So today, I'm thrilled to shut my own trap and let someone else do the talking b/c let's be honest, you guys might get sick of me every once in a while! With that in mind, I asked my friend, Joanne Rendell, to swing by the blog and answer a few questions just in time to launch her second novel, Crossing Washington Square, which hit bookstores yesterday! Joanne is one of those super-cool writer-moms whom I feel fortunate to call my friend, so read the below, then run out and grab a copy of her latest!

This is your second book: how did the writing process differ from that of your first?

My writing process didn’t differ too much. As with my first book The Professors’ Wives’ Club, I spent a few months mulling over ideas for Crossing Washington Square. When a clear sense of the story came into view, I then outlined and wrote brief chapter descriptions. I always like to have a pretty clear sense of where the story is going to go before I start writing. I also like to work on my books in a very chronological, chapter-by-chapter way. Things change as I go along, of course, and I amend my original outline and retweak past chapters but on the whole I’m a pretty structured kind of writer. I actually wrote over half of Crossing Washington Square during the summer of 2007 while staying at our little ramshackle cabin in the Catskills in upstate New York. We have no internet connection there, no distractions, barely any running water, and its amazing how focused it made me. Thoreau was definitely onto something! 

How about the actual publication process? Feeling calmer or less calm the second time around? :)

I only have one child, but I have heard people with two or more children talk about how much less fraught they were when the next kids arrived. It’s the same with the publishing process. By the second book, you know the lay of the land, what is expected, and the timing of it all. I’ve definitely been much calmer with this second book. The Professors’ Wives’ Club came out the same time last year and I spent August fretting and worrying about whether I was doing enough promotion, whether the book would sell etc. This August I’ve spent more time enjoying the summer!

You happen to live on a college campus and you also happen to write about lives on college campuses. People are told to write what they know, but how closely should they adhere to this advice? Obviously, your storylines and characters aren’t replicas...where do you draw the lines? What do you use for inspiration?

Both my books are set at Manhattan U., a university which resembles very closely NYU where my husband is a professor and where we live in faculty housing. Mostly it is the setting which I borrow from real life. Characters and storylines, although sometimes loosely based on things I’ve heard and seen, are largely fictional. I draw inspiration from other books, philosophical ideas, and cultural concepts more than I do from real events and people. With Crossing Washington Square, for example, one of my main inspirations was other novels about university life. I’ve always enjoyed these kinds of books (think Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys or Richard Russo’s The Straight Man). But what I noticed about such “campus fiction” was the lack of female professors in leading roles. Furthermore, most of the male professors in campus novels are disillusioned drunks who quite often sleep with their students, or at least consider sleeping with their students or are accused of it. I wanted to write a novel with women professors at the forefront and I wanted these women to be strong, smart, and interesting – instead of drunk, despondent, and preoccupied with questionable sexual liaisons.

 Another big inspiration for Crossing Washington Square was Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and its portrayal of the two very different Dashwood sisters: Elinor led by her sense and Marianne led by her irrepressible sensibilities. I always loved how Austen explored the sisters’ strengths and weaknesses, how they clash but also how they learn from each other. I enjoyed putting these two kinds of women in a modern context and then adding very opposing views of literature to stir up more sparks between them. When I was in grad school (I have a PhD in literature), I was always fascinated by debates about what’s considered “good” or “trashy” literature and what kinds of literature should be studied in English departments. Should it only be the classics and literary fiction or should John Grisham and Nora Roberts be studied too? It was fun to bring this debate alive in fiction and have my two main characters hold such staunchly opposite views on the topic. 

You’re also a busy mom. How do you juggle motherhood with writing full-time?

It’s quite a juggle, but somehow I manage it. For the most part, I write when my six year old son is asleep. When he was younger he took deliciously long naps. However, those days are sadly gone so now I wake up early and write before he gets up. We’re actually homeschooling Benny, so that is why I have to squeeze in writing time while he’s sleeping. “Homeschool” is somewhat a misnomer, though, as we spend a relatively small amount of time schooling at “home.” We live in New York so are lucky enough to have an amazing array of fun and educational places on our doorstep. Benny and I, together with his friends, are always out on trips to the Met, the Natural History Museum, aquariums, zoos, galleries, libraries, and parks. When we’re not out and about, Benny and I love to read – either together or separately. I’m so thankful he loves books like I do. Also I’m learning so much as a writer through Benny’s books and his homeschool experiences in general. Inspired by another homeschool family, we recently started a loose history curriculum in which we’ve studied dinosaurs, early man, Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt followed by Ancient Greece and Rome. We’ve combined relevant story and picture books, with many trips to museums. Benny has learnt a lot, but it’s amazing how much I’ve learned too about Greek myths, ancient texts and civilizations. I feel my mind – and my writing – expanding because of these studies!

As a published author, can you look back and give an advice on mistakes that aspiring authors might make?

The biggest mistake that an author aspiring to be published might make is being unprepared. It is a very tight market out there right now and so to get a look in with an agent or a publisher you really need to know what you’re doing. You have to make sure who you’re sending your manuscript to is the right person for your book (do they take YA or romance or women’s fiction? Do they accept new submissions? Who else do they represent or publish?). You have to know about what other books are out there which may be similar to your book – and be able to say why yours is different and better and appealing. Knowledge is power, as they say, and the more you know about the book industry the better you’ll do. 

What’s next for you?

I’m working on final edits for my third novel which was bought by Penguin last fall. The novel tells the story of Clara Fitzgerald who thinks she might be related to the nineteenth century writer, Mary Shelley. On her journey to seek the truth and to discover if there really is a link between her own family and the creator of Frankenstein, Clara unearths surprising facts about people much closer to home – including some shocking secrets about the ambitious scientist she is engaged to. The book is told in alternating points of view between Clara and the young Mary Shelley who is preparing to write Frankenstein.

So just a quick note today - almost done my line edits for The One That I Want - so want to get back to them, but wanted to tell you guys that if you're looking for a fabulous book to check out over the weekend, pick up Julie Buxbaum's After You, which hit stores on Tuesday. I loved it enough to blurb, and even if you don't trust me, Jodi Picoult loved it enough to blurb as well, which really says something! 

Here's the synopsis: 

The complexities of a friendship. The unexplored doubts of a marriage. And the redemptive power of literature... Julie Buxbaum, the acclaimed author of The Opposite of Love, delivers a haunting, gloriously written novel about love, family, and the secrets we hide from each other--and ourselves.

It happened on a tree-lined street in Notting Hill to a woman who seemed to have the perfect life. Ellie Lerner’s best friend, Lucy, was murdered in front of her young daughter. And, as best friends do, Ellie dropped everything--her marriage, her job, her life in the Boston suburbs--to travel to London and pick up the pieces of Lucy’s life. While Lucy’s husband, Greg, copes with his grief by retreating into himself, eight-year-old Sophie has simply stopped speaking.

Desperate to help Sophie, Ellie turns to a book that gave her comfort as a child, The Secret Garden. As the two spend hours exploring the novel’s winding passageways, its story of hurt, magic, and healing blooms around them. But so, too, do Lucy’s secrets--some big, some small--secrets Lucy kept hidden, even from her best friend. Over a summer in London, as Ellie peels back the layers of her friend’s life, she’s forced to confront her own as well: the marriage she left behind, the loss she’d hoped to escape. And suddenly Ellie’s carefully constructed existence is spinning out of control in a chain of events that will transform her life--and those around her--forever. A novel that will resonate in the heart of anyone who’s had a best friend, a love lost, or a past full of regrets, After You proves once again the unique and compelling talent of Julie Buxbaum.

Enjoy!

So here's a funny (and true) story that is just so 2009. About a month ago, I was in bed reading InStyle, when I flipped past their summer book recommendations. I was surprised (and excited!) to see that I knew one of the authors, but not through my usual network of author friends. In fact, she had dated my brother in college! I called my mom, and, as moms do, she of course knew that said ex-of-my-bro had written a book, and thus, I googled said ex, found her on Twitter, sent her a tweet, and then she tweeted me back, and then we swapped email addys, and then we emailed, and then she sent me her galley, and then I asked her to do a Q/A on this blog. 

Whew! Like I said, so 2009! :) Yes, thanks to modern and social media, I am thrilled, THRILLED, to present Hyatt Bass to Ask Allison readers. I read The Embers, which is garnering great reviews, including being named one of People's hot summer reads, and was just in awe of her mastery of language. She is just a beautiful, beautiful writer (and one who clearly dates good guys). :) She stops by below to offer some really fabulous writing insights and other insightful answers to my questions:

1)How long did it take you to write The Embers? Where did the story idea come from?

It took me seven years to write the novel. Before that, I tried to write it as a screenplay. A filmmaker at the time, I was in the editing stage of my first feature film, Seventy-Five Degrees in July. One day, I saw a precocious-looking adolescent girl in a café, and realized someone like her, caught between childhood and adulthood, would make a compelling subject for my next film. There was also an actor, Harris Yulin, who was so fantastic in Seventy-Five Degrees in July, I knew I wanted to feature him prominently in the next film as well. So, I started creating a story about an unlikely friendship between a young girl and an elderly man. When it became clear that the screenplay wasn’t working, I had this crazy urge to write the story as a novel. And at that point, the man’s family began to grow around him. The girl is still there, too, but the family ended up becoming the real focus of the book. There’s a quote by Van Gogh that I use in The Embers, “One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet nobody come to sit by it.” That quote was something I had in my head, and it really described the way I thought about this family. In addition, it gave rise to some other elements of the book, including the title.

2) I was so very impressed with your character development in this book. Do you have a set process that you use when envisioning and developing characters? How do you create and keep track of all of their nuances and habits?

For me, the characters and the story are so intertwined. Usually, when I’m first getting ideas for a book (and this was true for film as well), I get little glimmers of things I think I’d like to write about¾places, activities, character traits, major life-changing moments¾and then the challenge is to figure out how to fit all of those things together. Of course, a lot of stuff just ends up getting thrown out or put away for another project. But by having this odd collection of personalities and events and themes or questions I want to explore, I end up having to flesh out the story and the characters in a way that allows me to weave all of these elements together. Then, once I’ve got the whole thing mapped out, and I start writing, it’s immediately clear if I run into something I don’t know yet, or that needs to be worked out in order for the novel to work as a whole. So, then I’ll stop and do a little more of what I think you’re talking about, just working on a character, and asking a lot of questions about them¾Do they habitually stay out all night or turn in with a book at 9pm? Do they pick fights or shy away from them?¾Whatever I need to know for the story. And then once I’ve gotten to a certain point in the writing, the people are totally real for me. They’re just there.

3) You have some pretty big reveals in the second half of the book. I tend to write my books as they come to me, not knowing how they’ll end. Did you have this plot all mapped out or did it surprise you when you got there?

Both. I do map everything out. I have pages and pages of notes, scene by scene. Which works really well for me because it helps me avoid that overwhelming feeling of facing a blank page, and the structure also gives me more freedom in my writing. Because I know where I’m going, I can take all kinds of detours; whereas if I had no idea where I was going, I’d be really cautious¾kind of frozen up¾afraid of going the wrong way. At the same time, even though I’ve got this clear map of the book next to my computer, I’ll often stumble upon something while I’m writing that’s a total surprise, and that makes me realize things can happen differently down the line. And that’s really cool. I also have to say that the main thing I learned over the course of writing this book is that the problem-areas are often the biggest goldmines. When I avoid them or try to pretend they don’t exist, they just keep giving me trouble. But if I’m really honest with myself, and bore down into them, those are often the places I find really interesting questions¾and answers¾that end up altering the book in totally unexpected and exciting ways.

4) You’re also a screenwriter. What’s are the differences between writing a book and writing a movie?

Well, people often say that a screenplay is like a blueprint, which is true in the sense that it’s not the final form the project is meant to take. And one thing that’s nice about writing a novel is that you know you are writing the actual final form of something, and you can do it without someone giving you a huge check, or without a dozen people coming in with their own interpretations of your blueprint and telling you how they think you should shape things from there on. I don’t mean to sound obnoxious¾I actually really like the collaboration of film, but a screenplay is just frustrating that way. Also, when I started writing The Embers as a novel, I was amazed by how much freedom I had, not only in terms of length (a screenplay generally has to be 120 pages or less), but also in terms of how many different ways I suddenly had to tell a story. You can go into people’s heads, and back out again, and describe the scenery or gestures in great detail, and so on… You know, compare that to action, dialogue, action, dialogue.

5) You’re donating a portion of the proceeds of this book to charity? Want to talk a little bit about the charity and why it was important for you to give back?

Around the same time I started writing the book, I became involved with the New York Women’s Foundation, which makes grants to community-led, grass-roots organizations working with women and girls to promote sustainable economic security and justice. I’m now a board member of the NYWF, and the people I’ve met through the Foundation¾fellow board members, staff, volunteers, and grantee-partners¾are such an incredible group of inspiring women. And they, and the work that we’re all so passionate about, have been such a grounding force for me throughout the process of writing this book. Out of debt and deep gratitude, I’m giving a portion of the book’s proceeds not only to the New York Women’s Foundation, but to several similar Women’s Funds throughout the country.

6) What’s the scariest thing about publishing your first novel? And what’s the best thing?

The scariest thing right now is the prospect of the readings. Writing and reading have always been intensely private experiences for me. There’s just something so strange and terrifyingly intimate about the idea of reading my own book out loud to an audience. If you want to see me crawl under the table, or into a bookcase, you should check out the tour-schedule.

The best thing is hearing from people who have read the book and really gotten something out of it. I can’t tell you how meaningful that is. Or I guess I can actually since I must be one of the zillions of people who have told you how much they loved Time of My Life. So, you know what I’m talking about.

7) You’re a busy mom of two little ones. How do you manage it all and keep track of your time?

I have a great babysitter and a strict writing schedule so that I can enjoy my time with the kids, and I also have an incredibly supportive husband. But the truth of the matter is, I don’t really manage it all most of the time. I’m always feeling guilty that I’m either neglecting my kids or my work or some other part of my life. My piles and to-do lists are ridiculous, and I always feel like I’m forgetting something, which I usually am.

Of course you do! Eileen Cook, awesome writer, even funnier person, is running a contest over on her blog in which you can win a $75 gift certificate, which can buy you a slew of good reads, all to commemorate the six-month anniversary of the release of her book, What Would Emma Do?

So we haven't done an author Q/A around here for a long time, and despite the fact that I am so very wise, sagacious and all-knowing, I think it's time to mix it up. :) (Er, yeah, sarcasm, in case that doesn't translate.) So today I'm super-excited to have a Q/A with Anna David, author of the newly released BOUGHT and the previously released PARTY GIRL, which I very much enjoyed.