Ask the Author: Christine Benedict
Answered Questions (10)
Christine Benedict
The anonymous letters are from the man who stalked me. I never found out who he was.
Christine Benedict
Inspiration comes from the story itself calling me back to it.
Christine Benedict
I'm currently working on Where Willows Take Root, a literary fiction.
In the story, Kat’s alcoholic grandfather is her only ally when her mother falls ill and her ill-tempered stepfather alerts children’s services — that is until she comes up against a stranger she meets on the highway.
In Kat’s quest to unite her family, she learns to trust the stranger, a returning Vietnam soldier, who keeps a secret between them, along with some of his own.
An excerpt of this 1965 coming-of-age story was featured in Best Short Stories from The Saturday Evening Post-Great American Fiction 2021, and another excerpt was a Glimmer Train Press honorable mention.
In the story, Kat’s alcoholic grandfather is her only ally when her mother falls ill and her ill-tempered stepfather alerts children’s services — that is until she comes up against a stranger she meets on the highway.
In Kat’s quest to unite her family, she learns to trust the stranger, a returning Vietnam soldier, who keeps a secret between them, along with some of his own.
An excerpt of this 1965 coming-of-age story was featured in Best Short Stories from The Saturday Evening Post-Great American Fiction 2021, and another excerpt was a Glimmer Train Press honorable mention.
Christine Benedict
Read read read.
Christine Benedict
The best thing about being a writer is retreating to worlds of my own making.
Christine Benedict
Read a Pulitzer Prize book. Any genre.
Christine Benedict
The clowns took their masks off all together, fangs and white smiles. They were the girls I hung out with when I was young, sleeping over their houses to find blood in my teeth in the morning.
Christine Benedict
I would be 15 and travel to 1965 Little Italy Cleveland and hang out with the girls, learn the other side of the Cleveland mafia, and walk to the Cleveland art museum every day.
Christine Benedict
Read A thousand acres by Jane Smiley, Just finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Great reads!
Christine Benedict
The story was inspired by my 100-year old farmhouse where the neighbors insinuated it was haunted. You could hear footsteps when no one was there, scratching from inside the walls. Lights would flicker and go off. The anonymous letters were inspired by actual letters I received from a man who stalked me who remains anonymous today. The letters are in the novel word for word. And believe me they are creepy.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more