Q&A with Steven L. Davis

  

 

 

 

Steven L. Davis is the author of the new book Beating Heart of the World: The Taos Art Colony, the Pueblo Resistance, and the Battle for Indigenous America. His other books include Dallas 1963. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Beating Heart of the World?

 

A: Hi Deborah, it’s good to talk with you again and thank you for inviting me back.

 

I’ve always been fascinated by the Taos art colony, which drew so many notable writers and painters in the early 20th century. This beautiful and remote creative oasis in New Mexico attracted luminaries like Georgia O’Keeffe, D.H. Lawrence, Willa Cather and Carl Jung, along with scattered freethinkers and some colorful oddballs.

 

For years I’d read everything I could get my hands on – biographies, memoirs, academic studies. I sensed that the convergence of so many prominent people must have resulted in something important, but I could never find a thread that connected the various art colony intrigues to a larger world.

 

As it turned out, I was looking in the wrong direction. And here it’s important to note what attracted these outsiders to Taos. This was the homeland of Taos Pueblo, a native society that had been here at least a thousand years.

 

Many of the bohemians who came to Taos found the Pueblo’s culture quite appealing. The Taos People were peaceful and they lived in a communal society that sought to honor and sustain the natural world.

 

This was a big contrast to swaggering industrial America, which glorified individualism, fought countless wars, and seemed hell-bent on environmental destruction.

 

So I began reading more about native history and came across a book about Taos Pueblo’s long fight to regain its sacred Blue Lake, which had been seized by the US government in 1906.

 

This account mentioned a local man named Bert Phillips, who had aided the Pueblo’s early efforts to protect its homeland from white encroachment. The author described Phillips as, simply, a “Taos old-timer.” Yet I knew him as far more. Bert Phillips was the painter who founded the Taos art colony.

 

At that moment, the idea for this book was born. For I finally realized the historical context that had been missing from my view of the art colony.

 

At the very same time Taos was gaining international fame, the US government had targeted New Mexico’s Pueblos for extinction, aiming to destroy their cultures and seize their lands.

 

As I dug deeper, I learned that the Puebloans found a very creative way to resist — by recruiting the prominent whites in Taos as political allies. Founding artist Bert Phillips had been the first, but he was hardly the last.

 

When these two groups joined forces, they sparked the biggest mass movement for Indigenous justice the US had ever seen – and together they changed the course of history.

 

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

 

A: I’m a big believer in the power of archives, which are full of precious papers that transport you to the front lines of history. When you open a box you’ll see all kinds of firsthand accounts — personal letters written in the heat of the moment, journal entries, transcripts of testimony and long-forgotten government reports.

 

These vital resources are your tools to cut through decades of self-serving mythology and academic theory. They take you right to the heart of what really happened and connect you intimately to the lives of the people at the center of the story.

 

For a researcher, going into an archive is like having somebody hand you a key to a gold mine. You find all kinds of treasures and you are constantly surprised. You’re seeing things that have never been reported before, information that has eluded those AI dragnets.

 

To take one example, I learned that the beloved environmental icon Aldo Leopold not only viewed Taos Pueblo as his enemy, he also personally led the drive to exterminate every wolf in New Mexico. None of Leopold’s biographers ever brought this kind of stuff up, as it runs counter to his saintly reputation.

 

I also discovered that the founder of the Taos art colony, Bert Phillips — who had earlier tried to help Taos Pueblo protect its sacred Blue Lake —later got involved in a plot to steal Pueblo land. His actions led to a riot, a mass panic among whites that caused President Taft to order federal troops to Taos. And incredibly that wasn’t even the first riot this artist had caused in Taos.

 

Q: The writer Sandra Cisneros said of the book, “Beating Heart of the World is a story of tenacity, community organizing, and ultimately justice. Above all, it is the tale of the power of resistance. What an inspiration for our times!” What do you think of that assessment?

 

A: Sandra Cisneros is an incredibly generous person in addition to being a brilliant writer. She has worked tirelessly for years to nurture new generations of writers and build an inclusive literary community that is more representative of America. I’m honored that she somehow found the time to read and comment on this book.

 

Sandra recognizes that the odds were stacked against the Pueblo People at the beginning of the 20th century, and yet they persevered and found a very smart and creative way to resist the cultural genocide that had devastated so many other native communities.

 

The Puebloans’ white allies were hardly perfect, as the story of founding artist Bert Phillips demonstrates. But this inclusive, cross-cultural movement spread far beyond Taos Pueblo and positively impacted so many others across the country. That is community organizing at its finest and most inspiring, as Sandra pointed out.

 

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

 

A: One of the major figures in Beating Heart of the World is a wealthy New York heiress named Mabel Dodge Luhan, who was regarded as America’s “Queen of Bohemia.”

 

Mabel had dabbled in peyote while directing famous “salon” conversations at her Greenwich Village apartment. Then she experienced a mystical vision that called her to Taos. She quickly became enamored with Taos Pueblo and she fell in love with a Pueblo leader, Tony Luján, who became her fourth husband.

 

Mabel believed that Taos Pueblo’s virtues could help inspire a spiritual renaissance across the US, creating a better and more sustainable society. She was a romantic, but she was also onto something.

 

For one thing, the Taos People were far more environmentally advanced than Anglo-American culture. They understood why old growth forests were so valuable and why they should be protected long before such knowledge began to dawn on the brightest technocrats at the US Forest Service.

 

With her husband Tony Luján, Mabel launched a crusade to bring world-class thinkers and artists to Taos and introduce them to Pueblo values as a means of jumpstarting her spiritual revolution.

 

So all these prominent people began arriving at the very same the US government launched its campaign to destroy Taos Pueblo and the other Pueblo societies in New Mexico. In the face of this existential threat, Mabel and Tony pivoted and became the unlikely catalysts for this long-shot resistance movement.

 

I bring up Tony and Mabel because they inspired the title for this book. Mabel reported that Tony had described Taos Pueblo’s sacred homeland to her as “the beating heart of the world.” And so I wanted to use “Beating Heart of the World,” as it honors Taos Pueblo and its successful battle to protect its homeland.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Deborah, I’m still resting from doing this book! Seriously, I worked on this for seven years, longer than any other book.

 

In many ways I saw it as my love letter to New Mexico, a state I’ve always wanted to live in. Our family had a chance to finally move to New Mexico last year and now I’m having so much fun getting to know this place and its people.

 

There are many fascinating stories here, and I’m already finding myself drawn to exploring some of those. But it’s still too early to tell what might develop into a full-length book project.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I want to salute my publisher, the University of New Mexico Press, which has been so supportive and wonderful to work with. This book is  part of their trade imprint, High Road Books, and is distributed by Simon & Schuster.

 

Now, after all my years of desk work, I’m looking forward to getting out and doing events and meeting interesting people. I’ll be posting event updates and other news on my website at stevenldavis.org. I’m also on Facebook and Bluesky @litcoyote.bsky.social

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Steven L. Davis. 

Q&A with Bonnie Friedman

  

 

Bonnie Friedman is the author of the new novel Don't Stop. Her other books include Writing Past Dark. She teaches creative writing at the University of North Texas. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Don’t Stop, and how did you create your character Ina?

 

A: I want to quote the first line of the novel, which tells something about my inspiration: “When Ina discovered sex at the age of forty-one, her whole life turned upside down.”

 

I wanted to write about the way that sex can overturn one’s concept of oneself, especially if one has been highly disciplined and intellectual, as the heroine of my novel has been. I wanted to write about someone who has succeeded well-enough in life only, at the midpoint, to be waylaid by aspects of herself that she’d dismissed, disparaged, disallowed.

 

And I wanted to find language for the ecstatic experiences that sex can sometimes grant, and the way it can provide a kind of pathway to early emotional states and desires.

 

Ina Rosenbluth is a feminist, and she becomes involved with a man who is highly problematic, to say the least. He’s sexist, a smoker, rarely reads a book – and yet he exerts a sexual thrall over her. How will she give him up?

 

In creating Ina, I was inspired somewhat by Gail Honeyman’s technique in Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. I loved that book. I loved its humor. And reviewers have said that my book is funny, which makes me so happy. My husband keeps saying he’s the funny one in our family. I like to tease him by showing that perhaps it’s me.

 

Q: The writer Alice Elliott Dark called the book “a gorgeous depiction of the journey of a soul.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: That is my favorite description of the book. I think it’s accurate that the book depicts the journey of a soul (and I am flattered that Alice Elliott Dark called it gorgeous). Ina thinks what she wants is to find out about sex; what she discovers is much more than that.

 

As in the novels of E. M. Forster, love can involve a journey into greater honesty, into discovering the ways you have been fraudulent and have put pretense over sincerity, which are things that many people in our society do, often without their own awareness.

 

Ina’s journey brings her out into the world and into a far greater appreciation of others. She ends up having a changed relationship with her sister and her parents and of course her husband, but also a changed relationship with strangers, too.

 

Many codependents manipulate other people without being aware they are doing so. It is scary to stop doing that after decades of such behavior. But Ina does, at least to some great extent.

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

 

A: While I was writing the book, I thought of it as Chartreuse, which is the alcohol that Ina and Jack drink together at the very start of the novel, with major results.

 

Ina keeps waiting for the effects of the Chartreuse to wear off. She assumes when it does, she will return to her familiar, moral, balanced, recognizable life. The problem is, weeks and months are going by, and she isn’t returning to sanity, she isn’t able to focus as she was before, she’s subsumed by this new life.

 

When I sent the book out to my agent, I changed the title to Don’t Stop because I thought Chartreuse didn’t communicate clearly enough what the novel is about. It sounded Victorian and fru-fru, I worried. Although Alice Elliott Dark has told me that she wishes I’d kept the title Chartreuse, and she may be right.

 

To me, Don’t Stop signifies both a sexual request and also an inner voice that is telling one to see something through, to go where the adventure is leading, not to miss the discovery that the soul wants to make.

 

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 did not know how the novel would end. I remember the very afternoon I discovered it. Once I had the ending, it never changed, although I worked on the language and developed the last scenes. But the image of the ending didn’t change. Now I can’t think of Ina’s journey ending any other way.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have a novel in mind concerning a hoarder who lived next door to me on Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn. She herself was a tidy, immaculately groomed woman in a skirt and cardigan. But she lived in an apartment that was corridors left open between towering walls of stacked yellowing newspapers. She needed to change this because the landlord was coming to inspect. I want to write about her.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Just that I am grateful to you, Deborah, for the attention you bring to new books and their authors. Thank you!!!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Benjamin Schmitt

  

 

 

Benjamin Schmitt is the author of the poetry collection Satan's School for Girls and Other Works. His other books include The Saints of Capitalism. He lives in Seattle. 

 

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

 

A: The title poem took almost 30 years to write, which is not normal for me. Typically, I will spend a year or so jotting down poems, fragments, or just ideas in a journal. Then, when I feel like I have nothing more to write, I will type the contents of the journal and save it on a PC. I then spend another year or two on editing. That was the process for most of the poems in this book.

 

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

 

A: The title “Satan’s School for Girls” came from a group of friends I had as a teenager. We all went to the same high school in the midsize Southern Idaho town of Pocatello.

 

It may surprise folks to know that this town actually had a bit of a music scene in the late ‘90s. There was a venue called the Roche Motel which featured some huge bands such as System of A Down and The Melvins.

 

There was also a bit of religious tension in the town due to the Mormon majority population, the local state university which was obviously more secular, and the other churches in the area who did not always see eye to eye with the LDS community.

 

It all made for an interesting backdrop as one watched a heavy metal performance openly defiant of organized religion. A few of my friends were in a metal band that opened for some major acts and we actually got to party with musicians who later become famous.

 

Our group of friends included some awesome ladies and while one of them played in the band I was trying to convince the rest to start their own. I told them they should call themselves Satan’s School for Girls and I would be their manager.

 

I spent about a year trying to make this happen and nothing came of it but afterwards I kicked the idea around my head for a bit and came up with various stories around it. Eventually, that became the title poem for this new collection.

 

So even though I never convinced my friends to start their own all-girl heavy metal band, I am proud to honor our friendship and their unique spirits in this book.

Q: How did you decide on the order in which the poems would appear in the collection?

 

A: I knew I wanted to start with “Satan’s School for Girls” because not only is it the title poem but it sets the tone for the rest of the collection. Many of the other poems in the book have musical references and one of the themes in “Satan’s School for Girls” is band life and musicianship so I thought it was the best introduction.

 

This is followed by a section of lyric poems because this is the part of the book that most closely resembles my previous work but it is also experimental in some ways, like the works that come after. These lyric poems are really the core of the text for me, so placing them in the middle felt right.

 

“Jobs” comes next. This section feels grounded but it is also experimental since each piece is either a work of prose poetry or flash fiction. I think all of them are both, so I call them flashy poems.

 

This is followed by a series of satirical book reviews which introduce some wackier elements. “The Detective Reichert Chronicles” is the most absurd part of the book as it follows a fictional literary detective and his attempts to root out literary communities and tropes, and the book reviews are a good segue into that.

 

“American History 101” is the final section. This is a work of alternative history and it is meant as a commentary on the history of my country but also the possibilities for its future. I wanted to end on those lessons for readers to consider.

 

Q: The poet Lisa Timpf said of the book, “Full of fresh metaphors and offbeat observations, Satan’s School for Girls and Other Works offers a lot of bang for one’s buck...” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I loved Lisa’s review of the book and folks should give it a read on the Specpo blog. I’m so glad that she found humor in the book.

 

I am currently doing readings for Satan’s School for Girls and Other Works and I have had some great audience laughter. What a relief it is when people laugh at some of these lines. It is also a great connection to have with a reader or an audience member.

 

If you can make someone laugh, it almost feels like they have briefly entered into your soul and you can experience each other, just for a moment. That is a beautiful thing.

 

I am also glad she found freshness in the collection, as I believe one of the jobs of a poet is to innovate with language. And finally, in this hellish economy, if someone says your book is a great bargain, I really can’t think of any higher praise.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Last year my wife died from brain cancer. A few months before she passed, she suggested that I write a book about her and her illness. I feel like I owe that to her and her memory, so I have been working on a book which is largely about her, cancer, grief, and widowhood for the past nine months.

 

Q: I’m so sorry for your loss…

 

Is there anything else we should know?

 

A: I live in Seattle and if you visit our city and would like to eat an amazing plate of fish and chips, I recommend Emerald City Fish and Chips, just a few blocks from my place. Maybe I’ll see you there!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

May 29

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

May 29, 1917: John F. Kennedy born. 

Q&A with J.D. Amato

  

Photo by Sela Shiloni

 

 

J.D. Amato is the author of the new middle grade graphic novel The Endless Game. He is also a television showrunner, and he is based in Astoria, New York.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Endless Game, and how did you create your character Fred?

 

A: Being a kid is complicated! So, I wanted to tell a story that took the feelings of that age and made them real and larger-than-life. And while the story is about a group of kids and their lives, I chose Fred as the lens because when I was his age, I also found myself in a new town, making friends for the first time, and figuring how I fit into the world. So, it felt appropriate to use his point of view to understand this world.

 

Q: What do you think Sophie Morse’s illustrations contributed to the book?

 

A: They are everything! Sophie’s work (and Sara [Calhoun]’s color) is so full of life, character, and warmth— it immerses the reader not only deeper into the story but into the feelings of the world. And beyond illustration, Sophie was a vital voice in helping me work out story and character. This book was a true collaboration between us in every facet.

 

Q: The School Library Journal review of the novel says, “This is an adventurous and fun tale about finding a place to belong to, even when it feels like an impossible task. Amato weaves in underlying messages about fitting in, friendship, and carrying on traditions.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: If readers take away those themes, I think Sophie and I would be ecstatic. Belonging is such an important part of identity— it’s something many of us begin seeking as children and spend our whole lives pursuing in different forms. I would consider it a huge success if our book helped people process that journey.

 

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 tend to write forward! I have an idea of where a story could escalate, but I tend to let the story twist and turn and then ask myself how characters might earnestly respond. As someone who came up as an improvisor, I like it when characters can surprise me as I write!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Sophie and I are already plotting for the next book in the series. I’m also working on a feature film and a few television projects!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: For more updates on the book, follow me @j.d.amato on instagram and Sophie @sopharium!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Max Talley

  

 

 

Max Talley is the author of the new novel Santa Fe Psychosis. His other books include Peace, Love & Haight.  

 

Q: What inspired you to write Santa Fe Psychosis, and how did you create your character Jackson Bardo?

 

A: I had lived in Santa Fe and thought New Mexico would make a good backdrop for a crime story. There are fine Tony Hillerman crime novels set there, but the area hasn't been overused, like say Los Angeles, San Francisco, or New York.

 

I've written crime short stories (which is how the novel started), and my last novel, Peace, Love & Haight, had crime mixed in among the cults, communes, drugs, music, and ‘60s vibes, but I'd always wanted to write a pure detective novel.

 

Jackson Bardo was an attempt to create a flawed protagonist that a reader could eventually relate to. He served in Iraq, and even though the novel takes place at least 10 years after, he is still affected by his time there. Bursts of anger, confusion.

 

As a private investigator, he has trouble with authority, doesn't like taking orders from police officials, and often follows his own inner directives—which gets him in trouble. I like having friction between the detectives, who have to work closely together to solve a case.

 

Q: The book’s subtitle is “A Hardboiled Crime Thriller”--how would you define “hardboiled,” and what are some of your favorites in that genre?

 

A: I tend to think of hardboiled as tense, adult, dark, psychological crime fiction. The stakes are higher, there's more danger. In missing person and kidnapping cases, the longer it takes to locate them, the more likely a victim may already be dead.

 

Hardboiled heroes are often antiheroes, shrouded in moral twilight. Maybe the detective(s) had problems with alcohol or drugs, or was violent in interrogations.

 

Sometimes they might have psychological issues from serving in a war, or suffer depression, or have a trail of broken marriages due to being obsessed with the case they're on. They can be sullen and antisocial loners.

 

They seek justice, but the darkness they've experienced, from whatever happened in their past, has taken them to the edge. They waver between doing things the correct way and achieving their results by any means necessary.

 

Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Jim Thompson are masters. Some favorite hardboiled novels are The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, No Country For Old Men, and Devil in a Blue Dress.

 

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

 

A: Possibly a few levels to the title. There is a released prisoner in the story who seeks revenge against detectives Jackson Bardo and Diego Juarez. He is violent and psychotic.

 

Then there is a general instability among a small percentage of residents. Sort of an outlaw sensibility gone wild, of disobeying traffic laws, rules of civility, the dictates of logic.

 

Beyond that, someone once told me the dating scene was tough in Santa Fe, because the men were all obnoxious jerks and the women were all crazy. A generalization of course, but that played in to my title. And I thought it sounded catchy.

 

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

 

A: I hope I conveyed the raw beauty of New Mexico. There is so much wide open space beyond the scattered cities. The mesas, the buttes, the mountains, lakes, pine and aspen forests, and red rock areas are all very special.

 

There is still an Old West feeling there, that outlaws (or modern day criminals) could hide out in canyons and gulches. Because it's easier to get off the grid there, to lose yourself in time. Is it 2026 or 1986?

  

The issue the detectives have in my book is that they can track down and arrest low-level criminals who kidnap teenagers for a trafficking ring. What's harder is convicting the rich, powerful men (and some women) who fund and run the operation.

 

We see the very same things in our current news, where much of the Epstein Files have been released, but punishing the vile participants hiding behind lawyers, their billions, and the redacted names has proven extremely difficult.

 

Crime novels must have action and suspense, but I wanted to be very specific about the environment, about the psychology of the characters, and also to inject a little philosophy.

 

Two favorite authors, Cormac McCarthy and James Lee Burke are experts at blending all those things together into novels about criminals and detectives. I try to follow—several hundred miles behind—in their giant footsteps.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: A novel called The Duke of Barstow. Evan, a mid-40s travel writer, is assigned an article about California's Inland Empire. Instead, he meets Deke Munsen, the titular character, who is sort of the secret mayor of Barstow. He's a combination back room dealmaker, gambler, life coach, guru, and a con artist.

 

Evan's article grows into a novel about the Duke of Barstow, but Deke Munsen disappears after some of his shady ventures go wrong. Evan's book about him is a success, and the publisher wants a sequel so they can sign a miniseries deal with a TV network.

 

Narrator Evan must search for the missing and presumed dead Deke Munsen through tiny derelict towns of the Mojave Desert. The closer Evan gets to discovering the Duke's true identity, the more he begins to lose his own.

 

It's a surreal road trip adventure into the mind, and about how publishers, writers, and their subjects are all trying to both charm and con each other. Hopefully it's funny. The novel is due to be released at the end of the year.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Thank you for your tireless efforts in interviewing a wide swath of writers about their new books, Deborah. And congratulations on your current mystery novel, Everything She Most Admired. Have you interviewed yourself yet? [Answer: Yes!]

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Max Talley. 

Q&A with Tanja Brown

  

 

 

Tanja Brown is the author of the new memoir Flipping the Script: A Year of Borrowed Time. She is also a school psychologist and an entrepreneur, and she's based in Colorado. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Flipping the Script? 

 

A: I wrote the book for a few reasons. First, for myself, as I wanted to make sense of the choices I made during the relationship. I also wanted to give women perspective on the lives other women live at this age and that our lives do not have to take a societally predetermined path.  

 

I started writing the book to process an emotionally charged decade in my life. I have been aware for a while how few stories exist about women in midlife making unconventional, deeply personal choices, that work for them. The book became about giving voice to those moments, what it may cost you, and whether it was worth it.

 

We need more of our stories out there. We don’t age out of ambition or desire, and we don’t stop being funny, messy, powerful, exhausted, or hopeful. Midlife and post-midlife are not the end of our story; it’s often when the real reckoning begins. And I wanted to tell that story with honesty, self-reflection, and without apology.

 

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

 

A: I chose Flipping the Script because society has long normalized older men dating younger women, while older women in age-gap relationships are often judged differently. The title reflects reversing that narrative and saying it’s okay for women to love and live outside of traditional expectations.

 

The second part of the title, A Decade of Borrowed Time, came from the emotional reality of the relationship. I was 50 when the relationship began, and there was a 26-year age gap between us. I often felt like I was borrowing this man during the best years of his life, and that our time together came with an expiration date. It felt like a gift and something temporary at the same time.

 

Q: How do your experiences as a psychologist and a memoir writer intersect?

 

A: As a school psychologist and board-certified behavior analyst, human behavior has always fascinated me. I believe exposure in life, whether through relationships, travel, hardship, or social change shapes our thinking, emotional responses, and the choices we make.

 

Writing a memoir naturally intersects with my professional background because both involve observing patterns of behavior, self-reflection, emotional resilience, vulnerability, and the way people, including me, adapt, grow, and struggle against societal views.

 

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

 

A: Writing the book was incredibly cathartic for me and gave closure in the sense that it further clarified that my choices were the right ones for me at the time.

 

It allowed me to reflect on not only the relationship itself, but also on aging, identity, love, motherhood, loss, and the ways we evolve through life experiences.

 

Writing the book and receiving feedback from readers also taught me that I may have wrongly approached the life with my then-partner in some ways.

 

I was indeed still very insecure about people my age and how they perceived me while living a life with a man that much younger. I worked hard to become the professional that I am, and outdated stereotypes were certainly affecting me, at least to a small degree. 

 

What I hope readers take away from the book is that life does not end at a certain age, and that love, passion, growth, and self-discovery can happen at any stage of life. I also hope it encourages people to question societal expectations and to live more authentically and fearlessly, true to themselves.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now, I am dedicating 2026 to myself. I am focusing on my health, mental peace, and creating a more authentic and balanced life. I’ve been shedding responsibilities as a business owner and even some relationships, in order to finally breathe more freely as a woman who has entered a new chapter. 

 

Writing the book has been incredibly healing and unexpectedly helped me reconnect with close friends and meaningful relationships that I had lost along the way. Rebuilding those connections has opened many new doors, personally and creatively.

 

I’m also traveling a great deal simply for the joy of it, and I find myself writing every night during my trips, whether it’s ideas, cultural observations, social dynamics, or scenery that may eventually become the backdrop for a thriller I hope to focus on in 2027.

 

At the same time, I am carefully considering if and when I want to share another deeply personal nonfiction work. It would be centered on life with autism within a family, and my experiences as both a mother and an Autism Center ABA provider.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb