I wanted to explore what it must feel like for parents who think they’re making the right decision but it’s one of the worst decisions they could make.

Randi Triant – 12 April 2022

The Back Flap

In 1967, Fay Stonewell, a water tank escape artist in Florida, leaves for Vietnam to join the Amazing Humans—a jerry-rigged carnival there to entertain the troops—abandoning her disabled teenage son, Dickie, to the care of an abusive boyfriend.

Months after Fay’s departure, Dickie’s troubled home life ends in a surprising act of violence that forces him to run away. He soon lands in Manhattan, where he’s taken in by eccentric artist Laurence Jones. Fay, meanwhile, is also facing dangerous threats. From the night her plane jolts onto a darkened Saigon runway, she is forced to confront every bad decision she’s ever made as she struggles to return to her son. But the Humans owner is hell-bent on keeping her in Vietnam, performing only for war-injured children at a hospital, daily reminders of the son she’s left behind.

Decades later, Dickie is forty, living in a Massachusetts coastal town with a man who’s dying of AIDS, and doing everything he can to escape his past. But although Spin may be giving Dickie what he’s always wanted—a home without wheels—it seems that the farther Dickie runs, the tighter the past clings to him.

Ultimately, What We Give, What We Take is a deeply moving story of second chances and rising above family circumstances, however dysfunctional they may be.

About the book

What is the book about?

What We Give, What We Take is about an escape artist, Fay Stonewell, and her disabled teenage son, Dickie. Try as they might, they can’t seem to escape life’s pitfalls. Ultimately, though, it’s a story of second chances and rising above family circumstances, however dysfunctional they may be.

When did you start writing the book?

Originally, it was a short story that I wrote 20 years ago.

How long did it take you to write it?

Off and on for 10 years.

Where did you get the idea from?

I went to school with someone who contracted polio despite the vaccine being around for years and I always wondered why he didn’t get the vaccine. He was in a wheelchair for some time and eventually learned to walk with crutches and that image/memory stuck with me. I wanted to explore what it must feel like for parents who think they’re making the right decision but it’s one of the worst decisions they could make.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

Getting the historical details “right” for the chapters set in Vietnam during the War. Also balancing all the terrible decisions Fay makes while somehow ultimately making her sympathetic to the reader. That kept me up at night.

What came easily?

The NYC and Provincetown sections of the story. What a relief that was!

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

Entirely fictitious. I’ve never met a water tank escape artist in my life, although I’d love to.

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?

Too many to list! Dickens for his memorable characters and crazy story arcs. Virginia Woolf for interior thought. Patricia Highsmith for how to write suspense and make us believe we could all be murderers given the wrong circumstances. The contemporary writer, Sarah Winman for her extraordinary ability to capture the beauty of small moments, complex relationships, and art all within one page.

Do you have a target reader?

Anyone interested in the underdog, in the human grain, in how dysfunctional families fight tooth and nail for survival. I want to portray the families that Tolstoy wrote about when he said, “All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

About Writing

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

Four words. Sit in the chair. So simple and yet, so hard.

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

No, but I do have to have the whole story in my head before I can sit down and write.

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

First drafts – no edits. After that, edit edit, edit.

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

Yes, I usually repeatedly play The Hours soundtrack by Philip Glass. I’m my father’s daughter: a creature of habit.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

Years ago I did.

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 liked that indie publishers seemed to have more of a family environment for their writers. Many of the cutting-edge books I’d been reading seemed to be published by indie publishers. Certainly, years ago most of the LQBTQ+ fiction and non-fiction was being published by them. That was very important to me.

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

Professionally done by the indie publisher.

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

A marketing plan that my incredible publicists at BookSparks have developed.

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

Read every day, write every day.

About You

Where did you grow up?

A town on Long Island in New York that was a bicycle ride away from Jones Beach, my second home.

Where do you live now?

A town on Cape Cod that’s a bicycle ride away from the beach. Some things never change.

What would you like readers to know about you?

I was a film producer for 10 years. I hate anchovies. I saw my first snowy owl at the beach the other day.

What are you working on now?

My next novel about two childhood friends who are estranged and are forced to come to terms with their falling-out. Imagine Thelma and Louise but they can’t get out of the car, and they don’t drive off the cliff.

End of Interview:

For more from Randi Triant, visit her website, follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Get your copy of What We Give, What We Take from Amazon US or Amazon UK.