Q&A with Janice Deal

 

Photo by David Deal

 

 

Janice Deal is the author of the new novel The Blue Door. Her other books include the story collection Strange Attractors. She lives in the Chicago area.

 

Q: Why did you decide to return to your characters Flo and Teddy in The Blue Door?

 

A: Some characters stick with you, and this was certainly the case with Flo and Teddy. While two stories in my Strange Attractors collection explore the crime Teddy commits as a teen and its immediate aftermath, The Blue Door lets me revisit mother and daughter years later.

In fiction as in real life, events can pull the rug out from under a person and inform the choices they make going forward. Writing often begins with curiosity, and I was deeply curious as to where Flo landed after the events in the Strange Attractors stories.

 

Where was she at, physically and emotionally? How did she see the world—and herself? Flo in particular stayed in my head, and so The Blue Door focuses primarily on her story.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Flo and Teddy?

 

A: There is love there. And tremendous loyalty. These are two individuals for whom life has not turned out exactly how either of them might have expected; consequently, that love and loyalty are expressed in some unconventional, even devastating, ways.

 

Do they completely understand one another? No. Do they love one another? Yes. Is that love complicated? Absolutely.

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

 

A: The blue door appears in stories Flo’s mom told her as a girl, and which Flo continues to tell: to Teddy, to the animals she loves, to her friend B. The idea is that an alternate reality exists beyond the blue door; this is a place where one can imagine what might be. Flo finds this idea extremely comforting.

 

As I worked on the book, the blue door emerged as an important aspect of her efforts to re-define herself in this world as she wrestles with loss, identity, faith, and the promise life holds for transformation and redemption. I often struggle with titles, but this one seemed so clear in the way it represents Flo and the journey she is on.

Q: The writer Ellen Akins said of the book, “This seemingly simple story of a woman trying to come to terms with her daughter's horrendous crime turns into an otherworldly reflection on how to be in the world and what matters...” What do you think of that description?

 

A: It’s . . . perfect. Ellen has always understood my work on a visceral level. I love how she captures a central theme of the book: the connections humans (and animals!) share, and how our actions, and the actions of other beings, can inform how we each perceive our place in the world.

 

The Blue Door invites us into Flo’s orbit and her efforts to understand who she is and what she stands for.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on a series of short stories that explore the idea of death. Life can involve a series of “deaths”: large or small, literal or metaphorical. Death is a natural, inevitable part of life’s cycles, and I’m fascinated by the ways we’re invited to navigate it—and how these death experiences, and their aftermath, can shape us.

 

Some of these stories are a bit experimental. I’ve been flirting more and more with surreal elements.

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: My husband David and I love live music and exploring the many music venues in the Chicago area. We recently saw a new (to us) musician named Geordie Greep. His fearlessness in terms of pushing boundaries and blurring the lines of musical genres has really inspired me in terms of my own work.

 

The Blue Door already represents an experiment of sorts: in the book, Flo and Teddy’s story, grounded in the now and the literal, is braided with a fable that Flo’s mother told her when Flo was a child.

 

The boundaries between the two storylines become increasingly blurred as the book progresses; that “conversation” and the fabulism that results were fun for me to explore.

 

But back to Geordie Greep and the bold choices he makes in his music: the ways in which he breaks “rules” of genre and even presentation captivate me. That creativity and fearlessness remind me to think outside the box in my own work—specifically these new stories.

Deborah, thanks so much for taking time to chat!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Janice Deal.