Interview on The Art of Keeping SecretsQ&A with Patti Callahan Henry
Interview on The Art of Keeping Secrets
The Art of Keeping Secrets: It's been two years since Annabelle Murphy learned that her husband Knox's plane crashed in the Colorado mountains. His remains have finally been found, along with those of an unidentified woman. Annabelle doesn't have any idea who the woman is, so she immediately suspects the worst -- that Knox has been cheating on her. Her world shattered, she wonders -- is anything about her life -- past or present-- true? She embarks upon a quest to find out just exactly what and who she can believe in. Q: How much of this story did you know before you sat down before that blank computer screen?
PCH: I knew less about this story than any story I’ve written to date. I only knew that Annabelle believed in her safe (and maybe small) life. She didn’t think she had the problems and issues that others dealt wit (like those who wrote into her advice column). I knew that this “image” of her life was going to be dealt a severe blow when they found her husband with another woman. After that, the reader takes the same journey I did to discover who this woman was and why she was on the plane.
Q: With Annabelle Murphy, you've nailed that emotional flux that widows/ers face -- the constant remembering of how things once were while trying to accept the reality of the present. Did you have someone in mind when you developed Annabelle?
PCH: I didn’t have anyone in particular in mind when I wrote about Annabelle. She seemed to be alive and separate from anyone I knew. Her vacillating emotions are individual and universal at the same time. I believe we all look at the past and wonder if it was really as great as we remember. Are some things better as a memory?
Q: I love that scene in which Annabelle forgets to take food to the bible study group, but I wonder, is that a payback scene, written primarily to allow the author a moment to indulge in The Art of Being Snide?
PCH: Snide? Me? Never. Okay, it’s a fair question. Actually I think it was a bit more of the Art of Paying Attention to the ridiculous way women sometimes treat other women who are in pain. There are many people who believethatdoing everything “just right”, or never messing up, defines a well-lived life. But sometimes life is messy and on the other side of that mess is a new and better life. Sometimes. And as a preacher’s daughter, yes, it is fun to poke at the absurd rituals like ‘bringing snack’ to bible study.
Q: The interplay between Annabelle and her son Jake is classic southern mama loves her boy stuff. Did you craft Jake after your own sons, or after another man in your life?
PCH: If I crafted this relationship after my relationship with my sons, it was unconscious. As a parent, the love I possess for my children is deeper than anything I’ve experienced, and I used this emotion to imagine how Annabelle would feel about protecting Jake. I put her in the worst possible place – attempting to let him go as he is now in college and needs to make his own choices, and yet needing him to help her through this storm of unknowing. I believe this combination of needing him and releasing him made things worse for her in the middle of the book, but I wanted her to be stronger at the end of the story.
Q: I learned so much about dolphins and Greek mythology from Sofie. Who did you learn it from?
PCH: I have always loved myths and legends. Almost all my books have some element of myth in them (When Light Breaks is all about the Claddagh legend). I took what I knew of these this particular Greek myth(Ariadne), and then did some research to delve deeper into why the character would hide behind the name and the myth. I believe, as most storytellers do, that myth and legend influence the way we look at life, even if we aren’t consciously aware of it.
Q: One of the things I love most about your stories, Patti, is the same thing I love about Anne River Siddons's tales -- you are always taking the reader around the blind corner to encounter the unexpected. Where'd you learn to plot like that?
PCH: My stories take me on the same unexpected twists. I often think I know where I’m going with a character or plot, and suddenly I’m around the corner doing something else and then I have to readjust. I’m not a very good outliner, or pre-plotter, although I wish I were so the writing would move faster and smoother. I usually just understand the “what if” and go from there. Of course the downside to this kind of writing is that I have to revise numerous times (please don’t ask how many). Also, my stories often require research, and I find inspiration and plot twists inside the ‘real’ life research (for example – in this story, the dolphin research enriched the plot turns). And from a writing-craft position – the Hero’s Journey offered insight into the natural and inherent human understanding of and need for story structure.
Q: Besides being a bestselling novelist, you are also the mother to three absolutely darling children kids with the very busy schedules of dance and baseball and school. How do you make the time to write a bestselling book every year? Who cooks dinner at your house?
PCH: This is the constant struggle – balance. On some days I have the chapter written, the laundry folded and a hot dinner on the table just in time for the baseball game. Okay, so that is an ideal day that has happened once or twice. On most days one of those above-mentioned things just doesn’t get done. I’ve had my dark moments of wondering if I can do it (write a book) again, and bright moments when I know I can. I return again and again to my belief in two things: 1. Writing is a precious gift from God; it is easier to keep writing than quit, and 2. there is power in a well-told story. My teenage daughter is home sick today so the chapter didn’t get written because we were at the doctor. I try very hard to step back and look at the larger tapestry and not get bogged down in the panic of perfection. All of this –family, kids, friends, life and writing – are gifts and I try to embrace them all and not turn them into a burden of busyness.
Q: Who are the people who've mentored you in this art of writing?
PCH: Over the past ten years my mentors have changed from authors I’ve never met to dear friends and confidantes. Many whom I count as mentors, I’ve never met. In the beginning, the mentors were the authors who wrote about the art of writing and made me believe in its gift: Anne Lamott; Julia Cameron; Stephen King; C.S. Lewis: George McDonald; blessed Madeleine L’Engle. Then after I was published, I began to meet and befriend some of the most inspirational and beautiful people I’ve ever known—other authors. My heart flew wide open when I found the world where other people cared as much about books, words and stories as I did.
Q: My most favorite truth from the story is when Mrs. Thurgood tells Annabelle that our conclusions and assumptions are like "poorly packed luggage -- falling apart and needing to be redone as we journey through life." Is this your line or did you borrow that line from somebody?
PCH: No borrowing allowed. Thank you for the compliment. Sometimes the characters teach me something. When Mrs. Thurgood said this, I laughed. And therein lies the mystery of writing – sometimes, on a very good day--the characters know more than we do.
Q: Okay. No secrets now. What are you working on next?
PCH: The book is tentatively called DRIFTWOOD SUMMER. It is about a family, a summer-resort town and a bookstore. The novel is narrated by three sisters -- when their mother falls after her evening martini and breaks her hip, the sisters – two who are estranged over a man they both loved– must come together to run the family bookstore called The Driftwood Cottage. The cottage is turning 200 years old, and a large anniversary celebration for the small town, and the cottage have been planned. Like driftwood washed ashore, time has changed many things. During this celebration, many people from the pastreturn, including the man whom the two oldest sisters once loved. Secrets are revealed, wounds are healed and both the town and the sisters will be changed forever.
Q&A with Patti Callahan Henry
Q: When did your affinity for storytelling begin? What made you take that initial leap and begin writing your first novel? And why do you write?
PCH: I grew up with my nose in a book and have always been fascinated with beautifully told stories. I also grew up as a preacher’s daughter, which is nothing more than listening to the same truth being told over and over in story. I slowly came to realize the power was not in the lecture, but the well-told story. My daughter is the one who reminded me I wanted to write novels. When she was six years old she told me she wanted to be writer of books and this spurned me on to my original childhood dream.
My first novel—actually a memoir—was called “My Life” and was never published. I wrote it when I was twelve years old. Although I’ve been writing ever since then, professionally I pursued a medical career. I am a nurse with a Master’s degree in Child-Health.
Seven years ago, I finally understood that writing is all I’ve ever really wanted to do. When I knew I had no choice—that writing was a necessary part of who I was—I pursued it as seriously as I did my master’s degree. It became essential that I take classes, read books on the writing craft and actually write every day. The path I took to publication required belief in my work, along with persistence, courage, faith, serendipity and a willingness to study the craft of writing. The catalyst for each step of the journey was the decision—the commitment to write.
I write because I believe in the power of story! My Daddy is a lively Irish preacher and I grew up understanding the innate power of story. When I was a child, I was a book-worm, ignoring all those who made fun of me while my nose was stuck in the Narnia Series. I’ve always used story to make sense of my life. The driving force behind my writing is the hope that my story will touch someone’s heart, that I will tell a story that will tell a ‘truth’…and of course my deadlines are a wonderful driving force.
Q: Reviewers have compared your novels to the works of Anne Rivers Siddons, Pat Conroy, Mary Alice Monroe, and Patricia Gaffney. What is it like to join the ranks of such illustrious writers?
PCH: I am humbled and grateful to be compared to such outstanding writers. They are masters at crafting sentences rich in description and meaning. I can only hope that the comparisons arise from the deeper, shared truths we each explore in our novels. Or I can only hope they aren’t offended.
Q: Your writing has a lyrical quality, what I call “a dance,” a rhythm that charms the reader. It also convinces the reader that these people and places are real. How do you do that?
PCH: Wow, What a beautiful compliment. The writer spends hours and hours in solitary work trying to craft a sentence and when someone calls the writing “lyrical”, the heart sings (or at least mine does because my voice definitely can’t sing). I’m not sure how it’s done or if I do it all beyond the daily act of reading and writing, reading and writing – almost like an obsession. And, as for the characters being real – well, they are when I’m writing them, when they are moving and talking and living on the page in front of me.
Q: What does it take to be a good novelist in today’s world?
PCH: Guts, courage, belief in your work and of course…shameless self-confidence. There are so many people out there who will tell us why we CAN’T write, there aren’t very many voices telling us how we CAN write. If I knew what it took to be a good novelist, I’d never waver from it, but I believe the best we can do is tell the truth as we feel it. I also think the novelist needs to be very aware of the kind of book he/she wants to write. It is so easy in today’s marketplace to get swayed by what is hot and what is not—what’s on the ‘lists’. A writer must spend a lot of time searching their own heart about what kind of stories they want to tell.
A new writer must also spend the time and energy to learn about the publishing business.
Q: What is your favorite quote?
PCH: “It is never too late to be who you might have been.” George Eliot (1819-1880). And anything C.S. Lewis ever said.
Q: What is one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?
PCH: One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is to always check my children’s pockets for crayons before I put the clothes in the dryer. Other than that—I think my life lesson over the past few years has been to learn and relearn that the more I attempt to fall into other people’s plans for my life, the more God’s purpose for my life is blocked and remains unfulfilled.
Q: Can you offer any advice to the aspiring writer who wants to be published?
PCH: First I believe you must have an innate and driving passion for writing, the written word and story. After that, I believe that the biggest contributor to one’s work finally getting published is a recognition that there is an art and a craft—in other words there is the deeply creative aspect of writing (ever notice the word art is inside the word heart?), but one must also learn the mechanics, the business, the rules of submission and the technical aspects of writing. Educate yourself on the business of publishing and the specifics of the kind of novel you want to write (the genre).
All writers receive rejections because there are so many different opinions and tastes out there in the publishing world. The key is taking the rejections and using them to your advantage (ex: improving your work, finding the right editor). And if writing is your passion, calling and gift – never give up.
And of course, write and write, read and read, and then write some more.
Q: What urged you to change careers from a Clinical nurse specialist to southern fiction writer?
PCH: I tell this story because it is inspiring and true: I was playing doll house with my daughter (she was six years old at the time) and I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. She told me “I will be a writer of books.” Now she didn’t say she wanted to win a Pulitzer Prize or be on the New York Times Bestseller list, she just said she wanted to write books. It was a huge “aha” moment for me and a life-changing moment as I decided, right there on her bedroom floor, that I was going to finally do this thing – I was going to write a book.
Q: How do you fit in time for being a mom and a best-selling author? Is there a secret to this?
PCH:Everyone has a passion. Mine is writing and telling stories. Motherhood comes first and it is the biggest joy in my life, but writing is a calling and an important role incorporated into woman, wife and mother. I always say that I don’t ‘find’ time to write; I ‘make’ time to write. Which means I sacrifice some other time-spending endeavors to sit down and write (or edit).
Now when I discover the real secret, I’ll shout it from a mountaintop! I only know how to go day-by-day, believing that my beautiful, raucous family is my priority and then moving on from that place to the writing which nourishes and inspires me.
