Q&A with Ellen Prentiss Campbell

  

 

 

Ellen Prentiss Campbell is the author of the new novel Vanishing Point. Her other books include Frieda's Song. She lives in Washington, D.C., and in Pennsylvania.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Vanishing Point? 

 

A: Visiting a museum in SW Pennsylvania, I was struck by a small 19th landscape painting by an artist unfamiliar to me, George Hetzel, and a reference to his Scalp Level Art Colony. I felt a hunch there was a story for me there, a novel.

 

I began a cursory Google exploration and at first thought the author’s apparent success, like the painting’s beauty, were perhaps just too idyllic. No trouble, no story, you know. But I dug further and began to uncover so much trouble, mystery, and story! 

 

Q: How did you research this novel, and what did you learn that especially surprised you? 

 

A: I researched the novel on and off from 2015 through 2025, and wrote several drafts as my story and understanding of the characters developed.

 

I travelled throughout the region – Pittsburgh, Somerset, Greensburg – visiting museums, libraries, archives, a courthouse. I used primary documents, art exhibit catalogues, online digitized newspapers as well.

 

I met the family who now live in the Hetzel family’s Somerset home; their kindness, sharing what they knew, letting me inhabit for a bit the Hetzel home, was invaluable. I attended talks by current day painters and conservators in the region. 

 

But also, I welcome finding some important questions research alone cannot solve, room for imagination. I write fiction, not history or biography! 

 

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

 

A: Great question! My draft originally was called simply “Scalp Level Novel.” But “Scalp Level” is too grim and ugly for the title. (It’s still a place name, and also still an old Pennsylvania expression used to describe mowing or levelling fields, and reflects the dark history of land appropriation and settlement). 

 

This novel is a family story, and it is a family of artists. I tried other titles on like "Still Life" (which has a double meaning, which I love). "Vanishing Point" works on several levels too, art and the family.  

 

Q: How would you describe the relationship between Lila and Dorothy? 

 

A: As mother and daughter, Lila and Dorothy have a very intense bond. Each is the most important person to the other. Dorothy believes in Lila’s gifts, Dorothy in Lila’s, and that can be both affirming and lead to disappointment. Theirs is not a simple relationship, but fiercely loving.  

 

Q: What are you working on now? 

 

A: Honestly, Deborah, right now I find it hard to do new writing. I love each book I write, become connected to the characters. I always feel a deep commitment to getting the characters, the story, out to readers.  

 

You have your new novel out now, too, and we’ve been on the book tour trail, book publicity campaign, together a bit this time. Super fun and supportive. 

 

So my idea for a new novel is pushed aside for now. I continue doing my blog “Girl Writing” for the Washington Independent. Blogged about the Vanishing Point launch party at the Hetzel Studio! Here’s the link: https://ellencampbellbooks.com/party-like-its-1905/ 

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: Please check out my website for lots of back story about my books and me! www.ellencampbellbooks.com  

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Ellen Prentiss Campbell. 

Q&A with Juliet Faithfull

  

Photo by Sharona Jacobs

 

 

 

Juliet Faithfull is the author of the new novel Liar's Dice. She is also a psychotherapist. She grew up in Brazil, and she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

Q: How much did your twin sister, Mita, inspire you to write Liar's Dice?

 

A: Mita was always there in the background, the whisper of her. So were Brazil and Rio. I started writing this novel from a place of missing and longing but also as a way to “matar saudades”—a Brazilian expression that literally means to kill one’s missing.

 

In writing the novel, I could have a twin sister, and be with the music, the natural beauty and rhythms of Rio. The scenes just began to pour out and I collected them. None of them are autobiographical, but the inspiration came from having had a disabled twin sister and from growing up in Brazil during the dictatorship.

 

Q: You’ve written about having a form of amnesia--can you tell us about that, and about how memory affected the writing of the novel?

 

A: I do not remember the first nine years of my life, when my twin sister lived with us in rural Brazil. I went back to the village, hoping to recover my memory, but I couldn’t. Everything looked familiar but I didn’t recognize any of it.

 

It saddens me that I do not remember (consciously) my own identical twin sister. I had to invent her the same way I invented Sofia, and Andrea and the other fictional characters… I do remember the Mita in the hospital, later, when we were older and went to visit her.

 

Recently (after I’d finished revising my novel and sent it out), I found a box of slides from my childhood. I was shocked to discover that my twin was never in a wheelchair, the way I portrayed it in the novel. I saw a photo of her standing up, in the hospital. I couldn’t believe it! Apparently the wheelchair came later.

 

I wonder now if wrote her in a wheelchair to explain (or excuse) my parent’s decision to send her away…

 

Q: The author Sandra Cisneros said of the book, “I hesitate to call anything this beautiful ‘magic.’ It’s more than that; it’s a sacred healing.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I was blown away by that description. And honored. Sandra Cisneros is a hero of mine.

 

Dolores is coming of age at the height of Brazil’s military dictatorship, when there was widespread censorship, torture and repression. The House on Mango Street has been banned in many states. The themes in Liar’s Dice are more relevant today than I ever imagined they would be.

 

Dolores’ journey to literacy involves facing the horrors of the dictatorship, as well as the grief about her disabled sister. The characters in the book resist these injustices in various ways. A bookstore owner has secret room where he keeps banned books and records. After being targeted by the police for being trans, Sofia turns a fashion show into a political statement.

 

There are many references in the book to songs that were banned, and others where the lyrics have double meanings, to evade censorship. In Liar’s Dice, books (and poems) save lives.

 

I think the “sacred healing” Sandra Cisneros found in my book comes from the fierce love Dolores feels for her twin sister, and the joy, the friendships and the spirit of resistance she finds—a hope and a solidarity that the dictatorship cannot kill.

 

Q: As you noted, the novel is set in Brazil in the 1970s--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: Crucial. Rio is almost a character in the book. I wanted to capture the beauty, the rhythm and the violence of that city.

 

The novel opens as Dolores looks out the school window at the Statue of Christ. She observes that he faces the glitzy neighborhoods of Leblon and Ipanema and doesn’t notice the favelas, the poverty and the dirt, because they are “under his armpits.”

 

1970s Brazil was a country of contradictions. There was Pelé, Bossa Nova, a booming economy which was dubbed the “Brazilian Miracle.” That was the official image.

 

At the same time, the poverty rate was 68 percent and almost half the country was illiterate. These disparities are obvious to Dolores as she looks out of her classroom window.

 

Dolores’ family moves from a small rural village to Rio and lives in the fancy neighborhood of Ipanema. In contrast, her friend Andrea lives in Lapa, the red-light area. The plot of the novel takes place in these very different worlds.

 

After her twin is sent away, Dolores’ parents never speak about her. It’s as if she’d never existed. The silence in the family echoes the silence in the country, where people disappear and bodies are found under bridges, but no one talks.

 

The political situation in Brazil in 1970 is also central to the story. It was the height of the military dictatorship, and repression, censorship and torture were widespread. Dolores grows up in this atmosphere of danger and secrecy and, in her quest to find her twin, she encounters the violence of the dictatorship.

 

So, the contradictions and forces of 1970s Brazil mirror and magnify her inner quest; her refusal to forget her sister and pretend everything is fine parallels the efforts of many of the characters to quietly defy the dictatorship.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have two very different ideas that I’m playing with. I’m a bit hesitant to go into details, because I’m still cooking them…I don’t plan when I write, so I have to feel (and write) my way in.

 

One of them involves two children, a boy and a girl, on opposite sides of the Spanish civil war, and how Franco’s ideas about gender and school affected them. I found out recently that my mother is illiterate partly because of those policies.

 

Another idea explores three different women in different time periods who have glass eyes. This one is still amorphous, but it involves exploring a sense of the uncanny as well as beauty/deformity.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: There was a time when Macumba (an Afro-Brazilian religion) was a bigger part of the novel. It’s still a little bit there, in the village scenes. I cut those scenes out because they involved a lot world-building; many American readers would probably not be familiar with the various gods involved. I wonder sometimes, if this was a mistake.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Erica Kent

  

 

 

Erica Kent is the author of the new novel Black Dog. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including StoryQuarterly. She lives in Portland, Maine.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Black Dog, and how did you create your character Jessica?

 

A: In an “big picture” way, I was inspired by the idea of recreating the cultural context of the 1980s in Boston. In a “small picture” way, I wanted to follow the character of Jessica Ryder as she journeys from active addiction to sobriety.

 

People have asked about how much of the book is autobiographical, and I can honestly say much of it is fiction. I’ve had the character of Jessica in me for many years. I care for and emphasize with her, but she is her own character.

 

That being said, the kind of emotional core of the story comes from my experience of being an addict at a young age and eventually getting sober at age 20. But the circumstances and plot within the book are very different from my own.

 

Q: The author Steve Almond said of the book, “Our heroine, Jess, is a drugged-out descendent of Holden Caulfield, soft-hearted, foul-mouthed, insightful to the point of pain.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love that description. It feels like it’s coming from a place of understanding and empathy.   

 

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

 

A: The title’s a nod to the Led Zeppelin song, as well as to the historical reference, the most famous instance being when Winston Churchill referred to his depression as a “black dog.” That analogy has always felt right.

 

In my novel, the character of Black Dog is the embodiment of addiction, which often includes depression. One of the main ideas in the book is that Black Dog doesn’t die. You just learn to live with it.

 

But, in doing so and staying sober, you can become attuned to what’s referred to as a “Higher Power.” This power doesn’t necessarily mean God. It can mean a million things, only that it’s something larger than you. In an essential way, it means living expansively rather than being caught in the stranglehold of active addiction.

 

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 never know the ending of something when I start. For me, it’s critical to have things wide open in order to cultivate a sense of surprise, both for me as a writer, as well as the reader.

 

Also, I tend to work recursively. I might lay out a pretty terrible first draft, but then I go back to the beginning, start reworking things, go forward a bit, and then back, again and again. Sometimes I start in the middle and go forward; sometimes I start at the end.

 

It’s kind of a crazy way to write, but if the preceding parts of a story aren’t where they need to be, the forthcoming parts won’t be either. The larger structure emerges later. It needs to spring organically from the text rather than being imposed on the story.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am working on a series of stories about women called Female Trouble. The stories deal largely with the body, the kinds of things women carry and endure, such as motherhood, miscarriage, sickness, grief, hope, and resiliency.

 

There is also humor in them, which I consider a vital part of creating contrast and balance within the emotional truth of a given story.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: People can find me at ericakent.com. I love hearing from readers.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Aug. 14

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Aug. 14, 1925: Russell Baker born. 

Q&A with Ellen Thompson

  

Ellen Thompson

 

 

Ellen Thompson is the author, with her late mother, Victoria Thompson, of the new novel City of Promises. Victoria Thompson was the author of the Counterfeit Lady series and the Gaslight Mystery series. Ellen Thompson is a screenwriter and playwright. She lives in Los Angeles. 

 

Q: You wrote City of Promises with your late mother, Victoria Thompson — how did you continue her work on this novel?

 

A: My mom fought cancer for several years, and at the end, she was halfway through writing a draft of City of Promises. When she realized she wouldn’t be able to finish it, she asked my sister and me, who are both writers, if one of us would finish writing it for her. I was the one who had time, so I got the job.

 

All I knew about the book at the time was that it was Counterfeit Lady Novel #8 and it was a crossover with her Gaslight Mystery series.

 

My mom had written a proposal for the publisher, but it just set the story up. She wasn’t working with an outline, so I had to come up with the middle and end of the novel. I also had the challenge of making the book sound like it was written by a single author.

 

Luckily, writing in my mom’s style came fairly easily. Words and phrases I never used in my life came out of me. I would read back what I had written and say to myself, “Did I write this? It doesn’t sound anything like me!” The only way I can explain it is that I was channeling my mother.

 

Q: As you mentioned, City of Promises combines characters from two of your mother’s series — why did she want to blend the two worlds?

 

A: My mom had the idea to do a crossover because she was hoping to introduce more Gaslight Mystery fans to the Counterfeit Lady Novels. It also made sense because both of the series take place in New York City about 18 years apart, and the main characters are in the same social class.

 

Q: What inspired the plot of this new novel?

 

A: I don’t know how my mom came up with the idea of a romance scam, but most of her ideas came from research. She had a big book on historical cons that I inherited called Hustlers & Con Men by Jay Robert Nash. I suspect that may have been the source.

 

Personally, I had an interest in cons, scams, and narcissists long before I started working on City of Promises. Since I didn’t know where my mom wanted the story to go, I let the characters drive the plot to its destination, and I was able to pepper in my experience dealing with real-life narcissists.

 

Victoria and Ellen, 1979

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

 

A: I hope when people read the book they see the parallels between things that happened in the past and things that continue to happen today.

 

Times have changed, but not that much. Women’s rights are still in jeopardy and romance scams—which now happen mostly online—are a major, life-ruining problem, particularly for senior citizens. We can’t afford to get complacent. We need to keep voting, keep speaking up, and stop stigmatizing victims of scams.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I just turned in the manuscript for Gaslight Mystery #28, Murder on Park Avenue. I wrote it entirely on my own, based on the previous books in the series. It’s scheduled for release in September 2027.

Victoria and Ellen, 1999

 

Between revisions, I’ll be editing The Blue Group, a documentary film I produced and directed about my college acting class 30 years later.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’m thrilled to have this incredible opportunity to carry on my mom’s legacy, and I hope her fans enjoy reading City of Promises as much as I enjoyed working on it.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Kenitra W. Dominguez

  

 

 

Kenitra W. Dominguez is the author of the new book Because I Deserve It: What Chronic Illness Taught Me about Finding My Voice in the Healthcare System. She is the founder of Bay Equity HR, a consulting practice.  

 

Q: What inspired you to write Because I Deserve It, and how was the book’s title chosen?

 

A: In 2021, I was diagnosed with idiopathic intracranial hypertension, or IIH, a rare neurological condition that causes pressure to build around the brain and optic nerves. Left untreated, it can cause permanent vision loss. I had been living with severe headaches for years and had seen neurologists and other specialists, but I still did not have an answer.

 

Then I went in for what I thought would be a routine eye exam. My optometrist saw swelling around my optic nerve, and I ended up in the emergency room that night. The book begins at my diagnosis.

 

The first few months after my diagnosis were difficult. I did not know which specialists I needed, how to get a prior authorization, or how to ask for the care I needed. There was no map.

 

I also kept hearing similar stories from other women, especially Black women and other women of color, who had been dismissed, told to wait, or told their symptoms were caused by stress. That dismissal is not just frustrating, but it delays diagnosis and treatment. The harm that follows is often preventable.

 

I am not a physician or a health policy expert. What I have is a patient's view of the system, and I wanted to build the thing nobody handed me. Not a book you read once, but something you can come back to at different points, written for people who are short on time and energy to figure out a system alone.

 

The title came late. I have never been good at titles, so nothing felt right while I was writing. After I finished the manuscript, I went through the Notes app on my iPhone and found an old note called "Because I Deserve It." I had written it as a content idea and forgotten about it.

 

When I saw it again, I knew it was the belief I wanted running underneath every chapter. All of us deserve to be heard and cared for. Why do you deserve the best care? Because you are a human being and you are worthy of it. I wanted a reader to meet that idea on the cover and keep meeting it all the way through.

 

The subtitle is longer, but I wanted it to name what I found during that experience, which was my voice.

 

Q: The Foreword Review called it “an empowering self-help guide to dealing with a chronic condition as a Black woman.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I appreciated that the reviewer called it a guide because that is what I intended it to be. My story is there, but I am using what happened to me to share practical things people can do to advocate for themselves.

 

I also appreciated that the review named my experience as a Black woman instead of writing around it. I was intentional about writing primarily for Black women and other women of color.

 

Being a Black woman shaped my experience in the healthcare system and what happened to me in those rooms. It was important to me that the reviewer did not treat that part of my identity as a footnote.

 

The book is not only for Black women. Anyone living with a chronic condition, or caring for someone who is, can use it.

 

Q: What do you think the book says about the importance of advocacy?

 

A: I think the book shows that advocacy can help you take back some of the control a chronic condition takes from you. I cannot always control how my body feels on a particular day, but I can control how prepared I am when I walk into an appointment.

 

Advocacy starts before you enter the exam room. You usually have limited time with your provider, and preparation helps you say what you need to say without trying to remember everything in the moment.

 

It also helps to notice what you already bring with you. You have lived in your body your entire life, which makes you the expert on it. A physician may be able to diagnose or name a condition, but they do not know what it feels like to live in your body every day.

 

Self-advocacy is not about forcing your body to do more than it can. It is about trusting yourself and using the tools you already have. What became clear to me during my own care is how much it matters to speak up, and to keep speaking up until you are believed. Advocacy changes outcomes. It can also save lives.

 

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 the book while I was still learning how to manage my condition, so it took much longer than I expected. Some weeks I was excited to work on it. Other weeks I dreaded opening the file. My biggest fear was that it would not be useful to anyone.

 

Writing it taught me to stop over-editing. Some things are messy, and that should be enough.

 

It also pushed me forward in a way I did not expect. I am an introvert, and self-promotion is not something that comes naturally to me. Writing this book forced me to do it anyway, and I have gotten more comfortable being uncomfortable.

 

My background gave me access to things most patients are never taught. It felt wrong to keep that to myself, so I combined what I already knew with what I learned as a patient and tried to make it easier for someone else to use.

 

For people managing chronic conditions, I hope the book helps them feel heard, less alone, and better prepared to advocate for themselves. My greatest wish is that it encourages people to take action and get involved in their healthcare. No one is ever going to care more than you do.

 

For the people around them, I hope it provides a better understanding of the weight someone may be carrying when they enter an exam room or show up for work.

 

The responses that have meant the most to me are from readers who saw their own grief in mine, or who felt like my story was their story. Knowing that people are connecting with it has eased many of the fears I had while writing.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Speaking and workshops are my main focus right now. I want to take the ideas in the book into the places where patients receive care and where people with chronic illnesses are expected to work, function, and ask for support.

 

One part of that work is patient advocacy. My signature talk, Heard: How to Make the Healthcare System Listen, gives patients practical ways to prepare for appointments, speak with more authority, and respond when they feel dismissed.

 

I am also developing workplace training for HR teams, People Ops professionals, managers, and organizational leaders. I have a background in HR and a master's in work law, so I understand both the employee experience and the systems employers are responsible for managing.

 

The training goes beyond meeting the minimum requirements for workplace accommodations. It looks at what real support can mean for someone managing an illness or disability while trying to remain employed.

 

I want to work directly with clinicians, care teams, medical schools, and nursing schools. One of my talks, What Your Patient Stopped Telling You, focuses on what can happen when patients repeatedly feel dismissed or unheard.

 

I am currently booking talks and workshops, and organizations can reach me through my website.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Because I Deserve It was published on July 7 and is available on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX3131XK) and Bookshop.org (https://bookshop.org/p/books/because-i-deserve-it-what-chronic-illness-taught-me-about-finding-my-voice-in-the-healthcare-system-kenitra-w-dominguez/9113e9aa24b82057?ean=9781963678253). Independent bookstores can order it through IngramSpark.

 

More about the book and my speaking and workshops is at kenitradominguez.com, and organizations can reach me through the contact form there. I am on Instagram at @keniwdominguez and on LinkedIn.

 

I also write a Substack called Low Pressure Living, published every other week, about building a full life without pushing past what your body can carry.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Brett Ann Stanciu

  

 

Brett Ann Stanciu is the author of the new novel Call It Madness. Her other books include Unstitched. She lives in Hardwick, Vermont. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Call It Madness, and how did you create your character Avah? 

 

A: Call It Madness originates from my second book, Unstitched, a nonfiction book about addiction in rural Vermont. While writing Unstitched, I interviewed a number of people, from medical workers to people in recovery.

 

I realized how profoundly it matters where you land in this life — the circumstances of your family and upbringing. I wanted to explore this more deeply in fiction.

 

So, Avah Lavoie is a 25-year-old woman who is forced to search for answers about her mother. In the novel, Avah discovers that her great-grandfather had a sawmill accident and lost the use of his hand. This injury caused him and his wife to lose their dairy farm.

 

The loss of the farm and land impoverished the family — and the consequences of this affected Avah, many years later.

 

Q: As you noted, the novel takes place in Vermont--how important is setting to you in your writing? 

 

A: Rural Vermont is great novel material. My tiny fictive Goldbrook Village is filled with unique characters who understand pieces and parts of Avah's history. The village is so small that people know a great deal about each other.

 

Yet, at the same time, people sometimes keep their secrets well-hidden, so when Avah searches for the truth about her family, she discovers partial truths and rumors. She’s forced to look hard for what facts she can find.

 

Beyond this, Vermont's harsh winter shapes my characters. To live here requires a degree of fortitude. At the same time, Vermont is enchantingly beautiful in all seasons. The complexity of this setting reverberates all through Call It Madness. 

 

Q: The author Jeffrey Lent said of the book, “At turns caustic and darkly comic, Call It Madness never loses sight of the decay within the veneers of social respectability, and how slender the chasm is between hope and despair.” What do you think of that description? 

 

A: The talented Jeffrey Lent put his words right at the heart of this book.

 

Avah Lavoie is part of a class of people often overlooked. Lacking education and middle-class status, Avah’s mother scrambled to pay bills, often moving to avoid rent, switching jobs in a desperate and ill-conceived plan to move into solidity.

 

At the same time, as a young woman, Avah is imbued with hope that her life might transform into some portion of happiness.

 

In my kitchen, I have the famous Dorothea Lange photo of a migrant mother — an image I actually pulled from a daycare dumpster. The photo reminds me every day of who I write for: overlooked and often forgotten people who hold their own dignity.

 

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

 

A: The title is from the poet David Budbill's collection Judevine. Budbill was a marvelous Vermont poet who generously mentored me. The title signifies the movement of human generations, how we persist in our own human craziness. In my novel, this centers on the Lavoie family. 

 

Q: What are you working on now? 

 

A: With much enthusiasm, I am writing a novel about converting a dilapidated town hall in rural Vermont to a housing project — and the fervor this creates in the town. I was fortunate to receive a Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant to give me some writing (and breathing) time.

 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

 

A: Call It Madness reflects the complexity of our times — division of class in rural America. Within this setting, Avah Lavoie searches to comprehend her mother’s chaotic and deceptive life. To understand herself and her mother, Avah must also begin to understand the village and villagers. Thank you!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb