GOODREADS Interview: THE MAKING OF A NOVEL

I was recently tagged for this interview by my writer friend, Tiffany Hawk, author of Love Me Anyway, a St. Martin’s Press novel about the subculture of flight attendants. It’s due out in just a few months but you can pre-order now. Woot!

If it weren't for Tiffany, I may have never found my agent. And I feel so fortunate that we now share the same one. So I’m thrilled to be part of her Goodreads–Next Big Thing interview.

I was going to try to answer all ten interview questions in one setting. In fact, I was completely gung ho until question 4 and then after the second hour of compiling all the movie stars I’d want to be in the movie version of my novel, I was bushed. Ha! Writers will do anything to procrastinate. So now that I’ve burnt myself out dreaming, I’ve decided to answer a question or two every few days so that I can give it my full attention while simultaneously not missing this deadline to post an interview and tag my writer friends. :)

Here goes nothing…

What is your working title of your book (or story)?

I’m currently working on a novel whose working title recently died. It was called, The Spinning Wheel. You might immediately see why it died. I didn't. :) This title carried me through six-years of novel writing. Then, it went. Just like that. Well not, "just." A lot of people had mentioned to me that I might consider changing the title (absurd, I thought then) and like most good edit suggestions you're given, it didn't make sense to you until years later... long after that first person who said it is gone out of your life and you can't say thanks... It was that kind of edit. 

So, having heard this suggestion at least twenty times before, I was ready (mostly) when an editor who I only recently met said, “How married are you to this title?” Wow, I thought. There's something new. :) And that was the beginning. I won’t share the new title in case someone asks me to kill another darling—the title—so for now I’ll say the new title is much better.

Where did the idea for the book come from?

I remember a quote from Toni Morrison that said something like, “Write the book you want to read,” so that’s what I did. I wanted to write about the bonds of female friendships across culture, race and time, and to show that a mother’s love is limitless.

What genre does your book fall under?

Women’s Fiction. 

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Here began my problem…(BE BACK SOON!) 

It's now about two weeks later and I'm back and have decided to abandon this question and answer the others. The only two I know I'd want for sure are Charlize Theron for a character named Cynthia and Will Smith for a character named Charles.  

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

This novel is about three outcast women who, on the eve of the Civil War, are fighting the battle of their lives. 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It's represented by a great agency in NYC.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

The first draft took about three months. The subsequent fifty drafts took another five and a half years. 

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I would call my novel, The Lovely Bones meets Beloved. So I'd choose those two.

Who or what inspired you to write this book? 

Push, by Saffire. The language in her book gave me permission to write the book I wanted to write. At last.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest? 

The first draft of this novel was a screenplay that went on to win eight screenwriting awards.

I look forward to reading interviews with some of my favorite author friends next week:

Athena Lark is a writer, independent journalist and photographer. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside. Athena has been published in the literary journal The Whistling Fire, the Florida Times Union newspaper, Jacksonville Business Journal, Jacksonville Advocate, The Albany Herald, UNF Spinnaker, UNF Alumni Magazine. Athena also worked as the Associate Producer for the documentary “Slave Market Diaries” written and directed by Clennon King. Her Associate Producer credits include her work at WJXT Channel 4 News, Jacksonville, FL. Athena has worked as a contributing commentator on the radio talk show “The Advocate” AM 1460, Jacksonville Florida. She is currently writing the novel “Avenue of Palms“ and her memoir “Sailor Girl.” Find her at athena-lark.com.

Stephanie Janis was kicked out of the kitchen at six years old and has been buying take out ever since. A Jewish American Princess and former high school English teacher, Stephanie lives in Seal Beach with her husband--a gassy garbage collector-- and her beautiful children. A freelance journalist and humorist, Stephanie is also a regular contributor for The Seal Beach Sun and reads her work as part of the women's literary troupe, "Not Your Mama's Mama Reading Series."

Monica Carter currently resides in Los Angeles, California and recently graduated from the PEN Center USA’s Mark program for Emerging Voices alumni. A PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellow 2010 and a Lambda Literary Foundation Emerging GLBT Voice 2010, her fiction has appeared in Strange Cargo, An Emerging Voices Anthology, The Rattling Wall, Black Clock, Bloom and Cactus Heart. She is finishing her novel, In the Life. She is accepting believers at www.monicacarterthewriter.com

Jennifer Givhan is a Mexican-American poet who grew up in a small, border community in the Southern California desert. A 2010 recipient of the Emerging Voices Fellowship in Poetry through PEN Center USA, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in over forty journals, including Prairie Schooner, Contrary, Rattle, and The Los Angeles Review. She is currently working on a novel titled In The Time of Jubilee, where “Lars and the Real Girl” and “The Velveteen Rabbit” meet motherhood.

Owning It

I recently told someone that I haven’t published a personal essay that I don’t regret. This is still true. They make me feel vulnerable and to be honest, a little humiliated. You don’t have to tell me not to feel that way or tell me the obvious: don’t write them, but I did for many reasons and it's done and my reasons for continuing must have outweighed the risk. BUT I don’t regret writing them the way I did because I think essays require honesty that risks comfort. My essay in “YOU: An Anthology of Second Person Essays,” is no different. Well, yes different, because it was my first. Before I knew that there were things I didn’t have to say. “Untainted” a friend told me today after reading it. And no matter what I feel about it, I need to own it; own those experiences and that choice.

And I owe it to the hardworking publishers and editors whose blood, sweat and tears made this Anthology possible. For this reason, I hope you’ll pick it up either at the link below or if you’re at AWP in Boston in a few days, this anthology will be available at Welcome Table Press’s booth with NineBark Press. I won’t be there, but Michelle Auerbach, Brian Hoover, Dustin Beall Smith, and Rachel Yoder will be reading from it on Friday, March 8, from 10:30-11:45 at the Hynes Convention Center. Thanks.

http://www.itascabooks.com/you-an-anthology-of-essays-devoted-to-the-second-person.html