Inspired.
I was recently interviewed by the illustrious Hank Phillippi Ryan, the USA Today bestselling author of thirteen suspense novels, winner of five Agatha awards and one Mary Higgins Clark award. She is also an on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, with 37 EMMYs and dozens more journalism honors. It was a thrilling and entirely new experience for this novice author.
Ryan also interviewed ten other authors who are at varying points in their writing careers. There were a couple other debut authors, one of whom – Robert Gwaltney -- has already had immense success with his 2022 release, The Cicada Tree. Others are established authors with successful books under their belts, including Lisa Barr, whose novel, Woman on Fire, will be made into a film produced by and starring Sharon Stone. In short, my being interviewed by Ryan alongside these talented people was, among other things, humbling.
Something that Ryan was intensely interested in was the backstory to A Letter in the Wall. After learning that the letter was handed to me by an electrician doing work inside a wall of my house, she commented: “People say to writers all the time ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ And you’re like ‘A letter in the wall from a person who was murdered!’ Okay, that doesn’t happen very often.”
She is right. In 2007, I was literally holding the inspiration for a book in the palm of my hands. I have started and never finished several novels throughout my life, and none of them kept me as focused and committed as this one did in the process of researching, writing, editing and rewriting the manuscript. It may sound very “woo-woo”, but I do, in some sense, feel as though I had been channeling Joan each time I sat at my laptop and began typing. I understood her motivations and fears. I know I tend to over-use the word empathy, but I guess that is how I was able to construct my protagonist.
The question, then, becomes: Where will the inspiration for my next book come from, and will it surface as magically as this one did? I’m a tad skeptical that history will repeat itself in the form of being handed the physical manifestation of inspiration. However, what I know is that, if I keep my eyes and ears tuned into my community as well as the greater world around me ; if I allow my sense of wonder to remain intact and refuse to be a cynic; if I push myself toward new experiences, places and people; if I draw from my other creative interests like painting; and and if I remember to listen more than speak and learn more than preach, well, I may yet find the inspiration for my next novel.
I will say this: Writing the story was a blast. This part — the marketing, publicity, sharing, etc. — is fun and novel (no pun intended), and it’s just the beginning of the “public” part of writing a book. When authors compare publication to childbirth, it’s spot-on. The baby is due to be delivered into this world in two months. I will need to nurture her so she can stand on her own, though I know she’ll still need my support as time goes on. There’s a long and exciting journey I see before me, and, right now, my next “baby” is just the proverbial twinkle in my eye. But stay tuned.
