Hays Blinckmann is the author of the new novel Tiny Little Earthquakes. Her other books include In the Salt. She lives in Key West, Florida.
Q: In Tiny Little Earthquakes’ acknowledgments, you write, “So I’ll answer what I know will be everyone’s biggest question: Was this story true? Yes--mostly.” Can you say more about that, and about how you balanced fiction and memoir as you wrote the book?
A: I initially wrote much of Tiny Little Earthquakes as a memoir, but it wasn’t working. I felt like I was shouting anecdotes at the reader (tiresome). I wanted a stronger story, with a proper arc and cadence that would keep the reader engaged.
I switched gears. I spent a year reworking the initial draft. Elliot, the main character, acted as a more effective catalyst for the other characters. Then I added fictional scenes to serve as bridges between the major events.
It was more important to create a good novel than push a crappy childhood on a reader. In the end, it was more emotionally satisfying for me. I do love a good work of art.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: I wait until I write something, a phrase or word that strikes me. There is a paragraph in which Elliot says her life is built on “tiny little earthquakes.” And that rang so true—all of her trauma was based on a multitude of smaller events, not one big catastrophe.
And every time Elliot readjusted and got her footing, another calamity would happen, usually caused by an outside force like her mother and sister. The title sets the tone for the whole book.
Q: Did you need to do any research to write the book, or did most of it come from your own memories?
A: Mainly, I got to research the '80s and loved it. I had to Google things like “TOP TEN 1986” sitcoms, movies, trends, etc., to make sure my memory matched up. I firmly believe Gen X is timestamped by the entertainment of our time.
Also, interesting, I did find my great-grandparents in the New York society pages — I describe their divorce, “Darlington charged his wife with having flirted on their honeymoon, with smoking cigarettes in public, with association with undesirable persons, with telling him she did not love him, and with declaring she was sorry she was the mother of his child.” Those were real charges!
Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
A: I want readers to relate specifically to a young girl trying to tell the world, “she’s fine.” Elliot was, and she wasn’t, and that’s very much a part of the Gen X culture.
We raised ourselves, and did the best we could, but we were just kids, navigating the adult world without a lot of guidance. We come with the disclaimer, “Don’t fault us if we aren’t perfect.”
But that doesn’t mean we are off the hook. In real life, I had to take ownership of the hidden resentment I had toward my parents because I actually wasn’t fine. Elliot’s agency is realizing what does and does not serve her in life and how to move past her parents’ shortcomings.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: It’s called “What If, Otis Bell.” This is the first time I follow a main character, Otis, through the span of a life. Otis has a special gift for being emotionally intuitive and empathetic, which both helps and hinders him. Because of his innate sensitivity, his life has taken many directions since birth, and he, like most of us, constantly questions, “What if?”
Q: Anything else we
should know?
A: While my subject matter leans toward the more serious afflictions of our humanness, I am not that dark! In fact, I take comedy and being an entertainer equally seriously. I won’t take you down without bringing you back up again. Inappropriate humor is the bloodline of both my real and fictional life. And I don’t do sex scenes. Eww.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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