Hi Jean,
Thanks for this comment. I’m sure people feel all kinds of things about the book that they haven’t shared with me, so I haven’t heard of the first section being problematic for others. If you want to say more, feel free! Mostly people have talked about how it brought back their own college relationships, the good and the bad.
Both those novels are love stories with love triangles so there are a lot of men swirling around! But I do feel that the women in Casey’s life are deeply supportive and essential to her. In HtL, her mom, Carter, Claudette, Madame Trèves, Prof. Felske–they all sort of quietly, under the radar, work to shape her life. In W&L, Muriel and her agent do the same. They probably don’t get as much air time as they should.
I always knew that the last section would be the three of them again in that specific place. I never had any other ideas for it. But after she leaves there–that part gave me trouble, and I wrote several different versions, including one in which she goes to Iceland for 30 pages (!) Disaster. Then I calmed down and just wrote the parts that needed to be there.
I write in the mornings, Monday-Friday, usually from about 9 to 3. I have to a cup of strong black tea after a breakfast with eggs. I write in my study, sitting down or standing up. My back is not great after years of this work so I have a standing desk now and I’m trying to get used to writing fiction on my feet. It’s hard. I’m better at editing standing up. I don’t write an outline but I do keep all kinds of notes that build up in the back of the notebooks I write in. When the notes get too chaotic I create a little timeline–just a line across a page–and make little vertical ticks on it then write below something that will happen. It sort of becomes a roadmap with little signposts. It’s not the whole plot, just little moments I’m trying to get to. For me, much of the plot happens while I’m writing.
Are you writing all the time, or do you take a break after you submit a book?
Well, I thought you absolutely nailed it (and obviously, I’m not alone in that).
How involved do you get with the audiobook productions of your novels? Are there any big or small screen adaptations underway?
Are you currently writing another book, and if so, can you tell us anything about it?
I take a break after I deliver a book, and then a longer forced break when I go on book tour. But something is usually brewing. I’ve started doing some research for a new one, but I won’t start writing for several more months, I don’t think.
I get a say in who reads the audio, but that it is it. And I can’t listen afterward or I will just want to make revisions! I have optioned a few books, but nothing has started filming!
I’m only writing in my head right now. I can’t say more.
Thank you so much for inviting me to this chat!