Photo by Ric Griffith
Sandra K. Griffith is the author of the new novel One Beautiful Year of Normal. She is a psychologist, and she lives in West Virginia and in Georgia.
Q: What inspired you to write One Beautiful Year of Normal, and how did you create your character August?
A: I've always remembered wanting to have a career both as a psychologist and a writer, but it wasn’t until I read a Jonathan Kellerman novel as a graduate student in the early '90s that I realized it was possible to have a foot in both worlds. (Jonathan Kellerman is a psychologist whose fictional character is as well.)
As an avid reader of coming-of-age stories, psychological thrillers, and family sagas, I wanted to write something that combined genres. I just regret it took me so long to do it!
I’ve been a psychologist for over 30 years with a busy practice that has primarily focused on children and adults who experience severe, debilitating issues, some of which present in unusual ways. The mother-daughter dynamic in One Beautiful Year of Normal was shaped by this.
The devastating effects of mental illnesses are not confined to the people who suffer from them. They spill over to everyone around them, and in August’s case, change the entire trajectory of her life.
Q: The author Suzanne Simonetti said of your novel, “Moving and mysterious, One Beautiful Year of Normal is a riveting family drama which takes a hard look at unchecked psychological issues that can ricochet through the generations. What do you think of that description?
A: When I read that my first thought was I wish I’d written it! I understand why she’s a bestselling author!
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The book was submitted with a different title, but Brooke Warner from She Writes Press called and suggested this one. It’s a line from the book and references the main character as a woman in her early 30s realizing for the first time that the only normal period in her life was the year she lived with her aunt when she was 12 years old.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing, or did you make changes along the way.
A: I wrote the first chapter first, then the last, and worked my way through it from there. I then rewrote every word at least a dozen times.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m just finishing a second book, which is a much faster-paced psychological thriller. It is not a sequel, but there are some crossover characters.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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