Q&A with Patti Eddington

 

 

 

Patti Eddington is the author of the new memoir The Girl with Three Birthdays: An Adopted Daughter's Memoir of Tiaras, Tough Truths, and Tall Tales. A journalist, she lives in Spring Lake, Michigan.

 

Q: Why did you decide to write this memoir, and how was the book’s title chosen?

 

A: The short, probably frustrating, answer for anyone who has been dreaming all their life of being an author is I never had that dream and never intended to write a book.

 

I grew up hearing one story about my adoption from my parents and learned a bit more of another (extremely sad) story when I found my biological mother’s family in about 2004.

 

Then in 2018 I received the results of a DNA test given to me by my curious daughter, met my biological father’s family and felt absolutely compelled to learn more about my story.

 

I’m a journalist so once I unlocked my adoption records and saw what they contained there was pretty much no way I could not write this memoir.

 

When I submitted my query to my publisher the working title of the manuscript was “The Greatest Centennial Hula Hoop Queen — Two names, Three birthdays and One Big Secret.” As is often the case, the title needed to change; it didn’t really reflect the story or even indicate it was a memoir.

 

Brooke Warner, who founded my publishing company She Writes Press, took the time to read my book and offered me about 10 potential titles and seven subtitles. I played with them a bit in various configurations and asked my husband, daughter, and best friend what they would choose. It was a unanimous decision.

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the book says, in part, “The adoption narrative is closely interwoven with a more general personal memoir of growing up in Morrice, and it works best as a story of a woman connecting with her origins and discovering who she really is.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I appreciate the nice review. I think it’s accurate.

Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book?

 

A: For a few years now I’ve been railing against the narrative in this country about age. Ageism is one of the last acceptable prejudices.

 

My 40s were a worthwhile and fulfilling time but I barely remember them as I was working, traveling cross state once or twice a week to care for my parents — who were in their 80s — trying to be active and involved in my teenage daughter’s life, and maintain my relationship with my husband. I feel like I missed middle age.

 

By my 50s my parents had passed away, my daughter was in college and the freelance writing and design business I had started from scratch had all but disappeared through attrition. I started over again as a newspaper and magazine journalist but it was tough going.

 

Then when I was 53 I turned an avocation into a part-time position as a dance fitness instructor. And I began writing the book when I turned 60. I think the biggest impact it had on me is I finally convinced myself not to pay attention to age.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: Honestly, that Jim and Millie Eddington were among the best people to walk the earth. And to drop the term “adoptive” from parent.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m delighted to say I am working on my next memoir and it’s coming along really well.

 

I’ve been married to my husband since 1981, was there when he went through veterinary school, suffered through his first jobs with him, and was by his side when he opened his own clinic in 1988. Owning the practice has been a source of exhaustion, elation, frustration and humor.

 

I’m now writing about that and the working title of this book is Don’t Look in the Freezer — the True Story of the Life and Strange Times of a Veterinarian’s Wife.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Just that I’m grateful for this opportunity to tell my story. Thank you.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Eva Umlauf

 

 

 

Eva Umlauf is the author of the new memoir The Number on Your Forearm Is Blue Like Your Eyes. It was translated from German to English by Shelley Frisch. Umlauf, born in 1942, is a Holocaust survivor and a physician. She lives in Germany.

 

Q: Why did you decide to write this memoir, and how was the book‘s title chosen?

 

A: I believe that it is important to know your own story - especially when it is as dramatic and traumatic as in my case. As a mother, I pass on many of my emotional inheritances to my children. That's why it was important to me for my three sons and two granddaughters to know our family history. 

 

The title of the book is a line of poetry. My Slovak-Canadian friend Jan Karsai wrote a poem about my youth in the Slovak camp Nowaky and in Auschwitz. I like the title because it doesn't make such a massive reference to Auschwitz.

 

At the same time, the term “blue eyes” – which generally refers to German, non-Jewish women – and “number on the forearm” create a tension that hopefully arouses curiosity.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and did you learn many things you hadn't known before?

 

A: I knew little about my family history and had only a few documents that were passed down to me when my mother died. Many archives have now been digitized and many new documents are accessible.

 

I don't know much about this area myself - but I brought an experienced historian and journalist on board. Together with Stefanie Oswalt I browsed through archives and came across a surprising number of new documents.

 

Also we traveled to Israel and Slovakia together and met contemporary witnesses and historians. Slowly we learned more and more about the fate of my family.

Q: The scholar Michael Brenner said of the book, “Eva Umlauf reveals what it was like to live in the shadow of the Holocaust under Communism, and in an emerging Federal Republic of Germany. Her story will surprise even those who think they know everything about the Holocaust." What do you think of that description?

 

A: Many survivors' stories abruptly end after the war. The people had survived and what happened to them, how they survived after surviving, was no longer reported.

 

I did it decidedly differently. I wanted to tell about life as a Jew in the communist Czechoslovakia, where you had to hide your Judaism. And about Jewish life in the Federal Republic: Here I was able to live my Judaism for the first time, but at the same time it was a life in the society of perpetrators. Of course I describe what happened to me in my life in Munich.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write the book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: Writing the book enriched me enormously. I gained a much deeper understanding of myself and my family. We have developed a more intimate relationship with each other within the family.

 

I hope that my biography might also encourage my readers to look at their own family history, trauma, and repression - even if it hurts. I am sure that on such a “journey through family history” you will come across many surprising twists and turns. Maybe it's even a way to "reconcile" yourself with your own history and fate.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: The book has given me so many inquiries and orders that, despite being 81 years old, I am always busy with media inquiries and eyewitness appearances, conferences, and other obligations.

 

I support scientists in the development of new media formats in order to make contemporary witness reports easily accessible to the younger generation. And quite apart from that, I also run my psychotherapeutic practice.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Thank you for your interest and I very much hope that the book finds a wide readership in the USA. My eldest son lives there – and I look forward to sharing my biography with the American audience.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Caroline Cleveland

 

 

 

Caroline Cleveland is the author of the new novel When Cicadas Cry. Also an attorney, she lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

 

Q: What inspired you to write When Cicadas Cry, and how did you create your cast of characters?

 

A: The basic premise of a young lawyer defending a high-profile murder case that, unbeknownst to the lawyer, was inextricably intertwined with a cold case had been floating around in my mind for years.

 

I also knew I wanted the lawyer to have a partner/love interest who would unwittingly pick up the cold case, so the reader could follow both story lines until they collided.

 

Usually, my primary characters just “show up” in my mind. Some of them come all at once, and others materialize gradually.

 

I am a native South Carolinian, and I knew this would be the setting. Especially given the time span between the cold case and the current murder—I needed a setting that I knew not just as it currently exists, but as it did decades ago. That led me back to Walterboro, where I grew up.

 

The racial issues took on a more prominent role in my story because of local and national incidents that were on the forefront of social concerns at the time I was working on the manuscript.

 

Q: As a lawyer, did you need to do any research to write the novel? If so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: Yes, there definitely was legal research involved. My practice is limited to civil law – I had no professional experience with criminal law. Fortunately for me, I have colleagues and clients with a lot of experience in that area who so generously agreed to help me.

 

Ashley Pennington, the former public defender for our circuit, was a great help, as was Burns Wetmore, formerly with the U.S Attorney’s office and, before that, an assistant solicitor. Their respective experience—from both the defense and prosecution perspectives—was invaluable to me.

 

In my law practice, I work with law enforcement agencies. Mitch Lucas, who was the chief deputy for former Sheriff Al Cannon, was a great help to me with some of the law enforcement issues.

 

Anything I got right in the story was thanks to them. Anything I got wrong is all on me.

 

Q: The writer Hank Phillippi Ryan said of the novel, “John Grisham meets Harper Lee in this immersive and thought-provoking Southern legal thriller.” What do you think of those comparisons?

A: Well, first I swooned. But Hank was not saying that I write at the level of those two masters. She is talking about the story itself and its unflinching look at the topic of racism in the South.

 

Those two Southern classics spotlight the tragic impact of racism on the judicial system. In both stories, the locals have resorted to mob rule fueled by racism (and fear arising out of ignorance) aimed at a Black criminal defendant while a single white lawyer tries to stand and be the voice of reason. To put himself in harm’s way if necessary to do what he believes is right.

 

Atticus Finch and Jake Brigance want justice. Theirs is a story as old as time—the epic battle of good versus evil.

 

Grisham’s story is set in 1984, and Lee’s was set in the 1930s – getting close to the century mark now. These two powerful and emotional stories have long been among my favorites.

 

But, like perhaps other readers, I saw (or wanted to see) them as painting a picture of yesteryear. I wanted to believe that kind of mob-rule wouldn’t be tolerated now. Then I watched as riots shook our nation in the wake of the Ferguson shooting and other racially charged incidents.

 

Similarly shocking events brought the issue home to the Lowcountry, and I began to wonder. Would those two stories really be as different as I wanted to believe if they took place in the present?

 

That question was a heavy influence as I wrote When Cicadas Cry. However, I didn’t want my story to end there. After all, that story has already been executed masterfully by those two incredibly talented authors, and that part of the story belongs to them.

 

I wanted my story to include a new layer—one that paints with a broader brush on the subjects of bias and injustice. That is where my cold case came in. I can’t say much more without risking a spoiler.

 

BTW, speaking of Hank Phillipi Ryan, if you have not already read her latest novel, One Wrong Word, don’t miss it. This clever and twisty cat-and-mouse tale has gone to a second printing. Congrats to Hank!

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: Several pivotal scenes take place at a small rural church on Cicada Road just outside Walterboro. I chose that name for the fictional road because the story opens there in the summer of 2017. At that time of year, our skies are usually dominated by the incessant whirring of cicadas, and I felt like that spoke to the sense of place.

 

My “working” title had been On Cicada Road, but, as a team, we were concerned that felt too generic and wanted something that hinted more at the genre. After a lot of brainstorming, we landed on When Cicadas Cry.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I usually have several different things I am working on, and now is no exception. I am toying with a possible psychological thriller, and also with a potential sequel to When Cicadas Cry. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Zach and Addie….

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: When I was writing When Cicadas Cry, I had no idea this would be a special year for periodic cicadas. There are perhaps thousands of different species of cicadas, but less than a dozen species remain underground for 13 to 17 years before emerging.

 

Because of the way the math works out, there will be a simultaneous emergence of two large broods—Brood XIX and Brood XII. The last time those two emerged together was 1803 – Thomas Jefferson was president.

 

There will be billions (some estimate TRILLIONS) of cicadas emerging near the time my debut is published on May 7, 2024. I am choosing to see this as a welcoming party of the highest order!

 

Thank you for your interest in When Cicadas Cry and for including it in your blog.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Miri Leshem-Pelly

 

 

Miri Leshem-Pelly is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture book A Feather, a Pebble, a Shell. Her other books include Chloe's Nature Journal. She lives in Israel.

 

Q: What inspired you to create A Feather, a Pebble, a Shell?

 

A: Nature has always been my biggest source of inspiration. I live in Israel and as a child I grew up in a nature-loving family. My parents took my brother and me on numerous hiking trips across the country and these trips are my sweetest childhood memories.

 

When I grew up I often thought about the Israeli nature and wondered if there’s anything special about it. I started researching to learn more and discovered some amazing facts that most people are not aware of.

 

For example, I was surprised to learn that Israel’s nature is one of the most diverse in the world! That’s how I got the idea for this book, which will take readers on a journey in some of Israel’s most fascinating nature sites. And if you’re now curious to know what makes nature in Israel so unique and diverse - read the author’s note in the end of the book and find out!

Q: Did you work on the text first or the illustrations--or both simultaneously?

 

A: I guess I could say I worked on the text and the illustrations simultaneously. The first draft was text only, and then I made the first concept drawing.

 

I knew that I wanted to combine a lyrical text about a girl’s experiences in nature with nonfiction information about the items she finds, but I wasn’t sure how the two types of text would work together. So I drew sketches and played with the layout and design of the pages, then moved back and forth from the text to the images until it all started to work together.

 

Q: How did you develop your artistic style?

 

A: This book combines short poetic descriptions of moment in nature with scientific facts about natural items. Therefore I was looking for artistic style that will capture both elements. On one hand I wanted the art to show emotion and a sense of wonder, and on the other hand - a realistic look that would match the nonfiction part.

 

So I decided to use watercolor and ink, which allows me to go into the smallest of details but also to paint with large, free brush strokes.

 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the story?

 

A: My biggest hope is that this book will inspire kids to get away from the screen for a while and go out to explore nature themselves. And when they are out there, maybe they will look for small nature items such as a feather, a pebble, or a shell to hold in their hands, just like the girl in the book.

 

Oh, and I hope they will want to come to Israel and visit all the beautiful places that they have read about!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: As you can probably tell by now, I love nature and animals. I’ve recently done an Instagram art project, where I drew 100 animal faces in 100 days. It was a fun project and a huge success, and it led me to try out something I’ve never tried before - to write a story based on the illustrations!

 

This isn’t an easy task, but I’m enjoying the challenge and I hope it will eventually become a new book.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I have a spying assignment for the young readers…In almost every illustration in the book I’ve hidden some animals, which are not even mentioned in the text. All of these animals are real species that live in Israel. Can you spot them?

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

May 8

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
May 8, 1937: Thomas Pynchon born.

Q&A with Alina Grabowski

 

 

Alina Grabowski is the author of the new novel Women and Children First. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Day One. She lives in Austin, Texas.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Women and Children First, and how did you create your cast of characters?

 

A: I was inspired by the different types of books I love to read; books that have a strong sense of place, books that explore intimate personal relationships, books that are voice-driven.

 

(Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge, Alexander Chee’s Edinburgh and Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad are just some of the novels in Women and Children First’s DNA.)

 

I knew I wanted to write something that focused intensely on complex relationships between women, something where platonic love took precedence over romance.

 

And I was also very inspired by the landscape of my hometown, which is a small town on Massachussett’s coast. Nashquitten, where the book takes place, is a fictional creation, but I drew on my experiences growing up by the water.

 

There’s something so beautiful yet tenuous about living beside the ocean—you realize just how powerful nature is. And I think it encourages a kind of saltiness in the people, too; there’s hardiness to folks who live with flooding and hurricanes and the general unpredictability of the sea.

 

The question of where characters come from is such an interesting one. Voice is always my way into a character, so I was really just following an interesting phrase or thought that began each woman’s story.

 

And as the novel started to take shape I began to think very deliberately about how the different women’s personalities and speaking patterns could align in certain ways and contrast in others. Shaping their voices was like conducting a chorus—what do we need less of? More of? What don’t we have yet?

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: It’s funny, the book was always called Women and Children First, even when I submitted a version as my MFA thesis nearly six years ago. I actually changed it during one revision and my agent very gently suggested switching it back. I’ve always liked titles that encourage an extra layer of interpretation of the text, like Flannery O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” 

 

Many of us are familiar with the phrase from the Birkenhead drill, which calls for women and children to be saved first when a boat is sinking.

 

The novel’s very interested in ideas of vulnerability and safety as they concern the female body, so the title is ironic in that sense: that men can save women and children when so frequently they’re the ones harming them.

 

And on a very literal level, the book is about women and children. Many of the narrators are young, and the ones who aren’t are often involved with young women as mothers or teachers or coworkers. 

 

Q: The Kirkus Review of the novel says, “Girls and women inflict damage on each other by being too close and not recognizing their own agency and power, and also because disrupting systems of male privilege is difficult. Grabowski’s exploration of all these ideas makes for a brilliant novel.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I came of age in the 2010s, when the girl boss was this aspirational figure and women were finally—supposedly—“having it all,” which just meant working all the time while simultaneously upholding domestic duties.

 

Those ideas feel so dated now, but I do think this conflation of female empowerment with capitalist values has never fully gone away. And I was interested in looking at the ways this mindset could manifest on a personal level.

 

Capitalism is all about self-interest, and what a lot of the women are struggling with in the novel is how to square what they claim their values are with a desire for self-preservation.

 

For example, one of the characters is a public school principal, but private school is suddenly on the table for her daughter once issues arise at school.

 

And the central tragedy of the book is a death that takes place at a house party where kids are trespassing on private property—only one girl is brave enough to stay and risk getting caught.

 

I wanted to show a darker, more nuanced side of womanhood, and explore these pressurized situations where characters are asked to put someone else’s needs above their own, or to reckon with how they’ll use the power they have.

 

Q: Another review of the book, in Publishers Weekly, said, “The ennui of small-town life is perfectly captured in the slice-of-life vignettes, which coalesce into a riveting set of Rashomon-style retellings.” How did you decide on the novel’s structure?

 

A: To me, life—and the way we explain it to ourselves via memory—is this very unstable, shaky, circuitous thing. And what’s endlessly fascinating to me is the fact that we’re all experiencing shared events, places, and relationships through our own highly individual lens.

 

So a central concern I had when writing this book was how to create a narrative structure that reflected both the instability of a particular character’s viewpoint and also the interconnected, weblike nature of the community she belonged to. Because the book is simultaneously a portrait of these women’s individual lives and the town, Nashquitten, that they live in. 

 

People have used the word “kaleidoscopic” to describe the structure and I like that. The novel moves backward and forward in time, so-called “facts” from one character’s perspective are refracted differently through another character’s retelling.

 

I tried to create a form that felt multifaceted and dynamic, and the book gathers a lot of its narrative energy from the ways in which the women’s stories contradict or echo each other, rather than from explicit plot points. The novel offers so much formal freedom, and I wanted to take advantage of that.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m currently working on my second novel. It follows two adult female friends as they reunite for the first time in three years and moves backwards in time over the course of a single day. In the opening scene one friend punches the other’s front tooth out. I’m nervous to say any more! 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: There are so many wonderful debut novels and collections coming out this year that I can’t wait to read. August Thompson’s Anyone’s Ghost, Marissa Higgins’ A Good Happy Girl, Mai Sennaar’s They Dream in Gold, Elizabeth O’Connor’s Whale Fall, and ‘Pemi Aguda’s Ghostroots are just a few I’m looking forward to. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Julie Mae Cohen

 

 

 

Julie Mae Cohen is the author of the new novel Bad Men. Her other books include the novel Together. She lives in Berkshire in the UK.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Bad Men, and how did you create your character Saffy?

 

A: Bad Men is about a female serial killer who only kills bad men who hurt women—rapists, murderers, domestic abusers.

 

I think the idea of a feminist vigilante is appealing for all sorts of reasons, not least because of the terrifying real-life statistics about male violence against women.

 

But also, I am very much not in favour of actual murder, so I created Saffy, who is basically a chick-lit heroine: beautiful, stylish, sassy. When she’s not committing murder, she’s looking for a boyfriend.

 

I wanted her to be dark, but also relatable and funny. As soon as I started writing her, she emerged fully formed and thirsty for blood and vintage champagne.

 

Q: A review of the book in the Irish Examiner by Josephine Fenton says, “Julie Mae Cohen may have created a winning format, drawing in fans of Romance, True Crime and thrillers: Bad Men may be a ground-breaking as well as best-selling publication.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love it! I certainly hope it’s true. I describe Bad Men as a serial killer romcom, but there’s a big element of true crime too, because Saffy’s love interest, Jon, is a true crime podcaster, and I used elements of various true crime cases in the story.

 

I’m a big fan of all of those genres—have been all my life—and I think they all satisfy very specific reading needs, particularly for women. In an uncertain and often frightening world, women readers crave catharsis, safe thrills, and a cautionary tale. We also want the reassurance of a happy ending. I hope this delivers!

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: There’s a popular saying on the internet: “Not All Men, But Always a Man.” I think it’s an important distinction. Male violence against women is endemic in our society. And not all men are violent, of course…but almost all of the people who hurt women are male.

 

My protagonist Saffy makes a distinction in her murders—she only kills bad men, and not good ones. But in real life, how do you know which men are bad? Most female homicide victims are killed by a man they know. So the title Bad Men is referencing that male violence. 

 

At the same time, the main murderer in this story is Saffy, a woman! So there’s a playful irony.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

 

A: Despite the serious issues that inspired the story, Bad Men is a fun rom-com thriller, where none of the violence is real and the murderers are often quite sympathetic.

 

It’s all meant to be highly ironic—a cathartic way of discussing the dangers that threaten women, with a happy ending. Well, sort of happy. Mostly happy. There are quite a few random body parts.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: My next thriller, Eat, Slay, Love, will be out next year in the USA. It’s the story of three women who find acceptance, friendship, and their best selves—when they abduct and murder a man.

 

It was inspired by my getting divorced and then obsessively listening to true-crime podcasts about romance scammers. After that, I’m hoping to work on a sequel to Bad Men.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: The book has a dog in it, and the dog is absolutely not injured in any way whatsoever and has a very happy life.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb