Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have been writing since my earliest days when I composed in crayon on paper with extremely wide lines. I studied writing at Yale University and the University of Michigan. While at Michigan, I received the Avery and Jule Hopwood Prize. It was the highest prize awarded that year and the first in Michigan’s history for a piece written directly for the screen. PUSHING THE RIVER (Amika Press, October 2018) is the latest of my three novels. YOU, IN YOUR GREEN SHIRT and A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD ME (available on Amazon) are my previous titles.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
PUSHING THE RIVER is based on real-life events. The idea literally presented itself right in my own home. That said, the challenge was to use those events as a launching point, an inspiration, and then to craft a structure and story that worked as a book. The events are quite specific, but the themes of individuals and families struggling, and trying to figure out how to best love one another, remain universal.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to joke (mostly with myself) that I am currently “auditioning characters.” I have been writing flash fiction pieces with different characters — from a four-year-old girl to a teenage boy to an elderly person with dementia — in an effort to try them out and see if any of them grab me as having a profound need to tell their full story. If one of them does grab be, that will be my next novel. As much as I tell myself (all through the writing of three novels to date) that I will do it differently the next time– that I will plan, and outline, and plot — I think I need to accept that my process just doesn’t work that way.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My answer to this undoubtedly changes, but the ones that come to mind today would be: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Cider House Rules, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. There’s a great deal of commonality among them. They are all beautifully written, full of sentences that I lingered on, and read over and over. Each of them incorporates a lot of social commentary and weaves it seamlessly into a captivating story. The overall conception of each of these novels is so breathtaking that I tear up when I even think about them.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Does someone actually have a definitive answer for this? If so, please contact me immediately!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Persist. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
What are you reading now?
Rebecca Makkai’s novel “The Great Believers.”
What’s next for you as a writer?
A new novel, once I land on a character and story that can fascinate me for a couple of years. Being immersed in a long-term, far-reaching project is excruciatingly difficult, but also tremendously rewarding and satisfying.
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?
I don’t tend to read books multiple times, even if it took my breath away on first reading. I would make my best guess about new works of contemporary fiction, based on recommendations from serious readers, and would expect to abandon at least one of the books I’d chosen.
Author Websites and Profiles
Barbara Monier Website
Barbara Monier Amazon Profile
Barbara Monier’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
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