Janet Benton's Blog: One Writer's Path, page 2

An endorsement from Sandra Gulland, author of the internationally bestselling Josephine B. Trilogy

What kindness! I wrote to historical novelist Sandra Gulland out of the blue, because I love her diary novels. My novel, Lilli de Jong, will be out this May from Doubleday. It is also in diary form, and I wanted to share it with her.

She read the opening pages and welcomed me to send a galley. Then she read the entire book and offered these generous words:

"I LOVED this novel. Lilli de Jong is deeply moving and richly imagined, both tragic and joyous. Janet Benton has an exceptional ability to bring history to life. Meticulously researched, the details of the day-to-day world are startling and vivid. It's not only a compelling, beautifully crafted historical novel, however: it's also important. As a single young woman desperate to hold onto her baby, Lilli's life-and-death struggle is shockingly common to women even today. How is it that we know so little of our history? This will be an excellent novel for book clubs because there is so much in it that is relevant, so much to learn and discuss."

Big thanks to Sandra for her generosity and her ongoing work. Her next novel is about Anastasia, Josephine Bonaparte's daughter. I can't wait to read it.

xo Janet Benton

Why Write?

What makes writing worthwhile, when it requires so many unfortunate things that degrade one's skeleton and eyes and muscles and financial condition and relationships when done hour upon hour upon hour: sitting indoors, typing, staring ahead at a screen or down at a pile of pages, doing without pay, shutting others out, using all the hours for this that others use for relaxation, intimacy, exercise, that almost unheard-of thing called recreation? There is some elixir to which one grows addicted. It will be described differently by each practitioner. For me, today, I consider it the possibility of moving others to care and be altered by what features of living my work might illuminate. Or--taking several steps back and getting to the heart of why this untenable physical discipline continues--writing lets me dwell in a world temporarily created in my mind where what concerns me utterly is central--with the fantasy that if I construct it well enough, I can make others care.