Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written two books for publication. My first, PLUM BLOSSOMS IN PARIS, was published by Medallion Press in 2010 and hailed by Booklist Reviews as “a terrific literary love letter to the City of Light.” I just published my second novel, SARABANDE, this month. I’m also a poet and a photographer—mostly landscapes and animals, and especially birds. (Blue herons are pretty well wary of me by now.) For about ten years, I’ve combined my passion for poetry, prose and photos into my personal blog, Murmurs.
I’m also mom to two kids who are growing up way too fast and a wife to my husband, Paul.
Random fact: I once made 37 free throws in a row. And that’s about the coolest thing I’ll ever do, as far as my kids are concerned.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I began my latest book, SARABANDE, at a time when writers were heavily involved with blogging, and Facebook and Twitter were still in their infancies. I became interested in the idea of how people project themselves online versus how they behaved in real life, especially in regards to love and romance. It was amazing to see how quickly intimacies could form over the internet, how much easier it was to share private dreams and vulnerabilities with perfect strangers than it was with one’s own family members, in some cases. So that was really the root of the book: how the internet could tap into all that inner restlessness and desire, connecting us to people we never knew existed, before the world became as small as our screens.
I had a recurring vision of two lost souls—Anna and Colin in my book—falling in love without ever actually meeting. Is that actually love? Can it be? Or are we just fooling ourselves and risking very real relationships in pursuit of some idealized notion of a soulmate?
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not unusual so much as sporadic. I can go days without writing and then hit a vein where I’m working for hours on end, several days in a row, and still have it not be enough.
For this book, I listened to Bach’s cello suites for much of the writing and revision process, since Anna is a master cellist known for her Bach interpretations. It worked out well, because classical music is the only music I can listen to while writing. Anything with lyrics gums up my writing brain too much.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
JANE EYRE was the first adult book I completely fell in love with, and to my mind, it’s still the perfect love story, where the romance is lovely but still secondary to the growth of the main character. Ann Patchett,in BEL CANTO, accomplishes the near impossible task of making words as emotionally satisfying as music, which is what I hoped to do in SARABANDE. She created such an evocative atmosphere in that story. I didn’t want to leave those characters by the book’s end.
I love the moral clarity of a writer like Marilynne Robinson and the poetry of a Michael Ondaatje. I don’t know—I guess I’ve tried to absorb as much as I can from as many authors as I can while still retaining my own vision and voice.
What are you working on now?
I’ve written a shorter novel about a blackout that strikes a Midwest town one hot week in July. It lasts for six days and scrambles the relationships of a young family there, with repercussions spilling out into the entire neighborhood. So I’ll be revising that in the coming months.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
In all honesty, I don’t know. Self promotion is my least favorite part of this process, but I think you have to be dogged and persistent about it without giving up and just throwing money at the problem. I did find the Indie Book Reviewers List quite useful when it comes to tracking down book reviewers for a specific genre. After that, it’s just about following up on those leads, even if you only get a 5-10% response rate. That’s a start.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
It sounds trite, but just keep writing what moves you. If it moves you, that feeling is likely universal and will translate itself to others.
Also, I can’t express how much it helps me to get some distance from a project after I finish a draft. It really does make all the difference in the world to take a few weeks, or months, away from a story so you can come back to it with fresh eyes and a renewed enthusiasm.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A writing friend once told me to “prime the pump” when you don’t feel like writing by picking up a book you love and reading a few pages from it. It’s kind of like exercise—sometimes you have to get the blood flowing before you take off on a run.
What are you reading now?
THE GOLDFINCH by Donna Tartt. She has a wonderfully effortless style. The pages fly by.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to keep writing novels, poems and short stories. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. I feel extraordinarily lucky to have this outlet for self expression in my life. Obviously, I want to have readers, too, but for me, the writing is an end to itself.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (I’ve never had the patience to read it)
Good Poems edited by Garrison Keillor
How to Survive on a Desert Island (assuming there is such a book!)
Author Websites and Profiles
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