1 - How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent work compare to your previous? How does it feel different?
I worked for over five years to complete my debut novel, Can You See Me? The story centres on a sister struggling to help her brother, the closest person to her in the world (they shared a private language and secret place during childhood), when he develops schizophrenia as a teenager. I landed a top NYC agent who loved the novel and was confident she would place it. However, many editors wanted me to change the novel into a memoir. Finally, I brought the book out myself in 1999. The blurbs from writers I admire were superlative. On a tiny budget, I sent out review copies, while my husband acted as my publicist. The novel garnered an excellent review in Publishers Weekly, even though at that time, they had an official policy of not reviewing self-published books. It was widely reviewed and shown in bookstore windows in Princeton, N.J. where I lived near the university. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) recommended it to their members or anyone wishing to learn more about schizophrenia. I received great community support. It changed me in realizing how fulfilling it is to get my work out into the world and to receive reader responses.
2 - How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
As a little girl, I took long walks talking to myself and telling stories. Fiction always felt like the most joyful natural form. I also love reading fiction, getting lost in a story.
3 - How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does your writing initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appear looking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copious notes?
I have a fiction antenna which buzzes when I have an inspiration. But transforming that glimmering idea into a story or novel is a long process. First drafts are agonizing but also exciting. I put the critic on the back porch or in the outhouse and just write and write, tapping into the imagination and unconscious. I don’t even read what I’ve written for awhile. I just get material out on the page. Though my first drafts are disheveled, I always find parts that glow, elements to build on. My process is like sculpting in clay. I find the shape of the story, carving away extraneous bits, building and developing the core.
4 - Where does a work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of short pieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a "book" from the very beginning?
I usually have a sense of whether a piece of fiction is a story, a novella, or a novel. I’m not sure why or how. My instincts have often been right.
5 - Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you the sort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I love being invited to read and/or speak. Though I get a bit nervous, the experience is always deeply fulfilling. I guess I’m a bit of a performer. And receiving face-to-face responses to my work is great, as well as meeting readers and being part of a literary community.
6 - Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds of questions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think the current questions are?
Many of my stories and novels are driven by questions that have no simple answers. The writing is an exploration. For example, my first novel, Can You See Me? examined the question: What is it like to have schizophrenia? I wrote from the point of view of Doren, the brother grappling with madness. It was terrifying, a kind if immersion and act of empathy and imagination. I felt like Eugene O’Neill who wept at his desk while writing Long Days Journey Into Night.
7 – What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Does s/he even have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
I like to believe that art can change and heal the world. It shakes us up and enlightens in ways that news never can.
8 - Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult or essential (or both)?
I find it both helpful and frustrating to work with an outside editor. When they can help me kick the work up a notch, I’m grateful. Sometimes we disagree. Fortunately, my editors have always assured me that I’m the final arbiter of my own work. That enables me to listen and hear what they have to say without getting too defensive or threatened.
9 - What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
I keep this quote from the late African American playwright, August Wilson, above my writing desk. It inspires and moves me every day anew: “You have to confront the dark parts of yourself and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength. When you’re working on your writing, it’s like walking down this strange road that is the landscape of the self. You have to be willing to confront whatever you discover there. It’s all a process of discovery. What happens too often is that we run from the parts of ourselves that we least recognize. You have to be willing to stand up to that and push beyond it. That’s where your writing takes a leap.” - August Wilson.
10 - How easy has it been for you to move between genres (the novel to short stories)? What do you see as the appeal?
I don’t move much between genres, though I write both short fiction and novels. I do the occasional personal essay but they are short. I love the freedom of fiction and the enveloping process of writing a novel. You always have something to work on! Writing memoir feels to me like putting on a straitjacket. The short story form is definitely challenging in its condensation, while the novel is expansive and requires shaping.
11 - What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? How does a typical day (for you) begin?
I have coffee in bed and then segue to my desk. I like to work for at least 4-6 hours, then take a break walking or swimming or doing freelance jobs.
12 - When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of a better word) inspiration?
I try not to panic. I take a walk or a long swim. Usually movement helps loosen things up and jogs the imagination. Often I’ll get a brainwave or an epiphany about what I’m working on.
13 - What fragrance reminds you of home?
Orange blossom, lavender.
14 - David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
I’m inspired by nature, music, poetry and visual art.
15 - What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your life outside of your work?
I love the classics. The work of the Brontes, particularly Emily and Charlotte, move me deeply as does their life story. I visited Haworth in Yorkshire last winter when snow covered the moors and saw the tiny books the siblings made as children. D.H. Lawrence’s Women In Love and Sons and Lovers are masterful in their layered portrayal of nature and the physical world, as well as human consciousness. Sadly, he is out of fashion. I’ve also been influenced by Kafka and other Jewish writers like Isaac Bashevis Singer. In terms of contemporary work, I admire Jayne Anne Phillips’ stories and novels. Tessa Hadley is a wonderful stylist. Recently, I was blown away by Julia Phillips’ first novel, Disappearing Earth, which is a marvel.
16 - What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Scuba diving. Anything in water and you have me at hello.
17 - If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or, alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been a writer?
I’d love to be a singer, if only I had a voice. I sing in my car and in the bathtub. Usually Aretha.
18 - What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
I can’t remember ever not wanting to be a writer. It’s been great not having to figure out what I want to do in this short life. I know.
19 - What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Disappearing Earth, by Julia Phillips. Parasite.
20 - What are you currently working on?
I’m working on a new novel, Incantation, about a teenage Hasidic girl and the bond she forges with a psychologist, a secular Jew, while at Children’s Hospital Psychiatric ward. The story then follows the two of them and the paths their lives take in New York and the Canadian Maritimes. I’m excited about this book!
12 or 20 (second series) questions;
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