CAROLYN PARKHURST is the author of the bestselling novels The Dogs of Babel and Lost and Found. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and their two children.
1. How would you summarize your book in one sentence?
It’s about an author who’s decided to rewrite all the endings of her previous books. (I actually have a much more convoluted sentence that brings in more of the plot, but I’ve noticed that people’s eyes start to glaze over when I get to, “...oh, and her son’s a rock star, and he’s been accused of murder...”)
2. How long did it take you to write this book?
About three years.
3. Where is your favorite place to write?
For many years, I wrote in coffee shops, but last year I started renting an office. I love it--it helps me treat writing as an actual job, rather than a hobby.
4. How do you choose your characters’ names?
I have a baby name book called THE BABY NAME WIZARD by Laura Wattenberg; it’s very helpful because it divides names into categories, based on style and nuance, so I can think about what I want the name to evoke before I start looking. For last names, I look at phone books and newspapers, and I also look at genealogy websites, which have long lists of surnames you can search.
5. If there was one book you wish you had written what would it be?
MRS. DALLOWAY by Virginia Woolf.
6. If your book were to become a movie, who would you like to see star in it?
I think that Meryl Streep would be an excellent Octavia.
7. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what kind?
I don’t listen to music while I’m writing, but I do create playlists for inspiration and to get me in the right frame of mind before I write. I try to pick songs that have some thematic connection to what I’m writing, or that explore some emotional state that I’m trying to capture. Here’s the one I made while I was working on THE NOBODIES ALBUM: http://carolynparkhurst.com/site/?p=5
8. Who is the first person who gets to you read your manuscript?
I belong to a writer’s group that meets once a month, and the other members are generally the first people to see anything I write. It’s hard to find a group of writers that you like working with, but I’ve found it enormously helpful, both in terms of receiving feedback from several pairs of fresh eyes and in terms of having regular deadlines to encourage me to write.
9. What’s on your nightstand right now?
So many books! The pile is actually getting high enough to be a little bit dangerous. Among them: THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE by Alan Bradley; DAY FOR NIGHT by Frederick Reiken; WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS? by Kate Atkinson and THE SIMPSONS: AN UNCENSORED, UNAUTHORIZED HISTORY by John Ortved.
10. What is the first book you remember reading?
MICKEY MOUSE’S PICNIC (which was part of the “Little Golden Books” series). I tracked down a new copy a few years ago; the story doesn’t particularly ring any bells, but the pictures are very familiar and spark memories of sitting in the house I lived in when I was very young.
11. Did you always want to be a writer?
Pretty much. For a while when I was about seven or eight, I thought I wanted to be an inventor, but it turned out that coming up with the ideas for new gadgets--my favorite “invention” was called the Super Duper Breakfast Maker--held a lot more interest for me than actually making them.
12. Typewriter, laptop, or pen & paper?
Laptop, though I occasionally revert to pen and paper if I’m stuck; sometimes, that helps get my mind moving in a different direction.
13. What did you do immediately after hearing that you were being published for the very first time?
When I heard from my agent that I’d received an offer on my first novel, I was at home with my son, who was four months old at the time. The thing I remember most vividly about that day is trying to negotiate a flurry of excited phone calls while seeing to the baby’s needs. In the middle of it all, there was an unfortunate diaper failure of such magnitude that I had to take a few minutes to bathe my son in the kitchen sink.
14. What is the best gift someone could give a writer?
The best gift is to help them set aside some time when they don’t have to do anything except write.The Nobodies Album
1. How would you summarize your book in one sentence?
It’s about an author who’s decided to rewrite all the endings of her previous books. (I actually have a much more convoluted sentence that brings in more of the plot, but I’ve noticed that people’s eyes start to glaze over when I get to, “...oh, and her son’s a rock star, and he’s been accused of murder...”)
2. How long did it take you to write this book?
About three years.
3. Where is your favorite place to write?
For many years, I wrote in coffee shops, but last year I started renting an office. I love it--it helps me treat writing as an actual job, rather than a hobby.
4. How do you choose your characters’ names?
I have a baby name book called THE BABY NAME WIZARD by Laura Wattenberg; it’s very helpful because it divides names into categories, based on style and nuance, so I can think about what I want the name to evoke before I start looking. For last names, I look at phone books and newspapers, and I also look at genealogy websites, which have long lists of surnames you can search.
5. If there was one book you wish you had written what would it be?
MRS. DALLOWAY by Virginia Woolf.
6. If your book were to become a movie, who would you like to see star in it?
I think that Meryl Streep would be an excellent Octavia.
7. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what kind?
I don’t listen to music while I’m writing, but I do create playlists for inspiration and to get me in the right frame of mind before I write. I try to pick songs that have some thematic connection to what I’m writing, or that explore some emotional state that I’m trying to capture. Here’s the one I made while I was working on THE NOBODIES ALBUM: http://carolynparkhurst.com/site/?p=5
8. Who is the first person who gets to you read your manuscript?
I belong to a writer’s group that meets once a month, and the other members are generally the first people to see anything I write. It’s hard to find a group of writers that you like working with, but I’ve found it enormously helpful, both in terms of receiving feedback from several pairs of fresh eyes and in terms of having regular deadlines to encourage me to write.
9. What’s on your nightstand right now?
So many books! The pile is actually getting high enough to be a little bit dangerous. Among them: THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE by Alan Bradley; DAY FOR NIGHT by Frederick Reiken; WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS? by Kate Atkinson and THE SIMPSONS: AN UNCENSORED, UNAUTHORIZED HISTORY by John Ortved.
10. What is the first book you remember reading?
MICKEY MOUSE’S PICNIC (which was part of the “Little Golden Books” series). I tracked down a new copy a few years ago; the story doesn’t particularly ring any bells, but the pictures are very familiar and spark memories of sitting in the house I lived in when I was very young.
11. Did you always want to be a writer?
Pretty much. For a while when I was about seven or eight, I thought I wanted to be an inventor, but it turned out that coming up with the ideas for new gadgets--my favorite “invention” was called the Super Duper Breakfast Maker--held a lot more interest for me than actually making them.
12. Typewriter, laptop, or pen & paper?
Laptop, though I occasionally revert to pen and paper if I’m stuck; sometimes, that helps get my mind moving in a different direction.
13. What did you do immediately after hearing that you were being published for the very first time?
When I heard from my agent that I’d received an offer on my first novel, I was at home with my son, who was four months old at the time. The thing I remember most vividly about that day is trying to negotiate a flurry of excited phone calls while seeing to the baby’s needs. In the middle of it all, there was an unfortunate diaper failure of such magnitude that I had to take a few minutes to bathe my son in the kitchen sink.
14. What is the best gift someone could give a writer?
The best gift is to help them set aside some time when they don’t have to do anything except write.The Nobodies Album