Ask the Author: Ann S. Epstein
Answered Questions (10)
Ann S. Epstein
The bad team spewed hate and took up arms. Then the good team did the same in return.
Ann S. Epstein
I would travel to the classic world of HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON created by Crockett Johnson in 1955. What would I do there? Draw, of course, with a purple crayon. What would I draw? A healthy environment; people of all backgrounds living in harmony; imaginary plants and animals; tastes, textures, sounds, and smells (I’d need colors in addition to purple); laughter; and kindness.
Ann S. Epstein
I plan to read four novels: The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman; Commonwealth by Ann Patchett; Olive Kittridge by Elizabth Stroud; and A Piece of the World by Christine Baker Cline. I’ll also be reading two non-fiction books: The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman; and Dear Reflection: I Never Meant to be a Rebel by Jessica Bell (a memoir by my publisher at Vine Leaves Press). Of course, I’ll be busy writing too. I’m finishing the revisions of my novel Nine in Ten and beginning my new novel, with the working title Other Person’s Loss. I also have several short stories in the works.
Ann S. Epstein
My late mother’s life is a mystery. I discovered in middle age that she was a chronic liar and that everything I thought was true about her family history, and mine, was open to doubt. In her telling, there was one hero, her father (who died soon after she graduated high school); a few unsympathetic characters; and a host of outrageous villains. A book would not just unravel the true story of my mother’s life, but more important, explore what led her to become a perpetual fabricator. Deprived of my own history, along with hers, I’m free to invent the story I want through fiction.
Ann S. Epstein
Thank the muse, I’ve never had writers block. Whether you draw on interesting things that you read and hear (as I do) and/or on incidents in your own life (as many other writers do), there’s always more to learn and experience — and write about. With such infinite sources, it would take an avalanche of other woes to cause a blockage. I expect the best way to deal with writer’s block is simply to write your way through it. Write anything. Eventually more words will come, some worth saving.
Ann S. Epstein
Writing fiction gives you license to use your imagination and explore different personas, to let your characters be whoever they want. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, prose or poetry, writing encourages you to mine and understand the experiences and feelings of others. At the risk of sounding trite, I believe writing makes you a more empathetic and hence a better person.
Ann S. Epstein
Ignore the advice to “write what you know.” Instead, get to know whatever you want to write about.
Ann S. Epstein
I’ll be working on edits for two books in press. A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (Alternative Book Press, 2017, in press) is a fictional biography of Meinhardt Raabe, a midget hired to play a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. Tazia and Gemma (Vine Leaves Press, 2018, in press) tells of an unwed Italian immigrant mother who survives the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire and the search of her now-grown daughter to discover her father’s identity.
I am also finishing a fourth novel, Nine in Ten, in which an elderly man, who’d had many children trying to win the 1926-36 Toronto Stork Derby, belatedly discovers the true meaning of fatherhood. I’m researching my fifth novel (tentatively titled One Person’s Loss) which follows the lives of a young couple, escapees from Nazi Germany, from before until after the WW II.
Finally, I’m looking for a publisher for my story collection, Between the Wars (WW I to WW II), which goes beyond the battlefield to examine how extraordinary events change ordinary lives. Of course, I’m always working in new stories too, many based on quirky episodes in history.
I am also finishing a fourth novel, Nine in Ten, in which an elderly man, who’d had many children trying to win the 1926-36 Toronto Stork Derby, belatedly discovers the true meaning of fatherhood. I’m researching my fifth novel (tentatively titled One Person’s Loss) which follows the lives of a young couple, escapees from Nazi Germany, from before until after the WW II.
Finally, I’m looking for a publisher for my story collection, Between the Wars (WW I to WW II), which goes beyond the battlefield to examine how extraordinary events change ordinary lives. Of course, I’m always working in new stories too, many based on quirky episodes in history.
Ann S. Epstein
It’s a mistaken notion that one must wait for inspiration to come before beginning to write. More often, it’s the opposite. I don’t wait for the ideas to appear. I just start to write. Inspiration comes from the process of writing itself. I have to be “inspired” to do something I’m averse to (like cleaning the house). I don’t have to be “inspired” to write. I write because I want to.
Ann S. Epstein
The episode that begins On the Shore was inspired by my own immigrant family. When my mother was a toddler, her teenage brother also falsified his identity to fight in World War I. He was never heard from again and the family was thenceforth forbidden to speak of him. On the Shore is my attempt to give this unknown uncle, and those closest to him, a voice.
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