Betsy James is the author of the new novel Practicing to Be Lightning. Her other books include Breathing Stone. She lives in New Mexico.
Q: What inspired you to write Practicing to Be Lightning?
A: I’m from New Mexico, a desert hiker and a compulsive journaler. I had 30 years of detailed entries on the backcountry wilderness that I love and that few people know. Naively, I thought, “Look at these great adventures! It would be easy to use them in a portal novel …”
Then, of course, I hit rough terrain. Ethically, I couldn’t write about the land without its indigenous peoples. I’d taught at Zuni Pueblo for decades, but that didn’t give me the right—or the skill—to speak as an indigenous character. So I did my best, and relied on native friends to read drafts and straighten me out. It was quite a journey.
Q: The author Molly Gloss said of the book, “Rarely have I seen the worlds of the real and the fantastic evoked with such beauty and truth.” What do you think of that assessment, and what did you see as the best balance between the real and the fantastic as you wrote the novel?
A: Molly is a master of literary fabulism, a friend of Ursula K. Le Guin; her admiration feels like the best gift I could be given. What I was after was also a coexistence of “the real and the fantastic.” Gloss’s praise makes me feel that maybe I’ve done it right.
Q: How did you create your characters Ben and Trace, and how would you describe the dynamic between them?
A: Characters aren’t necessarily “created.” They show up—and often turn out to be parts of oneself. I grew up in a scientific family that was fantasy-intolerant: Ben. Yet I was by nature an artist and a metaphorist: Trace.
Most fantasy has an unspoken “thought experiment” that drives the story. This one was, “If the very different psyches of these two young people were to unconsciously create a world, what would it be like? What would happen?” That’s the dynamic, and the world beyond the portal.
The portal itself is subtle, by the way. I wanted it to feel like getting disoriented in the wilderness—something I’m all too familiar with.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: In this case, as so often, a line of text jumps out and you say, “That’s it.” What it signifies? No spoilers!
Q: What are you working on now?
A: A serious but rollicking mainstream novel: A woman recovering from an abusive marriage meets an eccentric herpetologist at a Southern Utah campground. What could go wrong—? The title is Rattler: a novel. With an index. And yes, it has an index.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: If you enjoy the peace and strangeness of desert hiking, try my website, www.betsyjames.com. I post small events and details under “Walking All Day On Stone.” We all need a little quiet and a sense of this ancient earth.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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