fact, Kelly, you might consider this. One thing seems fairly clear to me: people buy stuff off screens.

KH: The events that make The Year That Follows such a great novel are centered around the death of Kyle during the 9/11 attacks. I have to admit that while reading the beginning chapters, I was very nervous about how you would deal with such a sensitive subject. My fears were unnecessary as you dealt with the events of 9/11 very respectfully and subtly by providing the reader with scenes before and after but not during. Did you ever consider writing the scenes in which Kyle died in the 9/11 attacks?

SL: No. Journalists did a great job of that, and had I added such a scene, with the inevitable cell phone call and the like, it would have felt gratuitous, which is to say not essential to this particular story.

KH: I thought it was great that Bryan Cranston (television's Breaking Bad and Malcolm in the Middle) recently plugged your book in Time magazine. Have there been other surprising endorsements of your novels?

SL: Well, it does seem that I owe Bryan Cranston a favor. And yes, I’ve had some surprising endorsements, mostly from other writers whom I respect greatly and who also blurbed my books: Christopher Tilghman, Richard Russo, Anita Shreve, and Wally Lamb, none of whom I’ve met, with the exception of Russo, five years after the fact. I’m grateful to each.

KH: Your website (click here to visit) notes that you have worked a wide variety of jobs: including ski instructor, English instructor, waiter, steel worker, government bond trader, and financial advisor and now author. Do any of your crazy work stories from so many professions find their way into your writing?

SL: Of course. I published a whole novel about Wall Street. A couple years ago I published a ski-instructor story. I’m currently working on a novel that will make some use of my time in the steel plant. I’m troubled by novels whose characters have no visible means of support. I don’t know about you, but I seem to spend a large amount of my time trying to make a living.

KH: Your first novel Battle Creek centers around a minor-league baseball team and America's relationship with its favorite sport. All I Could Get, your second novel, focuses on business and the world of bond trading. Each of these novels has a theme but also deal with issues of family and relationships. The Year that Follows seems less like your first two novels because it focuses much more on family not the world of baseball or the world of bond trading. Do you think that's a fair assessment? What would you tell your readers is the theme of The Year that Follows.

SL: Battle Creek and All I Could Get grew out of my experiences in very male milieus, whereas The Year That Follows did not; in fact, it has a heroine. I suppose that might explain the difference you feel. As for the theme, well, that’s always a tough one for the writer. I prefer that the reader makes that call. I guess I could say it’s a book about bloodlines and the meaning of family. Man, that sounds trite.

KH: In an interview I did with Wally Lamb not all that long ago he expressed a worry about how many stories he has left in him and noted that each novel seems to take him longerand longer. Now that you've written your third novel, have you ever had a similar feeling?

SL: Oh boy, there’s as question. Yes and no. I’m usually cutting things from novels. I suppose I figure if I can’t make it go away it will come back in the next book. As for length of time to write, well, I’d like to be faster. I’m actually working on that.

KH:There's one question I always have to ask. I realize that The Year That Follows has just been released but what can fans of you and your novels expect to see next from you? Have you already begun work on another project?

SL: I’m working on a new novel set in my hometown of Detroit. My goal is to have a first draft done by the end of this year, with something I could show my agent by the end of the following year, if not before that. I am certainly feeling more urgency now. Still, The Year That Follows came out about a year after it was accepted at Knopf, just to give you an idea of the lead time on these things.

Willig Contest Winners

2009-06-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that we initially were giving away just two copies of Lauren Willig's new book The Temptation of the Night Jasmine. However, the response from readers was so great that I decided to toss in my personal copy (brand new) to the giveaway. Thanks to everyone who entered and to Lauren Willig and publisher Dutton for donating the books for the giveaway.

Notice that things have been quiet here lately? That's because we have a ton of new interviews, reviews and giveaways coming up very soon. Stay tuned.

Hillary Jordan - Author Update

2009-05-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

I often chat with authors as their books are about to be released or have just hit stores. It is not often that I am able to check in with an author to see what life after the arrival of a best-selling book hits the charts is like. Book tours, interviews and the of course there's always the writing of the next book.

In a new series Loaded Questions will be featuring Author Update in which past Loaded Questions authors are asked to write about what's been going on since the last time we chatted.

We begin with Hillary Jordan author of Mudbound her first novel and winner of the 2006 Bellwether Prize. Mudbound takes place in Mississippi Delta, 1946 and focuses on Laura McCallan, a college-educated Memphis schoolteacher who struggles to adapt to her new life on a farm she rightly names Mudbound. Living without modern comforts is a challenge for Laura added to caring for her daughters and striving to live up to her loving husbands expectations. Mudbound, told from the point of view of a number of characters, is a great novel and has been doing very well on Amazon, landing on several bestselling lists and continuing to do so in paperback.

Jordan and I last chatted in July of 2008. We discussed the fact that her mother and her life on a farm in Arkansas was an inspiration for the novel, the research and texts that Jorden read in order to research the period and a quote in which Jordan said she knew "more than should be legally allowable about mules, boll weevils, fertilizer, and the like!"

Click here to read my entire interview with Hillary Jordan for the release of Mudbound.

I wrote to Hillary and simply asked her to write about what life has been like since Mudbound's release and what she's currently working on ...

Hillary wrote:

The fifteen months since Mudbound was published have been a whirlwind. Thanks to Algonquin, which has championed the book in a way that most first novelists never get to experience, I’ve spent a tremendous amount of time on book tour, doing readings, signings and festivals all over the country. It has been exhilarating, exhausting, fascinating, gratifying and occasionally humiliating (like the Memphis talk show I was on where I was clearly second fiddle to a guy eating a 7-lb. hamburger). I’ve gotten to meet so many wonderful book-loving people: fans, booksellers, and other authors. In between, I’ve been going to artists colonies — in Switzerland, Saratoga Springs, the Santa Cruz mountains, and this autumn, Scotland — to work on my second novel. It’s called Red, and it’s set thirty years in the future in a right-wing dystopia (not to be confused with the last eight years). I hope to finish it by the end of the year.

Being published is an amazing thing, and Mudbound has succeeded beyond my wildest fantasies. It was the NAIBA Fiction Book of the Year and won an Alex Award from the American Library Assoc. It was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and one of IndieNext’s top ten reading group suggestions. Recently, the trade paperback spent a thrilling six weeks on the NY Times extended list (my highest rank was #29). Mudbound has done very well in the UK also, thanks to the “Richard & Judy Show” (their Oprah), which picked it as a book of the month. It has been translated into Serbian and will be published in French and Italian in 2010. There are over 200,000 copies in print worldwide, a number I can hardly believe. Life is good!

-- Hillary Jordan

Thanks Hillary for participating! Interested in learning more about this fantastic new author? Here is a link to her website. Support Loaded Questions by purchasing a copy of Mudbound from Amazon.com (currently under $11.00) by clicking here!

Random Notes: Author Leads and Catherine Delors

2009-05-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

I have gotten a lot of emails from folks with some really great suggestions for authors to interview. Some of these leads are currently being investigated.

Penny wrote "Have you interviewed the delightful, intelligent, first time author, historical novelist Catherine Delors? She does not write those irritating bodice rippers but real historical fiction? She is very knowledgeable in this field and so everything is in its place."

The answer is yes! Here is a link to my interview with the wonderful Catherine Delors when we chatted before the release of her debut novel Mistress of the Revolution.

Stay tuned for more info about upcoming interviews that will be announced soon!

Upcoming Author Interviews

2009-05-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

Elinor Lipman

Author of the new book The Family Man as well as Then She Found Me, The Inn at Lake Devine, My Last Grievance, The Dearly Departed and more.

Carolyn See of The Washington Post wrote of The Family Man: "Just because something is "light" doesn't mean it's not masterful. Lipman's use of dialogue, for instance, is exquisite…Though I read this book twice, I see that I stopped taking notes both times halfway through. Lipman mesmerized me. She hypnotized me. I admit it freely: I fell victim to the Elinor Lipman Effect."

Scott Lasser

Author of the upcoming The Year That Follows as well as Battle Creek and All I Could Get.

Lasser's upcoming novel, due out in June, follows Cat, a single mother living in Detroit when her brother is killed in New York. Cat sets off in search of her brother's child. Her search is still under way when she gets a call from her eighty year old father who is carrying the weight of a secret he has kept from her all her life. He asks Cat to visit him in California, intending to make his peace. . .

Christopher R. Beha

Author of The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death, and Pretty Much Everything Else, his first book released in early May.

In The Whole Five Feet, Christopher Beha turns to the great books for answers after undergoing a series of personal and family crises and learning that his grandmother had used the Harvard Classics to educate herself during the Great Depression. Inspired by her example, Beha vows to read the entire Five-Foot Shelf, one volume a week, over the course of the next year.

Who Would You Like to See Us Interview?

2009-05-16T15:16:00.001-07:00

I have said before that when I first started doing Loaded Questions (for a different site) I simply went to my library of books and started sending emails to anyone I could get in touch with. A couple of years later I have had a chance to chat with some of the authors that really changed my view of what it means to be an author and a reader. There are, of course, a good many authors who I still look forward to chatting with. (Anchee Min, where are you?) We have a great line up of new authors and old favorites whose books will be launching this summer already scheduled for interviews. However, I wanted to ask you readers:

Who would you like to see us interview?

I know what dedicated readers you all are. What new authors do you think others would like to hear from? These suggestions can be current bestselling authors, authors with upcoming releases, favorite legends of fiction - you pick. I am hoping that with the help of some publicist and publisher friends that we can seek out your suggestions.

Book Giveaway: The Temptation of the Nigth Jasmine by Lauren Willig

2009-05-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

As I recently alluded to Lauren Willig was nice enough to send along two free copies of her latest novel, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine after our chat.

Contest Details: Let's do this nice and easy. To be entered into the contest simply hit comment. Leave a few words along with an email where you can be reached should you win and you'll be entered!

Good luck and thank you for reading Loaded Questions!

The deadline for this contest will be May 30th.

Lauren Willig Author Interview

2009-05-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

After a number of scheduling issues on both our parts Lauren Willig and I were finally able to sit down to talk about her latest Pink Carnation novel The Temptation of the Night Jasmine. As I think you'll see below Lauren is a serial workaholic. With a background in English history Willig has managed to write a series of historical novels that never get old.

Kelly Hewitt: The last time we chatted you were balancing Harvard Law School and the writing of your popular Pink Carnation books series - two perfectly successful careers at once. I read now that you've finished school and are working at a law firm. Do you think you'll always be a two career kind of person?

Lauren Willig: Life moves very quickly—either that, or we haven’t chatted in way too long! Since our last confab, I’ve left the practice of law. After a year and a half juggling briefs and book deadlines, I decided that enough was enough. The two career model did wonders for my writing, since I had no choice but to write like a maniac whenever the opportunity presented itself, but little for my temper or my social life. I am sad to say that since becoming a full time writer, I have lapsed back into all my old bad habits.

All that being said, I do think I am a two career person, in that I find it much easier to do anything while I’m dodging doing something else. One of the wonderful things about life as a professional writer is that it does often feel like two careers for the price of one. One of these two careers consists of my writing life, which boils down to me, my computer, the characters who inhabit my head, and the coffee with which I fuel them. The other is my author life, in which I get to dash around to conferences, give talks, and answer questions for websites such as yours.

Kelly: Aside from being jealous of your dual ability I have often wondered how it is that you found time to write a book a year with the rigorous law school. A lot of the authors I have chatted with who only write for a living have expressed the difficulty and pressure that comes along with writing a book a year. Is it fair to assume that you are a very scheduled and disciplined writer?

Lauren: Ha. Ha ha ha. Insert hollow laughter here. I’m about as disciplined as the Blob. (No offense to the Blob, who, for all I know, might have a rigorous scholarly work ethic when not spreading himself out over large quantities of terrain and engulfing screaming teenagers). I tend to write in fits and starts. I’ll have stretches of a week or two when I’ll write like the wind, followed by a week of scowling at a blank screen. This may be because I wrote my first four books while scheduling my writing time around other things, or simply a facet of my character. I suspect the latter. Fundamentally, I’m an adrenaline worker. When left to myself, I tend to procrastinate and overthink until panic takes hold, at which point everything suddenly gets done very, very quickly. In the context of a book length project, this divides itself up into lots of little cycles of procrastination and panic.

Kelly: How has the transition from law school to law firm affected your ability to write?

Lauren: The most jarring aspect of moving from an academic calendar to a bona fide job was my inability to schedule. School and novel writing go together like peanut butter and chocolate, largely because one knows exactly what all the major stress points are going to be before they happen. My editor had been very nice about letting me schedule book deadlines around exams, papers, and the other milestones of the academic year. In an office, on the other hand, one can never predict when a crisis will arise, consuming nights and weekends—or when a crisis will suddenly subside into calm. It made planning out writing time rather tricky and taught me valuable lessons about seizing any free moment to write, with no nonsense about muses or writer’s block.

Kelly: We have chatted a few times about our mutual interest in Renaissance European history and the fact that we both have pursued masters degrees in English history (I, sadly, was not so smart as to jump to law school instead of finishing). (Correction: Lauren finished her MA and went on for her doctorate.) When history grad students get into a room the first thing that happens is that everyone gives a rundown of what they think they'll write their looming thesis on. I know you inevitably chose a different path but what did you think you were going to write about?

Lauren: After getting my MA, I spent several years working on my PhD before I jumped ship, including a year in England on fellowship trudging back and forth between the British Library and the Public Records Office. My plan was to finish the dissertation while in law school, so that I could walk off with the PhD and JD at the same time. But by a strange fluke, I signed my first book contract my first month of law school. There went all my dissertation-writing time!

My partially written dissertation was grandiosely titled “Give Caesar his Due: Royalist Conspiracies in the English Civil War, 1646-1649”. It followed the movement of royalist groups in England and abroad between the King’s capture in 1646 and his execution in 1649. One of these days I really do want to dig out my three foot high pile of research notes and just finish the blasted thing, since it really was a great topic, replete with deeds of derring-do and lots of slapstick. My favorite episode was Charles I getting stuck in a window as he tried to escape his Parliamentarian captors. But for the width of the royal shoulders, the trajectory of English history might have been entirely different….

Kelly: I, of course, love that you use a history graduate student to frame your novels. You have also written about another bastion of graduate school life, teaching entry level classes. Do you have any graduate teaching horror stories? (I will have to share mine later.)

Lauren: Oh, heavens. How many of them do you want? Some of my personal favorites involved grading exams (advise to TA’s: open a bottle of wine before approaching those blue books) and finding gems like, “In the Middle Ages, there were no windows. That was why they called it the dark ages. Then in the Renaissance they discovered glass and everything became light.” The post-exam wrangling about grade is also always fun. I had one guy storm into my office and inform me that my giving him a “B” was unconscionable since he was an “A” student. He had brought his transcript to prove it to me. I pointed out that he might be an A student, but it still wasn’t an A paper. He didn’t agree with this. Fortunately, the professor did.

I have a whole bunch of other stories, but they’re not going into print.

Kelly: Your readers have commended the latest novel in your series, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine, for your ability to keep storylines new and exciting, avoiding any of the staleness or repetition that are sometimes synonymous with multiple installments of a series. Is that something that you consider when writing?

Lauren: Repetition is something that any multi-published author has to worry about, and the equation becomes even more delicate when one is dealing with a series. Part of the lure of a series is a certain promise of familiarity. The reader wants to re-enter a familiar world. At the same time, no one wants to feel like they’re reading—or writing!—the same book over and over again. Trying to maintain continuity while keeping the series fresh is a constant challenge for me. In my next book, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, I moved the action to India to provide a fresh perspective on the series and the time period.

Kelly: Sometimes authors who write a series of novels will map things out in order to have a long term idea of where they are going. Is that something you've done for the Pink Carnation series?

Lauren: I do have long-term plans for the series, but they are always subject to change. For example, my image of the how the series is ultimately going to end hasn’t changed, but a lot of the stuff that goes on in the middle—the intermediate books in the series—has, as my characters grow and develop throughout a multi-book arc. I’ve learned to be more flexible in my plotting because clinging to one image or one idea often stymies the organic development of the series.

Kelly: How many books do you envision the series having?

Lauren: At this point? Um…. Let’s just say it’s entirely open-ended. At some point, I should probably sit down and make important decisions about how I plan to get to my eventual end goal, but at this point I’m still having way too much fun with the series to start plotting the wrap-up. I also love the freedom I have within the series to play with different tropes, character types, and historical events. The Napoleonic Wars cover a broad span of time, countries, and characters and I’m taking full advantage of that. For a more practical answer to your question, I can say that currently there are plans for three more Pink books underway (which would bring us to nine).

Kelly: So, the next book in the series will take place in India. Can you give Loaded Questions readers any exclusive info about the next book?

Lauren: Pink VI recently acquired a title! It is now officially The Betrayal of the Blood Lily.

Blood Lily follows Lady Frederick Staines (nee Miss Penelope Deveraux) to India after her indiscreet behavior found her hustled into a hasty marriage. Penelope and her new husband are sent off to India to give time for the scandal to die down. What Penelope doesn’t realize is that far more dangerous challenges await them in India, where her husband has been appointed Special Envoy to the Court of Hyderabad. Penelope plunges into the treacherous waters of the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where no one is quite what they seem—even her own husband.

In a strange country where elaborate court dress masks even more elaborate intrigues and a spy called the Marigold leaves cobras as his calling card, there is only one person Penelope can trust: Captain Alex Reid, the man detailed to escort them to Hyderabad. But Alex has secrets of his own….

The first chapter of Blood Lily is available on my website here and I’ll be posting other updates and excerpts throughout the summer.

Kelly: Thank you so much Lauren for doing the interview and thank you for being so kind as to send along books for our "The Temptation of the Night Jasmine Book Giveaway!"

Lauren: Thanks so much for having me here, Kelly! It’s always so much fun to hang out with you at Loaded Questions.

Lauren Willig Interview and Giveaway

2009-04-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

Mary Roach: Author of Bonk

2009-04-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

Few things make me as giddy as the release of a new book by Mary Roach. Mary's latest book Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex has just been released in paper book. Roach, one of my very favorite authors, and I had a few seconds to chat recently the night before she left on the book tour for the paper back release of the book. (Read my first interview with Roach from 2005.) In her latest work Roach looks at the history of sex and the role that science has played in helping humankind figure out just how our body parts work. Roach is at her very best in Bonk - traveling in person to view a penile surgery, visit a sex toy manufacturer and even participating in a ultrasound study of intercourse. (Don't worry there's more about this below.) Roach approaches her subjects with a simple dedication that is endearing. It also helps that her observations about the subject and the individuals she comes across are hilarious. Coming from another author a book like Bonk might be creepy or awkward by Mary's humor and observation make Bonk and her other titles pure joy to read.

Roach's past titles include the immensely popular Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (once featured prominently in a plot on Six Feet Under) and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. With Stiff, Mary took an unprecedented look into the sometimes stomach-churning uses for human bodies after death. It is fascinating, horrifying, incredibly informative and oddest of all, funny. With Spook, Roach looked at the history of clairvoyants and psychics and the human preoccupation with forging contact with the beyond. Roach is a detective who will stop at nothing to make the right connections in order to get unbelievable access to the subject at hand.

Already a Roach fan? Mary drops a hint about her next book below...

Kelly Hewitt: One of my questions has to do with something that you allude to but never fully reveal. I am trying to think of an appropriate way of wording this ... In Bonk you write about your interest in a particular study taking place that you are only able to visit and learn more about if you serve as a test subject. In perhaps your most outrageous and hilarious attempt to get access to the subject of your book you sign you and your husband up to be part of a study taking place in England in which researchers are taking ultrasound 4-D images via MRI of couples engaged in the act of intercourse while inside the actual MRI machine (There's a question here I promise.) You explain your husband's involvement by saying that you lured him with the free trip to Europe by offering him details about an exciting new study.

Did he really find out about your scheme only after arriving and was his initial reaction to the idea?

Mary Roach: It was worse than an MRI. It was ultrasound, which means the operator is standing right next to you, holding the wand to your skin. Actually my skin. Before Ed knew any details, he was all enthusiastic. As in, "Hey, sex research! Sign me up!" Then he entered the denial stage, choosing to focus on the free trip to England. And finally, as Dr. Deng walked down the hallway toward us, he entered the final stage: glumness and despair and horror. I did let him know what he was in for before we left, though I don't think he really thought it through. People ask us how we could do it. It was less like sex and more like some awkward medical procedure that you just have to get through.

Kelly: I imagine that being the husband of Mary Roach entails a great many adventures in the name of research. What other kind of crazy things have you had him do?

Mary: I dragged him to a Mars/Venus John Gray couples seminar, poor thing. Nothing else crazy that I can think of.

Kelly: In the chapter "Re-Member Me" you write about another research trip in which you head to Taipei to witness male genital extensions and surgeries. Having seen the actual surgeries and knowing what you know now would you ever encourage your husband to have a similar procedure?

Mary: I didn't witness any enlargement or enhancement, just surgical treatments for ED. And those are surgeries of last resort, for men whose ED doesn't respond to Viagra or its cousins. So, no, I surely would not. Maybe when he's 90...

Kelly: I know that I meant to ask this question the last time that we chatted. Were you told that your book Stiff would be a major plot point in the final season of Six Feet Under or was that a surprise?

Mary: I knew that they'd asked permission to show the book (like Norton would ever have said no!), but did not know what they had planned. I assumed it would just be a prop -- a book on Nate's nightstand or some such. The way they used it was utterly a surprise.

Kelly: In Bonk you offer the reader a very interesting rundown of the history of what you call the pioneers of human sexual response. For readers who haven't had a chance to read the book which of the pioneers (who all have equally delightful and unsettling stories) did you find to be most compelling?

Mary: Robert Latou Dickinson. He's the dude who got Kinsey to drop wasp research and get into sex research. Gynecologist in the early 1900s. Way ahead of his time. SUNY Downstate in NYC has a huge collection of his plaster castingss of vulvas. I also like the behaviorist John B. Watson -- the first to study humans having sex in a lab (him and his mistresss).

Kelly: As funny as it is Bonk, like your other two books, packs in a good deal of detailed information. I walked away from this book knowing a great deal about all sorts of anatomical anomalies. I haven't had a chance yet to use a story about Marie Bonaparte, the great-grand niece of Napoleon Bonaparte, who literally had some of her sexual necessities moved like one my uproot a tree but I am sure that the opportunity is just around the corner.

Have you heard of any instances in which one of your books has been used to teach a class (presumably collegiate)?

Mary: Bonk is part of the curriculum in at UT Austin (sexuality class) and one other school. Both Spook and Stiff have been used as a freshman reading "common book" at universities. Stiff gets used in anatomy classes and in high school writing classes.

Kelly: I know it is very soon to be asking but, you've written about the science of corpses, ghost/spirits and now sex. Where do you plan on going next?

Mary Roach: Next one has to do with the fabulous insanity of space travel.

Oscar Movies Based on Books

2009-02-14T13:02:00.000-08:00

A spin on the feature Movies Based on Books, this week we bring you a very special installment. The Oscars are only a week away and after browsing the list of best picture nominees I noticed that a great number of the nominated films this year are based on books. Here's a rundown of some of the novels the inspired the celebrated movies that will compete for awards next Sunday. The book is always better than the movie, right?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

A 1921 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, first published in Colliers Magazine, and subsequently anthologized in his book Tales of the Jazz Age (occasionally published as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories). Developed for years by the late Hollywood mogul Ray Stark, the rights and story development were purchased from the Ray Stark Estate and adapted for a 2008 film of the same name directed by David Fincher.

Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchet, Taraji P. Henson

The film was released on December 25, 2008 and received 13 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress.

The Reader
Author: Bernhard Schlink
Translated by: Carol Brown Janeway

An award-winning novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink. It was published in Germany in 1995 and in the United States in 1997. It deals with the difficulties of subsequent generations to comprehend the Holocaust; specifically, whether a sense of its origins and magnitude can be adequately conveyed solely through written and oral media. The first German novel to top the New York Times bestseller list, and US television presenter Oprah Winfrey made it a selection of her book club. It has been translated into 37 languages and been included in the curricula of college-level courses in Holocaust literature.

Starring: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross

The British drama opened in limited release on 10 December 2008 and has been nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Director.

Q & A (Slumdog Millionaire)
Author: Vikas Swarup

A novel by Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat. Published in 2005, it was the author's first novel. Set in India, it tells the story of Ram Mohammad Thomas, a poor young waiter who becomes the biggest quiz-show winner in history, only to be sent to jail on accusations (but with no evidence or proof) that he cheated. The basis for the award winning movie Slumdog Millionaire.

Starring: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan

The film was released in 2008. The British drama was directed by Danny Boyle, co-directed by Loveleen Tandan, and written by Simon Beaufoy. Nominated for a total of ten Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.

Revolutionary Road
Author: Richard Yates

The first novel of author Richard Yates, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1962. When it was published by Atlantic-Little, Brown in 1961, it received critical acclaim, and the New York Times reviewed it as "beautifully crafted... a remarkable and deeply troubling book." In 2005 the novel was chosen by Time as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon

The film opened on December 26, 2008 in selected theaters and opened everywhere throughout the U.S. on January 23, 2009. Revolutionary Road was the source of a good deal of controversy after DiCaprio was nominated for a Golden Globe and Winslet won the award for Best Actress for the film but neither were nominated for an Academy Award for their work in the film. Winslet, instead, was nominted for Best Actress for her Golden Globe Best Supporing Actress winning role in The Reader. The film also failed to be nominte for an Oscar for best picture. The film is, however, nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Supporting Actor for the relatively unknown Michael Shannon.

Doubt
Author: John Patrick Shanley

Not a book but a play initially titled Doubt: A Parable (but still a very well written drama that makes for very good reading) was originally staged off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club on November 23, 2004. The production transferred to the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway in March 2005 and closed on July 2, 2006 after 525 performances and 25 previews.

Starring: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Viola Davis

The film, written and directed by the original play's author, John Patrick Shanley, premiered on October 30, 2008 at the AFI Fest before being distributed by Miramax Films in limited release on December 12, 2008 and in wide release on December 25, 2008. The film and play are set in 1964 at a Catholic church in turmoil located in the Bronx, New York. Nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Actress (for previous Oscar winners Seymour Hoffman and Streep), two Best Supporting Actress Nominations and Best Adapted Screenplay for Shanley. Ironically, recieving the most acting nominations of any 2008 movie, Doubt was not nominated for Best Picture.

Frost/Nixon : The Book & Frost/Nixon: The Play
Author: Sir David Frost with Bob Zelnick

Frost/Nixon, inspired by David Frost's now iconic interviews with the disgraced ex president was first told as a play written by British dramatist Peter Morgan, author of The Queen. The play premiered at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London in August 2006. Directed by Michael Grandage, and starring Michael Sheen as the talk-show host and Frank Langella as the former president, Frost/Nixon received enthusiastic reviews in the British press.
The play won three Tony Awards including Langella's win for Best Performance By a Leading Actor.

In 2007 Frost released a book by the same title, Frost/Nixon, which is a first hand account and tells the extraordinary story of how Sir David Frost pursued and landed the biggest fish of his career--and how the series drew larger audiences than any news interview ever had in the United States, before being shown all over the world.

Starring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt

The film It was released in the United Kingdom and expanded into wide status in the United States on January 23, 2009 and landed on a number of top ten films of the year list. Frost/Nixon is nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director (for Ron Howard), Best Actor and Best Screenplay for the play's initial author Morgan. Both Michael Sheen and Frank Langella reprised their roles in the film version. Interestingly, Langella stands a chance to win both a Tony and an Oscar for the same role.

Waltz with Bashir
Author: Ari Folman and David Polonsky

Not intially a book a graphic novel of the animated and celebrated film will be released February 17th. Asked why the authors decided to release the story in graphic novel form co-author Folman said. "It gave us total freedom to do whatever we liked. We could go from one dimension to another, from real events to the subconscious to dreams to hallucinations. It gave us the liberty to play with vastly different elements in one fluid story line, with no boundaries, and also to make something visually familiar and tired--war scenes--look entirely new." A reviewer has said of the graphic novel: "probing inquiry into the unreliable quality of memory, and a powerful denunciation of the senselessness of all wars."

Starring: Ari Folman

The film was one of the first Israeli animated feature-length films released in movie theaters (along with the film $9.99). Waltz with Bashir premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where it entered the competition for the Palme d'Or, and since then won and was nominated for many additional important awards while receiving wide acclaim from critics. It won a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, a NSFC Award for Best Film, an IDA Award for Feature Documentary and is currently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film has been nominated for Best Foreign Film a category for which it won the Golden Globe.

The Class (Entre les murs )
Author: François Bégaudeau

The book, published in 2006 with the title Entre les murs (in English: Between the Walls), is a work of contemporary fiction by French writer François Bégaudeau. It is a semi-autobiographical account of Bégaudeau's experiences as a literature teacher in an inner city middle school in Paris. Published in the United States with the title The Class, the same name as the film.

Starring: François Bégaudeau

The film's star is also the author of the book revealing the multifaceted nature of Bégaudeau who was also a member of the 1990's punk group Zabriskie Pont. (The guy is apparently very busy!) The film received the Palme d'Or (the highest award) at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, making it the first French film in 21 years to do so. The movie has mainly received positive reviews, achieving a 97% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. The Class has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

Loaded Questions in Print!

2009-01-13T21:52:00.001-08:00

I am happy to announce some very exciting, surprising and flattering news ...

A few months ago I conducted an interview with Robert Leleux for the hardback release of his debut book, the humorous The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy.

I received an email from Robert a few days ago to announce that my exclusive Loaded Questions interview has been printed by St. Martin's in the brand new paperback version of The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy as part of some reading group resources at the back of the book!

What a surprise!

Thanks to everyone for reading the interviews and to Robert and St. Martin's for the honor.

Here is a link to my interview with Robert Leleux.

Hannah Tinti, Author of The Good Thief -- Loaded Questions Author Interview

2008-12-30T01:35:00.000-08:00

The Good Thief is an exciting adventure story in which twelve year-old Ren, a one-handed orphan who has grown up in a Catholic monastery, is rescued by Benjamin Nab, a thief who at first presents himself as the young boy's brother. The story that follows is, as many reviewers and fans of the book have noted, quite Dickensian. Young Ren and Benjamin, along with a cast of frightening friends, encounter graver robbers, silver-tounged salesmen, murderers and outright thieves. Taking place in 19th century New England the novel is part Victorian drama, part Oliver Twist. The end result is a fun and fast paced debut novel that guides Ren, who the reader can't help but root for, through a world of equal parts danger and wonder.

In addition to The Good Thief, Hannah Tinti is the author of a short story collection Animal Crackers.

Kelly Hewitt: I've noticed that several reviewers of The Good Thief have mentioned fantastic elements in the book but are most surprised by the stealing of the teeth of corpses for denture making. When I was reading the book, though, this seemed somewhat plausible especially considering that body snatching for surgical practice certainly was taking place at the time the novel was set in. I wonder, where did you get the inspiration for this particular part of the book? Did you find some historical precedence for stealing teeth from the dead?

Hannah Tinti: I read many books about resurrection men and grave-robbing. Two that were particularly helpful were The Italian Boy by Sarah Wise, a non-fiction account of a trial of two resurrection men in London, and The Knife Man by Wendy Moore, a biography of John Hunter, who was a famous surgeon and resurrectionist. I knew that grave-robbers would often take the teeth as well as the jewelry of the dead and sell them to dentists. Sometimes resurrection men would also separate the teeth and sell them separately, to make more money. There is a great ghost story that I remember reading as a child, about a man who has just buried his young wife, and then hears her that night, calling for him and sees her coming down the road, covered with blood. He locks the door against her, but soon realizes that his wife was actually buried while she was in a deep sleep, and when the grave robbers were pulling out her teeth, it woke her up. So that ghost story, combined with the historical information I found, started the idea, and then Mister Bowers the dentist truly came into being when I came across a photograph of George Washington’s teeth, and I became fascinated by early dentures, and discovered that they were made from all different kinds of materials.

Kelly: In reading many interviews and reviews in preparation for our chat I was perplexed when I ran into, again and again, readers and reviewers who felt a need to designate The Good Thief as either young adult (YA) or adult fiction. You've said that you had neither in mind when writing the novel. Why do you think that there is a tendency to want to fit the story into one category or another?

Hannah: I’m not sure. Perhaps they just want to know where it should be shelved. Personally, I don’t think there should be such hard divisions in literature. Adults should be more open to the fantastic books that are being written for younger audiences, and children should be encouraged to read beyond their level.

Kelly: Ren, poor Ren. This poor kid goes through a lot in the course of The Good Thief. Was there a particular hardship, setback, ordeal or crime that you found particularly hard to put your one-handed orphan through as an author?

Hannah: Ren goes through quite a lot in the book, but I think he is the kind of child that can withstand a great deal. The hardest scenes to write were the more emotional ones—Dolly’s death, and Ren’s separation from Benjamin—because I knew they hit Ren’s most vulnerable spot: his heart.

Kelly: What kind of research goes into writing a novel like The Good Thief? It is fiction and sometimes fantastical fiction but there are some aspects of early New England that you write about that are historically accurate. Are there any particular texts you would point readers to who are interested in this period?

Hannah: I read many books, including those mentioned above, and I also spent time in the library, reading newspapers from the 1800s, which gave me a real feel for the time period. But I mainly drew on my own experience growing up in Salem, Massachusetts. Many houses in Salem are from the 1700s and 1800s. This helped me to imagine the towns, particularly North Umbrage and Granston. Granston is a combination of Salem and Gloucester, Massachusetts—where I lived briefly after graduating from college. North Umbrage is a combination of Salem and Lowell, Massachusetts, known for its factories. If some of your readers are interested in New England history, particularly shipping and trading, I’d suggest visiting the Peabody Essex museum in Salem, Massachusetts, which has a wonderful collection. If they are interested in medical history, a visit to the Mutter museum in Philadelphia is a real eye-opener.

Kelly: I read in an interview a few months ago that you were working on not a sequel but another novel that would feature a minor character and/or the same setting but that you weren't willing to share anything until you reached a hundred pages. I am wondering, as someone who really enjoyed this novel, have you reached a place that you can tell your readers anything more about this prospective novel?

Hannah: I’m sorry—not yet!

Kelly: Prior to The Good Thief you were a short story writer. You even mentioned in one interview that you had not intended for The Good Thief to be a full novel. With the success of The Good Thief, do you find yourself thinking more about writing novels rather than short stories?

Hannah: I think that in the future I will probably do both, going back and forth between the forms. My decision to write The Good Thief as a novel was driven entirely by the material—I saw rather quickly that it was too big to contain in a short story. I work from images or ideas. Often I don’t know exactly what I’m writing about until it is on the page.

Kelly: I know that you are one of the founders of One Story, a magazine that publishes one story per issue. Are you still working with One Story?

Hannah: Yes. I’m still acting as editor-in-chief at One Story. It’s something I’m very passionate about.

Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances - Loaded Questions Interview

2008-12-28T22:07:00.000-08:00

I first learned of Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen from author Lauren Groff (The Monsters of Templeton, the upcoming Delicate Edible Birds) when she reported that she was reading an early release copy of the book. Intrigued, I emailed the publisher of the book to ask about getting a copy for myself.

Atmospheric Disturbances, originally released in June arrived at a very busy time but was still a novel that I very much wanted to read, it made it into my nigh stand table where it languished for a few months. Heading out of town one weekend, I brought along my copy of Rivka Galchen's debut novel and after having read the first three chapters I was unable to put it down.

On the outside this novel, which centers on a Dr. Leo Liebenstein, a successful older therapist living in New York City with his younger and very attractive Argentinian wife Rema, looks as though it is a book heavily rooted in mystery and the science of weather and the atmosphere. However, the further I got into the novel the more I began to realize that Atmospheric Disturbances had much more to say about long term relationships and the way in which we all change over time when Dr. Leo encounters one day, in the apartment he shares with his wife, a young woman who looks and sounds just like his beloved wife Rema but is most certainly not. The novel centers on themes of love and the ways in which, just like the weather, relationships change, shift and enter different stages.

I have recommended this book to a number of people and would very much encourage anyone looking for a fresh new literary voice to give Atmospheric Disturbances and the exciting and entirely interesting voice of Rivka Galchen a look.

Loaded Questions Interview with Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances

Kelly Hewitt: I have to say, first of all, that I was kind of nervous when writing the questions for this interview, partly because I liked Atmospheric Disturbances so much and partly because all of the other interviews that you have participated in have focused very heavily on science, the interviewer resorting to a scientific battle of wits with you. I know nothing about science and am not all that keen on embarrassing myself. So, I am going to let you be the scientific whiz and I will play the part of the interviewer more interested in you and your novel. Sound like a good deal?

Rivka Galchen: Sure. I’m excited about whiz costume possibilities.

Kelly: The greatest thing about Atmospheric Disturbances is that it does involve a good deal of science and yet, with my previously admitted minimal knowledge, I found the novel to be very good and profound – one of the best I read this year. The novel, for me, was more about relationships and how they change over time, sometimes quickly, almost in the same manner that weather changes, going from good to bad. Is that a fair analysis if not too woo-woo?

Rivka: I’ll go with that. Especially if you’re going to be so sweet about it. In general, I tend to take other people’s reads a bit more seriously than I take my own. I guess I go through life with the nagging suspicion that other people know something about me or my work that I don’t; this despite no past KICK ME sticker traumas. I get that mood of an Errol Morris film, thinking I’m telling one story, thinking I’m running the narrative, while everyone else understands that I’m revealing something totally else. (Which is, well, what my narrator does; I love the sound of self-deception.) I’d like to think I’m a little more in control with the voice of a fictional character than with my own voice, but, I suppose I can’t really know. That said, so far as I can tell, I could think I was writing about the estivation patterns of pond frogs and somehow I’d still somehow be writing about love. I think that’s all I ever write about. Meaning: your read sounds plenty right to me.

Kelly: Some of the reviews of the book have made a big deal about a novel with a scientific component. Do you feel like fiction and science are as odd a pair as some of the reviewers of the book have made them out to be?

Rivka: I like how in Kafka’s Amerika, there’s a bridge—the Brooklyn Bridge actually—that links New York to Boston. I mean, one wouldn’t need such a bridge, but why not? And Boston’s quite a bit farther from Manhattan than Brooklyn is, but what if there was no bridge (or tunnel) to Brooklyn, and you were afraid of water? I guess what I’m not quite saying is that it never struck me that one needed to construct a connection between fiction and science—there’s so many there already—but maybe at the same time there’s a kind of, hopefully useful, confusion on my part about where they are—according to a more generally consensus. Maybe they really are s far apart as Boston and New York. For me, fiction and science are both these wild, childish, rigorous imaginative endeavors. I know that fiction writers are more likely to be seen wearing hooded sweatshirts and scientists are more likely to be wearing—this might be based just on my dad—dowdy button-ups…but they both seem like play, and play that is very sensitive to vocabulary, striving for a very precise way of saying things.

Kelly: You received a MD degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine with a specialization in psychiatry and then went on to get your MFA at Columbia. I don't have a question here, every interview about your includes this fact and so I felt obliged.

Rivka: Thank you for not asking more about it. Medicine, medicine, medicine, medicine, medicine.

Kelly: I was about a third of the way through the novel when I realized that the name Gal-Chen, the last name of the novel's almost mythical scientific hero, was very familiar. I sat down the book to think about where I had heard it when I glanced at the spine of the novel and realized that aside from the lack of a hyphen, it was your last name. I have since read that Tzvi Gal-Chen is your father, a prominent scientist himself, who passed away some years ago. I wonder at what point Gal-Chen became a part of the novel. Had you developed the character inspired by your father before the characters of Leo and Rema?

Rivka: My dad used to get all these wildly mislabeled junk letters. “Chewy Chen.” “Zivi Galen.” For whatever goofy reason this amused my brother and I to no end. So even when he was alive, my dad’s name had a kind of goofy talismanic quality for me. And then, I’m not quite sure how his name came into the novel, but I think a lot of it had to do with it being a first novel, which is a lonely process in which you’re mostly just trying to keep yourself entertained. And so having his name enter into the novel, having him be mistaken for a kind of heroic and wise figure who may hold the secret to the world and everything—well, that both amused me, and got at that emotional feel of my father to me…it was kind of irresistible to me to have other people—these characters—have totally other reasons than my own for putting a kind of magical excess of faith into, well, kind of my dad, kind of a ghost.

Kelly: From what I have read your mother is a fairly opinionated woman, upset that your real age has been printed in interviews. How did she feel about the inclusion of your father in the novel? Did you share portions of Atmospheric Disturbances with her prior to its publication?

Rivka: My dad’s been the family white elephant in the room ever since we lost him. My family didn’t really comment on his inclusion in the novel. I think it made them happy though. My dad used to clip out articles in which people wrote about their dads—I remember the Calvin Trillin one in particular—and then post them on my wall, sort of as a joke, sort of seriously, the idea being, you should do this! (We were the kind of family who staged tests trying to prove who our dog loved most.)

Kelly: Normally I would not ask an author a question of this nature but, given the connections between characters in the novel and your real life it begs asking. If Tzvi Gal-Chen is based on your father, a character that is all-knowing, a source of guidance and a scientific genius then does one of the other characters in the book represent you? Would you say that you are like Dr. Leo, the lost psychiatrist who is transfixed with Gal-Chen and comes to almost worship him, craving contact or are you like Rema, the woman who has a history of also being very interested in Gal-Chen to the point of impersonating him in order to help Leo with a patient? Both of these individuals have a relationship with Gal-Chen that one could see as parental, akin to a relationship that an adult child might have with a parent they have admired and have missed.

Rivka: Oh dear, yeah, it’s much more clear to me now—during composition, I really did think of putting my dad’s name in the book as just this tiny private joy—that the attention paid to him by the various characters, all the ludicrous hopes and plans centered on him, all of that, it’s kind of my own return of the repressed, the repressed showing up in a silly outfit of course, but making its return nonetheless. I’m definitely always longing for family, and not really to be a parent, but to be a kid again; we were this tight odd little tribe of four, with basically no relatives or close family friends within a thousand mile distance. I miss that. Even though maybe I’m only imagining that I ever really had it. But I don’t think so. Either way though, I think that’s something I share with Leo and Rema both; sometimes I feel like they’re both vying for the position of the one who gets to be tended to, the more difficult one, the child.

Kelly: You're quirky. I hope that doesn't offend, I mean it in a very entertaining and interesting way. You've said some very interesting and funny things in interviews. In an interview at Bookslut you said: "I would be honored if someone disliked me. There was always something mild and bland about me. That would be great. That would be exciting." How is it that you think you were mild and bland and do you still find yourself to be so?

Rivka: I eat a Six Grains pear yogurt and two sugar cookies for breakfast every single day. If I find a coffee shop or restaurant or bookstore or person I like, I jut want to go back again and again and again and never try anyplace new. And I can’t handle disagreeing with anyone in a conversation. So. I am good at origami though. And at making all sorts of tarts. I’m not sure if I dislike being a bit pale and steady of personality though. I’m ambivalent about it. It’s a kind of privacy.

Kelly: And secondly, now that your novel has become a big hit and has landed on many lists of the best books of the year I wonder if you've had the fortune of being "honored" by someone who has disliked you? It seems like if this was something you were aiming for you ought not to have written such a good book.

Rivka: Well maybe that was a bit of stretch, or a fantasy at least, my saying that I like to be disliked. I guess I do and I don’t. There’s undoubtedly something about having a book out in the world that has put me back in touch with my chubby-seventh-grade-leopard-print-pant-wearing-too-embarrassed-to-ask-my-mom-to-buy-me-a-bra self. But weirdly the most judged I’ve ever felt in my life was a few years ago when an old woman in the library started shouting at me and punching and swinging her bags of books at me for no reason that I could tell, except that maybe I was taking up too much space in the hallway. Those sorts of random acts of aggression always have the feel of divine justice to me, like I deserve them. Whereas, somehow, snipey comments here and there, about the book or about me, feel vaguely not personal at all? Maybe I have some crossed wiring in my head.

Kelly: Part of what makes the characters in Atmospheric Disturbances so interesting, entertaining is the fact that you let them make mistakes, think unintelligent thoughts and behave very awkwardly. In another interview you wrote: "I have a lot of friends who are deeply awkward, and I'm kind of seduced by the things that cripple them. But it's also a little bit cruel, even though it's seductive and interesting." Aside from finding this endearing and realizing that I sometimes feel the same way, I wanted to know what else does Rivka Galchen find herself "seduced" by?

Rivka: Ummm…I’m going to steal someone else’ language here. there’s a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem that starts: “Glory be to God for dappled things….all things counter, spare, original, strange.” I think that’s what I love. I have to stop stealing that line of his though. I think just used it in a blurb for a book that I loved. It’s hard, the vocabulary of love! Sometimes it feels all used up.

Kelly: One of the things I will take away from having read Atmospheric Disturbances is the word simulacrum, a word that Leo often uses to describe the facsimile of his wife Rema that is a lot like her and yet not at all her as far as Leo is concerned. You have come up with a number of interesting words that refer to the copy of Rema. My boyfriend, who is now reading the novel, asks me again what it means every time he cracks the book open and when I told him that we'd be doing this interview he asked me to tell you that the word gives him "a great deal of difficulty". Is this a word that you had been carrying around in your vocabulary or one that you discovered when writing the novel?

Rivka: My dad used to say simulacrum to mean Xerox copy, or carbon copy. He had this odd auto-didact foreigner’s English, and a fondness for chunky and cluttered words. He also instilled in me a habit of referring to floors as ‘the ground.’ I really think though, even if English had been his first language, that he would have still had this kind of estranged vocabulary. He liked throwing technical terms into, say, a description of a cookie. I still remember him talking about a cookie ‘cleaving along uncertain planes’—and how that made me think of a cookie and a quartz rock at the same time, and, I dunno, I could kind of ‘hear’ his language in a way that I can’t quite with ‘normal English.’ In normal English I kind of go into auto-pilot. I was thinking about this on a plane recently, about how they’d ever so slightly changed the little safety patter…to that part where they talk about the dropping of oxygen masks in an emergency landing, the stewardess added a little interjection about an emergency landing being – ‘a highly unlikely occurrence’—and somehow, amidst that drone of safety instructions, for the first time since I was little—I suddenly actually felt that I was hearing about something scary, about an emergency, about the plane plummeting to the earth, what to do, all these sorts of images coming to mind…which is to say, I could ‘hear’ what she was saying…then again, I guess pretty much anything makes me scared when it comes to flying.

Whoa, so that was a digression. I guess I’m flying tomorrow for the holidays.

Kelly: When we first began chatting via email I remember telling you that, after having completed the novel, I came to realize that over time a lot of people we have close relationships can seem like they are a simulacrums, different that the person we first met. That, in the end, is the truly beautiful thing about this novel, the realization that we are all always changing and that we aren't the same people today that we were a year ago. Having spent so much time writing a novel about a man who suddenly believes that the love of his life has been replaced by a very similar and yet starkly different stranger, did you come to feel that those close to you were simulacrums?

Rivka: Pretty much several times a day. My mom and I went to a Turkish restaurant together not that long ago, and she didn’t want to order the fried calves’ livers, and she normally talks about them the whole meal. So that made me suspicious. You know, those Sanka moments (to reference a really old commercial, that both dates me, and makes evident my terrible past of watching 9 hours of TV a day.) And little things. Like when my husband is oddly responsible about depositing a check, or getting his mom a birthday present. I doubt him in those moments.

Kelly: And finally, the question I have been waiting to ask you! What's next? Have you already started working on another novel? What can we expect from Rivka Galchen down the road?

Rivka: I think it's a novel, I think it's titled The Nature Theater of Oklahoma, and I think it has visions and ghosts, kind of. So, mostly that!

Holiday Books: Fourteen Books that Celebrate the Holiday Seasons

2008-12-15T16:00:00.000-08:00

Fourteen books featuring children's, humor, and fiction titles that celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the holiday season.

The Christmas Chronicles
By Jeff Guinn

This collection includes all three of Jeff Guinn's Christmas Chronicles novels:

The Autobiography of Santa Claus, a tale that combines historical fact with legend to tell the true story of Mr. Claus.

How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas, a story in which the first lady of Christmas herself tells the story of how she and a very brave group of people once saved a treasured holiday from being lost forever.

The Great Santa Search, a tale that takes readers on a sleigh ride through the history of Christmas in America that lands smack-dab in 2006, as a reality TV show threatens to destroy the true spirit of Christmas.

The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story
By Lemony Snicket

A little latke is miraculously born the moment he hits the frying pan, screaming all the while. Jumping out out of the frying pan our little latke friend screams in vain while trying to explain his role in Hanukkah to flashing colored lights (So you're basically hash browns, they reply. Maybe you can be served alongside a Christmas ham) and an equally Christmas-centric candy cane and tree. Snicket has written a very entertaining book, a great gift for adults and Unfortunate Events fans.

Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo

This touching story by Newbery Medal-winning author Kate DiCamillo tells the story of Frances who discovers one day, just before Christmas, that there is an organ grinder and his monkey on the street corner outside her apartment. When things are quiet she can even hear their music. After seeing the man and his monkey sleeping out on the street very late one night Frances can't stop thinking about the two poor souls. Even as Frances prepares to deliver her lines in the Christmas play the young girl is still thinking of the man and his sad eyes. In a moment of silence while standing on stage Frances finds the perfect words to share. Parents have praised this book for its focus on those who have less, using it as a way of broaching a very difficult subject with their children.

The Night Before Christmas
By Clement Clarke Moore and Robert Sabuda

If you haven't had the chance to read and more importantly see a book illustrated by Robert Sabuda you are most certainly missing out. As enthralling for adults as they are children Sabuda's pop up books have Santa popping out of chimney, beds folding out and in what has been refered to as the pop de résistance, in which Santa's lead reindeer nearly fly right up your nose.

This is Sabuda's third Christmas themed pop-up, following The 12 Days of Christmas and The Christmas Alphabet all of which are well made, detailed and classical in their design.

Christmas Jars
By Jason F. Wright

On Christmas Eve, twenty-something Hope Jensen is quietly grieving the recent loss of her adoptive mother when her apartment is robbed. The one bright spot in the midst of Hope's despair is a small jar full of money someone has anonymously left on her doorstep. Eager to learn the source of this unexpected generosity, Hope uses her newswoman instincts to find other recipients of "Christmas jars," digging until her search leads her to the family who first began the tradition of saving a year's worth of spare change to give to someone in need at the holiday.

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins
By Eric Kimmel

It is Hanukkah again and and the poor villagers find that the holiday-hating, hill-dwelling hobgoblins are, as usual, bound and determined to ruin yet another year's celebration. Each and every year these terrible goblins blow out the menorah candles, break all of the dreidels, toss the delicious patato latkes onto the floor and work very hard to ruin anything else Hannukka related they can get their hands on. Of course all of this was before the ingenious Hershel of Ostropol arrived on the scene. This story, wonderfully illustrated is a retelling of an ancient Hanukkah story in which the Syrians forbade the Jews to worship as they wanted. There is of course a delightful twist and humor abound even when things look their worst that make this Caldecott Honor Book so very good.

Green Christmas : How to Have a Joyous, Eco-Friendly Holiday Season
By Jennifer Basye Sander, Peter Sander and Anne Basye

We included this book about having a evironmentally responsible book to offer a little variety to the list and so that can fell hip and the good news is that all you have to do is drop a few of these trips at your holiday gathering so that you can be hip too! The book instructs readers how to choose between a real tree and an artificial one; find alternatives to holiday cards; avoid the holiday catalog crunch; find or make gifts that are green or teach green; have warm, cozy green fires and create eco-responsible lighting displays all while helping the Earth and reducing your carbon footprint.

Holidays On Ice:
Featuring Six New Stories
By David Sedaris

This collection of holiday stories has always been a friend of mine. This new collection includes all six of the original Sedaris classics including "Dinah the Christmas Whore" and "The Santaland Diaries". The most exciting thing about this new release, however, is that Sedaris has included six new stories many of which will be familiar to longtime fans but are still a wonderful addition to what was already a holiday classic. A brand new, previously unpublished, story has been included as well. Sedaris writes about the kind of Christmas revelries that most of us can easily relate to. Hillarious enough to warrant my buying the book -- again.

Celebrate Kwanzaa
By Carolyn B. Otto

This new release celebrates the candles, community and ancestry that are all an important aspect of Kwanzaa celebrated from December 26th to January 1st. Swahili words are used in connection with the observance. "The name Kwanzaa means ‘first fruits' of the harvest." A kinara (kee-NAH-rah) is the candleholder of seven candles. Each day one candle is lit and one of the seven principles such as unity, self-determination, or cooperation, is talked about. The past is remembered and the future celebrated. The colors connected to the holiday are red, green, and black. Gifts are given especially on the last day and a feast is held. Directions show how to make an African rain stick and important foods and recipes are shared.

The Curious World of Christmas:
Celebrating All That is Weird, Wonderful and Festive
By Niall Edworthy

This was a book that I picked up the other day while browsing the tables at my local book store. It is very funny. Drawing from more than two thousand years of history and culture, this collection of anecdotes, customs, tips, and recipes features more than 1,000 entries honoring one of the world’s most celebrated holidays. This unpredictable, addictive gem weaves in famous quotations, traditional sayings, verses, and wisdom to create a book that will be enjoyed long after the Christmas tree is down and the turkey leftovers finished off. Each page yields tidbits on everything from the real reason why December 25th was chosen as the celebratory day and a 19th-century turkey recipe to the origins of kissing under mistletoe and statistics showing why Christmas is proven to be more stressful than divorce or burglary.

Olive, the Other Reindeer
By J. Otto Siebold and Vivian Walsh

This is the new tenth anniversary edition of a book that has sold more than a million copies making it a Christmas classic about a real underdog.

Olive is merrily preparing for Christmas when suddenly she realizes "Olive... the other Reindeer... I thought I was a dog. Hmmm, I must be a Reindeer!" So she quickly hops aboard the polar express and heads to the North Pole. And while Santa and the other reindeer are a bit surprised that a dog wants to join the their team, in the end Olive and her unusual reindeer skills are just what Santa and his veteran reindeer team need.

Light the Lights!
By Margaret Moorman

This is a great book for families that find themselves with both Christmas and Hanukkah traditions and backgrounds and makes a great gift for children who will be celebrating both. In one of a very few such picture books to feature both celebrations, the author focuses on a household's joyous celebrations of Hanukkah and Christmas, two festivals that frequently occur close together on the wintertime calendar. The book focuses on themes that both celebrations have: candles in a menorah glow brightly in Emma's house during the eight days of the Jewish holiday; later, lights shimmer beautifully from her family's Christmas tree. The family's celebrations are purely secular, and Emma's response to everything--be it getting presents or playing dreidel--is sheer delight.

The Stupidest Angel:
A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror 2.0
By Christopher Moore

I am a huge fan of Christopher Moore (which can be attested to in an interview I conducted with him a few years ago). The Stupidest Angel in its second edition includes a brand new chapter. From the synopsis of the book which is a good deal funnier than I could ever be:

'Twas the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas, and all through the tiny community of Pine Cove, California, people are busy buying, wrapping, packing, and generally getting into the holiday spirit.

But not everybody is feeling the joy. Little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a holiday miracle. No, he's not on his deathbed; no, his dog hasn't run away from home. But Josh is sure that he saw Santa take a shovel to the head, and now the seven-year-old has only one prayer: Please, Santa, come back from the dead.

But hold on! There's an angel waiting in the wings. (Wings, get it?) It's none other than the Archangel Raziel come to Earth seeking a small child with a wish that needs granting. Unfortunately, our angel's not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch, and before you can say "Kris Kringle," he's botched his sacred mission and sent the residents of Pine Cove headlong into Christmas chaos, culminating in the most hilarious and horrifying holiday party the town has ever seen.

The Christmas Train
By David Baldacci

Here's something for adult readers who like a nice Christmas mystery. Disillusioned journalist Tom Langdon must get from Washington to L.A. in time for Christmas. Forced to take the train across the country because of a slight "misunderstanding" at airport security, he begins a journey of self-discovery and rude awakenings, mysterious goings-on and thrilling adventures, screwball escapades and holiday magic. Equal parts hilarious, poignant, suspenseful, and thrilling, David Baldacci's The Christmas Train is filled with memorable characters who have packed their bags with as much wisdom as mischiefand shows how we do get second chances to fulfill our deepest hopes and dreams, especially during this season of miracles.

Are there books with a holiday theme that have a special meaning to you or that you think ought to be included above? Hit reply and share your favorite holiday books. We'll edit this list and them to the list!

Here are some reader responses so far:

Loaded Question Reader Marg Suggests:

A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg

Marg writes: "I read A Redbird Christmas by Fanny Flagg and just loved it!"

The book takes place in the quiet little town of Lost River, Alabama. After a startling diagnosis from his doctor, Oswald T. Campbell leaves behind the cold and damp of the oncoming Chicago winter to spend what he believes will be his last Christmas in the warm and welcoming town of Lost River. There he meets the postman who delivers mail by boat, the store owner who nurses a broken heart, the ladies of the Mystic Order of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society, who do clandestine good works. And he meets a little redbird named Jack, who is at the center of this tale of a magical Christmas when something so amazing happened that those who witnessed it have never forgotten.

Loaded Questions reader Meg suggests two classics:

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

We're all quite familiar with the story of the Grinch, his dog Max, and the inhabitants of Who-ville. The Grinch, whose heart is two sizes too small, hates Who-ville's holiday celebrations, and plans to steal all the presents to prevent Christmas from coming. To his amazement, Christmas comes anyway, and the Grinch discovers the true meaning of the holiday. This book, over fifty years old, is still an important holiday story.

A Christmas Carol
By Charles Dickens

One of the best-loved and most quoted stories of "the man who invented Christmas"-English writer Charles Dickens-A Christmas Carol debuted in 1843 and has touched millions of hearts since. A Christmas Carol has been the source of countless movie adaptations and a play performed around the holidays every year.

Cruel miser Ebeneezer Scrooge has never met a shilling he doesn't like. . .and hardly a man he does. And he hates Christmas most of all. When Scrooge is visited by his old partner, Jacob Marley, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come, he learns eternal lessons of charity, kindness, and goodwill.

Submit your favorite holiday book!

Kate Furnivall: Loaded Questions with the Author of The Russian Concubine and The Red Scarf

2008-12-11T07:18:00.000-08:00

We first interviewed Kate Furnivall last year and since then not only has her first novel The Russian Concubine become a bestselling hit, her interview here at Loaded Questions has become one of the most read of all the interview's we've conducted. Furnivall's first novel, The Russian Concubine, is an enthralling tale that is both entertaining and educational. Fans of her first book will find a great deal of joy in her second novel, The Red Scarf. Furnivall returns to Russia to explore the lives of two very different women who find themselves united in their unfortunate situation, prisoners in labor camp in Siberia . . .

Read my first interview with Kate Furnivall in September of 2007, here.

Kelly Hewitt: The two main characters in The Red Scarf first meet in 1933 while being held at the Davinsky Labor Camp in Siberia. I have been looking around the net for any information about this particular labor camp but have not been able to find anything. Is there a real life Davinsky Labor Camp in Siberia?

Secondly, what kind of resources did you study in order to prepare yourself to write about such a harsh, stark environment?

Kate Furnivall: Davinsky Labor Camp in Siberia is a fictitious name but the camp itself is typical of many of these brutal places where prisoners worked in terrible conditions during the Stalinist years. To learn about these camps I read numerous accounts recorded by those who survived, the most famous of which was Alexander Solzhenitsyn's heartbreaking Gulag Archipelago. This provided a real insight into the way the prisoners were treated and the effect it had on them, both physically and mentally. The main difference is that most of these accounts were written by men, but my Davinsky Camp was a women's prison. So I created more of an emotional support network among the women prisoners because I believe it is important to women to function more on that level. Sofia and Anna's friendship is what keeps them alive.

Kelly: Sophia and Anna, the central characters of this book may have both landed in the same labor camp but it is clear that you have written two characters that come from distinctly different backgrounds. One is the daughter of a Russian Orthodox preist who witnesses her father's death by whipping brought upon by his beliefs. The other is the daughter of a doctor and part of a family that was prosperous and amoung the elite of Leningrad before the Revolution began. The reader finds out through the course of the novel that these two young women are also very similar. While reading The Red Scarf I couldn't help but wonder whether or not you think that, beyond being opposites, Sophia and Anna serve as archetypes, each represent the fate of a great many young Russian women during the Russian Revolution. What do you think?

Kate: Though Sofia and Anna are two young women with very different characters, they are similar in the way they both possess a core of inner strength which enables them to survive. Anna comes from a petted and pampered background and many of these elite young women died because they were unable to cope with the terrible conditions they faced after the Revolution. One of the reasons Anna survived was because of Vasily - not only did her love for him give her strength but also he had prepared her mentally. He had turned her into a fighter. Sofia, on the other hand, was raised in a village and was accustomed to a harsher life. Seeing her father whipped to death put steel in her soul and she was determined not to see another person she loved die before her eyes. So she set out to save Anna.

I agree with you that they are archetypes in that they represent in their different ways the new soviet woman, one who must rely on herself to get things done. The beginning of the Communist regime was ironically the beginning of female equality.

Kelly: I happened upon your blog the other day (click here to visit) and read an interesting post in which you discuss doing research and finding gems like "discovering about the Krokodil, the Russian Communist propaganda aircraft in the 1930s that was painted to look like a crocodile." You went on to tell your readers that you, of course, worked the Krokodil into your work because you couldn't pass up on the image, which is a great one by the way. It made me wonder what kind of resources (movies, books, etc) you frequently turn to while researching Russia during the 1920's and 30s. A lot of your readers appear to be just as enthralled in this time period as you are, where would you send them to do research if they wanted to know more?

Kate: Fortunately in recent years far greater access has been permitted to information within Russia about the Stalinist regime, and many books have been published which proved extremely helpful to me. I strongly recommend everyone to read Alexander Solzhenitsyn's whole body of work which is very revealing, not only about the facts of the time but of the mindset of its people. Sheila Fitzpatrick also wrote two detailed and invaluable works, Stalin's Peasants and Everyday Stalinism, in which she includes many first-hand personal stories.

It is only by reading accounts like these that we can understand the Russia of today. I also immersed myself in Russian literature by writers such as Dostoevsky and Pushkin, and loved to get my hands on as many old photographs of the period as possible because a picture can tell more than a thousand words. But traveling to rural Russia and seeing the villages which have barely changed since the 1930s also gave me a real sense of what it was like for Sofia in Tivil.

Kelly: It is fascinating that you have only recently become aware of your largely Russian heritage and even more amazing that you have written The Russian Concubine and The Red Scarf as a way of connecting with such a big part of your family's past. How is it that you just recently found out about your Russian roots? What would you consider to be the ultimate experience of your heritage.

Kate: It was about ten years ago that I discovered that my grandmother was a White Russian who fled from the Bolsheviks in 1917 during the Russian Revolution. I knew that my mother had lived in China for many years as a child where she had an English step-father, but she had never revealed that her mother was Russian.

It came about like this. I was going through her boxes of old sepia photographs, writing the names of the people on the back, and when I wrote "Valentina and Lily" on one (Lily was my mother's name), my mother commented, 'I was called Lydia then'. Astonished, I asked for more and out it all came like unplugging a dam. All the secrets kept for so many years. How they had fled across thousands of miles of Siberia, surviving by eating tree bark and worms, travelling by night until they came down into China where they were penniless refugees. The shame of it had kept her silent for so many years.

It was an amazing thing to discover and made me re-think myself and who I am. As I delved into research to discover more, I have been powerfully affected by the inner resilience of my ancestors in the face of brutal hardship and I hope that a small part of it still remains within me. In The Red Scarf I try to convey something of this inner strength in the characters of Sofia and Anna. To walk through the streets of St Petersburg, as I did last year, gazing down at the Moika Canal or up at St Basil's Cathedral, the knowledge that my grandparents did the same so long ago touched me deeply and forged a connection that I cherish.

Kelly: Your readers certainly aren't complaining but do you ever foresee writing a novel about a different region of the world or a different time period?

Kate: Yes, most definitely. I already have something totally different planned out in my head. But first there will be at least one more book set in Russia.

Kelly: I know that your mother played such a large role in inspiring your first novel The Russian Concubine. Are there traces of her life and experiences in The Red Scarf?

Kate: There are no specific references to my mother's life in The Red Scarf, except the hardship of the journey that Sofia undertakes which echoes the hardship of my mother's escape from Russia. But it was very much my mother's interest throughout her life in different philosophies and religions that influenced my decision to use the clash of belief systems - between Communism, Russian Orthodoxy and superstition - as a background against which the story is set.

Kelly: The Red Scarf has been getting stellar reviews, especially from regular readers who were big fans of The Russian Concubine. That's two books in a row that have been met with much deserved acclaim. Do wake up in the morning sometimes and pinch yourself?

Kate: Do I pinch myself? Absolutely yes! Every morning when I pick up my pen. The Russian Concubine and The Red Scarf have become bestsellers in the US and the UK, and also in many other countries. They have so far been translated into 16 languages. Yes, their success has taken me by surprise, but to know that my stories are being read and discussed and argued over by so many people is what every writer dreams of. I regard it as a privilege. To prompt further thought about the situations and issues I describe in my books is important to me, to encourage readers to probe further. I like to think my characters help people to open doors they haven't been through before.

Kelly: I noticed that your new book has two different titles, The Red Scarf in the United States and Under a Blood Red Sky in the UK. Was there strategic decision made in having two different names?

Kate: Titles can be difficult. The decision to use two titles was taken by my publishers. My UK publisher, Little Brown, and my US publisher, Berkley, could not agree on one title, so it was decided to use two quite different ones. I admit this can be confusing. Readers sometimes think they are two separate books, but I do my best on my website to point out that they are the same. Nevertheless I still have horrible visions of readers buying them both on the internet without reading the story descriptions, and ending up with the same book between different covers.

Kelly: The last time we spoke you made a great many of your fans (myself included) very happy by sharing with us the fact that there would be a sequel to The Russian Concubine. I am sure that this is the last thing you want to be asked right after the release of a new book but how is that sequel coming along?

Kate: I am happy to announce that I have just completed the sequel to The Russian Concubine and that it will be published in June 2009. But with conflicting titles again! In the US it will be called The Girl From Junchow and in the UK it will be called The Concubine's Secret. It has been exciting getting involved with Lydia once more and discovering where she would take me this time. To all The Russian Concubine fans out there I want to say, "The emotional journey continues. And yes, Chang An Lo does ..." No, no, my lips are sealed.

Read my first interview with Kate Furnivall in September of 2007, here.

Wally Lamb: Loaded Questions with the bestselling author of "The Hour I First Believed" Part Two

2008-12-06T19:29:00.000-08:00

The more I read over the transcript of the interview I conducted with Wally Lamb a week or so ago the more I realize what an interesting and geuinely pleasant individual he was. Having read both of his first two books, I Know This Much Is True and She's Come Undone, as a young adult not long after I realized the joys of reading books that weren't assigned, I would say I have an attachment to the style of Wally Lamb's writings. It was partly because Lamb's novels played such an important role in my foundation literary likes and dislikes that I was very nervous to talk with him and particularly hopeful that he was amiable and interesting. I think it becomes very clear in the second part of this interview that we had a good deal of fun talking. I know from reading countless Lamb interviews that some of the information he has shared in the second half of the the interview below is new and exclusive. He shares some very interesting coincidences where his characters are concerned, the very organic nature of his book's plots and finally the interesting way he begins looking for new material.

Read Part One of our Interview with Wally Lamb, here.

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Kelly: I also read in one of your previous interviews that often head over to the fiction floor of your library to write.

Wally Lamb: Yeah! I live at the back door of the University of Connecticut, in fact I taught there for awhile, but it's about a ten minute drive to get over there and a lot of She's Come Undone was written in long hand on the fourth floor of that library. Because of the way that I write, I have to sit down and discover what the story is, I am not one of these writers who can outline the whole thing and write toward a preconceived ending, I have to sit down and sort of find out what is going to happen. Very often, because that is my way of doing it, I get stuck and hit the wall. So if I am working in the library I can get up from the study carol where I am sitting and just sort of wander around and read the spines of the books, the titles and stuff, and lots of times I make discoveries that I would not have made had I not done that. Wandering in a library is definitely part of my technique.

Kelly: Right. One of the biggest discoveries that I have read about you making in the library was the one related to the Birdsey twins (from I Know This Much Is True).

Wally: Yeah that's right because I had an ancient myth and the troubled brother of the main character and I happened upon this book and it was by Claude Levi Strauss who was one of those guys who investigates myths. I opened the book and this xerox fell out of it, it was obvious that a student had been doing a paper or something and had xeroxed this article. I picked up the article and it said "Harelips and Twins" and suddenly it came to me. Oh my god, these guys are twins, they're identical twins and when I made that discovery that's when I could understand that character Dominic Birdsey and his anger and the fact that underneath his anger was this fear.

I had a similar thing with this novel, The Hour I First Believed. I was wandering again and I came upon a book called The Logic of the Labyrinth and I opened it up and I was reading about labyrinths, mythology and labyrinths in English gardens and all that kind of stuff. And then I read this thing about the irony of the maze and you're stuck in the middle of it and it is illogical, nonsensical and confusing but if you rise above it you can see that there is an order and there is a way out. So that became the metaphor of the book and I divided the novel into two parts. One is Butterfly is kind of an investigation of how chaos can screw up our lives and send us reeling in different directions that we hadn't planned on. Then part two, Mantis, is kind of like looking from above, down at the labyrinth and seeing that there is some sort of ordering principle to it all, there is a meaning to life whether it's spiritual or otherwise. So chaos and order, all part of this dichotomy.

Kelly: I think that's great. You've probably just inspired an entire generation of aspiring authors to go wandering around their local libraries.

Wally Lamb: [laughs] I just hope that when I gab on like this I'm not sounding like my own Spark Notes.

Kelly: [laughs] The other part of that question was whether or not you ever get recognized at the library.

Wally: Oh yeah, plenty of times. I tell you, I work in writer's groups and there's this one group -- people ask me "Where did you come up with that name Caelum?" and the character in the first draft that I wrote was name Milo Quirk and one day I was meeting with my writing group in a sandwich shop across from the university and this undergraduate comes up and says, "Excuse me for interrupting. Are you Wally Lamb?" I said "Yeah". And then he said "Oh, you named one of your characters after my sister." It turned out to be true, my wife is an elementary school teacher and she once had a student she liked and her name was Zahra and I liked that name so I named a Cocker Spaniel in She's Come Undone after her, Zahra. So this kid comes up to me and I am afraid he's going to be made because I named a Cocker Spaniel after his sister but he didn't. He smiled and said "Do you think you could name a character after me?" and I said "Well, I don't know, what's you name?" He told me his name was Caelum and he spelled it out for me and I said "Well, no promises." Then I went home and I was thinking it over -- Milo or Caelum and finally Caelum won out. So, not only did I name a character after him, I named the main character after him.

Kelly: That is amazing! You're going to have to call that family the next time you write a book to see if there are anymore siblings. [laughs]

Wally Lamb: Right. [laughs] Gotta keep it all equal.

Kelly: I thought it was really interesting that you placed the main character from The Hour I First Believed, the aforementioned Caelum Quirk, in the same class as Dominic and Thomas Birdsey. Can fans of I Know This Much Is True expect to see the paths of Caelum Quirk and the Birdsey twins cross?

Wally Lamb: Yeah. I'll tell you why I did that. First of all, I have created this town, they both have this fictional town as a setting, I call it Three Rivers, Connecticut, but it is sort of based on my home town and a couple of towns that I have lived in: Norwich, CT; New London, CT and Willamantic, CT where I have an office. It is a hybrid of three Connecticut working class towns. So I sort of figured that logically they are all living in a small town and it is credible that they might run into each other from time to time. So that's one of the reasons why I did that. The other reason is that I am really grateful to the people who have loved my work, people really seem to be invested in the characters, not only Thomas and Dominic but Delores from She's Come Undone, the first novel. So that's sort of my way of waving a hello and thanks to these people that have loved those characters. I am sort of giving the allusion that, okay, they are still out there, they are still struggling but doing okay.

Kelly: Would you ever return to any of the characters from your previous novels?

Wally Lamb: I did once, when I finish a novel it's not mine anymore. I let it go and it belongs to the readers, not me. But, I did go back to the characters from She's Come Undone when I was writing the screenplay for that novel. When you write screenplays there's a lot that you have cut out, you have to take a several hundred page novel and turn it into a one hundred and fifteen page script. A lot ends up on the cutting room floor. One of the things that was fun for me was that as I cut out I created new scenes for those characters. So, that's the only time I have ever gone back. I don't know what's around the corner for me. I do really like this fictional town so there may be minor characters that I can begin to make major characters -- I'm not sure.

Kelly: Interesting. Do you know that status of the She's Come Undone movie, has it been optioned or whatever those words are for a movie that's in the beginning process?

Wally Lamb: Both She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True both started out as
options and then both were bought by movie studios. She's Come Undone is with Warner Brothers and I Know This Much Is True is with 20th Century Fox. It is a long, long process development stuff. The projects heat up and then cool down, major stars have been attached to them and then they detach. For She's Come Undone Reese Witherspoon was going to produce and star in it. Will Smith was very interested for awhile in playing the twins in I Know This Much Is True. But what happens, because Hollywood is more about money than art, when some of these major stars express interest everyone holds their breath but the problem is that they are being offered not just your project but another five hundred projects. So, both projects stalled when they were interested so they decided to go elsewhere. They are still viable projects but a lot of years have gone by and I don't know if they will ever be made. One of the things you learn to do is write your name on the back of the check and realize that it's beyond your control.

Kelly: And never look back. [laughs]

Wally: [laughs]

Kelly: I know that this last novel too you quite awhile.

Wally: It did. [laughs]

Kelly: You were a few years past your deadline.

Wally: Yeah, like double past. I am always nervous when I have to talk to journalists who have to make their deadline because fiction writers, you know, as long as your publisher is willing to hang in there with you you can take the time you need to develop. The unfortunate thing is that it does take me a long time to come up with these stories but ultimately I needed that much time and I needed -- I was reacting to a lot of things that were happening in our country and in our world and that sort of got woven into the story. It took what it took. But thankfully Harper Collins was patient.

Kelly: I read a quote from you that you said you could have signed a three or four book deal but you weren't interested in mortgaging the rest of your life.

Wally: Right. I want to take it one at a time because I don't know how many stories I have in me. Each one has been more difficult to write than the one before it and I don't want to promise that I am going to create four more books and then decide that I only want to write two more. I am taking it slowly.

Kelly: We'll be interviewing the author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle later this week . . .

Wally: Oh yeah! Have you read that book?

Kelly: Well, I -- this is such a sad story. The publisher was nice enough to send a copy of the book to me and I went on vacation to Hawaii. I was so excited that I had it and so I packed along with me and I left it in my hotel room. So . . .

Wally: You sound like me.

Kelly: I know, I wasn't joking earlier about losing things while traveling. I am just going to have to swallow my pride and go and buy a copy just like everyone else. [laughs] But, I am wondering, looking back what sort of advice you would give to a fairly new novelist who has been selected for such an honor.

Wally: Are you talking about the Oprah Book Club?

Kelly: Yeah.

Wally: Well, I would say it's a real exciting, thrilling roller coaster ride. Enjoy the dips and the turns around corners and then when the ride is over get off the roller coaster and start again, humbly. You know, there's nothing more humbling than the blank page. I think it is crucial that you write the story for yourself and don't worry about whatever the audience is going to be that eventually reads it.

Kelly: That's good advice. I know this is probably the last question you want to answer while celebrating the release of your new book but are you already working on something else?

Wally: I am still officially in recovery.

Kelly: I bet.

Wally: But, I do have a notebook that I carry around with me wherever I go. I've got my radar up, picture a satellite disk on top of my head and it is magnetized towards certain subjects. I have list of things that I want to start investigating. Everything from Lou Gehrig's to P.T. Barnum, Great Blue herons. I have a couple of myths that I am reading and considering for that sort of backdrop or scaffolding. So, that's where I am now, sort of generating material and seeing what is going to begin to vibrate for me.

Kelly: That's kind of exciting. It is exciting as a reader to think that things come together so organically, that you haven't sat down with a formula -- that things are fluid to change, right?

Wally: Definitely, yeah. A lot of people ask me what author I read but probably a better question is what musicians am I listening to and also who are the painters that I like, who are the artists and so forth. One of my favorite artists is René MaGritte who sort of puts these two -- he's kind of a surrealist and he puts two things together that don't necessarily make sense but create some kind of weird and interesting energy. So, that's what I do too. I'll take something like Lou Gehrig's and the Great Blue heron and and I'll put them next to each other and see if there's an electric charge that goes back and forth between them and that's sometimes how stories begin for me.

Kelly: That is really interesting. Well, I thank you very much participating.

Wally: You're welcome!

Interview with Wally Lamb, bestselling author of The Hour I First Believed, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True

2008-12-02T17:03:00.000-08:00

Author Interview: Loaded Questions with bestselling author Wally Lamb

Its 4:00 am the day before Thanksgiving. Everyone else who has gathered to celebrate the holiday the next day has already gone to sleep but I've been sitting up for hours trying to will myself to put Wally Lamb's latest novel, The Hour I First Believed, down. I hadn't intended this, was going to bed at 11 pm when I suddenly remembered that the book had arrived a few days earlier and that I had packed it in my bag. Just to help me fall asleep, I think, cracking the book open.

Four hours later the sun is beginning to rise and I am sitting in the exact same spot on top of the covers, the bedroom light on. I haven't slept and when I say that I don't mean that I have tried to lay down but just haven't been able to sleep, I mean quite literally -- my eyes never closed.

It had become my ritual to check Amazon every few months for any sign of a Wally Lamb release on the horizon. I didn't know that he'd been working on a book since 1999, fresh off of a public sensation that was the result of one of his novels, I Know This Much Is True, being picked as an Oprah Book Club book for the second time in his short career. The fact that it had taken him so long, that he had been years late on his deadline, meant nothing to me when I first saw the new title pop up in the search window. From that moment on I was ready to be swept up by what has become Wally Lamb's style: a painfully true novel that looks at the lives of real people in crisis, coping or not.

The Hour I First Believed is great novel, worth wait -- maybe even enriched by the wait. The main character, Caelum Quirk, is a middle-aged teacher on his third marriage who moves to Littleton, Colorado, where he gets a job at Columbine, to escape an embrassing situation and so that his wife, Maureen who works at Columbine as a nurse, can be closer to a father she'd never been able to connect with. There may be a certain reaction to finding out that the novel is, partly, based upon the events that took place at Columbine High School in 1999 but prospective readers should know that that horrific occurrence is not dramatized in the novel, not justified, recreated or glorified. Lamb instead considers the violence that took place at Columbine and uses his characters Caelum and Maureen Quirk to look at what happens after such a traumatic event, whether memories of such an event ever fade. The novel consists of a number of characters experiencing crisis and hardship and how each of them responds in their own way. I think you will see from the interview below and in the second part to be published tomorrow that Wally Lamb is an author that has a great deal of emotion and feeling for those involved in school violence and it occurred to me, while talking with him, that it was that emotion and connection that lead Lamb to give The Hour I First Believed the proper time and attention.

Despite my nervousness Wally Lamb was easy to chat with, the interview quickly taking the form of a conversation. He discusses his writing habits, his experiences with the Oprah Book Club and the appearance of Thomas and Dominic Birdsey (two integral characters from Lamb's bestselling I Know This Much Is True) in his new novel.

I look forward to sharing this interview with Loaded Question readers, literature junkies and Wally Lamb fans more than any interview we have done in the past. Please feel free to leave comments about your reaction to this interview, your feelings about the novel, etc.

Amazon is currently featuring The Hour I First Believed for 40% off, click here for more details.

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Kelly Hewitt: I know that you have just returned from a book tour for The Hour I First Believed, how has that been going?

Wally Lamb: Yeah, I actually just got back from the first leg of the tour, I go back on the road on Saturday or Sunday. It was really a lot of fun, exhausting of course but I met some great people and had some really nice audiences. When I was in Minneapolis I went and was interviewed at the Fitzgerald Theater which is where they do the Prairie Home Companion so I got to sign the wall there, that kind of thing. The signings have gone well, so yeah, I have had a really good time. My only problem was that my last gig was in Fargo, North Dakota and at that point I was so tired that I fell asleep at the gate and jumped onto the plane at the last minute and left my laptop behind in North Dakota.

Kelly: Oh no!

Wally Lamb: Other than that things have been going well. We did a signing down in New Orleans, a reading and a signing and two of my sons are down there teaching in the inner city and so I had a nice reunion with them and that was great too.

Kelly: Very good. You're a trooper, I sometimes take one trip and sometimes lose things and fall asleep at gates. I can't imagine traveling that long.

Wally: [laughs] After awhile you start to pick up a rhythm and of course the book company hires these media escorts that meet you at the airplane so they drive you around from place to place, wherever you need to be, to the interviews and stuff so that stress is taken away from you. So it's all good.

Kelly: I was interested in preparing to talk to you that you often read classic novels and ancient works to familiarize yourself with the kind of stories that have lasted over time and that people really connect to.

Wally: Yeah mythology. I had very good advice early on. I had a wonderful writing teacher named Gladys Swan who told me, you know, you're never really going to tell an original story because all of the stories that people have needed, sort of like the real humane and human stories that reveal human behavior and human values, they are already out there. So the best you can do is to put your spin on that. I am sure I looked at her kind of doppily and didn't know what she was talking about but she said to go and read some ancient myths, that's what you need to do. Those are the stories that have lasted longer than any of the others. I began to do that and I discovered people like Claude Levi Strauss and Joseph Campbell and those people who have studied how the myths of a lot of different cultures are very similar to one another. So, consequently, for each of three novels I have a myth or, in the case of this novel a couple of myths, that form the spine of the contemporary story that I am telling. Now, as a reader you don't need to know that, those stories are just sort of a guidepost for me.

Kelly: Well that was part of my next question, is there a particular story or myth that you read in preparation for The Hour I First Believed?

Wally: Yeah, the story – you know I started investigating this Columbine stuff, I kind of fell into it accidentally, actually, when I got on the Internet this tidal wave of stuff about Columbine kind of both interested and disturbed me. And so the myth that was sort of used as the backbone was the myth of Theseus who goes into the labyrinth, he's got to confront the monster in the middle which is the Minotaur. That began to really resonate and in a sense both my character Caelum and I kind of took on what I came to see as the two-headed monster of Dylan Kelbold and Eric Harris. It was important for me to deal with the actual rather than to fictionalize a Columbine-like setting.

Kelly: As a reader I am glad that you handled it that way.

Wally: Oh, really?

Kelly: Yeah, it was a real event and this way it forces the reader and you the author to deal with the real world seriousness of the events. It doesn't need to be fiction, right? Because it was such an important event that we shouldn't be allowed to escape from.

Wally: I think we still need to keep examining that, you know? I was a little bit nervous about how people who were actually involved at the high school that day or who lived in Littleton, how they were going to react to it and I guess I will probably know when I go back out on the tour. One of my first stops will be in Colorado. But, I felt kind of validated by the people I have met in other cities who had a Littleton connection or in a couple of cases people who are now in their twenties who were students at the time at Columbine. I felt very reassured that they were saying that they were glad that I have taken up this subject matter because they don't want the people of Columbine to be forgotten. There have been so many subsequent school shootings that, I think we need to keep looking at this thing.

Kelly: The book does deal with some pretty heavy material with the events of Columbine and the effect of tragic events on the people who live through them. I wonder, as a school teacher of twenty-five years were you ever afraid of school violence? Was that something that occurred to you?

Wally: Well, certainly nothing of that scope. I remember one time fairly early on in my teaching career, it was after school. One kid was bullying and chasing after another kid and I stopped them both in the hallway and I said to the kid who was sorta being chased, I said “What's the matter?” and he said “He's got my gun!” and I thought there was some kind of kidding or that he was exagerating but low and behold the other kid handed over his pistol and that's probably the closest I came to it. There was no danger. There was no gun fire. But, you know, it could happen and I reacted to Columbine not just as a teacher who could pretty much emphasize with what it might be like but also as a father too. You have to have great empathy for those parents of those families.

Kelly: Right. I read in another interview that you knew some people or, some people who knew people who had been involved in a school attack first hand and that you had talked to...

Wally: Yeah, one in particular and that was the one in Paducah, Kentucky and that was actually before Columbine and it was my cousin's daughters who were at that high school and they knew the older sister of the shooter and I would think about her and worry about her and wonder, you know, how she was doing. And Klebold and Harris they both have older siblings, each of them had an older brother who maybe a couple years earlier who had gone through Columbine High School and I worry about those kids too. I mean certainly there's the victims and their families but when your siblings became infamous your family name is in the news in this horrible way. What happens to these collaterally damaged people? That was kind of my entry into it.

Kelly: That's interesting, because we often don't here a lot about the siblings and family members.

Wally: Right and I can understand why they would want to go underground. I think I feel just as much empathy towards the Klebold and Harris families as I do the victim's family because, you know, they are victimized too and they will certainly never get over it. Also, I think too that my work with the women at the Connecticut Maximum Security Prison, which started at the same time I started the novel, that certainly fed into my understanding of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because many of the women I work with suffer from that. (Interviewer's note: It is while working with this prison that Lamb edited two collections of stories written by his inmate students: Couldn't Keep It To Myself and I'll Fly Away) Some of them have done these terrible things and have had pretty traumatic things done to them particularly in their childhood. It kind of makes you connect the dots and look at the bigger picture. PTSD certainly comes into play when a lot of the soldiers come back from Iraq and Afghanistan and also the people who lived through Katrina.

I have two sons who are teaching down in New Orleans and one of them was there teaching school in the 9th Ward when Katrina happened and so he had to evacuate and he taught in Houston for a year and he was working with 6th graders and many of them have suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome from Katrina.

Kelly: So both of your sons became teachers?

Wally: Yeah, they both entered the Teach America program and our older boy now is a principal, he's only twenty-seven, but he's a principal at one of the charter schools that have sort of blossomed in the wake of Katrina. Our younger son teaches writing down there at a school called The Langston Hughes Academy. [laughs] There are both charter schools. The one benefit that has come out of Katrina is – you know it was such a broken and chaotic school system down there in New Orleans and now it is being replaced to a larger extent by these charters and are really doing great things for the kids now.

Kelly: After your novel She's Come Undone was selected as an Oprah Book Club choice and became very popular there were a lot of readers who registered some surprise that a man had written a female character with such skill ...

Wally: Oh yeah. That's still one of the questions that I get a lot in readings and stuff.

Kelly: Well, it's been sixteen years since the book has been published and I guess maybe you answered my question which was, do you think that things have changed that a novel like She's Come Undone written from a female prospective by a male author would still be such a surprise to readers?

Wally: I don't know, I think it certainly has been more common for female writers to write male characters than the opposite. But, yeah I think people would still stand up and take notice. I tell you, I have never been one to prescribe to this theory that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. I think if you scratch the surface we're more alike than different. Let's face it, we all come from male and female – that's how we're created. So, yeah to some extent I think that it is marketable to sort of focus on how different guys are from women. But I've just never. . . I guess if men are from Mars and women are from Venus I am just an intergalactic traveler. [laughs]

Stay tuned for part two of our exclusive interview with Wally Lamb tomorrow. Tomorrow Wally and I chat talk about where he came up with the name Caelum Quirk, his writing rituals and the occasional appearance of Thomas and Dominic Birdsey, well known characters from I Know This Much Is True, in his new novel.

Guest Post with Sandra Worth, Author of the upcoming The King's Daughter: A Novel of the First Tudor Queen

2008-11-27T00:22:00.000-08:00

We have not traditionally had a lot of guest posts at Loaded Questions. But when I heard that our friend Sandra Worth had a new novel coming out, The King's Daughter: A Novel of the First Tudor Queen, I asked her to put together a guest post to give Loaded Questions readers a glimpse into the motivation and research that lead her to write a novel about the first Tudor Queen, Elizabeth of York.

Worth has been a friend of this blog in the past, stopping by last February to discuss the release of her novel Lady of the Roses. In that interview we discussed our mutual love of English history and Anya Seton.

My copy of The King's Daughter: A Novel of the First Tudor Queen arrived yesterday morning and as historian who has studied Tudor monarchical figures for the last couple of years I am really looking forward to see Sandra bring life to Elizabeth of York, a figure that has previously been overlooked by the more sensational people in her life: Richard III, Henry VII and her boisterous and powerful mother Margaret Beaufort. Sandra has assured me she brings some new research to the table and I can assure you that before the turkey hits the table later this afternoon I will have snuck to my bags to pull out my copy to see how far I can get before I am found out.

For those of you intrigued by this fascinating historian and author, here is a link to my interview with her last year. I look forward to reading the book and bringing you all the details next week. In the meanwhile, if you want your own copy Amazon.com has it available for pre sale at a very nice price.

Without further adieu...

THE KING'S DAUGHTER:A NOVEL OF THE FIRST TUDOR QUEEN is about Elizabeth of York who closed out the epilogue in the last book of my Rose of York trilogy. You may think there's not much more to learn about her than what you probably already know. But I'm here to tell you you're wrong! Her story is shocking, and amazing.

I know this sounds like a contradiction in terms—but what intrigued me most about Elizabeth is the lack of information on her. How can this be? Sister to the Princes in the Tower and mother to Henry VIII, the first Tudor queen lived at the epicenter of momentous events. So why does she hover unseen on the fringe of history? When you think about it, the question is downright tantalizingly strange. Why is so little known about Elizabeth when so much is known about everyone else around her—her husband, her children, even her mother-in-law?

The documentation that survives is so scanty that only a single biography has ever been attempted—and that author had to resort to novelistic techniques in order to fill in the gaps in Elizabeth’s life! As far as I’m aware, this is the first time a biography was ever handled this way. Armed with this seemingly useless clue, I set out on my journey to solve the mystery of Elizabeth of York, the first Tudor queen.

I already knew some things, such as her relationship with her uncle, Richard III, which came down to this: Tudor propaganda has always claimed that Richard III murdered Elizabeth’s brothers—but did he? And was Elizabeth in love with her uncle?

If you haven’t read the trilogy, don’t worry—nothing is left out in THE KING’S DAUGHTER. Back to why Elizabeth is hidden when all the other Tudors are “in your face,” so to speak. Could the Tudors have kept her captive? If they did, what was the nature of the threat she posed to them? Did Elizabeth believe the Pretender, Perkin Warbeck, was really her lost brother, Richard, Duke of York? Around these questions are entwined other intriguing ones. Did Henry VII rape Elizabeth? Was he in love with the Pretender’s wife? What were his real reasons for subjecting the Pretender to the extraordinarily brutal torture that he used?

Like a detective on a cold case file, I mulled and pondered; I pored over the evidence with a medievalist friend, and went to England to roam the places Elizabeth had lived. I searched for anything from her time in museums and libraries. Suddenly, I began to notice details and references in historical texts that hadn’t meant much to me before. Here were clues! I re-read, looked again—yes, here were those clues, those hints, those little details in the body of research, new and old, that we’d all read before, and missed. The blanks in Elizabeth’s ,life slowly got filled, and the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle took shape. All at once—voila! There she was. I had her story.

Elizabeth tells her own tale in THE KING’S DAUGHTER, and it’s a thick brew of forbidden love, ambition and murder as we follow her from her turbulent childhood during the Wars of the Roses to her reluctant marriage to Henry Tudor that secured the Tudor dynasty. With her sacrifice and goodness, beautiful Elizabeth of York, “Elizabeth the Good”, the people’s Queen, finally achieved what she set out to do. She brought peace to the strife-torn land she loved, and did it with courage, grace, and dignity. She is a queen for the ages.

It was great fun piecing together the enigma of Elizabeth, the first Tudor Queen.

I hope you’ll find her story as much fun reading as I had writing it. One caveat, though. Two other novels are coming out entitled THE KING’S DAUGHTER, (one shortly after mine in December) so be sure you have my novel on Elizabeth. If you’d like to enter my drawing to win one of five copies of the book, please send me an email at roseofyork@sandraworth.com.

Write me when you’ve read the book, if you have the inclination. I would love to know your thoughts. Meanwhile, happy reading, and Happy Holidays! May troubles pass, and the new year bring a new beginning.

Sandra Worth

News and Notes: Wally Lamb, Kate Furnivall, A Game of Thrones

2008-11-22T14:02:00.000-08:00

Update:

Below you will find the links to part one and two of our exclusive Loaded Questions interview with Wally Lamb, bestselling author of She's Come Undone, I Know this Much is True and The Hour I First Believed.

And don't miss the conclusion of this great interview.
Click below to read Part Two of the Wally Lamb Interview.

Wally, Wally, Wally: You faithful readers may be wondering, first of all, where the interview with Wally Lamb (author of She's Come Undone, I Know This Much Is True and the brand new The Hour I First Believed) that I gushed about two weeks ago is. The interview is still very much on. We have suffered a few set backs in the form of rescheduled conversations and missed phone calls. Lamb and his publicist can hardly be blamed, they have been trying to find time for Wally and I to talk while he is in the midst of his book tour and so every day he was at a different number in a different city. The good news? Wally will be home in a few days and we're scheduled to chat with him on Monday morning! So, the interview is on its way.

Upcoming Interview: Our second interview with Kate Furnivall author of the highly praised The Russian Concubine in which Kate and I discuss the release of her second novel The Red Scarf which begins in a labor camp in Siberia during the Russian Revolution. Kate will also share some news about the sequel to The Russian Concubine that she's been working on. Interview should be up in a matter of days, stay tuned.

Fantasy TV: Here's some more good news: HBO has green-lit the filming of the pilot of George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones, the first book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. The series is set to include a total of seven novels each of which, producers have said, would be made into a single season if the show is picked up by HBO. This is very good news for fans of "A Song of Ice and Fire", especially because the brilliant yet chronically late R.R. Martin is at least two years behind on the release of the next novel with no due date in sight. Read more at Hollywood Reporter.

Loaded Domain: Noticed any changes here at Loaded Questions? We've gotten ourselves a real domain name. If you haven't already discovered the domain name for this site is now www.Loaded-Questions.com!

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