Christine Reilly talks about SUNDAY'S ON THE PHONE TO MONDAY, rock and roll, family, sanity and so much more

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nhUpVycU_w..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nhUpVycU_w..." width="213" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UmY74bki0w..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UmY74bki0w..." width="218" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><i>"A sharply observed and bittersweet family romance with a rock and roll heart." Elle </i><br /><i><br /></i><i>You all know how much I love debuts, so I was thrilled to come across this one. Yes, it's been out for a while, and yes, I was so overburdened with work, I forgot to get to it. But that doesn't mean I can't get to it now! I'm thrilled to have Christine here!</i><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I always think authors are compelled or haunted to write a book—what compelled you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></b><br /><br />My biggest passion, tied with writing, has always been listening to people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Human behavior fascinates me – when I was younger, I knew I’d either be a writer, a teacher, or a psychiatrist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>(Reading is a type of listening to people.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I started <u>Sunday’s on the Phone to Monday</u>with a set of stakes, and challenged myself to answer them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">    </span>What happens to a family during and after the worst possible circumstances – death and illness -- occurs?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>What happens to a woman when her sanity slips away?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>What would a brother who would do anything for his sister act like?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>What happens when “anything” results in destruction?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I loved all the music references in the book—is it your taste, too? Do you listen to music as you write?</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Thank you!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>It is, though I honed in on one particular area – rock and roll.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I too love folk, rap, soul, and blues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I believe that passivity with art is important if you want to succeed in your particular craft – reading, listening to music, watching plays and films and dance, looking at visual art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>A muse has to be born somewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I listen to all music when I write, and instrumentals when I edit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Editing requires an extra ear.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I’m a sucker for novels about families, particular with sisters involved. Why do you think it is that families cause us the most grief—and yet, sometimes, if we are lucky, give us the most benefits?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></b><br /><br />Well, they cause us the most grief and give us the most benefits because they’re the first ones to teach us about love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Adulthood’s luxuries are choices – the free-will to choose our friends, our jobs, our homes, and what we do with our time, but family is the one thing we carry our entire lives, along with what family taught us about love and morality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>So family is inextricably linked with our childhoods, and the intense, unmediated feelings that accompanied our childhoods.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What kind of writer are you? Do you outline or try to wait for that pesky muse?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></b>I studied poetry at Sarah Lawrence, and wrote two books of poetry before I finished my novel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This has its advantages and drawbacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I’m a pretty stream-of-consciousness writer, but I edit on a very small scale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Which is to say, I’d typically perfect one hundred pages sentence-by-sentence before realizing that the story has no plot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>But I’ve learned and am humbled by my failures, and now I outline as I produce content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>This is not my natural way of writing, but I’ve found it helps, even if I typically edit the outline alongside the book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What’s obsessing you now and why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></b><br /><br />David Foster Wallace: I’m in the middle of reading his biography, just taught his short story “The Planet Trillaphon As It Stands In Relation To The Very Bad Thing” to my high school fiction class, just watched <u>The End of The Tour</u>, and am about to begin his last book <u>The Pale King</u>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I love everything about him – his sincerity, his deliberateness, his imagination.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /><br />What question didn’t I ask that I should have?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span></b><br /><br />I’d actually love to ask you a question!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>I’m a huge fan of your books – when you start a story, do you know what the end’s going to be?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>If not then, when?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>And are you ever torn over how to reveal it?<br />BONUS ANSWER: Sort of know. Always torn. ALWAYS. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>