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?
Mama Said is set in Louisville, Kentucky at the tail
end of the crack epidemic and the rise of the opioid crisis. It follows three
daughters–cousins in the same family–who come of age struggling against their
mothers’ drug addictions.
Which story did you most enjoy writing? Why? And, which
story gave you the most trouble, and why?
I had a lot of fun writing “Animal Kingdom.” It’s set on
Derby, back when you could still cruise through West Louisville. The Kentucky
Derby on TV is big hats, mint juleps, and rich white people. Derby to me, and a
lot of black Louisvillians, is cruising on Broadway, barbecues, and music. It’s
basically a miles-long block party. Capturing that on the page required a lot
of reminiscing on Derby days of my past and made me feel like I was back in
Louisville in all of the energy and excitement though I was bundled up in my
house or cupping a a mug of tea in a coffee shop in cold, gray Rochester, New
York.
Although it was also fun creating Bryce’s character, that
man gave me truh-ble! Actually, my boyfriend and I got into a fight about
Bryce’s character. I generally have a hard time writing male characters, so I
always run them by him. I read him some bits and he said Bryce’s interaction
with Angel wasn’t believable given his age (thirty), her age (seventeen), and
the setting (half-naked girls shaking ass for men pointing camcorders). But I
knew Bryce’s heart, as the old folks say, and I fought, quite literally, off
the page with my boyfriend and on the page to bring that to life and make it
real.
Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s
road to publication.
It took me a looong time to write Mama Said. Fourteen
years. Part of the reason why it took so long and what had happened was… (😂)
that I didn’t really begin writing the collection until I left grad school. The
book’s overarching mother-daughter conflict rooted in the mother’s addiction is
pulled from personal conflict that played out between me and my mother. I’d
avoided addressing that in my writing until my thesis deadline was approaching
and I needed more pages to meet the minimum. I wrote what was at the top of my
mind and ended up with the first draft of “A Satisfying Meal,” in which the
protagonist, JayLynn, takes her boyfriend to Thanksgiving dinner and is
mortified as her family’s dysfunction, that she could easily hide two hours
away at school in Bloomington, Indiana, unfolds before both of them.
Another reason why it took so long to write the book is
because I wasn’t writing for months at a time. You know how people say you have
to carve out your writing time and be ruthless about maintaining it? I was
doing none of that. I let the responsibilities of my job as a professor
completely take over my life–for years! There was no work-life balance. I often
graded in the time I had scheduled to write because I was always behind
on grading.
Yet another reason why it took so long to write the book is
because I’m a slow writer, largely because I’m a perfectionist. I don’t know
why I put so much pressure on myself, especially in first drafts, when I know
I’m going to revise the sugar honey iced tea out of it, but I do. I’m working
on it.
So it took a while to write but once the manuscript was
ready, it only took three months before it was accepted at West Virginia
University Press.
What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?
Remember what I said above about people saying you have to
carve out your writing time and be ruthless about it? What those people said,
that’s my favorite piece of writing advice.
Unfortunately, it has taken me years to understand that I
have to schedule my writing time–whether it’s ten minutes or two hours–and
guard it fiercely because no one but me is going to do it because no one but me
cares about it (well, maybe they do. I’m a moody heifer when I’m not writing),
and the work–whatever the work may be–will never stop and grant me the reprieve
to write.
My favorite writing advice is “write until something
surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?
Many of the climactic moments in each of the stories
surprised me because I don’t outline stories (maybe that’s another reason why
it took me so long to finish the collection) and also follow this advice. I
like to realize a character’s worst fear and see how they react.
Patricia, the protagonist in “A Sort of Winning,” was an
especially surprising addition to the collection. She came out of nowhere. I
hadn’t been reminiscing about P.E. class in high school or P.E. teachers at
all. I was minding my own business and BOOP! the opening scene of her watching
the kids while they take a test popped up while I was writing, and I wanted to
see where it would go. Patricia’s story offers another perspective of JayLynn
that further complicates her character, and Patricia’s frustration with the way
her terminally ill mother still swoons over her estranged husband adds variety
to the collection’s mother-daughter conflicts.
How did you find the title of your book?
The book’s title comes from the title story. In “Mama Said,”
JayLynn is haunted by her depressed mother’s confession that she wishes she
could drive off of the JFK Bridge. This disclosure from mother to daughter
sends JayLynn reeling, unsure whether her time and effort should be spent at
home helping her mother or on campus raising her plummeting grades. This
uncertainty of how to navigate the world with their mother’s words and actions
playing in their minds also plagues JayLynn’s cousins, Zaria and Angel. The
conflict that the title story highlights is relevant throughout the collection
so it seemed fitting as the book’s title. I also like the colloquial sound of Mama
Said.
Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any
food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)
In “A Satisfying Meal,” there’s much ado about JayLynn’s mother’s
greens, ”spiced with a soft heat and seasoned to the edge of too salty with
enough jowl bacon that a bowl of them can be a satisfying meal.” Those greens
described are my mama’s greens, and her recipe is simple. Throw some greens
(what kind really doesn’t matter. Could be collards, kale, mustard, turnip or a
mix of all of them), jowl bacon, water, and some salt in a pot and simmer until
tender.
I learned how to make these greens myself, substituting
cooked bacon and bacon grease for the jowl bacon and adding onion and yellow
mustard.
But I’m vegan now, so I use vegan chicken broth, onion,
salt, and yellow mustard. I also don’t simmer them as long. You really don’t
need to cook them more than thirty minutes.
*****
READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: https://kristengentry.com/
ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR TBR STACK: https://bookshop.org/p/books/mama-said-stories-kristen-gentry/19967868?ean=9781952271984
READ A STORY FROM THIS BOOK, “Introduction”: https://www.spectermagazine.com/three/gentry/