Untreed Reads discussion

Sometimes the most important thing an author can do is reign in the moments that can get out of control:

Shortly after Leini returns with her grandfather from Vienna where she undergoes cosmetic surgery, Grandpa passes away. Leini’s grief after his passing was a challenge. To write a scene like this, it’s important to strike the right balance between what moves the reader and what can easily become a cheap trick to a tearjerker.

The full interview is available at Flashlight Commentary and you can learn more about The Wooden Chair at Untreed Reads.

The Wooden Chair by Rayne E. Golay

Winner of the Royal Palm Award!

As a child, Leini stands ready to do anything to win her mother Mira’s love. This effort costs her the sight in one eye and as a result, causes her to endure bullying from kids her own age. As a teenager, with her Grandpa’s help, she undergoes one more surgery to straighten her eye, but the psychological scar of the events of her childhood remain.

Leini struggles to break free of Mira’s tyranny by leaving her native Helsinki to study psychology at Geneva University. A few years later, married, herself about to become a mother, she is determined with her own children not to repeat Mira’s behavior. With the help of a psychiatrist, she labors through the pains of past hurts to become a nurturing and loving mother and wife, as well as a successful professional, as she grows from victim to victor over adversity. Can her efforts lead her to the one thing she needs to discover the most - the ability to forgive her mother?