Interview with Lance Weller, author of Wilderness
Jaime Boler: Lance, thank you so much for letting me interview you. Did you always want to be a writer?
Lance Weller: For as long as I can remember, yes. My maternal grandmother had dreams of being a writer and always had the accoutrements of the craft lying around—pens, pads of paper, a really excellent typewriter—and some of my earliest memories are of monkeying around with all that wonderful stuff.
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The Dog Stars by Peter Heller (Knopf; 336 pages; $24.95).
The End Of The World As We Know It does not necessarily mean The End. In The Stand, Stephen King unleashed a flu epidemic, "Captain Tripps," onto mankind, killing billions. Some possessed a natural immunity to the disease. These survivors were central in the fight between good and evil. In the end, Las Vegas and the "Darkman" were obliterated, but life went on.
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Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead (Knopf; 320 pages; $25.95).
There are weddings, and then there are weddings. Destination weddings. Weekend weddings. Lavish weddings. Small weddings. Weddings where drunken bridesmaids sleep with equally inebriated groomsmen. Even Shotgun weddings where no one has to guess "is she or isn't she?" The wedding of Daphne Van Meter features a little of all of the above in Maggie Shipstead's strong, hilarious debut novel…
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The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (Little, Brown; 240 pages; $24.99).
Few fiction authors have tackled the subject of the Iraq War; most of those have been published only within the past year: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain, Fobbit by David Abrams, and The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. All are written from a soldier’s perspective. While Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Fobbit are satirical, The Yellow Birds is intense and somber.
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Interview with Kathy Hepinstall, Author of Blue Asylum
Jaime Boler: You grew up in Texas. Did you always want to be a writer?
Kathy Hepinstall: Yes, I think so, but it took different forms. As a girl, I wrote mostly poems. Later, I wrote short stories and went into advertising writing. After a few years in that career, I decided I wanted to try a novel.
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Blue Asylum by Kathy Hepinstall (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 288 pages; $24).
Novels are often strong in one or two elements and lacking in others. Characters may stand out in one book while the plot suffers. In other tales, the setting might drive the story because there is just no plot at all. Rarely does one novel feature a triple play, as I call it, where the setting, the characterizations, and the plot are skillfully crafted and masterfully rendered.
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The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (Reagan Arthur Books; 389 pages; $24.99).
Life in 1920s Alaska is harsh with long, bitterly cold winters and scarce sunlight. It can be a difficult and lonely existence. Not surprisingly, cabin fever sometimes sets in. Such is the setting in Eowyn Ivey's rich, atmospheric debut novel, The Snow Child, a Pulitzer Prize nominee in fiction.
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The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman (Ballantine Books; 272 pages; $15).
From Ellen Sussman, the bestselling author of French Lessons, comes a riveting and poignant novel of one woman’s journey across the world in search of love, renewal, and a place to call home.
“And you?” the man asks. ”What takes you to Bali”
The plane breaks through the cloud and there it is–an island full of dense jungles, terraced rice paddies, and glorious beaches. Jamie flinches as if someone’s laid a fist into her heart.
“Vacation?” her seatmate asks when she doesn’t answer.
“Yes,” she lies. ”Vacation.”
He’s already told her about his silent meditation retreat, how he can’t wait, how he needs to unwind, and she thinks: Start now. She curses herself for talking to him in the first place. It was the second scotch that loosened her tongue and made her break her rule: no chats on airplanes. You can’t escape.
“All by yourself?” he asks.
Jamie turns toward him. ”There’s an event,” she says. ”I was invited to attend.” She absentmindedly runs her finger against the long, thin scar at the side of her face and then buries her hand in her lap.
“A wedding?” he asks eagerly. He’s already told her about his wonderful Australian fiancee who will meet him at the retreat in Ubud.
“No,” Jamie says. Her mind’s a muddle of thoughts now. There’s no reason to tell him anything. And yet she’s been telling the world: I’m going back to Bali.
It starts as a trip to paradise. Sent on assignment to Bali, Jamie, an American adventure guide, imagines spending weeks exploring the island’s lush jungles and pristine white sand beaches. Yet three days after her arrival, she is caught in Bali’s infamous nightclub bombings, which irreparably change her life and leave her with many unanswered questions.
One year later, haunted by memories, Jamie returns to Bali seeking a sense of closure. Most of all, she hopes to find Gabe, the man who saved her from the attacks. She hasn’t been able to forget his kindness–or the spark between them as he helped her heal. Checking into a cozy guest house for her stay, Jamie meets the gracious owner, who is coping with a painful past of his own, and a young boy who improbably becomes crucial to her search. Jamie has never shied away from a challenge, but a second chance with Gabe presents her with the biggest dilemma of all: whether she’s ready to open her heart.
Ellen Sussman
Ellen Sussman is the author of three national bestselling novels: The Paradise Guest House, French Lessons and On a Night Like This. All three books have been translated into many languages and French Lessons has been optioned by Unique Features to be made into a movie. Ellen is also theeditor of two critically acclaimed anthologies, Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia Of Sex and Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave. She was named a San Francisco Library Laureate in 2004 and in 2009. Ellen has been awarded fellowships from The Sewanee Writers Conference, The Napoule Art Foundation, Brush Creek, Ledig House, Ucross, Ragdale Foundation, Writers at Work, Wesleyan Writers Conference and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has taught at Pepperdine, UCLA and Rutgers University. Ellen now teaches through Stanford Continuing Studies and in private classes out of her home. She has two daughters and lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ellen was born in Trenton, NJ and has lived in Boston, Philly, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Paris and Northern California. She has worked lots of jobs including tennis instructor, restaurant manager, and college teacher but through all the transmutations of her life she has been writing, since the age of six, stubbornly, persistently, with great cockiness and wild insecurity, through praise and piles of rejection letters. She has given up her writing career many times, but only for a day or two, and her family has now learned to ignore her new career choices. She is a writer, an almost daily writer, a writer who actually loves to write.
Jamie is one of the most courageous and inspiring characters who I have ever come across. Setting may drive Sussman’s deeply affecting story, but Jamie is an unforgettable narrator. In the midst of reading The Paradise Guest House, two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Such a horrific act reminded me of the Bali nightclub bombings. Although Sussman’s tale is fictional, the novel shows us that, even in the midst of tragedy and heartache, there is still life to live and love to share. This lush, atmospheric novel is perfect for fans of Elizabeth’s Gilbert’s bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love.
I am offering a very special giveaway: a brand new, signed copy of The Paradise Guest House. Giveaway ends Friday, April 19, at 5 pm ET. Open to US residents only. Please fill out the brief form below.
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The World Without You by Joshua Henkin (Pantheon; 336 pages; $25.95).
Marilyn and David Frankel, loving parents to four adult children, are living their worst nightmare in Joshua Henkin's new novel The World Without You. Their son, Leo, a journalist, was captured in Iraq, accused of being a U.S. agent, paraded before cameras, and executed on July 4, 2004. It was almost too much for his family to bear.
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The Light between Oceans by M.L. Stedman (Scribner; 384 pages; $25).
There are times when I lose myself in a novel. I am certain this has happened to you, too. I disappear into the rhythms and cadence of a good story. The characters I meet become like friends or family members. The settings of these tales are places I have physically never been, yet I could tell you everything about them.
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Jaime Boler is a book blogger and freelance reviewer who lives in Laurel, Mississippi. Jaime earned a Ph.D. in American history and formerly taught at a community college. From a very young age, her first love was reading. She hopes to pursue a career in publishing; her dream is to one day work for Oprah Magazine. For the past several years, she has participated in Elle Magazine's Readers' Prize program. Jaime loves to interview authors on her blog; she has interviewed Lance Weller, Erin Morgenstern, Jonathan Odell, and Jillian Medoff, just to name a few. A proud member of the National Book Critics Circle and She Reads, Jaime is also an avid book collector and aspiring novelist. When she's not reading, Jaime loves swimming, going to the beach, collecting vintage postcards, and spending time with her dogs.
