Burning questions: August 2007, Amanda Eyre Ward Edition
This month, we're lucky enough to share a discussion with our author of the month - Amanda Eyre Ward. I received excellent questions from our group (we're listed below as BoW... as in Box of Wine) and Amanda's answers follow.
Disclaimer: There are a few spoilers in here, so if you're the kind of person for whom that will ruin your reading experience, you may want to come back and read this after you finish. Or, if you're like me and everything you read promptly leaves your memory, read on and enjoy.
On FORGIVE ME
BoW: When you traveled to South Africa to research this book, what were you looking for in the experience? Did you use it to find a setting for the story, to get a feel for the people, to better understand the subject? What do you gain from traveling to a location that you cannot get in any other way?
Amanda: I've been obsessed with South Africa since high school, and I had traveled to Kenya and Egypt, but never South Africa. I knew that the book would be partially set in Cape Town, which I had heard was the most beautiful city in the world. A lovely city with so many ghosts was irresistible to me. (Nantucket strikes me the same way: a façade of perfection, with shadows in the corners if you look hard enough.)
Disclaimer: There are a few spoilers in here, so if you're the kind of person for whom that will ruin your reading experience, you may want to come back and read this after you finish. Or, if you're like me and everything you read promptly leaves your memory, read on and enjoy.
On FORGIVE ME
BoW: When you traveled to South Africa to research this book, what were you looking for in the experience? Did you use it to find a setting for the story, to get a feel for the people, to better understand the subject? What do you gain from traveling to a location that you cannot get in any other way?
Amanda: I've been obsessed with South Africa since high school, and I had traveled to Kenya and Egypt, but never South Africa. I knew that the book would be partially set in Cape Town, which I had heard was the most beautiful city in the world. A lovely city with so many ghosts was irresistible to me. (Nantucket strikes me the same way: a façade of perfection, with shadows in the corners if you look hard enough.)
I had a little boy, and didn't want to leave him to go halfway around the world, so I wrote an entire draft of FORGIVE ME trying to imagine Cape Town. My sister had spent her honeymoon in South Africa, and she told me Cape Town was sort of like San Francisco, with the mountains and sea. I called her all the time and asked "Does it smell like San Francisco? Is the light like San Francisco?" I peered at her honeymoon photos looking for clues.
Well, after a while it became clear that I had to visit. My sister and I flew to Cape Town (21 hours from DC to Johannesburg) for a week. We spent 3 nights at the Mount Nelson, and 3 in Khayelitsha township.
The trip did enable me to get a sense for the sights and sounds of the city. I already knew it from maps, so actually walking the streets was a thrill. I wandered around with a notebook, and took pages and pages of notes. My sister took photographs. We lucked into an amazing cab driver, Rashid, who drove us to all the locales in the book.
Well, after a while it became clear that I had to visit. My sister and I flew to Cape Town (21 hours from DC to Johannesburg) for a week. We spent 3 nights at the Mount Nelson, and 3 in Khayelitsha township.
The trip did enable me to get a sense for the sights and sounds of the city. I already knew it from maps, so actually walking the streets was a thrill. I wandered around with a notebook, and took pages and pages of notes. My sister took photographs. We lucked into an amazing cab driver, Rashid, who drove us to all the locales in the book.
That said, the trip changed the book in many ways. For one thing, I thought the end of apartheid had heralded the end of many troubles for South Africa. I was disheartened by the anger and hopelessness I felt in Khayelitsha.
BoW: The hotel in Cape Town is recognizable as The Mount Nelson by the description but is called another name within the story - why, in this case was this a necessary change? Did you find that many things about setting the story in South Africa were "sensitive."
Amanda: For my first novel, SLEEP TOWARD HEAVEN, I did some research closer to home...driving over to Gatesville, TX, where women's death row is located. I set much of the book in Gatesville, but it wasn't exactly Gatesville: I made up the local library and the hotel where Franny stays. Rather than explain that MY Gatesville Public Library wasn't the REAL Gatesville Public Library, I just changed the name of my town to Gatestown. (I couldn't give up the name "Gates" for a prison town!)
I do get letters from people telling me when I've misrepresented a town or hotel or restaurant, so now I change the names of many exact settings, like the Mount Nelson, and Khayelitsha, which I call "Sunshine" in the book.
BoW: What was the inspiration for this story originally -- were you first interested in South Africa (or maybe even the TRC hearings which seems like they could yield many sad and interesting stories) or was it certain characters?
Amanda: I've been interested in South Africa since high school--something about the clear wrong of apartheid was interesting to me. I wanted to go to South Africa and help in some way, so when I read about Amy Biehl, a Fulbright scholar who was killed in Guguletu Township, I identified with her. Her parents, like the fictional Irvings, went to South Africa to see Amy's killers tried by the TRC, and the whole story fascinated me.
Amanda: I've been interested in South Africa since high school--something about the clear wrong of apartheid was interesting to me. I wanted to go to South Africa and help in some way, so when I read about Amy Biehl, a Fulbright scholar who was killed in Guguletu Township, I identified with her. Her parents, like the fictional Irvings, went to South Africa to see Amy's killers tried by the TRC, and the whole story fascinated me.
BoW: In your opinion, is amnesty for such horrific crimes the best way to achieve reconciliation between blacks and whites? As a family member of one of the victims, would you be able to support amnesty for Evelina? Gandersvoot?
Amanda: What a great question. I don't know if amnesty is the best way to achieve reconciliation, but the fact that South Africa is relatively peaceful now is certainly strong evidence that it was a good way to move forward. That said, I sensed a great deal of anger simmering under the surface, and many whites are leaving South Africa, or at least putting in some pretty elaborate alarm systems.
Amanda: What a great question. I don't know if amnesty is the best way to achieve reconciliation, but the fact that South Africa is relatively peaceful now is certainly strong evidence that it was a good way to move forward. That said, I sensed a great deal of anger simmering under the surface, and many whites are leaving South Africa, or at least putting in some pretty elaborate alarm systems.
To tell you the truth, I don't know if I could support amnesty for Evelina. That's why I found the real-life Beihls so astonishing.
In terms of Gandersvoot, the fact is that if he hadn't been offered the possibility of amnesty, he never would have come forward, and his victims' families would not have known what happened to their loved ones. Our justice system is so different: truth and the possibility of forgiveness just aren't a part of the process here.
BoW: Why was their son gay? I didn't see that coming at all but certainly demonstrated their strength as a couple, as parents and as people. Very interesting way to do this.
Amanda: It's strange...I don't feel like I create characters as much s discover them. Jason just was gay, and I think Nadine's son will be, too.
Amanda: It's strange...I don't feel like I create characters as much s discover them. Jason just was gay, and I think Nadine's son will be, too.
BoW: I absolutely loved the "Nantucket to Stardom" journal entries, as well as the letters from Agnes in "How to be Lost". Because the writing style is so different from the rest of the book, did you find it difficult to stay in character while writing these sections?
Amanda: Those are the easiest sections for me...the clear, first-person voices. I feel like I just transcribe them as they chat away in my head.
Amanda: Those are the easiest sections for me...the clear, first-person voices. I feel like I just transcribe them as they chat away in my head.
On Writing
BoW: How do you go about getting started writing a book? Do you work at finding your theme and storyline? Does it evolve as you get started?
Amanda: I tend to get obsessed with strange things: women's death row, missing children, South Africa's TRC. I trust those obsessions and just read and research for a while. The characters evolve...it's almost like being pregnant. I find out if they are men or women, learn their opinions and characteristics...they slowly evolve for a while. Then I force them into being when I start writing, and it's painful. This is a crazy time in my life because I am also having real children, and getting to know them.
BoW: How do you go about getting started writing a book? Do you work at finding your theme and storyline? Does it evolve as you get started?
Amanda: I tend to get obsessed with strange things: women's death row, missing children, South Africa's TRC. I trust those obsessions and just read and research for a while. The characters evolve...it's almost like being pregnant. I find out if they are men or women, learn their opinions and characteristics...they slowly evolve for a while. Then I force them into being when I start writing, and it's painful. This is a crazy time in my life because I am also having real children, and getting to know them.
BoW: Where do you do most of your writing? And, how do you manage your writing with your young family?
Amanda: I have always liked writing in small spaces (like closets) or in motel rooms. I wrote FORGIVE ME in a room at the Sea Breeze Inn in Falmouth, MA. I sent an e-mail to the owner asking if I could rent a room for the winter, and he said yes! It was heaven, getting to leave the laundry and dishes and check into a clean room each writing day. My son went to pre-school 3 days a week for part of the day, and that's when I wrote.
Amanda: I have always liked writing in small spaces (like closets) or in motel rooms. I wrote FORGIVE ME in a room at the Sea Breeze Inn in Falmouth, MA. I sent an e-mail to the owner asking if I could rent a room for the winter, and he said yes! It was heaven, getting to leave the laundry and dishes and check into a clean room each writing day. My son went to pre-school 3 days a week for part of the day, and that's when I wrote.
As Jodi Picoult once told me, you DON'T manage writing and children. It's a happy disaster most of the time. Kids and quiet, slow, alone time cannot co-exist. And work's frenetic e-mails and phone calls are completely different from the indoor world of naps and nursing. My older son goes to preschool part time, and I have a sitter come hold the baby for a few hours a day so I can go upstairs and write. (I have a little attic alcove now...searching for a new writing space.) I am happiest when doing one thing completely--writing and writing while my kids are well-taken care of, or hanging out with my boys, not trying to check e-mail or think about the book. I feel lucky to have such an exquisite struggle.
BoW: How much of your daily life gets incorporated into your books? Does "Amanda the Author" sit on your shoulder and take notes while you're at the grocery store, having dinner with friends, or at the playground with your kids?
Amanda: It's funny...the longer I've been a mom, the more "Amanda Eyre Ward" seems like a slick marketing figurine. My married name is different, and I have a whole world of friends who know me only as my sons' mom, some gal in a Target sundress and flip flops who's a little scattered and always buys a bag of cookies instead of baking her own. I try to be "work Amanda" when I need to, responding to e-mails and calls, but more often, I turn off the computer and go back downstairs to play pirate.
Amanda: It's funny...the longer I've been a mom, the more "Amanda Eyre Ward" seems like a slick marketing figurine. My married name is different, and I have a whole world of friends who know me only as my sons' mom, some gal in a Target sundress and flip flops who's a little scattered and always buys a bag of cookies instead of baking her own. I try to be "work Amanda" when I need to, responding to e-mails and calls, but more often, I turn off the computer and go back downstairs to play pirate.
"Writing Amanda" is a whole 'nother person. I am always daydreaming about story ideas, and I read a few books a week. I think about the new novel as I fall asleep at night, while I nurse, and sometimes even while playing pirate. Then I get called a "scurvy rat" for not paying attention.
BoW: What themes would you like to explore in future novels? As an author, where do you see yourself in 30 years?
Amanda: I don't think about themes...they just seem to evolve. After 3 books, though, I can see that I'm interested in forgiveness as a theme...and in how one becomes a good person or someone who is capable or horrific acts. Now, of course, the struggle between motherhood and independence fascinates me.
Amanda: I don't think about themes...they just seem to evolve. After 3 books, though, I can see that I'm interested in forgiveness as a theme...and in how one becomes a good person or someone who is capable or horrific acts. Now, of course, the struggle between motherhood and independence fascinates me.
On Stardom and Desserts
BoW: I recently read that Sandra Bullock has purchased the film rights to your first book. Did you sign that agreement at The Salt Lick and do you get to call her Sandy? Also, do you think there is a better place in Austin to get peach cobbler than The Salt Lick?
Amanda: This is the best damn question. Sandra Bullock has optioned SLEEP TOWARD HEAVEN, and she did send me toffee for Christmas, but I've never met her. I've read a screenplay for the book, and it's great. The Salt Lick is just fabulous...but I'm partial to the blackberry cobbler, myself!
Thanks so much for the insightful questions. If any box-of-wine ladies come to Austin, be sure to drop me a line!
Amanda
Thank you, Jennie, for setting this up and thank you, Amanda, for responding. Interesting questions and interesting answers. Finished the book...read it twice...good writing, good characters, and good story line.
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You are remarkable, both of you
I really appreciate your description of writing, and time, and motherhood. I get ideas all the time, and can't get past the noise to start. Maybe I need to find a small space - I do really love my pool bath, and it is kind of like a closet... Thanks for the idea Amanda!
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