Category Archives: Q & A

Q and A with Author Cassie Stocks of Dance, Gladys, Dance

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Photo Credit: Terry Gasior

I want to welcome Cassie to the blog, and hope you enjoy her answers to the questions I posed to her recently via email, I enjoyed her answers immensely!

What was it that made you want to become a writer after having so many adventures yourself?

When I was about seven, I wrote a couple of sentences on a scrap of paper about two people I was having trouble with. I folded up the piece of paper, put it in my pocket, and carried it around all day.  Somehow, I knew I’d done something both powerful and comforting.  As preteen I wrote poetry illustrated by feminine hygiene advertisements from Reader’s Digests (you know – women in billowy gowns walking on beaches). I wrote a gang novel on the back of my worksheets in elementary school and I kept journals for years.  I wrote throughout my adventures in later life as well but it wasn’t until I settled down a little that I had both the time and the brain space to tackle a larger project.

How much of yourself or have you added parts of yourself  into your book?

I think there is something of myself in all the characters in Dance, Gladys, Dance. The details in the novel are a mixture of pure fantasy and real life. I did have a deaf cat called Beethoven that walked across the piano. I didn’t ever sleep with any of my professors or instructors. Like the main character Frieda, I did have a feeling of displacement in the ‘real world’ from trying to live as and have a career as an artist. I have both painted and made papier-mache projects but I’ve never crocheted. I did travel in a bus with a bar band (for a very short while).  I’ve never been a Goth or a ghost.

You are a fellow Canadian. What would be your most favorite “Canadian” thing to do?

I’m not sure, I’ve never skied, climbed a mountain, or played hockey. I was in a canoe once. I’ve drank a lot of Tim Horton’s coffee and spent my share of Canadian Tire money.

What gave you the idea for this novel?

About fifteen years ago, I saw an ad for a stereo. The ad actually said “Gladys doesn’t dance anymore, she needs the room to bake.” I clipped the ad and kept it for years. It might have been a joke, but I wondered who Gladys was and why she would ever give up dancing for baking. In the novel, I changed the stereo in the ad to a phonograph, but it ultimately led to Gladys’ story.

The stories of Frieda and the other women are a combination of my own sentiments, research I’ve done on women and creativity, composites of people I’ve met, and the results of a caffeine saturated imagination.

Besides writing, what other talents would you like to have?

I’d like to be able to do psychic grocery shopping and cleaning by telekinesis (when I’m in the middle of a project, I buy paper plates and plastic cups and cutlery. Bad for the environment, but if anyone wants to start a Save the World – Get Cassie a Cleaning Woman Fund, I’m up for it).

If you died and were able to come back as anything you wanted, what would it be and why?

If I could come back in the past, I’d come back in the roaring twenties. I want to be at a literary salon, as the woman writer wearing tweed pants, paisley silk scarves, and leather ballet slippers (no matter the weather), sitting cross-legged in an over stuffed armchair with a martini, making bitter pronouncements about poodles and the world economy.

Do you have any favorite writers? Who are they and why?

Off the top of my head, I love Kurt Vonnegut (Bluebeard), Nick Hornby (A Long Way Down), Roddy Doyle (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha), George Orwell (Keep The Aspidistra Flying), Charles Dicken’s (Oliver Twist), Miriam Toews (A Complicated Kindness), Paul Quarrington (Whale Music), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Cannery Row), Stephen Leacock (Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town), Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe), John Irving (A Prayer for Owen Meany) and Mark Childress (Crazy in Alabama).  I enjoy a good story simply told, both intelligent and accessible. I like the sense of a story being about itself, but also about something bigger, with a sense of political or social awareness.

Are you working on anything new?  When can we expect it to come out?

I’m working on my second novel called The Amazing Adventures of Mattress Boy. I’m not sure when it might be out. Stay tuned.

Do you have any heroes in real life? Who are they? Why?

My English Spaniel Frieda (named after the main character in Dance, Gladys, Dance to remind myself to write every time I called the dog — sad I know). I got Frieda from the humane society. She was terrified of the world and literally crawled everywhere. With time she overcame her nervousness and decided to befriend the entire world. Two years later she jumped off a second story porch, got tangled in a wrought iron railing on the way down and had to have one of her back legs amputated. Within a week, she was up and around and still runs around now like mad and approaches the world with endless enthusiasm.

What is the one trait that you most deplore in others? Yourself?

Judging others seems to be a recreational sport for some people. I think we need to choose not to evaluate people based on their skin colour, gender, social standing, monetary worth, religious beliefs, shoe size, or whatever the heck people choose to judge others by. Compassion, not criticism should be our beginning point. I work on this myself; it’s easy to get caught up in gossip and nit-picking.

The Beggar’s Opera – Peggy Blair – Q and A

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I would like to welcome Peggy to my blog,  and thank her for taking the time out of her very busy schedule to answer some questions about The Beggar’s Opera.

SR – In The Beggar’s Opera, the book is situated in Havana, Cuba.  What is about Havana that mesmerized you so much to write a book based on this location?

PB -  I’ve traveled to quite a few countries that were once communist dictatorships. I was an election observer during the “Orange Revolution” elections in Ukraine; I monitored elections in Kiev and also in towns very close to the Russian border.  I did human rights work in Serbia with the UN Development Program, training judges and mediators in dealing with human rights violations, and I have visited the Czech Republic several times as well.

Cuba is different from anywhere I’ve ever been. It has a dictatorship with a charismatic leader who is larger than life, and the subject of over six hundred assassination attempts by the American CIA, who even poisoned his cigars. It’s a country that is desperately poor, thanks to the American trade embargo, but has one of the most educated, literate, and healthy populations in the world.

I watched the police in Havana closely when I was there – I was a criminal defense lawyer and Crown prosecutor for decades – and I wondered how on earth they could investigate crimes with such limited resources. You can’t even find pencils or batteries, and there are constant fuel and food shortages. Meanwhile, thousands of tourists wander around, completely oblivious to the harsh reality of the daily lives of most Cubans. I thought that was something worth writing about.

I also visited the Callejón de Hamel  (the inspiration for my fictional Blind Alley) with a pair of hustlers, or jineteros, as they’re called, who were quite happy to rip me off. It was incredible– the centre of Havana’s Afro-Cuban community, bursting with music, art, and Santería, the religion brought by slaves from Africa. (As in the book, there really was a plastic bucket with these poor turtles trapped in it so that people could collect and drink their urine in the hope of living a long life.)

Put all of that together with gorgeous, crumbling architecture; feral dogs and cats, crazy anti-American billboards, and music everywhere, and setting a story in Havana was irresistible.

SR – On the back of the galley I received as part of the Blog Tour for your book; it states that you have been a lawyer for many years, as well as selling houses in the Ottawa area.  I have noticed in the few years that many lawyers who have made the transition to writing books.  What was it for you that you wanted to hang up your robes for more of a literary pursuit?  What is it about selling houses that you like about it?

I was a lawyer for thirty years. For the first ten or fifteen of those, I was in criminal law, and then after winning an important case that involved a treaty rights defense,  I kind of fell into the highly specialized area of Aboriginal and human rights law. ( I actually have a PhD, or LLD, as they call a doctorate in law in this area. Most of these are awarded honorarily to retired politicians at university convocations: I’m one of the twits who actually earned one.)

I ended up involved in long-term negotiations over fisheries and when we finally resolved those issues,  I moved into the Indian residential school claims process. I heard claims of serious sexual and physical assault involving children  as a senior adjudicator, and then as a Deputy Chief Adjudicator. I finally hit a point where I knew I had to stop – I was starting to feel the effects that they warned us about going into it.

After that, I got back into land claims business and quickly realized I could end up sitting around the same negotiating table for the next twenty years, discussing the same files with the same government negotiators,  and not have anything resolved. At that point, I realized the time had come to do something else.

The Beggar’s Opera was actually written while I was working on my realtor exams.

I’ve always loved renovating houses, and I knew  my background in law and negotiations would be  an asset to me as a realtor. It’s one of those things that, looking back, I wish I had done ten years earlier. I love my office and my colleagues and I really like  working with clients. Unlike law, or writing, which can be quite isolating, the real estate community is surprisingly supportive. I’ve enjoyed every file I’ve worked on.

SR - Do you think Cuba in the future would be better off staying as it is, or becoming a democratic community like Russia and other countries have?

I don’t think the current status quo is sustainable, frankly. I think most Cubans are willing to wait to see what happens when Fidel Castro dies. But they are a highly educated, bilingual population (English second-language training is required in the schools) watching economic development take off in South America while they struggle to get enough to eat and live in atrocious conditions.

I think they are apprehensive about what the future will look like without Castro, particularly given their proximity to the U.S., but they are ready for change. That said, there is a real fear that American money will flood into the country and turn it back into the kind of place it was under Fulgencio Batista – a sort of Las Vegas of the south — with a government even more corrupt than the current dictatorship

SR – Who is your favorite character in the book and why?  Mine would have to be Ramirez – the detective who is suffering from dementia, who still believes that the truth is out there and strives to find the truth before time runs out.

PB – It’s funny how many readers have that take on Ramirez. I always think of him as balancing on the knife-edge of corruption, not quite sure which way to go.  I’m glad you like him. I’m quite small and therefore   I probably identify the most with Apiro, who may be short but is much larger than he appears.

SR - Can you give us a hint of what to expect in book two, or am I being a bit too anxious?

The King’s Indian is the name of the second book and it picks up the story right where The Beggar’s Opera leaves off. Inspector Ramirez goes to Canada and while he’s away, women start dying in Havana, prompting the Canadian government to consider issuing a travel advisory warning tourists against going to Cuba. Needless to say, there are ghosts.  I  have a big crush on Charlie Pike, a new character. He’s the Aboriginal detective who escorts Ramirez around Ottawa. (Charlie Pike appears in Book Three, Hungry Ghosts, as well.)

So thank you Peggy so much for doing this.  Below, is a list of the other blogs that are on the blog tour for Peggy’s book, so make sure that you check out what they had to say, what they asked Peggy, or if she just wrote something.  It is bound to be interesting regardless the topic!

Blog Tour Hosts and Dates

The Placebo Effect – David Rotenberg – Q and A

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Please welcome David to the blog, read on what he had to say about what I had asked and a special peek inside something he is writing this moment…..

SR:  If you had to choose would you rather write books for the rest of your life or continue to teach, direct actors? Why?

 DR:  I actually need both. The writing makes me a better teacher, the actors I work with make me a better writer. My initial profession was as a professional stage director. I ran an American Regional Theatre for years an actually directed a few times on Broadway. When I came back home, to Canada, I couldn’t manage to get into that line of work up here, don’t really know why

SR:  In your novel, synesthesia is prominent in the main characters attributes, have you or someone you know come across a person with these abilities? If so, was that one of the main reasons you had used it in your novel The Placebo Effect?

DR:  No one I know has such abilities. I’ve always written about people with special abilities, the five Zhong Fong novels are about a man with exceptional talent in a world where special talents are not honored. When I directed the first Canadian play in the People’s Republic of China the first thing the Artistic Director of that theatre said to me was, “You must remember that you can always be replace”-a fine hello, how was your flight!

Synesthesia simply gives and access to the ‘other.’ There is a lot of material on synesthesia; some of the most interesting is actually the documentary on Mr. Tammet and his extraordinary abilities. There is also a gentleman called the human camera, you can find YouTube stuff on both, and BBC documentaries. As well Mr. Tammet has an interesting book.  Rainman was based loosely on the man who Mr. Tammet thought of as his spiritual father-he passed away a few years back.

SR:  Do you think the world as a whole could make use of Decker’s talent of knowing when people are telling the truth given the state of the world today?

DR:  Sure would simplify a he said/she said situation, don’t you think?

SR:   Is there a special place that you read? Write? If so, where and why?

DR:  I’ve had a private locked room for over 40 years. I usually write there. When I’m stuck I go to the store and buy a nice pad of paper and a new pen and write in long hand for a while. I tend to read in bed, quite late into the night, although often when I’m writing I’m not able to read.

SR:  When can we expect book 2 and three of the Junction Chronicles? 

DR:  Book two of The Junction Chronicles is with the publisher, it’s entitled A Murder of Crows. You’ll have to ask them when it’s going to come out! As well, I have a subseries that I’m working on called Seth’s Dream. At this point it’s two volumes long, very much speculative fiction, don’t know when/if it will get published.

Here’s the opening of A Murder of Crows

Ch. Prologue – An Idyll of Thoughts at T – Plus 4 Days and 16 Seconds

THOUGHTS: This is a foolish country. And this town with its obsessively symmetrical old church is ridiculous.
These people believe they will live forever. They hide death behind walls and bury it in places with names like Pleasant Valley and Peaceful Rest. We in the East know that death is neither pleasant nor restful.

Perhaps we spend too much time thinking about our deaths – but death is real. It is the only certainty. And to refuse to confront a certainty is foolishness. A foolishness that all these Americans will be forced to abandon when we force them to understand that Judgement awaits everyone – everyone.

Look at all these kids and their parents. Look at them. So self-satisfied. So convinced they are special – the chosen ones. And they all love America. Well why not? America has made the parents wealthy and is going to make most of these privileged kids rich too. While backed by their military might this horror of a country makes the rest of the world its slaves. And these science profs up there on the stage invented much of the military prowess of this country while these students all around me are preparing to take their places.

All are soldiers of the oppressor.

But there will be justice – even here, on this pampered campus in Upper New York State there will be justice. It will come – as surely as putting NAME OF CHEMICAL together with NAME OF CHEMICAL will cause a massive explosion – it will come.

Be sure to be on the lookout for this first installment into the Junction Chronicles.   Thank You to David and the Publicity Team at Simon and Schuster Canada for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. I’m really looking forward to A Murder with Crows.

Now, get reading !!

Q and A with Geraldine Brooks

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How much of yourself exists in your characters ?   Occasionally I hear my own voice a little…Marmee’s thoughts on war, Hanna Heath’s description of working to glimpse the past before the genie fogs it over again, Bethia’s love of the landscape and avidity for learning…When Anna describes her boys in year of Wonders, most of it was about my own young son…

With so many differences in terms of the books you have written, what is it about the subject matter that appeals to you to write a novel about it/ on the subject matter ?  – The books are set in different times and different places, but the themes are fairly constant, I think:  how are people changed by catastrophe/  What does faith do for people, what does it do to people?

What was it that made you or persuaded you to write novels after being a journalist for so long ? -  I wanted to have a baby, and the kind of mother I wanted to be wasn’t all that compatible with the kind of journalist I wanted to be…so I took a chance on a career change, and, happily, it has worked out… so far.

Who are your favorite authors? What have they instilled in you? –   Too long of a list to enumerate.  But I would say Mary Renault’s fiction set in the ancient world is a model for what I try to do.  Marilynne Robinson’s books, Home and Gilead also have been inspirational.  And Jane Austen, of course…

If you were to die, what would you like to come back as, and why? –   An osprey–they have it all–the gift of flight, waterfront real estate, an endless summer and a nice family life.

I am wondering how Caleb would see this world now, do you think he would like it? -  I think he would love the access to information and lament our irresponsible treatment of our environment.

Is there a historical figure you most identify with? Why? –   No, but I would like to be Rachel Carson or Harriet Beecher Stowe, and write a book that changed the world for the better.

Are there and phrases you use/overuse? -   Dessicated. Gnarled.

Besides you talent for writing, what other talent(s) do you have/ wish you had?   I wish I could sing, and I wish I could speak at least six languages.

What is your idea of perfect happiness ? -  In nature, with family (including the dog of course) by water, with something scrumptious to eat and someone telling a hilarious story.

What in your mind is considered the most over-rated virtue? – If it is a virtue, then it can’t be overrated. We need all the virtue we can have in this rather un-virtuous world.

Thank you so much Geraldine for such great answers to the questions I asked ! I hope everyone enjoys them as well.

For my review of People of The Book or  Caleb’s Crossing just click on the titles.

 

Mini Q and A With Author Robert Rotenberg

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I have to say this man is so busy, I cannot see where he finds the time for everything he does! I am even tired reading about it !

Without further interruption, please welcome Robert Rotenberg who has published his 2nd book entitled The Guilty Plea.  It has been released in Canada today, so go out and get it, trust me, you will love it !

With such a busy schedule, what or where, when were you hit with the writing bug? – It is hard for me to remember a time when I didn’t want to write. Tell stories. But the reality of my chaotic life, is that it wasn’t until I was finished being a magazine editor and radio producer that I really sat down to write. Logical time. I’d just started practicing law, was broke so was working about 100 hours a week, we were just having our first of three kids, and of course I was still playing hockey every Monday night. Hey, you need energy to do this job.

Have you taken some or many details from your real life cases and incorporated them into this novel or your previous one? – As you know I’m a criminal lawyer and client confidentiality is paramount. (Unfortunate sometimes, you wouldn’t believe the stories I hear. The other day a new client came in and told me…). In fact it’s not a joking matter, I would never betray a confidence.  So the stories are not from my own cases, or any others. But I truly believe the adage, that the great advantage that fiction writers have over non-fiction writers is that we can tell the truth.

Does life imitate art in some circumstances? – Well, in Old City Hall when Nancy Parish, exhausted, flops into the chair in her office and is overwhelmed by the volume of voice mails, emails, letters, demands on her time. Ask any criminal lawyer.

As the lawyer in the book, do you follow the same principles in your real life practice – not letting yourself believe or disbelieve your clients? – The best chess players always try to see the board from their opponent’s point of view.

If you could choose between being a lawyer for the rest of your life or being a writer, what would you choose? – Simon & Schuster want to sign me for two million dollars a book for the next ten years. Brad Pitt wants to star in Old City Hall, and Angelina (I call her Angie now) is dying to play Sam in The Guilty Plea. John Grisham and Scott Turow want to spend the winter with me in Hawaii working on the screenplay.  I think I’ll go back to bail court (where I was on Monday) for a few more clients.

If you had died and had the chance to come back as anyone or anything you wanted what would it be? Why? – See answer to question 5

What is the one talent besides writing would you want to have? – A better slap shot. Thirty years of playing hockey and it still sucks. But hey, I’m an excellent passer.

If you could live in one place in the whole world where would it be? Why? – Paris me manque. With money this time.

I see on your website that you volunteer for a Rehab Clinic in Toronto.  What was the main reason you decided to go this route?  Have you seen  the worst case scenario ever, and the person has turned around to make a full recovery and a good representation of being clean and sober? – I am the least addictive person you will ever meet. But for 20 years I’ve seen people and families torn apart and destroyed by addiction. And yes, I am extremely proud to say that I’ve seen so many of my clients totally turn their lives around. It is the greatest part of my job.

Do you have any pet-peeves? What would they be? – Those tiny tea pots you get in restaurants that always spill no matter what you do. The way we treat poor people in this rich city.

Q and A with Author Margaret Peot of Inkblot

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Please welcome Margaret to Serendipitous Readings. Thank you Margaret for allowing me to ask a few questions.  She has also sent along a few of her designs to compliment the Q and A!

What is it about ink blotting that has made you such a fan for over 30 years? I think inkblots are magical—an inkblot is composed only of dried ink on a piece of paper, applied in various ways, and yet the swirls and washes, the positive and negative space, gives our brains a little jolt.
When I teach inkblot making, it is always amazing to me, despite the seemingly random mark making process—drip, fold, unfold—that the blotters’ blots all look so different, and yet so akin to the makers. The oncology nurse’s blots look like MRIs, the quiet, contemplative writer’s blots look like serene calligraphic forests, the artist who likes creatures (me) makes blots that all seem to be creatures, the child who loves robots makes one robot blot after the other.

Are there one or two favourites among all of the ones that you have done? This one is one of my all time favorites, unaltered:

And this is one of my favorites, altered (meaning drawn in to with colored pencils):

I am curious, have you ever tried to ink blot on a piece of fabric for one of your other projects? Would it even be possible to do? I haven’t quite worked out how to do it. I know Andy Warhol made inkblots on canvas, which he then stretched. It would depend on the stiffness of the fabric, I think. If you were able not only to stiffen the fabric, say by backing it with paper, but also affix it within the fold line to ensure that the print at the fold was crisp, I think it would be possible. I will have to experiment with this more.

With the amount of different images, thoughts, variations, will there be an ink blot album next to be published as a work of art?

That would be a wonderfully fun book to make! I could include blots that people sent me as well—an extended version of the Gallery section in the back of Inkblot. But, I am always on a mission to help non artists—and artists, too—make interesting marks, loosen up, generate new ideas. I am currently working on two books with North Light, one on Alternative Sketchbooks and another on making a living as an artist: The Successful Artist’s Career Guide: Finding Your Way in the Business of Art.

You talk about inspiration being a huge factor in doing ink blots, what is so inspiring about them to you? I think that inkblots sidestep our inner critic in a wonderful way. You can’t really control the outcome—it is a tiny act of faith to blob the ink and water on the paper and then mash the other half of the paper down on it. And what you see is made by you and yet not made by you—so part of you, the kid part, is purely delighted at the making of something, and the critical part—the part that sometimes doesn’t let you make anything at all because it might not be “good enough,” sort of fades away—because it wasn’t really responsible for the mark, right?
When I am stuck—sad or tired, a little overdrawn at the creativity bank, or at the start of a project when blank paper makes me feel jumpy—I make inkblots. They never fail to delight and inspire me, and take me to the next surprising step.
I made this one yesterday:

What amazing talent !! What do you think everyone ?

Thank you to Margaret once again for being able to share her insights and creativity, the book gives you endless possibilities when doing these.  My son actually said right after coming home from Camp in the United States that he wanted to start on them right away!

Margaret’s Website

Inkblot Book on YouTube ( where she has created many videos for you to get started on your own projects!

These are just so incredibly easy to do, with some india ink and water, paper, you are on your way !

Quickie Q and A with Catherine McKenzie

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Where or what gave you the idea for the main premise in Arranged? – A lot of ideas that were floating around in my head collasced at once. I knew a few men who’d had “traditional” arranged marriages. The Bachelor and similar shows were everywhere. One day I asked myself  – “if an arranged marriage service existed in North America, who would use it?” -  and then I got excited.

Was there something about arranged marriages that made you want to include it in your latest novel? – I think it’s a logical extension of what we see as entertainment these days – people letting others choose their mates for them. I wanted to explore why so many people are willing to do this, and how far they’d go if they thought it would bring them happiness.

What is it about chick lit that made you want to write 2 already, will you continue to write more in this genre, or will you change gears and write another genre? – I write the stories that come to me. I never intended to specifically write chick lit (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) – not in the traditional sense of say, The Devil Wears Prada. What I want to do is write the best books I can and make them as entertaining as I can.

With the advent of more and more people going online to find the loves of their life, do you think arranged marriages or a similar type of introduction services will make a comeback from being a mostly old custom for certain countries, or even larger than it was or is? – I think it is entirely possible. At the very least, I expect a reality television series based on this idea to pop up any minute now.

Do you think that attitudes have changed since the time arranged marriages have been a way of life in some cultures? – I think it depends on what culture you’re talking about. If you mean North America, then definitely, though the idea of marrying for love goes much further back than some people think, depending on the social sphere in which you lived. I think most people in our culture expect to marry for love, and a lot of people expect that love to be the love-of-their-love-soul-mate kind. Which is setting the bar pretty high.

Thanks so much Catherine for you time and the book !

If you would like to win a copy of the book stay tuned after this post to learn how you can.

If you would like to read my review of Spin, it is located here

Here is my previous Q and A I did with Catherine, when her first book SPIN came out.  SPIN just came out re released as a P.S. edition, go and check it out.

 


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Quickie Q and A with Author Anne Fortier

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Usually, I have more than 5 questions for an author, but as Anne travels the internet, I was asked this time to only ask a max of 5.  Plus, with all of the writing she is doing on top of her book and those edits, I can say I don’t blame her one bit!

So, welcome Anne to Serendipitous Readings,  possibly you will be interested in what I had to ask her recently and what she had to say back!

You were raised in Denmark, Immigrated to the United States, You now live in Quebec, and consider Siena your second home, are there any other places where you would like to call home?  Anyplace that you have been dying to visit yet, but haven’t had the opportunity? –    Right now I can’t imagine living anywhere other than Canada, although I always do feel very much at home both in the US and Europe. When I was younger I had a dream of trekking through the Sahara, but I’m not sure I have the courage anymore. I would love to travel in the far North, although I would rather not travel through grizzly bear territory. Maybe a cruise to Alaska …

Why a Shakespearean tale set in Italy? What was it that made you want to do historical fiction, with many different drafts of Romeo and Juliet among a present day mystery, suspense, thriller all rolled into one? -   I wish we could ask Shakespeare why so many of his plays are indeed set in Italy. There is something magical about Italy, I think, and as an author I was drawn to the idea of mentally living in that beautiful country while I wrote my story. As for the combination of many genres, well, those are the kinds of books I like to read myself. And I knew that once I embarked upon a retelling of the Romeo & Juliet-story, it had to become partly an historical novel, and then, when I introduced the treasure-hunt into the mix, it became what I would call an “adventure” novel.

What is your favorite part about the book? Was there a special item in it that have you remembering fondly to a specific day or memory? -    I have a few favorite scenes, which I very much enjoyed writing. One of them is the balcony scene with Romeo and Giulietta, where I really felt they were talking “through” me, so to speak, and another is the scene where Julie and Alessandro have a long conversation at Fontebranda. It is such a playful scene, with so much emotion rippling just beneath the surface, and it was quite difficult to keep it short, because they just kept talking and talking … Apart from that, it was always lots of fun to write Janice’s dialogue, because she is such a wild card. Overall I would say I had a rollicking good time writing the book in general, and that I would write a sequel any day.

If you could go back to the 14th century, would you, what would you do while you were there? -  Well, first of all I think I would be very unromantic and hide in a barn throughout my stay, hoping not to catch the bubonic plague or get killed by highway gangs. If I couldn’t hide, I would probably try to find Maestro Ambrogio at work on a fresco somewhere and just sit and watch him. I might also try to experience the Palio horserace, probably from a spot in Piazza del Duomo, hoping that I would be a lot taller than my medieval buddies and actually able to see the finish line. Howsoever tempted I might be to taste the local wine and food … I had probably better not.

Who are your favorite authors and why? -  I love the classic, British tone of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, and P. G. Wodehouse; I can read those again and again, simply to enjoy their turn of phrase. For a more modern voice, but equally exquisite, I am a great fan of Sara Gruen and absolutely love her new book, “Ape House”, which made me laugh out loud many times. As far as adventure books go, I was very inspired by Katherine Neville’s classic, “The Eight”, and pretty much devoured Jane Johnson’s recent book, “The Tenth Gift”.

So, check out The Savvy Reader for all of the other Canadian Blogs she will be visiting, and if you haven’t caught my review, it is here.

Anne’s Website

The Book’s Website


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Q and A with Author Tish Cohen

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Please Welcome Tish Cohen to Serendipitous Readings.  I became a fan of her work when I read Inside, Out Girl about 2 years ago, so, I was really excited when she agreed to answer a few questions.

1.  In Inside, Out Girl, you discuss a young girl who has a learning disability and bullying, in Town House agoraphobia, and in your latest The Truth About Delilah Blue you tackle parental abduction and Alzheimer’s.   Was there something that struck you about these issues that you wanted to know more about them, then decided to write a novel based or around the topic?

I was fascinated with the issue most of us face as adult children: aging parents. There comes a point where the parent/child roles reverse themselves and the child must take care of a vulnerable mother or father. It is easy to imagine how an adult child will cope with this given a typical upbringing. But I started to wonder what would happen if the parent had grossly wronged their son or daughter in childhood. How would that child eventually cope with taking care of that parent when his or her health is failing? Victor is that parent, and Alzheimer’s is what is rendering him vulnerable and frightened. The Truth About Delilah Blue is largely about Delilah’s confusedness given the above scenario.

2.   Parental abduction seems to be a growing trend nowadays with parents becoming more and more disenfranchised with the legal system and the amount of time it takes to settle a custody battle.  Do you think this has an effect on how or why parents take matters into their own hands?

I do think a desperate parent is more likely to act if he feels the law is not on his side. Often the parent knows he will not have the custody arrangement he desires and decides to do something extreme. I don’t think it is a result of the legal system, which is largely fair and just. It’s more a result of one person’s perception that the system is working against him or her.

3.  Delilah is considered an outsider.  Do you think that her father’s abduction cemented that facet of her into her personality?.  Do you think a child who has been abducted by one of their parents feel or become the same or with more severe traits?

Any abducted child is bound to feel isolated. Typically, they are moved to a place where they know no one and might be sequestered from all family and family connections. These kids are torn not only from siblings and the left behind parent, but also their school and friends and hobbies. Often their names are changed, or their appearance altered. They may be taken to another country. And more often than not, the child is kept away from potential friends. It is a terrible life for a child, definitely not conducive to fitting in.

4.   Is there a Historical Figure you most identify with? Why ?

I do identify somewhat with Virginia Woolf and the way she lived too much inside her head. I don’t, however, have any plans to follow her into the river.

5. Which words or phrases do you use/overuse?

Stared, shrugged, and smiled.  My characters are, henceforth, forbidden to do any of these things!

6.Besides your talent for writing, which other talent(s) would you like to have and why?

I would love to be a ballet dancer. But given the choice, I’d rather be a writer.

7. Who are your favorite writers? Why?

I am obsessed with Elizabeth Strout, Michael Cunningham, and Anne Tyler for their prose and their incredibly real characters.

8.  If you were to die, what would you like to come back as and why?

A less lazy, less neurotic version of myself.

9.   What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Perfect happiness = sitting around with people I care about after writing, working out, and getting incredibly good news from Hollywood!

10.  Which person alive or dead do you most admire and why?

I admire Alice Munro for her gorgeous stories.

A huge thanks to Tish, her publicist, and the beautiful people over at HarperCollins Canada  you know who you are !

My Review of The Truth About Delilah Blue


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Q and A with Kathleen Winter

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You are so in for a treat !  I welcome Kathleen Winter as my guest for my infamous Q and A today.  So, please welcome her to the blog, sit back grab whatever your are drinking and enjoy !

In Annabel, you bring a controversial if not taboo topic to light: individuals who are intersex. What was it that made you want to include this topic in the book and in such a unpopulated place among Native Indians? I began hearing stories of children who were born intersex and wrote a short story exploring this. I had spent time in Labrador and the land there had a big effect on me. In Annabel, I describe it as having a kind of magnetic energy. I decided to expand the story into a novel because the short story did not give all the issues enough room to breathe. The questions involved became too constricted. The subject needed more space, so not only did I give it the structural space a novel provides, I also set it in the wild, strong space I knew Labrador to be.  The culture in which Wayne/Annabel lives is primarily a white European culture with some Inuit influence (his father is both Scottish and Inuit). The Innu also live nearby, and there is German and French influence too. I felt that the land of Labrador, while wild and at times harsh, also had room in it to accept a lot of ideas including the idea of a child born both male and female. While I was writing the book, I came across some modern Inuit art that includes images of people who possess both genders at once.

Is there or would there be a metaphor for being in this location and the topic that Wayne is dealing with – how nature sometimes makes mistakes, but isn’t changed or altered? In the book is mentioned an important lake, deep inland, where the waters flow in two directions. This lake is unnamed, or has a secret name, and it is where Wayne’s father, Treadway, goes when he leaves home to hunt and meditate in the wilderness. This location is modeled after a real location and I feel it reflects the duality in Wayne’s life, a duality I don’t regard as a mistake at all.

How do you think other people would have reacted in the novel had they known about Wayne’s condition – would they humiliate him, or would they embrace who he is and it not matter? In the novel there are people, like his teacher Thomasina, who accept his condition exactly as it is. Then there is his father, who does not judge or disown his son, but who has a huge struggle with the fact that he wants his son to fit into the ordinary world. Then there is another character who knows, but we do not find this out until later in the story, and this character also has a combination of acceptance and judgment. Then there are some characters who exhibit outright, horrific reactions that create danger for Wayne. These are the ones who know his condition. Of the characters who do not know it, I think a similar spectrum of responses might be latent within them. I find it an interesting question to look at the secret and its effects, and to think about what might have happened differently depending on who knew the secret.

Of all of the other characters in the book, which one in your mind is the one that sympathized with Wayne more? Why? On the surface, Thomasina, his teacher (who was also present as a midwife at his birth) is the most sympathetic character. She is the one who insistently believes it would have been all right from the beginning to accept the dual nature of this child. She is the one most at peace with ambiguity, and she is also the person who tells Wayne the truth at times when no one else will. However, there is more than one kind of sympathetic gesture, and I think that through the novel Wayne’s father, Treadway, comes to show a depth of understanding that even I did not know he had when I began to write the book.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? My husband is Quebecois and he has a term: “l’ordinaire”, which he applies to the small, everyday forms of happiness, like being with your child and eating potatoes and laughing at the cat. There is another French phrase, “le petit bonheur”, which I think might mean the same thing. I love rain falling on the window, and I love clotheslines hung with fresh-washed towels flapping over the back lane. These, to me, are perfect happiness. There is a part near the end of Annabel where Wayne looks at things like this from his seat on the train: shovels left against fences, tumbledown trellises at the backs of towns, coffeepots left on balconies.

Besides having a talent for writing, what other talent(s) would you like to have and why? I would like to have developed my musical abilities more. As it is, I have taken voice lessons and sung in choirs, and some of my observations in those places have helped me write about what happens to Wally Michelin, Wayne’s soulmate, in Annabel. While I think I can express a lot of the beauty and sadness and humour of life through writing, I don’t think any art can do this as well as music can. I do compose some songs, but this is an amateur hobby since I do not write music in a literate way and I do it mostly in the house and no one hears the songs outside my family.

Do you have any favourite writers? Who are they and why are they favourites? I love Roald Dahl and E.M.Forster. What I love about Dahl is his unadorned and sometimes shocking truth, especially in books intended for young people, who we normally try to protect, but who see through this. Dahl is a breath of fresh air, and his portrayal of brutality and ignorance in the world is exceeded only by his portrayal of compassion and intelligence, and that only by a hair’s breadth. Forster I can sink into as a reader and lose myself in his graceful, impeccable writing, and his depictions of the barricades of class and gender that I find comprise a good part of my own themes.

Who is your favourite hero in fiction? Is there a historical figure that you most identify with? My favourite hero is Valda, who had her own strip in British comics when I was a kid. If Valda ran out of energy, all she had to do was visit her personal source of blue fire. She walked through that fire and emerged re-energized. I have never forgotten her.

If you died and had the chance to come back as anything that you wanted, what would it be and why? It would have to be a bird, a strong bird who can fly great distances over oceans. I would love to be able to fly to India with my own wings, or to crack sea urchins open on the rocks and suck out their pale orange roe with my beak.

GIVEAWAY:  I have ONE copy of Annabel available courtesy of the wonderful people at House of Anansi.

Giveaway will end on JULY 16, 2010 !

Leave a comment as to why this book intrigues you, make sure when posting your comment, you use a valid email address while posting so that I may contact you if you have been chosen.

Canadian and US  entries only please and no post office boxes !

Good Luck !

Q and A with Mary Sharratt

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Please welcome Mary to Serendipitous Readings, and my sincere apologies for posting this late, Laptop since Sunday has had a mind of its own.

In Daughters of the Witching Hill you tackle a pretty gruesome historical event that actually occurred.  What was it that interested you in the Pendle Witch Trials that made you want to write about it? – In 2002, I moved to the Pendle region of Lancashire, England—the rugged Pennine landscape that borders the West Yorkshire Dales. Pendle Hill is steeped in its legends of the Lancashire Witches. Everywhere you go in the surrounding countryside, you see images of witches: on buses, pubs signs, road signs, bumperstickers. Visiting American friends found this all quite unnerving. “Mary, why are there witches everywhere?” they’d ask me.
In the beginning, I made the mistake of thinking that these witches belonged to the realm of fairy tale and folklore, but no. They were real people.

In 1612, in one of the most meticulously documented trials in English history, seven women and two men from Pendle Forest were hanged as witches, condemned on “evidence” provided by a nine-year-old girl and her brother, who appeared to suffer from learning difficulties.

What really hooked me on this particular witch trial is that two of the accused, Mother Demdike and Mother Chattox, had established reputations as cunning women. During the interrogations they made no attempt to deny their perceived powers. They gave every indication of being proud of their craft.

Was there something about the strong women that you found in your research that made you want to be back in that time to experience what they were going through and how they accomplished what they did? – Yes, most definitely.

Mother Demdike, called Bess in my novel, had the most infamous reputation. According to the primary sources, she was the ringleader, the one who initiated the others into witchcraft. Demdike was so frightening to her foes because she was a woman who embraced her powers wholeheartedly. This is how Court Clerk Thomas Potts describes her in The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, his account of the 1612 trials: – “She was a very old woman, about the age of Foure-score yeares, and had been a Witch for fiftie yeares. Shee dwelt in the Forrest of Pendle, a vast place, fitte for her profession: What shee committed in her time, no man knowes. . . . Shee was a generall agent for the Devill in all these partes: no man escaped her, or her Furies. ”

Not bad for an eighty-year-old lady! Reading the trial transcripts against the grain, I was amazed at how her strength of character blazed forth in the document written expressly to vilify her.

Mother Demdike freely admitted to being a healer and a cunning woman. Her neighbours called on her to cure their children and their cattle. What fascinated me was not that she was arrested and imprisoned but that the authorities only turned on her near the end of her long, productive life.

So much has been written about her and the other accused witches. In writing this book, I wanted to travel back in time with Mother Demdike and give the story back to her. I wanted to let her tell her story in her own words.

It was certainly a difficult time in the 17th century when all of these witch hunts were going on in Europe and North America as well.  Was there an actual consensus that there actually were witches in the midst or was it just something that got carried away with? – During the times of active, ongoing persecution, the authorities indeed appeared convinced that witches were real agents of evil in their community and that they had to be stopped. Yet even in the times of persecution there were skeptics, such as Reginald Scot, whose book, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), argued that most accused witches were just harmless old women and persecuting them was unchristian.

Scot was pitted against alarmists such as King James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, whose book Daemonologie (1597), argued that a vast conspiracy of satanic witches was threatening to undermine the nation. In 1590 James personally oversaw the trials by torture for around seventy individuals implicated in the North Berwick Witch Trials, the biggest Scotland had known. The witches’ alleged crime? Raising a storm which nearly sank James’ ship when he sailed home from Norway with his new bride, Anne of Denmark. Possibly dozens were executed by burning at the stake, although the precise number is unknown.

When James ascended to the English throne in 1603, he ordered all copies of Reginald Scot’s book to be destroyed.

What is it you most dislike? – There are so many misperceptions about historical witchcraft. For example, there’s the cliché that witchcraft persecutions were a phenomenon of medieval superstition and that is simply not true. The European witch hunts, spanning from around 1450 and tapering off around 1700, were a phenomenon of the Renaissance and the Reformation.

What talent besides writing would you like to do and why? – I’m a passionate horsewoman. I only started taking riding lessons in my late thirties, then I bought my own horse, a beautiful Welsh mare, about two years ago. When I’m not writing, I’m usually riding.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? – I wish I could be taller and have really long legs like a top equestrian!

What do you consider your greatest achievement? – What I hope to achieve in my writing is to give voice to the voiceless. To give the people in history who were silenced and disempowered their voices back so that they can tell their stories. If readers are as touched by Mother Demdike’s story as I am, I’d consider that a huge achievement.

What is your idea of perfect Happiness? – Riding my horse up Pendle Hill on a beautiful spring day.

Who are your favourite authors? Why? – I love how Louise Erdrich evokes an entire landscape and community of interrelated people, book after book. And I love the way Sarah Dunant pours her considerable research skills into her historical fiction, completely challenging our (mis)perceptions of the time and place she is writing about.

Who are your heroes in real life? – The story-tellers, writers, and historians who keep the old ways alive and who serve the memory of those long silenced.

Q and A with Catherine Gildiner

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Back in February, I had the pleasure to read and review Catherine’s 2nd part of her  memoirs After The Falls.  This is the Q and A I did with her around the same time.  My apologies for posting it so late on the blog.

I see in the author’s note that you have taken care to protect the privacy of the people you have written about though I expect many of them see themselves on the page. Are there incidents where people have objected to the way their loves have been portrayed? - I have changed the names of the people in the book and I have also changed some locations and dates. (BTW you made a Freudian slip in your question and said “loves” instead of “lives”– Freud says there are no accidents in Vienna!) I have no idea how people will react to reading about themselves. I guess I’ll know when the book comes out next fall in America through Penguin. It came out first in Canada.

Has there been any fallout from any of the people that Catherine wrote about? (Thinking of Skip, Jeff and Valerie) Did she have to get releases/permission from everyone? – I didn’t have to get any permission. I have tried to be true to the memory of my life and the people in it. Memory is not infallible. Just think of your own life and how your memory differs from your friends or relatives. I don’t expect everyone to remember things in the same way that I have. We all have a different perspective.

What was it that made you go and do the psychologist route and not follow in your mother’s footsteps and become a teacher? – My mother was only a teacher for a day. She said she had no idea she would “have to teach children.” Hardly a role model for teaching. If you have read my first memoir TOO CLOSE TO THE FALLS you will remember the chapter where I was sent to the psychiatrist, appropriately named Dr. Small. (I stabbed a bully at school with a compass) I liked the look of his job even at the age of seven. I also have always been interested in what makes people tick. When I worked in the drug store and delivered medicine I was fascinated by how we could all be from the same society and behave so differently.

Was what you experienced in the ’60′s moulded on how you feel and conduct your everyday life now, what has changed, what hasn’t? – That is an interesting question. I am pretty much the same person. I still participate in sports (rowing team) but I am no longer active in politics. Just like my mother, I never cook or sew or do much domestic activity. I still read a lot, and am very active. I am probably more ‘well adjusted’ now only because of the feminist movement. It actually ‘normalized’ my behaviour. I can work, not do housework, be assertive and I am much more acceptable to others. As a boy, or man, said to me at my high school reunion last year, “boy Cathy you are lucky that it is fifty years later and you are right in style now”.

When and where you the happiest? – Probably when I was a small child working in my father’s store at Christmas time with Roy the delivery car driver. We all worked together late every night delivering prescriptions and I felt like we were on a team. I didn’t have any of the complications of adult worries about romance and a career.

What is your greatest regret? – I regret being unkind to my father when I was a teenager. Before I had a chance to outgrow my adolescent rebellion he died and I had spent his last years shutting him out of my life.

What talent besides writing would you want to have and why? – I have lots of ‘talents’– more than I need. (Bright, athletic, witty–obviously not modesty) What I would like to have had is patience and more kindness. Those are probably not talents but virtues. Regardless of what they are called I could do with more of each.

Did you ever find out the reason why the FBI questioned you about the death of Splits? – I never found out directly why but I assume it was because he was involved in drugs and more importantly he and Laurie were involved in the Black Power movement– ultimately the black panthers and the FBI was committed to breaking it up. I had been seen with Splits and Laurie, both of whom had been under investigation for a long time.

In your private practice, do you have a specialty? Do you speak to whoever needs help, or are you specific in whom and what you treat? – I am no longer in private practice. I left it four years ago to write full time. I figured 25 years was long enough. I specialized in anxiety; however I saw all kinds of clients — ‘garden variety neurotic.’

Do you think that the ’60′s changed the world we now live in? What was the most prolific moment of your life living in the 60′s? – Yes I think the 60′s changed the world. Look at the civil rights legislation, and the human rights legislation, the pill, and the feminist movement. They all changed how we think about race, women and independence, marriage and role women play in society. I had many great moments in the 60′s. Most of them came from working with others for social change. I remember clapping when Johnson passed the civil Rights legislation in 1968.

Do you keep in touch with some or most of the friends you had made while living in Buffalo? – I keep in close touch with lots of people from high school. I am still friends with the ‘wild girls’ and the ‘goody-two-shoes-girls. Strangely enough I am in close contact with a bunch of boys in my class that I skied with and went to Brunner’s with. We have a reunion every year in some state of the union and some of them have been to Canada to visit. I am in constant contact with the friend Leora in the book. She is still one of my closest friends and we e mail almost daily and talk on the phone at least once a week. It is a rare opportunity to have friends for 50 years– especially when I have lived outside of the country.

Whatever happened to your one friend’s brother that brought that girl down into the basement in the middle of a meeting? Did anything come of that while you and your friend were hiding? – I am not following the question. The chapter describes what happened while we were in the closet. If you are asking did anyone ever find out we were in the closet the answer is no. If you are asking what happened to that boy that brought the girl downstairs — the answer is I have no idea.

I know that in your forward that you mention that you had this uncontrollable desire to write down your memoirs. What was one of the reasons you had it published? – I had it published because I am a writer and that is what writers do. We publish our work. I wrote the book because after I wrote TOO CLOSE TO THE FALLS I had hundreds of people write me and ask, ‘what happened next?’ I figured if people were interested in the story I should probably write it. I wrote another book in between my two volumes of memoirs called SEDUCTION which is a mystery novel about Darwin and Freud. Then I returned to the memoir. I am now writing a third memoir which takes me up to age 25 and it covers my life in England and Toronto.

Q and A with Danielle Trussoni

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As you know, Danielle’s book Angelology has been hitting just about every best-selling list when it published.  I had a chance to talk to her about the book, and herself.  So, a heartfelt thank you to Danielle for taking the time out of her busy schedule to answer my questions.  My review is here.

What was it that you wanted to convey in your latest book Angelology? – I WANTED TO WEAVE TOGETHER AN ENGROSSING STORY WITH A NUMBER OF HIGHLY RESEARCHED HISTORICAL SETTINGS. I WAS HOPING TO FIND A WAY TO MAKE A COMPLETELY NEW AND UNIQUE IMAGINARY WORLD THAT READERS COULD WHOLLY BELIEVE IN AND BECOME LOST IN.

Are you currently writing the sequel to Angelology?  Do you have an idea of when it will be published? – YES, I’M CURRENTLY WRITING ANGELOPOLIS, THE SEQUEL TO ANGELOLOGY THAT FOLLOWS EVANGELINE AND VERLAIN (THE HEROINE AND HERO FROM THE FIRST BOOK). I BELIEVE IT WILL BE OUT IN 2012.

I was curious, what was the reason behind combining the 2 different time periods instead of doing one book about the time in the 1940’s and a separate book in the present?  Was it easier in a sense to plot it out? – I WANTED TO HAVE MANY DIFFERENT LOCATIONS AND TIME PERIODS WOVEN INTO ONE GREAT BIG NOVEL. I WAS GOING FOR A SWEEPING, EPIC EXPERIENCE, WHERE READERS WOULD FIND THEMSELVES TRAVELING ALL OVER THE WORLD AND MEETING CHARACTERS FROM DIFFERENT HISTORICAL PERIODS. ONE PART OF THE BOOK IS IN 1940′s FRANCE, ANOTHER IN 10TH CENTURY BULGARIA ANOTHER IN CONTEMPORARY NEW YORK CITY. THE BOOK ALLOWS READERS TO TAKE A JOURNEY.

Did you have any say about that absolutely gorgeous cover?  Was there any stipulations that you absolutely had to have, or did you leave it in the hands of the professionals? – I LOVE THE COVER! THE PHOTOGRAPHER/ARTIST JEFF BARK TOOK THE PHOTOGRAPH. IT IS AN ACTUAL MALE MODEL POSING WITH WINGS. THE ONLY THING I DID NOT WANT ON THE COVER WAS A SWEET GOLDEN CHERUB FLOATING IN A CERULEAN SKY.

You had previously published memoirs, what was the reason for the change? - I WANTED TO WRITE SOMETHING AS FAR AWAY FROM MY FIRST BOOK FALLING THROUGH THE EARTH AS POSSIBLE, AND SO I DECIDED TO ALLOW MY IMAGINATION TO SIMPLY TRANSPORT ME WHERE IT WOULD. ANGELOLOGY WAS THE RESULT.

Which Historical Figure do you most identify with? – I LOVE THE WRITER COLETTE. ALSO, COCO CHANEL.

What do you consider your greatest achievement? – MAINTAINING MY CAREER AS A WRITER WHILE RAISING TWO BEAUTIFUL KIDS–MY SON, ALEX, AND MY DAUGHTER NICO.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? – IF I COULD CAPTURE PURE HAPPINESS IN A SINGLE MOMENT IT WOULD BE OF SITTING IN A PURE WHITE ROOM, A VASE OF YELLOW TULIPS NEAR A WINDOW, JUST BEFORE SOMEONE I LOVE IS RINGING THE DOORBELL.

What would be the trait you most deplore in others? – IT USED TO BE LAZINESS, ALTHOUGH NOW I’M FINDING SOMETHING WORTHWHILE IN BEING LAZY. NOW I THINK IT IS POSSESSIVENESS.

Which talent besides writing would you most like to have and why? – I’D LIKE TO SING IN A BAND.

Who are your favourite writers? – I LOVE  NABOKOV AND WILKIE COLLINS AND COLETTE.

What do you regard and the lowest depth of misery? – I HAVE A GOOD ENOUGH IMAGINATION TO REALIZE THAT MISERY CAN ALWAYS GO A NOTCH LOWER. I KNOW THAT I HAVEN’T BEEN TO THAT POINT.

BookLounge.ca has a contest going right now where you can win a signed copy of Angelology – ENTER HERE GOOD LUCK!!

Q and A with Author Pam Jenoff

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Please help me welcome Pam to Serendipitous Readings!

What do you consider your greatest achievement? Besides Writing? My one year old son, Benjamin.


What do you most value in your friends? Loyalty.  Sounds cliché but I only have a very small circle of family and close friends.  I call them “The Kidney Club” because those are the people to whom I would donate a kidney or vice versa, and to me the world is divided into them and everyone else.

A close second is non-judgment.  I have a friend, and she knows who she is, who I could call and say “I want to rappel off of the Empire State building.” She would say “What time should I be there and how much rope should I bring?” instead of trying to talk me out of it.  Now that’s a friend.

What is it that you most dislike?

That’s such a broad question; I’m not sure how to answer.  I don’t think I’m terribly fussy (though some who know me would surely disagree) or that there’s much I dislike.  Least favorite chore is vacuuming, if that counts.  I once picked up a fairly new vacuum and it broke into a half-dozen pieces.  I decided then and there I wasn’t meant to vacuum, and I don’t think I have since.

What is your greatest fear? I don’t know; I have so many.  Bad things happening to a loved one tops the list.  But beyond that I’m afraid of flying, fire, lightning, drowning, etc., etc.  Kind of a wimp that way.

What is the trait you most deplore in others? Pretentiousness.  I think it’s a sign of insecurity to have to show off wealth or prestige or accomplishment.  I also dislike narrow-mindedness, and I love thinking there’s more out there in the world than what I know.

What is the conclusion about past events coming to haunt us in present-day, do you think that the people who made those decisions making such choices would have guessed at how they will change the future?

I think very few people except for the greatest of leaders really think in terms of implications for the distant future, and even fewer have the courage to make decisions based on those long-term effects.
Who are your favourite writers living or dead, and who out of all of the would you want to meet and why?

There are so many! But to name a few: Tracy Chevalier (Girl With A Pearl Earring), Anita Shreve (The Pilot’s Wife), Pat Conroy (Beach Music), Anne Tyler (The Amateur Marriage), Laura Lippman (What the Dead Know), Kate Atkinson (Case Histories),and Barbara Kingsolver (The Poisonwood Bible).  Children’s books are still my favorites and I think that children’s authors – Judy Blume, Paula Danziger, Beverly Cleary and the like – are deities! But one series – the Betsy/Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace (about a young girl in Minnesota at the turn of the 20th century) stands out. I also read a lot of children’s Holocaust literature – I Am Rosemarie by Marietta Moskin and The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig were memorable.

And if I can pick a character instead of an author, I’d like to meet Jo from Little Women.  I want to shake her and ask why she didn’t stay with Laurie when she had the chance!

Who is your favourite hero of fiction? Okay, I’m going to be really obnoxious here and say it’s a tie between two of my own characters:  Emma from The Kommandant’s Girl and Marta, her best friend and heroine of The Diplomat’s Wife.  Emma was so brave when faced with harrowing circumstances during the Holocaust; I know I never could have been so strong in her position.  And Marta, who seemed so immature and judgmental in The Kommandant’s Girl, really came into her own when faced with her own dangerous Cold War circumstances.
Which historical figure do you most identify with? I’m not sure there’s one in particular, but recently I read Girl in Hyacinth Blue and it portrayed how the painter Vermeer felt a tension between doing the work he wanted creatively and pressure to work at a faster speed in order to earn a living.  The theme, at time, has resonated with me.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I’d be taller or maybe able to sing.

Such great answers ! Thank you so much Jen for doing this, I enjoyed it, I hope the readers do as well.

Q and A with Author Elizabeth Noble

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I would like to take this time to welcome Elizabeth to Serendipitous Readings! I hope you enjoy the Q and A I recently got to do with her.

What was it about the premise of the story that you wanted to get across in the book? I moved to New York in the summer of 2006, and was immediately captivated by the idea of all these interesting people from everywhere, living all on top of each other on this tiny island – the idea that behind every single door, there was a story…

With you living in New York, is there a eclectic vibe to the city? I can’t imagine anywhere more eclectic than New York.


What do you value most in your friends? Loyalty, humor, and the fact that they know me well and love me anyway.

What talent would you most want to have besides writing? I wish I could run.  I really can’t.  Not even for the bus.  Sing, play piano…I could be here a while.

What is your greatest extravagance? Shoes and handbags.  They always come in my size.

When and where you the most happiest? When my babies were born.  Happiest, tiredest, messiest.  But mostly happiest.

If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? A faster metabolism.

Who are your favourite writers and why? Anita Shreve and Armistead Maupin.  For their craftmanship with words and plot, and for their endless ability to move me.

What would be the one quality you would like in either sex? I’d like for men to be less ‘fix it’ orientated.  Sometimes we just want to vent and have you listen.  And for women, to care less, sometimes, about what other women think.

What would be your greatest regret? I only regret the things I wasn’t brave enough to do when I was younger.  I intend to spend middle age doing them all – I just won’t look as good doing them…

You can visit Elizabeth’s Website here

My review of The Girl Next Door

Q and A with Author Catherine McKenzie

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Without further ado, I give you Catherine McKenzie who is the Author of SPIN published by HarperCollins.  Thank you Catherine for doing this and giving such great answers !

Who are your favourite heroes in real life? I don’t really believe in heroes. Not in the large sense. I do think there are everyday acts of heroism all the time, and that people can be heroes in their own lives. But we shouldn’t look to others for examples of what we should be and do; certainly not to celebrities. There are people I admire, but I wouldn’t call them heroes – that seems to imply some kind of perfection or flawlessness, and no one is perfect.

Who are your favourite authors and why? I do believe in favourite authors. Mine include Jane Austen (of course), Nick Hornby, James Frey and my current favourite, Andre Agassi (read Open, it’s awesome). Why? Because they’ve all written books I can’t stop talking about. Books I’ve finished so fast that when I get to the last page I start over again because I don’t want my time with them to be over. If I’m telling you to read a book – this happens about once a year, and I read a lot – then that book has made a lasting impression in my life. The reason is different for each of them, but the effect is the same. Awe.

What is it you most dislike? Peanut butter. Seriously. I hate it.

When writing “Spin” what was your basis for putting it in a recovery standpoint? I started Spin from a premise that required it, or at least part of it, to be set in recovery. When I started writing Spin, I thought I’d spend a lot less time in rehab – there was this whole thing that was supposed to take place in Vegas. But the more time I spent with the characters, Katie especially, the more necessary it seemed to give the recovery part of the book its proper space. I didn’t want to gloss over her changes with a soundtrack – I wanted the reader to see her change.

What was it that made you want to pursue writing when already having a career as a lawyer/profession in law? Insanity. Hubris. My type A, overachiever personality? Probably a combination of all three. I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer and I’ve always written (poetry mostly). Then, there was a long period of time when studying and then practicing law took up all my energy. Starting to write again was part of finding a balance between my very cerebral job and the creative part of me. I didn’t start doing it with any plan to get published, but once I had a couple of books under my belt, the traits described above kicked in and I was just crazy/egotistical enough to think I should get a book deal.

What is your present state of mind? Happy. Apprehensive. Nervous. Hopeful. Depends on what time of day you catch me.

What do you regard as your lowest depth of misery? Can’t answer that one, sorry. Too private.

What qualities do you most admire in people? In yourself? I admire people who don’t just talk, they do. I try not to admire myself, but I don’t always succeed.

Besides having a talent for writing, what other talent would you most like to have and why? I’d love to be a great singer-songwriter. Being able to really fuse my love of writing and music would be great. Alas, alas.

When do you feel most indulgent? When I spend the weekend watching several seasons of a TV show on DVD. Unfortunately, this happens often.

Thanks so much for the great questions, and giving me a chance to “speak” to your readers. Hope you enjoy the book!

I also have ONE copy of SPIN to giveaway to one lucky Canadian

Read my Review of SPIN


Browse Inside this book

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Q and A with Author Becca Fitzpatrick

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You may have read my review of Hush, Hush that I had written a while ago.  During that time I had contacted Becca with doing one of my Q and A’s with her, but since her schedule was so busy this was the only time she was able to do it.  So, a huge thank you to Becca for doing this during such a busy time.  I hope you enjoy her answers, I did.

  • What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Beauty.
  • Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Okay, this is really funny. Just a little while ago, my editor mentioned to me that I use the word “window” a bajillion times in HUSH, HUSH. Who would have thought? Apparently I really like windows. My editor thought there was some deeper meaning to all the windows, but I swear, I’m not that philosophical or deep!
  • What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? I was about to say loneliness, but changed my mind to feeling despised. I’m not sure how my quality of life would be if I felt the world hated me, but I’m guessing pretty darn low.
  • What is it that you most dislike? This is a tough question. My answer is always going to depend on my mood. My biggest pet peeve is when I walk into a large, empty public restroom, say at the library, and the person who walks in behind me takes the stall directly next to mine. GARAH! I mean, there are ten other available stalls, and they have to plunk down right beside me? It’s just…weird.
  • Which talent would you most like to have besides writing? Dancing. I love the show So You Think You Can Dance. Man, it would be awesome to move like that, to express myself that way.
  • When writing your current novel, what was it that you wanted to convey most about the story, characters? In HUSH, HUSH, I really wanted to convey the power of physical attraction, but I wonder if I did a very good job. I say that, because I get a lot of people asking why I never went deeper with Patch and Nora, writing about their “undying love” for each other. Honestly, I don’t think they’re to that point. HUSH, HUSH was more of an “I see you, I like what I see, but I’m not sure I should” type of story. Whether they develop a deeper love is yet to be seen…
  • What was it about writing that made you want to pursue it full time and not work in the health care field as you wrote? Easy. I loved writing! Please don’t tell my mom I said this, but the only reason I graduated in Health was because it was blissfully, wonderfully low in credits. I bounced around a lot in college, trying to decide what to major in, but nothing stuck. By my junior year, I knew I was getting dangerously down to the wire. So I did a search for majors with low credit requirements. Health happened to be one. Probably, English was too, but it never occurred to me to major in English.
  • If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be? A really good book!
  • Who are your favourite writers? Laurie Halse Anderson, Diana Gabaldon, Sandra Brown, L.M. Montgomery, Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, Sue Grafton, Laurie R. King, Richelle Mead.
  • What is your one principle defect? Oh, wow, I have a lot of defects and even more flaws. If I’m being completely honest with myself, my biggest defect is probably my resistance to change. I’m a creature of habit, which would be fine, if my habits were actually good!

Becca’s Website

Hush Hush Website

Q and A with Author Thad Carhart

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author_thad_carhartA great big Thank you to Thad Carhart for taking time of his busy schedule to be able to answer a few questions!

  • What was it that made you pursuing a degree in Anthropology? and then turn it into books? – I initially decided to study anthropology because of my interest in language and linguistics. Soon, however, I became interested in social and cultural anthropology, and studied the multiple myths and stories that native peoples of the American southwest generate, transmit, and periodically renew. This fascination with the importance of story-telling, along with my enjoyment of the history of the American West, gave me a strong motivation to use that experience in creating my own narrative using themes of cultural overlap as a thread.
  • What is your current state of mind? – It’s fair to say that my current state of mind is one of “watchful waiting”. Since my new book, ACROSS THE ENDLESS RIVER, has just been published in the U.S., I feel like a parent with a newborn, and some of those same  emotions cycle through my system: pride, relief, concern, anticipation, and an abiding affection for my characters and their story that is close to love.
  • What or who is the greatest love of your life? – It’s the pat answer, of course, but in my case I’m lucky enough that it’s true: my wife.
  • What is your motto if you have one? – Carpe diem — Seize the day.
  • Who inspired you most in your pursuit of writing? – A friend and very fine writer, Alberto Manguel, encouraged me at the outset when I was first writing about my experiences in Paris. Those accounts eventually became the heart of my first book, THE PIANO SHOP ON THE LEFT BANK, and Alberto showed me the importance of multiple re-writes, careful research, and  unflagging persistence.
  • Who are your favourite authors? And why? – I’ve always loved Marguerite Yourcenar’s work. Her “Mémoires d’Hadrien” is one of the finest pieces of historical fiction I know, a complete and compelling recreation of the world of the Roman Empire as seen through  the eyes of one of its chief actors. I recently reread Anna Karenina in the new English translation, and it opened my eyes all over again to Tolstoy’s genius. The sense of place he creates, and the underlying mood of his characters that he suggests with an economy of means, is enthralling. I learn more about the writer’s craft from ten good pages of his than I do from many other entire books. It also reminded me how dependent we are on our translators for sensitive and resonant versions of many of the greatest books.
  • If you were to die and come back as anything you would like what would it be? – I don’t subscribe to the notion of literal reincarnation — it troubles me to think that any one of us might reappear as a cockroach! But if I had to make another lap under another form, I’d want to have wings. And no flightless birds, please. A stormy petrel, say, soaring for weeks at a time over the limitless ocean (but a seafood diet would definitely get old fast…)
  • What is it about the topics that you talk about in your books that intrigued you to write about them? – The whole idea of living at the intersection of languages and cultures has always fascinated me, probably because I moved a lot as a child, and had lived in both France and Japan by the time I was a teenager. We all have to figure out for ourselves how we’ll fit in to the world we grow into as children, but when that involves different languages and social codes form the one’s we initially knew, then things become more complicated… and, potentially, more interesting. How do you figure out the code of appropriate behavior? What compromises are you willing to make? Can you combine aspects of two or more worlds and make sense of your way forward? What path, between two languages and cultures, can you fashion for yourself? These are all questions that continue to interest me, and that have an increasing resonance in today’s world.
  • What do you consider your greatest achievement? – Like most writers, I think, I feel as if my greatest achievement is the last thing I’ve written, in my case, my new novel ACROSS THE ENDLESS RIVER. It will of course have a life of its own, but right at the moment of publication, it’s difficult to let go. But I’ve already started my next book, and I expect that to be my next  “greatest achievement.”
  • Is there one period among your education as an anthropologist and now that you see as your favourite and why? – My time as a student when I studied the tribal peoples of the North American Great Plains was a favorite, both for the richness and variety of the tribal lore, but also for the opportunity to visit the American West. It is one of the world’s great landscapes, and one of the saddest in many ways, now that the great herds and the nomadic peoples who followed them are almost gone. But its power continues to inspire me, and I was very happy to research the parts of ACROSS THE ENDLESS RIVER the dealt with the American frontier in the 1820s.

Q and A with Author Julie Buxbaum

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julie-buxbaumWith great pleasure, I had the great opportunity to talk to Julie on her latest book After You, about the upcoming movie based on her book The Opposite of Love, and what she is working on now.  So have fun reading. Thank you Julie for taking the time out of your schedule to answer my questions, a delight.

  • Which person living or dead do  you most admire and why? – Wow, I need to pick just one?  I guess I’ll go the personal route:  I’ve always admired my maternal grandmother, who unfortunately passed away about a decade ago.  She went to college at a time when few women did, worked during a time when few woman did (even though she didn’t have to), and was just an all around amazing person.  I have a collection of her writings–she published poems and stories in the twenties–and that scrapbook is by far my most prized possession.  She taught me to love books.  If it hadn’t been for her, I don’t know that I would have ended up a writer.
  • Which talent would you most like to have besides writing? – I would love to be able to draw.  I find that I am not a terribly visual thinker, and have absolutely no sense of design.  It’s amazing to me that I can get dressed in the morning.
  • Who are your favourite writers? – There are so many.  Both Richard Powers and Marilynne Robinson are writers who continually inspire and wow me.  Although it’s cliche, I do love to sit down with a Jane Austen novel at least once a year.  Really enjoy Martin Amis.  Sometimes, on a Sunday afternoon, I like nothing more than to curl up with Anna Quindlen’s latest or Elizabeth Berg.
  • Who are your heroes in real life? – This is a tough one.  Hero is such a strong word, and I find that the more you dig too deeply into anyone’s life, it becomes clear they too are flawed and human.  I guess there are a ton of people whom I admire, but not sure if I have any heroes.  I hope that doesn’t sound too cynical.
  • What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? – There is nothing sadder than feeling unloved, which is a very unique form of loneliness or emptiness or maybe purposelessness.  Fortunately, I haven’t felt that way that often, but to me it’s the lowest depth of misery.
  • When you wrote The Opposite of Love and it was accepted for publication, what was the first thing you did? – My husband (then boyfriend) took me out to dinner around the corner from our apartment, and we spent the whole meal just staring at each other.  I was completely overwhelmed.  I think for the first time in my life I was actually speechless.
  • Did you have any say as to the script for The Opposite of Love, the people who would be portraying the different characters? – I’ve chosen not to be part of the screenwriting for The Opposite of Love.  Film is such a different medium, and one in which I have no experience; I thought it would be better to leave it to the professionals. That being said, I can’t wait to see what they do with the book.  Anne Hathaway has been cast as the leading role of Emily, which I think is an inspired choice.  She is absolutely perfect for the role.
  • When writing do you take aspects from your real life and incorporate them into the book you are currently writing? – I never directly borrow from aspects of my real life and incorporate them into my books, but the subconscious works in mysterious ways.  With AFTER YOU, I was suddenly interested in looking at how well we really know the people we love.  As a result, I created my main character, Ellie, who gets this unique opportunity to step into the life of her best friend and see behind that opaque curtain.  Only later, on reflection, do I realize I was so consumed by this theme, because of what was going on in my own life at the time.  My husband and I had just gotten engaged, a very natural time to start asking those sorts of questions.
  • What was it about writing that you try to convey to whomever is reading your work, and why? - In AFTER YOU, I very much wanted the reader to see novels as a form of therapy.  Both Ellie and Sophie–who are suffering from an immense loss–turn to the children’s classic, THE SECRET GARDEN, to deal with their grief.  For those of us who are real readers, there is no better form of escape and healing than a good book.
  • Do you have any other projects that you are working on now, that you would like to tell us about? – I am currently working on my third novel, but unfortunately not quite ready to talk about it.  I’m one of those superstitious writers who feels like sharing an idea before it’s fully formed will somehow jinx the process.  Crazy, I know.

Julie’s Website

Penguin

Q and A with Author Julia Amante

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juliaA huge thank you goes out to Julia who took the time out her busy schedule to be able to answer my questions.  I hope you enjoy !

  • Which talent would you most like to have besides writing or teaching ? I’d like to be really smart.  I’m always so impressed with fabulous surgeons who save people’s lives or scientist who discover awesome medicines or can solve complex mathematical formulas.  Having always been on the humanities side of life, it would be fun to use the other half of my brain : )
  • If you were to die and choose to come back as, what would it be and why? I’m assuming you mean a non-human.  I sort of believe we all DO choose to come to earth exactly as the person we are, with the family we have.  I don’t believe the same about animals.  I guess I’d pick a dog living in a good family.  Dogs have it made.  They eat, sleep, play, get back rubs and belly rubs – what a life!  They don’t have to worry about other animals eating them either so that’s a big advantage.  Did you see Disney’s Earth?  I felt so bad for those animals in the wild.  Anyhow, I dog.  Why not?
  • What historical figure would you most identify with? How about good ‘ole Abe Lincoln.  He was determined and hung on when things got tough.  He also loved education.  I like to think that I have those qualities.  And Walt Disney – he was a positive guy that thought about bringing happiness to others.
  • What do you most value in your friends? Honesty.  I have wonderful friends, each with their own quirks that I love, but I couldn’t be friends with someone I didn’t trust completely.  As long as someone is honest with you, you can get past anything else.
  • What is it about the Argentine experience do you think you missed the most while being more American then Argentine? I definitely missed the connection to family.  We were basically all alone in America.  No extended family.  No cousins to play with, no family get togethers on the weekends, no grandparents to spoil us (me and my brother).  I really missed that.  When I finally got a chance to visit Argentina for an extended period of time and realized how wonderful it was to have a family, I missed it even more.  We’ve always had friends, but to me growing up, it wasn’t the same.  I also realized when I was in Argentina how much fun people have.  They go out dancing, play cards, sit in the front yard and chat with neighbors.  Here, at least in California, life is always so rushed and the little things like getting to know the neighbors just doesn’t happen.
  • What was it about the differences in relationships between the older generation vs. the younger generation make it a point of discussion in the book? Well, Im not sure if it’s a generational thing as much as a cultural thing that causes problems for the characters.  I think anytime people come from another country, they bring with them their customs and beliefs that will probably be different than they are here in America.  So, immediately, there’s going to be a clash between them and their children who are raised in America.  In my story, the parents believe that children stay with their parents until they get married.  They weren’t happy about their children leaving home to pursue their goals.  They also valued traditions like eating as a family on Sundays.  Their children do so to please their parents.  Also men and women living together without being married is frowned upon by the older Argentine generation, while the American children don’t think it’s a big deal.  I found that in my own family, my father had a very difficult time accepting simple American ideas like sleep overs for teenagers or going to high school football games unsupervised.  Some of it had to do with him being from Argentina, but also, yes, a generational thing.
  • What would be one of your greatest regrets? I used to say that I never have regrets – that everything I’ve done was the best I could have done at that time and there’s no point in having regrets.  But the longer I live, the more I realize that I do have some regrets, and things I would do differently.  One of the things that I think I’ll regret in the future is not taking my mother to Spain.  Her father was from Spain and she told me when I was a kid that she didn’t want to die without seeing Spain.  I promised that I’d take her.  And the truth is that I don’t know if I ever will.  It’s just so expensive and now that I have my own children, it doesn’t look like it will be possible.  This would be a reaching out to her roots and I know she’d love it.  So, if I’m not able to swing it one day, I know I’ll always wish I could have.
  • You mentioned in a blog talk radio interview that you are going back to university and partially homeschooling your children, what was it that made you want to do both of these things, and which one is the most challenging for you right now in the midst of a book tour? Oh boy, it’s all incredibly difficult right now.  I home school my children, because I was so dissatisfied with the school system and their emphasis on testing.  When I was a teacher I spent way too much class time preparing kids to take a test.  Not doing experiments or building their creativity or learning how to write properly – but learning how to fill in a little circle.  I didn’t want that for my children.  So, I try to give them as much as my attention as I can during the day, and allow them to do as much authentic learning as possible.  But, now especially, with the release of Evenings at the Argentine Club, I find myself resorting to worksheets and “school” learning.  So, I’d have to say home schooling is the most challenging.  My college classes are tough, but at this point I value my kids’ education more than my own, so I worry more about making sure they had a great educational day.  But my husband is a great helper, and so is my mother.  I couldn’t do what I do without them.
  • What would be your greatest idea of happiness? A house full of books?  My book on the best seller list?  Okay, I need to get my mind off books.  Actually, my greatest happiness would be that my kids grow up happy and prepared to achieve whatever they dream of in life.  I’m very goal orientated and I sometimes am very tough on them, but it’s because I want them to have tons of opportunities.  But no matter what they finally decide to do with their lives, if they are happy with themselves and don’t harm themselves or others, I’ll be a happy person.
  • What would be the trait that you most deplore in yourself? I’m a slob.  I have piles of “stuff” everywhere and can’t seem to throw anything away.  With all the things going on in my life, I can never seem to find the time to get really organized.  I have my planner and when I sit down to plan I feel like I’m wasting my time – I could be doing the things I need to do rather than writing about it.  I really don’t like this trait, but I doubt I’ll ever change. I’m also not thrilled with my weight : )

Julia’s Website

What a Treat!

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cathy buchananday the falls stood stillThis afternoon I had the distinct pleasure of being asked to call into the end of a book blogging tour for Cathy Marie Buchanan’s The Day The Falls Stood Still.  Also attended by Author Sandra Gulland who recently wrote Mistress Of The Sun, and the Josephine Trilogy, hard at work at her latest work of historical fiction which is due fairly soon.

There were some fabulous bloggers among myself who attended as well – Marie from The Burton Review, Margaret from Historical Novels, Julie from Booking Mama, Nicole from Linus’ Blanket all came together to chat about Cathy’s book, the end of the blogging tour, gain some more insight into how books are published, getting an agent, the inspiration for writing a specific genre of fiction, and to just connect and have a light discussion about books in general.

Thank you to Cathy, Sandra, Diane and all of the wonderful bloggers who took the time out of their busy schedules to call in and as well as the wonderful guests to come, listen and ask questions.

I feel wonderfully blessed to be a book blogger, and am fortunate that I am able to receive such wonderful books to take me away into another world, experience new things, new places, and adventures.

Listen

My Q and A with Cathy

My review of The Day The Falls Stood Still

Cathy’s Website

Q and A with New Author Cathy M. Buchanan – The Day The Falls Stood Still

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cathy buchanan

Without further ado, I wish to thank Cathy for a most wonderful Q and A, for taking the time out of her busy schedule and welcome her to my blog!

1. What is your most treasured possession?

I’m going to pick the wall of black and white photos I’ve got up at home as my most treasured possession.  Three generations of family history are there─my father looking like a Latino heartthrob in his graduation gown; my mother like a cherub at three; my in-laws pensive and determined in their engagement shot; my husband smirking at five; me hightailing it up a snowy church walkway in my wedding gown; my too tiny, too early eldest son blissfully unaware of the technology and staff monitoring his every breath; my next in line feeding blueberries to his Pops; my baby smiling big in a firefighter’s hat.

2. Who are your heroes in real life?

My mom.  I come from a family of moderate means. My dad was a teacher and my mom stayed at home.  There were five kids.  Still, we had piano and ballet and swimming lessons, outings to theatres and museums and galleries.  There was summer camp and vacations like no one else’s.  By my early teens, I’d seen most every province in Canada, most every state in America.  I’d swum in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.  The seven of us drove in a VW campervan, camping along the way, from Niagara Falls to the tip of Mexico and then on into Belize.  This richness I credit to my mom, to her resourcefulness and sheer will.

3. What is your most marked characteristic?

It could be that I’ll jump into whatever task is at hand, assuming I’ll figure it out.  Examples might include tackling a cardigan as my first knitting project at twelve, sewing my own and all my sisters’ wedding gowns, baking strawberry shortcake for two hundred, designing a cottage, laying a mosaic floor or writing a novel.  I must add, though, that such boldness does not apply to tasks involving spelling (without spell-check), driving, finding my way around or using a PVR.

4. When and where were you happiest?

I hate to be so clichéd, but on the question of happiness, my wedding reception in Niagara-on-the-Lake comes to mind.  It doesn’t get much better than being surrounded by and receiving best wishes from most every person you love in the world.

5. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Perfect happiness generally involves the outdoors and the people I love best─biking the length of the Niagara River with my husband, reaching Lake Garibaldi with my family after a grueling hike, watching my youngest get up on water-skis, running a cottage road with my girlfriends, a glass of red wine in the setting sun among either of my extended families.

6. With you and I both being from the Niagara Region, what was it, or gave you the idea of writing a book based loosely on Niagara Falls?

Niagara lore is endless─the Maid of the Mist and her canoe, Sir Isaac Brock and the War of 1812, Blondin and his tightrope, Annie Taylor and her barrel, William “Red” Hill and his daring rescues, Sir Adam Beck and hydroelectricity, Roger Woodward and the miracle at Niagara…  With such a storied past and the staggering beauty of the falls themselves, setting was where I started.  Not character.   Not plot.  Growing up in Niagara Falls, I don’t think a different setting was ever a possibility.

7. What would be the most outlandish / craziest story that you heard or read about while researching about Niagara Falls, in your book?

In 1920 Charles Stephens went over the falls in a barrel with an anvil as ballast.  To minimize the thrashing he would surely take inside the barrel, he tied his feet to the anvil and strapped his arms to the sides of the barrel.  After his disastrous plunge, only his severed arm was recovered, tattooed with the words “Forget me not, Annie.”  I couldn’t resist including this bit of lore in The Day the Falls Stood Still.

8. What was it that intrigued you most about that time and what was happening in Niagara Falls?

To help me decide on time period, I read books surveying the history of Niagara Falls.  The story of William “Red” Hill, Niagara’s most famous riverman, came up time and again, and with each telling I became more intrigued, more certain my main male characters would be loosely based on him.  The character I came up with was Tom Cole.  Like Tom Cole, Red Hill was born with a caul and had an uncanny knowledge of the river, a knowledge he would pass on to his sons.  It was said that he could predict the weather simply by listening to the roar of the falls, also that he would wake in the night knowing he would find a body tossing in the river the following day.  In his lifetime (1888-1942) he hauled 177 bodies from the river, rescued 29 people, and assisted a handful of stunters.  Red Hill was also a daredevil, shooting the Whirlpool Rapids in a barrel three times, an aspect I would not incorporate into Tom Cole.  His reverence for the river would run too high.

9. What was the first feeling when hearing that you had garnered a lot of buzz about your book? Do you feel like a rock star yet ?

Two days after sending out my manuscript, my agent called with the wonderful news that Ellen Archer and Pamela Dorman at Voice had made a preemptive offer.  Of course, there was screaming and dancing around the office and a hysterical telephone call to my husband.  Then reality set in.  I had twenty minutes to get to the store and buy my son’s pal a birthday gift and get to my son’s school to pick him up.  I glanced from the office window to the driveway.  My husband had taken the car to work.  I set out in boots and a jacket, trudging through mounds of snow.  As I broke into a sweat, it occurred to me that, book deal or not, nothing much had changed.  All these months later I am still mowing the lawn, getting my kids packed up for camp and picking up the dirty socks.  Ten minutes ago, I took a load of garbage to the dump.  Rock star?  I’m not so sure.

10. Which talent (besides writing) would you most like to have and why?

I’m pretty sure my friends and family would say I am an able cook.  But as someone who likes to be creative and who takes great joy in serving a wonderful meal, I’d like to be an excellent cook.  I have a brother-in-law who comes up with unexpected wonders like asparagus in blueberry sauce and a sister-in-law who bakes without recipes.  I watch the two of them in the kitchen with envious eyes.


My review of The Day The Falls Stood Still is here

Q and A with Lisa Tucker, Author of The Promised World

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lisa tuckerPlease help me in welcoming Lisa Tucker to Serendipitous Readings and thank her for allowing me to do a quick Q and A with her on her book promotional tour.  Thanks Lisa!

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? patience

Which words or phrases do you most overuse? “actually” “of course” “very.”  (Of course I’m actually very careful not to.)

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? losing someone you love

What is it that you most dislike? cruelty, especially if the person being cruel believes/claims his or her behavior is entirely justified

Which talent would you most like to have?(Besides Writing) Playing the cello

When writing your current novel, what was it that you wanted to convey most about the story, characters? I don’t think in terms of conveying something while I’m writing the novel.  My only goal is to be faithful to the characters’ voices and to tell their story as honestly as I can.

What was it about mathematics that made you want to pursue a degree in it? In a way, it’s like elegant writing: clean, orderly, beautiful.  It’s the most perfect symbol system we have.  It was such a relief to study mathematics while I was raising a young child, since motherhood is so messy and ambiguous.

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be? If I came back as a person, I hope I could be a writer again.  If I was forced to be a thing, I hope it wouldn’t be orange.  I have an intense dislike of that color.

Who are your favorite writers? Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Toni Morrison, Russell Banks, James Baldwin, Mona Simpson, Larry Brown, and at least a hundred others.  There are so many good writers and good books; I’ll be lucky if I have time to read half the things I want to.

Who are your heroes in real life? I admire all kinds of people: many in my life and many I read about who do wonderful things.  But I don’t think I really have heroes.  I believe all of us have our heroic side; we just have to live up to our best instincts.

Q and A with Mary Jane Clark

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32436On a whim, I had emailed Mary Jane about something and then it occurred to me that I should do a Q and A with her as well. So, here it is and I would like to take this time to thank her and congratulate her on the eve of her latest release of Dying For Mercy.  I have already read it and will post it Friday, so this is just a bit of a teaser for you all to learn something new about Mary Jane , and to learn something new possibly about her books. Enjoy!

  • If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?   Being too sensitive.
  • What do you consider your greatest achievement? Raising my two children.
  • Which historical figure do you most identify with? Jackie Kennedy.
  • If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you  think it would be? I have no idea. Maybe a palm tree?  It gets to spend its days in warm weather and can bend to survive great storms.
  • What is your current state of mind? Determined
  • What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Magnificence.
  • Which talent (besides writing) would you most like to have and why? Dancing, because it brings such joy.
  • What is it that mysteries/ thrillers are so popular? People like the challenge of figuring things out and actually enjoy being scared when they know the threat can’t really hurt them
  • What was the motivation for your latest book Dying for Mercy, was there any special reason why it is about a TV reporter?  All of my books take place in the television news world. DYING FOR MERCY came out of the fact that I wanted to do a book that took place in Tuxedo Park, NY, a wealthy, exclusive and very private community.  I’m fascinated by closed worlds and evil invading places where people think they are safe.
  • Who are your favorite authors, and why? Too hard to decide and too many to list. There are so many that pour their hearts and souls into their writing.  I admire that.

I will be posting my review of Dying For Mercy on Friday, so stay tuned ! Thank You once again Mary Jane for some really great answers.

Q and A with Author Donna Woolfolk Cross

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donna2006Pope JoanThis is my Q and A with Author Donna Woolfolk Cross, who has published Pope Joan, which also coincidentally will be hitting the silver screen in the near future.  So let the fun begin!

  • What do you consider your greatest achievement? Besides Writing? That’s easy.  Hands down:  my daughter Emily (an only child),  a smart, strong, warm and lovely woman.  (Warning:  proud mommy bragging ahead).  She’s also a brilliant veterinarian;  no one can diagnose an animal better than she!  No book I ever write will contribute as much to the world as having brought this wonderful person into it.
  • What do you most value in your friends? Loyalty.  Especially now, when so much is going on with the movie version of Pope Joan.  They know things about the production that are not yet ready for release.  And, bless them, they have maintained a solid front of silence and discretion.
  • What is it that you most dislike? Bugs!  All forms of crawling, flying, slimy insects–yuk!  To paraphrase a line from Mark Twain–surely God’s mind was wandering when he created these!
  • What is your greatest fear? The “One Truth”–a religious conviction so intolerant it leads to the belief that all who do not worship exactly as you do are damned.  This has pitted Catholics against Protestants, Orthodox against Reform Jews, Sunnis against Shiites, Christian crusaders against Muslim Turks, and on and on for time immemorial.   “One Truth” thinking is responsible for many of the most savage and bloody wars in history.  And it is also what drove two planes into the twin towers on 9/11/01.
  • What is the trait you most deplore in others? Unkindness.  The world is tough enough on everyone;  why make it any harder?
  • What made you want to write about a controversial figure such as Pope Joan? She may be controversial, but she is also inspirational!  I had my own daughter in mind as I wrote this story of one woman’s empowerment through learning.   In a time when it was believed that women could not reason,  that it was “unnatural” to teach us anything at all–even to read and write–Joan defied the odds and became renowned  for the brilliance of her mind and the superiority of her learning.  Though Joan’s story is ancient, it is also strangely new–and deeply relevant to the world we live in today.  Witness the ongoing struggle of women in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries for the simple right to go to school.  Sadly, these brave women are opposed by some of the very same arguments used against Joan over one thousand years ago.
  • Who are your favorite writers living or dead, and Who out of all of the would you want to meet and why? An excruciating question, Marci, for there are too many to list them all!  Any list I provide right now is sure to leave out some that I’ll wish I added tomorrow (or even in an hour!)  Off the top of my head:  William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen,  Edith Wharton, Willa Cather,  Mark Twain,  George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Mary Renault, Barbara Tuchman, Cecelia Holland, Gore Vidal, Ken Follett,  (stop me, someone, before I go on forever!  I’m stopping here just because I must stop somewhere). Of all of them, I would want to meet William Shakespeare.  So many questions to ask:  did he write ALL of the plays attributed to him?  Who is the love object of most of the sonnets?  How much did the plays change during production and which of the “folios” does he like the best?   Is his sense of humor as well-developed as it appears?  (for not many jokes are funny 500 years later–yet so many of his still are). Etc.  Of course, it would help if he wouldn’t speak Elizabethan English,  whose pronunciation would be somewhat hard to understand–and vice versa for him with regard to my modern English.  But hey,  if we’re using one miracle to resurrect him, why not one more so he and I can understand each other?
  • Who is your favorite hero of fiction? Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice.  Smart, strong, and sassy (“impertinent” in the language of the day),  she is not as beautiful as her sister Jane.  She charms Darcy not with her looks but with– here it comes again–her mental acuity.  Very similar to my own heroine Joan!
  • Which historical figure do you most identify with? Can’t think of any. Most of the famous women of history were were either heroes or victims.  I am neither.   I’m just a simple writing drudge, doing the best I can like everyone else, and hoping to get out of this world without doing any major harm to it!
  • If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I’d want more patience.  Actually, even SOME patience would be a help!.  I’ve got part one of the “Serenity Prayer” down pat, but not the other two: 1. “God give me the strength to change the things I can…”If  I hadn’t had the strength to change things, then Pope Joan,  abandoned by its first publisher, would have had a shelf life somewhere between lettuce and yogurt!  As this novel was a labor of love (and a labor of over seven years), I couldn’t let that happen.  I realized that if this canoe was going to move, I was going to have to paddle it myself.  So I began chatting by speakerphone with book groups all over the U.S. and Canada 2-3 times a week, every week–in effect creating a “grass roots” form of promotion that has kept my poor orphaned novel in print to this day (though never anywhere near a bestseller list).  2.  “..the patience to accept the things I cannot change…” A complete wipe-out for me.  I just can’t accept things I cannot change–and I have little patience with them. 3.  “…and the wisdom to know the difference.”  Another bust.  Which is why my head is filled with bumps, from banging it so often against brick walls that will never give.

Now, Donna has a really great contest going on right now since her book has been made into a movie and will be hitting the silver screen in the next few months, go to her website to find out more or go to my post about it.

Thank you Donna for the great questions, and good luck with your movie contest and premiere!