Q: How did you come up with the idea for The Lightkeepers, and for
your main character, Miranda?
A: The whole thing began with my love of mysteries. A
few years ago, I read everything by Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer and
Dorothy Sayers, and I became enamored with the perfect architecture of a
mystery plot, in which everything that happens has to happen. Even the red
herrings and tangents of the story must be there to enhance the tension and
keep up the suspense.
I knew that I wanted to write my favorite kind of mystery,
which takes place in an enclosed setting with a limited array of
suspects. That idea simmered on a back burner of my brain for a long while
before I began writing The Lightkeepers.
As far as my discovery of Miranda, I came to know her
through her letters. The novel is epistolary - written in the form of
letters Miranda is penning to her dead mother - which gave me a unique window
into her mind. I loved getting to know her through what she chose to write
to her mother and how she chose to describe her daily life.
It's not the easiest way to create a book, and I don't know
that I'd tackle an epistolary novel again, but I really enjoyed this particular
incarnation of that narrative style.
A: I read The Devil's Teeth, a memoir by Susan Casey about
her time on the Farallon Islands, and I fell head-over-heels in love with the
place. It was a perfect setting for The Lightkeepers in so many ways - wild,
filled with marine life, dangerous, strange.
I wanted to write about the relationship between the human
sphere and the natural world, and I wanted to write about nature itself, which
is so vividly present on the islands.
The archipelago is also an enclosed realm in which I could locate
my locked-room mystery. Only the biologists who study the birds, whales,
sharks and seals are allowed to live there. It's not a place where people can
come and go easily.
Setting plays a huge role in everything I write. Until
I have a vivid sense of place, the story is still half-formed. I have to
be able to step onto the landscape and fill my senses with every detail. Then
I can start making the plot and discovering the characters.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started
writing, or did you make many changes along the way?
I knew the beats of the plot from the beginning - even
before I began writing the book - but it took me a good while to figure out the
emotional arc of each of the characters. This is typical of my writing
process; I often know the sequence of events (the what) a long time before I
know the meaning behind it (the why).
Throughout the process of revision, I needed a lot of
patience and time and soul-searching and, of course, intensive work with my
wonderful editor, Dan Smetanka.
Q: How was the book’s title selected, and what does it
signify for you?
A: The lightkeepers were the inhabitants of the Farallon
Islands many years ago. They worked the lighthouse and lived in
deprivation and extreme circumstances, surrounded by nature.
I like to think of them keeping the light itself - not just
protecting the ships at sea and the islands themselves, but also living in
harmony with the animals around them, never taking too much, only what they
needed to survive.
To my mind, they represent humanity's best self - the best
version of who we can be in our relationship to the natural world.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: A new novel. Wish me luck!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: The Lightkeepers will be out in paperback this winter,
and I highly encourage everyone to buy at least 10 copies.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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