Do you have any special writing rituals? For example, what do you have on your desk when you’re writing?
The hardest part of writing for me is, of course, getting started. Even if I am in the middle of a project, if I am starting a new segment of it – like a chapter, for example – I spend a lot of time agonizing without actually getting anything written down. I will find anything else to do: laundry is perfect, because you can really draw out the folding process. This can go on for hours or days. Then I will usually push through the fear long enough to get something written, like a page or so, which I promise myself can be thrown out later.
My desk is fairly spare. It contains a jar of pens, a box of graham crackers, a photograph of my husband, a couple of finger puppets, and a small sculpture of an ancient Egyptian cat, a replica of one in the
Sometimes, home offers too many distractions (laundry to do, dog to walk, refrigerator to stare into), and so I work at a little table in a cafe in
I often play a game with myself that I have started to call “time travel tourism.” I will be walking along in Boston or Cambridge, and I will imagine what would happen if all of a sudden I stepped through some kind of time fabric rip, and found myself on the exact spot where I was standing, but in, say, 1877. How would people react to seeing a woman suddenly appear in blue jeans and a pea coat? Would anyone accept the cash I was carrying? Where could I go for help? Would the hologram on my driver's license prove that I was from the future? If I couldn't get back, how would I support myself? A lot of my writing grows out of these kinds of thought experiments.
How did the idea for this book originate?
To relax while studying for my PhD qualifying exams, I would take my dog on rambles in the woods along the old railroad tracks between
Of course I knew the general outlines of what had happened during the
Did the book involve any special research?
Yes; I read all the major secondary source literature on the
What do you think is the main point of interest for readers in The Lost Book of Salem?
There has been a lot of interest in the fact that I am descended from two accused Salem witches, Elizabeth Howe (who was hanged) and Elizabeth Proctor (who was spared). But I think it is also interesting to talk about the book's new approach to witches in general. We are accustomed to having a fairy tale notion of what witches are like: black pointy hats, warts, green skin. We are also accustomed to thinking about magic as acting on a macrocosmic level: good versus evil. The book proposes that we instead look at witches as they were understood to be, back when people actually believed in them. They were individual women, dressed like everyone else, with strange personality quirks, and the magic that they were accused of practicing was very personal and small: causing someone to fall ill, causing property to disappear, being able to be in two places at once. This book brings fresh insight to the witch lexicon, by bringing real historical research and imagination together.
Witches are the new vampires!
How long did it take for you to get published? Any rejection-slip horror stories or inspirational anecdotes?
I was shockingly fortunate with Lost Book, though the road to the writing life was circuitous for me. I had always written, usually just on my own, and had never considered that writing could be a viable way to support myself. A life in academia seemed like the natural alternative, leaving time for writing and thinking in between teaching and research. I slogged my way through the first half of my PhD program, often doubled up on teaching to make ends meet. In 2005 I was scheduled to take my qualifying exams, and the stress from preparing for that process caused me to lose ten pounds, in addition to developing near chronic insomnia. The only way I could escape from that anxiety was to take my dog walking in the woods, and since my mind if left unsupervised would automatically turn itself back to worrying, I started telling myself stories as a distraction. The outline for my first novel gradually coalesced out of these stories. After passing the qualifying exam I began work on my dissertation, while secretly starting to write the novel on the side. My dissertation was slow going, however, and funding quickly began to run out.
Meanwhile, without my knowledge, a close friend who is a novelist, Matthew Pearl, mentioned my project to his wonderful, marvelous literary agent. To my utter surprise and delight, she was able to place The Lost Book of Salem with Hyperion/Voice when it was finally finished, about three years after I first started to play with the ideas that went into it. The day that my first ever advance check arrived, I had $112 in my checking account and $130 in my savings account. And it was my turn to pay the rent.
What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered?
The first, and most important, thing that I would say to an aspiring writer is that one should never be afraid to share your work with others. I initially balked at mentioning my novel project to any of my “real” writer friends, for fear that they would think it was silly just because it was different from the kind of work that they did. Of course if I had never said anything to anyone, Matthew Pearl would never have mentioned my project to his agent, and my book would probably still be sitting on my laptop, read only by my husband and me.
The second, and perhaps equally important, suggestion that I would make is that a writer must be able to listen to constructive criticism. I had been teaching freshman composition courses at
3 comments:
Amazing attitude that Katherine could perservre with so many drafts! Will definately get this book as I love that period and Katherine ceratinly is using her locale to its full effect!
Great interview.
That many drafts for one chapter - it is pretty amazing.
All the questions I had for Katherine were answered here, which is why I didn't do this myself.
Wow - that was incredible to read! Thank you!
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