TBR: JERKS by Sara Lippmann

TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books who will tell us about their new work as well as offer tips on writing, stories about the publishing biz, and from time to time, a recipe.

 

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 

JERKS rides the proverbial clutch between wanting and having. Ambivalent mothers, aging suburbanites, restless teens, survivalist parents, and disaffected wives—desire is a live wire, however frayed, a reminder that life, for all its sputtering stall outs, is still worth living.

 

 

Which story did you most enjoy writing? Why? And, which story gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

“Let All the Restless Creatures Go” was probably the most enjoyable and the most challenging: enjoyable because I drafted it during a 4-day DIY writing retreat on the Jersey Shore in a raw, windy spring a bunch of years ago. Quiet and concentration are often hard to come by, but they were my sole companions during that skinny stretch of time. There is little I love more than a beach town in the off season. Granted, I went down there to work on my novel, but I wound up exploring the dunes and the bay, riding around on my sand bike, and writing this Jersey turtle story instead. I like to keep things short, but it kept growing and growing, so the challenge arose in wrangling. And in getting it right. (There was a lot to get wrong.) I think it was around 7K when it appeared in Midnight Breakfast, but with the help of Ashley Miller, my wonderful editor at Mason Jar, I shaved off some of that length for the version included here.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

My agent – who I adore, and for whom I have not made things easy! – had been waiting with infinite patience and grace for my novel which seemed to be taking half of my adult life, and didn’t feel it was prudent to start shopping an intermediary collection, especially as my voice tends to connect better with small presses, so I sent it to MJP because I love their books so much, and was absolutely thrilled when they wrote me with the good news. Ian, Ashley, Heather and Michael are incredible. The whole experience of working with them has surpassed every dream.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

Get a copy of This Won’t Take But A Minute Honey by Steve Almond. It’s this tiny craft booklet that fits in your pocket. I love how he talks about – everything! read the book! -- our inner “bullshit detector.” If all of “writing is decision making,” then how do we get better at making those calls without becoming derailed by doubt? It’s a paradox. Trust your gut. Then, be merciless in your challenges. Precision, emotional honesty, all of that, calls upon the strength of that intrinsic sensor. It takes time to sharpen one’s instincts through critical perspective. Maybe it’s the one craft element we’re always working on. Fire it up. Take a good whiff around. Do you smell phony baloney? You know when you know.

 

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

That it turned out to be a book! I was procrastinating on my novel by writing stories because my brain thinks in stories. The longer it took me to write the novel the more stories I wrote until I realized that they were in dialogue with one another, and what, I had a collection.

How did you find the title of your book?

 

The title is the title of one of the stories I wrote during this procrastination period. As soon as I began to think of it as a book title, JERKS became my guiding light.

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

 

Jerky, of course. (Which I’ve never made -- yet.)

https://diyprojects.com/make-beef-jerky-recipe/

 

 

 

****

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: https://www.saralippmann.com/

  

READ MORE ABOUT THIS PUBLISHER: https://masonjarpress.com/

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK:  https://bookshop.org/books/jerks/9781951853105

  

READ A STORY, “If You're Lucky, This Could Be You”: https://epiphanyzine.com/features/2020/11/26/if-youre-lucky-this-could-be-you-new-fiction-by-sara-lippmann

 

 

 

TBR: The Lost Son by Stephanie Vanderslice

TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books who will tell us about their new work as well as offer tips on writing, stories about the publishing biz, and from time to time, a recipe.

  

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences? (If this is too many sentences, you can cut the first one)

 

How does a mother survive the unsurvivable? After her husband and the baby’s nurse kidnap her infant son, Nicholas, and take him back to their native Germany, Julia Kruse must completely rebuild her life in America. The Lost Son chronicles Julia’s journey from Depression-Era Queens, NY through World War II as she struggles to provide for herself and her remaining son, Johannes. Over the years, her search for Nicholas is thwarted at every turn, until she falls in love with chauffeur Paul Burns, whose boss might have the political connections to find her son and bring him home from the German front during the last days of the Third Reich, where Johannes is also fighting for the Allies.

 

Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And, which character gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

I really enjoyed creating Paul. I just decided that for my main character to fall in love with someone after everything she’s been through in her first marriage, he’d have to be pretty special. Probably Nicholas, the younger son, gave me the most trouble, because he grew up in Germany. Even though I read a lot of memoir and history about Germany between the wars, it was hard to get him to come through authentically. I hope I was successful.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

Oh boy. Well, the book got me my agent, Anne Bohner at Pen and Ink Literary in 2012. You read that right. 2012. She sent it on submission twice, to an A list and a B list. There were some near misses but it didn’t land. After that she freed me to submit to independent presses. I spent the next several years submitting to contests and small presses and again, came coming close and shortlisting for awards several times. The closest came in spring 2018 when I submitted to a press where the editor said no and then a month later contacted me and said he was still thinking about the book while he was reading other submissions, that it had stayed with him. He said he wanted to talk about some suggestions with the upshot being if I took those suggestions, he’d look at it again. My agent said she doesn’t normally recommend someone do revisions without a contract but it wouldn’t hurt to talk to him. So we had a nice phone conversation. I actually thought his suggestions, which were substantial, sounded like they would improve the book. So I dove back in and did another revision, mostly to the second half of the book. Sent it back. He still said no but that he was sure he would find a place somewhere. I need to send him a copy.

 

I submitted to Regal House right at the beginning of the pandemic. Jaynie Royal, the publisher there, responded positively at every step of a rigorous submission process. I had also submitted to a teaching press in Baltimore at the same time and suddenly they wanted it as well. So I went from years of “not quite” to two yeses simultaneously. With the help of advice from my agent, I chose Regal House. I’m so glad I did. They’re a fantastic press.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

Not surprisingly, given that story: “never give up.” Persistence has gotten me pretty far in this field. I remember saying over and over for the past ten years, “I would give up on this book but it keeps coming so close.” Now I’m glad I didn’t. Also, the process of writing is really what matters if you’re a writer, what feeds you. Trying to get published is business. It feels good when you get a “yes” but it won’t feed you. Ultimately, you have to enjoy the process.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

The character of Johannes, Julia’s oldest son, who grows up in the course of this book. I also had fun writing him. Funny things he would do or say. I got one of his remarks from a story in a 1930’s Catholic elementary school textbook which I just happened to pick up at a flea market (I LOVE flea markets).

 

What’s something about your book that you want readers to know?

 

The Lost Son is very loosely based on something that actually happened to my step-great grandmother, Julia. I didn’t find out she was actually my step great-grandmother until I was in my early 30s. I learned how she and my grandfather, Jacob, married in the mid-1940s in what was a second marriage for both, a late-in-life love. At the time I was the mother of two young boys myself and I couldn’t imagine how my stepmother endured the loss of her youngest son as an infant. I thought about her a lot over the years. I also decided that my great grandfather must have been a special person for her to have overcome such a betrayal and remarry.

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes* I might share?)

 

 

Absolutely. Food is a big part of this book; Julia is a pastry chef whose father was a renowned chef. She works at a bakery. So German foods like brotchen (morning rolls), sauerbraten, and bread play a big part. The novel takes place in Queens in the 20s-40s, when German, Italian, and Irish immigrants were the main population. There were German restaurants everywhere. I mentioned Gebhardts, where Julia and Paul go for their first date, and which is a real restaurant my grandparents brought me to a lot as a kid. I also mention egg creams often, which were a big part of the soda fountain culture in New York at that time. But I will leave you with my husband’s family’s French bread recipe, which Julia finds great satisfaction in making, as do I.

 

Vanderslice Family Bread

Yield:              8 loaves                      4 loaves          2 loaves

                        2T salt                        1T salt            ½T salt

                        2T sugar                     1T sugar         ½T sugar

                        2T yeast                     1T yeast         ½T yeast

                        9-10 c flour                5-6 c flour      2-3 c flour

                        5c warm water          2 1/2c warm water   1 ¼ c warm water

                        olive oil

 

Combine yeast, salt and sugar with warm water in a large bowl.  Cover with a dishtowel and allow to proof for 5-15 minutes, the evidence of which will be bubbly biscuit-colored coating on top of the mixture.  Stir in flour 1-2 cups at a time until a stiff ball of dough forms.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead between 5 and 10 minutes, then place the dough ball in an oiled bowl in a relatively warm spot until it rises to double in bulk.  Rising will take between 1-2 hours but at this point you can just go about your day.  As my mother-law would say, bread is very forgiving.  The dough won’t take over your kitchen like the blob, or “fall” like a cake, so if you want to go to a movie, rake the lawn, take a long lunch with friends, feel free to do so.

When you’re ready to return to it, set your oven to 350 and while it pre-heats, punch down the dough on the same floured surface and divide it into eight, four or two balls of even-size size which you can then shape into long baguettes.  If you have a brush, you might brush the tops with a little milk or olive oil (I have come to prefer the latter). Place these on oiled, foil covered baking pans (if you get serious about this, you’ll probably want to invest in baguette pans; I was fortunate to inherit mine from my in-laws but baking pans are fine when you’re just staring out) and allow to rest/rise for another 10 minutes or so.  (My mother-in-law would be alarmed that I don’t let the baguettes rise for at least thirty additional minutes but I am usually under a time constraint at this point or just feeling impatient.  The loaves seem to come out the same.) Slash each loaf diagonally a few times with a sharp knife, then bake for forty-five minutes at 350.  Depending on the heat of your oven, if you’re cooking more than 4 loaves, you may need to switch out the loaves on the top and lower shelves of the oven midway through to make sure they cook evenly.  Loaves can be consumed immediately, with the rest frozen for reheating during the week.

 

 *****

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK:

https://www.regalhousepublishing.com/product/the-lost-son/

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR TBR STACK:

https://www.regalhousepublishing.com/product/the-lost-son/

 

 

TBR: Say This: Two Novellas by Elise Levine

TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books who will tell us about their new work as well as offer tips on writing, stories about the publishing biz, and from time to time, a recipe.

  

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 

It’s a cold spring in Baltimore, 2018, when the email arrives: the celebrity journalist hopes Eva will tell him everything about the sexual entanglement she had as a young teen with her older cousin, a man now in federal prison for murder. Thirteen years earlier, Lenore-May answers the phone to the nightmare news that her stepson’s body has been found near Mount Hood, and homicide is suspected.

 

The two linked novellas in Say This follow Eva’s unsettling ambivalence toward her confusing sexual relations with her cousin, and construct a portrait of her cousin’s victim via collaged perspectives of the slain man’s family, in a multi-faceted exploration of the devastating effects of the aftermath of violent crime.

 

 

Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And, which character gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

The character Jim in the second novella, “Son One”—the father of the murder victim—is tetchy, in thrall to memories good and bad, self-blaming, accusatory, and bad-joke-telling even in his grief and in the face of a debilitating stroke. Exploring his emotional and tonal range—and allowing myself that latitude in developing his character—was a fascinating, rewarding process.

 

I did, however, really struggle over the course of about a million drafts with Eva, the central character of the first novella, “Eva Hurries Home”. As with Jim, she’s also very complex, with so many layers to peel away. But one of the most challenging aspects of writing her lay in showing that her chosen, recent uncoupled situation—she’s broken up with a series of romantic partners—is not pathological, that it’s not a negative response to the sexual exploitation she experienced as a young teen. As an adult at this moment in time, she’s reveling in her sense of independence from partners, finding herself in a freeing, unencumbered, undistracted state that allows her to finally reckon with her past and her cousin’s transgressions. Steering this aspect of her character felt tricky: I could feel the opposing pressures of traditional and still-pervasive depictions of women alone as blighted, unnatural, unhappy, inherently wrong, and had to keep checking that I wasn’t unconsciously resorting to these same old tropes, and that instead I was pushing back against them.  

 

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

The lows arose from the usual questions I have when writing, and which lead me through seemingly endless revisions. Can I get the pieces to hold together and achieve a narrative momentum? Which was especially the case with this book, since I used a fragmented form, with very short, elliptical sections—plus the two novellas needed to link up. Other, equally important questions I grapple with: am I doing justice to the characters’ complexities? Can I locate clarity even in the heart of their very human irresolutions?

 

The highs also came through the usual channels: my good fortune at having some insightful readers willing to suffer through my drafts, including my long-time editor John Metcalf—who somehow convinced me, as he always does, to overcome my rampant self-doubts and heed my drive to see the characters’ inner lives and actions through.   

 

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

It’s not exactly advice, but I keep these words of Joy Williams close to my heart: “Whenever the writer writes, it’s always three or four or five o’clock in the morning in his [sic] head.” Her words remind me to feel less afraid of exploring the dark places of character.

 

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

Surprise #1. I was more than half way through writing the first novella, “Eva Hurries Home”, when the idea to use an abecedarian form—beginning each section with a successive letter of the alphabet, a – z and then z – a—for “Son One” occurred to me. It made so much sense: Eva is a compulsive list maker as she strives to quell her confusions and the chaos of her emotions, and the slain man’s family in the second novella, also roiled by powerful feelings, might also employ lists, even more highly ordered ones, as a method of emotional containment. Another compelling reason to write an abecedary: earliest examples of this formal approach to writing are found in the ancient Hebrew liturgy, and this sacred lineage spoke to this contemporary, secular family’s deep yearning to locate meaning in the face of the unspeakable.

 

Surprise #2. I thought, uh-uh, no way can I pull off using this form. It sounded excruciatingly difficult. At least try, I told myself. Deep breath, laptop out to the front porch, give it an hour, see if anything happens. And it did happen: the constraint helped break open the characters, providing an emotional through-line by which I could chart their experiences. In fact, developing and revising this novella came much more quickly for me than for “Eva Hurries Home”.

 

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

I had the titles for the separate novellas from their inception, but not one that would tie the two together. They’d each undergone numerous revisions before I added a brief section to “Son One” in which Lauryn, the sister of the slain man, is trying to think of ways to name her thoughts and feelings toward her brother and his death. In the new material, she at one point lands on the phrase “Say this”—and, since “Eva Hurries Home” also centers a character in the process of attempting to name her experience, I realized I’d found a title that worked for both novellas. 

 

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

 

Sorry, no recipes! Just lots of food mentions and related sensory memories in the novellas, especially in “Eva Hurries Home”—like Eva, I love to eat, hate to cook. But now that I think about it, the various food items do make for an intriguing ingredient list: jicama from an aspirational DC salad bar, the boiled hot dogs Eva’s cousin used to cook, the greasy noodles she orders in on the night she’s at home considering the celebrity journalist’s request to interview her. Plus the fresh sea beans—those crisp, iodine-rich vegetables that grows in marshy, coastal areas, a few stalks of which she snaps off and chews when as an adult she returns to the narrow peninsula in southern Washington State where she and her cousin once roamed. Place together in large bowl, stir well? Okay—maybe not!

 

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PUBLISHER: http://biblioasis.com/

 

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK:

https://bookshop.org/

https://biblioasisbookshop.com/

 

 READ AN EXCERPT FROM THIS BOOK HERE.