Tag: author interview

A Q&A with Kristen Arnett

September 3, 2024

When it comes to bookish opinions are you ever worried that your hot take might be flaming trash? Do you want to know who exactly is the literary a**hole in any given situation? Author Kristen Arnett can help. She writes the Literary Hub, Am I the Literary A**hole? column and will be doing a live event based on the column, September 13 at The Studios of Key West.

She will answer your questions about how to survive the writing life (and behave in the book world) in this live event. Bring your question with you or click here to submit anonymously ahead of time.

Arnett comes joins us as part of The Studios of Key West PEAR program. She is also the author of With Teeth and Mostly Dead Things. Her next novel, STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE, (Riverhead Books) will be out in March.

We got her to answer a few general questions before she answers your questions about literary etiquette on Sept. 13.

Q: How did the AITLA column come about?

A: This is a great question because I actually have a really funny answer for it! I was waiting for my friend at a restaurant and they were running (very) late for dinner, so I ordered a bottle of wine to start. Before I knew it, I’d already finished half the bottle. I started thinking about the fact that I really love reading advice column questions. I wondered if there was an advice column for literature, and then I wondered if anyone had ever agreed to write an advice column while they were mind-numbingly drunk. This immediately felt like a very funny idea to me, so I opened up my phone right there at the dinner table and shot off an email to my buddy Jonny Diamond over at Lit Hub. I knew him from a previous column that I did for them, which was about librarianship. Jonny is always up for fun, weird ideas! So I drunkenly emailed him with a subject line that was like “hear me out” and then in one line or so was like “how do you feel about me writing a drunk advice column for you.” I am not joking when I say that within like 10 minutes he’d written back to agree that I should do it. And now the rest is drunken history!

Q: Have you found any common traits amongst all Literary A**holes?

A: Honestly, yes – and that trait is that not many of them are actually a**holes! I find that a lot of the people who write in are actually, for the most part, overly conscientious people who themselves have been treated a little badly. Through the process of developing this column, I’ve (happily) discovered that many people are just out here every day trying their best; most of them are very worried about offending or hurting others. There is a very clear throughline of empathy and care and community building, which is lovely. Of course, for all of the great ones that I select from the slush, there are some that never make it onto the site. The occasional people who write in to complain that they have better ideas on how to run the column! To them, I say: find an editor to email drunk about it and get your own gig!

Q: You’re going to be in Key West as a PEAR – what do you enjoy most about artist residencies?

A: I truly love spending creative time in places that are connected with nature. I am from Florida – third generation – and so much of my work contains regional nods and influences. Being afforded a residency is always a gift, one that I genuinely treasure, because it’s time out of regular life to focus solely on art. And not only art, but also my relationship to it, which is forever changing. I feel like I get to know myself as a writer all over again at each residency. That is so important. I am deeply grateful for it.

Q: What are you looking forward to exploring/doing in Key West?

A: I am deeply interested in observing everything around me while I’m in town. I can’t wait to people watch, to explore nature, to feel embedded in a new space that’s still so closely connected to my own home. I am such an extrovert – truly, can’t contain myself – so I am really looking forward to bar hopping talking and chatting with anybody I happen to run into while I’m out and about!

Q: What are you reading and recommending these days?

A: I loved Laura van den Berg’s latest novel, State of Paradise. Great Florida book, truly. I also recently got done with Liz Moore’s God of the Woods, which was terrific. I am in the middle of revisiting Bryan Washington’s fabulous short story collection, LOT, which always gets my head in a wonderful place and energizes me. Biggest problem for me right now is that there are too many great things I want to be reading and definitely not enough hours in the day to do that!

Q: What’s your favorite/current summer drink?

A: Spicy margarita really hits the spot, I tell you what. I love to make a joke that if you’re having a drink with citrus then you’re being very healthy because you’re preventing scurvy. But you also can’t go wrong with an ice-cold beer. Or an ice-cold coke classic! Jesus, now I’m thirsty!

***

Ed note: Read our review of Mostly Dead Things.

A Q&A with Jen Golbeck & Stacey Colino

October 30, 2023

by Robin Wood

Meet the authors of The Purest Bond: Understanding the Human–Canine Connection (Atria Books, out Nov. 14)

If you’re a dog person, your dog is probably one of your favorite people, but you might not know just how important that relationship is.

“Every dog lover knows how valuable their relationship is with their dogs and considers their dogs to be part of their family,” write Jen Golbeck & Stacey Colino, authors of The Purest Bond: Understanding the Human–Canine Connection. “But they may not realize the profound ways their beloved pooches affect their health and well-being, physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively, as they will discover in The Purest Bond. Our hope is that the book will give readers a new appreciation for all the ways their dogs make their lives richer, healthier, happier, and more meaningful—and that they’ll discover the extent to which the benefits from this relationship are reciprocal. Dogs love us back just as much as we love them!”

We had the opportunity to find out a bit more about Jen & Stacey, and their pets, prior to their signing event on Nov. 18. Come meet them in the store Nov. 18 from 11am-1pm and get your copy of The Purest Bond signed. This is not a seated event, come anytime between 11 and 1 for an informal signing and meet & greet. Can’t make it on the 18th? Preorder The Purest Bond and leave signing information in the order comments.

Q: Please, tell us a little about your rescue work and The Golden Ratio?

*The current pups of the Golden Ratio squad.*

A: Jen and her husband live on Sugarloaf Key and rescue special needs Golden Retrievers, usually those with complex medical needs, seniors, and hospice cases. They usually have between five and seven dogs, and share their lives on social media as @theGoldenRatio4 where they give followers a wholesome look at the happy, gentle, love-filled life they get to have here in the Florida Keys. At this point, the Golden Ratio has more than 1 million followers from around the world.

Jen and her husband currently have five dogs in The Golden Ratio squad: Guacamole, Chief Brody, Venkman, Remoulade, and Feta. Stacey and her family have Sadie, a chocolate-Lab/shepherd mix they rescued in September 2020.

Q: What’s something that will surprise most people about dogs?

A: As we did research for the book, we uncovered lots of surprising things about how dogs relate to humans—and how sensitive they are to our emotions and other changes in us. It may surprise people to discover the extent to which dogs experience the world through their noses. They can see into the past with their sense of smell, being able to tell whether someone they know was previously in their space based on their lingering scent. And they can detect subtle changes in the chemicals human bodies produce that could point to infections, the presence of diseases (like cancer), changes in blood sugar among people with diabetes, and in the scent of sweat before a seizure in those with epilepsy. We, humans, wouldn’t be able to do that.

Q: What was the collaboration process like for the two of you?

A: It was beautiful! We met during the process of conceptualizing and writing this book and really became friends. We bonded over our love of dogs, among other things, and we turned out to have perfectly compatible working styles. We liked the process so much that we’re now working on a second book together!

Q: Besides your own, what books would make good holiday gifts for animal lovers?

A: There are lots of good books in this category. We highly recommend: The Soul of All Living Creatures: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human by Vint Virga, D.V.M.; Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You by Clive D.L. Wynne, Ph.D.; and The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy—and Why They Matter by Marc Bekoff (new edition coming April 2024).

A Q&A with Lucy Burdette

July 26, 2023

by Robin Wood

Lucy Burdette is the author of the popular Key West food critic mysteries and the standalone novel, The Ingredients of Happiness (Severn House)

Q: Would you tell us a little about the new book, The Ingredients of Happiness? What inspired it? Is it a standalone or the possible beginning of a new series?

A: Thank you so much for asking me about The Ingredients of Happiness, my first venture into contemporary women’s fiction. The story follows Cooper Hunziker, a new Yale professor, who also has also has a pop psychology book on happiness about to be published. She’s under a lot of pressure at work because four people are vying for the same job. Plus the chair of the department is unhappy about her fluffy sideline project. As penance, she’s sentenced to co-lead a self-help happiness group at the New Haven library, which forces her to examine her own life. Is she happy with the path she’s chosen? Does she have the kind of warm friendships that the women in the group seem to have? Like Cooper, I’m a clinical psychologist. I also spent time at Yale during my internship and post graduate training, though I never faced the kind of pressure that she has. But this question intrigued me: what if an expert on happiness is not happy herself? I love reading this kind of story, the kind that focuses on the emotional journey of the protagonist – not a dead body to be found. HAPPINESS will not be a series, but I’m hoping to take one of the minor characters and put her front stage in a novel set mostly in Paris.

Q: Speaking of series, you also have a new Key West food critic mystery coming this summer. What can you tell us about it? How do you keep a long series fresh?

A: I am also very excited about A Clue In The Crumbs, number 13 in the Key West food critic mystery series, arriving August 8! I’m a little surprised about how long this series has continued, though thoroughly delighted about it too. I’m passionate about trying something new in each book so that I am not foisting a retread of the same plot on potential readers. Luckily, Key West has so many layers that it’s easy to find potential threads and motives for murder. For example, in A Dish To Die For, there was an historical angle based on the Woman’s Club and an old cookbook. In A Clue In The Crumbs, the Scottish Scone sisters from book 11 come to visit Key West to launch a baking contest. This takes place at Williams Hall with the chef (and talented real person) Martha Hubbard in charge. I also work hard to think and write about how the characters will grow and change over the course of the books, as that’s the part of a long running mystery series that I love most.

Q: How did you happen upon a food critic as your protagonist? Are you a foodie yourself?

A: I am not a food critic, but I love to eat, read, and talk about food. I enjoy cooking but also love visiting the Key West restaurants that my character will be reviewing. Back in 2010, as I was searching for the subject of a new mystery series, I heard about an editor who wanted to acquire a series about a food critic, preferably in a tropical setting. Hayley Snow was born!

Q: How long have you called Key West home, and how did you end up here?

A: My husband John and I first visited Key West in 2008, and as happens with so many visitors, we fell in love with the island. By 2014, we’d become residents and now live here six months out of the year. We love being part of the story, rather than outsiders. A big bonus of this for me is serving on the board of the Friends of the Key West Library. This is my fourth year as president, and we’d love to have you join us! https://www.friendsofthekeywestlibrary.org/

Q: What are you reading and recommending these days?

A: I’ve recently read and loved Laura Hankin’s The Daydreams, and J. Ryan Stradal’s Saturday Night At The Lakeside Supper Club. As soon as I finish The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry, I’m looking forward to Barbara Ross’s new Maine clambake mystery, Hidden Beneath, Sarah Stewart Taylor’s A Stolen Child, and Gabrielle Zelvin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (because I adored The Storied Life Of A.J. Fikry.) I have a teetering TBR pile and the newsletter from Books and Books always adds to the problem—so many books, so little time. All we can do is plug along!

A Q&A with Michelle Gallen

June 30, 2023

by Robin Wood

Michelle Gallen (photo credit Brideen Baxter and Deci Gallen/Simpletapestry.com)

She’s the author of our July featured staff pick, Factory Girls. Questions by Emily Berg, store manager.

Q: This is a work of fiction, but it does take place in a time and place you lived. Of the three girls, is there one whose feelings and experiences most closely reflect your own?

A: I think each character has strengths, weaknesses, griefs and talents that I envy or fear, and that’s why they are all so vivid to me. I also feel incredibly close to both Deirdre – Maeve’s sister – and I adore Fidelma, the fist-fighting factory worker who elbows her way into the narrative.

Having said that, when I worked in a shirt factory, I did press shirts, and the hard physical experience of that is one I brought to the book. In one way, it was an incredibly zen job – I have never since got so ‘lost’ in my work, or felt so in the flow. But I found the socio-political side of working in the factory hugely stressful – I worked alongside lots of clever, quick-witted people who were also watchful and wary – I never felt like I could keep up with the ‘banter’, and disliked the underlying current of mistrust.

Q: Maeve has some memories of programs set up (in school and out) to bring Catholics and Protestants together. Did you participate in any such programs and, if so, did you find they were successful in anyway?

A: I think the fundamental problem with these programs is that they are based on premise that children who have been brought up in a society that is structurally biased and segregated at almost every level, run by adults who aren’t doing all that much to change the dynamic, will bring about peace simply by hanging out for the weekend and doing some mildly risky outdoors activities. If it were that easy, Mo Mowlam and Bill Clinton would’ve had a much easier time of it in the peace process. I think these programs were better than nothing. But they also placed an enormous burden on our shoulders, while giving us almost no power to make changes. I think if the adults and interested parties had placed all that energy and funding into integrating the schools, our peace process would be a lot more advanced than it currently is – and the current school system would be spending its money on a shared education instead of wasting money segregating students.

Q: The book captured the feeling of having that first apartment, out on your own with a friend. What was your first apartment like?

A: Oh I didn’t live independently until I got to university, and it wasn’t the same experience, as I knew nobody in Dublin and had to room with a total stranger. I know that’s quite a common college experience in the US, but very unusual in Ireland, where everyone knows each other or has family they can stay with. I lived with a student from Newry and one from Tipperary. We were all utterly different from each other but I bonded well with the student who had come from Northern Ireland. Our lives were much more similar than students who had never experienced the Troubles, who had no idea of what the conflict was like. Although I didn’t drink, I loved hosting friends and parties in my flat. I had the only computer in the building, so lots of geeks came to hang out and use the program Eliza to work through their problems, or to play basic arcade games. We also had ‘sessions’ where we’d get together to sing and play guitar. The building I lived in was occupied mostly by students – so I got to meet and mix with people from all over Ireland for the first time. It was an incredible experience, even if I was also homesick for the North.

Q: Have you heard the audio book version of Factory Girls? Did you think the narrator’s accent was accurate? (I believe she’s English.)

A: I actually had the opportunity to hear the shortlisted narrators before the final choice was made, so I was thrilled to discover that Northern Irish actors were in the line up. I loved the selected narrator, Amy Molloy, who grew up in Belfast. She captures all the different voices and characters just beautifully. Nicola Coughlan – who plays Clare in Derry Girls – narrated my first book, Big Girl Small Town. Nicola isn’t from Northern Ireland, but obviously her work in refining her accent for Derry Girls helped her nail the narration too.

Q: What are you currently reading?

A: Oh I’m reading about 10 books at the moment because I’m a bit overloaded juggling the the chaos of a renovation, work and travel. So to escape into the world of a deliciously eccentric character, I’m reading Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent. To improve my French and consider the horror of always being in the first flush of love, I’m reading Mon Mari by Maud Ventura. And to keep myself doing ‘The Work’ I’m reading Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine.

Ed note: In English, Mon Mari is My Husband by Maud Ventura, translated by Emma Ramadan.

Q: Are you working on anything new?

A: I’m silly busy writing at the moment 😱 I’m trying to finish a fourth book instead of redrafting my third, simply because every time I sit down to start the redraft of the third book, the narrator of the fourth book grabs me by the throat and won’t let go until I’ve exhausted that voice. I’m also working on the adaptation of Big Girl Small Town for screen with BBC production company Lookout Point, and working on the adaptation of Factory Girls for TV with Irish Production company Deadpan Pictures. I feel like I am being jostled on all sides by characters, locations, voices and events – on top of finishing up a house renovation, parenting, and travelling for work in the ‘real’ world. It’s funny how exhausting having your dreams come true is 😂

Q: One of my favorite quotes from the book is “If Aoife fell into a barrel of c*cks she’d come out sucking her own thumb.” Is this an idiom I just may not have heard as an American or a Michelle Gallen original phrase? I love it.

A: Hahahahah no it’s a phrase I first heard in Belfast. I can still remember how hard I laughed. It’s TERRIBLE. It’s brilliant! I’m heading up to Belfast shortly for an event and I can’t wait to catch up with all my friends there – it will be like drinking pure comedy gold.

A Q&A with Lily Brooks-Dalton

November 25, 2022

by Robin Wood

We had the opportunity to talk with Lily Brooks-Dalton, author of The Light Pirate (12/6, Grand Central Publishing) in advance of her December 8 in-person event (click here for ticket information) in conversation with store co-founder Judy Blume and store manager Emily Berg at Hugh’s View at The Studios of Key West. We are wildly excited about meeting Lily and can’t recommend The Light Pirate enough (it is also our featured staff pick for December)!

Q: How did you arrive at the story you tell in The Light Pirate? Did you start out with a specific goal or idea or character?

A: I was actually here in Key West when I first started ruminating on preparing for storms and wondering whether there was a story I wanted to tell wrapped up in that rhythm. I was doing a residency at The Studios of Key West and there was a hurricane coming that didn’t end up hitting the Keys, but there was this palpable tension in the air that I kept coming back to. And then I started thinking about linemen, and all this labor that goes into keeping the lights on… so probably the first concrete story moment I had was imagining this little girl tagging along on storm duty with her father, waiting for him in the bucket truck while he worked on the downed lines. That exact scene didn’t actually make it into the book, but that was where I began. And the story grew from there.

Q: The book is told from the perspective of more than a few characters. Was there one you think of as your protagonist?

A: I think of Wanda as my protagonist. The book begins on the day she’s born (I guess technically the day before) and it spans her lifetime, so even though we’re also following the people around her, I’d say she is at the center.

Q: You’re from Florida but now living in California. Did you ever think of telling this story from a West Coast perspective?

A: Well, I actually grew up in Vermont. I struck out on my own fairly young, and right around that time my parents decided to relocate. So Florida has always been my home base as an adult, but I’m not sure I get to say I’m from here. I started working on The Light Pirate about a year before I moved to California. At that point I was actually living out of my truck and traveling around, but I had just spent a big chunk of time in Florida and so the landscape was still very fresh for me. I didn’t even consider setting it somewhere else, Florida was at the heart of the idea from the start.

Q: What was the process like seeing Good Morning, Midnight go from book to film? Could you see The Light Pirate as a movie?

A: It was extraordinary. It’s hard to describe really, beyond saying that it was special and weird and it had a resounding impact on my life. I’m really grateful that it happened. As for The Light Pirate, if we were to do an adaptation, I see it as a TV show. There is more story to tell in this world than even the book contains, and I wouldn’t want to shrink down what is already on the page to fit it into a 2 hour container. I would want to let it expand and breathe! So, I think television offers more space to let something like this unfold.

Q: What are you reading and recommending these days?

A: I just finished Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet, which I liked very much, and then I will also recommend Beneficence by Meredith Hall. I read it a while ago but I’m still thinking about how gorgeous it was. And I also want to chat up The Water Will Come by Jeff Goodell, which is nonfiction, because it has a terrific Florida chapter and just in general was a text that I really valued and learned a lot from while I was working on the novel.

Q&A with Erika Robuck

February 23, 2022

by Robin Wood

We are delighted to host Erika Robuck at 6:30pm on Wednesday, March 23, in-person, outdoors at Hugh’s View on the roof of The Studios of Key West (register here). Robuck will be discussing her newest historical novel, SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG (Berkley). She is the bestselling author of novels including THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, and store favorite HEMINGWAY’S GIRL.

We had the opportunity to ask a few questions in advance of her upcoming event.

Q: Is there a short excerpt that you think works well to introduce SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG?

A: I chose the following scene, at the start of the German occupation of France, because it felt relevant to the way the beginning of the pandemic felt. The start of rationing, the restriction of movement, and the disbelief were unsettlingly relatable.

“It takes many cuts before she comprehends the truth: France is bleeding out—sliced with a mortal blow—and with it, Virginia’s old life is dying.
Like the early days of grieving a loved one, Virginia awakens each morning not knowing, but rather having to remember. That remembering brings fresh pain with each wave, and the waves are drowning her. She thinks it will be better when she simply knows the world has turned upside down—to have the thing dead and buried and not have to recollect. Then maybe she can move on. But there’s no knowing, at least not now. There is no certainty and no timetables, and that’s the hardest part. Though she knows it’s not for her ultimate good, Virginia continues to grasp the ever-vanishing vapors of the memories of before, but they’re getting increasingly hard to grasp.”
SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG

Q: How do you do your research? Has the pandemic disrupted or changed how you work?

A: My research process usually begins with visits to sites important to my story. Because of the pandemic, and the difficulty of traveling overseas, I had to settle for books, YouTube videos, interviews, and Google Earth, all of which are surprisingly helpful (and economical). I tend to begin by reading nonfiction about the subjects, events, and locations. Then I moved to archival material and interviews of the subjects or their loved ones. If there is any first person or autobiographical writing, that is my last stop in getting to know the characters before I can inhabit them to write them.

Edit note: Erika Robuck made a great interactive map of key locations from SISTERS OF NIGHT AND FOG? Check it out at https://bit.ly/3vhS0k2

Q: I saw a fun teaser on your Facebook page, involving vinyl records. Can you tell us anything about your current work-in-progress? If it is indeed, a near-past historical, will this be the first time you have set a story post-WWII?

A: Yes, my new work in progress is a dual period, multigenerational family drama—moving between 1978 and the 1930s—tied together by one of the most studied and debated artifacts of all time. My first, self-published novel, was also a dual period, multigenerational family drama that took place partly in the present day and in the 1800s. I love working in this form because it ties the past to the present in interesting ways, and creates natural suspense as the reader moves back and forth in time.

Q: What’s your favorite thing to do when visiting Key West? What’s one thing visitors should not miss?

It’s hard for me to answer this question, because I want to say so much. Key West is my home away from home. Aside from visiting Books & Books to find that perfect vacation read, my heart turns to The Hemingway House. You don’t have to like Hemingway to be enchanted by the home, gardens, and cats.

Q: What are you reading and recommending these days?

A: I recently rediscovered my love of Rosamunde Pilcher, the queen of multigenerational family dramas, and have been recommending WINTER SOLSTICE to everyone I meet. I also loved the re-released LOOKING FOR TROUBLE: THE CLASSIC MEMOIR OF A TRAILBLAZING WAR CORRESPONDENT, by Virginia Cowles (out in August). From the Spanish Civil war to the London Blitz, readers are travel companions on the most astonishing pre-WW2 itinerary imaginable. Finally, I loved THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. It tells the story of JP Morgan’s dazzling, brilliant librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, whose secret—that she is a Black woman who passes for white—could destroy both her personal and professional life. It was incredibly beautiful and eye opening.

Beyond the Legend: Michael Mewshaw, author of THE LOST PRINCE

February 22, 2019

by Robin Wood

Photo credit: Sean Mewshaw

Michael Mewshaw often writes about famous people and his goal is to take the reader deeper than what they think they know. “The greatest challenge is overcoming readers’ preconceived notions. Celebrities get a lot of publicity, much of it inaccurate. I feel a responsibility as a writer to explore the truth behind the public image. That’s been my modus operandi for my 50-year career,” Mewshaw said recently when we caught up with him ahead of his Tuesday night event launching his newest book, THE LOST PRINCE, an examination of his friendship with the author Pat Conroy.

We had the opportunity to ask him how this book is different, what makes Key West special and what he’s reading now.

Q. For THE LOST PRINCE, in specific, why did you want to share this story? What do you hope readers will take away from it?

A. I hope they’ll take away an accurate picture of Pat Conroy and of our relationship. I’d also like to emphasize that Pat urged me to write about this, painful as he knew it would be for both of us. He’s dead now, but it’s still painful for me, and I hope readers will understand that you can be honest even about someone you loved.

Q. How long has Key West been your winter home? Given that you’ve traveled all over the world, what makes Key West special?

A: I spent two winters in Key West, one in 1973, the other in ’78, back when the place a raffish, rundown, low-priced paradise. I returned in 2000 and have been spending the winter here ever since. It’s a much different town, just as I’m a much different and older person. But many of KW’s best qualities remain — the weather, the tolerance for idiosyncrasies, and the tennis courts in Bayview Park where people continue to be patient with my geriatric game.

Q. What are you reading and recommending currently?

A. I read incessantly, both fiction and nonfiction. Recently I’ve finished a few books about Spain which pertained to my current project. For pleasure I’ve been reading Lauren Groff’s short story collection, FLORIDA, and Deborah Eisenberg’s collection, YOUR DUCK IS MY DUCK. Anyone who loves language would glory in these books.

Q. What are you working on next?

A. I’ve finished a very rough first draft of a novel that’s set in Granada, Spain. I just started rewriting it and have a great deal of work to do. It’s much too early to say more.

~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager

Artists & Mothers: Talking with Susan Conley, author of ELSEY COME HOME

February 2, 2019

by Robin Wood

Hearing Susan Conley, author of ELSEY COME HOME read from and discuss her novel was a great way to close out a busy January 2019 calendar of events. Conley’s novel about an expat American living in China deals with issues of artistic and personal identity, addiction, marriage, and motherhood.

Elsey, the novel’s protagonist is trying to figure out how to reconcile the divergent needs of marriage, motherhood with small children and art. Her husband suggests a yoga retreat in the mountains where Elsey meets a cast of characters, who, among other things, depict women dealing with different kinds of issues and challenges.

“Elsey’s problem is that she can’t cohere all the parts of herself,” Susan said. Painting and parenting both call for a kind of obsession, focus, that it is hard to divide. Art calls for a kind of recklessness – and more than anything else – for time.

And, though, Susan herself is now the mother of teenagers rather than young children, she says that need for time doesn’t go away. But while children require the alteration of artistic habits, Susan says they have also been a gift to her work as a writer. “A deeper sense of empathy, a more expansive emotional bandwith, I am more committed to my work,” she said.

~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager

Planting Seeds with Andrew Furman, author of GOLDENS ARE HERE

February 2, 2019

by Robin Wood

Inspired by true events surrounding an historic Florida citrus season and the civil rights struggle, Andrew Furman’s GOLDENS ARE HERE offers a glimpse of the sea changes occurring in Florida and the nation in the 1960s through the prism of one family’s negotiations with the land, their neighbors, and each other. Leading up to his reading and book signing Feb. 6, we had the opportunity to chat with him about his background and new book.

Q: Please tell us a little about how you came to write GOLDENS ARE HERE?

A: I’ve lived here in south Florida for the past 22 years and one of my favorite things to do is hop in the car with my family and visit some of the more scruffy out-of-the-way outposts of our Sunshine State. The seeds for GOLDENS ARE HERE, if I might use a botanical metaphor, originated in one of these trips with my family to the small town of Titusville and its rural outskirts. As I walked the streets of this historic town and visited the remaining orange groves along the nearby Indian River, I found myself imagining what the place must have looked like and meant to the people who lived there in what might be considered the region’s hey-day, the 1960s when the space-race was hitting its stride, the citrus industry was booming, and, as my research would uncover, the Civil Rights struggle was impacting black and white lives in significant ways. It seemed like a rich time and place to direct my creative energies. It wasn’t too long before a cast of characters and a story emerged in my mind that would allow me to engage with the intersections between the social and environmental realms, which has long been a primary interest of mine.

Q: You’ve also written a memoir about Florida? Can you say a little about how you decide to cast a subject as fiction or nonfiction and how you think readers respond to those narrative choices?

A: This is an excellent question that preoccupies much of my attention these days. In fact, I’m currently teaching a graduate writing workshop at Florida Atlantic University entitled, Writing Across Genres, which examines the work of writers (e.g., Colson Whitehead, Marilynne Robinson, Jesmyn Ward) who write both nonfiction and fiction. The aim, ultimately, is for my students to contemplate their own choices, vis a vis genre, more deliberately. Most of my writing—both nonfiction and fiction, and as my answer above suggests—originates in place. From there, I might choose the essay form if I feel that my own personal experiences in and of a particular place stands the chance of resonating with readers in a powerful way, and/or the real-life experience of another person associated with that place demands attention, or if some feature of the place (an animal or plant, say) intrigues me so much that I’m compelled to research and reflect upon this feature in earnest. BITTEN, my recent memoir, documents my experiences coming to know various fascinating aspects of my adopted home state.

I think I turn to fiction when there’s something about a place that inspires me to imagine an entire story and set of characters outside my own personal experiences, when to imagine a place as fully as I desire, I require the freedom of the “make believe” realm. As I review this response, I realize that I’ve positioned fiction, perhaps, as the more “creative” genre. I resist this notion, in theory, as I believe that the essay form can be every bit as creative as fiction, and as some of my most creative work, certainly from an aesthetic point of view, exists within the pages of my essays. But there we are.

In terms of how readers respond to these narrative choices, this is an even tougher question. But if I understand the question correctly, and given all the scandals in the realm of nonfiction lately (James Frey, Margaret B. Jones, et. al.), I will say that I believe that writers enter into a sort of contract with their readers when they purport to write nonfiction, that writers implicitly promise to be telling the truth (not to be inventing characters or events out of whole cloth, for example) and that readers have a right to be disappointed when writers are discovered to have violated these essential terms. In my creative nonfiction classes, my students and I spend a good bit of time brooding over the more nuanced terms of this contract.

Q: If you can boil it down, what’s the top piece you’d give aspiring writers?

A: This one’s easy. Don’t give up! That is, if you love the writing part of writing, keep at it and don’t be discouraged by the obstacles that come your way as you seek publication. I find that many aspiring writers simply don’t realize how many false starts, how many drafts, how many rejections by agents and editors, how many years, in short, go into a typical book. Perseverance pays.

Q: What are you reading and recommending currently?

A: The best novel I read recently is Richard Powers’ THE OVERSTORY, in which several interconnected characters and plot-lines beautifully evoke the long and tangled relationship between trees and us. On the nonfiction front, I was fascinated and moved by Sy Montgomery’s THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS, which forced me to look at octopuses (not “octopi,” I learned) in an entirely new light, and to rethink my alimentary choices at Greek restaurants and sushi bars!

Finally, upon learning of Mary Oliver’s recent passing (who was living just up the coast in Hobe Sound), I’ve been re-reading many of the poems I’ve so admired over her long career and reading some of her newer work in DEVOTIONS, a fairly comprehensive recent anthology of her poetry.

Q: What are you working on next?

A: Funny that you ask. I’m delighted to report that I’m currently working on a novel manuscript and a related collection of stories set in the Florida Keys! While I don’t like to talk too much about my current projects, I will say that I was inspired by my several bird-watching visits to the Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park. As some of your readers surely know, this hammock and much of north Key Largo was slated for residential development in the 1970s and 80s, and some construction had ensued. Thanks in no small part to the tireless efforts of various environmental groups, including the Izaak Walton League, Friends of the Everglades, and the Upper Keys Citizens Association, led by Dagny Johnson, the land was finally acquired by Florida’s Conservation and Recreational Lands Program. The 2,421 acre park, which I encourage readers to visit, is now home to 84 protected species of plants and animals.

~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager

A Q&A with Holly Goldberg Sloan, co-author of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH

February 2, 2019

by Robin Wood

Photo credit: Gary A. Rosen

Come meet Holly Goldberg Sloan, co-author of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH and be among the first people to read her new middle-grade book. Attendees at Holly’s Sunday, February 10, reading and book signing will have the opportunity to get the book two days before its official release.This 2pm store event is free, family friendly and open to the public.

Holly Goldberg Sloan, author of the New York Times bestsellers COUNTING BY 7s and SHORT, has teamed up with Meg Wolitzer, the New York Times-bestselling author of novels for adults and kids, on TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH, a moving, exuberant, laugh-out-loud novel about friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters. Get to know a little bit about Holly and her new book below and come ready with your own questions.

Q: How did you and Meg Wolitzer come to write this novel together?

A: Meg and I met in Naperville, Illinois at Anderson’s Bookshop’s YA Conference. I thought Meg was so funny, and it wasn’t long before we discovered that we had so many life similarities. We’re both writers married to writers. We both have two sons. We both want to laugh more than anything. Over the course of the next few years, as we sent each other email and text messages, we decided we wanted to write something together. We didn’t know how, exactly. I remember asking my husband, and he said, “Just start by emailing each other.” He meant, for the record, that we should send emails back and forth with ideas, themes and possible outlines. I didn’t understand. I thought he meant I should email Meg as a character. So I did that. The very first email of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH remains very, very close to that first message! I’m pretty proud of that. We never had an outline. And in fact, I resisted talking much about the story. It was so exciting to not know where it was all going.

Q: What do you hope readers will take away from Avery, Bett and their family?

A: Our book is about two young girls who are trying to navigate the fact that their single fathers are now in a relationship. It’s about identity and family, and it’s funny and, I hope, moving. The big take away, I believe, is one of acceptance. We live in times of great division. If these two girls (and their two dads) can find a way to work things out, there’s hope for us all.

Q: What do you like about writing for middle-grade readers?

A: I think that both Meg and I write stories that interest us. So we don’t target readers so much as we target intriguing characters and stories. I believe that adults will get as much out of TO NIGHT OWL FROM DOGFISH as kids.

Q: What are you reading and recommending? For adults? For kids?

I loved EDUCATED, by Tara Westover. And I just finished ASYMMETRY, by Lisa Halliday. I love all of Kate Dicamillo’s books. And Jackie Woodson makes the world go round.

Q: Have you been to Key West before? What are you most looking forward to here?

A: I have never been to Key West and I will visit 15 cities in the next month as Meg and I promote this new novel. Key West is by far the place I’m most excited to see. I have heard that the drive from Miami is epic. I’m ready!

~ Robin Wood, Associate Manager