With echoes of Succession, and based loosely on the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, Little Monsters is told from each character’s perspective as the plot catapults towards the climatic 70^th birthday of the family patriarch.  I interviewed Brodeur nearly two years ago about her gripping memoir Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover and Me. Suffice to say that Brodeur excels at dysfunctional families, suspenseful plot and gorgeous Cape Cod.

Can you tell us how the idea of the book came to you…  And what the book is about.

For me, inspiration requires patience and consistency. I start by paying close attention to where my thoughts go and try to notice what I notice. When I do that, I’m struck by how my mind is nagged by a specific situation, place, or character. Then I try to figure out why that situation, place, or character is compelling to me. In the case of Little Monsters, my mind kept returning to a fraught adult sibling relationship and the charged summer of 2016.

Little Monsters examines a family on the brink of imploding under the weight of its secrets and resentments during a larger cultural implosion.

Not only are you brilliant at developing character, but you excel at plot and creating suspense. Everything is moving towards Adam’s crowning 70^th birthday. Which comes first plot or character?

I find plot and character intertwined, so neither comes first exactly. Writing a novel is a bit like putting together a complex jigsaw puzzle without having seen the image. Most of us start with the edge pieces if only to create some boundaries (and in that way, I knew Little Monsters would be a contemporary novel set on Cape Cod and about a family) From there, I feel my way along and write into the mystery.

E.L. Doctorow put it best: Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

Your book takes place when Hillary Clinton was running for president, which seems like a lifetime ago. The idea of having a female president made a lot of Americans uncomfortable. At one point you write, “Abby felt her success might derail the men in her life, who were accustomed to getting the lion’s share of attention.” While your book isn’t political, there are observations to what was going on in the world at the time.  

I’m interested in the next generation… You have male chauvinist Ken having two whipper snapper teen daughters who give him a hard time. And both the two feminist characters Abby and Steph have newborn sons. I wonder if you chose to do this, as a way of gently implying that the next generation might be more evolved, more compassionate than some of the characters in this novel.

I love the way that teenagers keep all of us on our toes, pointing out adult shortcomings and out-of-date views and perspectives. As far as I can tell, this is the way it has always been and always should be. Hopefully, each generation will become more evolved and more compassionate.

The rest of my Q&A with Brodeur can be found here on 26. And the Wild Game Q&A can be found here.

January, 2024

The post Q&A with Author Adrienne Brodeur, Little Monsters appeared first on Elena Bowes.

Signal Fires could only be written by Dani Shapiro- and only now when she’s at the height of her powers. One gets the sense this is the story she has been building toward all these years; a parabolic family drama about the way certain moments echo through time. I’ll never stop thinking about it.”

That quote is from another talented writer, Mary Laura Phillipot. Signal Fires is a book that sticks with you. Not just because of the exquisite writing and unique story that is both haunting and hopeful, a story that crisscrosses time in a purposeful way. But the novel is also unforgettable because of what it implies about death and the universe, the stars, how when we die, it’s not the end. We’re all somehow connected.

The story opens in 1985 on a summer night with a teenage car crash in which one person dies, and the other two are culpable. This accident will become a guarded secret for the respectable Wilf family, shattering each of their lives in different ways. Several years later another family with no knowledge of this tragedy moves in across the street. Events ensue involving that family’s gifted, brilliant and lonely son Waldo that somehow bring grace and forgiveness to the accident that happened decades earlier.

 Here’s my Q&A:

 Dani, can you tell us about the fascinating genesis of this book and its connection to your memoir Inheritance?

 I began Signal Fires a long time ago, before I was really ready to write it. A cast of characters materialized for me who I loved and to whom I felt very attached, but I lost my way in the writing, and after about 100 pages I put the manuscript in a drawer. I was heartbroken, but never thought I’d return to it. I really believed it was the one that got away. But as the years passed, and I wrote more books (Still Writing, Hourglass) some big changes happened in my own life. Perhaps the biggest of these changes occurred when I learned, in 2016, that my dad had not been my biological father. He had raised me, and I adored him. I lost him when I was quite young in a terrible car accident and have missed him every day since. This sudden loss informed much of my work as a writer.

I also had the sense that my parents kept secrets – and I wrote a great deal about the corrosive power of secrets – but never did I entertain the thought that perhaps I was the secret. And this is what turned out to be the case. I was able to meet my biological father and wrote the memoir Inheritance about my discovery. It wasn’t until I completed Inheritance and brought it into the world that I returned to the Signal Fires manuscript. I re-read it and understood for the first time how the story needed to play out. It was as if the characters had slept in that drawer all these years, needing me to grow and evolve into the writer who deserved them.

You begin your story with the word And….

And it’s nothing, really, or might be nothing, or ought to be nothing, as he leans his head forward to press the tip of his cigarette to the car’s lighter. It sizzles on contact, a sound particular to its brief moment in history, in which cars have lighters and otherwise sensible fifteen-year-olds choke down Marlboro Reds and drive their mothers’ Buicks without so much as a learner’s permit.”

 The reader is immediately propelled into the scene that’s already started, knowing somehow, it’s not going to end well. Can you discuss your choice of the word and to start your novel.

When I returned to the novel after my long absence, I hadn’t yet written that very opening scene. And I knew I needed to do so before moving forward. The only thing of which I was certain, though I couldn’t have explained it at the time, was that the first word of this novel had to be “And…” because it felt to me as if it was a world already in motion, and I wanted to convey that to the reader.  I wanted the reader to step into a universe in which past, present, and future all existed at once.

You can read the rest of the interview here on 26’s September newsletter.

September, 2023

The post Q&A with Acclaimed Author Dani Shapiro appeared first on Elena Bowes.

Maggie gets a call from ER in Maryland where her sister Ginny lives. Ginny, who has intellectual disabilities and diabetes, has binged on Strawberry Jell-O. So, Maggie decides to bring Ginny to live with her in upstate New York. The oldest sister Betsy is vehemently opposed to the idea. But Betsy, a professional surfer, conveniently lives thousands of miles away. Maggie uses all the patience and dark humor she can muster to deal with her new life as caretaker, mother, freelancer, and separating wife who is starting to date again. Zusy lives in upstate New York, had a brother with special needs and knows a lot about love and sacrifice and how laughing at one’s situation can be the best option available.

Below is my Q&A with the author Jeannie Zusy …

Ginny is wiser than she appears. Can you expand on this?

         -Ginny may not have a very high IQ or deep self-knowledge, but she has a great ability to see. As a child, she tuned into oldest sister Betsy’s surf culture, and she embraces a mellow lifestyle. She doesn’t get caught up in a lot of the things that stress others out. Ginny has a big heart, is loyal and forgiving, and from here come her “Ginny-isms”, simple words of wisdom like, “You need to chill.” “Let the waves, wave.” And even, about her own inability to control her sugar consumption, “If I die, I die sweet.”

You wrote a great article about how jumping on a trampoline saved you.

I’ve been told it’s not the norm for a woman approaching 60, but catching air on the backyard trampoline has proven to be more than exercise for me.

Can you tell us about that jumping? And at what point when you were midair flying above the trampoline, did you think I’m going to write about this?

         -Jumping on the trampoline became such an important source of escape and joy for me during the earliest parts of the pandemic and then after our daughters moved out. I think at one point, I just thought, this jumping thing is so great, everyone should know about it. And then I thought, this is so weird, if I write about it, everyone will know how weird I am. But then I thought, we’re all a bit weird, aren’t we? And shouldn’t we embrace the unique things we do to keep our minds, bodies, and souls happy? So I spoke my truth about my love for my trampoline!

*Similarly, your book was inspired by your own brother Davie who was intellectually disabled and who you helped take care of. When did you think, I’m going to write about my experience with Davie? As an artist, do you think it’s important to not just be living an experience, but also observing the experience?

         -Yes, you put that so well. Davie was always an important part of my life, and he inspired me in many ways. Previously, I’d written about him in other forms. He knew this, and while he didn’t understand what I found so interesting about him, I think he appreciated it. When my siblings and I decided that the best thing for our larger family would be to move Davie to live closer to me and my family, I think we all kind of knew that I’d be writing about our adventure someday.

You can read the rest of my Q&A here on 26’s November issue.

November, 2022

The post Q&A with Jeannie Zusy- The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream appeared first on Elena Bowes.

Ambitious and determined to get her man, Ivy is a modern day Scarlett O’Hara, an Asian-American social climber. Fans of Gone Girl and  The Talented Mr Ripley will feel right at home in this coming of age tale that explores class, race and identity.

My main interview with Yang is here in 26’s March newsletter. Below are some fun questions, like how important is a name. I personally think names are crucial, and love this one about Marilyn Monroe…

or Prick, a new book I spotted at my local nursery

Names matter. Imagine if my pug Josephine was named Betty. She’d be a different dog.

I digress. Back to Yang and White Ivy, an alluring title and book cover

I understand that you have a name fetish, and that you find movie film credits a wonderful resource. How easy was it to choose the names for your main characters – Ivy, Gideon and Roux? And what about your title, White Ivy? How did you land on that and what does it signify?

I cannot even start a story until I have all the names chosen. A wrong name feels so wrong to me in ways I can’t even explain. As for the title, it had a different working title, but it didn’t have the right feel so my team and I brainstormed dozens of titles until I thought of White Ivy. It comes from the Chinese proverb in the beginning of the book–The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white–and speaks to the idea of race and legitimacy. Ivy wants to be a snow goose, someone natural with inherent virtue, yet she rejects her own inherent virtues and aspires to the cultivated ones.

I listened to an interview where you credited a book called “Art and Fear’ with helping you to finish your book. As a writer myself, I loved your answer. It’s so freeing. Can you explain what you meant in the interview by ‘Make as many pots as you can”?

Essentially, this story is about a ceramics class where the teacher divides the students into two groups. The first group is graded upon the quality of one “perfect” pot, and the second group is graded upon the quantity of pots they make, so the more pots they make, the higher their grade. But at the end of the semester, the teacher found that all the pots the second group was making at the end were better than the single “perfect” pot the first group had been laboring over. It’s a parable that encouraged me to stop trying so hard to write the Great American Novel, and just write a novel I might enjoy reading. Before then, the pressure I was giving myself was enormous, which was probably why I could never finish anything.

Please tell us something surprising about yourself

I am a complete night owl and wrote most of White Ivy between the hours of 10pm and 6am.

March 2021

The post Q&A with Susie Yang – White Ivy appeared first on Elena Bowes.

Turns out my hero Nora Ephron was similarly enamoured with Prep. Ephron wrote the below in Entertainment Magazine:

The end of summer evokes a pang for back-to-school, and all that it entails, like nothing else. Even if you’re not school-supply-shopping in New York or sending your crush a bouquet of freshly-sharpened pencils, the crisp fall air just does something to a person. For the book lovers among us, we feel drawn to campus novels to get lost in the world of textbooks, messenger bags, and fictional boarding school romances. Almost no tome evokes this seasonal spirit better than Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep.

Sittenfeld’s’s latest book Rodham

imagines that Hillary doesn’t say yes to Bill. What starts as a passionate with a capital P college love story evolves as Hillary gets to know her Lothario boyfriend better. The two meet again and again throughout their lives, from lovers to political rivals to I’m not saying anymore.

This is a story about love and loss, ambition, and the sacrifices we make to create a life. And dear readers, it’s funny. Sittenfeld is funny.  Anyone who pens article titles like And on the Eighth Day God Created Tartar Sauce, or If I’m on Facebook It Must be Over has a sense of humor.

I got a chance to ask Sittenfeld some questions.

What’s next?

I want to write a very short, very fun novel that requires no research.

Sittenfeld read no less than 15 books, listened to several relevant podcasts and read many public statements in her research for Rodham. No wonder the novel feels so believable. And no wonder Sittenfeld wants a wee break.

What’s on your summer reading list?

Our Time Is Now by Stacey Abrams

What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe

Fairest: A Memoir by Meredith Talusan

Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman

Looking back, what advice would you give your 21-year-old self?

Relax!

Can you tell us something surprising about yourself?

I don’t really do anything creative or crafty other than writing—I don’t knit, draw, bake, or play an instrument. But I’m impressed by people who do!

I’m grateful that Sittenfeld sticks to writing. The rest of my interview with the St Louis-based author can be found here on 26’s June issue. 26 is a diverse group of people who share a love of words, in business and in life.

June, 2020

The post Q&A with Curtis Sittenfeld appeared first on Elena Bowes.