Q:
How did you come up with the idea for Trial by Family, and for your cast of
characters?
A:
I went through a similar family experience many years ago––an inheritance
battle involving my father’s second wife, me and my siblings, which went all
the way to a jury trial, transforming everyone involved. I wanted to explore
the fraught situation: how a crisis clarifies and sometimes exacerbates
long-standing relationship challenges.
Some
of the characters are loosely based on people I knew. Others are entirely
fictionalized. Because the story is told from multiple points of view––I am
inside the heads of nine people, an impossibility in real life–– even those
characters that have some basis in my personal story, are invented.
Q:
Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you
make changes along the way?
A:
I did not know how Trial by Family would end before I began writing. I did know,
however, that it wouldn’t end the way the real situation concluded. My goal was
to follow each character’s journey to its organic and logical conclusion, which,
as I had hoped, took the story in directions that surprised even me.
Q:
As you mentioned, the story is told from various characters’ points of view.
Did you write it in the order in which it appears, or did you focus more on one
character at a time?
A:
I did both. In the first draft, I worked to structure the story so that each
chapter was told by the person most impacted by the circumstances described in
it and to move through the plot in order, i.e., the sister who receives the
inciting phone call, the attorney who must handle an unwanted trial, the
housekeeper who witnesses key information.
Then
I printed out a hard copy of the draft , sat on my study floor and cut and amassed
each character’s chapters/sections in piles, in order to ascertain whether or
not their individual trajectories built strongly enough to both move the story
forward and to deepen the reader’s understanding of that person. I addressed
what I discovered during this process in the second and third drafts, pumping
up some of the character’s actions, playing down others.
Q:
What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A:
Many of us have family struggles with love, money, greed, and need, and many
have a hard time dealing with sibling rivalry and forgiveness. I hope that Trial
by Family gives readers a glimpse into the interior lives of a family under
duress and that this fictional peek at different perspectives helps them
understand what families leave, inherit and, for each member’s well-being, must
let go.
In
order to move on from a crisis, from past wounds, and to finally earn genuine
adulthood, the sibling protagonists publicly defend themselves. In so doing,
they gain self-mastery and better understand each other.
Practically
speaking, the novel is also a cautionary tale for anyone, old or young, dealing
with or anticipating estate issues.
Q:
What are you working on now?
A:
I’m working on a memoir, tentatively titled Almost, My Life in the Theater–on
ambition, failure, and the drive to create. It covers my first passion, acting,
from childhood all the way through my encounters with four Oscar-winners.
Q:
Anything else we should know?
A:
I love to hear from readers, and I love to meet with book clubs, either in
person or via FaceTime. If you read and enjoyed Trial by Family, want to share
your thoughts, or have a book group you’d like me to speak with, do feel free
to contact me at roselee@roseleeblooston.com.
And if you are so inclined, please post an Amazon
or a Goodreads
review. Much appreciated. Thank you!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Roselee Blooston.
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