What
genre do you write and why?
I write women’s fiction and memoir, but one
of my books has been called new adult and another, Mommy Lit, so I think the
labels are fuzzy. Mostly I write what is on my heart. I like stories that ask
questions rather than answer them. I love to watch people and wonder about
their stories. Women’s fiction and memoir are all about the emotional journey
and that’s what I’m most interested in—what makes people live and love the way
they do?
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| http://amzn.to/2tlDPuO |
Tell
us about your latest book.
My latest book is Practicing Normal. It tells the story of the Turner family who live
in a nice neighborhood and from the outside appear perfectly normal. But,
really, is anyone truly normal? JT is twelve years old and has Asperger’s
Syndrome. Jenna is seventeen, smart, and spends her free time breaking in to
the houses on their street. Everett is a dad who doesn’t understand his son, has
lost touch with his daughter, and while adoring his wife, still dabbles in
infidelity. Kate is the emotionally overtaxed mom, juggling JT’s need for
routine, Jenna’s moods, and her aging mother who lives down the street, while
she tries to ignore the possibility that Everett is cheating on her again.
Basically, it’s a glimpse into the classic
American “normal” family at just the moment when their world begins to implode.
It touches on themes like love, forgiveness, and family secrets, but also
explores family dynamics, elderly depression, living with Asperger’s, hospice
care, and teenage infatuations.
What
advice do you have for other writers?
Write from your heart, as if no one is
reading. You can edit later, but the guts of your story have to be honest and
raw and real, not contrived. Drop your guard and don’t be afraid of looking
foolish or stupid—it’s a prerequisite of publishing. Take the big chances.
What’s
your favourite quote about writing/for writers?
I collect so many quotes about writing!
Some I post on twitter or my blog and the rest I write into journals so I can
look back through them when I’m looking for inspiration. This Anne LaMott quote
has been especially inspiring as I work on memoir: “You own everything that
happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about
them, they should have behaved better.”
Did
you learn anything from writing the book that was unexpected?
When I began writing Practicing Normal I had a completely different idea for the book
than what it turned out to be. I’ve always been a pantser rather than a
plotter, but with this story, more than ever, I had to trust the magic and
follow my characters. I planned to write about several families in the
neighborhood, but once I began writing the Turner family, I couldn’t look away.
The narration switches back and forth between Kate and Jenna, but about one
third of the way in I began hearing Everett, the cheating father. His voice was
so clear and insistent, that I let him speak, too. It was the first time I’ve
written from a male point of view, and he wasn’t a male I particularly liked. I
suppose that one thing I learned from writing Practicing Normal is that if you know your characters intimately,
you can trust them to tell the story.
How
do you research your books?
Before I start writing, I spend a great
deal of time getting to know my characters. For this book, I knew that JT had
Asperger’s, so I read several books about the condition and searched blogs
written by parents of autistic kids. Very early in the writing, I asked three
women who are mothers or grandmothers of boys JT’s age who have Asperger’s to
read what I had and let me know whether I was getting JT right. There’s also a
minor character (although she is pivotal in many ways) who is a hospice nurse,
so again I read books and blogs by hospice nurses and asked a hospice nurse to
read the manuscript. For Practicing
Normal, I also watched plenty of youtube videos of how to break into
houses, researched arson, firefighters, EMT’s, sexually transmitted diseases,
drug interaction, dementia, and depression in the elderly, and quizzed a
pharmacist I know about drug overdose. So, actually, I learned a lot about some
pretty depressing subjects in the process of writing this book.
What
is your work in progress? Tell us about it.
My next story is a bit lighter than Practicing Normal, at least it is at
this point. It’s about a quirky young waitress who knows a thing or two about
being left, who agrees to go with one of her customers on his honeymoon when
he’s stood up at the altar. It’s deeper than I expected, but I hope funny, too.
What
books or authors have most influenced your life?
Every book I’ve read has influenced me in
one way or another, even the ones I’ve put down. As far as really changing my
life, though, I’d have to go with Wally Lamb’s, She’s Come Undone and John Irving’s Prayer for Owen Meany. Those masterful stories about unlikely
heroes captivated me. For me, at least, they broke the mode of what a novel was
supposed to be. The lyrical prose of Connie May Fowler, Jacquelyn Mitchard,
Joyce Maynard, and Elizabeth Berg made me want to start writing my own stories.
Anne Lamott’s Operating Instructions
gave me permission to write the raw emotion of life. Oh, there are so many
others! Barbara Kingsolver, Kate Braestrup, and Michael Perry are all authors
whose writing still influences me, but so do new writers I meet all the time,
like Kathryn Craft, Kate Moretti, and Kim Kavin. I usually have three or four
books going at one time – I’m greedy for the influence of writers and books in
my life.
When you’re not writing, how do you spend your time?
If I’m not writing (and usually when I am
writing), you’ll find me in the company of animals. I have three horses, one
dog, and two cats, plus a dozen or so chickens (changes frequently thanks to
the fox population in our area). My family has now fostered over 75 rescue
dogs, and we frequently foster pregnant dogs and litters of puppies, so they
take much of my free time and I write about them on my blog, Another Good Dog. I also
have too many gardens (with too many weeds), love to walk/run/hike or do
anything that gets me out of doors, and enjoy visiting wineries. Oh, and I have
three kids who are nearly grown, but they do still let me follow them around at
times.
Where
can people find out more about you and your writing?
On my website, CaraWrites.com, there are links to all my
books and both my blogs, plus pictures of my foster dogs and news of upcoming
publications and appearances, and a place to sign up for my occasional
newsletter.
author interview
Cara Sue Achterberg
Interview
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1 Comments
I enjoy reading posts about books I have read to get the who, where, when, why so thank you for sharing this. This was a very compelling read!
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