Interview with Sarah Dearing, author of The Art of Sufficient Conclusions

Your first book, The Bull Is Not Killed, came out in 1998.  CourageMy Love, which came out in 2001, was your next release.  Finally, after a decade, The Art of Sufficient Conclusions came out.  How good did it feel when you got the first copy in your hands?  What kinds of responses or feedback have you been getting for The Art of Sufficient Conclusions?

 A decade was far too long between books, and I hope that never happens again, but when I finally held a copy, it felt as though the wait was worth it for finding the right publisher and editor. Mansfield Press provided the most rigorous editing process I’ve ever been through so I felt confident it was the best book it could be, which is no small thing, particularly for as personal book as this one. The cover is perfect and thoughtful, which is not always the case. I had to fight over the cover of Courage of My Love to get it changed from a stock image of a passive woman to one with energy and life.  The most satisfying responses are from women who, like the main character Abby, grew up fatherless, see some reflection of themselves in her and realize they may not be so strange after all.  

The Art of Sufficient Conclusions is described as a “literary mash-up of fiction, memoir, and archival material.”  That’s quite the balancing act!  Did you have to rein yourself in at times?  Did Nonfiction Sarah take over at times?  Was Literary Sarah trying to steer things?

The most difficult part was stepping away from the factual and making Abby less like me, while still being true. It was constraining at times. 

As they say in real estate: location, location, location!  Setting plays a significant role in all three of your novels.  In fact, in their review of Courage My Love, The Globe and Mail said: “Sarah Dearing so strongly depicts an angle on a place and a time, so profoundly evokes a stench and a feeling, that it creates a true literary landscape. It’s a place you could paint from memory.”  Wow!  Talk about high praise!   Talk to me about place.  Do you have to love a place to write about it?  Can you write about a (real) place you’ve never been to?

Place intrigues me on several levels. I’m constantly aware of how my environment affects my mood and perspective and I need it to change frequently, even if it’s something minor like rearranging the furniture or taking a different route somewhere. It’s contradictory because I also love the familiarity and ritual surrounding certain kinds of places, like cottages, where even minor change feels like an affront. Loving a place provides a great deal of motivation to try to do it justice in writing, but it’s not necessary. It might be easier, or more enjoyable, but it’s not a prerequisite. London, England features significantly in The Art of Sufficient Conclusions, and I write about not loving it at all. I think it’s possible to write about a real place without ever having been, but where’s the fun in that?  Travel allows us to be different versions of ourselves and to discover things about who we are, either personally or culturally. I think that’s an important part of being a writer. 

The publishing landscape has undergone a sea change since your previous books were released.  How do you feel about the changes in the book world?  What opportunities do you see in ebooks and social media? 

I remember it was a bit of a parlour game when writers got together to bitch about our publicists and now we have to be our own publicists. There’s an irony there but since I try not to look backwards, I am actually quite ambivalent about changes in the book world. I think the potential is there to reach more readers through ebooks but I don’t think ebooks have reached their full potential yet. As far as social media goes, I suspect it is effective but I’m not very motivated to self-promote right now. I only want to focus on my next project, particularly after such a long gap between books. Once I’m in a fictional world, I need to be as fully immersed as possible, to the exclusion of just about everything else. I hope I can get more in the swing of it with my next novel.

I have to ask this (I already have my own answer to the question...) but if a hot-shot Hollywood director showed up on your doorstep and offered you a bucket of cash to make a movie of The Art of Sufficient Conclusions, who would you cast as Abbie?

The first person to come to mind is Lauren Ambrose, who played Claire in Six Feet Under. I’m curious who your choice would be.

What can you tell me about your current work in progress?

I have two novels in progress, but the one I’m focused on right now (maybe because I’m tired of winter) is inspired by time I spent working at a dodgy hotel on Corn Island, Nicaragua, and is more like my first novel in terms of style. It’s also narrated by a 13 year-old girl who is nothing like me, which is sort of like taking a vacation from myself. It’s a wonderful thing to be constrained only by the authenticity of voice and plot.

Mystery author Elmore Leonard once said: “My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: when you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.”  What piece of advice would you give to an aspiring author?

Read lots of great books in whatever genre you’re writing and feel envy. 

What do you think is the biggest misconception, the most frequently circulated myth about writing and being an author?

The glamour of it all?  

What are your thoughts on the following quotation:  “The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and the blood,” John Burroughs, The Snow-Walkers.  

It sort of dismisses all the brilliant literature from perpetually warm places. I get what he’s saying, but maybe it’s more about the hardship and isolation of winter; the sensual and social aspects of summer.  Desert/seaside might be an equally apt comparison or mountain/valley.

When you take a break from writing and have time to curl up with a book, what do you like to read?  Who are some of your favourites?

If I really want to get out of my own head, I go for a good mystery or spy thriller from the likes of Ian Rankin or John Le Carre. I think David Mitchell is the most interesting contemporary literary writer and eagerly await whatever he publishes. T.C. Boyle for his expansive vocabulary and George Orwell for his economy. 

The last question is a bit of a freebie:  What is the one question you wish I had asked you but didn’t?  Now, go ahead and ask and answer that question.

Is CanLit ready for a pot-smoking heroine? 

In 2002, the Canadian government tabled a bill to decriminalize the possession of marijuana and I kept meeting pot-smokers, particularly among the 20 to 30 age group. It seemed like a very mainstream activity and since the book is meant, among other things, to document a particular time (post-9/11) this detail seemed important to include. 

Follow Sarah on Twitter @sarahdearing

Sarah's books on AMAZON click HERE

 

Guest blogger Diane J. Reed on Teen Sex and YA Fiction

Teen Sex

by Diane J. Reed

Sex sells! We all know this. How can we not in a post-50 Shades of Grey world where suddenly the cat is out of the bag and marketers know full well that even middle-class mommies like their book club selections to serve up hefty helpings of hot & steamy erotica? This recent phenomenon has sent the publishing world ablaze, and now graphic sex scenes are cropping up everywhere. But what happens when the sex starts to trickle down to mainstream novels about teenagers?

Gulp!

This is precisely the issue that’s been keeping me awake at night lately. Even when it’s handled “responsibly” in fiction (i.e., teens use condoms), I still find myself cringing a little every time a 16 or 17 year old gets it going on between the sheets. Do teenagers ever have sex that is glowingly beautiful & mind-blowingly transcendent? Or is the truth more like an awkward tangle of moist lips & body parts as they try to figure out how to get things right? Part of me is concerned that writers are creating a fantasy realm that has never existed for any teenager—and on the top of that, are promoting risky behavior that might be emotionally scarring for more vulnerable adolescents. 

For this reason, I felt like I was walking a tightrope of sexual tension with my first YA novel Robin in the Hood. My main character Robin McArthur is only 15 years old when the novel begins, and she’s as obsessed about sex as most girls her age. When she discovers her formerly wealthy family is now broke, and out of desperation starts robbing banks to make ends meet, she stumbles upon super hot Creek—a 17-year-old guy who has a thing or two to teach her about crime. They soon become partners and the passion and sparks fly. After they hone their skills by robbing a local ATM machine and get separated, the following is their sexy reunion scene at a nearby lake:

“Take off your clothes,” a voice whispered at the edge of the lake like a ghost.

It was still a bit misty out, and I thought I felt a warm breath against the back of my neck—

I whipped around. There he was!

Creek, stripped to his torn jeans with his blonde hair dangling against his shoulders again, as if the powers that be had somehow beamed him right in front of me.

And he was grinning from ear to ear.

“You were a very bad girl today,” he remarked.

Unable to control myself, I hugged him with all my might, elated that he’d made it out of Bob’s convenience store okay through God knows what kind of messy miracle. And Lord, how I wanted to kiss him again! But I felt like a fool with a bag of money and a t-shirt still bulging over my belly, because I’d been too preoccupied to remove them till I’d succeeded in hiding the motorcycle.

Creek broke away from me and gazed at my tummy with a laugh.

“You rocked it!” he said, patting my stomach.

“B-But how’d you get here so fast?" I gasped.

Creek’s lips slinked into a smile. He shook his head. “Sweetheart, it ain’t hard to get a lift in these parts when you’re not wearing a t-shirt. Now we gotta move—”

He slipped both his hands under my camisole, removing the money bag and t-shirt and letting them fall with a thump to the sand. To my surprise, he threw off my blonde wig and traced his fingers beneath my camisole straps, tenderly lifting them over my head.

My heart ricocheted inside my chest. Oh my God—is this the part where we have Post-Heist Sex?

Creek’s eyes arrested mine. They were still that hard blue, broken by shards of glass in the middle like a guy totally focused on his mission. But there was a softness at the edges as well, as if maybe he wanted to . . .

Protect me?

And kiss me at the same time—

Both urges warring inside him.

Well, I decided, no time like the present to test that theory!

I rushed my hands up his firm chest and clutched his face, pulling his lips to mine for as much Heaven as I’d ever been allowed on this silly, spinning planet.

And spin I did! Inside, I felt as if I my whole being had gotten lost in a dreamy whirl. All traces of thought evaporated, only the smell and feel of his hard skin and soft hair overwhelming my senses. I was tumbling end over end, because no one had ever informed me that . . .

When you touch someone this beautiful—

It’s like falling into a pool of light.

And all of a sudden,

You’re that beautiful, too . . .

Creek’s hands surged up my bare back, and I couldn’t stop from pressing my breasts against his chest—my scratchy, Pinnacle-issue bra be damned—as my fingers nimbly undid the button and zipper on his jeans. I pulled them down his legs like they were as easy to rip from his body as saran wrap, and then I kicked off my shoes to do the same with my jeans.

Who was this girl??

I’d become a mighty blur—all animal on instinct and overdrive—who was determined to make both our bodies sing in the sunshine and sand that seemed to cry out for us to become one creature—

But then I felt Creek hoist my nearly naked body in his arms, hugging me tightly to his chest.

He kissed me uncontrollably for a few seconds, when all at once his lips broke free, and he rested his forehead against mine.

And he began to walk into the lake, gently carrying me, as though we were heading for some strange, a spur-of-the-moment . . . baptism?

“Bloodhounds,” he said breathlessly, his gaze full of alarm. “Bob’s got bloodhounds—”

From out of nowhere, I heard the echo of a chorus of dogs, their deep resounding barks growing closer by the second.

With one last kiss, Creek released me to the water, sailing me forward. The cold shock rushed to my neck, constricting my lungs and leaving me heaving for air.

“Swim, Robin!” He ordered, pointing to an inlet of the lake covered in shadows. “Swim with everything you’ve got!!”

As you can see, there’s a lot of sexual tension here but also so much action that the characters don’t actually have time to sexually “connect”. Yes, this is on purpose, because Robin is only 15, and I felt it would be irresponsible to write casually about sex with a character who’s an underage minor. 

But what about the sequel?  Yikes!

Robin will be 16 years old in the sequel to Robin in the Hood, where she goes on a journey to a foreign country with Creek to find her long lost mother. Hello! They will be totally unsupervised by adults in this story, and you KNOW they are going to have sex! To pretend otherwise would be to commit one of the greatest crimes in fiction: avoiding the truth. As much as I don’t want to promote irresponsible teen sex, I also don’t want to be branded a downright liar . . .

So what to do?

Well, I could keep them running with lots of bristling action and plot twists, to the total exhaustion of my poor readers.

Or, I could take a cue from Simone Elkeles’ novel Perfect Chemistry and Colleen Hoover’s novel Hopeless—two well-written books for young adults who go the “responsible” sex route. Yes, in these novels 16 & 17 year olds do have sex—but only once in the entire story (although there are lots of passionate kissing & detailed caressing scenes to fill up their 300+ pages). But in following their lead, am I contributing to the moral demise of our country and/or over-sexification of our youth?

God only knows. Let’s face it—teens have sex, pretty much no matter what moment in time or society you put them in, and I just can’t bring myself to be pollyanna about that. So I’m waiting until my female heroine Robin is at least 16 in the sequel to allow my characters to fully embrace their natural sex drives so I can sleep peacefully at night. And of course, I will want Robin’s first experience to be downright heavenly—the kind of thing you only see in the movies! Why? Because I don’t want to read about fumbling teens grunting and grinding in the backseat of some car, and neither do you. Does this mean I’m leading teens on just like other contemporary authors?

Well, there’s the rub. Perhaps if enough teens read these kinds of books, they will insist that their earliest sexual encounters have some quality and depth of meaning. Or maybe I’m just fooling myself? Since this is such new territory, I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts on the matter, good or bad. And until then, here is some food for thought: when I spoke to my local librarian about the subject, she stated that if there is graphic sex in a novel—regardless of whether it’s involving teenagers—the book gets shelved in the “adult” fiction section of the library, period. The trendy publishing labels of “New Adult” or “Mature Young Adult” simply don’t apply. Detailed sexual encounters = Adult fiction, so in the end, it’s up to the parents to decide if their teens can read such a book. Perhaps that’s where the final word on the matter really lies . . .

 

Get updates from Diane by following her on Twitter @DianeJReed and check out her website http://www.banditsranch.com/ 

 

Order ROBIN IN THE HOOD on AMAZON or BARNES AND NOBLE or KOBO

Popping up here and there...

I'm happy to say that Sasha and I have recently popped up a few times in various places in Cyberland.

Most recently, I was a guest blogger for Utterances of an Overcrowded Mind.   The piece I submitted has to do with categorizing books ("tags") and sub-categories within genres.  Have a look HERE.  And, no, I don't write erotica.

Prior to this, I did an interview with SKELAT.  They asked some fun questions; you can read the interview HERE.  Among other things, I chat about inspirations for the Sasha mysteries.

Finally, The Lies Have It got a great review on Have You Heard My Book Review.  The  reviewer says:  "Picking up a Jill Edmondson book is a guaranteed good read."  Woo-Hoo!  You can read the review HERE.

Interview: Bruce Clothier, author of A DARKNESS SHATTERED

For the benefit of those not yet familiar with your work, give me the one sentence pitch for A Darkness Shattered.

Two teenagers meet at the dawn of the zombie Armageddon, and leaning on one another for support, learn to cope not only with horrific creatures and the worst remnants of humanity, but to accept and understand the changes that have begun to occur within themselves as well.

This is book one of The Darkmind Saga.  Can you tell me what’s forthcoming in the series?

The next book chronicles the struggles faced by the survivors at the encampment and sheds light on several of the mysterious events hinted at in the first book.  Michael and Abby make discoveries about the special “gifts” they have and must learn to control and use them wisely.  Meanwhile, the terrifying world outside the safety of the camp continues to evolve, bringing some of that change to the refugees.

The description on Amazon calls A Darkness Shattered a “gripping story of the zombie apocalypse”.  Cool premise, and it seems to appeal to readers of today.  Paranormal/werewolf/steampunk/zombie/end-of-the-world et al seem to be wildly popular nowadays.  To what do you attribute this popularity?  Do you think this genre (admittedly a wide umbrella term!) is being flooded?  How does one stand out among so much competition?

I’m no psychologist, but my suspicion is that our 24 hour news society depresses people.  I think we all want an opportunity to escape for a time and explore a life or world different than what we now have, but not so vastly different that we have difficulty relating to the characters or land.  There is a certain comfort-level to be had when reading about events that could be taking place in a city like your own by people that could be your neighbors. 

As far as the explosion of the genre, these books have been around as long as there’ve been books, but with the advent of e-readers, the stories are literally at your fingertips, day and night.  Anybody (myself included) can decide to write and self-publish a book which, of course, increases the selection we have to choose from. 

How to stand out from the crowd?  When I’ve sold a million books, or Mr. Spielberg decides to make a film of my story (I’m still waiting patiently for his call by the way), I’ll feel better qualified to answer that question!  I can tell you that my hope was to separate myself by writing something believable (in a most decidedly unbelievable setting) by letting my characters behave in a fairly normal manner.   Let’s face it, very few of us among the billions who inhabit this planet could wake up one day to find everything changed and gone to hell, go pick up a weapon and survive longer than a day or two.  Just having a gun doesn’t make you think or behave more intelligently – quite likely the opposite would be true.  Consider that in the first few weeks of a total societal breakdown, those that stand the best chance of survival would be those that lived a fairly violent existence, constantly on guard and having to defend themselves by force in the past – they would know what to expect, the actions necessary for survival would most likely not sicken or discourage them, and they most certainly wouldn’t sit around waiting for the authorities to take care of them.  Much of our population would become instant fodder for both the monsters and this dangerous caste of people who suddenly find themselves with no restrictions to rein them in.   

My characters strive to make logical choices, worry sometimes about those decisions and their own abilities, and yes, feel remorse when forced to take the life of another.  This is not to say that they are wimps by any stretch, but it takes time for a person to adapt, and possibly even flourish, within the rules and framework of a new world and lifestyle. For the aforementioned reasons, I think this is important (and judging by feedback received and reviews of the book, others agree with me).

Name two authors who influence and inspire you, and tell me why.

ONLY 2 AUTHORS?!?  Whom to exclude then…

I will have to say Stephen King and Raymond E. Feist are two I enjoy reading as much as anybody.  Both are extremely gifted men that have the ability to paint a picture in my mind like no other.  The details they provide in their narratives always seems to be exactly enough – any less and I might not see what they’re telling me and any more, I find myself bored.

Your author profile on Amazon lists a number of hobbies, including golf, hockey, astronomy and drums.  How in Pete’s name do you find time to write?

I won’t bore you with the (lengthy) list of hobbies and activities I chose to exclude…

When my expiration date arrives, I prefer my bucket list to have many, many items crossed off.

What is the worst bit of writing advice you’ve ever heard?  What’s the best?

Worst:  You stupid ass – save the money and self-edit.

Best:    You stupid ass – spend the money, you can’t self-edit.

The Internet has wrought a sea change in how readers and writers interact.  What are some of the weirdest or funniest or most satisfying experiences you’ve had online with readers?

Feedback has been fantastic from all age groups and genders which is really encouraging.  A Darkness Shattered contains a great deal of character emotion, a budding (and at times awkward and funny) love story and a paranormal twist at the end.  These three items depart from what is normally considered the “zombie apocalypse genre” and in truth I had vast sections of the book on the chopping block right up to the time I submitted it to Amazon.com to be published.  I was afraid the book wouldn’t be accepted with those topics included: I feared the macho readers would balk at the emotion and love story, and that the zombie purists would dislike the paranormal angle.  I finally decided to leave them in because that’s what I had written, and that’s what I felt made it different.  I am very happy to say that almost without fail, those three items are what my readers tell me they enjoyed the most – and in many cases, exuberantly so!

Talk to me about writing the character Abigail Martin.  What inspired her?  What challenges did you have in getting into her head?

Abby has been the most fun and challenging of all my characters.  She came about by accident when I decided Michael should have a companion in his life (after all, don’t all heroes get to have one?).  She started out simply enough, but somewhere along the way, I realized there was a wonderful opportunity to expand her role and I gave both of them a purpose in the new world.  I asked my daughters and nieces to read the book and give me hard feedback on Abby’s personality because again, even though this is a work of fiction, I want it to be as believable as possible.

Stephen King once said: “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time - or the tools - to write.”  What are your thoughts on this quote?

Mr. King knows of what he speaks.  I offer this by way of proof:

“The telephone wires make and odd humming on clear, cool days, almost as if vibrating with the gossip that is transmitted through them, and it is a sound like no other – the lonely sound of voices flying over space.  The telephone poles are gray and splintery, and the freezes and thaws of winter have heaved them into leaning postures that are casual.  They are not businesslike and military, like phone poles anchored in concrete.  Their bases are black with tar if they are beside paved roads, and floured with dust if beside the back roads.  Old weathered cleat marks show on their surfaces where linemen have climbed to fix something in 1946 or 1952 or 1969.  Birds—crows, sparrows, robins, starlings—roost on the humming wires and sit in hunched silence, and perhaps they hear the foreign human sounds through their taloned feet.  If so, their beady eyes give no sign.  The town has a sense, not of history, but of time, and the telephone poles seem to know this.  If you lay your hand against one, you can feel the vibration from the wires deep in the wood, as if souls had been imprisoned in there and were struggling to get out.”

This excerpt is from ‘Salem’s Lot, a worthy book I read many years ago and this particular passage has always stayed with me.  On my best day, I doubt I could create anything near its equal, but I am a much better writer for having read it.

Do you have any future projects in mind?

When I finish The Darkmind Saga, I plan to write either an historical fiction book or a vampire book.  I also have ideas for a couple of children’s books that I think my grandson will enjoy reading.  Whatever I write, it will almost certainly be fiction because with few exceptions, that’s all I read.  In my mind, reading is an escape from the everyday.  It’s an opportunity to immerse oneself into another world or life and that’s difficult to do if you’re reading non-fiction material.

Get A Darkness Shattered on Amazon - click HERE 

Check out Bruce's website - click HERE

Follow Bruce on Twitter @brucloth