Kate Brandes is the author of the new novel Stone Creek. She also has written the novel The Promise of Pierson Orchard. A geologist and environmental scientist, she teaches at Moravian College. She is also an artist, and she lives in Riegelsville, Pennsylvania.
Q: What inspired you to write Stone Creek, and how did you create your character Tilly Stone?
A: I have a longstanding interest in estrangement and abandonment between close family. I’m also interested in institutionalized family dynamics (where children are indoctrinated into a way of thinking and closed off to society in some way, which reinforces the indoctrination – think Educated by Tara Westover).
In my novel, Frank (Tilly’s father) raises her while they live as fugitives on the run from the FBI. She’s therefore brought up outside of regular social structures.
The book opens with Frank’s decision to start living a “normal” life. But then he abandons her just when she’s starting to settle into this new life. The book is about her coming to terms with how she was raised, who her father is, and figuring out who she is without him.
Tilly Stone, the novel’s protagonist, was inspired by so many women who’ve been able to use the sometimes difficult circumstances they find themselves in, particularly when they’re young and have limited agency, as a kind of soil for growth, strength, and for developing a clear sense of self-realization and power.
Q: Did you need to do any research to write the novel, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: Tilly Stone is a woodworker who specializes in high-end Shaker-style furniture. So my research on that aspect of the story included doing a little work in a friend’s wood shop as well as reading about woodworker George Nakashima’s work and Nick Offerman’s book Good Clean Fun: Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Workshop.
I also researched Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), who’s featured in my novel not as a character in the book, but as someone who inspires Frank. I didn’t really know until I started looking that Ted Kaczynski was a kind of environmentalist and has inspired a small anarchist subculture, which is also featured in my book.
Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Tilly and her
father?
A: It’s complicated. They love each other, but they want different things from
life and those things cannot be had if they have a relationship. So they have
to choose between the heightened sense of family they’ve created together in
their relative isolation and the way they need/want to live their lives.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: I write about rural places that feature the natural world. I’ve lived in
such places for most of my life as have much of my family. In my writing, I
strive to depict rural communities well and to, hopefully, therefore help break
down barriers between urban and rural places.
The persistent narratives in society of “rural and urban America” both politically and economically, fan the flames of polarization and discontent. Dividing ourselves like this has negative consequences for people everywhere.
The complexity and diversity of rural areas requires a nuanced understanding of its residents as well as the economic, political, environmental, and historical influences that shape them. So, I hope to bring some of those elements forward in my writing.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on a new novel, a murder mystery, once again set in a small town. I’m too early in the process of drafting the book to say much more about it right now. But I’m excited about the story that’s unfolding!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I think writing about nature and rural landscapes in fiction has traditionally been about the rugged, individualistic, solitary, stoic and masculine. I try to craft stories that feature nature and rural places from a more feminine view, with human vulnerability and a sense of community woven throughout.
Thanks so much for asking about Stone Creek!!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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