ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
June 3, 1926: Allen Ginsberg born.
Friday, June 3, 2022
Thursday, June 2, 2022
Q&A with Devi S. Laskar
Devi S. Laskar is the author of the new novel Circa. Her other books include the novel The Atlas of Reds and Blues. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
Q: What inspired you to write Circa, and how did you create your character Heera?
A: I began this story in the 1990s in New York when I was a graduate student. I was inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, and writing about a series of friendships, most especially with my good friend Susan whom I met years before in Illinois.
Sadly, Susan was diagnosed with acute leukemia -- after two bone marrow transplants, she died. I had to set aside this story. In 2010, through no fault of my own, I lost my computer and the bulk of my work, including this novel.
When I finally came back to this book after my debut novel was published in 2019, I still loved my two main characters but I had changed as a person and a writer. Now I wanted to write a story as it intersected with patriarchy, identity, assimilation and how to come to terms with grief.
So I kept Heera, adopted the second person narrator so as to collapse the distance between reader and narrator and let everything else go.
Q: The author Janet Fitch called the book “A subtle exploration of fate and free will.” What roles do you see fate and free will playing in the novel?
A: Such a good question! I think for a lot of immigrant families, there is a battle between “destiny” and “free will” – someone in the family (a parent, a grandparent) made a choice to leave home and start anew: in Heera’s case, her parents.
Once a certain amount of stability and success had been achieved, then the default position of Heera’s parents was to revert back to more traditional perspectives and values, such as “fate.” It is a struggle that Heera has to contend with, and ultimately, balances.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The novel has always held this title. Circa is the historical marker when someone doesn’t know the exact date of something, such as “The first man walked on the moon circa 1970.”
Marie’s story is cut short, she will not be in the history books, and later all of the specific details of her life will be blurred. So I wanted to title the book Circa to give readers a chance to think about the people in their lives that made a difference but won’t make it in to the history books.
Q: Another assessment, from the writer Maya Shanbhag Lang, says, “Here is a coming-of-age novel about family expectations and hyphenated identities, about what it means to grow up in an America that does not always want you, about having parents who don't always want America, and the ripple effects of that ambivalence.” What do you think of that description?
A: Maya’s description is spot-on. Being the American child of immigrants is complex as well as complicated. There are so many hierarchies to navigate. I think Maya described those feelings beautifully.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m writing my third novel, Midnight, at the War, which Mariner Books will publish in early 2024. It is a story of a foreign correspondent who is brown-skinned and female, thrust back in to a war-torn region. It is a story about truth and who gets to tell it, and about morality and America.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I was 52 when my debut novel was released and I’m 55 years old now.
In this youth-obsessed, ageist American culture, I want people to know that it’s never too late to achieve your dreams, that if you want to write, you should, that the people who send their work out and collect rejections are the same people who get published.
I began this story in 1995, my friend died a year later -- a quarter of a century has flown by, and I have a novel in my hands today dedicated to her.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Q&A with Valerie Niemerg
Valerie Niemerg is the author of the new novel Elly Uncomposed. She is a retired opera singer.
Q: What inspired you to write Elly Uncomposed, and how did you create your character Elizabeth?
A: As I pursued my opera career, I was always fascinated by the stories of the operas. These “shows” have been performed consistently for hundreds of years. They seem to transcend times and peoples. Most people don't even watch them in their native language!
It doesn't seem to matter, because the stories of these masterpieces are so powerful. The stories linger on inside us, and hundreds of years later, we are still telling them to a new generation of opera-goers.
When I retired from singing and began writing, I knew I didn't need to look any further to find a great story.
Elizabeth was created through the wonderful magic of the writing experience. I really didn't know her until I sat down to write her story. Then, as I'm sure many other writers have experienced, little by little, she revealed herself to me in each scene, until I felt like I knew her so well, I had in truth known her all along.
Q: Why did you choose The Marriage of Figaro as the focus of the plot?
A: Honestly, I think it's because I sang in that darn show more than any other! As a lyric mezzo, I was perpetually condemned to smaller, supporting roles and I spent a lot of time sitting backstage listening to sopranos sing.
In particular, I seemed to get cast in “pants roles” quite often, I think because I was a shortie. So, singing the role of the page-boy Cherubino, I had a lot of time to listen to Mozart's score and imagine scenarios in my head. I often found myself wondering, “How would a modern girl handle this situation?”
Once, after a performance, a friend of mine said, “I loved the music, but about halfway through the second act I just wanted to take an axe and bust down that closet door!” So, you can guess where I got the idea for Elly's axe problem.
On a more sophisticated note, Marriage of Figaro is a plot rife with intrigue and adult issues. It gave me lots of fodder for Elly's growth and many smaller characters I could build relationships on.
Looking back on the book now, I can see that, despite my best efforts, I think there was something of a nepotistic slant in my writing, because the smaller roles probably ended up getting more page-time and drama than, I don't know…Figaro? And those two sopranos?
Q: Did you need to do any additional research to write the novel?
A: I did not need to do any research outside of reading and rereading Beaumarchais's play. I kept a good English translation on my desk through the whole writing process and referred to it often.
Besides that, most of what Elly flashes back to in her “opera life,” I have either experienced to some degree myself, or witnessed through other singers.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from your book?
A: I hope they had fun mostly. But whenever someone says to me, “All I know about opera is Bugs Bunny, but I can't wait to go out and buy some tickets!” Well, you can just buy me a high G-sharp. That tickles me silly.
As the director of an educational outreach program for several years for a small regional opera company, it is very close to my heart to pass this art form on to the next generation.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Elly Unengaged. Not as opera-centered, but still musical. If I write them all, there will be five total.
I also have written a very silly Cold War spy novel (is that an oxymoron?), which I edit perpetually and weep over. It’s my Cold War Moby Dick…
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Go see an opera. Something big and fancy with a dead soprano at the end.
Some tips:
*Phantom of the Opera is not an opera. It's a musical.
*Oprah is an American talk-show host, producer, actress and philanthropist. She is not an opera.
*Daytime television has nothing to do with opera…sigh…
*Pretty much all opera houses today have English (or pick your language) translations projected above the stage, or on the back of the seat in front of you.
*Not all opera singers have braids and horns.
*And finally, if you know a mezzo, send her some flowers, darn it. She has to share a dressing room with the soprano who has vases and vases full…stinking sopranos!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Q&A with Ann Leary
Ann Leary is the author of the new novel The Foundling. Her other books include The Good House, and her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times and Ploughshares. She lives in New York.
Q: You write that your grandmother’s life story inspired The Foundling--can you say more about that, and about how you created your character Mary Engle?
A: When I joined Ancestry.com over a decade ago, one of the things I wanted to learn was how my maternal grandmother, Mary, became an orphan. I still don’t know what happened to Mary’s mother or the name of her orphanage.
The first record of her existence I could find was in a 1930 Census record. She was 17 and working as a stenographer at a large institution in Pennsylvania called Laurelton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age.
I was surprised and disgusted that the word “feebleminded” was used to describe individuals in a residential facility for disabled people funded by the government. I soon learned that the word feebleminded, along with idiot, imbecile and moron were clinical terms at that time.
As it turned out, the “of Childbearing Age” part of the name was the most cruel part. Because Laurelton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age (or The Village, as some locals called it) was originally a eugenics asylum – one of many in this country at that time.
Its mission wasn’t to educate or offer therapeutic support to its inmates. It was a place to confine women who were deemed “mentally or morally defective” for the entirety of their reproductive years, so that they could not have children who might inherit their defects and become future burdens to society.
The eugenics movement was basically about trying to solve societal ills such as crime and poverty by preventing the births of future criminals and paupers.
Q: What kind of research did you need to do to write the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: I read everything I could about the American eugenics movement of the early 20th century. Many books and articles have been published about the subject - I keep meaning to add a bibliography to my website. Thanks for the reminder.
I think in recent years, Americans have become more aware of what a massive impact eugenics attitudes and laws had on society 100 years ago, but it’s still a rather hidden part of our history. I wasn’t taught about it in school and I don’t know anybody my age who was taught about eugenics prior to college.
So I read a lot of books and I also drove to central Pennsylvania to visit the now-abandoned asylum and review county court records. I visited the state archives in Harrisburg which had some records. Newspaper archives were very informative as well.
I don’t know how people researched prior to the Internet. Most of my research was done here. And to be honest, I’m still researching this topic; it’s become an obsession.
The thing that surprised me at first was how mainstream and popular eugenics was in America and abroad during my grandmother’s time.
It was shocking to learn that Theodore Roosevelt, Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, H.G. Wells, Margaret Sanger and many, many others were outspoken in their support of what we know recognize as an abhorrent and false ideology.
Q: The writer Fiona Davis said of the book, “Leary’s latest is a stunning tale of corruption, compassion, and hope, and includes one of the best endings I’ve read in ages. She’s reached back in history and uncovered a shockingly true story, one that resonates strongly today.” What do you think of that description, and how do you think the story resonates today?
A: Well, I absolutely love that description and Fiona Davis too! This book resonates on so many levels today. It was very disheartening to see almost the exact same headlines in newspapers of the 1920s that we are still seeing in the 2020s.
Racial intolerance, immigration restrictions, political divisiveness, xenophobia and of course, a woman’s right to make her own decisions about whether to become a mother or not, were central to the eugenics movement and are very much in the forefront of public discourse today.
Eugenics was based on the same paranoia that seems to have fueled the current “race-replacement theory” that is inciting so much rage and fear on both sides of the political spectrum. On the one hand it’s dismaying that we are still struggling with these societal issues. On the other hand, we can all do something to help.
In my novel, my main character, named Mary after my grandmother, was a young working woman with no money or family. As such, she was very vulnerable. She wasn’t in a position to overturn state and federal eugenics policies, nor did she want to as she would never think she knew better than those luminaries I mentioned above.
But she did try to help some who were victimized by the cruel policies, in a small way. I think people will find some hopefulness in her story and be inspired to help in any way they can, whether through volunteering or donating to causes that help make our world better.
I’m particularly interested in supporting causes that support social justice and I try to donate my time and energy there as much as possible.
Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Mary and Dr. Vogel, her employer?
A: One of the main themes of this story is motherhood. Neither Mary nor Lillian, her orphanage wardmate (who ends up imprisoned at the asylum where Mary works), had mothers. When they were growing up, they and the other girls in the orphanage fantasized about their dead mothers.
So, even as a young adult, Mary is unconsciously desperate for a mother-figure. Dr. Vogel, a psychiatrist, recognizes this immediately and begins to fill this role in a very subtle but insidious way as the story progresses.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on a collection of personal essays that are about …well, me. And being a certain age. Some are previously published but most are original. I hope people will find them amusing and maybe interesting…but let’s go back to The Foundling! It came out on Tuesday, May 31!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I think we’re good! Thanks for asking me!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Q&A with Priscilla Oliveras
Priscilla Oliveras is the author of the new novel West Side Love Story. Her other books include Island Affair.
Q: How did you create your characters Mariana and Angelo, and how would you connect them to the characters in West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet?
A: Almost all my novels have started with the germ of an idea for a character. Or, the character kinda showed up one day…yes, in my imagination, but they instantly felt real.
With West Side Love Story, it was Mariana and her sisters who appeared first. I saw an on-line news segment about an all-female mariachi band and the idea about a group of foster sisters who form their own mariachi band swept over me. Like, I could just see them on stage.
As I thought about Mariachi Las Nubes and considered potential conflicts in the sisters’ lives, the idea for a competition took hold. In a bid to raise the stakes—as if an all-female band wouldn’t face enough conflict—I wondered what if one of the other bands had it out for them in some way.
That’s how the enemies-to-lovers trope came to mind. From there, as a fan of Shakespeare (waving hola to my fellow English majors out there), I immediately thought of the classic enemies-to-lovers tale of Romeo and Juliet.
The challenge of taking Shakespeare’s work and re-imagining a story in today’s world, within the Latinx comunidad and with my version of the characters, really appealed to me.
As the oldest Capuleta sister, Mariana would feel the need to set the right example for her sisters. So, the idea of her developing feelings for someone in their enemy’s camp would really test her loyalty and values. That made her perfect for my Juliet.
For my Romeo, I needed a hero with strong familia ties, but one who finds himself caught between allegiance to his familia and his own beliefs about what is right and wrong. Enter Angelo, a good-hearted man, a perfect match for Mariana in every way, except for his last name. J
Like Romeo and Juliet, both Angelo and Mariana are instantly drawn to each other, and even when they discover their true identities, they can’t deny their feelings. Only, rather than try to run away from the feud, Mariana and Angelo work together in hope of tempering the animosity simmering between their two familias, especially during the Battle of the Mariachi Bands.
Q: The novel takes place in San Antonio, Texas--how important is setting to you in your writing?
A: Ooh, the setting plays an important role in many of my books because I try hard to make it come to life for my readers. I want them to be able to picture themselves in the scenes with my character. Hearing, seeing, smelling, touching everything around them, just like the characters do.
In my debut series, Matched to Perfection, I enjoyed creating a fictional suburb on the outskirts of one of my favorite US cities, Chicago. In books 2 and 3, Her Perfect Affair and Their Perfect Melody, some of the main characters live in the city and I tried hard to give readers a sense of what Chicago and the surroundings area are like—based on my personal experience.
With Their Perfect Melody, it was super fun “going to” a Cubs game and hanging out with Lilà and Diego in Wrigleyville, home of my favorite baseball team and a beloved part of the city.
I wrote the Keys to Love series as an homage to my adolescent home, Key West. With Island Affair I hope readers feel like they have their toes in the sand at the beach and are biking around the island, dancing on Mallory Square and enjoying the sights as Luis introduces Sara to his island home.
And with Anchored Hearts, the high school and childhood memories AnamarÃa and Alejandro share having grown up together on the island are similar to the memories my sister and I have as teens living there, too. My hope is that readers finish the Keys to Love series books feeling like they’ve visited Key West and have made lifelong friends with the Navarro familia.
With West Side Love Story, as soon as the idea for an all-female mariachi band comprised of sisters came to me, I knew I had to set it in San Antonio, my papi’s hometown.
San Antonio is a vibrant, culturally rich city that holds so many fond memories for my familia. Many of the locations mentioned in Mariana and Angelo’s romance were specifically picked because they have a connection to my familia in one way or another.
My hope is that while they’re falling in love with my characters, readers also enjoy a book vacation to a new place, or that fond memories of their visit or of their hometown are rekindled.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Well, since West Side Love Story is a romance, there’s no surprise that Mariana and Angelo find a way to have their happily-ever-after, or at least their happy-for-now ending. But they do have to work for it. J
From the beginning stages of my writing process, I had a definite idea of how I wanted the “death” aspect of Romeo and Juliet to play out in West Side Love Story. That idea never changed.
I also knew I wanted a scene with all the familia and Las Nubes performing…the theme of familia is an important aspect of the novel, as with all my books.
When I started writing, I had a picture of that final familia scene in my head, but the further I got into the book, I realized the location and situation I had originally envisions wasn’t quite right.
In the end, the way West Side Love Story wraps is a testament to the unbreakable bond the sisters and their parents share with each other and their comunidad, as well as the bond that has formed between Mariana and Angelo.
Q: Can you say more about what you hope readers take away from the book?
A: My hope is that readers finish West Side Love Story feeling like they’ve visited San Antonio where they spent time making dear friends with the Capuletas, swooned over the passionate romance between Mariana and Angelo, and experienced some of our rich Mexican culture…all set to the dulcet strains of mariachi music.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I just wrapped page proofs for book 2 in the Queens of Mariachi series.
Kiss Me, Catalina is a Taming of the Shrew re-imagining featuring the second oldest sister, Catalina Capuleta, and the international mariachi superstar Patricio Galán. It’s a road trip romance with two strong-willed, super talented artists, both dealing with familia pressures and pains while fighting an intense attraction to each other.
I can’t wait for you to hit the concert tour with Patricio and Catalina when Kiss Me, Catalina releases later this year on Nov. 1!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I’ll be hitting the road for in-person events in Philadelphia, NYC/Brooklyn, Cincinnati, and D.C. in June and July; and I’ll be chatting with fellow authors and booklovers in several virtual events. Dates and info are on social media and on my website’s event calendar. I’d love for you to join me for one or some or all… ;-)
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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