Q&A with Evie Woods

  

 

 

Evie Woods is the author of the new novel The Violin Maker's Secret. Her other books include The Lost Bookshop. She lives on the West Coast of Ireland. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Violin Maker's Secret, and how did you create your characters Devlin, Walter, and Gabrielle?

 

A: The idea grew from a constellation of things, as my novels often do.

 

A few years ago, I was watching a TV show set in Dingle, Ireland, where singers and bands come from all around the world to play in a tiny church.

 

In an interview, one musician spoke about how he had inherited his instrument from another musician, which would then be passed on to someone else when his career ended. This got me thinking about the provenance of instruments, who they belong to and just imagining, what if they could tell their own story...

 

Then I read Gone: A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung, a compelling book by the world-famous violinist Min Kym. It details the theft of her priceless violin from a cafe in London and the aftermath of that.

 

Finally, I heard an old ballad called "The Two Sisters," which is a story of betrayal, death and ultimately retribution. But you’ll have to read the book to see how that fits in, as I don’t want to spoil it!

 

Somehow, all of these elements came together in a story that explores music, mystery and magic.

 

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

 

A: I really enjoyed researching all of the violin lore and just when I thought I had everything I needed, I would find something even more spectacular!

 

I studied musicianship in school, so I relished revisiting some of my favorite composers and uncovering new aspects to their life stories. Documentaries are always a great source of information and I found some intriguing ones on unsolved art theft and the history of Cremona’s luthiers.

 

Of course online research can end up being the largest of rabbit holes, but that’s where I sourced much information on Paganini and the various violinists who I reference in the book.

 

I don’t like to read too much fiction when I’m writing, but The Lost Stradivarius by John Meade Faulkner was a wonderful jumping off point for me, as was The Weight of a Piano by Chris Cander.

 

I think what surprised me the most was discovering the existence of the “Irish Stradivarius,” a man called Thomas Perry, who had a workshop in Dublin. I never imagined that Ireland, struggling under colonial rule, was home to a luthier, so that was a wonderful discovery.

 

Q: What do you see as the role of magic in the book?

 

A: For me, magical realism presents characters with a catalyst for change by encountering something outside of their normal, everyday experience. As a novelist, it is my favorite element to write, because I get to truly play and let my imagination run wild.

 

In this book, the real magical moments in my books are when the characters see things differently, or from a different perspective for the first time and that can really change the trajectory of their story.

 

The magic of the violin is that she allows each character to see themselves and who they are, beyond their story. She helps them to find their true voice and ultimately transform painful pasts into a brighter future, not in spite of their experience, but because of it. And that is essentially a power that each of us can tap into.

 

I like to use magical realism as a device to spark that awareness within my characters and even though they might not be able to change what's happened to them, they can change who they want to be. They are the heroes of their own story.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamics among your three protagonists?

 

A: Ah yes, I just love the interplay between these three! It was important to me that they were all rather reluctant adventurers!

 

As the reader, you can see that their lives aren’t exactly “thriving” and that they need some form of catalyst to change things, but how many of us actually volunteer for a challenge? Especially one that is bound to cause trouble. So I really enjoyed coaxing them along and watching them flourish as the journey goes on.

 

They are all quite different - age, gender and social class, so to have them united by one common goal allowed space for some interesting character development.

 

Ultimately, they are each bound by a primal fear and have become stuck in protection mode. With the magic of the violin, they (again, reluctantly!) allow strangers into their lives and this process of friendship begins to work in a cathartic way.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Next up is a new edition of my very first novel, The Heirloom. My publisher, HarperCollins, has been republishing my backlist under my pseudonym, Evie Woods, and it has been a wonderful opportunity to revisit my novels with fresh eyes and re-introduce them to the world.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I have just hit a major career milestone - my books have now sold over 2 million copies globally!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Deborah Goodrich Royce

  

 

 

 

 

Deborah Goodrich Royce is the author of the new novel Best Boy. Her other books include Reef Road. She is the creator of the Ocean House Author Series in Rhode Island. 

 

Q: You’ve said that an inspiration for your new novel was hearing from someone you worked with but did not remember. Can you say more about that?

 

A: A couple years ago, I received an email that began, “Do you remember me? I was your best boy on Survival Game.” As you can probably imagine, it caught my attention! The phrasing sounded borderline scandalous when, in fact, “best boy” is a job on a film, and Survival Game is a movie I did way back when I was an actress.

 

The email went on to detail touchpoints in our (unremembered by me!) shared experience at that time. He spoke of a Thanksgiving dinner we had together and later running into each other at the Cannes Film Festival. There, he said, I was holding a baby and he wondered for a moment if the child was his. But he clarified by saying, “but I knew that would not have been possible.”

 

After picking myself up off of the proverbial floor, I googled this fellow and found that he was legitimate. He had worked in the movie business. He had gone on to a writing career, much as I had done.

 

So there was nothing untoward in his email, but no matter how hard I tried, I didn’t remember him at all. I remembered doing that film. I remembered going to the Cannes Film Festival with my then-husband and baby, Alexandra. Just not him.

 

The genesis of Best Boy came from my subsequent meditations on memory and its fallibility and the fact that we do not all remember the same things.

 

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

 

A: Best Boy is a title that can be read at multiple levels. Rather than being a double entendre, it is a triple entendre (if such a thing exists!).

 

First, it refers to the best boy on a movie set, the thing Mark Remington claims to be in his mysterious letters to Viveca. Next, it signifies Sebastian Waldron, the brilliant, misunderstood teenage brother of Ingrid’s best friend, Em. And finally, it stands for Theo, Viveca’s sweet son and perhaps her chance at redemption.

 

Each one of these “boys” is instrumental in the trajectory of Ingrid/Viveca’s life for good or for ill.

 

Q: The author Victoria Christopher Murray said of the book, “Best Boy is a haunting, propulsive novel about the cost of secrets and the past’s refusal to stay buried.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Let me begin by saying that I am a HUGE fan of Victoria and her novels! And it is because of her ability to write with nuance and subtlety about the complex decisions and inevitable mistakes that human beings make that I wanted her to read Best Boy.

 

There are costs to secrets and, despite the fact that nearly all of us know that, still we find ourselves keeping them. Ingrid undergoes a severe trauma as a teenager. She judges herself harshly for how she handles it and, consequently, she buries the past. Whether it is conscious or unconscious is almost beside the point. And that past pops up like a nightmarish whack-a-mole game in the present.

 

So I am deeply appreciative of Victoria’s endorsement of this morally knotty novel.

 

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

 

A: Ah, how to answer this without giving away the plot! In short, I thought I knew how Best Boy would end very early on in the writing process. But somehow along the way, I questioned my direction.

 

I have been called the “queen of the plot twist” in the past. But a plot twist—no matter how extreme—has to be organic. Even if readers don’t see it coming—and hopefully they won’t—when it does come they have to have that moment of saying, “Of course!” It cannot be so outrageous that the reader ends up throwing the book across the room.

 

Without going into detail, suffice it to say that I was headed down a path that I simply could not justify and I changed course.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now I am working on a ghost story! But a really fun “Ghost and Mrs. Muir meets Agatha Christie” kind of ghost story.

 

My mother died a year and a half ago and I am finding this a really difficult loss. That said, I also feel her with me a lot and I find myself almost imbibing her essence as I go forward as now the oldest generation in my own family.

 

My mother had a very straightforward quality about her. She did not mince words. And she was often very funny, which is the quality I miss most about her.

 

So let me just say I am working on a mother-daughter mystery where one of the characters just happens to not be inhabiting her physical body anymore!

 

Q: I'm so sorry for your loss...

 

Is there anything else we should know?

 

A: Writing is such an extraordinary process in which thoughts, feelings, words, plots come to you and through you. I am loving this journey so much…both the act of writing, which is naturally solitary, and the amazing relationships that have evolved with other writers over the years.

 

Two of my favorite ways of connecting with my fellow authors are: 1. Hosting the Ocean House Author Series in Watch Hill, Rhode Island where I get to interview the best and the brightest in our literary landscape and 2. Co-hosting the Deer Mountain Writers’ Retreat in the Catskill Mountains of New York State where I get to write all day and socialize with my favorite writers every evening.  

 

The writer’s road is always interesting and I feel very fortunate to be on it!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Deborah Goodrich Royce. 

Q&A with Kara Thom

  

 

Kara Thom is the author of the new middle grade novel Sweet, Tart. Her other books include the Go! Go! Sports Girls series. She lives in Minnesota. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Sweet, Tart, and how did you create your character Halle?

 

A: I mention in my author’s note at the end of the book that, like Halle, I witnessed a racehorse break down at a track. It was hard to “unsee” and to process the emotions I turned to writing. What followed was a narrative poem. Then an essay. Then, about six months later, I started a story for children.

 

I started what-ifing. What if the stables that used to exist near my home were still there? And what if that racehorse had been born and raised there? And what if a young girl went to inquire in person? And what if? And what if?

 

Halle is a product of my own processing and the need to create something beautiful from a tragedy. And like me, Halle does so much of her emotional processing through poetry.

 

Although, I’d say in the 10 years of writing this story she was written and rewritten so many times she became a separate and complete person, with her own characteristics, curiosities, and reactions.

 

I think so much of how writers develop a protagonist is in how they relate to other characters in the story and in many ways Halle comes into her own as she interacts with her sister, her new friends, her dog, and with Rocky, the pony.

 

Q: How would you describe the relationship between Halle and Rocky?

 

A: Halle longs for connection and she doesn’t have any expectations for that to come from a pony.

 

I think in a lot of “horse books” for children the main character is a horse-person—that is, a person familiar with horses and already has a special bond with a particular horse. Halle doesn’t have any of that, so her love of all things equine develops throughout the book.

 

Rocky is distant because he’s lost his best friend and slowly, slowly, he connects with her and she with him and they come to belong together.

 

Q: The Booklist review of the novel says, “A mix of heartwarming hope and soul-gripping grief, Thom’s narrative offers middle-grade readers emotional heft while still meeting them at their level and addressing questions they might have.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I’m honored. That I was able to write both the “soul-gripping grief” and “heartwarming hope” in such a way that readers might feel that as profoundly as I do brings me an enormous sense of satisfaction and great relief!

 

I also love that Sweet, Tart is described as having “emotional heft.” I occasionally substitute in a middle school media center and know kids who are reading middle grade are living through big emotions that don’t necessarily come from “Capital T” trauma, but just day-in-day-out stuff that can still be quite impactful on a young person feeling these feels for the first time. 

 

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 thought I knew what was going to be the final scene early on. Then my manuscript fell into the hands of a fabulous editor (shout out to Kate Fletcher at Candlewick) who helped me take the story beyond what I had in mind, and I’m grateful for all of her suggestions and nudges that carried throughout the entire manuscript.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: In addition to getting into a middle school media center occasionally, I also work part-time as a bookseller for an independent bookstore, which allows me access to the latest and greatest books for children as well as the opportunity to talk to young readers about what kind of books interest them.

 

That keeps me inspired! I have three new middle-grade stories that are in various stages of creation. Sometimes I get a chance to put on my grown-up poet hat and work on the poetry manuscript that I hope to get published someday, too.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: As much as this is a story about horses and dogs, sisters and friends, it is also about the importance of creative expression, and for me specifically, a love letter to poetry. I am so proud to have been able to showcase some of my favorite poets and their poems, including Ada Limón, Ross Gay, and Connie Wanek.

 

The interactions between Halle and her teacher Mrs. Delgado encapsulate the discovery and wonder that I’ve experienced reading and learning about poetry. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Feb. 24

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Feb. 24, 1943: Kent Haruf born.

Q&A with Susanne Paola Antonetta

  

 

 

Susanne Paola Antonetta is the author of the new book The Devil's Castle: Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today. Her other books include The Terrible Unlikelihood of Our Being Here. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Devil’s Castle?

 

A: That’s an interesting question, as the book itself changed as I went along. I started out writing about Paul Schreber, a German judge institutionalized for life in the late 1800s. He litigated his own release and in the process became what I call the greatest advocate for the mad.

 

Schreber didn’t demand release on the grounds that he wasn’t insane. He said what others experienced as his insanity was a transformative experience, deeply spiritual. The five judges, who released him, became five of his biggest fans.

 

I began researching the Nazi euthanasia program as Schreber’s asylum, Sonnenstein, was used as a killing facility in 1940 and 1941.

 

I also discovered Nazi survivor Dorothea Buck in 2019, when she died at the age of 102. I was well into the book by then, but Buck was such an incredible woman, she kind of took over. She was forcibly sterilized at the age of 19 due to her diagnosis of schizophrenia and remained an activist until her death.

 

The story of Buck and Schreber, and the way German pre-war medicine has influenced contemporary U.S. psychiatry, became the heart of the book. Then I was stuck for several years due to covid—I had research trips to do but places were shut down, people unavailable. The book then became more personal and meditative, though still deeply researched.

 

Q: Can you say more about how you researched the book? What did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: I did multiple trips to Germany and visited Sonnenstein and other sites important to the euthanasia program. I also interviewed Germans who had known and worked with Buck.

 

That a euthanasia program existed in Germany, and preceded as well as helped create the Holocaust, shocked me—the extent of it, the lack of acknowledgment and reparations for it.

 

And then it shocked me that U.S. medicine was still able to look at a character like German doctor Emil Kraepelin—who had as students many Nazi doctors—and say, Hey, let’s revive him and bring back his thinking.

 

As counterbalance, many stories of those who behaved heroically emerged—those are the good shocks. Dorothea Buck, prosecutors like Fritz Bauer, David Rosenhan, who faked madness to get admitted to a psych hospital in 1969 and expose what went on there. That people behave badly we understand. Such heroism on the other hand is wondrous.

 

Q: The author Anil Seth said of the book, “Poetic, shocking, darkly illuminating, and deeply optimistic--The Devil's Castle offers a powerful rallying cry for us to cherish the diversity of minds that enrich our societies and our worlds. An important and timely book.” What do you think of that assessment?

 

A: Honestly, it’s one of my favorites! I think one thing that doesn’t always come across in a brief description of The Devil’s Castle is its profound optimism. We have the knowledge and the tools we need to not just reduce the emotional distress in our country, but to make our relationships with our minds far more positive and healthy.

 

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

 

A: Paul Schreber, when he was forcibly brought to Sonnenstein asylum, called it “the Devil’s castle.” The institution, with its fall from being the premier European asylum to a killing center in a little over a century, illustrates how badly mind care can go wrong—even when we think it’s becoming more “modern.” That movement seemed to capture so much of what I’m writing about.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I can’t say why exactly, but two years ago I moved to Asheville and was here for the aftermath of tropical storm Helene. The damage was devastating, and in the wake of it—and helping out with the recovery efforts—I’ve been working more on poetry.

 

I pulled out a project I started several decades ago, after some tragedies happened close to me. The poems are about the importance of human existence, even in lives that seem maybe less than impactful.

 

I’m also working on a book about Shakespeare and the way he uses mad characters and fools in the plays. I don’t know a writer who did better at creating neurodiverse characters, or who recognized their value more.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I would say that for those suffering mentally or emotionally, or those who have loved ones that are—there’s much hope. Understand what we’re doing now is only one way of looking at things and influenced by many factors other than the good of the patient. Use my book or other books to understand there are many other ways to emerge stronger from those dark places.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Susanne Paola Antonetta. 

Q&A with Seth Panitch

  

 

 

Seth Panitch is the author of the new novel Antique. He is also a playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker, and is a professor of theatre at the University of Alabama. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Antique, and how did you create your character Grace?

 

A: I’ve always had a healthy obsession (at least I think it’s healthy) with Antiques Roadshow.

 

During the initial Covid lockdowns in 2020, I attempted sanity by getting on the elliptical in between the digital agony of the Zoom classes I was teaching, and was riveted by a particular episode I was watching while working out.

 

It was an older gentleman with an old but colorful rug, and when he was told that it was a Chimayo Rug worth $250,000, sheets of tears streamed down his face—not for the monetary value itself, but that someone was valuing his family at that number.

 

Although I was so thankful we have arts and organizations that can do that for people, I wondered why we can never seem to derive that value ourselves, without outside influence, and that was the seed of Antique.

 

Grace, to me, is a compilation on the women I have known (or heard tales of) on my mother’s side of the family. Many of them were in the arts, or were consumed with a passionate understanding of art’s effect on us.

 

Of course, I used images of the spectacular appraisers on Antiques Roadshow to fill her out, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that much of my own blood runs in her.

 

Q: The writer Gwendolyn Womack said of the book, “Panitch's captivating debut is a treasure trove full of magic, a grand adventure through the world of antiques, and a powerful appraisal on the resilience of the human heart.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: First off, it is a tremendous honor when anyone finds that sort of personal resonance in my writing, and perhaps even more so when it is a writer of Gwendolyn’s magnitude.

 

Her comment about the resilience of the human heart is precisely what I was after—I think in times of crisis and loss, we have a great facility with identifying what is failing within us, but we are less adept at identifying what still works; what might give succor to the darker shades of the moment.

 

There was something personally uplifting about writing such a journey, so perhaps that was my own much-needed reminder of how resilient my own heart can be.

 

And, of course, I’ve always dreamed in magic and adventure (in my sleeping hours as well as certain math classes), and if that can somehow come through the page and take readers on a similar journey, I’d be only too happy!

 

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

 

A: Oh, yes. Well, to be more specific, I knew the “zip code” of the ending, just not the exact house number, of that makes sense. I like to be surprised when I write, particularly climactic sequences or endings, but I need a very firm structure to have those inspirational improvisations, so I knew the facts of the ending, just not how to get there, or what the results of it would be.

 

I do make changes from my outline when I write—sometimes, something will happen within a scene and it necessitates a different scene than the one that might follow in my outline, so I let it lead me. So far, it has always led me back to my outline…after many, many pages, sometimes, of course.

 

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

 

A: I hope they are able to see themselves in Grace, regardless of where they are in life, or who they are—to value themselves as she does throughout her journey.

 

I’d love them to see a similar magic in their own lives—in the forgotten parts of themselves, in their getting older, in their failings as well as their successes.

 

Mostly, of course, I want them to enjoy the ride, to be refreshed in the adventure of rediscovery.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My next novel! It’s takes place in the world of music—of singer/songwriters, and it follows a musician failing in performance and in love, as he struggles to play the exquisite music of both.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’m a middle-aged dog learning a very new trick. I’ve been a professional actor/director/writer/professor in Theatre for my entire life, and I didn’t type my first word of fiction until I was 53. If I can do it…so can you!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Helen Kemp Zax

  

 

 

Helen Kemp Zax is the author of the new children's picture book Little Bunny's To-Do List. She also has written the book Little Witch's To-Do List. She is also a lawyer and an educator.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Little Bunny’s To-Do List?

 

A: Little Bunny’s To-Do List is the second book in the Magical List Series. I wrote the first poem, Little Witch’s To-Do List, in response to a submission call from Highlights. At the suggestion of a poet friend, I added a few stanzas to make the manuscript picture-book length.

 

My editor Meredith Mundy bought Little Witch’s To-Do List as part of a series deal. She and the Abrams team decided which characters and holidays they wanted to feature in the later books. Little Bunny’s To-Do List became the second book in our now four-book series.

 

Q: What do you think Kiersten Eve Eagan’s illustrations add to the story?

 

A: Everything! Kiersten’s illustrations are charming, funny, and filled with incredible detail. She captures the spirit of my very short lines of poetry and brings them to adorable life. Little children love poring over illustrations. Kiersten always gives our little “readers” a vivid world to explore.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book says, “Easter fun delivered along with sound advice for staying on top of necessary tasks.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Each of the Magical List Series books ends with a surprise. The character’s completed to-do list lies hidden behind an illustration feature. Then the final page asks the question, “What’s on YOUR to-do list?” This query offers a gentle introduction to the concepts of organization and planning.

 

Kiersten, Meredith, the whole Abrams team, and I worked to fill Little Bunny’s To-Do List with Easter fun. So, yes! The lovely Kirkus review does capture the essence of our book.

 

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

 

A: I truly hope kids who read our book come away feeling that the world can be a magical place.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I just finished revising the fourth book in the Magical List Series—Little Leprechaun’s To-Do List—and submitting a few poems to magazines and anthology calls. Now I hope to revisit and revise a novel-in-verse I wrote during Covid.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I like to tell aspiring writers to keep doing the work and keep believing in their work. My series deal was a total surprise. You never know when a wonderful editor will see your work and understand what was in your heart when you put words to paper.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb