Ask the Author: Gin Phillips
Answered Questions (6)
Gin Phillips
Oh, I don't think there's one answer to that. You might be a single student and have a spare four or five hours every night. You might be married with kids and two jobs and barely be able to carve out a spare 30 minutes. I don't think the amount matters so much as the regular prioritizing of time. I'd say you need at least half an hour a day to get into a rhythm with your work. An hour is even better. But if you can do more than that, it's a great thing.
Gin Phillips
Hi Lisa--Thanks very much. I love the cover, too.
The first part of the answer is that I happened to be in a zoo when the idea for the novel first came to me. So there's that. For me, the zoo is a place where I have a very geographic sense of the different phases of my son…and of how those phases have flared so brightly and then evaporated. Once upon a time—when he was two—he liked to climb a stone turtle, but he had forgotten the turtle entirely by the time he was three. Once he loved the merry-go-round, but then a guy with a weird voice spoke to him while he was riding, and that was it for the merry-go-round. In the zoo, I’m focused on my son’s present moment—his odd obsessions and hilarious quirks and stubborn habits—while also being constantly reminded of all the other versions of him that had disappeared.
The truth is that as your child grows up, you lose him over and over again. You get a new child in return…but that old version is lost.
So there’s that personal connection for me, but, yes, the zoo also works on a broader level. I liked the idea of setting a story in a very domestic, suburban kind of setting—somewhere recognizable to every parent. The zoo fits that label: safe and familiar and unthreatening. And that’s how we think of mothers sometimes, isn’t it?
But the zoo is not only that. It also has a darker current—there are wild things in boxes. Alongside strollers and cotton candy, there are sharp teeth and claws and the promise of everything that is undomesticated. There is power.
I think that sense of complexity works well for what plays out in the story. Joan and Lincoln wind up feeling trapped, so there is that echo of the caged animals, but Joan is also smart and strong and sure. She has power.
The first part of the answer is that I happened to be in a zoo when the idea for the novel first came to me. So there's that. For me, the zoo is a place where I have a very geographic sense of the different phases of my son…and of how those phases have flared so brightly and then evaporated. Once upon a time—when he was two—he liked to climb a stone turtle, but he had forgotten the turtle entirely by the time he was three. Once he loved the merry-go-round, but then a guy with a weird voice spoke to him while he was riding, and that was it for the merry-go-round. In the zoo, I’m focused on my son’s present moment—his odd obsessions and hilarious quirks and stubborn habits—while also being constantly reminded of all the other versions of him that had disappeared.
The truth is that as your child grows up, you lose him over and over again. You get a new child in return…but that old version is lost.
So there’s that personal connection for me, but, yes, the zoo also works on a broader level. I liked the idea of setting a story in a very domestic, suburban kind of setting—somewhere recognizable to every parent. The zoo fits that label: safe and familiar and unthreatening. And that’s how we think of mothers sometimes, isn’t it?
But the zoo is not only that. It also has a darker current—there are wild things in boxes. Alongside strollers and cotton candy, there are sharp teeth and claws and the promise of everything that is undomesticated. There is power.
I think that sense of complexity works well for what plays out in the story. Joan and Lincoln wind up feeling trapped, so there is that echo of the caged animals, but Joan is also smart and strong and sure. She has power.
Gin Phillips
Hi Barbara--I'm sorry that this probably isn't as helpful as you'd like, but I don't have anything to do with the giveaways. That comes through my publisher, Viking, and the PR department. So please contact my publicist, Jessica Fitzpatrick, at jfitzpatrick@penguinrandomhouse.com , and she can hopefully explain about where they are in the process .
I do sympathize--I used to live in an apartment building where everything seemed to get left in a different corner of the hallway, and it always felt like a game as to whether I might possibly find it. Good luck. :)
I do sympathize--I used to live in an apartment building where everything seemed to get left in a different corner of the hallway, and it always felt like a game as to whether I might possibly find it. Good luck. :)
Gin Phillips
So here's one thing: I don't read a ton of thrillers. I like a wide range of books as long as the voice is compelling, the prose is memorable, and the characters are three-dimensional. So I pick based on those things more than by genre. (I also didn't think of Fierce Things as a thriller. I thought of it as a book about motherhood. A fast-paced book about motherhood. And then editors started bidding on it, and I realized, hmm--I've written a thriller.)
I've really liked Jennifer Egan's The Keep, Brunonia Barry's The Lace Reader, and Emma Donoghue's Room.
And I'll start on book tour in the U.S. on July 11! I'll post all the locations sometime in the next week.
I've really liked Jennifer Egan's The Keep, Brunonia Barry's The Lace Reader, and Emma Donoghue's Room.
And I'll start on book tour in the U.S. on July 11! I'll post all the locations sometime in the next week.
Gin Phillips
Thanks--I love the cover, too. It's probably my favorite of any cover I've ever had, and I've been really happy with all of them. We settled on it pretty quickly--the designers always liked the merry-go-round theme and imagery, so the only other serious contender was an image with just one horse and pole. It was really striking, but this one won out. It feels to me both more compelling and riskier than the first one. And I love the 3-D effect.
Gin Phillips
Ginny. Which also sounds like it's short for something, but nope. My grandmother's name is Virginia, so it's sort of a family name. For the record, I've always wished they'd just named me Virginia. It would make a better-sounding byline, I think.
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