The Enlightenment Show with Winnie M. Li

Welcome to The Enlightenment Show, Winnie! I’m so excited to have you joining us to talk about your novel, Complicit.

·       Can you give the readers a synopsis of what Complicit is all about?

    

                39-year-old Sarah Lai teaches screenwriting at a local college but was once an aspiring film producer ten years ago. When she’s approached by a New York Times journalist about a powerful male producer she once worked with, she’s forced to confront the truth of her ruined career in the film industry -- and how she may have been complicit in certain injustices.

           ·       Complicit has a lot in common with your personal experiences with the industry. You pull back the curtain to spotlight those who turned a blind eye to sexual harassment, abuse, and assault. Did you know that you’d be addressing these much-needed topics going into writing Complicit? 

 

              Oh absolutely, that was the whole reason I wrote the book!  Shortly after the Weinstein allegations broke, a friend remarked: ‘I don’t get it. If people knew Weinstein had been doing this to women for years, how was he able to get away with it for so long?’ And I remember thinking ‘Ah clearly, you’ve never worked in the film industry before…’ So what I wanted to do in COMPLICIT was show how and why professionals in these workspaces would turn a blind eye to that kind of behaviour -- because they don’t want to endanger their job, because they’re ambitious about their own careers, because they don’t feel like they would even be listened to or taken seriously.
 

 

         ·       Did you and your main character Sarah walk together in healing as you wrote this book? What things did you learn from Sarah along the way?

 

 

             Ah, interesting question! In regards to my own experiences, I probably went through more healing when I was writing my first novel, Dark Chapter.  But writing Sarah and Complicit, I probably did absorb a sense that at some point, you will have to let things go. Whether that’s bitterness, anger, pain over things that happened in the past… there is a way to be at peace with the past if you learn to let things go. If you realize that back then, you did your best – or what you thought was your best at the time.  
        

           ·       What’s one of your favorite things about writing novels?

 

              Oh man, the sense of freedom!  That I can create a completely new world, or construct a completely new character and life story, and THAT IS MY JOB as a novelist.  So it’s an escape in many ways, and also a chance to let my imagination run wild -- while at the same time, I’m creating a story that is relevant to issues and experiences I care deeply about.

        ·       Often, when writing those traumatic memories of a story, there’s a need to step back and process. Did you have moments through writing Complicit where you took time to take care of yourself? What were your “go-to” spaces or things that helped with the processing?

 

             It was probably more with my first novel Dark Chapter that I needed to process my own traumatic memories.  Complicit was pretty fun for me to write.  Because it allowed me to revisit the glamor and the excitement of working in the film industry, while also speaking truth to the inequality and precarity of that work environment.  I got to indulge the cinephile part of me and make loads of film references in a way that was relevant to the story and the character of Sarah.

        ·       You openly express your personal story about reframing how we think after sexual violence. What is something that people share with you often after your presentations? 

 

 

             After I do a public talk, people will come up to me with their own stories of sexual assault – or about times when it almost could have happened to them, or when it happened to their friend or their cousin, mother, sister, etc. There are so many hidden stories of trauma or almost trauma that I think sometimes it just takes hearing one other person’s story to trigger a collective sharing.

                                           

     

          ·       You mention that people need to be seen, heard, and remembered. Why do you think this is so important?

 

                 As much as we’d like to think it’s just about the art of filmmaking (or book-writing), at the end of the day, humans are social creatures. We have hopes and dreams and egos. And we do care whether or not we feel valued by other people.  So it’s heartbreaking to pour so much hard work into a project or a company – and to not have that effort recognized by other people. Likewise, it’s heartbreaking to share a story of trauma – be really open about our own suffering – and not have that pain acknowledged by others.  I do believe every person out there has an important perspective and an important story to share, but our society is so used to only hearing about the contributions and stories of certain types of people.  

  

 

 

                        INNER CHILD SEGMENT

 

 

        ·       When you were a kid, what were some of your favorite movies that you could watch repeatedly and never tire of?

 

                  The Little Mermaid – I must have worn my VHS tape of it so thin from repeated viewings. My sister and I were also bizarrely obsessed with Gone With the Wind (for all its faults). We would play it on VHS and record ourselves speaking over the dialogue on audio cassette tape (remember audio cassettes?)  I was always Rhett Butler.

          ·       What spice is your favorite, and why?

 

               Wow, random question. Smoked paprika.  Because it’s smokey and a bit spicy, but not overpoweringly so?

 

         ·       What’s the oddest food combo that you’ve liked and tried, or just tried?

 

              Hmmm… strawberries and balsamic vinegar. When I was living in Ireland, some Irish friends of mine had just come back from Italy, and they were like, ‘Oh this is how they do things in Italy.  They eat strawberries with balsamic vinegar sprinkled on top.’  It kind of worked….? I haven’t tried it since, but I feel like over time, one could acquire a taste for strawberries and balsamic vinegar. 

         ·       What advice can you share with our readers about living a joyful life?

 

               Embrace it all.  You never know what’s around the corner, you never know when you’ll get another chance to enjoy something.  I don’t want to cast that in a pessimistic light.  But I was a victim of a criminal assault where if it had gone another way, I might have died. So I make sure to take every opportunity that comes my way – and to make the most of the chances life gives me. 
 

         ·       Where can the readers connect with you? Where can they find your book?

 

               I’m on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as Winnie M Li.  I have a newsletter I occasionally send out, which you can sign up for via my LinkTree on my Instagram. And you can find Complicit in hardcover, e-book, and audiobook pretty much wherever books are sold!

 

Congratulations on the release of Complicit and thank you for your voice and raising awareness!! It’s been an absolute pleasure getting to know you, Winnie.

 

 

The Enlightenment Show with Lo Patrick

                          

      Welcome to The Enlightenment Show, Lo! I’m so excited to have you joining us to talk about your upcoming book, The Floating Girls.
                             

 

·       Can you give the readers a brief synopsis about The Floating Girls?

Twelve-year-old Kay Whitaker lives in the proverbial last-house-on-the-block in Godforsaken Bledsoe, Georgia—a town barely staying afloat on Georgia’s sodden marshland. Kay is a real spitfire who wanders off behind her home one afternoon only to discover a boy and a house she never knew were there. She’s infatuated with the boy—Andy Webber, and against her parents’ wishes, instigates a friendship with him and his quiet father. In doing so, Kay unwittingly unearths a long-buried mystery and triggers another tragedy—when her sister Sarah-Anne suddenly disappears. Kay’s wayward family’s dark past is exposed, changing Kay and her brothers’ lives forever. 

·       You have created such a vivid and immersive setting. Where did you draw from to bring us into this town in Georgia?

Contrary to common opinion, Georgia is a coastal state. Having grown up in Atlanta, I spent my childhood landlocked, but that is not so for all of my home state. Georgia has a small but diverse coastline that includes all manner of ecosystems. When one is near Georgia’s coast, there are miles and miles of desolate roads with very little development. Small houses sit back from the street under live oak canopies draped in Spanish moss. It is impossible to remain unmoved by the sight.  While this is often the stuff of postcards and tourist brochures, it is also normal, everyday life for a lot of people in the small near-coastal towns in Georgia. While development and progress engulf much of the state, some areas will always be left behind. I have seen dozens of these towns, stretches of land, and small pockets of civilization that look and feel much as they likely did fifty years ago. I found I was creating Kay, her family, her angst, her dismay, and determination every time we were on one of these byways.

·       Your main character, Kay, has a strong voice and personality but is also ignored in many regards. In what ways were you like her at age twelve? What are some major differences?

    Thankfully, my childhood was absolutely nothing like Kay’s. My parents were engaged, responsible, and devoted. I was also probably not very much like Kay at twelve. I might have fancied myself a real firecracker, and although I likely was one behind closed doors, I was much more of a pleaser,  goody-two-shoes type at that age. I didn’t have to contend with what Kay does, though, and in that might lie the biggest difference between us-- circumstance. Kay is a product of her home life. I do, however, have two brothers, and I am sure my experience trying to find my spot between them heavily peppered the writing in The Floating Girls. In that way, I completely relate to Kay!

·       What sparked your curiosity to begin writing The Floating Girls?

      

 I tend to write from the seat of my pants, so I just began one day and enjoyed Kay’s voice so much, I kept on with her story. The plot of  The Floating Girls changed several times but the central elements and characters remained the same throughout the editing process. Kay more or less told me the story. I just had to slow down and listen to her.

·       I loved the concept from a kid’s perspective of meeting someone new and being curious to having your parents say to stay far away. Has there ever been something that you’ve been curious about, and someone told you to stay away? What was it? Did you listen, or did you investigate?

      Of course! And as a parent, I now understand that the second you tell a child that something is off limits, that something or someone becomes exponentially more interesting! What also propelled Kay was her loneliness. She was not allowed friends, playmates, or any sort of social life at all other than passing the time with her brothers. I think the idea that she could so easily reach a peer from her house on Hack Road made her all the more enthusiastically pursue the friendship in spite of her parents’ protestations.

·       What was something that surprised you about yourself as you wrote The Floating Girls?

      I was surprised I could become Kay so easily every time I sat down to write. As I said, we have very little in common, but I had her so deeply in my psyche during the writing process that I could literally hear her, and think like her while working. I was also much more excited about the editing process with this book than I have been with past projects. I am normally a reluctant editor, thinking I am making things worse and not better, but with this manuscript, I found growth in the narrative each time I sat down to edit on my own, or with my agent or editor. It was enormously beneficial and has made me a better writer.

               

                            INNER CHILD SEGMENT

·       What things did you imagine and dream about when you were twelve?

 

The Olympics! I was a gymnast and cared for little else in the world. It is strange now to imagine all that I put into something I would leave—and rather resentfully only a couple of years later, but at that time, I had designs on gymnastics stardom. We trained six days a week. It was grueling. I do wonder why I was so committed!
 

·       When you go to a gas station, what is your treat or drink of choice? Why?

Spicy nuts—always. Wasabi almonds, chili roasted pistachios, the list goes on. The gas station always has the best selection of these, and I have tried them all! I also love chocolate milk from the gas station. Nestle Quick reminds me of my childhood.
 

·       What’s the oddest food combo that you’ve liked and tried, or just tried?

I can eat coleslaw on anything. It is almost like a condiment to me. I thought I was alone in this, but in Sweden, pizza comes with a side of coleslaw—in an oil-based dressing, infinitely inferior to the southern mayonnaise-laden style in my humble opinion—but I felt completely justified the first time I ate pizza in Sweden—with a side of slaw.
 

·       What advice can you share with our readers about living a joyful life?

     The older I get, the less self-conscious I am, which has caused a serious  uptick in happiness. I dance in the grocery store, laugh out loud during  movies, and can—most importantly—laugh at myself a lot more easily than I used to. So—my advice, you are probably pretty hilarious…give yourself a chance to make yourself smile!

 

·       Where can the readers connect with you? Where can they find your book?

     The book is pretty much everywhere. I have been given some awesome  opportunities by smaller, local bookstores in the Atlanta area, so in return I hope readers will support their local stores as well, wherever they might be.

                     www.lopatrickbooks.com

Congratulations on the release of The Floating Girls!! It’s been an absolute pleasure getting to know you.

The Enlightenment Show Interview with Barbara Graham

 

Welcome to The Enlightenment Show, Barbara! I’m so excited to have you join us to discuss your upcoming book, What Jonah Knew.

• Can you give the readers a brief synopsis of What Jonah Knew?

          Absolutely. What Jonah Knew is a psychological thriller about the unbreakable bond between mothers and sons, even when it seems that all is lost and the bond is ruptured beyond repair. At the novel's opening, Henry, Helen’s son, has mysteriously disappeared, while a bit later, Lucie’s toddler Jonah shows signs of PTSD, with no known cause. Eventually, the lives of the two families overlap in upstate New York, putting Jonah’s life in grave danger, and forcing all the characters to redefine the very nature of life and death because of what Jonah knows.

        Throughout the novel, trauma and memory are explored through a variety of lenses: Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, inherited family trauma, and decades of research at the University of Virginia on kids who spontaneously recall a previous life.

• Where did the idea about a seven-year-old boy having a connection to a missing person come from? Where did your concept stem?

          As a journalist, I wrote a lot about psychology, including memory and trauma. Some years ago, I was assigned to write an article about past life regression therapy. As part of my research, I had a session with a Jungian psychologist who specialized in that work, and I seemed to have a memory of a previous life during the Holocaust. The session was powerful, but I didn’t know what to make of it. Not long after, a friend gave me a copy of a book by Dr. Ian Stevenson, a psychiatrist at the University of Virginia who for decades had been studying young children with a spontaneous recall of a previous life. That research was very credible and blew me away.

        Around the same time I was pursuing my interest in Buddhist meditation and heard a number of Tibetan Buddhist teachers—who were considered to be reincarnations, including the Dalai Lama—talk about past and future lives as casually as last Thanksgiving or next Christmas. I was fascinated by all of it, and one day the idea for the novel just came to me while walking down the street in New York. A possible link between young Jonah’s distress and a missing person was part of that same download.

•  Your main character, Helen, is searching for her missing son and is determined to find him.  How did you draw on that urgency and feel into her emotions to create the tension within your story?

           As the mother of a grown son, it wasn’t hard to imagine how I’d feel if he went missing. Like Helen, I would be desperate to find him and turn over every rock and follow every lead. Writing about that was painful, but I was also immensely grateful that it wasn’t my story or my son’s. That’s the wonder of fiction: being able to draw on your own gut emotions in imaginary situations.

• Mothers and sons have a special bond. What are the things you loved most about Helen and Henry’s relationship? Lucie and Jonah?

          From the moment my son—and only child—was born, I’ve had the sense that we have a deep karmic connection. I’ve also found that the power of that connection hasn’t diminished over time, even now that he’s grown and has two daughters of his own. I feel very lucky: Our relationship is loving, playful, and respectful—the greatest gift of my life. In the novel, both Helen and Lucie feel the same sort of deep bond with their sons. At one point early in What Jonah Knew, Helen talks about sensing an invisible cord connecting her to her son, Henry, “a sort of phantom umbilicus composed of pure energy.” As for Lucie, “From the moment she set eyes on her baby, she understood that there were now so many more ways she could be mortally wounded by love than she’d ever dreamed possible.” I can’t speak about being the mother of a daughter, but I imagine the feelings are equally profound, though the relationship has its own particular flavor.

• What was your creative process for writing What Jonah Knew?

          I worked from a bunch of different outlines during the course of writing the book, but I never followed any of them for very long. They provided good jumping-off points, but then my characters rebelled. They knew better than me—or my outlines—what needed to happen next. To me, that’s the real joy of writing fiction—not knowing what happens next and then, as if by magic or some mysterious process that you can’t force, it comes to you. When I got stuck, I’d stand up from my desk and take a long walk or do something else until it came to me. The process was like trying as hard as you can to remember someone’s name and coming up blank. But then, as soon as you put it out of your mind, suddenly you remember.

• Do you believe in the supernatural? Why or why not?

        I believe that there’s far more to existence than what can be detected by the five senses and that consciousness is not bookended by birth and death. That’s the understanding inherent in the Buddhist teachings I’ve studied, as well as in various other mystical traditions, including the Kabbalah in Judaism. Some people might consider occurrences that lie outside the conventional materialist view of the universe to be supernatural or paranormal. For others of us, though, who have a different sense of things, phenomena such as reincarnation, which is explored in What Jonah Knew, might just be considered normal.

• How do you think that dogs connect with people?

         As Jonah says, “Dogs know stuff people don’t.” I believe dogs are super sensitive and attuned to much that lies outside the limits of human perception. Dogs are also highly empathic and can provide enormous comfort to humans in times of distress, as Charlie does in the novel.

• How are writing a play and writing a novel similar? How are they different in the creative process?

       That’s a great question. Both plays and novels are works of imagination and call for the same kind of creative vision. And both depend heavily on dialogue. But the similarities end there. In novels, the author must create the entire universe in which the story takes place—characters, setting, all the external circumstances, as well as the dialogue and the thoughts occupying the minds of the characters. In a sense, plays are like composing a musical score. But instead of writing notes for musicians to play and a conductor to orchestrate, playwrights write dialogue and stage directions, and the rest is brought to life by actors, the director, and a whole team of designers—sets, lighting, costumes. Plays and novels are two very distinct forms.

 

                                          INNER CHILD SEGMENT

·       What things did you like to do when you were seven?

      I read voraciously and acted out stories that I made up. By the time I was eight, I was writing the stories down, and at nine, I wrote, directed, and starred in my first play, which was performed in a friend’s attic. Our mothers were a very appreciative audience.

·       Who’s your favorite character in Lion King? Why?

      Simba, for his independence, pluck, and, ultimately, the guts to follow his destiny.

·       What would you make and sell at a bakery?

      Well, since I love very good bread, croissants, brioche, and morning buns—just like Helen bakes in the novel—I would make and eat those. And if any were left over, I’d sell them.

·       What advice can you share with our readers about living a joyful life?

     Don’t fight your life circumstances or argue with reality. That’s the recipe for suffering, not joy. Be grateful for what you have. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t aspire to realize your goals, but rather try to focus on the process, not the outcome, and trust your intuition to guide you. You’ll be happiest and do your best work that way. And take time every day to simply be present and savor the life inside you and around you—the trees, the birds and other animals, the people you pass on the street. When you think about it, it’s pretty remarkable that we’re all here. Right here, right now.

 ·       Where can the readers connect with you? Where can they find your book?

My website, www.barbaragrahamauthor.com 

Thank you so much for being with us, Barbara. Congratulations on the release of What Jonah Knew!! It’s been an absolute pleasure getting to know you.

The Enlightenment Show Interview with Mary Anna Evans

Welcome to The Enlightenment Show, Mary Anna! I’m so excited to have you joining us to talk about your upcoming book, The Physicists’ Daughter.

                ·       Can you give the readers a brief synopsis on what The Physicists’ Daughter is about?

The Physicists’ Daughter is about a young woman, Justine Byrne, working in a Rosie the-Riveter-style factory job during WWII. She has been alone in the world since she was seventeen, when her parents, both physicists, were killed in an automobile accident. While they lived, they taught her many things that women were not expected to know in 1944. She’s familiar with quantum physics and higher mathematics. She can weld. She can build and use a crystal radio set. Because of her unusual skills, she can see that her boss at the factory is lying to her. She and her colleagues are not building what they’re told they’re building. She can also see that someone is trying to sabotage their work. Justine can trust nobody. On her own, she’s going to have to find a way to stay alive long enough to stop a saboteur who could change the outcome of a world war.

             ·       You hold a Bachelor of Science in engineering physics and a Master of Science in chemical engineering, as well as a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. How has science and creativity expanded your horizons to understanding the mysteries within the world, yourself, and history?

 It’s obvious from the title that my physics degree contributes to my ability to write The Physicists’ Daughter, but it has actually always been a help to me in writing fiction. You come away from a science education with an engrained sense of cause-and-effect that is incredibly useful in developing logical plots. You ask yourself questions that help you build the plot piece by piece: “If this happens, then what happens next? Then, as a result, what happens after that?” This methodical mindset helps me build structures that will support my wildest flights of creative fantasy.

 As for how science and creativity have expanded my horizons, well…I don’t really see them as separate things. Science is an incredibly creative endeavor. Scientists, engineers, and mathematicians often describe problems as having “elegant” solutions, so there is an aesthetic quality to those fields that isn’t always perceived by others. The scientific process requires you to come up with an idea and then test it to see if it’s true, and the testing is worth nothing without the idea. Conversely, an idea will not result in a  book if I don’t sit down and methodically plan its execution.

           ·       Justine is a strong heroine who searches for answers and fights for what she believes in. Where did you draw from to create her character? What are things that you’re personally fighting for?

I’ve been fortunate to never have to make my way alone in the world. Justine’s character emerged when I wondered what it would have been like to lose my loving, supportive parents before I was ready to go out into the world alone. Would I have been strong enough to find a way to survive and even thrive, while still remaining true to my ideals of being kind and supportive to others? I created Justine as a way to explore that question.

What am I fighting for? Lots of things, but I think the thing that’s most pertinent to this conversation is related to my work as a university professor. I work with young people preparing to go out into a scary world. I try to equip them with writing skills and critical thinking skills, and I try to do it in a supportive and loving way. There’s a lot of me in the character of Gloria, Justine’s godmother, who has taken that role in the lives of Justine and of her students.

         ·        Did you experience any moments of creative sabotage as you were writing The Physicists’ Daughters? What did you do to shift the creative energy?

Well, there’s nobody in my life who sabotages my work, and I know this is not true for everybody, so that’s a blessing. The realities of life, however? The day job, the need to do laundry, the need to take care of my physical self? Those things do interfere with my creative work, although I’m not sure I’d call them “sabotage.”

Like anyone working in the arts, I can sabotage myself. I always become convinced halfway through a book that it’s terrible and that nobody will want to read it. However, I know that I’ve felt this way and then gone on to finish books that now make me very proud. I’ve learned to trust the process.

          ·       What are some things you love most about Justine?

Her capacity for love.

Her loyalty.

Her willingness to be true to herself, even if it means she’s out of step with the people around her.

Her courage.

          ·       What kind of research did you do to bring in the history of WWII in your story? Did you know anyone who took part in the war during that time?

I’ve never spoken to anyone who served in their military about their WWII, but that’s not actually what this book is about. It’s about the women who stayed behind, and I have known women who did that. They worked in jobs like business and nursing, and they spoke of feeling valued and needed. One of them admitted to bitterness over losing her independence when she left her job after the war in order to marry. I think we underestimate the relationship between those women’s experiences and their daughters’ later activism in the Women’s Movement. Actually, the women of the WWII generation participated in that movement, as well, but they’re sometimes forgotten in favor of the younger women who were often the face of it.

•  What unsolved mystery would you like to explore and understand more about?

If I’d stayed in physics, I’d have liked to do research in an area like nuclear fusion, which has the potential to address the climate crisis and help us shake our addiction to fossil fuels. My master’s thesis involved work on burning coal more cleanly as a means of addressing the acid rain problem, so I’ve always had an interest in environmental issues.

•            Do you know how to weld? If you could weld, what would you choose to work on and why?

No, I don’t know how to weld, but my father did. He bought a couple of used welding machines when I was a small child and I remember being around (at a safe distance) when he used them. I remember the rods and the bright, bright electrical arc, and that helped me write the scenes where Justine welds. He welded some things for the house—some andirons, some gates to screen the fireplace, and a decorative support for the mailbox—and I think I’d do some projects like that because my husband and I would see and use them on a daily basis.

            INNER CHILD SEGMENT

•              What scent would you prefer to smell most?

I once read that the scent of mother’s milk includes a note of vanilla. I also once read that, though the formula of Coca-Cola is secret, it includes a note of vanilla, unlike other cola drinks. I greatly prefer Coke to Pepsi and other colas, so it must be the vanilla flavor that speaks to me. I find it fascinating that vanilla comes from the seed pods of an orchid. I mean…who looked at that flower and thought, “I bet if we extract the flavor from those pods with alcohol, it will transform the world of ice cream!” For all these reasons, even though I adore chocolate, I’m going to have to go for vanilla as my favorite scent.

•                     What was a mystery you tried to solve as a kid or teen?

The woods behind our house were a kind of archaeological site. There were arrowheads and there were pits where I believe the flint for those arrowheads were mined. There were remnants of the logging operation that cleared the area of virgin pines in the early twentieth century. There was an old house site, complete with an abandoned trash pit. My mother had a gift for finding flint tools and old bottles and such, but I, alas, did not. I gave this gift to my archaeologist character Faye Longchamp and then I wrote thirteen books about her.

                 ·       Did you enjoy science as a kid? What was your favorite thing about it?

I did! I’ve just always been curious about how things work, and that’s what science is all about.

                ·       What’s the oddest food combo that you’ve liked and tried, or just tried?

My father made this thing he called “Snacky-whacks.” He’d smear saltines with peanut butter, top them with marshmallows, and then toast his creations. The combination of the smoky sweetness of the toasted marshmallows, the salty crunch of the saltines, and the sweet, salty, earthy flavor of the warm peanut butter is unbeatable!

                ·       What advice can you share with our readers about living a joyful life?

Pay attention. I have a terrible habit of concentrating on abstract goals, like writing my books, and forgetting to look up at the stars or down at the grass or across the table at my loved ones. But my books are better when I notice the world and put it into my stories, and everything in my life is better when I’m happy. The stars, the grass, and the people I love make me happy.

               ·       Where can the readers connect with you? Where can they find your book?

Website: Maryannaevans.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaryAnnaEvansAuthor

Twitter: @maryannaevans

Instagram: maryannaevans

You can find my books wherever books are sold, including:

https://bookshop.org/books/the-physicists-daughter/9781464215551

https://www.amazon.com/Physicists-Daughter-Mary-Anna-Evans/dp/1464215553/

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-physicists-daughter-mary-anna-evans/1140035236

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Physicists-Daughter-Audiobook/B09VCW21968\

Thank you so much for being with us, Mary Anna. Congratulations on the release of The Physicists’ Daughter!! It’s been an absolute pleasure getting to know you.

 

The Enlightenment Show Interview with Siena Sterling

Welcome to The Enlightenment Show, Siena! I’m so excited to have you joining us to talk about your debut novel, Tell Us No Secrets.

           

·       Can you give the readers a brief synopsis of what Tell Us No Secrets is about?  Tell Us No Secrets is set in an all-girls boarding school in 1970. It centers on the relationships between four of the students there: beautiful, streetwise Cassidy Thomas, debutante jock Abby Madison, sensitive Karen Mullens, and sophisticated, trouble-making Zoey Spalding. The four are all Seniors and should be happily cruising through their last year, but new friendships are formed and old friendships are broken and relationships unravel disastrously.

Zoey plays a game with the class list: if you lose your virginity you get a star beside your name and the resulting peer pressure sets in motion a chain of shocking events. Adolescent angst, rivalry, and betrayal in the hothouse atmosphere of a single-sex boarding school result in a murder and Tell Us No Secrets deals with the aftermath of that—the guilt, the pain, and most of all the need to keep a deadly secret as the girls become women.

 ·       Tell Us No Secrets is a multiple POV story with woven layers all throughout the book. Did you get to know your characters or the story first? I had an idea of where I wanted the story to go when I started. I wanted to write about the break-up of a teenage friendship that would lead, ultimately, to violence. I knew I was going to have four main characters and had a rough idea too of who these characters would be, but I had no clue who would be the perpetrator or the victim of that killing until I started writing. I needed to know more about who the girls were before I knew what would happen to them, so the story and characters developed simultaneously.

·       What inspired you to write the setting in a 1970s boarding school? I had a falling out with a friend, and it affected me so much I began to question why I was having such a strong reaction. Then it struck me that I was feeling the same kinds of feelings I'd had when I went to boarding school. At that point, I knew I wanted to write about the experience of living with a group of teenage girls 24/7, cooped up in a school away from family and, basically, normal life. I set it in 1970 because it was such a momentous and confusing time: a time when the whole hippie movement was in full swing when sex drugs and rock n roll was the norm when sexual liberation was starting—and yet a time when abortion was illegal when homosexuality was not widely accepted when the Vietnam War was impacting so many young peoples' lives. So there was a huge sense of freedom and yet an underlying darkness, mirrored in the book.

Your characters, Cassidy, Zoey, Abby, and Karen, are very dynamically different from one another. What are two things that surprised you most about each of your characters and why? The best part of writing to me is when the characters start to take on a life of their own. Asking what surprised me about them all is a perfect question and I'll start with Zoey. I had never planned for her to turn from being a rebel into a woman leading a conventional life—it just happened. Also, she was more practical and logical than I'd first thought she'd be. As far as Karen was concerned, her falling in love with Zoey surprised me, and I hadn't expected her to be quite so vindictive. Cassidy's relationship with the science teacher, Mr. Doherty, came out of the blue and I was actually pleased to find her trying to stop the others from ostracising Karen. Abby turned out to be insecure in a way I hadn't expected and her reaction to the events as they unfolded was more selfish than I would have thought when I was first creating her character.

 ·       You mention the peer pressures and family dysfunction in your book, stirring the choices that each of these girls ultimately decides to make. What is something that you’d like to see changed in our society today to help teenage girls thrive and feel more confident in their world?  I'd like the impossible. I'd like for society as a whole not to focus on looks the way it does. The need for women to be attractive in an accepted way seems to get progressively worse rather than better—and teenagers suffer the most. There are so many great things about social media but if I had the power, I'd ban photographs on social media sites of any person under the age of twenty-five. I know that sounds ridiculous, but having to compare yourself constantly with others, and being judged on what you look like—it has to take a huge toll on anyone. One of the main themes of Tell Us No Secrets is peer pressure and all those photos of perfectly posed selfies ramps up the peer pressure to such a degree that I believe it plays a part in the increasing problem of mental health in teenage and young women.

                            

·       What’s a secret that you tried to keep, but couldn’t keep hidden? My secret had to do with peer pressure too. Friends of mine started to shoplift items of clothing when we were all about fifteen. Which was a stupid thing to do but if you hadn't shoplifted something you weren't "cool." I was desperate to be cool so I shoplifted a bathing suit. Not only was I terrified doing it, but when I got out of the store, I felt so ashamed, I didn't want to tell anyone—ever—not even my friends, even if that meant that I'd failed the cool test. I didn't dare go back into the store and pretend I'd mistakenly taken it, and when I got home I stuffed it in the back of my closet. But of course, my mother found it, with the tag still on. Which meant I had to go back to the store, apologize to the manager, pay for it, say I'd never do anything like that again, and experience total humiliation on all fronts. I failed to keep that secret but I've managed to keep a lot of secrets since.

 ·       Did you learn anything new about yourself while you were writing Tell Us No Secrets? While writing Tell Us No Secrets, I learned just how much of the teenager lurks in me still. I can claim to be an adult but it was ridiculously easy to relive all those feelings of insecurity, the need to fit in, and how painful it can be when friendships break up—and I learned to be a little easier on my teenage self. So much seems to be at stake during those adolescent years and knowing I've grown far beyond them doesn't diminish the experience. It also struck me when writing just how powerful female friendship is, at any age. I tell my female friends everything, I trust them with things I wouldn't even tell my partner, and if that trust is broken it can be equal to, or even more painful, than sexual infidelity. As I wrote about the interaction between these four girls, I saw similarities to friendships through the years. How women can so often revert to the playground mentality of "who is socializing with who?" and "who is the most popular?" or "who is talking behind someone's back"? So I learned that some things never change. Even if they should. Maybe the teenage self lurks in all of us.

·       What was one of your favorite things about working at Doubleday Bookstore in New York? I loved working at the Doubleday bookshop in Manhattan. At that time, the store was open until 10pm and I worked from 4-10. We had regular customers who would treat it like a bar—they'd drop in every evening, hang around at the counter chatting about books and their lives, so there was an odd sort of party going on every night. When the store closed, we'd move on to the bar across the street, which made it a real party.

One memorable time there was when a crazily rich woman came in and ordered a copy of every single book in the store. I couldn't figure out why she'd want How To Get Rid of Weeds In Your Garden as well as The Great Gatsby and over a thousand other titles. We had to shut the store down, and figure out how to get enough trucks/vans to ship them all to her hotel. It was mayhem and adding up the cost of it all was a major mission but also pretty hilarious.

 

                            INNER CHILD SEGMENT

·       Who were some of your best girlfriends growing up? What were your favorite things to do together? My best friend at age 12 was a girl named Susan who was very artistic and a little wild. We were the class outsiders and we were inseparable. Most of what we did outside of school was to sit up in our rooms and talk and listen to music. When I went away to boarding school, I became best friends with Candy, who was in some ways like Cassidy in my book. She was stunningly beautiful and popular and she had a great sense of humor. Everyone worshiped her so I was thrilled to hang out with her. We spent most of our time too in our rooms listening to music and talking. In the summers, we'd go to the beach and when I got my driver's license, we'd spend time driving around blasting the radio. Music was the key to life in so many ways and when we were old enough, we'd find clubs and places to go where we could dance.

After she left school, Candy became a Playboy Bunny in Denver, a blackjack dealer in Reno, and finally a nurse.

·       Did you receive an article of clothing or an object from your parents that you loved? My father gave me Anna Karenina when I was thirteen. At the same time, he told me to wait until I was at college to read it, but that it was one of the best books ever written. I loved it the first time I read it and I've loved it the five times I've re-read it since. He knew I was a voracious reader and I think he just wanted to make sure I read something brilliant as soon as I'd be able to appreciate it. It still fascinates me that he gave it to me though, because it's such a passionate book and on the surface, my father wasn't passionate except when it came to sports. So it gives me a glimpse into a part of him that is really meaningful to me.

·       What were some of your favorite subjects and things to learn about as a teenager? As I said, I loved to read, so English and History were my favorite subjects. I was totally hopeless at any of the sciences. Really weirdly, I was a huge fan of Latin. I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the class who thought translating Virgil was fun. Looking back I think it was a help with sentence structure and vocabulary. At the time it felt as if I was delving into an exciting foreign world that no one else I knew wanted to visit.

·       What’s the oddest food combo that you’ve liked and tried, or just tried?

This is truly disgusting—the oddest food combination I've tried was pasta and seal's paw. I was in Iceland, out to dinner with an Icelandic friend. I ordered some nice pasta dish and then he informed me I had to try the seal's paw—that this was an Icelandic staple and I couldn't turn it down. The pasta was great. The seal's paw was a hunk of blubber. Cold, wobbly blubber. Food doesn't get any more revolting than a cold, blubbery seal's paw. I took the smallest bite possible and forced myself to swallow it. It was as awful as it looked, which is saying a lot. I would have thought he was playing a practical joke on me, but I watched him happily eat it. Sometimes it's not a great idea to listen to locals.

·       What advice can you share with our readers about living a joyful life? How to live a joyful life. That's a tough one. It's great to have dreams and goals and ambitions, but my advice is to put people and relationships first. And to have a team of people who you know will always have your back, who are loyal, empathetic, and good listeners. You don't need a huge team, but if you have two or three people who you can always count on, who know you well enough to ride through the tough times with—and enjoy the good ones—then it is much easier to negotiate the inevitable ups and downs.

·       Where can the readers connect with you? Where can they find your book? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siena_sterling

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sienasterling 

My website: www.sienasterling.com 

They can find my book at any of the below places: 

https://www.amazon.com/Tell-Us-No-Secrets-Novel/dp/006316180X/https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tell-us-no-secrets-siena-sterling/1140137277

https://bookshop.org/books/tell-us-no-secrets/9780063161801https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780063161801