This coming Saturday I'll have the privilege of sitting on a panel with four other authors: Cat Winter (IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS), Susan Hill Long (WHISTLE IN THE DARK), Teri Brown (BORN OF ILLUSION), and my good friend Rosanne Parry (WRITTEN IN STONE). What do these excellent novels have in common with SIRENS? All our books are set in the 1920s. I'm truly looking forward to this event, and if you live in the Portland area, won't you stop by? We'll be at A Children's Place at 2PM, Saturday, September 14.
In anticipation, I've invited Rosanne to the blog today to talk about her novel and the writing life, and I think you'll agree that she is one smart and interesting lady, in addition to being a fabulous author.
Congratulations
on the publication of your third novel, Written in Stone. Please give us a
brief synopsis.
Pearl had always
dreamed of hunting whales, just like her father. Of taking to the sea in their
eight-man canoe, standing in the prow with a harpoon, and waiting for the whale
to lift his barnacle-speckled head as it offers his life for the tribe.
But now that can
never be. Pearl’s father was lost on the last hunt, and the whales hide from
the great steam-powered ships carrying harpoon cannons which harvest not one
but dozens of whales from the ocean. Pearl’s people, the Makah, struggle to
survive as Pearl searches for ways to preserve their stories and skills.
As someone who
has written about a very different cultural expression of the 1920’s, I’m
curious to know why you chose that era as your time period.
When I decided
to write about the tribes of the Olympic Peninsula I initially thought I’d
write about the resumption of whale hunting which occurred in 1999. But as I
learned more about the history of whaling and what the resumption of the hunt
really meant to the Makah it occurred to me that the more interesting story was
that they voluntarily gave up whaling in the early 1920s in response to a
catastrophic drop in the whale population due to industrial whaling. How do you
survive economically, culturally, spiritually, and socially when something that
has been at the core of your identity so abruptly disappears? That’s a question
that intrigues me, and cultural survival is an issue that I think will resonate
with many people beyond the tribes in the story.
Beyond that I
think the twenties are fascinating in terms of the shift from rural to urban living
that occurred at this time and the changing role of women in the workplace and
the fallout from the devastation of the First World War and subsequent
influenza epidemic. Written in Stone touches briefly on all three of those
issues. I chose 1923 specifically because Native Americans were not granted
citizenship in the United States and the right to vote until 1924 long after
thousands of them fought and died for their country in World War I. Everyone
thinks of the Twenties in terms of women’s suffrage but there were many groups
besides women who were still struggling to gain the right to vote for many
years after the famous 19th amendment.
What kind of
research did you do in order to capture the Makah culture of that period?
I was very
fortunate to have the help and support of some of the women I taught with while
I lived on the Quinault Reservation. They were great about answering my
questions and giving me access to unpublished doctoral research about the
tribe. I’ve been to the Makah Cultural Research Center many times and heard the
chairman of the Makah Whaling commission speak about the role of whaling in his
tribe’s history and their hopes for a whaling future.
Although I read
quite a bit and there are many interesting books on the subject of Native
American history, my favorite part of research is meeting people and hearing
their stories. I love listening to an artist talk about carving in the workshop
as the chips of cedar are flying. I loved to see the looks in my students faces
as they were doing their traditional dances or watch the grandmother who came
in to teach my student’s basket making. She brought in armfuls of sweet grass
and raffia. With fewer than three sentences of instruction, but much
encouragement to gather close and watch her hands, and a lively running
conversation about the merits of various professional wrestlers, she had my
students deeply engrossed in a craft in which they had just a few moments
before loudly professed their lack of interest. Being fresh out of college
myself I have to say her teaching technique was a revelation to me. And I’ll
never forget how proud my students were of the baskets they eventually
finished.
You write very
deep and character-driven novels. Can you share techniques that you use to
capture your characters? What about the character of Pearl, in particular?
I’m a great
collector of writing tips and techniques and I love to try different things.
For Pearl the key to getting at the heart of that girl was not so much a
particular technique but a willingness to spill great quantities of ink in
getting to know her. I finished the first draft of this story when my oldest
girl was in the third grade. That girl graduated from college this year! In
many ways Written in Stone is the book that made me a writer. I’ve
written more drafts of this one than any other. It was in third person
initially. I wrote several drafts in
blank verse. I tried giving Pearl a more direct and contemporary voice, and an
even more formalized storyteller’s voice than she has now. I think there is
much to be gained, from rewriting a story many times from many different
angles.
The heart of the
matter, for me, came down to voice. I think Sherman Alexie does a great job of
capturing a contemporary Native American voice. I think Graham Salisbury does
excellent work with contemporary Hawaiian turn of phrase. When trying to write
as I heard my Quinault and Makah neighbors speak, I couldn’t quite get the
sound of the voice right. I was maybe 90% there but just as a violin a little
bit out of tune is worse than one that’s miles out of key, I wasn’t willing to
settle for almost right. So I gave the story a contemporary frame of a
grandmother sharing her recollections with her granddaughter. This allowed me
to use a slightly more formal tone and a storyteller’s turn of phrase, which
suits my present talents better.
So that’s not
very helpful in terms of concrete technique. How about this: if you love a
story, don’t give up until you’re satisfied with it. :)
How do you find
the ideas for your stories – which are quite varied?
I was just
talking to some students about this. Although my stories are quite different
from each other, one thing they have in common is the coming-of-age theme. The
thing that’s so exciting and also terrifying about being young is that the
whole world is possible and its up to you to make choices that in the end will
narrow your life considerably. So how do you know what your talents are and
what you ought to do with your life because of those talents? That’s a great
question to think about and I hope for families and students and teachers to
talk about as they read the books.
I also think one
of the great pleasures of fiction is that it takes you to someplace new and
different every time. Heart of a Shepherd is set on a contemporary
cattle and sheep ranch in Eastern Oregon one of the most starkly beautiful and
empty places in the world. Second Fiddle is set in Berlin and Paris in
1990. I lived in Germany at that time, the fascinating and unsettled year when
the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union, the lifelong enemy of the
Unites States, disappeared completely. It was a fascinating time to live abroad
and great fun to revisit two of the most interesting and artistically vibrant
capitols of Europe. Written in Stone is set in the only temperate
rainforest in North America. The
Quinaults maintain the only stretch of wilderness beach on the west coast. Yes,
it rains about 15 feet a year, but the Twilight books got this setting entirely
wrong. It’s not dark or depressing on the Olympic Peninsula. After the morning
mists roll away there are as many clear days as cloudy and there is nothing to
compare with the abundance of the rainforest. I’ve got some pictures from the
Olympic Peninsula over at my Pinterest page. Take a look for yourself. http://pinterest.com/rosanneparry/written-in-stone/
What are you
working on now?
I am so excited
about my newest project. It’s a series for younger readers and it has magic in
it, both of which are new ground for me. The first book is called Jamie and
the Dark. It’s a friendship story about a boy who makes friends with the
Dark—a kid much like Jamie, but only a foot tall, who lives in the closet and
has pockets full of stories. It has been such fun to write something funny and
light-hearted that has a really interesting story-within-the-story element.
I also wrote a
graphic novel script for the book, which was a fascinating process. I love
thinking about a story in new ways and it was fun to think about the pacing of
the story in a much more visual way.
I don’t have a
publication date for Jamie and the Dark quite yet but I hope to have
that all worked out sometime this fall.
Where can
readers find out more about you and your books?
My website www.rosanneparry.com is the place to go for information about
author visits and lots more goodies like a recipe for each book. I’m also on
Goodreads and you can follow me on Twitter @RosanneParry.
If you are lucky
enough to live in Portland Oregon, I’ll be at A Children’s Place bookstore with
Janet and 3 other MG and YA authors who also have books out this year set in
the 1920s. We are going to have a Great Gatsby party and lots of lively
conversation about historical fiction. That event will be Saturday September 14th
at 2pm. I hope to see you there.
My other project
for the fall is Wordstock, Portland’s book festival. I’ll be doing a writer’s
workshop on Saturday October 5th at 3pm. My reading and book signing
will follow that at 5:30pm, and I’ll be moderating a panel discussion on
creating multicultural characters Sunday October 6th at 5pm. All the
events are at the Oregon Convention Center.
Thanks Janet for
sharing your blog space with me. I’m so looking forward to spending some time
with you next month.
So am I!!
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