I know you started writing at an early age, and your first collection of short stories was published on the day you graduated from Harvard. At what point did you decide you were able to devote yourself full-time to writing? Did you feel you were taking a leap of faith at that point, or were you pretty confident in your ability to succeed?
Probably my biggest challenge was to stay patient and work slowly. I had a good idea of how I wanted to structure the book and once I got started I had a strong sense of Margueriteâs voice as she told her story. My biggest challenge was to work steadily and allow the book to unfold.
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I had always believed I would need a day job if I were to become a writer and for a long time I thought that job would involve scholarship. I earned a PhD in English literature at Stanford and while I was there I hoped to train to become a professor. By the time I finished my doctorate I was publishing stories in âThe New Yorkerâ and had published âThe Family Markowitz.â I had also published my first novel âKaaterskill Falls.â It was clear to me that I could pursue a career as a full time writer. That said, I have continued to teach on occasionâand I love my time in the classroom. For the most part I teach creative writing, but I have also taught literature classes.
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How did having children impact your writing career? Do any of them appear in your works? Wondering in particular what Sam might share with your daughter, or if Diana and Aidan from The Chalk Artist are based in any way on your childrenâs lives and interests.
(⌠And I still canât believe you were able to write while being mom to four little ones. Although I suppose theyâre not so little any more!)
Because Isola is based on historical fact, it seems like you were locked into a general outline of how the story would need to progress. Did you find that you had more flexibility in writing your other novels, and if so, which way of plotting out your story was more frustrating?
Which of your books was your favorite to write? Which one are you most proud of? Which was the most challenging?
My daughter Miranda says, âI take credit for all of Samâs good qualities.â I think on occasion tiny bits of my children show up in my books. I worked steadily while raising my four, but I am writing a lot more now. My children are now 32, 29, 26 and 23. The oldest, a labor economist told me, âYour productivity has gone way up since we left home.â This is absolutely true.
As poets sometimes say, itâs liberating to write with some constraints. I liked working with a few known facts because they provided me with structure. More flexibility can be a challenge! Or I should say, a different kind of challenge.
Weâve spoken a lot about Isola, but of course youâve written several novels and short stories. How did you come up with the ideas for your other books? What inspires you to write about something?
Hi! I have read and enjoyed several of your novels. In a book like Intuition that hinges so much on big topics like science and ethics, how do you âfind your way inâ to the novel? Did the characters come to you first, or were you drawn to themes first? I loved this book, and as someone who grew up in Mass, I thought you captured Cambridge really well!
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In Isola, you were willing to address the charactersâ faith (which, unfortunately, some readers have criticized). In the 1530s - 1540s religion was important. Do you have any comments?
Could you recommend any non-fiction about Marguerite?
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Thanks for your question, Luisa! I do think religion was important in the 1540s. Margueriteâs education was religious and her Catholic faith provides her with the perspective and vocabulary for her experienceâeven when she doubts. In my opinion historical novels need to be accurate not only in descriptions of clothes and food and ships but psychologically and religiously. We live in a pretty secular world. Marguerite did not. I honored that. There are no biographies of Marguerite because so little is known about her. You might be interested in the queenâs version of her life which you can find in âThe Heptameronâ a collection of stories published after the queen died. This book has been translated into English. I believe the Queen of Navarreâs version of Margueriteâs ordeal is story number 69.
How involved do you get in the creation of the audio versions of your novels? Are there any screenplays in the works?
Hooray! I am so glad you enjoyed âIntuition!â I find my way into a novel in a few ways. First, I do some research. In the case of âIntuitionâ I found some post docs willing to let me follow them around so that I could get a sense of the look and feel of their labs and the nature of their work, particularly with mice. While doing this research, I think about characters. With âIntuitionâ I wrote a little biography of each character just so Iâd think about backstory. And while doing that I work on the voice of the book. How do I want the narrator to sound? How will I convey information? How will I play with point of view? And to add yet another layer I think about what might happen in a lab with the characters Iâm developing. Where might they find joy in discovery? How might they compete? What are the sources of tension? Answering these questions leads me to topics of scientific method and ethics. So Iâd say I work on character, setting, and voice first rather than starting with a big theme like scientific fraud.
I was sent a few clips of readers and I suggested the voice I thought was the best fit for Marguerite. I think she did a great job! In addition, I recorded the Authorâs Note. No screenplays in the worksâat least not yet!
What question do you wish people would ask (or ask more often) about your work?
I read in another interview that you were working on a different book at the same time you were writing Isola. How were you able to switch gears? I find I canât even read two books at once.
And along those same lines, I know you write short stories and poetry as well. Do you continue writing in those genres while you write you novels?
Ha! When my kids were younger I had barely enough time to work on one project. Now that they are grown up, I have a lot more time to work. I think it would be hard for me to start two projects at the same time, but Iâve found that if the books are at different stages, I can work on two. I started âIsolaâ when I already had a draft of âSam.â So I was rewriting âSamâ in the mornings and drafting âIsolaâ in the afternoons. I did this five days a week. I donât work on Saturdays and on Sundays I generally work on shorter projects like essays or short stories. When I was a child I wrote poetry, but I donât attempt it now. Pretty early on, I discovered that I am a story teller rather than a poet. I do love to read poetry, however, and I try to read some every day. Recently I reread âThe Iliadâ and âThe Odysseyâ in the Lattimore translation. Currently I am reading âThe Canterbury Tales.â
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I donât have a favorite book, but I have favorite scenes and chapters within my books. In âIsolaâ my favorite part to write was the last third when Marguerite returns home. I realize, however, that it was satisfying to write because of the work Iâd done earlier to set up that return. Each writing project is challenging in its own way. It can be challenging to work with multiple points of view, as I do in âIntuitionâ and âKaaterskill Fallsâ but it is also challenging to choose one point of view as I do in âSamâ and âIsola.â It can be challenging to write about people living long ago, as I do in âIsolaâ but itâs also challenging to write about people living nowâbecause everyone has an opinion on these times. In âIsolaâ I wrote about a woman about whom little is known and this is both a challenge and an opportunity. Marguerite left no diaries or letters. The two accounts of her ordeal conflict with each other and they are also brief. This meant I had scant source materialâbut a lot of space for my imagination.
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You donât have a favorite book - but do you have a favorite character? Do you have a least favorite character, or one who was especially challenging to write?