Q&A with Therese Walsh, author of The Moon Sisters

The scent of dragon was in truth the scent of human connection. . . . it was wanting just the same. . . .

‘Well, there is that, isn’t there?’ I said [to Hobbs], giving him what he needed and what was true at the same time. ‘You are saving me–helping me, at any rate–and when I need you the most. Don’t you think that’s an argument in favor of things happening for a reason?’ ~ Olivia Moon in The Moon Sisters

MOON_SISTERS_8_29 (2)I admit, the quote above doesn’t do justice for the magical kind of read within the pages of Therese Walsh’s new novel, The Moon Sisters. What the quote does, for me anyway, is highlight the way in which one of the protagonists, Olivia Moon sees the world.

Olivia has synesthesia, which means that sights and sounds can trigger her other senses, too. Hope tastes like “a mix of berries” to Olivia, like “the drizzle of honey and another drizzle of lemon” and her mother smells like “the scent of clothes right off the line on a summer day, the sunshine itself.” She also has complete confidence in fate. Her outlook on the world, both physically and spiritually, sends her packing after the death of her mother and propels her on a journey of discovery as she deals with her grief.

Olivia’s sister, Jazz, sets out on the same path, traveling with her sister all the way to a place called Cranberry Glades, but more by way of rescue. Jazz is the logical one of the sisters, she believes, and is determined to bring her wandering sister home and make her face the reality of what happened to their mother. Only after they both take chances along the way, either willingly or by force of hand, do they find the truth they are looking for, along with compassion for themselves and for each other and understanding for those they love most.

Fate, logic, and chance: three words that help weave this beautiful tale of grief, recovery, and relationships.

I’m honored to host Therese for an interview today and thrilled to be able to share a copy of her novel. I read The Moon Sisters in short order, which is always a sign that I’ve got my hands on a really great book. Drop your name in the comments; Random.org will choose the winner on Tuesday, April 1st (seriously).

Now, welcome Therese Walsh.

CC: How did fate, chance, and logic play out in the development of The Moon Sisters from the seed of an idea to full-grown novel?

pic to useTW: Fate, luck, control, and logic did play a significant role in developing the story, to set up the more philosophical conflicts that Jazz and Olivia Moon would have to contend with while trying to come to terms with their mother’s death and with their own perceptions of what happened.

From the start of the story, Jazz Moon rejects the ideas of luck and fate—those, to her, are ether. She believes in logic, in “if this, than that” scenarios, and she believes in control via logic. But after her mother, Beth, dies, there’s a gap between logic and control that no longer makes sense. Though she may not consciously realize it, much of her journey is about coming to terms with control.

Olivia, on the other hand, was raised to believe that “everything happens for a reason” (fate), though you should also cross your fingers and wish for good luck just to be certain your bases are covered. She’s neither interested in control or logic, but prefers to live by whim.

Is life directed by fate, luck, or even chaos? Is it controllable? Is it always logical? These arguments aren’t at the surface level of The Moon Sisters, and I wouldn’t say they’re the primary themes of the book, but they are critical and rather thrum under the story’s skin like blood.

CC: How was writing The Moon Sisters different from writing your debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy?

TW: They were both personally challenging novels for me to write, but when I wrote (and re-wrote) The Last Will of Moira Leahy (2002-2008), I did it for me. I wasn’t under contract. I was exploring my ability as a writer, and then pushing up against and redefining those boundaries as I grew. It was an exhausting but intensely rewarding experience.

When I wrote The Moon Sisters, I was under contract, as I had a two-book deal with Random House. Instead of writing for myself, as an exploration of ability, I was writing for a publisher, who had an expectation of ability. And, really, I had to live up to that expectation. That made me nervous, and even made me a little fearful. What if I couldn’t do it? What if I only had one book in me?

Ultimately, I did work through those fears, and—who knows?—maybe the fear helped. I’m very proud of the book The Moon Sisters has become; it’s the truest and best thing I’ve ever written.

CC: In a conversation we had on Twitter, you said several readers have seen themselves in either Olivia or Jazz. I certainly carry shades of Olivia in the way she deals with her mother’s “up and downs” and in her belief in serendipity. What about you? Are you more of a follow-your-heart kind of person like Olivia or all business like Jazz? Or, are you a healthy mix of both?

TW: I’m definitely a mix of both. I can see myself in each of the characters, even a character like Hobbs.

Each of my real sisters is more like one of the Moon sisters than the other, though: I have both a whimsical, Olivia-like sister, and a pragmatic, Jazz-like sister.

CC: As co-founder of Writer Unboxed, a flourishing website for writers, and a host for the Writer Unboxed group on Facebook, you are in contact with a huge online writing community. Do you meet with writers locally as well? If so, how does the face-to-face compare to the online world when it comes to camaraderie?

TW: I do have a handful of local writer friends who meet every few months to talk about everything and anything, often over lunch and sometimes after massages.

You might think that meeting online friends in real life for the first time would be uncomfortable in some way, but for the most part I find that those meetings buzz with authentic connection. There’s immediate recognition, almost always (thank you, Facebook!), and easy conversation because commonalities have already been determined online. And truthfully, my first response when I meet someone from my online world is usually to want to give them a hug.

So all in all, I think the real world compares quite well with the online world. I believe you can forge real connections online, and that those connections can be strengthened all the more when you meet face to face.

Therese Walsh’s second novel, The Moon Sisters, was published on March 4th, 2014 by Crown (Random House). Her debut, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, was named one of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2009 and was a TARGET Breakout Book. Therese is the co-founder of Writer Unboxed, a site that’s visited daily by thousands of writers interested in the craft and business of fiction. She has a master’s degree in psychology. Aside from writing, her favorite things include music, art, crab legs, Whose Line is it Anyway?, dark chocolate, photography, unique movies and novels, people watching, strong Irish tea, and spending time with her husband, two kids and their Jack Russell. 

Visit her website at ThereseWalsh.com, follow her on Facebook and Twitter or sign up for her mailing list.

Don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to get your hands on The Moon Sisters. Read more about the novel here

Books Lining Up in the Queue

I cleared my plate of a few writing obligations recently. I keep talking about “that novel,” and my son thinks it’s time I deliver. He has high hopes that, when this book sells big, I will buy him a Hummer.

IMG_1094I tried to explain the reality of publishing, like first I have to finish the book and then I have to secure an agent who woos an editor who convinces a publisher who puts it on the shelf and we all cross our fingers and by that time maybe he’d be a lawyer and he could buy me a Hummer. Or, at least a new pair of boots.

Still, he would not be swayed. And, between him and my daughter, who drew her version of the book’s cover–eyes to the right–along with an encouraging note, I realized there’s no more messing around. I cleared my plate so I could get busy with revisions.

And, for the most part, I have.

I’ve spent more nights a week with the draft in the last two months than I did all last summer. Even if I don’t have big jumps in word count to show for it, this draft is expanding. Maturing.

What else is expanding is my TBR list of books (you thought I’d say waistline…that’s a post for another day).

Reading fuels the writing in one way or another, through creativity or inspiration or even good old fashioned mojo passed on from one author to another through the pages of a book. I’m excited to dig into five soon-to-be-released books by some of my favorite authors.

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THE MOON SISTERS by Therese Walsh
March 4, 2014

(from Amazon) This mesmerizing coming-of-age novel, with its sheen of near-magical realism, is a moving tale of family and the power of stories.

Read an excerpt from the book HERE. Take her Moon Sisters Personality Quiz to learn more about the characters. Then, stop back by the blog on March 26th for a Q&A with Therese that includes a book giveaway.

41SKzKiGmBL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_ONCE I WAS COOL by Megan Stielstra
May 13, 2014

(from Amazon) With storytelling chops honed over a decade of performances at Chicago’s 2nd Story storytelling series, these insightful, compassionate, gutsy, and heartbreaking personal essays explore the messy, maddening beauty of adulthood with wit, intelligence, and biting humor, tackling topics ranging from beating postpartum depression through stalking to a surprising run-in with an old lover at the symphony while on ecstasy.

You can hear Megan read one of her essays in this podcast interview with Willy Nast and Karen Shimmin on All Write Already. I dare you to listen and NOT pre-order her book.

51i+Ha3CFmL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_CHASING THE SUN by Natalia Sylvester
May 20, 2014

(from her website) Andres suspects his wife has left him—again. Then he learns that the unthinkable has happened: she’s been kidnapped. Set in Lima, Peru, in a time of civil and political unrest, this evocative page-turner is a perfect marriage of domestic drama and suspense.

I love reading about Natalia’s road to publication on The Debutante Ball. She recently posted about first lines in novels and how much they change from the seed of an idea to final draft. She also blogs about life and writing on her website. Read this post, Found Letters From My Past Self. Put this book on your list, too.


EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU by Celeste Ng

June 26, 2014

Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng

(from her website) Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet . . .
So begins the story of this exquisite debut novel, about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. . . . Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family, and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.

I’d like June to come early, and not just because the weather’s been mean around here. Celeste Ng is another of my favorite authors whose work online I have loved and bookmarked more than once. She’s a contributor on Fiction Writers Review and has an essay out in the Glimmer Train Bulletin this month, where she talks about how her experience as a teacher guided her decision to tell the story through an omniscient narrator. Word on the street is she’s presenting at the Muse & Marketplace Conference in May. I wish I lived closer to Boston.


EVERGREEN by Rebecca Rasmussen

July 15, 2014

Evergreencover.jpg

(From her website) It is 1938 when Eveline, a young bride, follows her husband into the wilderness of Minnesota. Though their cabin is run-down, they have a river full of fish, a garden out back, and a new baby boy named Hux. But when Emil leaves to take care of his sick father, the unthinkable happens: a stranger arrives, and Eveline becomes pregnant. She gives the child away, and while Hux grows up hunting and fishing in the woods with his parents, his sister, Naamah, is raised an orphan. Years later, haunted by the knowledge of this forsaken girl, Hux decides to find his sister and bring her home to the cabin. But Naamah, even wilder than the wilderness that surrounds them, may make it impossible for Hux to ever tame her, to ever make up for all that she, and they, have lost.

Set before a backdrop of vanishing forest, Evergreen is a luminous novel of love, regret, and hope.

I read Rebecca’s debut novel, THE BIRD SISTERS, set in Spring Green, Wisconsin. She writes with a keen eye on setting: place is as important a character as the protagonist. I can’t wait to discover what unfolds in EVERGREEN’s “vanishing forest.”

What’s lining up on your reading radar? Or, should I ask how your revisions are coming along?

A Baker’s Dozen of Links for Writers

It’s the season of sweets, gift giving, and toasting to a new year.

So, from me to you…

…A Baker’s Dozen of links to articles, interviews, and posts from this last year that have inspired me to write, reaffirmed my commitment to write, or changed my perspective when I write.

1-5. Stocking Stuffer posts by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi (at The Bookshelf Muse) on:

Each post offers five simple tips that will help you tighten up your writing and/or strengthen your story.

6. Lynn Capehart’s article in The Writer on inclusionary writing. I won’t ever look at character descriptions the same again.

7. Lydia Sharp’s post on the Difference between inciting incident and catalyst. This post, along with a great first chapter critique I won over at Becky Levine’s blog, helped me reshape the first chapter of my novel and set my story on track again.

8-11. Author interviews I’ve had the honor to conduct, in which authors share the story behind the story, offer insights into the challenges of historical fiction and research, or talk about the passion behind their characters:

I’m looking forward to several more author interviews this year from Cathryn Grant (whose debut novel, The Demise of the Soccer Moms, will be published as an e-book in January), from Danielle Evans (Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, a wonderful collection of short stories), and from Rebecca Rasmussen (The Bird Sisters, due to be released April 12, 2011).

12. Kristen Lamb’s post on the Writer Reality Check. “Takes guts to be a writer,” Kristen says, and she lists some realistic expectations for those of us who want to make writing more than just a fun little hobby.

13. A call to action from Writer Unboxed for all Writers to Pay It Forward. “Paying it forward is something we can all do because no matter where we are in our writing careers, there’s always someone just one step behind, hungry to learn.” Much of the time, I’m the one a few steps behind. I could not grow without the encouragement, support, and wisdom from writers who are further along than me, and I can’t fully embrace those lessons until I pass them on to someone else.

There you are! Happy New Year, my friends!

May your days be full of writing and your muse be close at hand.

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