Ask the Author: Karen Joy Fowler
Answered Questions (8)
Karen Joy Fowler
Hello! I am an old lady bookling, too. There is, indeed, some rough stuff in We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves concerning our treatment of animals, particularly in the sections involving Lowell, Rosemary's brother. It would be easier to skip through that in a printed book, I think, than in the audio version. But the whole book is about how we need to behave better towards our fellow animals, so probably impossible to skip all of it.
Karen Joy Fowler
I lived in Davis for more than thirty years, so I know that area and the surrounding Sacramento/Winters neighborhoods pretty well. I live somewhere else now, but I still miss Davis a lot. It was a lovely easy place for my children to grow up in. Stockton, I must admit, is not familiar to me though.
Karen Joy Fowler
BOOTH was the working title. I imagined my editor and agents would want a new one, but they didn't; they thought BOOTH was strong. The issue for me was always that it gave the impression the book is about John Wilkes, but he was not the only Booth so it still seems fair.
Karen Joy Fowler
Thank you so much, Candace, for reading the book and for the question. Originally I intended to write a story mostly about what happened to all the surviving Booths afterwards. But when I started doing my research, there was just so much in the before times that my original vision was completely reversed. There is a lot that happened in the aftermath, particularly to Asia and to Edwin. I had not thought of a sequel until now, but you are definitely turning my thoughts in that direction. There is also a whole untold story about Junius Booth's first wife and her adventures on her trip to America. I was feeling that historical novels are exhausting and I needed a break. But maybe I don't....
Karen Joy Fowler
I turned thirty and took a good long look at my life. What did I really want, I asked myself. Whatever that was, it was time to get to it. Thirty years old! Practically grown up.
It turned out what I wanted had been there all along. I just wasn’t asking the question. I just wasn’t listening to the answer. I wanted to write. I had always wanted to write.
I think lots of writers begin because they have a particular story they need to tell. That wasn’t me. I decided to be a writer long before I knew what stories I would write.
Step one: make the decision.
Step two: persuade yourself and your family that it’s a perfectly reasonable decision.
Step three: find the time in which to do this perfectly reasonable thing.
Step four: find your story.
Repeat and repeat and repeat for the rest of your life.
It turned out what I wanted had been there all along. I just wasn’t asking the question. I just wasn’t listening to the answer. I wanted to write. I had always wanted to write.
I think lots of writers begin because they have a particular story they need to tell. That wasn’t me. I decided to be a writer long before I knew what stories I would write.
Step one: make the decision.
Step two: persuade yourself and your family that it’s a perfectly reasonable decision.
Step three: find the time in which to do this perfectly reasonable thing.
Step four: find your story.
Repeat and repeat and repeat for the rest of your life.
Karen Joy Fowler
The job requires a lot of emotional maintenance. I figure most writers begin because they like it, they like telling stories. They take pleasure in figuring out the best way to say what they want to say. But there are so many ways in which to lose that initial joy – endless rejection, bad reviews (and I include here the bad reviews you are constantly giving yourself,) a writing group with no taste, time pressures, blank pages, online snark.
So I think it’s important to check in with yourself periodically. Ask yourself, is this still fun? If it isn’t, figure out what you need to do to get the fun back in.
So I think it’s important to check in with yourself periodically. Ask yourself, is this still fun? If it isn’t, figure out what you need to do to get the fun back in.
Karen Joy Fowler
The clothes. The first writer I ever met was Agatha Christie. She was attending a slide show her husband was presenting at Stanford in Palo Alto where I was in high school. It was an evening event and she showed up in a lovely gown and enormous, pink, fuzzy bedroom slippers. That may have been the moment I saw how great being a writer would be. How great, a life in which you wear your bedroom slippers everywhere.
Karen Joy Fowler
When I can’t go forward, I go back. I figure that somewhere earlier I made a wrong turn. If I can find that place and make a different choice, I might be able to progress. I don’t call this writer’s block; I don’t want to dignify it by making it into a condition. I call it rewriting.
When I really can’t write, I read. Other writers are so inspiring! How beautifully they use language! They make me laugh. They make me cry. They make me want to do all those same things. So I squeeze out a sentence. If I like that one, I usually find there is another one waiting patiently for its turn. If I can get one whole paragraph, I feel pretty good.
When I really can’t write, I read. Other writers are so inspiring! How beautifully they use language! They make me laugh. They make me cry. They make me want to do all those same things. So I squeeze out a sentence. If I like that one, I usually find there is another one waiting patiently for its turn. If I can get one whole paragraph, I feel pretty good.
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