Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written two novels, many short stories, essays and poems. My fiction has been published in the following literary magazines: Cleaver, Confrontation, H.O.W. Journal, China Grove, theIntima.org, The Examined Life Journal, The New Quarterly, The Lullwater Review and other venues and has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and Fish Short Story Contest. My poetry has been published in Stone, River, Sky: an Anthology of Georgia Poetry, The 2011 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine, The Apalachee Review, The Healing Muse, Ars Medica, and elsewhere. My work has been shortlisted for the Eludia award, and my work has been a finalist for the Gertrude Stein award, and the Hemingway Days First Novel Contest, among other awards.
After teaching English literature and writing at the college level for fifteen years, my experience with illness and loss spurred me to design and facilitate a writing-to-heal workshop for cancer patients and caregivers at the Loran Smith Center for Cancer Support in Athens, Georgia. Over the eleven years I ran those workshops, I presented and published extensively in the field of expressive writing. My passion to share the healing that can emerge from writing comes directly from my experiences.
I live in Athens, Georgia, with my husband, physicist and author Todd Baker. We have three grown children, one almost grown, and are grateful to live in such a wonderful community. When not writing or teaching, I am an avid gardener, dancer and dog lover.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Timekeeper’s Son, my latest book, is a novel inspired initially by a newspaper piece about a boy who ran in front of a car and caused an accident. Evidently, the child had a lot of emotional problems. I flashed on an image of his parents, the back story of his and their struggles, and the image drew into it a lot of other concerns that had been floating around in my mind: How do people sustain community in dire times? What happens when schools are underfunded? How does a boy go forward into manhood when he does not have a good relationship with a father? Josh, the 17 year-old protagonist, is not supported in his creativity by his clock-obsessed father. Issues of race and history came into it: there are two meanings the word “horography” which meant originally, local history, and came to mean the keeping of time. Because the book is set in the New South, this was particularly important, as the South has a deep sense of history. The book explores the many ways people relate to time, as well as touching on issues of grief, disability, isolation, and forgiveness.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think they are unusual. I try to get to my desk at 9 and work until one. I also need to walk or swim before I settle down to work. I also take time in the morning to do some yoga, meditate and write a few morning pages. These routines are really important to me. I don’t get on the internet until after one, and I do not take my iPhone up to my study. I don’t play music in the morning, but I do in the afternoon. I write drafts initially by hand, then put the work into the computer, print it out, revise by hand, print it out, etc. I write many drafts: I wrote 7 full drafts of this book.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Oh, there have been so many. When I was growing up, we were not allowed to watch TV, and I found on our bookshelves collected Irish folk tales by Yeats, Shakespeare’s sonnets, Tolstoy and Dickens. As an adolescent I fell in love with Isak Dinesen, Sigrid Undset, and Olive Schreiner. Later I read the Icelandic writer Haldor Laxness, author of Independent People, whom I adore. More recently, I have made a study of the short story writer Gina Berriault, and I enjoy Anthony Doerr, Louise Erdrich, Philip Pullman, and Rupert Thomson. I tend to read eclectically and in translation, and I don’t much care what is on the bestseller list.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a collection of short stories.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
That remains to be seen.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Challenge yourself. Get feedback, but don’t write by committee. That is, don’t workshop your piece to death. Don’t show it to anyone until it is pretty well done, and then take criticism with a grain of salt. Believe in yourself. Be yourself. Write for yourself first.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
As a young woman, I was consulting with a weaver about technical details for my first novel, In Winter. I must have been very tentative. She was an older woman, and after telling her about the book, she looked at me and said, “It is your book. You do with it what you want.” That cut through my self-doubt and made me realize you have to just risk being yourself.
What are you reading now?
Rupert Thomson’s Secrecy, Emma Donoghue’s Wonder, Nell Zink’s The Wallcreeper, and Louise Erdrich’s LaRose.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Publishing In Winter, a novel, and continuing to write short stories and begin a third novel. I also write poetry as a discipline, and intend to keep that up.
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?
That’s a tough one! A book of poetry by Yeats, a collection of Shakespeare’s works, War and Peace, and the Bible. With these, I could feed my soul and keep writing.
Author Websites and Profiles
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