Q&A with Nancy J. Allen

  

 

 

 

Nancy J. Allen is the author of the new story collection A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes and Other Stories. She lives in Dallas and in Taos. 

 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the stories in your new collection?

 

A: I’m embarrassed to tell you. Years.

 

Q: How was the book’s title--also the title of one of the stories--chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes” is the title of an essay published on the front page of The New York Times in 1915 in which Robert Goddard, the father of rocket science, declared that someday his rockets would be able to reach the moon.

 

Goddard was laughed out of the scientific community and fled to the nowhere town of Roswell, New Mexico, where his “rockets could rise or crash, or even explode without wear and tear on neighbors’ nerves.” Fifty-four years later, Commander Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

 

The story intertwines the history of rocket development with the trajectory of a man’s life. I grew up in Roswell, although I never heard of Goddard when I lived there.

 

Q: The author Elisabeth Sharp McKetta said of your work, “Nancy Allen is a gorgeous writer, deft with the use of telling and power-packed poetic verbs and wise in her ability to see deep into the soul of a character and know how a single event can change them.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: McKetta is one of the “gatekeepers” hired by UNM Press to read and evaluate my work before they accepted it for publication. I’ve never met Elisabeth, but clearly she’s exceptionally perceptive! — I’m joking. McKetta is generous and kind. She wrote that she hopes to teach one of my stories in her graduate writing course at Harvard. I am honored.

 

Q: How did you choose the order in which the stories would appear in the collection?

 

A: “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes” was always the first story. I considered it to be the seed from which the rest of the stories blossomed: its cold remote voice comes down from on high to branch into various passionate voices.

 

But the story is an outlier in terms of form—there are no others like it in the collection—and I always worried about this. After Lesley Bannatyne, the other UNM Press “gatekeeper,” wrote that she was surprised when my stories failed to resemble the first one, I had to confront my knowing-but-not-wanting-to-know there was a problem.

 

I sat for three days, thinking. Once I allowed myself to change the sequencing, everything fell into place. “A Method” isn’t shocking as the third story, especially when followed by “Impulse,” which also has an unusual structure. I sprinkled the three Georgina stories around—and voila!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have 200+ pages of a novel about an older woman—what else?—who has suffered two retinal detachments and fearing she might soon be blind, signs up, against her husband’s wishes, to take an art class in color. The art teacher is young, wild and world-travelled, and seems to offer entrance into an expansive world of creative excitement.

 

I quit working on this novel about five years ago when I wrote a scene that scared me: I literally did not know what to do with it. Faulkner said, A writer must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid.  I think I’m braver now. (Also, I’ve learned that everyone writing a novel has trouble with “the middle.”) I’ve started back: nose-to-grindstone.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’m in the process of being interviewed by David Haynes, Emeritus Professor of English/SMU; author of Martha’s Daughter, A Novella and Stories. During our back-and-forth, I told him about losing a novel 40 years ago in a Wang Word Processor malfunction.

 

It was traumatic—so traumatic that until our conversation a few days ago, I had totally “forgotten” about this novel. I cannot, in fact, remember the title, but its corpse must be lying around here somewhere…

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with D.E. Ramey

  

 

 

D.E. Ramey is the author of the novel The Evil in the World Saga: Dawning. It's the first in a series. He lives in Mount Vernon, Ohio. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Dawning, and how did you create your character Avery?

 

A: The first thing that came to mind was a dear friend of mine, John D. Brown. I was thinking about some great doctrinal scriptures from our church that John and I had talked about years earlier. John is also a published author. I started thinking about what I would write about if I ever wrote a book.

 

Later, as I was in personal prayer, I thought to ask the Lord about my questions. Within no time, I was given a very vague impression of a Hero. After several more days, some intense daydreaming, the tiny seed I was given had sprouted into a story idea.

 

I had my story idea, genre, inciting incident, and main character’s goals. Then I came up with my bad guy.

 

Suddenly, my protagonist really needed to be beefed up. He needed to be interesting, kind of funny, and very hardcore when it was needed. He needed something to protect as well, so he would need a family to protect. My thinking and planning were very linear.

 

My heroes were Jedi Masters (Qui-Gon Jinn, in particular), Knights of the Round Table, Mel Gibson in the Mad Max series, all the Bridge Officers on the original Star Trek and The Next Generation, Ur-Lord Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (Stephen R. Donaldson). And just maybe a pinch of Kid Rock to spice it all up.

 

I wanted my MC to embody some of these amazing characters' qualities. I made some great character sheets and started filling in all the blanks with traits. I even took the MBTI test, answering each question as I would if I were the character. It didn’t take long to build my HERO.

 

Maybe someday, I will share how I came up with Avery’s name!

 

Q: Why did you choose 2081 as the year in which to set the novel, and how did you create the world of 2081?

 

A: I knew I wanted my story set in the future, but not too far in the future. When I originally wrote the manuscript, Dawning didn’t even have a definite year set. I knew that I needed time for the storyline to evolve in the background, and that the Lucus Family would be outside for nearly all of it, so that’s why Dawning begins on April 21. It gave me plenty of time for the story to progress.

 

As for the year 2081, I like to keep my fantasy worlds as realistic as possible. I needed a real year in the future with April 21. A little searching on the internet and I had my year.

 

How did I create a world of 2081? That’s a little more complicated. I needed a bad guy. I didn’t want some corrupt county sheriff or clergyman or even the Anti-Christ. Those bad guys had all been used, very well used, but used. I also needed minions for my bad guy. I needed more than a cult, more than a movement.

 

That is when I knew I really had to roll the dice and go big. I began to plan, as if I were the Good Guys and the Bad Guys. How would I do this or do that if I were this group? I wrote the backstories for both sides. Once I had that, it was easy enough to overlap them, line up the edges, and there I had my world! Welcome to 2081!

 

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

 

A: Yes, as a matter of fact, I did know. At least, I knew very close to how Dawning would end. But Dawning is just the beginning of the story arc. Its mood and tempo are set the way they are for a reason. I knew how the entire story arc would end long before I started writing Dawning.

 

As I went through the process of learning to write, not just making outlines, it was great fun and very rewarding. I had used the tools I’d been given, and it worked! It allowed me to have my ending and look forward to it before it happened.

 

There have been minor tweaks along the way of the editing process. That is a given. No one could write stories like these in this genre or any other without having to make some steering changes along the way.

 

Early in the editing, I almost made some HUGE changes. It would have involved major rewrites. Avery Lucas wouldn’t have been nearly the same man. So we kept it the same as I had written it initially.

 

Then, during editing, some of the fat was trimmed to the point where my editor and I agreed it was enough. I think Kim and I made the right calls.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

 

A: First off, my true hope is to find at least one person who can read this series or even a single book from it and be moved by its overall message. This message is Luke Chapter 15.

 

I’m doing my best to write a story that has many different facets of the kind of stories that I like personally, while at the same time trying to produce something that others will like as well.

 

If a reader doesn’t get into the religious aspect of the story, that’s completely fine. I just hope that person was entertained and found value in the quality of the story we gave them!

 

Secondly, just have fun with it! I think there is a little something for almost everyone in this. Whether it is the action, the family bonds, the dark twisty stuff, or the simple beauty of children… I hope the reader can find joy in Dawning!

 

Q: This is the first in a series--can you tell us what’s next?

 

A: Dawning is Book I of the Evil in the World Saga. The Saga is a planned six-book series. Book II is going to be wild! I have already written the first two chapters, though I’m still not done with the outline. As a new writer, I’m trying to learn something new about my craft every day. I am also trying to ensure I keep my promise to produce a well-written, thoughtful story for the readers.

 

Without going into detail, Book II will be darker, grittier, and more frustrating for the characters. There will be some big surprises for the readers, I hope! We will continue to set the stage for… well, I guess the readers will just have to stick around and find out!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Dawning and the rest of the Evil in the World Saga would have either a PG or PG13 rating. While there is no nudity, sexual content, and only minimally strong language, there are definitely violent scenes.

 

Please note that the violence in the story may be too intense for younger teens. I would personally suggest that a parent or guardian enjoy the book first and use their own best judgment before allowing a younger teen or preteen to read Dawning.

 

Lastly, please know that I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to do this Q&A!! Thank you all for your interest in Dawning: Book I of the Evil in the World Saga, and thanks for having me, Deborah!!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Feb. 16

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Feb. 16, 1904: George F. Kennan born.

Q&A with Amil Niazi

  

Photo by Norm Wong

 

 

Amil Niazi is the author of the new book Life After Ambition: A "Good Enough" Memoir. She writes a column, The Hard Part, for The Cut. She lives in Toronto.

 

Q: Why did you decide to write this memoir?

 

A: When I wrote about the idea of “losing my ambition” for The Cut, I was at a breaking point with my career, frustrated by the idea that as a 40-year-old woman, I’d already reached my “peak earning years.” I was overwhelmed trying to juggle work and motherhood and feeling like I was sacrificing myself trying to be perfect at both.

 

The incredible response to the viral essay showed me that I wasn’t alone in this and that there was value in exploring what ambition had always meant to me, my journey as a woman of color trying to navigate the working world and what lead to my ultimate divorce from a certain kind of striving.

 

And when I sat down to write, I knew that sharing certain vulnerable and traumatic aspects of that process would help some people feel less alone. Ultimately, the book I wrote was for a younger version of myself, who always wished for a book like this. 

 

Q: How were the book’s title and subtitle chosen, and what do they signify for you?

 

A: The working title initially came from my essay for The Cut, but ultimately the change from “Losing My Ambition” to “Life After Ambition” felt more hopeful and honest about the trajectory of the book.

 

The subtitle is a nod to the work of Donald Winnicott, who championed the idea that a “good enough” mother was better than a perfect mother. Through the process of having three kids and continuing to pursue a writing career, I ultimately landed on the feeling that being “good enough” at work and at home was the only way for me to survive doing both. 

 

Q: In a Vogue article, Emma Spector says of the book, “Life After Ambition offers no tidy conclusions; Niazi is telling her story in medias res, inviting readers to figure the whole mess out with her—and in this era of gentle-parenting TikToks and general advice oversaturation, that feels like a gift.” What do you think of that assessment?

 

A: I loved Emma’s read of the book. My aim was never to be prescriptive, but rather to share my own experiences of work, womanhood, and motherhood and hoped that in reading my story, other people would see some of themselves there.

 

I’ve received so many DMs and emails from readers who say they’ve found comfort, reflection, and inspiration in the book. 

 

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

 

A: I found that in writing and releasing the book, I also released a lot of shame, fear, and isolation. There are things in the book that I have never spoken in depth about to my own family out of fear of judgment, so to put it out there in this way was terrifying but ultimately gratifying. I hope by reading it, people feel the same. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m about to start work on a podcast that touches on motherhood and momfluencers, I’m continuing to write my column, “The Hard Part,” for The Cut and starting to compose a proposal for another book (fingers crossed!)

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Writing a book, this book, was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I’m so grateful to every single person that has picked it up and if you find even a small sense of hope or self-reflection in there, it was all worth it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Nancy Bernhard

  

 

 

Nancy Bernhard is the author of the new novel The Double Standard Sporting House. She also has written the book U.S. Television News and Cold War Propaganda, 1947-1960. Also a journalism historian and a yoga teacher, she lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. 

 

Q: You’ve said that your grandmother told you her Aunt Beadie was a madam in the 1920s, although that was a fabrication. Can you say more about that, and about how it led to your writing The Double Standard Sporting House and creating your character Doc?

 

A: Beadie was a free spirit who lived outside the lines of sexual convention and was shamed for it by being called a sex worker. But I began to wonder how girls end up in the sex trade. The answer is mostly through no fault of their own, either because it’s their only way to survive, or because they are raped. And yet they are shamed—their stories are written out of history, just eradicated.

 

A character began to take shape in my mind, a gifted healer, who ends up on the wrong side of respectability, and finds she has far more freedom to practice medicine and accrue enough wealth to help many women and girls.

 

Q: How did you research the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: During the lockdown of 2020-2021, I read a lot of books about the history of the 19th century sex trade including trafficking; New York City politics, especially Tammany Hall; and the history of women’s reproductive healthcare.

 

What surprised me most was how many women worked in the sex trade in 1868 New York. Given that they were excluded from most professions and could hardly earn a living wage in the jobs they were allowed to do, we estimate that at least 10 percent of the women in the city that year did sex work.

 

Of the women alive in the city at that time, 30 percent probably took money for sex at some point in their lives. Contrast that to 1 percent now, when we have many other ways to earn a living.

 

Q: What did you see as the right balance between fiction and history as you wrote the book?

 

A: The setting of an elite brothel funding a medical clinic while captive to a political syndicate requires some explanation! A lot of work went into establishing Doc’s world for the reader.

 

As an historian, I had to learn how to render the complex setting and history through the story and the lives of the characters rather than through explanation or long background passages. It came a long way through revision, and I’m sure it could be better, but it’s pretty immersive.

 

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

 

A: As I did the research, I kept a document with evocative expressions of the sexual double standard through the centuries. In the present day, we see it mostly as women being blamed and shamed for sexual behavior that we condone or forgive in men.

 

A sporting house is a period term for a brothel, and the title just occurred to me one day. I found it funny and provocative that Doc would give her house this name.

 

I gradually came to see the double standard as even deeper, as men trying to control reproduction for their economic and sexual privilege, even though women carry the burden of it, and are shamed for it.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: A novel about rock-and-roll mythology and women in 1968.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Doc’s pioneering work in healing for survivors of sexual assault found inspiration in my work as a trauma-sensitive yoga teacher. We have a lot of research-based, pharmacological, and technological strategies for healing now, but women have been doing this work together forever. Storytelling is fundamental to healing.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Feb. 13

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Feb. 13, 1881: Eleanor Farjeon born.

Q&A with Jan Cress Dondi

  

 

 

Jan Cress Dondi is the author of the new book The Navigator's Letter: The True Story of Two WWII Airmen, a Doomed Mission, and the Woman Who Bound Them Together. She lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Navigator’s Letter?

 

A: I discovered a trunk of letters in my parents’ basement. While I had always known “some letters” existed, I had no idea there were hundreds from the World War II years.

 

Reading them opened a deeply personal window into my father’s and my uncle’s lives. It set me on an investigative journey to understand the larger history surrounding them—prompting memories of a lifetime that laid the groundwork for writing the book.

 

Q: How much did you know about your father’s and uncle’s wartime service as you were growing up?

 

A: Probably more than I realized at the time. As a child, I absorbed stories and moments of my father’s and uncle’s wartime service without fully understanding the significance. It felt like fragments—snapshots woven into everyday life.

 

Only later did I recognize how much those experiences had shaped my perspective and prepared me to write this book.

  

I spent summers in my grandmother’s music room beneath my uncle’s military portrait, which sparked constant conversation. My father shared stories that mirrored their World War II experiences—bedtime tales of enemy interrogations delivered in a curt German accent, descriptions of dive-bombing Stukas, and daring prison escapes.

 

On long walks in the park, he pointed out star formations—after all, they were both navigators—and I’m ever amazed that the stars alone guided their course. There was no GPS then.

 

And even during the Vietnam era, those conversations continued. Wearing a copper bracelet to honor an American POW prompted deeper discussions. No questions were avoided. Time was always made. In hindsight, it feels as though my entire life had been preparing me to tell this story.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: A lifetime of stories with the main characters unknowingly kick-started this project, but clues hidden in letters sent me on an emotional journey to uncover more.

 

I focused on the European theatre of World War II, where the two men served, traveling across the globe to seek historical records, conduct interviews, and experience firsthand the places my characters once knew.

 

In Romania, I worked with an aviation archeologist and historian to piece together the Ploesti puzzle and delivered a presentation at the U.S. embassy in Bucharest.

 

In Freiburg, Germany, I combed through the federal records at the Bundesarchiv, and in England, multiple visits allowed me to gather detailed information about airfields, barracks and daily life on an airbase.

 

Back in the U.S., I spent countless hours interviewing the main characters, gentlemen who were on the Ploesti missions, other WWII veterans and acquaintances of my central characters.

 

Hundreds of thousands of pages from the national archives, military service and operational records including documentation from the individual Bomb Groups were reviewed. And to connect fully with the experience, I took an unforgettable flight in one of the last airworthy B-24 Liberators.

 

This journey has been more than a decade in the making—years of research, writing and reflection. Along the way, I encountered incredible discoveries and frustrating dead ends combined with moments of tears and smiles. It has taken time to gather the material necessary to tell John B. and Bob’s story with the authenticity and care it deserves.

 

Surprises? Absolutely—so many. At the American Air Museum/Imperial War Museum in Duxford, England, a life-size photograph of my uncle and his crew was displayed next to a full-scale B-24 Liberator. The same crew image is also displayed at the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

 

While searching through miles of military footage, I unexpectedly discovered my father—alive in that moment—in a segment of Operation Reunion.

 

Other discoveries emerged from persistent research: 1940 transcripts of Radio Debates my uncle delivered on multi-state broadcasts from WLS in Chicago; a video clip of my father’s friend’s 1941 yellow convertible—the very car my father wrote about while cruising around Texas universities during navigation training; and an interview with a 1950s television personality who had preserved scrapbooks about my uncle for over 70 years.

 

Finally, standing at Hardwick Air Force Base in England—the very airfield from which my uncle had once flown eight decades before—perhaps it was the culmination of my research or the connection with my father, but standing on that airstrip, a surge of emotion overwhelmed me… still does today.

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

 

A: Writing this book made me realize how little I truly knew about WWII, especially the dangers of an air war. In the early 1940s, aviation was still a new and thrilling concept. The Air Force lured young men with the promise of flight—the “wild blue yonder.”

 

Exciting, right? But when you learn what those 20-somethings—some barely out of their teens—actually faced, it’s astonishing they held it together.

 

Flying in combat was no easy task during World War II. At altitude, temperatures in the open fuselage could drop to minus 60—frostbite set in in seconds.

 

Over the target, there was no avoiding the concussions from flak timed to the aircraft’s altitude—as a direct hit could take a bomber down. Enemy fighters aimed .50 caliber machine guns point-blank at our bombers—they were shooting to kill—and bullets could pierce through oil or hydraulic lines, forcing crews to fight fires onboard.

 

My father described it as “fearsome,” but I didn’t truly grasp how harrowing it was until I dug into the research. Survival depended on skill and teamwork but ultimately, it boiled down to sheer luck. One veteran told me, “In this racket, you’re here one day and gone the next.”

 

I hope readers come away with a real sense of the risks those airmen took every time they climbed into their aircraft. The skies were deadly, yet they flew with remarkable bravery, selflessness, and a sense of duty that is difficult to comprehend today—qualities that deserve to be remembered and honored.

 

Their stories reveal how ordinary young men accomplished extraordinary feats, and how their sacrifices continue to shape the freedoms we enjoy today.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m exploring a few new directions that have emerged from The Navigator’s Letter. I can’t share the details just yet—stay tuned!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I have four grandchildren under the age of 6, which has deepened my purpose. There’s a saying that goes, In order to see who we are, it’s important to know from where we came. It’s a powerful idea.

 

Knowing our ancestors gives us strength and perspective, and family history shapes who we are. Passing those stories and memories on to younger generations feels more important now than ever.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb