January 31, 2013

The Next Big Thing: Authors Tagging Authors

I have been tagged for this blog entry by Ruth Ozeki, my dear friend and one of the best writers on the planet. Her upcoming (March!) book, A Tale for the Time Being, is indescribably wonderful — smart, funny, tragic, deep, wise. I believe it will be the next Big Thing. Read it at your first opportunity! I have already read it twice and plan on a third reading soon.

Check out Ruth's January 17 entry to see how she answered these same ten questions. My answers (and questions) are below:

What is your working title of your book (or story)?

I had no working title, but I had a working epigraph. I can’t even explain what about it inspired me so much, but putting it on the first page made me feel that I could soar, and I kept it through several years of work. The author for this wonderful epigraph is Bob Dylan.

Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in a lake.
I’m not that eager to make a mistake.

What does it mean? Your guess is as good as mine. I was so sad when it didn’t fit into the final book, although I replaced Dylan with Kafka, which can hardly be seen as a downgrade.

The actual title, which I’m actually quite surprised to have been allowed to keep is: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I remember the exact moment this book began. It was a few days after New Year’s 2000, and I was in Bloomington, Indiana with my grown-up daughter. Bloomington, Indiana is the place where I was born and lived until I was 11. My California children had heard no end of stories about snow-forts and fireflies and huge neighborhood games of capture the flag, but this was my daughter’s first trip to the actual stomping grounds.

My father once taught in the psychology department at I.U. and my daughter and I went on this occasion over to see his old lab. There probably aren’t many people who have my nostalgic pull to the smell of rows of rat cages. So my daughter and I were talking about Dad’s research and animal behaviorism in general (my daughter studied sea lions) and I happened to tell her about a psychological study that took place in the 1930’s. “You should write that book,” she said, “from the point of view of the child.” Which is what I did though the child telling the story is a grown one.

What genre does your book fall under?

Identifying my work as to genre is not my job. Someone else gets to do that, hopefully at a university where they are paid massive amounts of money, because it’s hard work.

My job is to be uncomplaining when I hear how I’ve been categorized. That’s not as hard, but it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I don’t have a movie in my head when I write a book and by the time I’ve written one, my characters have their own shape and sound. By then, any actor would be wrong.

This is not to say that I don’t love movies. There are many actors I will go see no matter what they’re in, just because I trust them to be good enough, and discerning in their choices, to make it worth my while. But I would have to completely re-envision my book to see anyone playing anyone. I’m too tired for that. I just wrote a book!

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

This is the story of a family, told by the youngest child, still grappling as an adult with the long ago disappearance of her sister, five years old at the time, and seven years later, her beloved older brother. That’s a long sentence. I should work on that.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

The book will be published by Putnam in May of this year.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I never know how to answer this question, because I don’t write a first draft. I write several pages and then rewrite them obsessively and then write a few more and then rewrite all of the above. By the time I get to writing my first pass at the ending, the pages that precede it have all been rewritten many times. It took me about four years to write the book, though I’d been thinking about it for several years before I started — don’t know if those years should count, too. I think they probably should although I tend to believe I’m working ONLY on those days when I’m putting words into the manuscript.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

No idea. I’m sure there are good comparisons, I just don’t know which they are. There are parallels with The Man in the Iron Mask and also with the fairy tale “Diamonds and Toads,” both of which are referenced in the text.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I’ve already given my best answer to this above — the idea was my daughter’s; my father, as usual, figures mightily in the inspiration for my books. I did a lot of research, fascinating research, on animal cognition and am in continual awe of the world’s crows, octopi, dogs, horses, scrub jays, etc and including, as always, rats. I’m so sorry we are taking them all down with us when we finally bring the climate to its boiling point. So unfair.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

There are funny bits if you like funny. There are sad bits if you like sad. Some people go to college. Some people go to jail. Some people go to Hawaii.

The authors I am tagging are both amazing.

First my old friend, the enormously talented Greg Frost, who was wearing a tuxedo when I first met him, plus wit, and therefore always has a bit of a Cary Grant vibe for me. Greg is working on 2 books — an historical thriller and a supernatural/mystery/comedy so I don’t know which he’ll choose to talk about. We’ll be surprised together.

Secondly, Nicola Griffith, superstar writer, has a book, Hild, coming out in November. Lucky me, I’ve already read it! It takes place in 7th century Britain and is the story of a young girl who survives and rises in the violent and unpredictable political world surrounding her uncle, King Edwin of Northumbria. This book has all the joys of historical fiction — the transportation into a strange world — and a page-turning plot as well. Truly, truly remarkable.