Victoria Tatum is the author of the new novel More Than Any River. She also has written the novel The Virgin's Children. She lives in Santa Cruz, California.
Q: What inspired you to write More Than Any River?
A: The Sacramento Delta first captured my heart in high school, when each year in May my best friend sailed with her family on their 28-foot sloop north from San Francisco into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and up the San Joaquin to a little slough where they docked on an island for the summer.
I was invited to spend weekends with them sleeping under the stars on the deck of the boat, and cooking outdoors over coals in the communal kitchen. We would jump into the water for relief from the summer heat, and when decades later I found out the delta was no longer the safest for swimming, I wanted to know why.
In reading in the San Francisco Chronicle about how delta water is apportioned I found my answer.
Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: I read many online articles and articles in the San Francisco Chronicle. I read stacks of books, the most influential of which were Robert Kelley’s Battling the Inland Sea, Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert, and Mark Arax’s books about Central Valley agribusiness. Lundberg Family Farms served as a model for the rice farm in my novel.
I was surprised to discover that Democrats are not necessarily environmentalists, and that Fish and Wildlife and certain environmental organizations have ties that are not always aligned with conservation.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: The first decision I had to make was whether to have flood or drought be the predominant concern in the novel. I chose drought, since it is most indicative of conditions in the West.
After I finished the bulk of my research and before I got too far into writing, I decided how the story would end. In reality the state could be studying and planning for the Tunnel(s) for decades to come, but I wanted an ending to my novel that showed what the impact of those tunnels would be.
Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
A: Turning nonfiction into fiction was the most challenging aspect of writing the novel and the reason it took me 10 years.
I became engrossed in water stories happening all over the state, like the Round Valley Tribe’s fight to stop the Bureau of Reclamation from putting in a dam on the Eel River that would have drowned their valley.
I wrote long historical accounts of California infrastructure that my agent slogged through, then rightly told me to take out. My husband, who reads plot-driven novels, read an early version and told me I needed to emphasize the rivalry of the warring water factions.
In my rewrite I drew out the conflict without sacrificing the complexity, and while it hurt to do so, I cut out the Eel River story. The result was a better novel.
I want readers to see there’s a way we can use water in the West that can benefit both humans and the environment.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am looking for an agent for my memoir, which is about how the outdoors helped my husband Blue and me raise two children, including one with autism, to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing world.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I hope readers will order my novel from their local bookstores. The ones I have reached out to have been generous about hosting an event, so readers, if you can make one of those, let’s show our local bookstores how much we appreciate the community they create through reading.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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