I was in an independent study with my favorite writing teacher, Fred Miller Robinson (at the time he was married to Marilynne Robinson, who hadn’t published her first book yet). I didn’t have the experience or the guts to handle the sexual aspects of it back then, though as I recall he tried to gently suggest that that it needed to go there.

Sandra Hutchison – 12 February 2015

The Back Flap

It’s the summer of 1977 in a small town in Western Massachusetts. Physics professor David Asken has just lost his young family in a plane crash he somehow survived. Sixteen-year-old neighbor Molly Carmichael used to be the babysitter, but now will be keeping house for him while he recuperates. He’s quietly planning to end his life just as soon as he can drive again, but may not be willing to wait that long after he comes across his dead wife’s journal and encounters more hostility than he had ever imagined. Molly is trying to cope with being known as Tampon Girl, thanks to a sculpture by her notorious artist mother, but she will have to deal with much worse after a drunken teenage party.

Both man and girl are going to have to grow up the hard way, and it’s their unexpected connection — fraught with potential scandal — that may just help them do it. This provocative coming-of-age novel asks: Is there ever a time when doing the wrong thing might be exactly right?

Warning: Contains adult themes, bad language, violence, and a blistering feminist critique of how men always leave that crap in the bottom of the sink.

About the book

What is the book about?

It’s set in a small New England town in the seventies. The two main characters, even though they are far apart in age, both have traumatic experiences to overcome as well as some growing up to do, and they help each other do it. But their relationship is very problematic because of their age difference, and I’m exploring that question of just how much autonomy we’re really willing to give a girl in the matter of her own sexuality. What if it involves a relationship with an older man? Is it ever possible for that to not be inappropriately predatory? I’d say it’s a decidedly feminist novel, but it has a lot of sympathy for the men who were trying to navigate this sea change in American culture. It also has some affectionate fun poking at contemporary art.

When did you start writing the book?

I actually wrote the short story out of which it arose when I was a senior at UMass, over thirty years ago. I was in an independent study with my favorite writing teacher, Fred Miller Robinson (at the time he was married to Marilynne Robinson, who hadn’t published her first book yet). I didn’t have the experience or the guts to handle the sexual aspects of it back then, though as I recall he tried to gently suggest that that it needed to go there. I started writing the novel version probably two decades later, after I finished the first ten or so drafts of The Awful Mess.

How long did it take you to write it?

Decades! No, really – the story was fast – knowing me, I probably put off my best work until the semester was nearly over — and then the novel was fast by my standards, probably less than a year. But it wasn’t working, so I put it away. It was drafted in alternating first-person for the two main characters, but when I finally took it out again, I decided to switch it to an alternating third person. I also switched from present tense to past tense, because I’ve noticed a lot of readers just don’t like to read narratives written in present tense. And I don’t recommend making those two switches to anybody. The line editing has been a bear.

Where did you get the idea from?

I did a lot of babysitting in my youth, and I heard about a guy in the neighborhood who had married his teenaged babysitter after his wife died. I didn’t know either of them, but I just really wondered about that. Had he loved her, or had it just been convenient, because he had kids to take care of – or wanted taking care of himself? In those days, men didn’t necessarily do much for themselves at all. So I wrote the story, sans kids, because I was only really interested in the man and the girl. And I made him a physics professor because I really enjoyed physics.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

David starts out the book very depressed, suicidal really, and it was hard to be true to that without making the book too bleak – that’s part of the reason I needed to change the point of view. Getting Molly’s voice right was also tricky, since I didn’t want her adolescent abilities to tie my hands too much as a writer. That was the other big reason I needed to switch POV. Just deciding to publish this one was a bit difficult, because it’s not as sweet as the first book, and it’s really playing on the edge of what acceptable behavior is, and even crossing over. I expect some pushback.

What came easily?

Writing Molly’s mother was just plain fun. I got to channel my inner terrible feminist artist. I also enjoyed writing Colin, her British boyfriend who can’t shut up with the usual complaints Brits have about Americans. I have family in Scotland and I spent my junior year in England, so I’ve heard it all.

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

They’re completely fictitious, though I’m sure they have some elements of me in them. Molly and I were both babysitters, and David’s plane crashes in a field of shade tobacco, which is where I worked as a field hand one summer. But, thankfully, I haven’t suffered the terrible traumas either of them have to cope with in this book. I would feel really constrained if I were trying to incorporate real people. The houses are real, though. The street they live on is a lot like the one I lived on in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and the town is a lot like Greenfield, if you picked it up and plopped down much closer to the five colleges.

We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?

My favorite authors are Jane Austen and Barbara Pym, for biting social comedy with a loving heart, but I think I also have some of that less subtle Mark Twain impulse to use comedy and drama to attack social issues. I love a wide range of authors. Some I particularly admire are Marilynne Robinson, Richard Russo, Penelope Lively, and my friend Lucia Nevai. The news also influences me a great deal. I’m the daughter of a journalist; so I grew up bathed in current events.

Do you have a target reader?

At the editing stage for this book, I actually did – and was fortunate enough that she was a beta reader and that she didn’t hate it! Before that … no, not really. I always just try to write the book I’d like to read, the book I wish everyone would read.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

Given my druthers, I write to the exclusion of everything else, even eating, when I’m chasing my way through a first draft. But that isn’t easy to carry off in my life (I also teach college English), so I tend to go in spurts during breaks, though I’ll sometimes squeeze in shorter works during the semester. Revising I enjoy a great deal and I can do that at any time. I need to find a way to balance teaching and writing better; it’s something I’m working on.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

I don’t outline. I probably should, but I’ve tried it and I feel it takes away my own suspenseful enjoyment of the unfolding story. Usually I have a general idea, maybe a title, and a main character and a conflict, and a vague sense at least of where I want to end up, or what the point is, and then I just start. Characters and plot unfold on the page as I write. About two thirds to three quarters of the way through, I usually jump to the end to assure myself that I’ll be able to end it. Then I fill in between. And then, of course, the whole thing gets revised, sometimes massively – preferably after it has sat untouched for a good long while.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

I can’t help editing while I’m drafting – God help me if I ever have to do anything by hand because it’s full of cross-outs – but I try to keep the momentum going forward by not rereading and by not fiddling around a lot. I’ve written a lot of ad copy at a fast pace in my professional life, so I tend to be pretty fast at just banging things out, as long as they keep flowing. Occasionally I hit a real issue with something and just stop dead, for weeks or months or years.

Did you hire a professional editor?

It was read by three other published authors I respect and two English professor colleagues. I should have hired a proofreader, though. This one required a ton of edits for the tense and point of view changes, right up through pages and proof stage. I also had a lot of issues with Word crashing on my aged computer, since replaced, so stuff I thought I had fixed already sometimes reappeared quite horribly. It was a mess.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

I sometimes start with music, but then it finishes and I don’t even notice. If I’m drafting well I’m fairly oblivious to everything – the kettle whistling, the spaghetti sauce burning, the dust bunnies gathering, my shoulders hunching. I really need to develop a healthier pace for this.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to agents?

I submitted the first book to a lot of agents, and it was read by at least a dozen or so. I got a lot of nice feedback, but nobody felt they could sell it in a “tight fiction market.” With this second one, I only tried one agent on the first draft, years ago. And that agent’s feedback was wise and helped me decide to change the point of view. But after The Awful Mess did pretty well as an indie title I decided I didn’t even want to try going out to agents with this one. I like the control I have, and I like that I can build an audience without worrying about tanking my publishing career with the wrong move or just bad luck. I also don’t want to get pigeon-holed into one genre. I know it’s a good business decision to specialize, but if I have to live with a novel for years, I want it to be the novel I feel compelled to write, not the one I am supposed to write because it’s what the market expects from me.

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

I was at a local bookstore event where a friend who had finally, after drafting nine novels, gotten traditionally published. She was appearing with a bunch of other authors. And she was doing very well, but I just looked at all those authors and at an audience that was clearly made up more of aspiring writers than of readers and decided I just didn’t want do have to go through that. I would be completely happy if I never had to do a bookstore appearance in my entire life (though I had two at libraries in January, so I guess the joke’s on me). Self-publishing has become much less the domain of crazy people. Besides, Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen self-published. So I decided I’d give it a try, just to get read, without much expectation of financial success. I have a background in publishing – acquisitions editor, marketing manager, associate creative director — so I have a lot of the skills required. I think I’d still like to be traditionally published someday, if only because of the bookstore market, but I’m in no rush. I’d really love to build my readership up so well that someone will come calling on me instead of the other way round. Every once in a while I also fantasize about building Sheer Hubris Press into a true publishing company, but right now I think that would be too much of a distraction from writing. Also, I’d have to do more math.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

I did the first one myself, which isn’t as crazy as it sounds since one of my first jobs was typesetting and my publishing days included having a lot of say over covers. But I’m not a great designer. When The Awful Mess showed some signs of having legs, I decided to take it a little more seriously and invested in a professional cover from Damonza.com. I went back to them for this one. I’m not absolutely positive that these are the best covers for these particular books – there’s really no way to know without testing them versus something else — but they are professional, they carry my ‘brand,’ and they’re far better than anything I could do. If you doubt that, check out my short story called “The Short, Spectacular Indie-Publishing Career of Matilda Walter.” I designed that cover myself, because I don’t expect it to make any money. (As of this writing it’s free on Smashwords and Nook, but Amazon hasn’t price-matched yet.)

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

I have one, but it’s very modest. I don’t expect this book to do as well as the first. The first I could offer for free with relative confidence that the reviews would come in strong. With this one, I think I’d get a much higher ratio of angry reviews, so I don’t plan to go free, and I know it will always lag behind because of that. So I just think of it as another stop in a long road.

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?

Take your time. Honestly, why not try to find an agent? The process will force you to do what you need to do anyway and may get you some professional feedback, if not a career. If nobody seems at all interested, consider that maybe you’re not ready yet. Once you do decide to go out, hire good developmental editors and copyeditors and proofreaders and designers, unless you happen to be blessed with friends who truly have these credentials. Take your writing and your publishing seriously. Allow people to tell you unpleasant truths – for example, that your cover or your web site sucks (I got that last one, for which I am thankful). And grow a thick skin, or don’t even try this. Not everyone is going to like your work. You truly must be able to cope with that, or you’re going to be very unhappy. Also, don’t quit your day job unless you can afford to. This writing gig may never pay off, whether you’re indie OR traditionally published. Even if it does, it’s likely to take many years and won’t necessarily be reliable even then. (Plenty of indies are groaning right now about what Kindle Unlimited has done to their income.) Find common cause with other authors, to the extent you can without losing your independence or your standards. They are your colleagues in this field and some of them will become good friends. Finally, don’t expect too much of your existing friends and family. They’re already important to you for that and shouldn’t be expected to also become your fans (though of course it’s rather pleasant gravy if they do).

About You

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Florida, mostly in the Tampa Bay area, before moving to a small town in Western Massachusetts the week of Christmas when I was a junior in high school. We had moved all my life, but that particular change was painful. I vividly remember falling on ice in front of the school.

Where do you live now?

In the Capital Region of New York. Before that I lived in the New Jersey suburbs of NYC, and before that I lived in New Hampshire.

What would you like readers to know about you?

For me, getting older has meant getting braver and getting much clearer about what I want out of life. These are good things for someone who wants to be a writer. One of the happiest moves I’ve ever made in that regard is downsizing by more than half.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on some short stories and a novel called Bardwell’s Folly, about a young woman who’s trying to cope with a very unwieldy inheritance from her famous author father, a wealthy friend of his who may be trying to take it all for himself, and the reappearance of the man she had disappointed years earlier.

End of Interview:

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Get your copy of The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire from Amazon US (paper or ebook) or Amazon UK (paper or ebook).