Interview With Author Elizabeth Harlan
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been a writer ever since I was very young. My mom was super strict about lights out at bedtime, so I kept a flashlight and a notebook and pencil under my pillow and would jot down ideas and bits and pieces of stories in the middle of the night. My first published book is my YA novel, FOOTFALLS, based loosely on my own experience growing up. It tells the story of a young girl coming of age as a high school varsity runner as her father is dying of cancer. WATERSHED, my YA novel about two brothers, one of whom causes a serious flood that lands him in juvenile detention, came next, and then I turned to nonfiction and published an adult biography of the 19th century French woman writer George Sand. What interests me now looking back on this change of genre is that rather than it representing a departure, it was only a fork in the road. My Young Adult fictions and my adult biography have in common the theme of facing adversity while coming of age and, in particular, the exploration of mother/daughter relationships. My third YA novel, BECOMING CARLY KLEIN, just out last September, takes a fresh approach to these tried and tested themes.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
BECOMING CARLY KLEIN was inspired by my experience with a therapist who worked out of her NYC apartment. She had a young daughter who would hang out in the hall by the elevator to catch glimpses of her mother’s patients, and this inspired the central plot twist of this recent novel in which Carly’s mom is a therapist working out of their apartment. Carly becomes obsessed with one of her patients, a blind junior at Columbia College, and fakes an identity to create a relationship with him, unbeknownst to her mom.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
To loosen up before I draft parts of a manuscript, I like to send emails to an imaginary reader. The tone is casual and confidential as I tell this person all about what I’m working on writing. It’s a little like giving a heads-up or preview of what’s coming next. By doing this in a conversational email, I’m relaxed rather than uptight about how to best say what I need to say. I find this makes it easy to then turn toward the chapter or section of the book I’m working on and to write freely and energetically and without inhibition.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I prefer to think of certain special books as having “inspired” rather than “influenced” me. Having lost my beloved father when I was eleven, I was inspired and consoled by the heartwarming story of grief and redemption in Frances Hodgson Burnett ‘s A LITTLE PRINCESS, which I read many times, an experience I recycle in fictional form in my first novel, FOOTFALLS. Thomas Hardy’s TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES, which presents the conundrum of sexual consent vs. coercion, finds its way into my new novel, BECOMING CARLY KLEIN.
What are you working on now?
An article on the process of reissuing my two earlier YA novels, FOOTFALLS and WATERSHED, which were published some forty years ago at the beginning of my career. Rereading these books as I prepared them for new editions has been a remarkable learning experience about my own trajectory as a writer. Clearly, my thematic predilection is for coming of age stories that feature young people in conflict as they struggle with adversity, gain self-awareness, and seek resolution.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Having come of age as a writer in the pre-electronic era, I’m a relative newcomer to the internet. I wrote FOOTFALLS on a typewriter and had to learn the use of a computer for WATERSHED. Now, with BECOMING CARLY KLEIN, I rely on my public relations and marketing specialists at Books Forward to guide me through the maze of media opportunities that are out there. I can’t say what’s the “best method” for promoting my books, but I know my favorite way is to write and talk about my journey and to engage with readers in as personal way as possible.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read, read, and keep on reading. Not just books and articles that are assigned in school, but anything and everything that attracts your interest. And write, write more, and keep on writing. Not just essays and term papers and chapters of prospective books, but notes and letters and emails. Describe to friends and confidants and imaginary readers what you’re doing, what you enjoy, what you dislike, what you think and feel. Don’t worry about spelling and grammar. Don’t force form and style. Just say what comes to mind and enjoy playing with words the way children play with clay and paint. Make a mess, and have fun doing it. Figure out what makes you want to come back and do it again. And then when you find something you love—a story, an idea, a character, something that grabs you and you can’t let go—sit down and get serious and disciplined about your project. For novel writing, the best, most helpful book I’ve read is Lisa Cron’s STORY GENIUS, a template of which I uploaded to the writing app Scrivener, and using this structural support system, I’m making fast and efficient progress with my next novel.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Just write the book,” said by my dear friend, the late memoirist Louise DeSalvo, when I was worrying about what critics and scholars would say about the biography I was writing of the 19th century French author George Sand. Louise told me to stop looking over my shoulder and obsessing about what others would think and say, and to concentrate on what I thought and wanted to say. Once I was able to go inside myself, I found the freedom to write the book I wrote, which tells the story I wanted to tell.
What are you reading now?
I’m immersed in writing my next novel, so mostly I’m reading research materials on my subject. I’m especially loving Madeleine Kamman’s memoir, SAVOIE: THE LAND, PEOPLE, AND FOOD OF THE FRENCH ALPS. Her personalized descriptions of people, places, and practices from her beloved homeland provide invaluable information and inspiration for my story.
What’s next for you as a writer?
My next project in an historical fiction set in the Alpine region of Haute-Savoie during the German Occupation of France in World War II. The novel’s lead character, Gabrielle, is a seventeen-year-old French girl whose family produces a traditional cheese called Reblochon. Unbeknownst to her father, who sympathizes with the collaborationist Vichy government, Gabrielle is provisioning her boyfriend’s troop of Maquis (Resistance fighters hiding out in the mountainous countryside), with wheels of Reblochon to sustain them as they organize attacks on the occupying Nazi forces. When her boyfriend’s camp is raided by the Nazis, the cheese is traced back to Gabrielle’s family farm. To avoid spoilers, I won’t say more, but I’m thrilled to be working in a format that draws on my skills as a YA novelist and my nonfiction experience writing historical biography. Not to mention my love of France and French cheese!
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’d bring Jean Auel’s six-volume series of CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, which imagines our anthropological origins in scrupulously researched detail and dramatically displays the richly layered process of human evolution. I love this story of a little girl named Ayla who’s found and raised by Neanderthals following the massive earthquake that destroys the Cro-Magnon tribe into which she was born. Ayla, who’s exiled from her adoptive tribe and finds ingenious ways to survive on her own, reminds me of Karana from Scott O’Dell’s ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS, which would also be on my must-bring list of books for my sojourn on a desert island. Oh, and I’d be sure to bring the novel I’m working on now, about Gabrielle and her exploits provisioning the Maquis during the German Occupation, so I could keep on writing. And if at all possible, I’d bring some wheels of Reblochon, which is my absolute favorite cheese in the world!
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