The Omaha Bookworms Talk to Jennie Nash

Last month my bookclub, The Omaha Bookworms, got the chance to do a Skype interview with Jennie Nash and talk about her book, The Threadbare Heart.  Jennie is such a delight to talk and even put up with us when we got off topic on occasion.

Jennie wanted to know which character our group liked the most and it was pretty much unanimous that Eleanor was our favorite character in the book.  We all liked the relationship between Lily and Eleanor and the fact that when it came right down to it, Eleanor was jealous of Lily.

Because so much of her book The Last Beach Bungalow reflects Jennie's own experiences, we wanted to know if the same was true of this book.  At first Jennie said there really wasn't much that came from her own life except for the character of Gordon who was somewhat loosely based on the man who just married Jennie's mother.  But the more she talked, the more Jennie confessed that there was some element of her own thought process in the book.

The seamstresses in the group wondered if Jennie was herself a seamstress but she confessed that she was not.  She said that she had gone into a fabric store looking for samples of fabrics to get some ideas, however, and found a wonderful man there that really made her understand how fabric speaks to people.

One of our members wanted to know if Tom really had not had an affair or if that was a lie to make Lily feel better. Jennie said that he had not but laughed at our midwest preoccupation with the fact that the woman Lily fears he's been cheating with never wears a bra.

One of our members, who couldn't be with us, has also experienced a home fire and said that she, too had made lists after the fire just like Lily did.  So we wondered if Jennie knew someone who had lost a home in a fire.  She said she didn't but just felt like that was something that she would do if she had that experience.

Because Lily suffers from migraines, we asked if Jennie did as well and she said that she has suffered from quite severe migraines for years.  It's what lead her to write the non-fiction book that she is working on e-publishing right now.  Before the group met, I had a chance to talk to Jennie about this and she said that it's a whole different thing to go this route over traditional publishing and she's learning a lot.

We always have to know about what an author is working on now and Jennie confided that she's got something very different in the works.  When she approached her editor with another book idea, her editor suggested that she go bigger this time, as opposed to the smaller in scope novels about families that she has done up until now.  She's got some very interesting ideas for it--boy, did we get off topic talking about one of them!

I think we'd all agree that The Threadbare Heart made a great book club selection; we certainly found a lot to discuss.  And if your book club likes to find books that will allow you to speak with the author, Jennie makes a terrific guest to the party!

An Interview with Naseem Rakha, author of The Crying Tree

Please join me in welcoming Naseem Rakha, author of "The Crying Tree," to Lit and Life.  Naseem is an award-winning author and journalist whose stories have been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Marketplace Radio, Christian Science Monitor, and Living on Earth. She lives in Oregon with her husband, son, and many animals. When Naseem isn’t writing, she’s reading, knitting, hiking, gardening, or just watching the seasons roll in and out. The capacity to forgive the unforgivable has long intrigued Rakha. She has witnessed it in her work as a teacher and consultant for Native American tribes, as a mediator in the clean up of the nuclear site that created the Nagasaki bomb, and as a reporter covering state run executions.

1.Was there a particular incident that, more than any other, compelled you to write this book?
On the night of September 8th, 1996 I stood on the grounds of the Oregon State Penitentiary watching as a group of rowdy drunks counted down the final seconds of a man’s life. Inside the one hundred year old walls of the prison, a man was about to be executed. He was to be the first man to die at the hands of the state in more than thirty years, and these people, popping open bear cans, and throwing firecrackers, couldn’t have been happier.

I was reporter, and I was ashamed. Not because of these people, and not even because of what was happening at that moment inside the prison. But because as a reporter I knew I would fail to convey the gravity of that moment in my story the following morning. I simply didn’t have the elements for a good story. The condemned man would not take interviews. Neither would the victim’s families. All we had as journalists were scripted statements from prison administrators and state attorneys, and camera footage or descriptions of the props used during an execution. The room, the gurney, the box of tissues waiting inside the witness booth.

It was not, I knew, enough to convey the importance of this moment: its emotional impact, and the reverberations it would set off in so many lives. One day, I promised myself, I will tell the full story. Crime, punishment, the death penalty. It would be a story that looked at all points of view, the victims, their families, the attorneys, the condemned, and the men and women who must to do the job of killing the condemned.

The Crying Tree is that story. 


2. After writing the book and talking to all the people that you have about finding forgiveness in these horrible situations, do you feel like you have a good grasp of how people are able to forgive?  Do you think you would ever be able to find forgiveness in this kind of situation?   
In general, I have learned, people do not come to forgiveness quickly or easily. It is a struggle, a fight between ones heart and mind. Intellectually, people often know it would be good to forgive. That their lives would somehow be freer, less fraught with the agony that hate and the desire for vengeance exact. But the step from intellectual meandering to the heartfelt exhumation of hate, is a large and is usually preceded by a growing awareness that in this life there is nothing to be done about the past. Nothing can re-shape it, or change it. Nothing can give us back the things we have lost. And in this recognition, people come to understand that they have two choices: to continue to live a destructive life, focusing on loss and what they can do to avenge that loss; or, a constructive life that builds on the hope and beauty that still surrounds them.

These are the people we gravitate toward in a room. They walked through a fire, and came out more whole and more healed. They know who they are, and have a sense of serenity and purpose that draws people to them.

Would I have the presence of mind to forgive if someone I loved were murdered? Or not even that. Perhaps an unintentional death - a car accident, say, or a hunting accident? I would like to say yes. But I can not. I have never been touched by that fire, and so don’t know if I could withstand the flame. But I do know that I have learned a great deal from others as I researched The Crying Tree, and I continue to learn from my readers as they share their own stories of loss and recovery.

3. I read on your website and blog that you had met with a prison book club.  How did that come about? 

I was asked into the women’s prison by a woman who leads a book group there. I wrote a blog about it, and it can be found at: http://www.redroom.com/blog/naseem-rakha/reading-prison-0 Since that meeting, I have also met with a group of men, all of them in prison for life, and most of whom had read The Crying Tree. A dog eared copy was making its way around the penitentiary, quietly handed from one man to another. “Read this,” they’d say to each other. “Then lets talk.”

The meeting in the men’s prison was arranged by a group called Partnership for Safety and Justice: http://www.safetyandjustice.org/ One of the inmates had contacted the group asking if they could possibly ask me to come talk. The men wanted to know more about forgiveness - what brings people to it - and how do people go about forgiving themselves. It was emotional night. So many mistakes. So much pain. So much loss. These men will never leave the prison. Yet, here they were trying to figure out how they could possibly make life better for the people they once harmed, as well as find a way to accept themselves.

I left feeling humbled, and sad, and hopeful all in one.

Going into prisons has given me the opportunity to learn about compassion, and how if I can feel it within those walls, I surely have a duty to express it outside those walls as well.

 4. I see that you're reading "The Book Thief" right now and that you have a wonderful list of favorites on your website.  I've spoken to some authors who say they can't read while they're writing or it clutters their minds with other writer's styles and ideas.  Did you find that you were able to read while you were writing the book? 

Actually, I finished the Book Thief quite a while ago. Wonderful book told from a wonderful point of view: the angel of death. Now I am reading Waiting for Columbus, by Thomas Trofimuk. Waiting was recently chosen, as was The Crying Tree, for the United Kingdom’s most influential book group, kind of the Oprah of the UK. It is a great read.

I find, however, that when I am in the midst of writing, I have no time to read. It’s simply impossible. When deep in writing, there is only writing. It is a kind of disease. Right now I am coming off of a major book tour and so have had time to pick up others’ works and have their voices in my mind. In the coming weeks, though, I expect this to change, and all these great books I have on my shelves will simply have to wait until I come back up for air.

5.  I know some authors work by a very structured schedule and others write as the muse strikes; some let them take the story take them where it will, while others have a clear outline they work from.  Can you please tell me readers a little about how you work when you're writing?

I do not create a detailed outline. Instead I create building blocks. First chapter, last chapter, mid-crisis chapter. These are like buoys, places to aim for. After I have a first draft I create a detailed outline of what I have written to see if it works, where I am redundant, what needs moving around, or just simply put to death.

Most of my writing takes place in the morning. I wake early, write, exercise, then, once I have my son off to school, write some more.

6.  Can you tell us about your work space?
I work where ever I am. If I am in the car waiting for my son to get out of school, that is my workspace. Coffee shops are good too. As is my kitchen counter, my dining room table, my living room chair. I like to have music on - and choose music that will elicit specific moods. I create playlists for the books I am working on. I listen to these playlists a lot. While writing, while driving, while cooking. They trigger scene and emotion. They stimulate words.

 7.  Are you working on another book?
Yes.

8.  Do you have any guilty pleasures?
Not a one.

 9.  What has been your reaction to all of the accolades you've received for this book, including being chosen as a Target Breakout book?

First, it always amazes me when people say they have read my book. I understand what an honor that is. There are literally hundreds of thousands of books to choose from, and of course, millions of other ways to occupy ones time. So that when people say they have read my book, then take time to write me or even comment on amazon or other review sites, I know and appreciate what a gift that is.

Knowing that, I have to fight a fear reaction - can I write a book that is equal to The Crying Tree? I think I can, and am, in fact working on that now.

10.  You've done so many things in your career.  Now that you're a publisher novelist, do you feel that you're more of a reporter still or do you find yourself wanting to write more books?

I want to write stories. If some of those stories are non fiction, that is fine. My goal is to tell stories that get people to think and to feel things they may never had other wise.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share with us!

A Conversation With Deborah Noyes, Author of "Captivity"

Please join me in welcoming Deborah Noyes, author of "Captivity," to Lit and Life. "Captivity," published by Unbridled Books," weaves together the true story of the Fox sisters, who claimed to be able to speak to the dead in the late 19th century, and the story of the Gills, an Englishman and his reclusive daughter who have come to the United States amid whispers of a scandal.

1. How did you come upon the story of the Fox sisters and what made you want to write about them?
I first read about Maggie and Kate in an article in American History magazine and was immediately drawn to the real-life rags-to-riches story of two ordinary farm girls who gripped their community by claiming to be able to communicate with the dead. Their “gift” eventually made them famous, the nineteenth-century equivalent of celebrities. Maggie's affair with the polar explorer Elisha Kent Kane kept her at the edge of scandal and fanned that fame. Western New York at the time was progressive and reform-minded, and Maggie, Kate, and their older sister Leah turned this mood to their advantage, sowing the seeds of an international religious movement. Their story touches on science and spirit, class and gender, subversion and showmanship, family politics and bad romance. A lot here for a writer to love.

2. How much research did you do into the time period and the story of the sisters?
I had excellent nonfiction accounts to draw from, notably Barbara Weisberg's Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism and Nancy Rubin's The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox plus a wealth of primary sources, including Kane's love letters to Maggie and Leah’s memoir, which offered rich context and helped me reconstruct the Fox family timeline. For the London subplot, I read Victorian diaries and news accounts, etiquette and recipe books, penny dreadfuls and passages from the Newgate Calendar.

I also made pilgrimages to Rochester, where I had help with local history and landmarks from the good folks at Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County and The Landmark Society of Western New York. I did some detective work and spent an afternoon driving around Acadia in search [of] the Fox family homestead. The cottage itself was gone, with only a simple cornerstone memorial (“The Birthplace and Shrine of Modern Spiritualism,” erected by a group called the Ministry of Spiritual and Divine Science) — marking the site where, in 1848, Maggie and her younger sister Kate first demonstrated their spectral "rappings.” But the rural, canal-centric landscape of that part of New York still looks as it must have in Maggie’s day. It was easy to imagine the sisters out chasing crows from the brittle fields or braiding seedpods into one another’s hair.

Last but not least, I paid a visit to Lily Dale, a quaint Victorian hamlet in western New York commonly known as “the town that talks to the dead” because of the mediums who hang out a shingle each summer to greet tourists and “serve spirit” by delivering messages from Beyond. While I checked out spirit trumpets and spirit slates in the museum — and the resident historian regaled me with tales of Mae West, Susan B. Anthony, Harry Houdini, and other famous Lily Dale visitors — I was delighted to spot a glass case with a scale model of the Fox farmhouse inside. Apparently the actual cottage was relocated to Lily Dale in 1916, though it burned down 41 years later.

3. How did the character of Clara develop and what made you decide to incorporate fact and fiction in this book?
Maggie was always conflicted about her calling, and it was this conflict — not whether (or not) she and her sisters were frauds — that interested me. What drove her? Why did otherwise rational people buy what she had to sell? To what extent do we need to believe in the continuity of life, and why? To explore these questions, I needed a second protagonist, a counterpoint.
Maggie’s friendship with Clara, a reclusive scientific artist and a skeptic, is pretty unlikely -- given the barriers of age, class, and temperament -- but Clara’s tragic past leaves her open in a way she might not be otherwise. Her back story lifts a strand from my first novel, Angel and Apostle, where the menagerie in the Tower of London also made a fleeting appearance (in Captivity, Clara meets her to-be-lost love, a beast keeper, there). Animals and ideas about the wild always figure in my thought and metaphor, and I wanted to explore them in more depth here. On a basic level, Clara is held captive by grief, and that’s where Maggie comes in.

4. Death and ghosts seem to be a recurring theme for you. Have you always been interested in ghost stories? Any favorites?

My mom always had yellowing yard-sale copies of — to paraphrase Neil Gaiman — novels with ladies in long nightgowns holding candelabras and fleeing spooky castles on the cover. So from an early age I read writers like Daphne de Maurier and Mary Stewart, or for that matter Steven King and Anne Rice, along with my Little House books (which may explain the weird mix of genres and preoccupations I entertain today: "little haunted house on the prairie," anyone?).
Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, and the short stories of Edith Wharton and Isak Dinesen. One of my favorite contemporary novels is Margot Livesey's beautiful Eva Moves the Furniture. I also loved the movie The Others, with Nicole Kidman, and mean to read the book that inspired it.

5. You've written books for children, adults and done a book using your own photography. Do you prefer one type over the other?
Fiction is my first love, whether for adults or teens, but it's a thorny kind of love — writing a novel’s like sitting too long in a dark room or a thicket. So out I’ll come for light and air. Picture books and photography let me collaborate and indulge my visual side. With nonfiction I get to sink into research — history, folklore — which is meditative (medicative?!) for me.

6. When you're working on a book, are you able to read books by other authors or do you need to shut out all other authors?
When I'm working on an adult novel, I read young-adult — often fantasy or something paranormal. When it’s children's or YA, I crave adult literary or historical fiction. Balance is the thing, I guess, but I read more nonfiction than fiction while drafting.

7. Who are your favorite authors?
All the great Gothic and Romantic writers... and Flannery O'Connor, Alice Munro, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Annie Dillard, James Cain, David Almond, Margo Lanagan, Walt Whitman, Kelly Link, Raymond Carver, Mary Oliver, Li Po, Shirley Jackson, Susan Cooper, Pablo Neruda, Sonya Hartnett, Hans Christian Andersen, Rod Serling, Elizabeth Bishop, Graham Green, Angela Carter...

8. Your photographs are stunning. When did you take up photography?
I took a night class about fifteen years ago with a friend, and we've both gone on to incorporate photography into our work, though it still feels new to me. I have a lot to learn and am mostly self-taught, so it's a reckless education.

9. How do you make time for writing with a family and all of your other commitments?
Remember Jack Nicholson in The Shining? "All work and no play…”? I'm dull. Exceedingly. I've done an ace job of convincing myself that work is fun and have almost no social life, which is okay, for now.

10. Favorite guilty pleasure?
Salty snacks. Long car rides. Melancholy Americana. Big white hotel beds. Costume dramas.

Thanks, Deborah! To learn more about Deborah, check out her website; she really is a woman of many talents.

Interview with Tatjana Soli - Author of "The Lotus Eaters"

Please join me in welcoming Tatjana Soli, author of The Lotus Eaters, to Lit And Life!

L&L: Tatjana, you're an acommplished and award-winning author of short stories. What made you decide to write a novel?

Tatjana: I love writing short stories, but I would get back many stories that I submitted to quarterlies saying they were too novelistic, so I guess maybe I've always been a novelist. I'm intrigued by the interaction of large casts of characters, by the effects of time and place, and these make for "baggy" (read: impossible) short stories. That said, I think there is a real beauty to the short story form is what it leaves out, the precision of it, much like poetry. I'll never quit writing them because I think the form demands much in terms of craft; they sharpen one's skills.

L&L: Your website mentions that you grew up haunted by the Vietnam war. Are there particular images that have stuck with you? Is the war something that you've done much reading about as an adult?

Tatjana: That's a great question. I have always been haunted by the images of the Fall of Saigon, and even after reading books on it, documentaries, pictures, I can't seem to come to the end of it. I can still easily lose myself in those images. Sometimes you hope that writing a book exorcises this kind of hold on you, but that wasn't the case for me.

L&L: The story of how you came to write the story is so interesting. Can you share it with my readers?

Tatjana: I was always fascinated by the war, especially since my mom worked for NATO and then she was at Fort Ord during the war. When you are a child, there are no politics, there are only people leaving, people not coming back. I remember women crying. But as an adult when I discovered that a handful of women worked as photojournalists in Vietnam, it suddenly became a story I could tell.

L&L: It seems that the photojournalists experience the same "rush" of war as soldiers. How much research did you do regarding the war and the role of photojournalists covering it?

Tatjana: I read all the major nonfiction books about the war. Then I read all the Vietnamese history books I could find. It was then I came across Dickey Chapelle, the first woman to cover Indochina, the first to be killed in action. But then my research spread out to journalists in general, including other wars. Of course, the technical nature of photojournalism has changed entirely since then. But the essence, I think, is the same. There definitely is an addiction to the adrenaline of war, but I also think that most journalists also feel a real weight of responsibility to cover wars, genocides, with the hope that bringing attention to them will end them. Think of Nick Ut's photo of Kim Phuc, the girl burned by napalm. That's the power of a picture.

L&L: Are there any books about the war that you would recommend?

Tatjana: I don't think one can understand the war without first reading Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. I just recently reread it and was blown away, once again, by its power. Another novel of O'Brien's, Going After Cacciato, is not mentioned nearly so often, but I think it is equally wonderful. I love Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers, which is about the American psyche as much as it is about the war. Michael Herr's nonfiction novel, Dispatches, which has the famous line: "I think Vietnam was what we had instead of happy childhoods."

L&L: What made you decide to include the love relationships into the story?

Tatjana: On a practical level, the journalists living in Saigon carried on life in a fairly normalized way. It was almost a joke how they could enjoy city life and then fly out to cover war. Looking at it in a more serious way, the stresses of wartime create bonds that are incredibly strong. Soldiers who serve together will become lifetime friends. It's only natural that people might fall in love in such circumstances. I think people are driven to find that connection with another human being - to find something worth living for in the midst of the devastation of war. Love becomes something to believe in.

L&L: You start the book with the end of the story. Why did you choose to do that? Did you know where the book was going before you started or did it develop as you wrote?

Tatjana: When I wrote the first draft of the novel that beginning was in place. It always seemed natural to me, but I believe it has to do with coming tot he subject such a long time after the war was a fait accompli. My story is not about what happened in the war, but how these characters turned out as they did as a result of it. That said, it took me a long time to figure out how to work the rest of the novel after that premise was in place. I revised the rest of the book over and over.

L&L: The Lotus Eaters has been selected to be included in "O" Magazine's Books For Spring and Tim O'Brien and Richard Russo have high praise for it. How does it feel to be getting so much attention for your first novel?

Tatjana: I've been incredibly lucky. And it took ten years. I am absolutely overwhelmed by the generosity of the writers who have helped me. I remind my students that I worked on this book for years, worrying it like a dog with a bone. When all the reviews and interviews are over, I'll be back at my desk.

L&L: You have Red Room and Facebook pages and a Twitter account. How do you feel about the role of the internet on book publicity?

Tatjana: This whole world of social networking is very new to me. It's very time consuming, and I haven't decided for sure which I'll keep doing long term, though I like blogging. I haven't mastered Twitter at all. But I've enjoyed hearing from readers who've contacted me, telling me how they reacted to the book, and sharing their own stories. That's a wonderful antidote to the isolation writers feel when they are working.

L&L: Can you share what's up next for you?

Tatjana: I'm working on a contemporary novel set on a citrus farm in Southern California.

L&L: I know from talking to other authors that publicity is a full-time job when a book is coming out. Are you okay with that or are you chomping at the bit to get back to writing?

Tatjana: Yes, I'm chomping at the bit to get back to it. It feels more natural to be writing!

Thanks so much for taking time to share with us, Tatjana! My review of The Lotus Eaters will be posted on Thursday. I'll slip this much about it: I sure hope it doesn't take ten years for the next book to come out!

On a stifling day in 1975, the North Vietnamese army is poised to roll into Saigon. As the fall of the city begins, two lovers make their way through the streets to escape to a new life. Helen Adams, an American photojournalist, must take leave of a war she is addicted to and a devastated country she has come to love. Linh, the Vietnamese man who loves her, must grapple with his own conflicted loyalties of heart and homeland. As they race to leave, they play out a drama of devotion and betrayal that spins them back through twelve war-torn years, beginning in the splendor of Angkor Wat, with their mentor, larger-than-life war correspondent Sam Darrow, once Helen's infuriating love and fiercest competitor, and Linh's secret keeper, boss and truest friend.

An Interview with Kristen Tsetsi, Author of "Homefront"

Have I mentioned before how much I love blogging? I do; I love blogging. About a week ago, I was, once again, reminded of one of the reasons I love blogging. Authors want to talk to me! I had added to my blog that I was currently reading "Homefront" by Kristen Tsetsi. A couple of days later, I got an email from Kristen saying that she had happened upon my blog and was thrilled to see that I was reading her book. As an author of a self-published book, Tsetsi is in charge of her own marketing, so she was more than willing to do an interview. Yea!

1. Home Front is semi-autobiographical. What made you decide to tell your own story?

Well, what makes it semi-autobiographical is that I couldn't have written it if I hadn't experienced a wait through a deployment. The events (minus the war timeline) and the characters are all fictional.

Tim O'Brien writes in The Things They Carried, "Story truth is sometimes truer than happening truth." My personal story was not exceptional enough to be a novel; I didn't want to write about me. I wanted to write about the larger story, so I relied on fiction to convey the emotional truth of that larger story.

What made me want to write it, though, was that there were a number of books - fiction and nonfiction both - delving into the soldier experience, but there was little (if anything) that made readers feel with equal intimacy and rawness the complex emotions plaguing those who don't know from one day to the next whether the person they love most will be killed that day.

2. Like Mia, you were a cab driver for a time. The down sides to that seem pretty obvious. Where there any things about the job you liked?

I absolutely love driving. I used to try to snag my sister's Big Wheel before my legs were long enough to reach the pedals. When I was a little older, I would take advantage of any opportunity to steer my dad's car. I even wanted to grow up to be a truck driver or a school bus driver. So, the driving part of cab driving was a lot of fun. And the experience itself is one I'm glad I had. Cab driving was something I'd always wondered about, and now I don't wonder, anymore.

3. Was there a real Donny?

There are real Donnys everywhere. Anyone who has ever met a troubled Vietnam veteran knows Donny Donaldson. I did know a man over a decade ago who said he was a Vietnam vet, and who inspired the Donny Donaldson character, but the two are different people.

4. Since Home Front does deal with real events in your life, were you concerned about any of the people portrayed in it being upset with you? What has been their reaction?

Because the characters in Homefront are fictional (or composites, at best), there was no one around who might be upset (thank goodness). Wait - my best friend did identify a fragment of her personality in Denise, but she liked the part she recognized. (The strength, the blunt honesty.)

5. Your writing style is very unique in this book. When you started writing was it a conscious decision to mix in the very short bits with the longer, more traditional sections?

Yes. I wanted every passage, every chapter, to read in such a way that Mia's mood would be immediately obvious. I also didn't want to write a traditional novel - I wanted to play with writing and form and language and everything that is fun about writing. Poets are usually the ones to take full advantage of that freedom, and I saw no reason not to be just as free in a novel. I wanted to be able to end a paragraph mid-sentence, or use one word per line, or write half a page of narrative without a period - anything that would best convey the thought processes and intimate moods of the narrator. So, I did.

6. Between reporting and writing short stories, you've had to develop the ability to tell a story in short form. What made you decide it was time for a novel? What was the biggest difference between writing short stories and writing a novel?

At some point, my short stories started feeling like they could be longer. Or, maybe it's that I was suddenly able to envision them continuing beyond the final page. After Ian (my boyfriend at the time, and my husband, now) returned from Iraq, and after enough time passed that the memory of his absence began to poke at me as a story needing to be written, I knew the year he was away was such a complex and powerful experience that it would take something the length of a novel to communicate it.

Novels are more difficult for me. I developed a big love for short stories very early on because they're so densely packed, so intense, and so intentional, that there's a constant challenge to whittle the whole thing down to, essentially, a climax. I never thought I would be able to write a novel because there's just so much FILLER. Words and words and words and words...the "what next" and "what now?" are my primary source of novel-writing frustration.

But when I remember each chapter is essentially a short story, it gets a little easier.

7. What made you decide to self-publish?

Impatience and reality. After querying for a while, I realized that it could take years to find an agent. After that, it could take years to get the book published (or to even be picked up by a publisher, if I were so lucky). I didn't want to wait. It's an important story relevant to the times, and there are hundreds of thousands of people going through an intensely traumatic and confusing and horrific experience right now. They have been since 2001. Actually, they have been since wars began. Even so, their story is rarely told, which puts them in the position of feeling inconsequential on top of what they're already going through. (You have no idea how many military spouses/significant others feel guilty about wanting to talk about their weaker moments - they're not at war, so what do they have to complain about, right?)

I wanted the book to be available to them so they would have a companion, and I wanted it to be there for those who talk about war like it's a story on TV. I want them to know the people whose lives are affected, and in what way they're affected. And I'm not talking about being left alone having to take care of a house - I'm talking about the way a regular day is affected when up to fifteen emotions clash in any number of combinations on a daily basis. I'm talking about what it means for there to be no such thing as a "regular" day.

When approached through a blog survey I created, spouses and significant others were quick to respond to my questions about what they go through when their loved one is deployed: sleep loss, anxiety, depression, and sometimes a wall between family and friends who can't understand what they're going through. Of course, all of the responses were anonymous. (I'm always sure to include significant others with spouses because love doesn't begin at marriage, and often if you're not married during a deployment there are certain privileges they're not entitled to.) The one question I didn't ask that I wish I would have is, "What thoughts and emotions do you have that make you feel guilty?" Because I know I had many of them (which I included in one way or another in Homefront) that would be difficult to talk about.


8. Can you tell us what inspired Backward Books and how you got it up and running? How do you draw authors to Backward Books?
Henry Baum (author of North of Sunset and The American Book of the Dead) and a man who chose to leave to pursue other ambitions were actually two of the first people behind Backword Books. They invited me in, and then came the rest. Henry and the other man had the idea to bring together a group of authors who would be a mutli-armed marketing force. Because independent publishers (or self-publishers - whatever your preference) don't have the benefit of a publisher name behind them and, as a result, their books aren't likely to show up on bookstore shelves across the country, the more people there are to create a buzz about the writing, the more likely readers are to hear about it.

As for drawing authors to Backword Books...those literary authors we've asked to join have said yes readily, for the most part. We look for someone who not only has a good book (we look at any published reviews, and then one of us reads the book), but who is also an active promoter of his or her own work. We want people who will write a blog now and then, who will help brainstorm marketing ideas,who will take part in group ideas (such as interviews, virtual book tours, appearing on radio shows) and who will share relevant links and news with their friends and acquaintances. Those who don't want to actively market end up losing interest in being a member.

9. Can you share what you're working on now?

I'm working on my second novel, The Year of Dan Palace (working title). Dan Palace experiences a sudden awareness that he may not have long to live. From that moment on, he behaves as if he has nothing to lose, and his relentless quest for his own happiness wreaks havoc on the lives of those who care about him.

10. Do you have a guilty pleasure?

TV. I love TV. What do I like to watch on TV?...Oh, so many things. But, to choose some favorites (a few of which should cause shame, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for drama) - Dexter, Medium, 30 Rock, Burn Notice, Mad Men (favorite-favorite), Californication, House, Project Runway, and the New York and Orange County Real Housewives. (But, honestly, if the TV is on, I can find something to watch. I rarely watched it when I was a kid, so I guess I'm making up for it. My time would be better spent reading, of course. Or writing! Probably writing.)

Kristen is a former reporter for the Journal Inquirer newspaper, former Women’s eNews correspondent, former APSU (adjunct) English professor, former Clarksville, TN cab driver, editor of American Fiction, and the author of Homefront , the short story collection Carol’s Aquarium, and the short, little book How to (Not) Have Children

To learn more about Kristen, her writings, Backword books, and Kristen's work providing support for our troops, please visit these links:

Kristen's home page: http://www.kristentsetsi.com/.

Kristen's blog: http://kristentsetsi.wordpress.com/.

Backword Books: http://www.backwordbooks.com/.


Thanks so much, Kristen!

Interview with Barry Smith, Author of "Only Milo"

Please join me in welcoming Barry Smith today. Barry is the author of "Only Milo." He is a professor at Emporia State University in Kansas and has also been on staff at New Mexico State University, Drake University, and at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he received his Ph.D. I was surprised to learn from the web site for "Only Milo" that Barry is a professor of finance, not English as I had assumed. He was born and raised in a farm in Iowa.

He has two sons and two grandchildren. "Only Milo" is his first novel.

This is the most unique book I've read in a really long time. Where did you get the idea to write the book in this style?

The writing style is not something I have ever used or even tried before. I also know of no other book written in a similar style. All I can say is that I went with Milo’s narrative voice, and this is where I was carried. You can see the voice develop throughout the book as Milo’s situation changed. Otherwise, I simply have to say the creative process took over.

It felt very comfortable to me right from the beginning, so I let it happen even though I knew the structure was unusual. I can still remember writing the first two-line chapter and thinking, “What are you doing???” But then I decided they were two really good lines and let it continue to flow without trying to put any limitations on the structure of the work.

Milo is such an interesting character. I couldn't decide if I felt sorry for him or horrified by him. What was your inspiration for him?

I don’t have any particular person who inspired him, but I do know this novel started flowing shortly after my kids brought copies of the first two seasons of Dexter for our Thanksgiving family gathering. In retrospect, I think that might have been a factor in how this novel evolved, but I really don’t know for sure.

I really like the fact that he has accomplished practically nothing in his life—to the outside world, at least—but at the age of 62 he finally grabs life by the throat and starts to take control of his own destiny. Of course, his method of doing so is a bit… unconventional.

"Only Milo" is really a commentary on the literary industry. Did you write from personal experience, research or is it strictly your own opinions?

Mainly my own opinions. In the academic world, I did have research data “stolen” by two of my Ph.D. program professors and received no credit when it was published. But most of Milo’s views were created during the writing process.

It should be obvious that the best writing is not often what gets published or read. Fame, wealth, celebrity and scandal are far more important factors and I think that is a commentary on society as much as it is on the literary industry.

I'm always interested in learning about authors' writing process. Did you have this book plotted out before you started or did you just have the germ of an idea and go where it took you?

I know exactly where this book originated, but I have no idea how it developed from there. I was in a diner in Pratt, Kansas, and for some reason ordered a Reuben sandwich. While waiting for my order, I began reading a Spanish novel that had recently been translated into English. When the Rueben arrived, it was horrible. I got home that night I wrote the sentence, “Maybe it was the SPAM Reuben sandwich” into a new writing file and below that sentence wrote the following: This is what I know about this work. The male narrator serves the SPAM Reuben to a woman who is not impressed. I think the book has something to do with the translation of a novel from Spanish to English.

IThe book says this is your first novel. You don't happen to have a stack of manuscripts in your closet, do you? Are you working on any thing new?

I have been writing off and on for about 25 years (mainly off) and have two old novels, written in the late eighties and early nineties, stacked in my closet. One of those is worthless, but the other one could be rejuvenated through a total rewrite – I like the concept and the opening couple of chapters. The remainder is no good.

I am in various stages of being barely started on four or five other projects. I have to decide which one makes the most sense to pursue at this time. They are all far more developed than Only Milo was (obviously) so the writing process will be different. In most cases, these works all have definite beginnings and endings, and I need to write the remaining 90%. I hope that process works. As I stated earlier, that is not how Only Milo was created.

I also have some ideas for a follow-up for Only Milo, but I am going to take that route only if the creative process pushes me there.

Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like to get published?

That process is still evolving. I really enjoyed the accomplishment of writing a book I thought was interesting, unique and fun to read. I also enjoyed having the published work in my hands. I tend to be quite private and introverted in most ways, so I am not sure about everything else that follows – the readings and signings and other promotional activities. My primary joy was in writing and publishing the book.

I had no idea I would get something published before retiring from my teaching job, so that has also been a factor. I planned on finally getting serious about writing in another year or so. Now that I already have a book published, that process will also be evolving.

Who are your favorite authors? What's on your nightstand right now?

I have three favorite authors and have read everything they have ever published. Ironically, all three have new books coming out this fall, so you know what is (and will be) on my nightstand. Richard Russo’s book, That Old Cape Magic, just came in the mail this week, so I hope to start on it this weekend. Rick is an acquaintance from many years ago and Nobody’s Fool is one of my favorite books. John Irving and Anne Tyler are my other two favorites, and I have pre-ordered both of their new novels.

My all-time favorite book is The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass.

I see that you've lived in the west and the east but keep coming back to the midwest. What keeps bringing you back?

It feels like home. I grew up in Iowa on a farm seven miles from the closest small town, and that experience shaped my life. I own an acreage in Iowa where I will move when I retire from my teaching job in the next year or so.

As a parent, grandparent, and professor, when do you find time to write? Do you have set hours to write?

I have never been able to be a “regular” writer – I have let a busy life get in the way. I have always assumed that was a major reason why I was not successful in the past. It was also part of the reason I moved to Kansas in 2006 – I was hopeful I could start new habits and write on a regular basis in preparation for my retirement plans to be a writer. That didn’t happen.

Instead, from June 2006 to Dec 2008, I did a bit of writing on two of the other projects I have on the back burner. In early January 2009, Only Milo started pouring out of me and it was primarily written in three separate “writing frenzies” that took place in January, March and June of 2009, and those form most of what turned out to be Parts 1, 2 and 3 in the book.

My conclusion is there is no one right way to go about it. I really admire friends who write almost every day, but so far, I have not been able to do that. I hope to in retirement, but who knows?

Thanks, Barry! Stayed tuned for your chance to receive an autographed copy of "Only Milo!"

For my review of "Only Milo" click here.

Interviews With Miram Gershow

In a follow up to yesterday's post about Miriam Gershow's "The Local News," I wanted to let you know about a couple of places where you can get more about the book and Miriam Gershow.

Mari, of Bookworm with a View posted her interview at http://manicmommies.blogspot.com/. You can find a second interview posted by Lisa, of Books on the Brain at http://lisamm.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/from-books-to-babies-how-i-stumbled-upon-the-biggest-decision-of-my-life/.