Giveaway and Q & A with Laura Harrington Author of Alice Bliss

Yesterday, I reviewed a wonderful debut novel by Laura Harrington called Alice Bliss. Check out my review, here. I'm thrilled to share a fascinating list of Questions & Answers Laura Harrington has answered about Alice Bliss and a  giveaway for a chance to win your own copy of Alice Bliss.

Q&A with Laura Harrington, author of  ALICE BLISS

Who is Alice Bliss?

Alice Bliss is a 15-year-old girl in 10th grade, living in upstate New York, deeply connected to her dad who is serving in Iraq with his Reserve unit.


ALICE BLISS the book grew out of Alice Unwrapped, a musical. What was the inspiration for the musical and how did it evolve into a book?

The musical was a commission, actually, and the creation of a new form in music theatre: the one-act, one-woman musical. Paulette Haupt, our commissioner and producer, was inspired by Alan Bennett's play: Talking Heads. Bennett wrote a series of searing, touching, funny monologues for BBC television. They were subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio and then performed live in theatres.

It was an extreme challenge to tell a story in 30 minutes with one singer. I actually wrote 3 stories for this commission, but found I loved the character of Alice best.

And, oddly enough, the very first germ of the character of Alice came from another musical that I wrote with Jenny Giering, Crossing Brooklyn. In that show, Alice was a teenage runaway, living in Prospect Park, sleeping in the carrousel at night. That character was cut from the final version.

With Alice Unwrapped, at 30 minutes, almost entirely sung, we could really only dramatize one key moment in Alice's life. And I realized that there was a much larger story to be told. Which is when decided I wanted to write a book.


ALICE BLISS is a profoundly moving uplifting novel about those who are left at home during wartime and a teenage girl bravely facing the future. It chronicles the impact of the war on those left at home: children, partners, family members, the community. With the US in a war the story is quite timely. Do you have a connection to the world in which you write?

My father was a navigator/ bombardier in WWII, flying missions into Germany from his air base just north of Paris. Both my brothers enlisted in the Air Force in 1966. So, while I don't have a family member serving in this war, my family has been deeply impacted by war.

My father suffered from PTSD following the war, a time he would never talk about directly. Nor would he talk about the experiences during the war that had so devastated him. The silence surrounding my father's war experiences has probably been the single greatest mystery and inspiration in my life. I believe that my fascination with war grows out of my need to understand these experiences and to bear witness to this silent suffering.


What do you hope families experiencing a similar scenario take away from reading your book?

I hope they will feel that I am telling their story and doing justice to it.

While writing the book I was simply immersed in the story, but now that I'm done I can step back and look at the larger picture. It strikes me that you can live in many parts of the US completely untouched and unaware of the wars we've been engaged in for the last 8 years. And there's something about that fact that is terribly unsettling. I think there is an enormous amount of unexpressed grief surrounding these wars and that ALICE BLISS, like good theatre, creates an emotional catalyst that allows us to feel that grief.

And because the book is not “about” the war, but about a family and a town and growing up, the emotional impact sneaks up on you.

What is your writing regimen?

When I'm writing--whether it's a book or a play or a musical or an opera--I write every day. When I'm between projects, or researching and imagining a new story, I can spend weeks and months reading and walking and taking notes and asking questions and developing characters and a storyline. I find the in-between times very, very uncomfortable. Living with uncertainty, wandering around in the middle of mental chaos is very challenging. I'm happiest when I'm writing.

When you write do you have a story in mind and then the characters evolve to tell that story or do you create characters and the story comes from them?

I begin with the characters, with a strong sense of “voice.” I really hear my characters and learn a great deal about them by getting them talking. However, the story is evolving at the same time the characters are beginning to jell. Because what's a character without a story? To me, story is paramount.

ALICE BLISS is not a book about war. When you were writing did you find it challenging to focus on the personal story of the family rather than the politics?

I made a strong choice early on not to go to Iraq in the book. I knew that the emotional impact would come from keeping the story focused on Alice and her family at home. At the same time, Matt, Alice's father, is such a key character and we have so little time with him before he ships out. How do we keep him and his story present? Finding that balance was challenging and an interesting puzzle to solve.


What inspired you to write this book now?

I think that making the war personal is important. Telling the stories of those left behind, illuminating the lives of spouses and partners and children who have a loved one deployed is important. Do we know their stories, their struggles? Do we hear their voices? I hope we can begin to see this war one child at a time, one soldier at a time, one missing father at a time.


You capture the main character Alice wonderfully; her strength, vulnerability and awkwardness of being a teenage girl. Were you anything like Alice growing up?

I think we are all like Alice. That combination of strength, vulnerability, awkwardness and intensity is universal to those years.

I was the youngest of four children, and my siblings were quite a bit older, so I had a much more solitary childhood than Alice did. But there's something about those years that I can still see, hear, taste, and feel. For whatever reason, I have intense empathy for teens.

What type of books do you like to read?

All kinds. If I'm researching a project, like Napoleon or Joan of Arc, or the American Civil war, I can get lost in my reading lists.

I love novels. I'd rather read a book than eat. I love history, I love great non-fiction, I love good writing.

What are you reading now?

Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris, Confessions of a Common Reader, a beautiful series of essays about books and reading and words. It turns out that Anne Fadiman was also a collector of big words, like Ellie.

Jane Smiley's new book: Private Life, and Graham Robb's, Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris.”

My wish list is lengthy and always growing. I am a big fan of my local library.


Which aspect of your work do you most enjoy?

The freedom to think my own thoughts, pursue my own passions, indulge my own obsessions. The necessity of reading. Being able to think of reading as part of my job. How lucky is that? And the opportunity to learn a great deal, even to become a mini expert about all kinds of things, like Napoleon in exile on St Helena's, Joan of Arc's last 3 days in prison, Sherman's march to the sea, the ratification of the nineteenth amendment, marathon dancing, etc, etc. It's fun, and it's never, ever boring.


Who are your heroes?

My parents. I'm inspired by them and guided by them every single day of my life.

The peacemakers. Whoever and wherever they are.


What would your colleagues be surprised to learn about you?

I'm constantly looking for ways to be a kid again, to play.

What is your most treasured possession?

My wedding ring.

What inspires you?

The world around me. Every day.


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*GIVEAWAY DETAILS*

I have one copy of Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington to give away to one lucky reader. 

 

For 1 Entry: All you have to do is leave a comment about this review and what you found interesting about Alice Bliss or the Q&A with author Laura Harrington. Make sure to include your email address (no email, no entry)

For a 2nd Entry (Separate Comment):  Follow my blog, you can follow through Google Friend Connect to the left in my side column. If you already do, thank you, and please  make sure to let me know in your comment so I can pass the entry on to you as well. Make sure to include your email address (no email, no entry).

For a 3rd Entry (Separate Comment): Spread the word about this giveaway and Retweet, retweet button below my name at the end of this post. Make sure to include your email address (no email, no entry).

*Open to US (No PO Boxes) only.

 

Enter by July 15 , 2011

Q& A and Giveaway: Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

I am very excited to share with you some great news about Geraldine Brooks, fourth and newest novel Caleb's Crossing ( On sale, May 3, 2011). Geraldine Brooks is a favorite author of mine and I read her first novel, Year of Wonders with my book club.  It is on my list of all-time favorite books so if you haven't read it make sure to pick up a copy along with her other books. Ms. Brooks is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March and The New York Times bestseller, People of the Book. 


I was truly honored when I was asked to help spread the word about Caleb's Crossing with my blog readers. I haven't read Caleb's Crossing yet and look forward to it as it sounds fascinating and Geraldine Brooks is an outstanding writer. This new book sounds like another winner for Geraldine Brooks and for us as readers.

Here is a little bit about the story:

CALEB’S CROSSING is inspired by the life of Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College in 1665. Brooks first learned about him during her time as a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard in 2006. Caleb was from the Wampanoag tribe of Native Americans who lived on Martha’s Vineyard and this year Tiffany Smalley will become the second Vineyard Wampanoag to graduate from Harvard. There is little official information on Caleb’s life and Brooks’s novel is an informed imagining of what he might have gone through.

What makes this novel truly special is its narrator, Bethia Mayfield. Bethia is the strong-willed daughter of a preacher who lives in the settlement of Great Harbor on Martha’s Vineyard. She struggles with the restrictions placed on her—namely, that she is denied the education freely given to her brother. Bethia finds respite in the wild landscape of her home and it is while clamming one day that she meets Caleb, the son of a local chieftain. They form a secret friendship that, in time, leads to Caleb coming to live with the Mayfields. Bethia’s father eagerly takes Caleb under his wing, determined not only to convert him to Christianity, but also to groom him for matriculation to Cambridge and eventually, Harvard.

The harsh realities of life for both women and Native Americans are fully confronted in CALEB’S CROSSING. It is a story of difficult friendships, cultural transitions, and facing injustices.

Q&A with Geraldine Brooks, author of

CALEB’S CROSSING

Caleb Cheeshahteamauk is an extraordinary figure in Native American history. How did you first discover him? What was involved in learning more about his life?

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head/Aquinnah are proud custodians of their history, and it was in materials prepared by the Tribe that I first learned of its illustrious young scholar.   To find out more about him I talked with tribal members, read translations of early documents in the Wopanaak language, then delved into the archives of Harvard and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, especially the correspondence between colonial leaders and benefactors in England who donated substantial funds for the education and conversion to Christianity of Indians in the 17th century.   There are also writings by members of the Mayhew family, who were prominent missionaries and magistrates on the island, and John Cotton, Jr., who came here as a missionary and kept a detailed journal.

There is little documentation on Caleb’s actual life. What parts of his life did you imagine? Do you feel you know him better after writing this book, or is he still a mystery?

The facts about Caleb are sadly scant.  We know he was the son of a minor sachem from the part of the Vineyard now known as West Chop, and that he left the island to attend prep school, successfully completed the rigorous course of study at Harvard and was living with Thomas Danforth, a noted jurist and colonial leader, when disease claimed his life.  Everything else about him in my novel is imagined.  The real young man—what he thought and felt—remains an enigma.

Bethia Mayfield is truly a woman ahead of her time. If she were alive today, what would she be doing? What would her life be like with no restrictions?

There were more than a few 17th century women like Bethia, who thirsted for education and for a voice in a society that demanded their silence.  You can find some of them being dragged to the meeting house to confess their “sins” or defending their unconventional views in court.   If Bethia was alive today she would probably be president of Harvard or Brown, Princeton or UPenn.

The novel is told through Bethia’s point of view. What is the advantage to telling this story through her eyes? How would the book be different if Caleb were the narrator?

I wanted the novel to be about crossings between cultures.  So as Caleb is drawn into the English world, I wanted to create an English character who would be equally drawn to and compelled by his world.   I prefer to write with a female narrator when I can, and I wanted to explore issues of marginalization in gender as well as race.

Much of the book is set on Martha’s Vineyard, which is also your home. Did you already know about the island’s early history, or did you do additional research?

I was always intrigued by what brought English settlers to the island so early in the colonial period...they settled here in the 1640s.   Living on an island is inconvenient enough even today; what prompted the Mayhews and their followers to put seven miles of treacherous ocean currents between them and the other English—to choose to live in a tiny settlement surrounded by some three thousand Wampanoags?  The answer was unexpected and led me into a deeper exploration of island history

You bring Harvard College to life in vivid, often unpleasant detail. What surprised you most about this prestigious university’s beginnings?

For one thing, I hadn't been aware Harvard was founded so early.  The English had barely landed before they started building a college. And the Indian College—a substantial building—went up not long after, signifying an attitude of mind that alas did not prevail for very long.  It was fun to learn how very different early Harvard was from the well endowed institution of today.  Life was hand to mouth, all conversation was in Latin, the boys (only boys) were often quite young when they matriculated.   But the course of study was surprisingly broad and rigorous—a true exploration of liberal arts, languages, and literature that went far beyond my stereotype of what Puritans might have considered fit subjects for scholarship.

As with your previous books, you’ve managed to capture the voice of the period. You get the idiom, dialect, and cadence of the language of the day on paper. How did you do your research?

I find the best way to get a feel for language and period is to read first person accounts—journals, letters, court transcripts.  Eventually you start to hear voices in your head: patterns of speech, a different manner of thinking.  My son once said, Mom talks to ghosts.  And in a way I do.

May 2011, Tiffany Smalley will follow in Caleb’s footsteps and become only the second Vineyard Wampanoag to graduate from Harvard. Do you know if this will be celebrated?

In May Tiffany Smalley will become the first Vineyard Wampanoag since Caleb to receive an undergrad degree from Harvard College.  (Others have received advanced degrees from the university’s Kennedy school etc.)  I’m not sure what Harvard has decided to do at this year's commencement, but I am hoping they will use the occasion to honor Caleb’s fellow Wampanoag classmate, Joel Iacoomis, who completed the work for his degree but was murdered before he could attended the 1665 commencement ceremony.

Make sure to visit Geraldine Brooks website to find out more information about Caleb's Crossing, her book tour, her other books and more.

*GIVEAWAY DETAILS*

I have TWO galley copies of Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks to give away to two lucky readers, complements of the publisher, Penguin. 

To Enter:   

For 1 Entry: All you have to do is leave a comment, Do you have a favorite book written by Geraldine Brooks? If this would be your first reading experience with Geraldine Brooks, what do you find interesting from the description of Caleb's Crossing or from the Q&A with Ms. Brooks? Make sure to include your email address so that I can contact you if you are a winner. Otherwise, I won't be able to include your name in the drawing. 

For a 2nd Entry (Separate Comment):  Follow my blog, you can follow through Google Friend Connect to the left in my side column. If you already do, thank you, and please  make sure to let me know in your comment so I can pass the entry on to you as well. Make sure to include your email address.

For a 3rd Entry (Separate Comment): Spread the word about this giveaway and Retweet, retweet button below my name at the end of this post. Make sure to include your email address.

Open to US and Canada only. Publisher will mail books directly to the winners.

Enter by April 10, 2011.

Q&A with Joanne Rendell author of Out of the Shadows & GIVEAWAY

I'm thrilled to welcome Joanne Rendell today to talk about her newest novel Out of the Shadows. I've been honored to read and review all of Joanne's novels and knew that I had to share her newest novel with everyone. You can read my reviews for Joanne's other novels by clicking on these links for The Professors' Wives Club and Crossing Washington Square .

Here is a description for Out of the Shadows:

Clara Fitzgerald’s recent losses have set her adrift, personally and professionally. Her mother has passed away, and her career seems stalled while her fiancé's scientific research is poised to take off in an exciting new direction. As great as the potential is for his future, Clara can't help - or ignore - that her emotional connection to him has slowly been slipping away.

But when Clara stumbles on an old copy of Frankenstein and remembers her mother’s claim that they are related to the nineteenth-century author, Mary Shelley, everything changes. With her sister in tow and the help of Kay, a retired Shelley scholar, Clara embarks on a search for the author's long lost journals and letters. As a bond among the three women grows, and as the profound connection between the past and present deepens, Clara comes closer to realizing where her heart truly belongs.

I am looking forward to reading Out of the Shadows, especially with the main character having the same name as my grandmother Clara who recently passed away as well as an amazing older women with great character. I've discussed this with Joanne by email and this novel already has drawn me in from the description. I have not read Frankenstein or much about Mary Shelley and the connections in the description of Out of the Shadows have made me interested in reading this classic novel and adding it to my reading list.

Joanne has kindly answered some questions about Out of the Shadows and a bit about herself as well , to  share with you today:

Why did you decide to write a book about Mary Shelley?



I’ve always loved Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It’s a wonderful gothic novel, but it’s very thoughtful, daring, and extremely prescient too – even now, two hundred years after it was written. In the novel, Shelley dared to ask “what if?” She looked around at the emerging technologies of her time and she considered their darker sides and how they could turn monstrous (and even make monsters!). I still find it amazing that she wrote such a daring and thoughtful, poignant and provocative novel when she was just nineteen. Not only that, she was living in early nineteenth century Europe when young girls weren’t supposed to think about monsters and science, let alone write about them!

Anyway, I knew I wanted to write a book with Mary Shelley as a primary focus and as I began to undertake biographical research, I fell in love with Shelley more and more. She was fiery and smart, outspoken and thoughtful, a non-conformist and a caring mother. I kept reminding myself, though, that I wasn’t going to write a Shelley biography. Out of the Shadows explores the echoes and links between the past, our current moment, and our possible future. I wanted the book to be both about Mary Shelley, but also about how her amazing imagination and insights still resonate today. I wanted Mary Shelley’s story to sit side by side with the story of a modern woman who, although living in a very different world to Shelley, still faces some of the same challenges, fears, and possibilities.

How did you research OUT OF THE SHADOWS and how was it different from your other two novels?

For a long time, I lost myself in some wonderful biographies of Mary Shelley. I fell in love with Shelley in the process! She was such a fiery and smart woman: outspoken and thoughtful, a non-conformist and a caring mother. She was fun to spend a lot of time with. I also had to read a lot about aging genetics and biomedical research in order to write the character Anthony, Clara’s fiancé, who is an ambitious geneticist and Principle Investigator in a university lab. My books always require a certain amount of research because I like to include literary themes. In The Professors’ Wives’ Club it was Edgar Allen Poe. In Crossing Washington Square it was Sylvia Plath. For Out of the Shadows, however, I spent a good five or six months researching before even writing a word.

In Out of the Shadows, you alternate between the Mary and Clara’s stories. Why did you decide to narrate the book like this?

In many ways, Clara and Mary’s stories are so different. Mary is a young girl growing up in early nineteenth-century London, while Clara is a thirty-something professor who lives in modern day New York City. But there are many similarities and echoes too. Mary and Clara are both on the cusp of finding themselves. They are searching for a way out of the shadows of those around them. For Mary, it is the shadow of her mother’s death, her father’s protection, and the life that doesn’t yet fulfill her. For Clara, she must find a way to live for herself, to pursue her own dreams, and not just follow her fiancé’s career.



If you had to pick a favorite character from Out of the Shadows, which would you pick and why?


Mary Shelley was my favorite character, for all the reasons I’ve mentioned already. But Kay, the elderly Shelley scholar who Clara befriends in the story, was a close second. When I wrote Kay’s character, I was thinking of an amazing older woman I knew when I still lived in the UK who was also called Kay. She was the grandmother of my then-boyfriend and she was such a smart, funny, and interesting woman. She’d traveled all over the world, lost her husband when she was just a young mother, and had a successful career as a university professor. She had so many funny and interesting stories to tell. The Kay character in Out of the Shadows is a similar kind of woman: feisty, smart, a long-term widow. She also finds peace with her life and her aging and her mortality. She offers a great counterpoint to Clara’s fiancé, Anthony, who is striving to extend life and stave off death through his scientific research (rather like Victor Frankenstein, of course).



What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I have a seven year old son who I’m homeschooling – although “homeschool” is somewhat a misnomer as we spend a relatively small amount of time schooling at “home.” We live in New York City so are lucky enough to have an amazing array of fun and educational places on our doorstep. Benny and I, together with his homeschooled friends, are always out on trips to the Metropolitan Museum, the Natural History Museum, aquariums, zoos, galleries, libraries, and parks. When we’re not out and about, Benny and I love to read – either together or separately. Benny is now a voracious reader and I’m so thankful he loves books as much as I do.

About the Author, Joanne Rendell (From Joanne Rendell's Website):

Joanne grew up in England yet when Joanne was young she had a crush on the Big Apple. When she was ten years old, in fact, she wrote a series of stories about a couple of kids who find a magic footpath in New York’s Central Park. After leaving school, Joanne went to the University of Leeds in Yorkshire where she completed a degree in English Literature and Philosophy. The student life was too much fun for Joanne, so she went on to do a Masters at King’s College London and then a PhD in English Literature at the University of Sheffield. She met a professor from the U.S. named Brad Lewis.

Joanne and Brad started to write papers together, organize conference panels, email furiously, and eventually they fell hopelessly in love. After Joanne was done with her PhD, she upped sticks and moved to New York to be with Brad, who teaches at NYU. Not long after they got married, and not too much longer after that, their son Benny arrived on the scene.

Over the past seven years, Joanne has juggled life as a homeschooling mum with writing novels. She hasn’t left academia completely behind. She and Brad are faculty in residence in one of NYU dorms and they run events, book groups, and programs for the students who live in their building. Also, Joanne’s novels are all set at Manhattan U – a university in downtown New York which looks, she does admit, a little like NYU.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Joanne has graciously offered to give away

2 copies of her novel Out of the Shadows!

All you have to do is leave a comment, make sure to include your email address so that I can contact you if you are a winner. Otherwise, I won't be able to include your name in the drawing. Open to US & Canada only. Books will ship directly to the winners from the author.

Enter by September 26, 2010

Q&A with Joanne Rendell and a Giveaway of Crossing Washington Square

I am so pleased to welcome Joanne Rendell , author of Crossing Washington Square to Redlady's Reading Room today. I was fortunate to read and review Joanne's wonderful first book, The Professors' Wives Club last year. I was thrilled and honored that she asked me to read and review her second novel as well. Joanne is the kind of author that is very generous in reaching out and connecting with her readers. You can read my review from yesterday of Crossing Washington Square, here which is another wonderful book of contemporary women's fiction.

Joanne has kindly shared some of her thoughts about

Crossing Washington Square and her life:

How did you first get the idea for Crossing Washington
Square?

The idea for this book evolved over a few years. As someone who has lived the
academic life (I have a PhD in literature and now I’m married to a professor at
NYU), I’ve always loved books about the university – books like Kingsley Amis’
Lucky Jim and Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys. But what I noticed about such campus fiction was the lack of female professors in leading roles. Even the female
authors like Francine Prose and Zadie Smith, who’ve written campus novels, they
too focus on male professors. Furthermore, most of these male professors are
disillusioned drunks who quite often sleep with their students! I wanted to
write a novel with women professors taking the lead and I wanted these women to
be strong and smart and interesting – instead of drunk, disillusioned, and
preoccupied with questionable romantic liaisons!


What was the most fun scene in your book to write?

Crossing Washington Square is a story of two very different women and their very
different love of books. Rachel Grey and Diana Monroe are both literature
professors in the old boys club of Manhattan University. While this should
create a kinship between them, they are very much at odds. Rachel is young,
emotional, and impulsive. She wrote a book about women’s book groups which got
her a slot on Oprah and she uses “chick lit” in her classes. Diana is aloof,
icy, and controlled. She’s also a scholar of Sylvia Plath who thinks “beach”
fiction is an easy ride for students. But as is often the case, it’s a man that
truly divides the two women. Smooth-talking Carson McEvoy, a visiting Harvard
professor, has his sights on both Rachel and Diana and gets sparks truly
flying!

If your book were to become a movie, who would you cast?

Crossing Washington Square loosely echoes Austen’s Sense and Sensibilty –
with one professor being led by her sense, the other by her sensibility. I love
the Ang Lee adaptation of Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson and Kate
Winslet playing the two very different Dashwood sisters. Therefore I’d love Emma
and Kate to play my professors!

Who’s your favorite character and why?

That’s a tough one! My knee jerk response is to say Professor Rachel Grey
because, out of the two female leads, I identify most with her. Rachel teaches
chick lit in her classes and has to defend her work and the genre to her stuffy
colleagues who think only the classics and literary fiction should be studied.
As a grad student, I would be reading classical literature and poetry by day,
but then secretly read popular women’s fiction at night (Bridget Jones’ Diary, I
have to say, is one of my all time favorite books!). Rachel is also flawed
and emotional, yet good and honest and brave. I like that about her.

Every time I revisit the book, however, I like Professor Diana Monroe
more too. She’s super smart and has great poise and grace as a teacher. She’s
the kind of uber-professor that every academic secretly wants to be. She’s also
pretty darn scary in her austerity and brilliance. But she has a vulnerability
too and her life started out pretty tough and therefore, every time I revisit
the book, I like her more.

Have you had a "rock star" moment regarding your writing career? If so,
what was it?

My first novel was The Professors’ Wives’ Club. A couple of months after its
release, a woman contacted me and said she’d read and enjoyed the book. She told
me she was a professor’s wife and after a few emails, she revealed that she was
the wife of a very distinguished professor of cultural studies whose work I’d
read, who I’d seen giving keynotes talks at conferences, and whose work greatly
influenced the writing of Crossing Washington Square. Not really a “rock star”
moment, but still exciting to know the wives of influential professors
(professors I really dig!) read my book.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I have a six year old son who is homeschooled, so that’s what I’m mostly doing
when I’m not writing. Although, “homeschool” is somewhat a misnomer as we spend
a relatively small amount of time schooling at “home.” We live in New York so
are lucky enough to have an amazing array of fun and educational places on our
doorstep. Benny and I, together with his homeschooled friends, are always out on
trips to the Met, the Natural History Museum, aquariums, zoos, galleries,
libraries, and parks. When we’re not out and about, Benny and I love to read –
either together or separately. I’m so thankful he loves books like I do!

What are you working on right now?

I’m working on final edits for my third novel which was bought by Penguin last
fall. The novel tells the story of a woman who thinks she might be related to
the nineteenth century writer, Mary Shelley. On her journey to seek the truth
and to discover if there really is a link between her own family and the creator
of Frankenstein, Clara unearths surprising facts about people much closer to
home – including some shocking secrets about the ambitious scientist she is
engaged to. The book is told in alternating points of view between Clara and the
young Mary Shelley who is preparing to write Frankenstein.

Thank You Joanne!

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GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Joanne has graciously offered to give away a copy of Crossing Washington Square to one lucky reader.

For each entry, please leave a seperate comment, this will make it easier to draw a winner as I won't be able to go back and count each entry. Also, make sure that you include your email or that your email is in your blog profile. If I have no way of contacting you by email, your entry will automatically be withdrawn.

• For One Entry: Leave a comment and with a way to contact you.


• For a Second Entry: In a SEPARATE comment, Blog about this giveaway and share a link(posting in your sidebar is fine).


• For a Third Entry: In a SEPARATE comment, Twitter about this giveaway add @Bonnieredlady and share a link, if you can.

This giveaway is ONLY open to US and Canada.

I'll use random.org to draw a winner and the contest will end on October 9th , 2009 at Midnight EST. Good Luck!!

********GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED*********

Q&A With Erin Einhorn author of The Pages In Between

A Conversation with Erin Einhorn

Author of The Pages In Between: A Holocaust Legacy of Two Families, One home

What was your motivation for writing The Pages in Between?

The Pages In Between was not a book I went looking for. When I left my job and my friends in Philadelphia to live in Poland for a year, I was mostly seeking adventure and perhaps the answers to some of the questions my mother had refused to address. But that was when I believed the past was a tidy narrative that awaited an easy discovery. I never anticipated how entwined it would be in the lives of the people I would meet or how quickly I, too, would become entangled. The only way I saw to get out from under the weight of that ongoing story was to try to write it down. I wrote the entire manuscript long before I ever knew I’d get it published. I just knew the story needed to be told.

Your book explores the divide that often occurs between memory and truth. What was your most interesting discovery about your family’s past?

The biggest surprise for me was how much I was able to find. My search certainly produced new questions and it surely cast doubt on many of the details of my family folklore—even on some details that I had always accepted as truth. I still have no idea whether my grandmother jumped off a train on her way to Auschwitz or was killed in the camp. But now I can tell you what she looked liked, the names of her parents, and the name and age of at least one of her siblings—and that she gave birth to a girl on February 24, 1942 (or at least that the documents say that she did). My mother’s only memory of her childhood in Poland proved to be false, but now I know the name of the orphanage where she stayed, the name of the social worker who took her to Sweden, and the date on which they made that trip. Somehow, the ability to fill in details that were always missing from the folklore makes me less anxious about the parts of the story that can never be known for sure.

Is there any part of the ‘myth’ of your mother’s childhood that you wish had remained intact?

Absolutely not. It’s always difficult for sons and daughters to contemplate that their parents led full and complex lives before we even existed but one of the joys of becoming an adult is eventually understanding these people who’ve so intensively shaped our lives. It pains me immeasurably that I lost my mother just as a fuller picture of her was beginning to emerge.

Your driving desire to help the Skowrońskis seems to have been fueled at least in part by your mother’s untimely passing. How do you think she would have reacted to the situation?

I feel quite certain that my mother would have strongly opposed my getting involved in the property issues, but not because of any feelings that she had or didn’t have toward the family that saved her life. My mother was a very practical person and this was an impractical situation. And, like all moms, she was also a worrier. She wanted her children safe at home. I’m pretty sure if I had asked my mom for guidance on what to do, she would have told me to come home.

What else motivated your struggle to resolve the property issues despite the many obstacles?

To some extent, it was a handy distraction. In the wake of my mother’s death, it was something that let me ignore my grief and focus on something tangible, that I could convince myself was important. But I was also confronting an overwhelming landscape, a vicious and devastating war that destroyed so many millions of lives. It was far too much to even begin to contemplate, let alone understand. This was something I could do: One house. Two families. A few piles of dusty paperwork. It was much more manageable and helped me feel like I was at least doing something to right the wrongs of the past, even if I never really managed to succeed.

Your book provides a fascinating look at modern-day Poland, a country most Americans aren't very familiar with. What surprised you most about your time there?

This probably should not have surprised me, but I was constantly amazed by how intertwined Polish and Jewish cultures seemed to be. The foods are almost exactly alike (minus the pork) and so are the mannerisms and appearances. It makes perfect sense that after hundreds of years of sharing communities -- and recipes and ingredients – the two cultures would look so much alike. And yet many young Poles have developed a fascination with Jewish culture that I could never have anticipated. It was unsettling to find myself cast as the exotic ‘other’ in a country where I was surrounded by people who largely looked like me.

Do you think that in addition to being a holocaust memoir, The Pages in Between might change perceptions about Poles and Jews?

I would love to think that my book – or any book – could change perceptions, but some of these ideas are very deeply held and it may be many years before the deepest antagonism fades. The feelings of anger and betrayal that Jewish Holocaust survivors felt for their Polish neighbors was real and rooted in the awful choices they watched their former friends and neighbors make under the extreme circumstances of the war and the Nazi occupation. But the world has changed dramatically since then and little good can come from refusing to engage with future generations because of decisions made before they were born.

Why do you think it's important for the children and grandchildren of holocaust survivors to add their voices to the stories of the past?

There are several answers to this question and one of them is the obvious one: Because we’re what’s left. The last of the survivors in my family have been gone for several years, as is the case in many survivor families, so the task of telling what happened, of reminding the world, has fallen to those of us who will carry this legacy on into the 21st century. But there’s also a less obvious answer: Because we have the distance. If my grandfather had written a memoir, it would have been a searingly painful account of merciless bloodshed and relentless abuse, the work of a man unable to escape his past. My mother’s memoir would have been the story of a woman trying to flee her childhood and parents’ nightmares, a woman focused on her future to the exclusion of her past. By my story has had distance enough to reside in the present, to be informed by the past with an eye toward the future.

Do you plan on returning to Poland?

I have been to Poland almost every year since I first started traveling there in 2001 and expect to make many visits there in the coming years. The murky status of 20 Malachowskiego, my family’s house, remains unresolved and I don’t know when or how resolution will come. At least for the near term, Poland will continue to be an important part of my life.

*Thank you to Lauren Pires, Associate Publicist for Jane Wesman Public Relations, Inc for allowing me to share these Q&A's with you today.