Q&A with Jane Eklund

Jane Eklund is the author of the new novel The Story So Far. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The Georgia Review and The Massachusetts Review. She works in marketing and communications for Keene State College, and she lives in New Hampshire.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for The Story So Far, and for your characters?

A: I came to fiction writing by way of poetry, which is to say that I followed a thread of a thread to find out where this book was going – much the same way I would write a poem.

I woke up one morning with the sound of a voice in my head, and I started writing to figure out what the voice was saying and who it belonged to. Turned out it was the voice of The Author – the unnamed older woman who seduces the also unnamed younger woman, who narrates the book.

The Story So Far isn’t autobiographical except in the way that all novels spring in some way from the interior lives of the novelists who write them. So the two key characters came from that initial voice – first, Who is speaking?, and second, To whom is she speaking?

Once I had those characters, I simply (well, okay, not so simply) built a world around them. I created Jeff, best friend extraordinaire, because the narrator needed someone to talk to, and specifically someone out and gay. The other characters pretty much wandered in of their own accord.

Q: The novel takes place over several decades. How did you decide on the time frame?

A: The years between the late 1970s and the early 2000s brought huge cultural changes for those of us in what’s now known as the queer or LGBTQ community.

So while the narrator comes of age – and comes out – at a time of thriving subculture, the Author, at 50, has lived through times when lesbians were considered mentally ill and could be arrested or fired from their jobs simply for living openly. By the time the novel ends, it’s actually hip to be queer.

Also, those decades were easy for me to write about as I lived through them myself. I graduated from high school in 1977, when the book opens and the narrator is 22. There are lots of pop culture references to those times, and because I experienced them, I didn’t need to do a lot of research.

All that said, I didn’t really decide on the time frame: the characters did. I didn’t plot in advance, but as I wrote, the manuscript kind of created its own structure for me to follow – if that makes any sense!

Q: How would you describe the relationship between your narrator and your author character, who are unnamed?

A: The word “complicated” comes to mind. The Story So Far can certainly be described as a love story, but it’s not the traditional kind with a happily-ever-after ending – though, indeed, I do think the ending is happy in a real-life rather than fairy-tale kind of way.

The two women do fall deeply in love, but the imbalance in their ages (the younger is 22 when they meet, the older almost 50) – and circumstances make for a changing dynamic.

Q: Each section of the book is named for a particular person--not just your author character, but Socrates, Hildegard of Bingen, and Suzanne Pleshette. How did you choose them?

A: Over the course of the year or so I spent writing the first draft, tidbits from my daily life would make their way into the manuscript.

One day I was listening to a show on New Hampshire Public Radio where panelists were discussing the Socrates Method – a way of teaching that involves asking a lot of questions, as Socrates did.

The next time I sat down to write, Socrates showed up as an imaginary character who sat, like a conscience, on the narrator’s shoulder and asked her questions.

That device worked really well, and when I finished that section of the book and realized that Socrates needed to move on, I wanted to continue with the idea of a historical figure who would show up occasionally to ask pointed questions.

I did some research to come up with Hildegard of Bingen for the next section, as the Author is a church-going Catholic and I thought a person of faith – a 12th-century mystic in this case – would be a good follow-up to Socrates and his intellect.

Suzanne Pleshette? Well, sometimes you’ve just gotta be silly and fun.   

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Right now I’m busy with my day job in the Marketing and Communications Office at Keene State College along with various freelance projects, but I also have a draft of another novel to work on plus couple of new ideas in the fire.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: I think The Story So Far makes for good reading for people who want some distraction from the news right now. My hope was to write a novel that’s smart, thoughtful, and deep but not dark – with plenty of word play and humor.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Tory McCagg

Tory McCagg is the author of the new memoir At Crossroads with Chickens: A "What If It Works" Adventure in Off-Grid Living & Quest for Home. She also has written the novel Bittersweet Manor. She lives in New Hampshire.

Q: Why did you decide to write this memoir, and how long did it take to write it?

A: In 2010, to keep myself sane during a massive renovation that we did on our Beachmont house when we bought it, I looked through old datebooks and journals and began to write about how Carl and I came to buy the New Hampshire property we dubbed Darwin’s View.

It ended up being a 50-60 page pdf that I posted on my website that I first created in 2012. 

Around that same time, I began to blog—coincidentally the week we moved up to Darwin’s View “just for the winter" in December 2012. That rendition of my blog lasted about two-three years, at which point I started working it into a book. A book that had no end. It just kept going. It took 14, 15, 16 drafts and badabing! Done. That easy. 

All to say, I never felt as if I were writing a memoir. The book evolved and I still question whether it is a memoir. The word memoir is so lofty. Which I am so not. Just ask the chickens.

I finished it in 2018-19. So nine years-ish. 

Q: In addition to writing about your experiences with your home in New Hampshire, you describe your mother's battle with Parkinson's. How did you choose the book's structure? 

A: Its working title was "Darwin’s View One Breath After Midnight" and included climate change, marching to get money out of politics, the strangling of our democracy by capitalism (Demo-n-capitalism), various day-to-day chicken stories, and blow by blow, excruciating renditions (that those who helped edit the drafts patiently endured) of my letting go of Providence a.k.a. my search for home.

As each draft got written, the clear parallel between my mother and Mother Nature clarified. And the chickens were always there in the background until they were on par with the humans. In the book’s structure. Not real life. They still live in the coop.

But really, I owe a big thank you to Ann Hood. I get lost in words and ideas, and what structure might exist is very hard for me to see.

I took a memoir class from Ann a few years ago, and then continued to send her drafts of the book. Her last reading of the book, she suggested I cut about 90 pages out — much of which were the above-mentioned blow-by-blow excruciating parts. And suddenly there it was: the structure. 

Q: Did you need to do any additional research to write the book? 

A: How is research defined? It’s kind of like reading and living life, right? Meeting the myriad people Carl and I have met at conferences on farming, soils, energy and politics, and socializing and going to more meetings, and reading about and experiencing climate disruption and its effects.

And always more questions to find the answers to: how to keep frogs from freezing in the pond in winter. How to take care of a chicken’s bumble foot or an infestation with mites. A rat in the coop? How to build soil? 

I took all that “research” and shoved it into the various drafts of the book and then deleted pretty much all of it. But that understanding and knowledge is still there. Sort of. Because it’s what formed me. 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from your book?  

A: I hope that readers will be more aware of how their choices and actions matter: It matters how they treat animals, especially the ones that they eat. It matters how they move about their world because we are connected to everyone and everything around us on so many levels.

I think that’s what I hope. Not sure if that has anything to do with the book…

Q: What are you working on now? 

A: A play titled Triage: An American Experiment in Existential Arbitration; a children’s story/book riffing off Big Red and his hens. A possible road trip for At Crossroads with Chickens. And an actual plan and vision for what we want Darwin’s View to become.

Q: Anything else we should know? 

A: We can save the world. We have the technologies and abilities. That is not to say it will be easy. But we can do it.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

June 2

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
June 2, 1907: Dorothy West born.

Q&A with Timothy S. Miller

Timothy S. Miller is the author of the new novel City of Hate. He lives in Dallas.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for City of Hate, and for your character Hal Scott?

A: I knew very little about Hal when I started writing City of Hate. I knew I wanted to write a novel with an unreliable narrator caught up in a series of events that are bigger than himself. Sort of the Everyman thrust into a world in which he has very little control.

I think it was Stephen King who said you need to put a dead body on the first page, so that’s what I did. And then I just went from there.

While I didn’t know much about Hal, I knew a lot about Lemon. I knew a lot about the world I was creating around them.

Lee Montgomery Pickens is the self-proclaimed bastard son of Lee Harvey Oswald. Lemon’s story is really the story I wanted to tell.

But I didn’t want to tell the story from Lemon’s point of view. I wanted the reader to discover Lemon’s story a little at a time. I thought that putting the reader in Lemon’s head for the whole novel would be too much.

So you take two loners and put them in the middle of a conspiracy involving the assassination of JFK, the future governor of Texas and you throw in the mean streets of Dallas, Texas, and you get the City of Hate.

Q: Did you need to do any research to write the novel, and if so, did you learn anything surprising?

A: This is a book about outsiders. Most writers – myself included – know their fair share about alienation. Feeling alone in a room full of people. Addicts and conspiracy theorists have that same feeling. You might say I did a lifetime of research for this novel.

And I did my share of researching conspiracy theories. There are a ton of conspiracies out there involving the assassination of JFK, and I definitely spent some time digging through all of them.

I think the most surprising thing to me is how interested people still are in the death of JFK. Everybody has their own take on it.

Q: The book takes place in Dallas. How important is setting to you in your work?

A: Dallas isn’t exactly known as the epicenter for noir, although we have our fair share of very talented crime fiction writers. But it’s not like L.A., Chicago, or New York, in terms of crime fiction and urban noir.

With that said, there is nothing more noir than the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Dallas was given the infamous moniker City of Hate shortly after Kennedy’s assassination, and we still haven’t gotten out from under it.

And the story is filled with mobsters, femme fatales, and a corrupt government. What more could you want in a crime tale?

While I grew up in the suburbs, I’ve lived most of my adult life in the city of Dallas. And I can’t imagine setting the book anywhere else.

Dallas is still best known for the Dallas television show of “Who Shot J.R.?” fame, and the assassination of JFK. My mother – in her early 20s at the time – is actually featured in one of the famous photographs of the presidential motorcade that was taken only minutes before Kennedy was assassinated.

And of course, I heard her stories over and over growing up, and I always knew that I would write a novel where that pivotal event played a major role.

It doesn’t hurt that Texas – Dallas in particular – is a good example of the great divide between the rich and the poor. Dallas has a booming economy, but it has done very little to enrich the lives of the working class and working poor.

Texas – in general – is a hotbed for conservative politics. While Dallas leans a little more liberal, there are plenty of conservative politicians preaching family values.

While I don’t think this book is an attack on family values, it definitely holds the hypocrisy of conservative politics – and corrupt politicians in general – up to the light.

Q: Which authors do you especially admire?

A: I admire all authors, but I have a soft spot for genre writers that stretch the boundaries of genre fiction.

I went through a stage where I wrote and read a lot of literary fiction. But I’ve grown tired of literary fiction for literary sake. I appreciate a well-written sentence, but I gravitate to a well-told story. I gravitate to characters that walk on the wild side. I gravitate to fiction that pushes the boundaries off of the cliff.

Stephen King mentioned Jim Thompson in an interview and I immediately fell in love with Thompson’s work. City of Hate would be a totally different book had I not stumbled on to The Killer Inside Me, Savage Night, and Wild Town.

But when I read Thompson’s work, you can tell that he was censored. While he pushed the boundaries as far as he could for the time, I wanted to do more. I feel like the crime genre is definitely a good genre for pushing boundaries.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m working on a more traditional hard-boiled novel set in Dallas featuring a former homicide detective working in the Missing Persons Division of the Dallas Police Department. Yet again, my characters find themselves in over their heads with very little prospect of getting out alive.

I told myself that I would play it safer with this one. Where City of Hate is quite graphic, this one would leave more to the imagination.

Turns out, I was wrong. I’m not about being graphic for the sake of being graphic, but I also think that crime novels should at least be as raw as the real world. There are times to leave some things to the imagination, but I would rather not.

I’m aware that you risk alienating your readers when you’re too graphic, but I’m also aware that there are readers out there who want to feel the whole experience. I like books that wrap me up in their world. And since I write crime novels, things are going to get sordid and out of control.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: While my work doesn’t necessarily fit into any one genre, crime fiction suits me well. I’m glad to be working in a genre that allows for so many disparate voices and imaginations. Noir and hard-boiled fiction is everywhere these days, and it’s fun to be a part of it.

With that said, I’m a firm believer in the fact that all literature is a detective story. There may not be a dead body, but there should always be a mystery. At its core, City of Hate is about two loners who find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy that is ready and willing to eat them alive, and they have to fight their way out.   

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Susan Berfield

Susan Berfield is the author of the new book The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism. She is a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg News, and she's based in New York.

Q: Why did you decide to write The Hour of Fate, and how did you research it?

A: As an investigative reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek, I’m always looking for stories with great characters who are in conflict and where the resolution of that conflict has a lasting impact.

As a first-time, would-be author, I was looking for all of that and a narrative complex and exciting enough to merit not just four thousand words but many, many times that.

Back in early 2016 there seemed to be a quickening sense of inequity and a coming reckoning for big business. There was talk of progressive policies and politics.

 I started thinking about the first of these moments in America, which was in 1902. Two great characters, Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan, were in conflict over the need to hold business accountable and make society more just.

And I realized that the story I wanted to tell in 2016—that I’m telling in 2020—really was the story of 1902.

I knew my book would be a tight narrative focused on two years from 1902 to 1904 but had to provide enough context to be engaging and thoughtful.

So I began my research with the many wonderful books about Roosevelt and Morgan and the entire era, about the railroads and the coal mines and steel mills that were essential to America’s prosperity, the Gilded Age, the robber barons, the labor strikes.

I dug into the archives at Harvard and Columbia Universities, the Minnesota Historical Society and spent many happy weeks at the Morgan Library and the Library of Congress. I pored over newspaper accounts from the time.

And I was able to obtain all sorts of primary source material—books, magazine articles, pamphlets—published at the turn of the 20th century.

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan?

A: Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan both came from prominent and wealthy families. Though Morgan was a generation older, they knew some of the same people and shared a few friends.

But they had enemies all their own.

In 1902, Roosevelt was eager to extend the power of the presidency and the government. He was known as a reformer, energetic and enthusiastic and sometimes criticized for being unpredictable.

Morgan was a power to himself, aristocratic, stubborn, commanding, in control of more money than anyone else in the country, maybe the world.

They both thought they knew what was best for a newly prosperous America.

Roosevelt believed that the government should make sure the economy worked for everyone. He said the goal of his presidency was “the abolition of privilege.”

Morgan believed America should be a global economic power and that businessmen such as himself should be left alone in that pursuit.

The president and the financier were bound for conflict.

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

A: The Hour of Fate comes from a poem, “Opportunity,” that was one of Roosevelt’s favorites. It was written by a senator from Kansas, John James Ingalls, who moonlighted as a poet. Or maybe it was the other way around. Roosevelt kept a copy of the poem in his office:

“Master of human destinies am I…

I knock unbidden once at every gate

If sleeping, wake. If feasting rise, before I turn away.

It is the hour of fate.”

As soon as I read that, I knew I had my title.

Q: You write that in 21st century America, “the battle to make American capitalism more fair rages just as furiously” as it did in the period you write about. How would you compare the two, and what do you see looking ahead?

A: I wrote those last lines at the end of 2019 when many people were worried about concentrated wealth and power, just as they were in 1902.

Now I think the pandemic has exacerbated those concerns and revealed the vulnerabilities of many essential workers and others.

Of course there’s an election coming, and it’s possible that afterward we could be in another progressive moment.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’d love to write another book—and I’d like the main characters to be female this time—but that’s about as far as I’ve gotten.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: If anyone would like to read the prologue to The Hour of Fate, or some of the reviews, or watch a book trailer, it’s all at susanberfield.com.

I’m also signing book plates since I can’t sign the books themselves. Anyone interested can contact me about that through my website too.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Aleksandra Ross

Aleksandra Ross is the author of the new young adult novel Don't Call the Wolf. She is a physician, and she lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Q: You note that Don't Call the Wolf was inspired by your grandparents, who were from Poland. What impact did they have on the book you eventually wrote, and how did you create your characters Ren and Lukasz?

A: They had a huge impact! My grandmother was especially important to the developing the story. After her passing, I spent a lot of time learning about Poland as a way of remembering her.

Very early, I came across a description of the Baba Jaga (BAH-bah YAH-gah) and it reminded me of the stories my grandmother had told me as a kid. The deeper I dived into Polish folklore, the more Don’t Call the Wolf began to take shape.

Ren and Lukasz came to me very early in the writing process, although they did change quite a bit along the way. In very early drafts, Lukasz was an outlaw Dragon-Slayer and Ren was a royal seamstress!

I love them very much – both Ren and Lukasz are tough on the outside, but quite soft-hearted underneath all their claws and armour. Writing about them, and building their relationship, was one of my favourite parts about this book.

Q: Did you need to do much research to write the novel, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

A: Yes, a lot of research went into Don’t Call the Wolf. I learned a so much about Slavic monsters, many of which are featured in the book. There’s everything from human-flaying mermaids to dragons to Baba Jaga herself.

During an early draft of the book, I also got to visit Poland for the first time, and the research I did there had a huge impact on the story. I was completely floored by the beauty and history of Poland, and I desperately wanted to showcase it in Don’t Call the Wolf.  

One of the major cities in the book is based on Krakow, including a reference to my favourite pierogi window in the city. Other real inspirations include the gorgeous Tatry Mountains and a beautiful port city called Gdansk. My personal favourite, though, is the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which inspired one of the story’s most unique settings!

For me, I think the biggest surprise was just how connected I felt to my grandmother while writing. I grew up hearing so many stories about Poland from her, and she was always so proud of her heritage.

I constantly found myself wondering what she would think of certain characters and chapters, and wishing I could give her parts of the book to read and review! I really hope that she would have liked this book, and been excited by how much I learned in order to write it.

Q: As a writer and physician, how do the two disciplines coexist for you?

A: I think they coexist very well, actually! Growing up, I could never choose between a career in arts and sciences, and I just feel so lucky to be able to pursue both.

I find them very complementary, and they use different parts of my brain. I find myself using writing to reflect on medicine, but medicine has made me a much more organized writer. I used to be pretty disorganized when I created stories, but now I’m obsessed with spreadsheets and planning!

Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

A: Don’t Call the Wolf is taken from a Polish idiom, which roughly translates as “Don’t call the wolf from the forest.” It’s a warning not to go looking for trouble, which immediately felt perfect for this story. Ren and Lukasz certainly get themselves into a lot of trouble over the course of this story, and dark, woodsy atmosphere of the original idiom fit perfectly.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: At the moment, I am really trying to focus on showcasing Don’t Call the Wolf to the best of my ability. I love this book so much, and I want it to get into as many readers’ hands as possible!

I also designed and drew all of the preorder art for Don’t Call the Wolf, which was a huge task. Creating so much artwork has definitely occupied the majority of my time for the last few months. It’s been so exciting to see people’s responses to all the illustrations and preorder gifts!

In terms of what’s next for writing, I have been thinking carefully before diving into my next project. Seeing everyone’s response to Don’t Call the Wolf has been a wonderful surprise, and I want to make sure that my next project fills my heart as completely as this story did.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: First, thank you so much to everyone who’s bought this book for themselves or a friend! It was so much fun to write, and I have loved hearing everyone’s responses.

Also, even though the preorder campaign is officially closed, I have so many more exciting things planned. There will be more art, and many more special Don’t Call the Wolf exclusives. I also created a few door prizes before all in-person events were suspended, so I will be doing some very exciting Don’t Call the Wolf giveaways soon! You won’t want to miss them!

Social Media: @rosswriting on Twitter and Instagram

Website: www.aleksandraross.com

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

June 1

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
June 1, 1937: Colleen McCullough born.