I went through menopause, and I couldn't write. I showed the first 60,000 words of my next book to my editor, and she said, "I don't think so." Then at the Maui Writer's Conference, Bob Mayer came up to me, handed me a glass of white wine, and said we should write together. I was going down for the third time, so I said yes.
It was a terrifying time. I couldn't not write. I've been doing it since 1991, and it's the way I pay the electric biil. But Bob and my other collaborators got me through it, and now I'm back to writing solo.
What are your writing habits?
Terrible. I work best late at night, but I don't have a real schedule. I spend a lot of time thinking, and don't write in chronological order. I use a white board and assemble disparate pieces. I write a lot that is discarded, especially in the first draft while I'm discovering things. I spend a lot of time rewriting, looking at structure, thinking about what the story is, what it means, and then rewriting again. I flail around for months and then pull it together at the end.
Do you bake as much as Andie? Do you dance around the room?
Not as much, but I do dance around the room, even more now because my best friend and her two young children have moved in with me--lots of music now.
Dancing is something that Andie and Alice can do together, and it's something that grounds Alice, so I used it a lot in the book. It's also a really good way to show how happy somebody is, so when Alice starts to dance in the kitchen, you know she's feeling better.
Why ghosts? Do you believe in ghosts?
I'm open. I've never had any experiences myself, but what brings me back to the possibility is what Dennis says to Andie--that there are ghost stories in every society, every place and time, so ghosts are part of our collective unconscious. But I did believe they were real in The Turn of the Screw--there are ghosts and the governess is crazy.
There had to be ghosts in my story or else it wouldn't make sense.
I love your snappy one-liners and the witty dialogue. You have a great rhythm.
Rhythm is really important, it's what makes an author's voice distinctive--the rhythm and the prose reflect the way you think and talk. It makes it more immediate. Besides, I don't know any other way to write.
The characters are stock, the situation familiar--the action even picks up on a dark and stormy night--yet you make it all new and exciting. Do you think the clichés, if you will, are like learning the box step and then improvising a few moves?
A lot of it comes from two things. First, it's a gothic novel, so you have to follow conventions that go back to The Castle of Otranto and the whole gothic tradition--you need isolation, wilderness, a castle, a governess, a distant father and threatened children. I love that genre, but it's hard to do well. Second, it's an homage to The Turn of the Screw, so the characters, setting and plot had to fit James's novel. You can't do Turn of the Screw in the sunlight, it has to be that dark and stormy night.
The Turn of the Screw is one of my favorite books; I've taught it for years, so I wanted to retell it for today. The conceit is that the house is the house from James's novel and I wanted to be sure that if you have read the book, there would be echoes, but if you haven't, it doesn't matter.
As I wrote it, the story became even more interesting to me because Andie is older than the usual gothic heroine so that changed the power dynamic. James's heroine was young and inexperienced and much of her problem was caused by her isolation; she didn't have anybody to say, "Get a grip and get out of here." Andie was the opposite; she did great on her own, but people kept showing up and un-isolated her, and their emotions roiled up the ghosts' power.
Speaking of stock situations, what is it about cleaning up a house, or mess, or kids that is so compelling?
Andie does clean things up (but she's also smart enough to hire people to do it), which is emblematic of setting the world to rights, a new world order. The housekeeper says the ghosts won't like it, and they don't, but Andie perseveres.
I love Alice and Southie. Do you have favorite characters?
Southie has the best heart, doesn't he?
Of course, I love Andie, but there's Isolde, too. She showed up from out of the blue. She just walked in; well, actually, she walked in from an appearance on Court TV. She's just so down to earth, she's there to do her job--and she's a medium. Dennis also holds a place in my heart.
Your other books have really swell dogs. How come no dog to nip at the ghosts' heels or sleep with Carter?
In this one, a dog just wouldn't fit. I did one draft where the housekeeper had a cat, but the book got so complicated that I deleted it. It already has a cast of thousands.
Your books have good endings, but not the usual off-into-the-sunset endings.
I don't necessarily write happy endings, but I always write emotionally just endings. The idea that the world is emotionally just, that the people who have done the work get rewarded, is important. The ending is not so much happy as it is stable; people have been rewarded for taking risks, and the characters we care about are safe now. They are in a relationship for the long haul. I think emotional justice is the best ending. Andie and Alice and Carter deserve that. So does North; he wakes up and changes. They all step up and are a family at the end, because they risked their lives for each other.
Now that you have your mojo back, in spades, what are you working on?
I'm writing a four-book series about one heroine, Liz Danger. The books are stand-alone mysteries, but read together they make one long romance novel. The working titles are Lavender's Blue, Rest in Pink, Peaches and Screams and Yellow Brick Roadkill. I'm having a lot of fun with them.
And I want to write Alice's story. I set Maybe This Time in 1992 so I could bring her back. She's now a lepidopterist who helps people with hauntings as a courtesy. And I want to write Nadine's (from Faking It) book, too. The working titles there are Haunting Alice and Stealing Nadine. So nothing but good times ahead.