Fresh Ink is a monthly series of interviews with debut novelists that focuses on the journey to publication. Today’s interview is with Ramona Ausubel, author of No One Is Here Except All of Us, which was published February 2 by Riverhead Books. 

I was so intrigued by this novel’s premise, about a Jewish family in 1939 Romania who reinvent their own history to escape the harsh reality surrounding them. The story explores the power of imagination, family and community for survival, and while writing it, Ramona also explored her own family history and how to retell it as its truths evolved over time. I hope you’ll enjoy reading about Ramona’s process as much as I did! 

Length of time from book’s start to pub date: 8 years

# of agents you queried before signing: around 10

# of books written before this one: 1

# of revisions you went through: 17

We’re lucky that there are so many great resources for writers to learn about publishing these days. That being said, what’s the one aspect of the process you never could have predicted?

I couldn’t have predicted how personal it all is.  These aren’t transactions, they’re relationships.  It’s kind of like finding someone to adopt your child—you’ve really got to feel that these people love the particular creature you’ve made.

I loved reading your interview with Tea Obreht, especially the part where you talk about your grandmother’s stories and how “As long as a story is being told, it stays alive, even as it changes.” I can definitely relate, having had a similar experience with my own grandmother’s stories. You mention you initially tried to stick with the facts, then realized they weren’t the most important part of the story. Can you tell me what the decision-making process was like as you chose which facts to stick to, and which ones got new truths?

When I set out to discover my family’s story I was motivated by a desire to find my own place in the world.  Like I was going to seek out my inheritance.  But somehow, when I started writing, the facts didn’t feel like they belonged to me—they were in the past. The story was alive in the present, if only I allowed myself to tell it. Pretty soon, I couldn’t even quite remember which were the true versions of the stories and which were my own tellings.  The novel had turned into its own world, and that world was what I needed to be faithful to.

You had several short stories published prior to your debut novel, and you mentioned that initially, you’d collected your family stories but didn’t realize they’d become a novel. At what point did you realize this would be the best way to tell the story? What do you think transformed them from linked stories to a novel?

I think I always knew that this would be a single work, rather than linked stories.  I was really intimidated by the idea of writing a novel (I still think it’s about one degree away from impossible) so I wrote the whole first draft in a few weeks, not allowing myself a chance to talk my way out of it.  I took a deep breath and wrote ten pages a day without worrying about consistency, or even about making sense.  I just wanted to find the heartbeat. At the end of that whirlwind, I had made a huge, gigantic mess, but it was alive.

I’m always curious about writers’ educations because most started writing at a very young age and yet so many of us take different paths later in life. In your case you’ve written since you were young and received an MFA at UC Irvine. What is the most valuable thing you learned during your time there?

My teacher Ron Carlson once told me that writing is so difficult that if you’re going to do it, you might as well write the thing that only you can write.  In other words, thank goodness Hemingway was so good at Hemingway—you’re off the hook.  Now go get something down that will only exist if you write it.

In preparation for your launch, how did you approach marketing yourself? How much of it is a collaborative process between you and the publisher, and how much of it is just you? 

It was very collaborative.  I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the amazing team at Riverhead behind me.  I’ve done everything I could think of—reaching out to bloggers, reviewers, bookstores, writers and readers, etc., but my efforts have been matched many times over by others.

What are you most looking forward to once your book launches?

I’m looking forward to celebrating with friends and family across the country, and I’m also looking forward getting back to some new stuff I’m working on once things quiet down.  It’ll be really fun to be out there in the world with the book between covers, but the part I love the most is sitting there by myself making things up.

About No One Is Here Except All of Us:

In 1939, the families in a remote Jewish village in Romania feel the war close in on them.  Their tribe has moved and escaped for thousands of years—across oceans, deserts, and mountains—but now, it seems, there is nowhere else to go. Danger is imminent in every direction, yet the territory of imagination and belief is limitless. At the suggestion of an eleven-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger who has washed up on the riverbank, the villagers decide to reinvent the world: deny any relationship with the known, and start over from scratch. Destiny is unwritten. Time and history are forgotten. Jobs, husbands, a child, are reassigned. And for years, there is boundless hope. But the real world continues to unfold alongside the imagined one, eventually overtaking it, and soon our narrator—the girl, grown into a young mother—must flee her village, move from one world to the next, to find her husband and save her children, and propel them toward a real and hopeful future.

Thank you so much, Ramona, for sharing such valuable insights, and congratulations on your debut! 

I’ve joked about this with writer friends on Twitter (you know who you are). When I get a new book, one of the first things I do is open it up and take in the scent of its pages: paper on ink. If you’re a book sniffer like me (that sounded a lot better in my mind) you understand that not all books smell the same, and you might even have a favorite scent..

Personally I’m a big fan of coffee table books—you know those glossy pages that smell almost plasticky? And old books that have sat in used bookstores or libraries for decades, their pages yellow and musty. And don’t forget new books, purchased right out of the store, which have a certain freshness, a crispiness that I imagine comes from the covers. They haven’t yet been handled enough; they’re like new cars that still smell like the sum of their parts rather than the people who will soon occupy them.

But I’ve discovered a new book scent. Last week my mother-in-law mailed me a copy of Bluebird, or The Invention of Happiness, because she was so taken by it she wanted me to read it. So I curled into bed, cracked it open…and instantly felt like I was back in her home. The scent of her house, a subtle, rosy cleanliness, seeped from the pages. It had managed to linger there even after my mother-in-law wrapped up the book and shipped it across state borders to my home. Before I’d read a single word, this book had transported me.

I know everyone’s homes have a unique smell. The food we eat, the soap we use, even the dirt we track in from outside, create a one-of-a-kind scent that we are probably oblivious to, but others smell and associate with us. I can close my eyes and imagine what my sister’s house smells like. I think of my grandparents’ house in Peru and the first thing that comes to mind is not how it looks, but its scent, how their suitcases carried it with them when they’d visit, and how I’d be hard-pressed to describe it even though I’d recognize it in one breath.

It just hadn’t occurred to me that our books might hold on to these scents in each page. That aside from the stories written inside them, they might carry the stories of those who read them. And of course now I want to go through my own books, try to sniff out what parts of my existence they’ve tracked over the years. A part of me knows it’d be useless because our own scents are invisible to us. They are like accents, which we only detect when they come from a foreign tongue.

Still, I love the idea of my books sitting on my shelves, breathing it all in.
photo credit: ~❤ ßäявiäh ❤~

I don’t know if it’s just me, or if it’s mostly a writer thing, but I adore acknowledgments.

When I finish a really good book, the acknowledgments are like the dessert I look forward to. Occasionally I lose all self-control and skip to the back of the book before even starting the story, and a few books make it easy for me by having the acknowledgments in the front. And let’s not talk about the disappointment of realizing a book has no acknowledgments…I know, especially if it’s an author’s third or fourth book, that there are only so many people you can thank (Or are there? I imagine it’s different with each one).

I don’t know what is about them. Maybe it’s because in the acknowledgments, you get a glimpse of the hard work that went into a book. You get to know a little more about the author, about who they are and who helped them become that. You get bits of humor sometimes—the writer who thanks her dog for snoring at her side every morning for years (fine, I made that one up; that would probably be something I would say). You get bits of inspiration, learning about the countless times the author was so close to giving up and the one person who made him keep going was the next-door neighbor who came into his office one day and threatened to toss his laptop out the window if he didn’t quit whining about how hard it was.

I’ve been lucky enough to have written one. My senior year in high school, as editor of the yearbook, I got a page in the back of the book to thank anyone I wanted. It was the hardest thing I wrote that year. I remember sitting at my computer, crying, because at the end of a project that big (yes, it was big, at least back then it was!) I was struck by the realization that so many people had worked their butts off and this beautiful book was the result. All the hours we spent brainstorming story ideas, tracking down sources to interview, rushing for the camera when an event worth capturing spontaneously came up, and then the nights we stayed after school, scrutinizing proofs…we could hold all that work in our hands. Probably half the people I thanked never read it that year, but the words are still there, waiting for the day years from now when they’re flipping through the pages in their attic.

Yesterday I finished reading Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and was ecstatic when I realized the acknowledgments section was nine. pages. long. It was beautiful, realizing how many people came together for this one book. Maybe that’s what makes a great acknowledgments section—even if you’re not one of the people being thanked, you’re grateful to have read something so special to so many people.

What do you think? Are you an Acknowledgments junkie like I am? Have you ever been included in one? I know there are few of you out there…

 photo credit: woodleywonderworks

Last week I was quoted over at Riverhead Books’s Facebook page as part of their Riverhead Reads feature. Each week they ask someone why they chose the book they did. I’d just finished reading Meg Wolitzer’s The Uncoupling and I’ll admit I had a lot to say about it.

Can you blame me? I get excited when I talk about books.

What are you reading right now? What made you decide to pick it up? 

Fresh Ink is a monthly series of interviews with debut novelists that focuses on the journey to publication. Today we’re starting off the year with Seré Prince Halverson, author of The Underside of Joy, which was published January 12 by Dutton and is forthcoming in 14 other countries. 

I first learned about Sere through Sarah Jio‘s blog (another Fresh Ink interviewee) and am now counting down the days till February 23, when she’s in Austin for a book signing. Sere will be the first author I’ve interviewed who I get to meet in real life! (You bet I’ll be taking pictures!) 

Length of time from book’s start to pub date: About six years, with many breaks in between.

# of agents you queried before signing: current agent, 12 (in the distant past, 75+ before I found my first agent.)

# of books written before this one: 2.5

# of revisions you went through: Too many to count. I’m all about revision.

We’re lucky that there are so many great resources for writers to learn about publishing these days. That being said, what’s the one aspect of the process you never could have predicted?

The kindness of strangers. People are not only taking the time to read my novel, but to write me, and also spread the word. And don’t even get me started on the writing community! I’ve met so many talented and supportive writers. I even belong to an online group called Book Pregnant, made up of 22 debut authors, and we’re all helping each other through the book-birthing process. It turns out that remembering to breathe is key.

I smiled when I read on your website that you worked 20 years as a freelance copywriter. It seems there are many of us copywriter/novelists out there! How did you choose this career path, and how did it lead you to fiction? Do you feel there are advantages to this mixture of writing backgrounds?

I’ve always loved writing but when I was younger but I lacked the confidence to pursue writing fiction as a career. I majored in Journalism. My dad’s guidance went something like, “The only way you can make a living by writing is in advertising.” So I took a lot of advertising and public relations classes. I got married right after graduation and worked so my first husband could finish his degree. But I soon realized that what I really wanted to do was write fiction. So while I worked and raised kids, I took writing workshops and classes.

Sometimes I wished that I had an unrelated day job, because as different as copywriting and novel writing are, they take up the same brain space. While I showered, or drove, or folded piles of laundry, or whatever, I either thought of headlines and concepts, or character and plot. So when work got busy, my fiction didn’t get its due attention. But when work slowed down, I’d plunge into the novel. Of course I’d want to stay there, but eventually the phone would ring and I’d force myself back into advertising mode and create a tagline or write a website.

In retrospect, I can see a lot of positive aspects. Copywriting taught me to set deadlines for myself. It taught me to never wait on the Muse, because, as Barbara Kingsolver says, “She has a lousy work ethic.” I was a single mom for a lot of years, and working freelance gave me flexibility so I could be around for my kids. I’d take work with me and get stuff done while waiting in the car during basketball or lacrosse practice.

What inspired you to tackle the stepmother stereotype that “pits good against evil” in your novel? Was it challenging to against a mythology (for lack of a better term) that’s traditionally found in literature?

I’m a mom and a stepmom, I have a mom and a stepmom, my kids and stepkids have a mom and a stepmom. And none of us are evil. I was thinking about how much a stepmom can love her stepkids but usually doesn’t have any legal parental rights if something should happen to her spouse. The mom/stepmom relationship is complicated. Both love the same people, which in the very best circumstances can be uniting. But the relationship can also be a minefield of comparisons, jealousies, and insecurities. And to a writer, minefield is just another word for candy store.

How did you approach marketing yourself? How much of it is a collaborative process between you and the publisher, and how much of it is just you?

I’m learning a ton. Even though I’ve been in the business of marketing and advertising, it’s different when you’re promoting your own book-baby! The relationship and process is definitely collaborative. My publisher has been really supportive and pro-active. The whole team has also been open to any ideas that my agent and I present. From day one, I’ve been surrounded by smart people who are really pulling for this book. I’m extremely fortunate.

Social networking provides so many opportunities for writers to connect with readers. I blog at www.whomovedmybuddha.blogspot.com and I’m on Facebook and Goodreads, but I’m not on Twitter. I know a lot of writers who love it and I know I’m missing out on a lot. But I’m not a particularly fast writer or a gifted multi-tasker. (I mean, look how long it took me to get published!) I’m afraid that if I joined Twitter, I wouldn’t get another novel written. I think it’s important for writers to focus their energy where it’s most effective and most enjoyable. If you’re doing something only because you feel you have to, that comes through. There are about 84 million things writers can do to market themselves, so I say focus on the two million and let the rest go. And remember to pray. Light incense. Consider burnt offerings…

Your novel was selected for a BEA Buzz Panel, along with others such as Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus and Chad Charbach’s The Art of Fielding. How would you describe that experience?

Humbling. It was such an honor to have The Underside of Joy chosen as one of the six, and to be in that kind of company. I couldn’t quite believe it and still can’t. The stars and planets must have decided to completely freak me out, and aligned in perfect cosmic force the day that decision was made.

What was one of the best things about the day your book launched?

I have always passionately loved bookstores. At the same time, I also felt frustrated when I walked into them. It’s hard to admit that, but it’s true. I’d look at all the books and feel both inspired and bummed that my novels weren’t in there, that the dream kept alluding me, that my work hadn’t reached readers. To walk in and see my book on the shelf? Pure joy.

About The Underside of Joy:

To Ella Beene, happiness means living in the Northern California river town of Elbow with her husband, Joe, and his two young children. For three years, Ella has been the only mother the kids have known. But when Joe drowns off the coast, his ex-wife shows up at his funeral, intent on reclaiming the children. Ella must fight to prove they should remain with her while she struggles to save the family’s market. With wit and determination, she delves beneath the surface of her marriage, finally asking the questions she most fears, the answers jeopardizing everything and everyone she most loves.

Thank you so much, Seré, for your wonderful interview, and congratulations on your book launch! See you soon in Austin at Bookpeople! Readers, if any of you are Austin-based, let me know in the comments so we can get together at Seré’s reading.

I have this tiny red digital voice recorder that I rarely travel without. Blame it on the journalist in me (and also the fact that I work freelance). You just never know when a moment worth recording is going to pop up, or a random, can’t-turn-it-down assignment will fall into your inbox.

So while I spent three weeks in Miami over the holidays, my recorder came with me almost everywhere. I’ve never really had to use it; most of the time I forget it’s there. But on one of the last days of my visit I sat down with my grandmother (my Nonna, as we call her, which is Italian for grandmother) and we got to talking.

It was a spontaneous talk that traveled to the past, to the days when she was a teenager and met my grandfather, to the details of what bus she rode that day, which girlfriends she was with as they went to the beach, what she whispered to them the first time she locked eyes with him. She told me about the first time they finally spoke, days later, and I remember thinking how romantic it must’ve been, to live in a time when even teenagers saying hello at a beach used their first and last names for introductions.

I’d never heard this story before, so I sat there and soaked it in. I asked questions, hoping she’d get into more detail, and by the middle of the conversation Nonna pretty much took the reins. We weren’t just talking anymore; she was telling me the story of her life.

For a moment, as this dawned on me, I thought about running to my purse real quick to get my recorder. I wanted to capture every word, the way her voice changed pitch and became more youthful at times, how it slowed down to follow her gaze in other moments when history became difficult to recall. I wanted to, years from now, replay her giggles (there were so many) and picture how she smiled so wide that her eyes closed up and her shoulders shook.

I kept wanting to get my recorder, but I never did. The moment never felt right. You can’t just push a pause button on life and expect it to go on interrupted. Disrupting the natural flow of the conversation for the sake of capturing it wasn’t nearly worth it. I told myself that I would write everything down later in as much detail as possible.

But we had plans that evening, and the next day was a rush of getting our luggage together and saying our goodbyes as we prepared to go back home. Once in Austin, with more time on my hands, I was shocked to realize I wasn’t ready to write it all down yet. It took me two more days. When I finally opened my journal to record my memories of our conversation, eight pages came out, cramping my hands.

I started how she started. I still remembered her exact words. But the more I wrote the more I realized I wasn’t just writing her history; I was writing about the experience of having it passed down to me. Her story became intertwined with mine, in the way family histories often do; her expressions became filtered through my perception of them.

My retelling wasn’t perfect, but in its own way it was. It occurred to me that the reason I waited so long to write it down was that I had to process it. A tape recorder or a camera might have captured the moment more accurately, but I wanted to write about it truthfully. That’s the job of the writer, isn’t it? Of fiction. We observe life but we do it a disservice by simply regurgitating the cold facts. Bringing something to life on the page is a craft, a careful process that pulls from every little piece of us. In sharing stories we share parts of ourselves, even if the story is about someone else entirely.

It’s like the quote in one of my favorite books, The Book of Embraces, says:

Recordar: To remember, from the Latin re-cordis, to pass back through the heart.

 photo credit: Denzil~

I thought for weeks about how I could celebrate this blog’s one-year mark and celebrate the things it’s come to represent. One year ago today when I wrote my first post by hand, I didn’t really have a clue where I’d go from there. I wrote a lot about writing, and about books, and about how random things in my life gave me insights on the creative life and the importance of storytelling…but when I think about the ways the blog’s really evolved (in the ways that matter to me most) it all comes down to you. This blog has become a way for me to meet wonderful people like you, and I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you’ve all stopped by this past year, read about this journey, and most of all, talked to me.

So I wanted this one-year mark to be a big thank you, I wanted to be able to give you all a gift of some sort, and I wanted it to be personal. But as much as I wish I could do that for every single one of you I can only pick one.

Tell Me What Book You Most Want to Read

So here’s what we’ll do. I want to give you a book, but not just any book. I want to give you the book you most want to read. The one that’s been on your TBR list that you haven’t bought yet and you’re dying to get your hands on. Tell me what book that is and I’ll randomly choose a winner, buy them the book, and send it to them with a personalized thank-you note inside. (If you don’t like people writing in your books, just let me know and I’ll write the note on a card).

And there’s one more thing. One of my goals for this year is to read more books—at least twice as many as I read last year. You know me; I read mostly fiction, and will always read mostly fiction, but this year I want to sprinkle some non-fiction and classics into the mix. But I need suggestions (from all 3 categories). I want to know what books you think I have to read. The ones that kept you up all night.

So to enter: leave a comment recommending a book to me and telling me which book you most want to read.

Tweet about this giveaway (mention @NataliaSylv so I can see it) or share it on Facebook and you’ll get an extra entry for each action.

You have until Tuesday, January 17, to enter; I’ll announce a winner on Wednesday. Use the box below (I’m using Rafflecopter for the first time to keep track of all the entries).

And you know that part about how I wish I could thank every one of you? I really mean it, so if you’re so inclined, email me your address anyways so I can send you a thank you note. I promise I won’t keep your address or send spammy things your way years from now.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 photo credit: The_Skinny_Boy

I’m so lucky to have connected with the amazing authors I got to know this year through the Fresh Ink interview series. Each is uniquely talented, incredibly kind and generous with their time, and above all so down-to-earth and supportive of the writing community. It really was an honor to get to know them and see how the year of their book debuts unfolded.

Now that 2012 is just a few days away, I thought it’d be nice to check in with these authors to see what their thoughts and impressions of this year are, and what they’re looking forward to in 2012. There are a couple authors who I wasn’t able to get in touch with (who can blame them? The holidays are such a crazy time and I know that both are busy with exciting new developments!) so I made my best efforts to fill in what I could.

As for all of you, dear readers (like how I got all Brontë there?) thank you so much for being a part of this blog in its “debut” year, for sharing your thoughts with me, and letting me get to know you. I can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store for all of you! 

A Look Back (& Forward) at the Debut Novelists of 2011

Fresh Ink made its own debut in April with an interview with Jael McHenry, author of The Kitchen Daughter, a delicious and beautiful book about a woman who realizes she can conjure ghosts when she cooks from dead people’s recipes. The Kitchen Daughter recently came out in paperback and the artwork is just as breathtaking as the hardcover. And earlier this month, Jael announced in a very special, intimately honest post on her site that she’s expecting her first child in April 2012. Congratulations, Jael!

Read Jael’s Fresh Ink interview

May introduced us to Sarah Jio, author of The Violets of March and The Bungalow, who summed up 2011 for me via email:

2011 has been such an exciting year. My third baby boy was born (Colby, now almost one year old!), I published my first novel, The Violets of March (which was praised by Redbook, Woman’s Day, and picked as a Best Book of 2011 by Library Journal), sold my second novel, The Bungalow, (which will publish on December 27, right after Christmas!), and also sold my third and fourth novels. Whew! So, that adds up to 1 baby born, 2 books published, and 3 sold in a 12 month period. Though I have lacked sleep, it’s been a thrilling year, and I’m excited for the next. In 2012, I’m really looking forward to finishing my fourth novel, The Last Camellia, and working on the next two books I have planned (those characters and stories are already haunting me!). Most of all, I’m so grateful to be doing what I love. It’s a blessing and a joy.

Read Sarah’s Fresh Ink interview

Camille Noe Pagán, author of The Art of Forgetting, says about this year:

In a word, 2011 was busy! I had no idea how time-consuming putting out a novel would be … but of course it was all worth it. For 2012, I’m really excited about my paperback release; I love the new cover (which I hope I’ll be able to share soon) even more than the hardback cover. I’m also keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll sell my second novel, which I’m currently working on.

Read Camille’s Fresh Ink interview from June

July’s author, Brandi Lynn Ryder, wrote a novel that fascinated me so much I started rereading it the day I finished it. The world and characters in In Malice, Quite Close were so intricate, sophisticated, charming and intriguing (all while still being flawed) that I was sad to let go of them. So I was thrilled to learn that Brandi’s working on a “loose sequel” to her debut. The new book focuses on a completely new storyline that follows one of my favorite characters in the book. I’m very excited to revisit him.

Read Brandi’s Fresh Ink interview from July

Samuel Park, author of This Burns My Heart, wrote to me via email:

The highlight of 2011 was the publication of This Burns My Heart. Through it, I met many wonderful people: booksellers, bloggers, readers, my publisher, book clubs, other authors. I was really happy with the reception of the book, and in many ways, it’s been a dream publication experience. For 2012, it’s back on the trenches and back to writing the next book, though I’m committed to continue doing book club visits, which are always incredibly fun. Thank you Natalia for catching up with me; very happy holidays to you and your blog readers!

Read the July Fresh Ink Interview with Samuel

Keith Cronin, author of Me Again, wrote:

2011 was an exciting year for me, with the publication of my novel Me Again, which has been met by some excellent reviews and word-of-mouth evangelism. I was also thrilled to join the staff of regular contributors at Writer Unboxed, my favorite literary blog. I’m just getting started on my next book, and hope to apply the lessons I’ve learned (and continue to learn) to this new project, all while keeping a vigilant eye on the ever-changing landscape of the publishing industry.

Read the September Fresh Ink interview with Keith

Erika Marks, author of Little Gale Gumbo, shared highlights of this year and plans for the next:

2011 was exciting, seeing my debut arrive into the world and the amazing support I savored from readers and friends—so many of which I am grateful to have met through blogging and Twitter. Going into 2012, I’m looking forward to talking with more book clubs and readers about Little Gale Gumbo, but I’m also really excited that my second novel will be releasing in October. I’m doing edits now and looking forward to seeing some cover art soon! This time around, I feel very fortunate to know (somewhat) what to expect as the date nears. But, of course, the surprises are often the best part of the process!

Read the October Fresh Ink interview with Erika

In November, I interviewed Rebecca Rasmussen, who was the first Fresh Ink author to be featured on the month of her book’s paperback release, months after the initial debut of The Bird Sisters. Rebecca had some interesting insights about the expectations and surprises she experienced this year. As for upcoming plans, she’s actually working on a third novel: “I wrote my second when I was waiting for The Bird Sisters to come out – from the day I signed my contract to the hardcover publication about 18 months passed, so I had plenty of time to work on a new project. My novel is about an old country doctor whose life gets turned upside down when a woman accuses him of malpractice in Oneida, Wisconsin.”

You can read Rebecca’s interview here.

Now it’s your turn: what were the highlights of 2011 for you? What are you most looking forward to in 2012?

That’s one of my reading rules, anyways. So imagine my disappointment when, while traveling this week and daydreaming about all the time I’d have to read, I forgot to bring a decent bookmark.

My 2012 planner has these cute tear-away list sheets that are just about the size and shape of a bookmark. At the top they say “To Do,” so I took the liberty of making a bookmark/to do list for every time I have a book in hand:

With a special cameo by Keith Cronin‘s Me Again, a book I’ve been enjoying way too much to just use a grocery receipt as a bookmark.

I absolutely loved this interview with novelist Cristina García for so many reasons. Let’s count the ways, shall we?

1. I adore her work. Dreaming In Cuban and Monkey Hunting are books I still think about even though it’s been years since I read them. Cristina also happens to be a master at writing in multiple POVs, so if any of you are doing the same, her books are a great example of how one story can have so many different truths.

2. I adore her. I was lucky enough to take a workshop with her back in 2005 and in just a few short days I learned so much. She had us do a great exercise in which we read poetry before writing. It helped us loosen the mind and play with language as a warm-up.

3. She recently finished teaching a semester in residence at my alma mater, The University of Miami. Oh, to have graduated five years later.

4. Even though I don’t live in Miami, it’s still home to me. In this interview Cristina discusses how she approached writing about the city at different times in her writing career. And it doesn’t hurt that the photographs are breathtaking. Nothing like being away from a place and seeing it through someone else’s lens to make you fall in love with it all over again.

5. Yes, the interview is a bit on the long side. If you’re short on time, start at 2:20 (the intro’s a bit long, and she starts talking at this point). Even though the focus is on Miami as setting, her commentary applies to any location:

“It’s a living breathing organism, and it’s something that depending on where you are or who’s telling the story, will change.”

Cristina refers to her characters as a lens through which we see setting. “I think I construct it through character. Character and their experience of it.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV8lXZE3_5o