Eleanor Lerman on Writing a Love Letter to NYC + Its People

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. 

Today’s guest for the WHAT is Eleanor Lerman, author of The Game Café: Stories of New York City in Covid Time — nine stories of people who live in New York City—or are traveling there—in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

In the height of the covid pandemic, when the television news continually featured stories about “the death” of New York City because people were fleeing, the hospitals were overrun, the business districts were deserted and no one would ever return to offices, etc., etc., I became incensed at the idea that anyone could think New York City was ever going to become a ghost town. To begin with, as a lifelong New Yorker and the daughter of a factory worker, the argument seemed to me to stem from an elitist view of urban life—the people “fleeing” were actually those who had a choice to do so because they had the wealth to own a second home in the suburbs or to simply buy another home in an area where the pandemic was having less of a devastating impact. So, the stories in my collection, The Game Café: Stories of New York City in Covid Time were born from my outrage at the notion that a city built by immigrants, fueled by the work and ingenuity of a diverse population, offering community to people across the gender spectrum, and that provides opportunity to anyone willing to take on the challenges of urban life could be brought down by the coronavirus. Each story in the collection focuses on the lives of different individuals coping with the pandemic in their own way and each, in their own way, is going to find a way not only to live through this dark time but come out on the other side with a new understanding of how deeply integral their relationship to the life of the city is to their own individual life story.

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

There are nine short stories in the collection and each is built around the same concept: how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the life of a particular individual. Some of the characters have lost their jobs, one is living in Los Angeles and decides to drive home to New York, others reassess their relationship to a sibling or an adult child, and some are suffering from long-term illnesses (not Covid-related), but the decisions they make and the experiences they have all stem from how the pandemic is impacting their lives.

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

This is almost always the case, whether I am writing a short story or a novel. Once a character begins to take on substance and develop a voice, he or she usually helps to move the story along in a direction I had not necessarily anticipated. That’s fine because I begin any story with knowing how it will end and as long as I’m moving towards that ending, letting the characters change the plot as we move along is actually helpful. What I have learned about my work is that I trust myself as a writer so no matter how the story changes, I can adapt.

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

I have been telling myself all kinds of stories in my mind since I was a child so there is always something brewing, 

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating? 

It would be unusual for me to find myself in that situation. I am very disciplined about my work, meaning that I don’t wait for inspiration (whatever that means) but rather, sit down at my computer every day intent on working. The stream-of-consciousness thing that goes on in my mind all the time just pushes one idea forward from that long, rolling river of ideas and that becomes the one I focus on.

I have 6 cats and a Dalmatian (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting? 

My office is an old purple couch and I sit on one end with a laptop. For over twenty years, there has been one or another small dog snoozing away on the other end. The day after my previous, much-loved dog passed away, I sat down on the couch, opened the laptop, looked over at the empty spot on the other side of the cushions and knew I couldn’t go on unless I had a new assistant. Two days later, I did. She’s a little white dog and her name is SuzyQ. And now, my work proceeds just fine.

Eleanor Lerman is the author of numerous award-winning collections of poetry, short stories and novels. She is a National Book Award finalist, the recipient of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts for poetry and the New York Foundation for the Arts for fiction. She has also received the John W. Campbell Award for the Best Book of Science Fiction. Her most recent novel, Watkins Glen (Mayapple Press, 2021), received an Independent Press award, among others. Find her online at eleanorlerman.com and on Facebook (facebook.com/eleanor.lerman).

Julie Carrick Dalton’s Lessons on Writing the Sophomore Novel

We all like to hear about the journey to publication, and hopefully other people's success stories help bolster the confidence of those still slogging through the query trenches. But what happens after that first book deal? When the honeymoon is over, you end up back where you were - sitting in front of a blank Word document with shaky hands. Except this time, there are expectations hanging over you. With this in mind, I’ve created the SNOB (Second Novel Omnipresent Blues) interview.

Today’s guest for the SNOB is Julie Carrick Dalton, author of The Last Beekeeper which releases today!

Whether you’re under contract or trying to snag another deal, you’re a professional now, with the pressures of a published novelist compounded with the still-present nagging self-doubt of the noobie. How to deal?

I had a two-book deal right out of the gate, which was wonderful. And horrible. I had the security of knowing there would definitely be another book, but I also had to deal with a tight deadline to write it while launching my debut. It took me thirteen years to write the first book. I had less than two years to write the second. My debut novel, Waiting for the Night Song, came out in January 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic. I found myself locked down at home with loads of time – but I couldn’t write. I panicked. What if the new book wasn’t as good? What if I couldn’t finish it? I don’t remember what flipped the switch, but shortly after Night Song’s launch, I was able to relax a little and write again. From that point on, having my manuscript waiting for me every day helped me cope with the anxiety of living through the pandemic. It became my retreat, my escape. In the end, having that deadline hanging over me was a good thing. It pushed me. I know some authors don’t like multi-book deals because of the pressure it creates, but for me, it works. In fact, I recently signed another two-book contract for books three and four. So now, as I’m launching The Last Beekeeper, once again, I’m facing a tight deadline. Yes, I’m panicking again, but underneath that panic is a wee bit of confidence. I’ve done this before, and I can do it again.

Is it hard to leave behind the first novel and focus on the second?

Yes! I lived in the world of Waiting for the Night Song for thirteen years. I knew what was under every rock, in every medicine cabinet. I knew those characters like old friends because they were old friends. Waiting for the Night Song is set in the mountains and forests of New Hampshire, which I know well in real life. The Last Beekeeper is set in the near future. Not only did I struggle to leave the woods of New Hampshire, but it took a while to find my footing in the imagined world of Beekeeper. In fact, after the first draft, I completely relocated the setting of one of the timelines because it wasn’t working. After I got the setting right, the characters began showing themselves to me, and oh my gosh, do I love these characters now! I’m still firmly grounded in The Last Beekeeper as I launch it into the world, but I’m also easing myself into my new book and new characters. I’m finding the transition less jarring this time.

At what point do you start diverting your energies from promoting your debut and writing / polishing / editing your second?

I never stopped promoting my debut. Most of my energy right now is focused on doing interviews, recording podcasts, and supporting the launch of The Last Beekeeper, but I still get requests to talk or write about Waiting for the Night Song. And I'm working on Book Three. I’m in deep on all fronts! Waiting for the Night Song is still out there. Folks are still reading it. I still see it on the shelves in airports and bookstores. It’s easy to get caught up in the publicity and social media, which is important. But I often need to remind myself to get back to the writing. Supporting a backlist book, promoting a launch, and writing a new book all at the same time requires focus and organization, neither of which are my strengths. I tend to throw myself into one thing for a week or two. I’ll spend all day writing for weeks and ignore social media and publicity. Or vice versa. My goal for 2023 is to be more balanced and intentional in my approach to all three books. (If anyone has any great strategies, please reach out! I have not mastered this part yet!)

Your first book landed an agent and an editor, and hopefully some fans. Who are you writing the second one for? Them, or yourself?

I love this question because no one has ever asked me this. I definitely wrote the first book for myself. I was exploring childhood memories, friendships, and agricultural issues I dealt with as a farmer. I didn’t have any expectations that it would make it into print. I just had fun with it. During the editing process, I made changes for my agent and editor, but it was still a book I’d written for myself. When I started drafting The Last Beekeeper, I definitely had my editor in mind. I thought about the feedback she had given me on Waiting for the Night Song and tried to apply it to Beekeeper preemptively. The result was a disjointed, dysfunctional first draft. My editor nudged me to change the setting to a place that would feel more natural to me, where I would be more comfortable. So I rewrote half of the book and set it in a place I love – a farm. In essence, I went back and rewrote it for myself. I hope my readers love it too!

Is there a new balance of time management to address once you’re a professional author? 

Time management is NOT my strength! I feel like I have so many jobs now. All of a sudden, I was a novelist, a publicist, a public speaker, and a writing instructor. I’m also a mother of four humans and two dogs, and I ran a 100-acre farm. Shortly after my debut launched I was struggling to keep up with all of it. I had four main things to juggle: running my farm, parenting, being an author, and maintaining my sanity. It became clear one of these things had to go. I certainly wanted to maintain my mental health, I love my family, and I had finally achieved my dream of being a writer. So, sadly, last year, I sold my farm. Fifteen years ago I rescued that tract of land from being developed and I established a successful farm I’m proud of. I hated letting it go. But I sold it to someone who loves it as much as I do. It was a difficult decision, but I’m proud of myself for recognizing I couldn’t do it all. I have no regrets. And, just for the record, even without the farm, I’m still struggling to balance the demands of being an author, a speaker, and a parent. But I think I’m getting a little bit better.

What did you do differently the second time around, with the perspective of a published author?

I’m more willing to say no to requests if I feel overburdened. I also have a lot more confidence in myself as a public speaker. As I approached the launch of The Last Beekeeper, I didn’t hesitate to speak up and pitch myself to conferences, bookstores, libraries, or podcasts. I also have a different perspective on what success means. I used to gauge success in book sales and Amazon ratings. Now I judge myself on the quality of my writing. In the end, I want to be proud of the work I put out into the world.

Julie Carrick Dalton is the Boston-based author of The Last Beekeeper and Waiting for the Night Song, named a Most Anticipated 2021 novel by CNN, Newsweek, USA Today, Parade, and others, and an Amazon Editor’s pick for Best Books of the Month. A Bread Loaf, Tin House, and GrubStreet Novel Incubator alum, Julie is a frequent speaker on the topic of Fiction in the Age of Climate Crisis at universities, conferences, libraries, and museums. Her writing has appeared in Chicago Review of Books, Orion, Newsweek, The Boston Globe, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, and other publications. When she isn’t writing, you can usually find Julie digging in her garden, skiing, kayaking, or walking her dogs.

Chad Boudreaux on Creating A Different Kind of Scavenger Hunt

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. 

Today’s guest for the WHAT is Chad Boudreaux, author of Scavenger Hunt which releases on January 31

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

The specific origin point for my novel Scavenger Hunt is a hidden eighth floor of the Main Justice Building in Washington, D.C. Main Justice is headquarters for many of the top U.S. lawyers, including the U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Solicitor General. The elevators at Main Justice, however, only reach the seventh floor. But there are eight sets of windows. That seemed strange to me back in 2002, when I started work there, so I conducted research on the building and unearthed no clues. Coming up short, I sought out a man who’d worked at Main Justice for several decades—a silver-haired institutionalist—and he told me that, before they built the FBI building (across the street), the eighth floor had served as the old FBI ballistics lab. He said there was a secret staircase that led to the eighth floor, which was now more of a utility floor. Mesmerized by this news, I grabbed a custodian with access to the staircase, a flashlight, and a notepad and ventured to the hidden floor. Many of the notes I doodled on that notepad are now in Chapter Two of Scavenger Hunt.

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

I figured the secret eighth floor at the Justice Department would provide the perfect meeting place for a clandestine, illegal operation staffed by amazing counterterrorism operatives from disparate agencies. The group consists of a Rambo-like figure from Delta Force, a former CIA operative with a questionable past, and a beautiful and stealth woman—a shadow—from NSA. All that remained was placing my all-star group in a theatre of unimaginable danger facing unspeakable tragedy. Beyond that, I introduced the real-life tensions inherent with combatting terrorism in a constitutional republic underpinned with strong individual rights. Readers will find that, throughout the story, I take them to cool spots in the Nation’s capital and pull back the curtain a bit on how things work in the mysterious U.S. intelligence, legal, and law enforcement communities. All that rounds out a plot that, if I’ve done my job, provides the platform for an entertaining, unforgettable story. 

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

My mischievous characters do whatever they can to turn my original outline on its head. I will have a story plotted in my brain, but I rarely can predict how my characters will respond when I place them in theater, trap them in a box, and tell them to escape from the box. Stephen King mentions this phenomenon in his classic book On Writing, and when I first read it, I rolled my eyes at the thought of characters having minds of their own. But now I know that great characters will surprise you, and sometimes you must let them do their own thing, even if that means changing the story. My protagonist in Scavenger Hunt, Blake Hudson, is a fairly composed young man . . . or so I thought until someone messed with his four-legged best friend. I’m still shocked at how Blake responded to certain events in the book, and his actions when left unsupervised changed the novel’s trajectory and ending.   

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

Presently, I have five stories in my head. Story ideas come easy, putting them on the shelf is hard. Great stories will haunt you if you don’t tell them, so eventually authors must memorialize, nurture, and finish them. Many of my story ideas come while exercising and listening to fast-paced music. One of my recommendations to writers of fiction who struggle with finding and holding stories is to assign sticky titles to bubbling ideas. For instance, I had an idea recently for a story that was vague and ephemeral. I assigned it a title: The Puppeteer. Because I gave the idea a title, my mind had a solid reference point to revisit, and now it’s developing into a compelling story.  

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

I suspect there is some business savvy inherent in prioritizing stories. My artsy answer is that the next story in the queue knocks the loudest. For example, I plan to write more novels in the Scavenger Hunt series, and many ask if my second novel is a sequel. It’s not. My second novel will be a thriller outside the series. I’m not sure if that makes the best business sense, but—although I desire to sell a ton of books—I’m not writing novels for fame or money, and I had to write that non-sequel thriller next. It just kept knocking, knocking, knocking loudly—driving me mad!

I have 6 cats and a Dalmatian (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?

My writing buddy for Scavenger Hunt was my bestie and the only real character in the novel: my Great Dane, Judge. Judge died of cancer several years ago, and his death broke my heart into pieces. I haven’t mustered the courage to adopt or buy another dog, so Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam remain my primary writing buddies.

Before becoming Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer of the nation’s largest military shipbuilder, Chad Boudreaux served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where he advised Secretary Michael Chertoff on almost all significant matters facing the newly established department.  Before working for Homeland Security, Boudreaux served in several high-ranking positions at the U.S. Justice Department, where he was hired the night before the September 11, 2001 attacks. During his time at the Justice Department, Boudreaux focused most of his time on matters relating to terrorism and homeland security.  Boudreaux graduated from Baylor University in Texas in 1995 and from the University of Memphis School of Law in 1998, where he was Managing Editor of the law review.