Q&A with Caitlin Rother

  

Photo by Geza Keller

 

 

 

Caitlin Rother is the author of the new novel Hooked. Her many other books include Death on Ocean Boulevard. A former investigative reporter, she lives in San Diego. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Hooked, and how did you create your characters Katrina Chopin and Ken Goode?

 

A: I grew up in La Jolla and have always been drawn to stories in which wealthy people behave badly.

 

I also was an investigative newspaper reporter for many years, covering the politics of professional football, political wrongdoing, and corruption and incompetence in government, where wealthy men who were not elected or appointed officials often seemed to exert their influence behind the scenes.

 

So, based on my personal and professional experience, I created this world in Hooked, where a surfing homicide detective and a female investigative reporter encounter many of these issues as they both investigate the suspicious deaths of two biotech execs who are developing a sexual enhancement drug.

 

The two investigators compete to solve these mysterious deaths, sometimes working together and sometimes at odds, while they navigate the sexual tensions between them. 

 

Q: Can you say more about the dynamic between them?

 

A: They are immediately drawn to each other when they meet at the bar at Piatti, a restaurant in La Jolla, where they share some personal traumas from their past.

 

But when they learn that they are both working the same investigation, they must navigate ethical boundaries that go with the job as they also battle the sexual and professional tensions between them. So they are in constant conflict and competition, which heightens the suspense and drama of the story.  

 

Q: The novel is set in the San Diego area--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: Most of the novel is set in La Jolla, a wealthy coastal enclave of San Diego that is trying to break away and become its own city (in real life, not in the book). There are scenes that take place in other parts of San Diego, such as Balboa Park and Mr. A’s, and the climax scenes take place on Coronado Island, which is a city of its own.

 

But as a surfer, the beach is very important to Detective Ken Goode, whose home away from home is Windansea, a well-known surfing spot and local jewel of La Jolla. So the ocean and the wealth of this pristine community are an important backdrop to the story, as Katrina and Goode peel back the layers to reveal a corrupt underbelly–a cabal of elites with many secrets.

 

Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I have written and rewritten this book so many times that I’ve lost count and frankly don’t remember how it originally ended. On the advice of my agent several times removed, I started the book over completely in a new file and subsequently added a new beginning and made major changes throughout.

 

I started it soon after the prequel, Naked Addiction, was released in 2007, intending to start a series. But I did not know enough about homicide detectives and forensic evidence back then, so that did not come to fruition.

 

Now that I’ve written a dozen true crime books, my storytelling abilities have improved, and I am also much more versed in police procedures and other facets of the crime world. So, I’ve been able to write these thrillers much faster these days.   

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m close to completing the first draft of a new novel, which is also set in La Jolla and Coronado, California, but has a new set of characters.

 

It’s about a female sheriff’s sexual-assault detective and former Olympic swimming contender who catches the attention of the charismatic male leader of a spiritual retreat center for unfulfilled and lonely wealthy women, many of whom get pregnant soon after they join the center.

 

The detective gets caught up in a personally confusing situation with the leader while secretly investigating his cult-like organization. The center leader becomes obsessed with the detective while pursuing her to be the coaching director of the elite child athlete training arm of the center, while her interactions with him bring back buried childhood trauma.

 

Is the leader a predator of vulnerable women and their wealthy indifferent husbands, or is he really a healer?  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Hooked is the first in my new Katrina & Goode thriller series. Book 2, Staged, comes out in June, and Books 3 and 4 are under submission with my editor. I hope to have news on that front very soon! 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Allen Saxon

  

 

 

 

Allen Saxon is the author of the new novel Training in Charity. He also has written the novella The Climber of Pointe du Hoc. A retired general surgeon, he lives in the Chicago area. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Training in Charity, and how did you create your character Adam Sinclair?

 

A: The inspiration for Training in Charity came from my own experience attending medical school at Tulane and learning to care for patients.

 

The protagonist, Adam, is based on my own perspectives as a student, but I think he represents a more universal experience for all those beginning their clinical training.

 

Q: The novel is set at Charity Hospital in New Orleans--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: Setting is extremely important to me in what I write and what I read. New Orleans is a unique, colorful city complete with its own music, culture and food and Charity Hospital was a legendary training ground for generations of physicians.

 

For the reader to truly enjoy my work I try to transport them into the setting and make the places stand out as a character in the story themselves.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I had many vignettes about actual patients, but when I began writing I only knew that I would cover a six-week period.

 

The story arc developed slowly as I realized how these fictionalized versions of actual cases fit into a broader narrative regarding the personal growth medical students undergo as they acquire skills and understanding and, most importantly, assume the responsibility and regard for those they care for.

 

Q: As a retired general surgeon, how do you see your medical background intersecting with your writing?

 

A: I could not have written this book or my previous book, a WWII novella titled The Climber of Pointe du Hoc, without my medical background. I think my medical background allows me to take a broad overview of my subject but to also hone in on the intricate details of any situation, medical or not.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have begun a completely different story that contains some scientific detail but deals with some of the Catholic Church’s artifacts of veneration. No spoilers here.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I think the point I would like to leave your readers with is that today’s medical education is different than the 1970s. The science is more advanced and the delivery of healthcare is more reliant on technological adjuncts than ever before.

 

Aspects like spending time on the computerized medical record can interfere with time spent with patients, but at its heart good care relies not only on acquiring technical expertise but in prioritizing the human dimension of patient care.

 

In a famous lecture given in 1922, Dr. Francis Peabody summed up what has become an enduring maxim for medical personnel: “The secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient.”

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Sonia Daccarett

  

 

 

Sonia Daccarett is the author of the memoir The Roots of the Guava Tree: Growing Up Jewish and Arab in Colombia. Also a communications professional, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Roots of the Guava Tree?

 

A: At midlife, I was struck by how much my present life seemed disconnected from my past, almost as if two separate people had lived the same life.

 

I wanted to go back to rescue the memories, the feelings, the questions I left behind as a way of linking my childhood in Colombia with my current life. I also wanted to explore and shed light on lesser-known immigration experiences, such as those of my Jewish and Arab grandparents in Colombia.

 

I wrote this book to answer questions about my identity, to understand where I came from and what motivated my grandparents and parents…but also to connect our story to all human stories and the universal themes of family, diaspora, and identity.

 

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

 

A: The title of the book comes from the guava trees in the garden of my childhood home, which were prolific producers of fruit. These trees predated my family on the property and thrived in the soil and the place where they were rooted.

 

I longed for my family to be the same: to thrive, to be rooted and happy like those guava trees. But reality was more complicated.

 

Q: The writer Yossi Klein Halevi said of the book, and of you, “In telling her story of a Palestinian and Jewish family courageously attempting to live outside of history, she has deepened our understanding of the complexity of Jewish and Arab identity in our time.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Jewish and Arab identities are often presented as opposing, polarized and endlessly divided.

 

But what does it mean when someone embodies both identities? What does it mean when an Arab and a Jew choose to love each other and have children together in a country like Colombia? How does my family’s story challenge simple or binary narratives?

 

I hope the book at least provides a deeper sense of the complexity – and the possibilities.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: I wrote this book to answer the questions I had about my identity, to understand where my family came from. In the process of thinking about what made my grandparents and parents human, why they did the things they did, I grew to love and appreciate them even more deeply. I hope readers are inspired to think about their own grandparents, parents and families in this way.

 

The book also delves into what it felt like to live in a country experiencing severe violence and conflict. Colombia faced tremendous challenges in the 1980s and beyond, and I hope readers will come away with a more nuanced view of what that period was like for regular Colombians.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m thinking and writing about immigrants – and the experience of immigration. I have a few projects in mind, and we’ll see where they go!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Alexa Morris

  

 

 

 

Alexa Morris is the co-author, with her father-in-law Benjamin Parket, of the memoir The Courtyard. It focuses on Parket's experiences as a child during the Holocaust. Morris works in the nonprofit field, and she lives in Northern California.

 

Q: How did you end up working with Benjamin Parket, your father-in-law, on this memoir, and can you describe the process of cooperating on the writing?

 

A: I’ve known Ben for over 25 years now and, early on in our relationship, he would talk a bit about his story. He had started writing, but was struggling to get beyond a first chapter. My partner Karen (Ben’s daughter) suggested that we work together. And so, over 10 years ago, we began.

 

I interviewed him, time and time again, and I slowly built the book around his stories. Whenever I completed a chunk, I passed it to him for his feedback. In this way, he corrected my errors and filled in details I would otherwise have missed. It was a slow, but wonderfully collaborative, process.

 

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

 

A: The title was chosen very late in the writing process; it was something Ben and I determined together.

 

My initial proposed title was Lucky because I was constantly struck by just how much luck played a role in the family’s survival. Their survival hinged on a series of seemingly miraculous events, and if one of those events had gone differently, the entire family would have almost certainly perished.

 

Ultimately, The Courtyard was the only possible title: the courtyard itself plays a significant role, and is essentially a character in the book. The courtyard at 5 rue de Charonne brought these people together; it was the literal and figurative center of the community that lived and worked there.

 

The courtyard also hid and protected them: by definition, a courtyard is an enclosed space surrounded by buildings, insulated from the world outside it. Because of the courtyard and the people in it, Ben’s family survived the war.

 

For my family and friends, and for your readers, I hope their home feels like Ben’s courtyard—a place of community, of safety.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book called it a “mesmerizing, nightmarish story that, for once, has a happy ending.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I’m extremely grateful for the positive review, of course, and I hope readers find the story to be mesmerizing.

 

But I will admit that “a happy ending” doesn’t quite capture the full complexity of the situation. The Parkiet family was protected by their courageous neighbors, and after two years in hiding, the family emerged from their warehouse hideout together.

 

But they were not unscathed. No one who survived the Holocaust was unscathed. Almost all of Ben’s extended family lived in Warsaw, and they were all murdered in the Ghetto or the camps. The Jewish community in Paris was also decimated, which meant many of their friends were gone.

 

The Parkiet family was lucky indeed, but to survive was to face the reality of what happened to Jews across Europe. This is not a fairy tale where “everyone lived happily ever after.”

 

Q: Especially at a time of increased antisemitism, what do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: These are indeed troubling times. We are seeing an increase in antisemitism and anti-immigrant ideologies. These are the sort of sentiments that Hitler exploited to take power. Here in the United States, we are seeing government agents come for our neighbors, and when the local community tries to intervene, the consequences can be deadly. 

 

So, when someone reads The Courtyard, I invite them to ask themselves, What would I do for my neighbor? It’s no longer an academic exercise; it’s a real-world question.

 

Whenever I talked with Ben about the people who saved him, I was astounded by the bravery his neighbors exhibited.

 

As I write in the book: “These kind, brave people weren’t family. They weren’t even friends, not by most people’s definition. We had little in common. We didn’t share a religion or heritage. In the case of my parents, we barely spoke the same language. Taught to be respectful of adults, I never even knew their first names. We never had a meal together, and we didn’t visit each other’s homes. They were our neighbors. And, for them, that was enough.”

 

And so, I can’t help but wonder: would I do the same thing? Would you?

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am in the early stages of a novel, a very different book from The Courtyard. I’d classify it as a literary thriller. I’m having a lot of fun playing in a different genre, and I’m excited about where it’s going.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: One of the goals in putting The Courtyard out into the world is to properly recognize those courtyard neighbors who stepped in to help Ben and his family. But first, we need to identify them. Ben was a young boy and, taught to be polite, he greeted his neighbors by their surnames.

 

There was Madame Nicolas, the upstairs neighbor, who warned them to flee. Monsieur Thibou, who hid them in his warehouse. The Raymonds, who, as concierges, kept watch to ensure no one betrayed the Parkiet family.

 

These brave people should be recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. If any of your readers can help us identify who they were and/or locate any living descendants, I would love for them to reach out to me via my website: alexamorris.com.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Feb. 5

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feb. 5, 1928: Andrew Greeley born. 

Q&A with Jo-Anne Berelowitz

  

 

Jo-Anne Berelowitz is the author of the new book Somewhere I Belong: A Story of Country, Family, Home, and Jewish Identity. She is also an art historian, and she lives in Austin, Texas.

 

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

 

A: There is no single, outstanding precipitating event I can point to. Rather, there were many things that drew me to reflect on my South African past and write about it.

 

One factor was becoming friends with a young woman with a degree in art history from Cape Town University. She applied to me for a teaching position, and although I could not offer her anything, we became friends and, in speaking with her about South Africa, I felt a door open to the past and a magnetic force compelling me to pass through it.

 

Another was a box of letters that I’d saved and forgotten about and then rediscovered—all of them written to me when I lived in South Africa.

 

The other, I suppose, is that I reached a point in my life where I wanted to take stock of where I’d come from and how I got to be “me.” I tend to be introspective, so that once I started on this journey, it gained momentum and I kept going.

 

Q: You describe the book as autofiction--how would you define that in the context of this work?

 

A: Calling it autofiction gave me license to embellish and give rein to creative imagining, as I do in the chapter about my paternal grandfather. Memoirists do embellish and invent, for we cannot recall conversations exactly and, besides, memory plays tricks on us.

 

The genre of autofiction became important to me when I realized I needed to change the names of some people who are close to me because I didn’t feel I had the right to insert them into my story. And so, resorting to autofiction, I concealed their identities.

 

I like hybrid genres. I find them interesting and intriguing because they unsettle the reader and pose questions about art and truth-telling.

 

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

 

A: I’ve always had a hard time with titles, but this one came relatively easily. I knew the word “belong” had to be in the title. I asked myself the question: Where do I belong? The answer was: Somewhere. And so the title became clear.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: The book was an interesting challenge. Hitherto, I’d written only academic essays, and so I had a steep learning curve to learn to write a long-form personal story with a narrative arc.

 

I love that kind of challenge and was completely engrossed in acquiring enough mastery to write the book that I eventually produced. Achieving that has given me confidence. I’m proud of the book and feel it is a contribution to the universal struggle of finding oneself.

 

I hope readers identify with the struggles of the protagonist and are encouraged by her survival. I also hope that readers learn about South Africa and gain an understanding of its complex history. Another important issue is that I got to tell my story. It is my truth.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Essays mainly. I’m not sure I have another long-form book in me right now, but then I never set out to write a long-form book. At a certain point, I realized that the collection of essays I’d produced could be turned into a book—if I worked hard at it.

 

Right now, I’m immensely intrigued by the spirituality of Navajo jewelry. I keep asking myself why I love it so much. I’ve begun to read about it so that I can answer my question. This is, in part, because of the art historian in me, partly because I’m drawn to Jewish spiritual practice. I’m not sure what else, but I know I’m getting close to writing about it.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I hope you enjoyed the book, and I hope your readers are inspired to read it. Thank you so much for featuring me and for the questions you asked. I’m deeply appreciative. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Matt Fogelson

  

 

 

Matt Fogelson is the author of the new memoir Restrung: Fatherhood in a Different Key. A former lawyer, he writes about music on his Substack, Fine Tuning. He lives in Oakland, California. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Restrung?

 

A: After my son was born, I found myself thinking a lot about my father who died when I was in college. Missing him, of course, wishing he could meet my son, but also wishing he could see me being a father. It struck me that he only knew me when I was a kid and, conversely, that I didn’t really know him as a person.

 

I started to identify an emotional absence that existed between us my entire life, wondered if such absence was endemic to the father-son relationship, and, if so, how I could overcome it with my son. I sat with those feelings for a while, some of which I couldn’t have articulated so clearly at the time.

 

When my son was 9, I started a music blog, the original concept of which was to help classic rock fans like myself stuck in the 1970s find new music. But the project, and my writing, quickly morphed into personal essays about being a father and the role music played in that journey.

 

I loved writing those essays! And I realized there was a deep vein to mine in terms of understanding, mourning—and not replicating—my father’s absence. Writing became my vehicle for excavating and working through those feelings.

 

All to say that the road to becoming an author was meandering, taking me along twisting backroads until it eventually deposited me at the place I needed to be.

 

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

 

A: I wanted a title that reflected the different approach I took to fatherhood and emotional connection compared to my own dad, while also centering the role music played in that shift. Restrung: Fatherhood in a Different Key nailed it!

 

Q: The author Holly Gleason said of the book, “Rich in heart and musical soul, Restrung is a moving call to reimagine fatherhood in a new key--one that sings instead of stifles.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I’m a huge fan of Holly’s own incredibly soulful writing and so am very flattered by that description. Of course I think it’s spot on!

 

But seriously, I did pour my heart and soul into the book. Whatever criticisms there may be of Restrung, that I held back is unlikely to be one of them.

 

And while I never intended my book to be a call to action for anyone, if it inspires others to recognize, address, and hopefully overcome whatever emotional distance is present in their most important relationships, that would certainly be gratifying.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: Writing Restrung was a cathartic experience. It helped me understand my father’s emotional absence and make peace with it.

 

In a strange way, I feel like I got to know him better through the process, like I was communing with him. I came to understand how his workaholic ways were his effort to forge connection with his own emotionally absent father. But it also helped me recognize my own emotional limitations.

 

One of the most interesting aspects of writing Restrung was the conversations it spurred with other men, many of whom shared how they related to the emotional absence I experienced. How it seems to be handed down from fathers to sons like some unwanted family heirloom.

 

What I most hope readers take away from Restrung is the critical need to pursue your passions and not live a life bogged down by self-imposed constraints designed (consciously or not) to keep the people you love close.

 

That’s what my Aunt Wendy counseled me after my father died but I didn’t grasp it until decades later. If readers can learn the lesson better and sooner than I did, that would indeed be gratifying.

 

And for those who have lost a parent too early, my hope is that Restrung will offer not a blueprint for release from the grief, but a proof positive that such release is possible.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m mostly focused on my Substack, Fine Tuning, where I continue to post essays about music and parenting while also trying to nudge classic rock fans stuck in the 1970s into the 21st century. In the back of my mind are a couple of projects about some of the “characters” in Restrung, but nothing concrete at the moment.  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’m super excited for Restrung to finally be out in the world. It’s been a long journey from my windowless basement office—where I hunkered down for almost three years with a bottomless supply of Kleenex and a couple of guitars—to a bookstore near you! 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb