Interview with women's fiction writer Jessica Winters Mireles

Women’s fiction author Jessica Winters Mireles is here today to chat about her new romance, Lost in Oaxaca, a novel.

Bio:

Born and raised in Santa Barbara, California, Jessica Winters Mireles holds a degree in piano performance from USC. After graduating, she began her career as a piano teacher and performer.

Four children and a studio of over forty piano students later, Jessica’s life changed drastically when her youngest daughter was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of two; she soon decided that life was too short to give up on her dreams of becoming a writer, and after five years of carving out some time each day from her busy schedule, she finished Lost in Oaxaca.

Jessica’s work has been published in GreenPrints and Mothering magazines. She also knows quite a bit about Oaxaca, as her husband is an indigenous Zapotec man from the highlands of Oaxaca and is a great source of inspiration. She lives with her husband and family in Santa Barbara, California.

Welcome, Jessica. Please tell us about your current release.

The title of my novel is Lost in Oaxaca. The story is about a piano teacher, who as a young pianist lost out on a concert career after an injury to her hand destroyed her ability to play. She now leads a solitary life teaching piano, and she has a star student: Graciela, the daughter of her mother’s Mexican housekeeper. Camille has been grooming the young Graciela for the career that she missed out on, and now Graciela, newly turned eighteen, has just won the grand prize in a piano competition, which means she gets to perform with the LA Philharmonic. Camille is ecstatic; if she can’t play herself, at least as Graciela’s teacher, she will finally get the recognition she deserves.

But there are only two weeks left before the concert, and Graciela has disappeared—gone back to her family’s village in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. Desperate to bring Graciela back in time for the concert, Camille goes after her, but on the way there, a bus accident leaves her without any of her possessions. Alone and unable to speak the language, Camille is befriended by Alejandro, a Zapotec man who lives in LA but is from the same village as Graciela. Despite a contentious first meeting, Alejandro helps Camille navigate the rugged terrain and unfamiliar culture of Oaxaca, allowing her the opportunity to view the world in a different light—and perhaps find love in the process.

What inspired you to write this book?

Mostly, it was my career as a pianist and teacher that inspired me. I’d hate for my students to know this, but for decades, I’ve been writing stories in my head while teaching piano lessons. I’ve found that listening to music, even from a young child in the process of learning to play the piano, sparks great writing ideas. Through the years, I’ve also wondered how I would react if an injury to my hands prevented me from playing the piano, so I incorporated this idea into my novel, as well. I’m also a hopeless romantic, and adore a good love story. My novel was definitely inspired by my own love story: I’ve been married to the love of my life for 33 years. Our many trips to my husband’s hometown in Mexico have allowed me an incredible glimpse into the beautiful culture of Oaxaca, Mexico.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I have so many ideas right now, it’s difficult to decide what to do. I’m sure it will have to do with a middle-aged woman navigating some big life change!

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I’m a very late bloomer. As a child, I was a bookworm, and always loved to write. Looking back now, I realize that I was a very good writer all through school, but somehow told myself the story that I wasn’t good enough to pursue it professionally. I chose music instead. While a piano performance major at USC, I had the opportunity to take a creative writing class with T. C. Boyle, and fell in love with writing all over again. Unfortunately, I once again put my dreams on hold to get married, raise four children, and teach a studio of 40 piano students. When my youngest daughter was two, she was diagnosed with leukemia. After almost three years of chemotherapy, she was considered cured, and in a sense, I was cured, too. I decided that I would write again, no matter what. I began to allow a little time each day to write. I signed up for an adult education writing class, started a blog, and joined a bi-weekly writing group. The funny thing is that even though I have a novel coming out soon, it’s still difficult for me to refer to myself as a “writer.” Maybe when I have the next novel under my belt, I’ll own that title.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

Unfortunately, I can’t write full time because I still have a large class of piano students and one teenage daughter still living at home. I do manage to squeeze in about 2-3 hours each day if I can. I would love to be able to write all day long!

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I love photography, and often will look through the photos I’ve taken with my phone to find inspiration to write. I believe that many writers are inspired by other types of creative expression. I also make up stories in my head about people I see on the street; I imagine what they looked like as children, and what their life experiences have been.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a famous concert pianist! And I wanted to be Nancy Drew.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

This may sound trite, but I want to say that it’s really never too late to fulfill one’s life dream. Sometimes it takes hitting bottom to make one realize that life is too short to ignore those deep desires! I didn’t start seriously writing until my late forties. I’m 58 now and am about to publish my first novel. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Instagram

Thanks for being my guest today!

Interview with memoirist Marianna Crane

Writer Marianna Crane is here today chatting with me about her memoir, Stories from the Tenth-Floor Clinic: A Nurse Practitioner Remembers.

Bio:

Marianna Crane became one of the first gerontological nurse practitioners in the early 1980s. A nurse for more than forty years, she has worked in hospitals, clinics, home care, and hospice settings. She writes to educate the public about what nurses really do. Her work has appeared in The New York Times,The Eno River Literary Journal, Examined Life Journal, Hospital Drive, Stories That Need to be Told: A Tulip Tree Anthology, and  Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine. She lives with her husband in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Welcome, Marianna. Please tell us about your current release.

Marianna Crane loved her job working in one of the country’s first programs in gerontology. She felt a connection to her patients and valued her role in their care. But when she herself was not valued for her work, Crane decided to make a change and accepted a position coordinating a clinic that cared for poor, underserved elderly and which was located on the tenth floor of a Chicago Housing high-rise.

Crane knew how to be a nurse, but what she didn’t know, and what her memoir so movingly recounts, is how much beyond her role as a nurse practitioner was required to assist older patients. She found herself planning a funeral, exposing relatives preying on the vulnerable, and hauling a mattress up the elevator. Also, she learned to offer medical care in people’s apartments even when people would not seek it —because care was needed. Most importantly, she learned how significant teamwork is in working with this population.

In Stories from the Tenth-Floor Clinic: A Nurse Practitioner Remembers, Crane offers readers a compassionate and insightful look into the world of nursing but even more so, she offers readers stories about endearing people, stories that remind us all what it means to human.

Long an advocate for recognizing the invaluable work nurses perform, Crane uses her memoir to give readers a greater understanding of what nurses/nurse practitioners do each day, a perspective that she hopes will increase understanding of the nursing profession.

What inspired you to write this book?

I believe we nurses don’t acknowledge what we do. We rarely write stories about ourselves or our patients. I have a Blog that asks nurses to be proactive and educate the public about our jobs. I decided to write this book to tell about the development of the role of a gerontological nurse practitioner at a time when geriatrics was also a new entity. Unfortunately, most of the challenges I faced caring for the elderly so many years ago still exit today.

Excerpt from Stories from the Tenth Floor Clinic: A Nurse Practitioner Remembers:

The slap of bare feet on linoleum caught my attention before a tall, wild-haired man in boxer shorts and sleeveless undershirt appeared in the doorway. 

Dropping my pen on the desk, I shoved the chair back, ready to bolt from the room—except that he blocked the way, breathing heavily, and leaning against the door jam. He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t carrying a weapon. He looked so unsteady that I probably could have pushed him over with one hand. My surging adrenalin began to subside. After all, this was a clinic.

“What can I do for you?”

What exciting story are you working on next?

I plan to publish a collection of stories that tell about my visits to patients’ home rather than treating them in a hospital or clinic.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I always wrote since I was a little girl. But it was only when some of my stories were accepted for publication that I called myself a “writer.”

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I try not to be pigeonholed into any structured writing behavior. This means I don’t beat myself up if I go for a while without writing. I am always writing in my head.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I get my best ideas during the night. I don’t have paper and pen on my night stand since I am developing the idea. The next morning, I seem to be able to remember what it was that was so important.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A marine biologist

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Writing is a wonderful catharsis. And a great way to better know yourself—sometimes not in the best way. However, writing does tend to help you be more aware of your surroundings and explore interpersonal dynamics realizing that as you get older you see the same story from a different view point. Therefore, a story can change over time.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Thanks for joining me today, Marianna.

Interview with novelist Charles Salzberg

Novelist Charles Salzberg joins me today and we’re chatting about his new literary crime suspense, Second Story Man.

Bio:

Charles Salzberg is a novelist, journalist, and acclaimed writing instructor. He is the author of the Henry Swann detective series, including Swann’s Last Song which was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel and Devil in the Hole, which was named one of the best crime novels of 2013 by Suspense magazine. He has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, the Writer’s Voice, and the New York Writers Workshop, where he is a Founding Member. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, Esquire, New York Magazine, and GQ. He lives in New York City.

Welcome, Charles. Please tell us about your current release.

"I am a thief. Not just a run-of-the-mill, knock you over the head and steal your wallet thief, but the best damn thief in the whole goddamn world," is how the infamous Francis Hoyt describes himself. He doesn't leave a trail—paper or otherwise—and he always thinks ten steps ahead of the authorities and his sketchy business associates. He smirks in the face of apprehension, taking on more intricate and dangerous jobs just to prove how great he is at his work. He breaks into the homes of the wealthy and divests them of their valuables. Following the money, he works in Florida during fall winter, and the northeast in spring and summer. The arrogant, brilliant, athletic, unscrupulous Hoyt often steals things from right under the noses of the authorities. Manny Perez, a Cuban-American Miami police detective, who has recently been suspended from the Miami PD as a result of his nemesis, is obsessed with bringing Hoyt to justice. and so, he teams up with Charlie Floyd, a recently retired Connecticut State investigator who’s floundering, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. Floyd, also arrogant, intelligent and a master at what he does, is very much Hoyt’s doppelganger. Second Story Man is a cat-and-mouse tale of Perez and Floyd trying to catch Hoyt in the act, as the master thief keeps upping the stakes in order to prove just how good he is. Told from the perspective of the three men, the novel is really a commentary on the American obsession to be the best, to win at any cost.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was looking for something to write that would address our country’s need to always be first, to always win, to always be the best. And so, I created a character, Francis Hoyt, a master thief, a burglar who’s the best at what he does. Then, I added two other characters to the mix: Charlie Floyd, a recently retired Connecticut State Investigator, and Manny Perez, a Cuban/American detective with the Miami Police Department. Both these men are also the best at what they do. What interests me is the lengths people will go to in order to win, in order to be the best, and what the consequences of that obsession might be.

Excerpt from Second Story Man:

As I slowly edged my way back around the house, keeping one hand on the house as I felt my way in the dark, I spotted a small window by the by the back, chest-high, that had been left partially open. No more than an inch or two, but that was enough. Could they have made it any easier for me? I wouldn’t even have to break a sweat prying my way in or risk someone hearing when I broke a pane of glass. I stood on my tiptoes and peered inside, using my small flashlight to see what was in what looked like a small room. Coats hanging from a rack on the wall and a washer/dryer tucked against the back wall, gave it away. It was the mudroom, a perfect place to land. If I did leave any residue from outside it would mix with what was already there. It was far enough from the upstairs bedrooms that I wouldn’t have to worry about any noise I might make. If there was a downstairs bedroom that was occupied, it wouldn’t be anywhere near the mudroom.

I wrapped my keychain in the wad of toilet paper so they wouldn’t jingle and give me away, then jammed them into the front pocket of my jeans. I pulled out a couple pats of tinfoil wrapped butter squares from my back pocket. They were soft, almost liquid, from my body heat. I squeezed them out on either side of the middle of the window frame so the window would slide open easily, without making noise. I carefully pushed up the window until there was an opening of about twelve inches, more than enough for me to squeeze through. I hoisted myself up on the windowsill, then went in head first. At the point at which my waist was resting on the windowsill I shimmied the rest of the way down until my hands touched the floor, at which point I pulled in the rest of my body until I was practically standing on my hands. Slowly, I leaned forward so my legs were touching the closest wall, then carefully walked them down the side of the wall until I was standing upright.

I was in. A jolt of electricity shot through my body ending up in my brain. It was a familiar feeling, a feeling I live for. I was Frankenstein’s monster suddenly given the gift of life.

I was now in someone else’s space, an uninvited guest. I was a ghost who could walk through that house with no one knowing I’m there. This is what I live for.

For that brief moment of time I am part of someone else’s family. I am the eccentric uncle. The prodigal son. The perfect father. The trusted family friend. I am whoever and whatever I want to be. I am taking something from them, something they will never get back. Not their most treasured valuables. Their privacy. They have been violated and their lives will never be the same.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m working on the fifth Henry Swann novel. I thought I’d stop at four, but after a year I kind of missed the character and I came up with an idea, so I started writing Swann’s Down. But before that, due out in September is the second edition of Triple Shot, a collection of three crime novellas by me, Ross Klavan and Tim O’Mara. This edition will be called, Strike Three, and my contribution is called, “The Maybrick Affair,” an historical mystery that takes place in New England, just before our entry into World War II.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Probably when I was 12 and I wrote my first novel. Or part of a novel. It was a roman clef about summer camp. I actually found it when I moved apartments a few years ago, but I haven’t had the nerve yet to read it. What if it’s better than anything I’ve written today? But as far as an adult, I remember being loathe to identify myself as a writer until I actually sold something. A friend of mine disabused me of that notion when he said, “you write, so you’re a writer. It has nothing to do with selling anything.” In that case, I guess around 20, when I graduated college and started my first real novel.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I’m a full-time writer, though I don’t write full time. What I mean is, on a good day I might get an hour or so of actual writing done. But as another writer friend pointed out, we’re really never off duty. In a way, we’re writing all the time, it just doesn’t mean it gets down on paper. Thinking about it counts. But I also teach writing, right now, three nights a week. My students are terrific. Many of them get published, which thrills me more than my getting published. And some of them are way more famous than I am. Years ago, a young woman walked into my class, blonde, very pretty, sent to me by a friend of mine, a magazine editor. The first thing she handed in was an essay about her first day at work. She called it, “The Devil Wears Prada.” Yes, that was Lauren Weisberger. She studied with me for about a year and a half, until I convinced her she really did have a book there.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

Goethe kept rotten apples in a desk drawer. The aroma evidently stimulated his creativity. Some people have other quirky rituals. Me, my only ritual is to avoid writing until I actually have to do it. Oh, and I can’t write in public. I wish I could do what friends do, go to coffee shops to work. Me, I’d spend all the time watching people rather than writing. Besides, I don’t drink coffee.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I know this sounds ridiculous, but I really did want to be a writer. Probably because I was a shy kid and read all the time. I thought, how fun would that be to spend my life writing stories. Little did I know it isn’t really fun (having written is fun, writing can be a little torturous) and it’s really, really tough to make a living.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Only that I hope you enjoy what I write and if you do, let me know. Writers love getting feedback from readers. In fact, even if you don’t like it, you can let me know. I just love getting mail or email from strangers.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Thank you for joining me today, Charles.