Oct. 2

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Oct. 2, 1879: Wallace Stevens born.

Q&A with Jean Hanff Korelitz

 

 

 

Jean Hanff Korelitz is the author of the new novel The Sequel. It's a sequel to her novel The Plot. She's also the creator of the group Book the Writer. She lives in New York City.

 

Q: At what point did you decide to write a sequel to The Plot?

 

A: I never actually decided, and if you’d asked me, when The Plot was published, if I intended to revisit the characters, I’d have told you: No! Why would I?

 

But in the process of packing for a move I suddenly found myself thinking about Anna. She blithely tells an audience, at the end of The Plot, that she’s thinking of writing a novel of her own, and the surge of approval is undeniable.

 

What if she actually did that? What if she became one of the writers she so disparages? Wouldn’t that be funny? And then what if someone actually called her out? Then I kind of had to do it.

 

Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the novel said of you and the book, “She also offers satisfying glimpses into what makes Anna tick, placing her alongside Tom Ripley in the pantheon of amoral antiheroes.” What do you think of that description, and how would you define an antihero?

 

A: Someone compares my creation to Patricia Highsmith’s most infamous villain? I’ll take it! Of course I named the institution where Jake taught creative writing “Ripley” as a direct homage to that infamous character, so I certainly aspired to be in the Highsmith zone, but it’s always nice to be mentioned in the same sentence as writers you’ve enjoyed.

 

As for Anna, we’ll never know the entirety of what makes her tick, and I’m certainly not asking anyone to be sympathetic, but at least we come away from The Sequel with a bit more information.

 

I’m not always clear on literary terms like “antihero,” but I have always been drawn to unlikeable protagonists. They’re much more fun to write.

Q: In our Q&A about The Plot, you described writing that book as “[a]bsurdly easy.” Was that the case this time as well?

 

A: I said that? I don’t think I’d ever characterize writing as easy, absurdly or otherwise. But what’s undeniable is that it was fast, especially given how long and gruesomely I’d been laboring on The Latecomer.

 

The writing of The Plot was aided and abetted by the fact that we were all under the dome of a global pandemic, and I was in a lather of rage and fear and under a self-imposed news blackout and literally writing it under the covers, all circumstances that were happily not the case this time. But it’s never easy, and this one was no exception.

 

Q: What do you think The Sequel says about the publishing industry?

 

A: Perhaps that we writers are as plagued by ego as any other practitioners, or possibly even more so because writing books remains a spectacularly bad way to become wealthy. (I constantly remind myself that even my most successful books are on par with the first-year salary for recent college grads in finance, but what can you do?)

 

We do tend to fixate on silly things, like – as Anna herself observes – “whether a review had a box around it or a star next to it, or who’d been invited to some festival to read their pages to the empty seats in the tent, or whether they’d been deemed a twenty-under-twenty or a thirty-under-thirty, or, for all she knew, a ninety-under-ninety.”

 

Q: What are you working on now? Will you return to these characters again?

 

A: I’m writing an original screenplay for a television series about a long-ago murder on a prestigious college campus, and how it reverberates 25 years into the present. Will I revisit Anna & co.? Possibly.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Pay attention to the chapter titles in The Sequel. (There’s a key at the end of the book.)

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Jean Hanff Korelitz.

Q&A with Elom K. Akoto

 

 

 

Elom K. Akoto is the author of the new novel Blindspot in America. He teaches French at a high school and ESL at a community college, and is the founder of the nonprofit Learn and Care. Born in Togo, he lives in Omaha, Nebraska.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Blindspot in America, and how did you create your character Kamao?

 

A: I wanted to write a story that explores different immigrants’ viewpoints and experiences of the American Dream.

 

After living in the United States for nearly 20 years, I realized that prospective immigrants are profoundly unaware of many things until they have relocated to the US. But regardless of the many struggles they face, there’s still hope and endless opportunity for everyone in this country.

 

I wanted the protagonist to be someone from a prominent African family who is educated and friendly. The character of Kamao fits that description well. His father is an academic who became the health secretary in Ghana shortly after Kamao immigrates to the US.

 

Q: The writer William Archila said of the book, “Elom K. Akoto's fiction makes a simple, yet sharp meditation on the American Dream, and yes, a dream that for the faithful is still possible.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I think that description fits the novel well. When people ask me if my novel is about me, I usually answer that it’s about every immigrant in America.

 

Although it features an African immigrant as the protagonist and is written from an African immigrant’s perspective, it mentions people from other parts of the world who relocated to the United States as refugees or immigrants, such as Nepal, Bosnia, El Salvador, and Yemen. Every one of these people has their own experience of America.

 

Although their stories differ from one individual to another, one thing is familiar to most immigrants: their dream of America is far different from the reality they face once they relocate to the US.

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 story started building up in my head in 2017. I started writing it in 2018 and finished it shortly after Covid hit in 2020.

 

Surprisingly, I had little trouble writing this novel's beginning and ending. They were the two most important parts I settled with quickly and relatively easily.

 

Once I knew and liked how the story started and ended and felt comfortable with them, I thought it would be a good story. I had to rewrite mostly the middle part, the story's evolution, and the plot's details.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The current title of my novel, Blindspot in America, was not the original title I gave it. I was unhappy when my publisher decided it was best to find a new title for the book because of how cliché In the Dream of America would appear to potential readers. The publisher then included me in the task of finding a new title.

 

After tossing words around, Blindspot in America seemed to fit the story better, as it depicts how prospective immigrants’ conception of America excludes or instead omits some crucial aspects and realities of their future adopted country. Those aspects and realities constitute the spots they didn’t see in their dream of America.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m currently working on my third novel, the first story I started writing several years ago when I was a senior in high school in Togo. It’s about the use of child soldiers in conflicts and about humans’ internal struggle between good and evil.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I never thought writing would be so much fun. I enjoy every minute I sit down to write.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Emma Barry

 

 

Emma Barry is the author of the new novel Bad Reputation. Her other novels include Chick Magnet. She lives in Virginia.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Bad Reputation, and how did you create your characters Maggie and Cole?

 

A: Bad Reputation is a complete reimagining of a draft I wrote in 2015. I was reflecting on the pop culture of the early 2000s. The tabloids, the toxic beauty standards, the increasingly obsessive fan culture: it was not a great moment. I wanted to write about an actor who came of age in that atmosphere and resolved to fix his bad reputation.

 

In the final version of the book, Maggie became a teacher who’s dealing with her own (unwanted) notoriety. She was inspired by a story I heard on NPR about high school plays being canceled due to concerns about content. The book originally took place during a film festival, but my editor suggested it might work as an on-set story.

 

She and I were both fascinated by the rise of intimacy coordinators, as we’d both read about how Outlander and Bridgerton use them. All these pieces came together organically as I rewrote the book for the better.

 

Q: The writer Ali Rosen said of the book, “Stories about growing from past mistakes don't always give its characters so much grace, but Barry's tender handling of this Hollywood tale makes it impossible not to root for Maggie and Cole completely.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Oh my gosh, I hope that’s true. What I love about both Maggie and Cole is that they’re trying so hard to do the right thing. They’ve either messed up in the past (Cole) or people think they’ve messed up (Maggie), and so they’re utterly committed to being the best and most professional folks they can be.

 

They’re distressed to be attracted to someone at work. Love doesn’t solve their problems; it causes them. I root for Maggie and Cole to find a way to be together, but I also want them to stick to their ethical code. The conflict is real!

Q: Did you need to do any research to write the novel, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: I made a syllabus of more than 16 books (plus articles!) for research. I don't normally go in for celebrity memoirs, but I devoured them, plus oral histories of several movies, criticism about contemporary Hollywood, books about entertainment journalism, and every single interview I could find with an intimacy coordinator.

 

Then I tracked down a beta reader who’d done behind the scenes stuff in Hollywood to check the finished book.

 

All of the details about how they film steamy scenes were so interesting to me. Just imagining serious conversations with dozens of people where they’re planning the use of strapless thongs and exercise balls to ensure that there’s no genital-to-genital contact—I mean, I wanted to know everything.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The working title for the book was Comeback Kid, but my publisher thought that it might confuse readers. I understand; the book is an adult romance, not YA. And besides, Bad Reputation might be an even better fit.

 

People look at both Maggie and Cole and think they know who they are because of what they’ve read about them, but my protagonists look at each other and see the real person, not the bad reputation. They know what’s true, what’s real, because they love each other.

 

Plus, there are some shades of Taylor Swift with the new title, which is never a bad thing.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I just finished the first round of edits for my next contemporary romance, which should be out in summer 2025.

 

It’s a second-chance romance between former high school sweethearts: she’s the bad girl of the chess world, and he’s the writer-director who’s adapting her memoir for the screen. It’s about what it means to tell the truth—and what doing so can cost you. It’s a messy, sexy, nerdy book. I hope everyone will love it.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I got a little carried away while planning Waverley (the show that Maggie and Cole are making), and in the back of Bad Reputation, there’s an episode by episode summary of this season of Waverley. I cannot tell you how much I wish it were real. I would binge it so hard.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Galina Vromen

 

Photo by Jo Rosen Photography

 

 

Galina Vromen is the author of the new novel Hill of Secrets. She lives in Israel and in Massachusetts.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Hill of Secrets, and how did you create your cast of characters?

 

A: I’ve always been intrigued by the issue of secretiveness. We live in a society where we are encouraged to be open and led to believe that keeping secrets is a bad thing.

 

And I wanted to open up that question and explore it. When are secrets bad? When are they good? Who do they serve? And posing those issues in the context of probably the biggest secret of the 20th century – World War II Los Alamos -- seemed the perfect backdrop for such a novel.

 

From there, I started to think about the types of people who came to Los Alamos: refugees from Europe, the best-of-the-best of American-born scientists from elite schools and elite echelons of U.S. society, conscripted soldiers of various backgrounds, and the people from the surrounding area who did most of the menial labor.

 

Q: What did you see as the right blend of fiction and history as you wrote the novel?

 

A: History had to inform the novel but not take it over. Too often I found myself writing scenes because I wanted to get in some interesting fact that I had learned about and I had to force myself to cut those parts out if they didn’t really serve the plot.

 

For example, one of the most prominent scientists there, Edward Teller, did a weekly story hour for children on the local radio station. I wrote about this, but cut it out, because it slowed down the scene.

 

Or the fact that mail delivery was terribly slow because, if you came originally from Princeton, New Jersey, friends and relatives would continue sending your mail there, and it would be forwarded to Los Alamos. And when you wrote back, the letter would go to Princeton, New Jersey, and carry a postmark from there, before going on to the person you wrote to.

 

So the slow mail is in there, but the explanation was one that I couldn’t slow down the narrative to fully explain. There were dozens of facts like that which had to go.

 

On the other hand, I was scared stiff about getting anything wrong regarding the science of the bomb, so I kept the science to a minimum, and included just what was absolutely necessary for the plot. And since most of my characters don’t know about the bomb, I didn’t have to become an expert in nuclear physics to write the book!

Q: How was the book's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: Actually, I had a different title for the book, which the publisher didn’t like, and I didn’t much like the suggestions of the publisher.

 

In the end, it was my husband who proposed a title we could all agree to, and I think it is one which truly captures what the book is about – secrets both on the big scale of the bomb, and secrets which ordinary people keep from each other, and even from themselves, sometimes for noble and often for not-so-noble reasons.

 

At the start of the book, I quote the French writer Andre Malraux, who said, “Man is not what he thinks he is. He is what he hides.” And that is what Hill of Secrets tries to unpack. So I think the title really works.

 

Q: Can you say more about how you researched the novel, and did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: I read an enormous amount about Los Alamos over more than 15 years, visited Los Alamos for a few days, and also listened to a lot of oral histories online from a site called Voices of the Manhattan Project, which was set up as a joint effort by the Atomic Heritage Foundation (AHF) and the Los Alamos Historical Society (LAHS).

 

There were some 600,000 people involved in the whole Manhattan Project in numerous locations – about 6,000 of them lived at Los Alamos itself – in other words about 10 percent. So, I focused on the accounts from Los Alamos, particularly from people who were children there during 1943-1945, or were young mothers raising children then, or maids.

 

I think the scale of the secret of Los Alamos surprised me. That there could be a whole town of 6,000 people that no one was supposed to know about is quite remarkable.

 

Also, I didn’t know at first that the people who lived there were really stuck there, not allowed to go away on vacation, not allowed to visit with relatives for the holidays, and without any idea of how long they would be there.

 

Another surprise was much more personal. When I told my father, a chemist, about the plot of Hill of Secrets, he told me that he had been invited in the 1950s to work on a nuclear weapons project – and had turned down the offer. This was news to me – and my mother.

 

So here I was writing a book about secrets in families and a secret nuclear project only to discover that for more than 50 years, my father had kept to himself his near encounter with just such a project!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am dithering between two projects, not sure which one to commit to. Both are more contemporary, one based in the Caribbean and the United States, the other based in the Middle East.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I think Hill of Secrets makes a great book club book because it raises a lot of issues for discussion, from the politics and ethics of the use of the atom bomb, to secrecy in relations, and other ethical questions which I don’t want to elucidate to avoid spoiling the plot for readers. 

 

I have a section on my website – www.galinavromen.com – with some book club questions to get people started, as well as recipes and songs from the book, which I put there to potentially enrich a book club meeting. I am happy to meet with book clubs that read the book by Zoom or even in person, when feasible.

 

I did my best to get the historical facts right – with a lot of help from some amazingly meticulous editors and fact checkers. I’m always open to learning if I got anything wrong but I hope that the book will make people palpably feel what it was like to live in that time and in a place that was extraordinary in terms of the impact it has on our lives to this very day.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Melody Howard Ritt

 

 

Melody Howard Ritt is the author of the new children's picture book Charley and Seymour's Hanukkah Miracle. She lives in Massachusetts.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Charley and Seymour’s Hanukkah Miracle?

 

A: I have dreamed of being a writer for as long as I can remember. I have always loved losing myself in stories and learning about different places and experiences from books.

 

As a child, I was so enamored with reading, I set out to read every book in the Brooklyn Public Library. It wasn’t until I realized that the library added to its collection faster than I could consume it that I understood I faced an impossible task.

 

After earning a degree in journalism and working as a writer and editor for my whole career, I reached a point where it was time to consider my next steps. That was when I decided to tackle my lifelong dream of writing a book. Charley and Seymour’s Hanukkah Miracle was the result.

 

Q: What do you think Nia Gould’s illustrations add to the story?

 

A: Before Nia was chosen by Kar-Ben Publishing to work on my book, I wondered whether an illustrator would be able to capture my characters’ sweet personalities and special friendship.

 

Since the story takes place during the winter holiday of Hanukkah, it was also important that the images show the symbols, customs and narrative associated with the Festival of Lights.

 

Nia’s illustrations exceeded my hopes. Whether she is showing Charley and Seymour gathering acorns together, planning their Hanukkah celebration, or responding to the challenge of lighting their menorah, Nia depicts their personalities, emotions, and interactions with vibrant colors and easy to understand illustrations.

 

I am personally delighted with Nia’s drawings and hope they enrich every reader’s enjoyment and understanding of Charley and Seymour’s story.

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between Charley and Seymour?

 

A: When I was writing the book, I imagined Seymour and Charley being like brothers and I tried to make their relationship seem like the kind a child might want to have with a beloved sibling.

 

Seymour and Charley care deeply about each other. They share similar interests. They are respectful of each other’s feelings. They work together to solve their problem.  

 

Kindness, caring, respect, and teamwork are the qualities many of us strive for in our own relationships. I hope my characters provide a model for children to emulate as they learn to interact with others.

 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the book?

 

A: I hope children who read Charley and Seymour’s Hanukkah Miracle are inspired by Charley and Seymour’s friendship and learn to treat their own friends in a similar fashion. I believe the world would be a better place if everyone realized at an early age the importance of treating others with care, kindness, and respect.

 

I also hope my book gives children a deeper understanding of the Hanukkah story and the miracle of the Hanukkah lights. I hope Charley and Seymour’s Hanukkah Miracle brings light into a world that sometimes feels overwhelmed by darkness.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am thinking about Charley and Seymour’s future and how they can continue teaching children and grownups about Judaism and the world in which we live.

 

At the same time, I am working on bringing my first book, Charley and Seymour’s Hanukkah Miracle, to a wide audience through appearances at bookstores, JCCs, preschools, and other places where children and adults gather.

 

I would love to reach a time where the names Charley Chipmunk and Seymour Squirrel are associated with Jewish holidays and values, and the true meaning of friendship.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: As a first-time author I am constantly learning about the publishing process and what goes into bringing a book into the world. It has been an eye-opening journey and I hope to share my experiences with others as I move forward in my book writing career.

 

Charley and Seymour’s Hanukkah Miracle is available for purchase from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or your favorite book seller.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Oct. 1

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Oct. 1, 1924: Jimmy Carter born.