|
|||||
To purchase any pictured book at Barnes & Noble, just click on its cover.
|
April 2008 – June 2008 Copyright April 2008--All Rights Reserved. Managing Editor: B. Lynn Goodwin
The title of Christina Baker Kline’s newest novel, The Way Life Should Be, hooked me. I grabbed the book and dived in, wondering how she would explore that concept and what I would learn about my own life as I read. Watching her heroine, Angela Russo, grapple with this question was a pleasure. Between phone calls and meetings Angela Russo, a skilled but restless New York event planner, goes hunting for Mr. Right. On the Internet, she finds MaineCatch. They exchange e-mails. His contain brief but intriguing messages followed by blunt haikus. On a business trip, Angela meets MaineCatch and falls head-over-heels for his rugged good looks. When she loses her job, she moves to his home, Mt. Desert Island, but her Mr. Right turns out to be a detached player. Author Christina Baker Kline, who is currently a Writer in Residence at Fordham University, has produced a deftly written romantic comedy that escalates into a tribute to self-discovery. Angela is surprised by the flexibility, skill, and grit she discovers in her simple, hearty new life. When a family crisis takes her back home, she finds herself missing Maine and the people she left behind. In the Q & A below, Christina Baker Kline shows how her life and stories intersect and shares her passion for writing as well as a few frustrations that come with the business. LG: Tell us about yourself. Do you prefer novels, nonfiction, or editing? What do you love most about writing? CBK: I have always thought that if I hadn’t been a novelist, I would have become a book editor. It is immensely satisfying to help another person find a way through a problematic draft. That is why I edit anthologies and work as a freelance book editor – and even, to a certain extent, why I teach creative writing and literature. Novel writing, on the other hand, is hard work – lonely, exhausting, and constantly frustrating. It is so difficult to say exactly what you mean, in the way that you intend. In Madame Bovary, Flaubert wrote – beautifully, of course – “ Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we strum out tunes to make a bear dance, when we would move the stars to pity.” But there is nothing else like it. To write a draft and revise it again and again until you have made manifest the vision in your head, to finally get it right – it’s a tremendous feeling. Writing novels is my passion. I feel very lucky to be able to do it. LG: What people or events inspired The Way Life Should Be? Where did your idea for the novel start and how did it grow? CBK: The Way Life Should Be evolved like this: When I moved to Montclair, New Jersey from New York City ten years ago, I hadn’t explored much of the state outside of my town, a diverse community of 37,000 people, with great schools, art house cinemas and dozens of restaurants. Slowly, I began to venture out. Montclair is surrounded on all sides by “real” New Jersey – working-class immigrant communities with longstanding histories and traditions. The day that a rave review appeared in the New York Times for an improbably named Italian-American restaurant in Nutley, NJ, called American Bistro, my husband and I hopped into the car to find it. Decorated in Old World Italian-American style – a big brass bar, pink polyester tablecloths, heavy, padded menus – the restaurant seemed straight out of central casting, with interesting characters planted at one end of the bar and a huge Italian family boisterously celebrating an anniversary. It was like nothing I’d ever seen, except perhaps on TV. LG: What did you discover as you wrote the novel? CBK: When I started the book, I found myself writing pages and pages about Angela’s life and misadventures in New York. I had so much to say about that – but ultimately it didn’t belong in this book, and I cut those pages. The real story, as it turned out, took place in Maine. LG: How did Angela change and grow from your original idea of her? Do you think you'll write about her again? CBK: Though I have described novel-writing as hard, Angela was actually a fairly easy character to write. She leapt off the page! As soon as I began writing scenes with her in them, I found that she had a mind of her own. A strong character, she approached problems with equanimity and a sense of humor. Unlike the protagonists of my other novels, Angela is not depressed – she may wallow in misery for a few days after a particularly disastrous turn of events, but she doesn’t stay in that place. I think that’s why so many readers tell me they like her; she is pretty fearless. People identify with her, and root for her. I’m often asked if I’ll write a sequel, and I just don’t know yet. Right now I’m finishing another novel that is completely different – so we’ll see how I feel when this one is done. LG: What are the difficulties and the perks of writing about love? CBK: The hardest thing is that everything there is to say about love has been said before. It’s very difficult to avoid clichés and make relationships in novels surprising and fresh. But therein also lies the fun; it’s exciting to write about characters who live and breathe and interact with each other spontaneously and with deep feeling. I believe that if a novelist can capture what intrigues two characters about each other, readers will be intrigued, too. LG: What percolation prepared you to write The Way Life Should Be? For me, the process of writing a novel begins months or even years before I start writing. It evolves from pieces of my own past, stories I've heard, things I'm curious about, emotional journeys that interest me, unexpected ideas, unresolved questions. Most of this development of a central idea isn't even conscious. Over the years I've learned to trust this process, slow and circuitous as it may be. In The Way Life Should Be, my main character, Angela, is an event planner. I was intrigued by the world of event planning, and thought it would be an interesting profession to write about. I met some event planners and plied them with drinks to get them to tell me their war stories. I also asked them to talk about their biggest nightmares: what could possibly happen at an event that would not only get you fired, but completely ruin your reputation and make it impossible to work in that profession again? They had a good time answering that one. LG: Were you working on other writing projects as you drafted this? CBK: I was working as a freelance manuscript editor. It wasn’t easy to go back and forth between writing a messy first draft and close-editing the works of others. But I actually think it helped, in the long run – I think I was more economical and precise than I otherwise might have been without that editor in the back of my head. LG: That’s a good benefit. What was your writing schedule and how much did you accomplish each day? CBK: I tried to write twenty new pages a week. I wrote the manuscript longhand (as I always do), and often went to coffee shops and cafes – Starbucks, Panera, Whole Foods; anywhere I would be left alone, where I could stay as long as I wish – and sat there until I’d written four or five pages. I like ambient noise; it quiets that pesky editor in my head. Then I took all my manuscript pages to the Virginia Center for the Arts, where I spent two weeks hammering out a second draft on my laptop. Then I revised it all again. LG: What did you focus on as you edited? CBK: Language, primarily. Pacing, cadence. I sharpened the dialogue, removing more and more as I went, taking out anything that seemed extraneous. I cut fifty pages from the first half of the novel and eventually added fifty pages to the last half, fleshing out the characters in Maine and strengthening Angela’s ties to that place. LG: Who were your readers and how did they help you? CBK: My sister, Cynthia, is my ideal reader. She is smart and perceptive, reads lots of novels, and belongs to a book club. She has a great sense of what works and what doesn’t. My husband, David (a former grad student in English Lit), also reads my work very early on. I also rely on friends who are writers. LG: Thanks for such a thorough answer to that question. Did you ever get bogged down in the process and if so, how did you resolve that? CBK: Every day! I just plow through. LG: How does your work as an editor and teacher help your writing? CBK: In some ways my work as an editor and teacher makes the process easier. I see the first drafts of writers at all levels – some just starting out, and some who are professionals. It’s immensely reassuring to realize that everyone goes through a version of the same experience – from self-doubt to elation, from occasional writer’s block to flashes of inspiration. I’ve also learned that most people give up at some point – they don’t finish a draft, or they aren’t willing to do the hard work to revise. Writing well is damn difficult! LG: What would you like readers to know about the writing life? I think it might be useful for readers to know that not all novelists write every day. I can’t. I have three boys and a demanding job; I have to carve out time to write. Writing a book takes so much time and focus. Moments of quiet immersion are rare in my life; I have to consciously seek them out to finish a novel. LG: That’s good to know. Angela found her passion. What is yours? What would you do if you were not a writer? CBK: Words are both my vocation and my avocation – reading, writing, editing, teaching, listening to dialogue in movies and on TV. I could happily read books for the rest of my life. With that said, I also love to cook. I have worked professionally as a cook several times in my life: at a conference center on the coast of Maine; as a private chef to a writer and his wife on Martha’s Vineyard; and as a caterer in Virginia. LG: What are you working on now? Where can people find copies of The Way Life Should Be? CBK: I am revising another novel, Four Way Stop, which will be published by William Morrow in February of 2009. I am also co-editing, with Anne Burt, an anthology called About Face: 25 Women Write about What They See When they Look in the Mirror, which is coming out in May of 2008 (Seal Press). The paperback of The Way Life Should Be is also coming out (HarperPerennial) in May of 2008. You should be able to find copies of The Way Life Should Be wherever books are sold! Amazon is a reliable source, and it’s 30% off there, too. LG: Thank you so much for taking the time to share so much with us, Christina. This book is a must read for people who feel trapped. It will help them envision a better life. Do you feel trapped in your current circumstances? Get yourself a copy of The Way Life Should Be today.
Site updated
Copyright , 2003 - 2008 All Rights Reserved. by B. Lynn Goodwin
|
|
