TBR: Deep Water, Dark Horizons by Suzanne Hudson

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.

 

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

 

It’s a compilation, an abridged body of work, mostly short fiction—plus a few novel excerpts and a couple of essays. Subject matter ranges from the absurdly comical to the dark and despairing, with hope woven throughout. The publisher moved fast to get it out ahead of the February 2025 Truman Capote prize.

 

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

 

“The Fall of the Nixon Administration” is the story I had the most fun writing, because the characters are so outrageous, eccentric and self-deluded. One in particular has the filthiest mouth and says over-the-top nasty, perverted things, purely for shock value. It’s liberating to write what you’d not dare to actually say out loud. Or would I? That story was so much bawdy fun that it grew into a comic novel (of the same title).  Note: it’s about a crazy dysfunctional family, not literally about Nixon, but set in 1974.

 

The most trouble? Well, since I dedicated the title story to my late brother, Wilson, who died of acute myeloid leukemia soon after working on beach cleanup after the Deep Water Horizon oil disaster, I needed the character based on him, Gary, to be drawn with care. I wouldn’t say it was “trouble” but I tried to be very mindful about it, and that was emotionally hard for me.

 

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

 

Because I was informed about being the recipient of the Capote prize in November of 2024, and the award was to be presented to me at the end of February of 2025, the window for production was ridiculously small, requiring something like a miracle to get ‘er done. Since all of the work was previously published, editing wasn’t an issue (with a few exceptions), but design and all of the complexities related to that was . . . a challenge. The award itself was the high throughout the process. Those editorial exceptions—stories written back in the 1970s—were the lows, as looking at older work can be—was—mortifying and had to be carved up some—um, a lot. My Lord, the adverbs!

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

I’ve gotta go with that tired old saw, “write what you know.” And to steal from my husband, Joe Formichella, “If you can quit writing, do so.” A true writer can’t NOT write.

 

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

 

How bad some of those old stories were! I hadn’t looked at them in ages, was in my 20s when I wrote them. I was surprised that I was glad I stepped away from writing for around 25 years (until 1999), because I was in dire need of life experience in order to have something to say.

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

 

I never hesitate to let readers know that my stuff ain’t for everybody. It’s pitch dark, with cockroaches skittering around the underbelly, mostly about folks living in the margins. It deals with domestic violence, depression, addiction, molestation, racism, all that mess that festers under the scab of southern culture. But I have fun, too! And I hope the funny comes across, even in the form of LOL.

 

*****

 

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS PUBLISHER:

http://livingstonpress.uwa.edu/  

 

BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK:

 https://livingstonpress.uwa.edu/Deep%20Water.htm 

 

TBR: Voices in the Air by Kasia Jaronczyk

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.

 

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

 

On April 30, 1982, two women and their families hijack a Polish passenger plane flying from Breslau to Warsaw in a bold attempt to escape Martial Law in Communist Poland and find safety in West Berlin. Inspired by real events, Voices in the Air is told from the point of view of four women hijackers: a cotton spinner, whose husband wants to avoid a long prison sentence, a schoolteacher with a sick daughter, a pregnant fourteen-year-old who has visions of the Virgin Mary, an ambitious young filmmaker, and a stewardess in love with the married pilot. Will they find happiness beyond the Iron Curtain or was the hijacking not worth the risk?

 

Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why?

 

I had the most fun creating the character of Ania, the flight attendant. I immediately loved her irreverent, provocative voice, especially in her interactions with her inhibited and rural cousin, but underneath that bravado was a woman desperately in love with a married man and willing to do anything to be with him. After the hijacking I felt great sympathy for her stubborn belief, in spite of everyone, that her daughter will one day be able to respond to her and communicate.

 

And which character gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

I struggled with writing about Julia (the filmmaker) the most. I knew that she would be a witness to the hijacking, and that years later she would interview the women involved, but I didn’t know what her story would be. I felt that I already had all the perspectives I needed in the other female characters, until I realized that Julia would have a daughter Zuza who was, in a way, “hijacked” by her grandmother who acted like she was her mother. Julia would have to decide between Zuza and her chance to stay in the West. Julia’s story also required the most research, as the movie industry in Communist Poland was an involved process, complicated by the many levels of censorship involved. The themes of ambiguous morality,  censorship and self-censorship became very important in the novel.

 

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

 

Before I wrote Voices in the Air I had published a short story collection Lemons (Mansfield Press, 2017), edited an anthology of Polish-Canadian short stories, Polish(ed): Poland Rooted in Canadian Fiction (Guernica Editions, 2017), and wrote another novel, which remains unpublished. I spent a long time querying that first novel, and after receiving no offers, I gave up on it. In the meantime, I wrote Voices in the Air, and again, I had a few full requests from agents, but ultimately it was rejected. I was growing very frustrated and depressed because nobody seemed to want my novels. I switched gears and queried small presses in Canada and some in the US, which one can do without an agent, and with which I’ve had good luck before. I eventually received two offers of publication and accepted one. Palimpsest Press publishes great poetry and stylistically innovative novels, and Aimee Parent Dunn is an amazing editor. A big positive of publishing with a small press is that the author has more influence on the book design, cover and interior, which I appreciate very much.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

Write first, edit later - the first draft is a bad draft. This lets you actually finish your work without letting the inner critic sabotage the process.

 

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

   

Sometimes during writing your mind spontaneously comes up with an unexpected and yet perfect solution to a problem, or a connection, or something that happens that you know is just right. It is a magical moment and feels amazing. The creative process is hard work; you are consciously inventing characters or a plot, choosing between different possibilities, following different paths that might lead nowhere. And then, all of a sudden, you receive this surprising revelation like a gift from the writing gods.

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

Titles can be so difficult – they need to indicate what the book is about, the tone of the work, the genre, but at the same time they can’t be too obvious, too obscure, or misleading. The choice becomes even more complicated when the novel in question is written about a different time and culture and the title needs to be more explanatory that it would have been if it were published in the same country and language. Certain phrases and words can have different connotations and be less obvious to a different audience.

 

I had a running list of titles, including Escape to the West; Flight over the Iron Curtain; Escape to Western Paradise; Hijacked to the West, but they all seemed too obvious and too general, plus they implied an action/adventure/thriller genre, which might attract readers who would be disappointed to find out it is a literary novel told from a female perspective.

 

I then came up with Women Hijackers, (which actually would have worked better in Polish, as a single word Hijackers in the feminine form), and finally, The Wives of Hijackers, which seemed an intriguing, sellable title, but perhaps a too gaudy. Air Partisans was too mysterious.

 

It was my writer friends who suggested Voices in the Air. I feel like this title indicates a literary novel, it may be too subtle, but it encompasses the female voices, the plot, the themes of the novel, as well as its unconventional structure which includes documentary film-style interviews with the hijackers. It also evokes a feeling of loss, an echo, and regret, which reflect the mood of the novel.

 

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

 

Voices in the Air is a nostalgic book for me, as it takes place in Poland, where I was born and lived until I was 14 years old, so of course I mention Polish dishes that I particularly love. One of them is pickle soup, made with kosher pickles and cream, and bigos, a thick sauerkraut and cabbage stew with meat, sausages and wild mushrooms. I recommend them both; they are delicious and not that difficult to make. Here are the recipes:

 

https://www.thekitchn.com/polish-pickle-soup-recipe-23628556

 

https://www.polishyourkitchen.com/polish-hunters-stew-bigos/

 

*****

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: https://kasiajaronczyk.weebly.com

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS PUBLISHER: https://palimpsestpress.ca

 

ORDER A COPY OF THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: https://palimpsestpress.ca/books/voices-in-the-air-kasia-jaronczyk/