Helen Winslow Black is the author of the new novel Songs My Mother Taught Me. She also has written the novel Seven Blackbirds. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
Q: What inspired you to write Songs My Mother Taught Me? Why did you decide to return to your character Kim, from your previous book?
A: I wanted to write more about sisters. I got interested in following Kim and Karen as they moved further into adulthood. What happens if the sisters are tracking along just fine, and then one of them has major setbacks, financial and emotional? And how does their relationship with their mom change as time passes?
The dynamic between these three women really tugged at me in the first book and I thought there was more to be mined; while the mother played a large role in that volume, the sister only made a few appearances.
You don’t need to have read the companion novel to sink your teeth into that, but there’s a lot of depth and richness to be gained by reading both, in whatever order, and that’s one of the reasons why I stuck with the same protagonist, because why forego that?
In addition, I thought it important to take Kim further and find out what happens “afterward.” Will she learn from her mistakes, or just loop? Of course, I’m an optimist, so you can guess which way that turns out.
Q: The Independent Book Review's review called the novel “a thoughtful exploration of family dynamics and the value of life lessons being passed down through the generations.” What do you think of that description?
A: It’s a great description in part because it brings time into the conversation. I did want to explore how we deal with the fact that past family “stuff” is invisibly, vibrantly alive in the present moment—not only as we interact with our families of origin, but as we go about our day-to-day in the world.
Do those underlying tectonic plates ever shift? If so, how and why? To me, that’s more complicated than the interesting, yet simpler, question of how the march of time and changing circumstance affects the current family dynamic going forward.
It deals with both the warp and the woof, the past and the present; that’s why it’s more complicated, and complication interests me. I tussle with these things in the book.
And, it’s the context in which my protagonist realizes the value of those intergenerational words of wisdom despite the fact they spring from a completely different time and place.
Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: I was listening to a song by Dvorak one day, and I looked at the title on the computer screen and realized that “Songs My Mother Taught Me” captured my book exactly.
I’d known I wanted to have singing in the title somehow; there’s so much music in this story—all the female characters are musicians in one way or another—and it is, after all, the further adventures of a young woman who has rediscovered her voice, who is, in essence, experiencing the beauty of “singing in a lost voice.”
Everything Bobbie teaches Kim—every gesture, every look every word, every story—is a song that carries cumulative, collective wisdom and teaches her how to dance to the music of time.
And when Kim takes the torch from her own mother and becomes, herself, the mother teaching songs, the title takes on a beautiful double meaning which also illustrates that that time is not necessarily linear, and these things are both happening at once.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the novel?
A: No matter what life throws at you, you have what you need to achieve triumph of the spirit. And when you do, the course of your life will flow outward from that. It will flow in a new way, perhaps different from what you’d anticipated, but in a way that is true.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m recording the audiobook of Songs this year and am starting on a third novel based on Kim’s daughter in Songs. My nonfiction humor collection entitled Eat Pray Drive is coming out next year, so I’m getting that ready. And I always have some humor blogs in the hopper!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I title my chapters. Okay, so I’m a throwback! I’m on a one-woman campaign to revive this dying art. I like chapter titles. They add value.
Sometimes they’re cribbed from, or are plays on, titles of songs, movies, books, or paintings, but even when tongue-in-cheek they’re always purposeful and well-considered. It’s fun for me, and if my reader gets the reference, well, it’s like a little gift-with-purchase. :)
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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