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Welcome Author, Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh published her debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, in October 2009. Her novel was named a finalist for the Romance Writers of America’s 2010 RITA Award under the category of Best First Book.

Walsh’s novel does include romantic elements. But, what hooked me is Walsh’s focus on strong human bonds, which may be broken but are never severed.

For reasons I won’t mention here (you’ll have to read the story to find out), twin sisters – Moira and Maeve Leahy – are torn apart. The loss of that relationship haunts Maeve and paralyzes her so that healing can only take place through a mysterious object. An antique keris lands in Maeve’s hands and pulls her on a journey back to her sister and to herself.

The story takes place in Castine, Maine and in Italy. I love how Walsh brings the setting to life through the use of subtle yet powerful language. One of my favorite lines (of many) in the book comes after Maeve returns to Castine and peers out into the ocean. Walsh’s brief detail about that moment reveals the powerful connection of memory to place:

I sat on a boulder the color of elephant skin and looked out at the great blue-gray and beyond.

Along with setting, Walsh weaves details about the keris throughout the narrative seamlessly: the keris prepares the path for Maeve but never eclipses her character.

Impressed by Walsh’s writing techniques, I asked for an interview and was thrilled when she agreed. I’m honored to post her responses here.

As well, I’m hosting a book giveaway. Please leave a comment below (even just your name). On Tuesday, I will choose a winner to receive a free copy of The Last Will of Moira Leahy.

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CC: The settings of Castine, Maine and Italy both come to life in your novel with such strong imagery and characterization. Was it the story of Moira and Maeve that drew you to those two places? Or, did the setting come first and give way to the story?

TW: Thank you. The characters did come first in this case. When I sat down to write Last Will, I didn’t intend to visit Castine or Rome—though I decided early on that Maeve was originally from a coastal town in Maine. Once I realized Maeve’s life as a child would have to be explored, I learned more about Castine; and when I realized an expansion of boundaries would help to open that character up on several levels, I decided on Rome.

CC: Along with setting, other details in your novel must have required extensive research, like the keris, foreign languages, and the dynamics between twins. How much time did you devote to research, and was there ever a point during the writing process when the research overwhelmed you?

TW: I’m a researcher at heart. My post-college career began when I was hired by Prevention Magazine to become a feature’s researcher. So I honestly love research. In fact, I often have to pull back from the research process so as not to let it de-rail me from writing.

Sometimes I’ll spend days on research, and other times I’ll let myself become diverted for mere fifteen minutes to an hour when exploring a new possibility. One thing I’ve learned though is that, for me, research can lead to new discoveries that inform story in intriguing and unexpected ways. Case in point: The keris wasn’t something I originally intended to include in this story. It was only through research that I learned of the rich mythology of that artifact and decided to use it as an unconventional device in Maeve’s rediscovery of herself.

CC: Under Author Bio on your website, you list a link to “The Story of the Story” where you explain your own journey of self-discovery as you followed the signs – one by one, wrote this novel, and became a published author. Has that experience influenced your writing style? Do you outline your stories before hand? Or, do you write more organically and let the story unfold as it may?

TW: I wish I could tell you that I’ve grown much wiser following my protracted experience writing Last Will (a journey that started in 2002 and ended with a sale in 2008), but not so much. I’m still a seat-of-the-pants writer. That said, I do have some necessary points outlined in my work-in-progress, and I usually know what needs to happen several scenes ahead, so maybe I’m evolving. Still, I’m often frustrated by my own near-sightedness when it comes to my wip’s twists and turns. “Trust the muse” is definitely my mantra.

CC: What are you reading these days?

TW: I just finished a wonderful book by Randy Susan Meyers entitled The Murderer’s Daughters. I’ve also just purchased a few new books, including one I can’t wait to dive into— Of Bees and Mist: A Novel by Erick Setiawan.

CC: Do you have any final thoughts or advice for writers on the rise?

TW: I’ve thought about this a lot, and I feel the three keys to taking it to the next level are these:

  • perseverance
  • continuing to hone your craft through books, classes and the like
  • a willingness to truly hear critique, and make bold changes to a manuscript if that critique passes the “gut test”

The common thread here is evolution. Evolve the manuscript, evolve the self. If you do those things, you are on the road to publication.

Thanks again, Christi!

*****

You can read more about the novel and about Therese Walsh on her website, and you can follow her on Twitter.

She is also the cofounder of Writer Unboxed (named one of Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for three years in a row). Writer Unboxed hosts several authors who publish great articles on the craft of writing fiction and the business of publishing. In fact, Therese Walsh’s recent post is one you don’t want to miss: “Be Extraordinary” and reach the “realm of publishability.”

To purchase The Last Will of Moira Leahy, click here.
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Wednesday’s Word and Flash Fiction: Outsider

Every Wednesday, on Writing Under Pressure, you’ll find a post based on Today’s Word (from Wordsmith.org). Check Wednesday’s Word on the sidebar for past essays, poems, or flash fiction pieces.

Today’s word:

congeries. noun. A collection of miscellaneous things.

I’m half cheating today. Back in March, I broke from my regular Wednesday routine and published a guest post by author Linda Lappin, where she explained a different kind of writing exercise. I still took the time that Wednesday to jot down a quick write on the day’s word: olla podrida, which means an incongruous mixture. I forgot about that story until today.

Congeries and olla podrida carry similar meanings, so I dug out the first draft of the old story and rewrote it.

*****

Outsider

The day after Monica’s husband, Richard, broke the news to her, he was waxing his car like nothing had happened. From the kitchen window, Monica stared at Richard and held a cup of boiling hot coffee until it burned the palms of her hands.

Then, she decided to leave.

She waited a good three minutes, honked her horn at least five times, then pinned Richard between the rear of her car and the front of his. The accident broke both of his legs and landed her in court.

When the judge bored down at her with questions and a maniacal look of his own, she explained herself as best she could.

“He wouldn’t get out of the way.”

She faced a series of punishments: community service, one year probation, and defensive driving. That’s where she stood today: outside room G29 in the basement of the City Hall, staring at a sign that said “Tom and Peggy’s D.D. Fun.”

She turned the doorknob and walked in. An older couple beamed at the front of the room. A tan woman with black hair pulled back tight clicked her long blue fingernails on the table. A young man no more than twenty sat with his legs shoved out from underneath the table and his arms crossed. An elderly woman in a peach suit rummaged through her purse. And, a black man in a shirt and tie looked directly at her.  Monica’s face flushed, and she held her Coach bag close to her chest.

Continue reading “Wednesday’s Word and Flash Fiction: Outsider”

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Step Away from the Internet

Staring at a shelf of books on all things writing, I never know which one to choose. I want the best one. I want the one that will infuse my writing brain with the knowledge and inspiration of all the great authors.

But, there’s so many. Click on author, Jody Hedlund’s Helpful Writing Books page alone, and you’ll find a long list of choices.

Stuck with the funds to buy only one book recently, I gravitated towards a collection of authors’ advice on writing, a book whose cover stood out to me: bright orange and red and yielding the words “Secret” and “Miracle.” I picked it up because, well, I want to know the secret to and the miracle of writing a complete novel.

I’ve mentioned Daniel Alarćon’s book (The Secret Miracle: The Novelist’s Handbook) before when I talked about walking away from a novel in progress, and his book continues to be a great resource.

In Alarćon’s chapter titled “Getting Started,” he asks several published authors, “What is most distracting for you? How do you deal with it?”

About one third of the authors he interviewed answered with the same irresistable pull: the Internet.

This I write, as I work diligently on a post I hope readers will click to, read, and comment on in their own spare time.

While the Internet as a distraction is nothing new – there are plenty of articles by other writers about ways to avoid the Internet when you should be writing – what’s new for me is a glimpse I got, from Alarćon’s interviews, into the reasons why I turn to the Internet instead of my work in progress.

Jennifer Egan (author of The Keep) says:

I find that there is some part of me that is always looking for a way to pull  myself out of a state of deep concentration….The Internet is a naughty accomplice to that desire (p. 118).

Anne Enright (author of The Gathering) says:

I think a lot of distraction is anxiety. If I am too anxious to work on the piece at hand, then I work on something else (p. 119).

For me, that “something else” often turns out to be emails and Twitter. Ouch.

Today, I wrote in my morning pages about how many precious minutes I use up browsing Twitter or reading articles on writing, instead of using that time to write. I will avoid working on a draft if I don’t have a significant amount of time to tackle a big chunk of the project.

Just as soon as I get started, get into the grove, I think to myself, I’ll have to stop. It’s difficult for me to trust that short spurts of writing eventually add up, even as I do trust authors like Becky Levine who can attest to the fact that “baby steps [in writing] can lead to big productivity.”

Of course, I produce better work when I have bigger chunks of time to sit and concentrate. Still, something is better than nothing, and I wonder how much of my quick dips into the Internet don’t stem from a little writer’s anxiety?

Jennifer Egan shares a little more of her experience, which might explain why I cling to the internet, and she offers one strategy for getting back to the work:

A writer friend of mine, Lisa Fugard, once told me that she had a sign next to the door of her office that said, ‘Why are you leaving?’ Many times she found herself walking through that door with no idea of why. Then she made herself sit down again and continue working. I try to have a mental sign that asks why I’m leaving when I find myself suddenly typing something into Google for no particular reason, as if I had nothing else to do (p. 118).

I value Google, email and Twitter. But, on days when I have to ration my writing time, I have to be more vigilant about avoiding their draw and ask myself “What am I looking for?”

If what I’m surfing through isn’t time sensitive or relevant research for the story I want to write, then I can close down the application and open up that draft instead.

What are your biggest distractions and how do you deal with them?

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Alarćon, Daniel. The Secret Miracle: the Novelist’s Handbook. New York, New York: Henry Hold and Company, LLC, 2010. Print.
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