An interview in which I name names -- the three women behind my books. Also? Why my books end the way that they do!
This interview with Julia Oller ran originally in the Columbus-Dispatch on January 17, 2017.
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By Julia Oller
By the time they reach the last few chapters of a Chris Bohjalian novel, readers have no idea how things will end.
And when he's plotting them, neither does Bohjalian.
“I don’t really think about creating a surprise ending per se,” Bohjalian said of his signature twists and turns. “I depend on my characters to take me by the hand and lead me through the dark of the story.”
The 54-year-old Bohjalian, who lives in Lincoln, Vermont, will appear Thursday at Westerville Central High School to discuss his 19th book, “The Sleepwalker” — in which family members in Vermont investigate the death of their wife and mother, a secretive sleepwalker.
Bohjalian keeps his record of shocking endings intact with his latest work.
The Dispatch spoke with the author before his visit, part of the Westerville Public Library's "Meet the Authors" series.
Q: How did you get the idea for “The Sleepwalker”?
A: Originally, I thought I was going to write a book about dreams — the great Freudian abyss. I was having lunch with a sleep doctor. I wanted to understand what the brain is doing when we dream. He had just come from a patient who was a sleepwalker, and, rather naturally, our conversation went there. He began to tell me stories about people who sleep-cook, sleep-drive, sleep-jog, sleep-sex, sleep-murder, and I grew hooked.
Q: You’re known for your surprise endings. What prompts the sudden twists?
A: I want my endings to leave the reader happily stunned. I am paraphrasing Aristotle here, but Aristotle said that the perfect ending is utterly surprising and absolutely inevitable. I want my readers to finish a book and say, “I didn’t see that coming, but I cannot imagine the book ending any other way.”
Q: How have you improved since your first novel, “A Killing in the World”?
A: My first novel is a train wreck, but not because I necessarily am talentless. I hope I have some talent. But it’s an apprentice work, and very few first novels should ever be published. .. . My first three novels should have been workshopped at a conference and been left to mildew in a drawer.
Q: What steps did you take to better your writing?
A: I think it’s the 10,000-hour rule. I just wrote and wrote and wrote. I amassed 250 rejection slips before I published a single word. By the time I got to my fourth and fifth novel, I had written easily 10,000 hours.
Q: You wrote a column for your local newspaper for many years. How did it affect your novels?
A: Lord, did I love writing that column for the Burlington Free Press. I wrote it for 23 and one-half years, every single Sunday but three. It was instrumental in helping me to become a better novelist. First of all, it honed my research skills. Second, it forced me to figure out how to set a scene fast. I’m the kind of writer who, if I’m not careful, it can take me 50 words to describe a sneeze, and in a 675-word column, you have to be dramatically more efficient.
Q: How do you discern whose opinion to listen to during the book editing process?
A: I’m really blessed in that I have three really smart people reading all my books. My editor, Jenny Jackson at Doubleday, is so wise. My wife, Victoria Blewer, is so honest. She once said to me, when she was criticizing something very intelligently, “Wouldn’t you rather hear it from me than The New York Times?”
I also have to give a shout-out to my daughter, Grace Experience, who graduated from college (in 2015) but who has been reading my books since seventh or eighth grade. She has been so helpful in creating the voices of some of my characters. When I wrote “Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands,” I must have texted her every day wanting synonyms for “hookup” or “wasted,” and I don’t know if I should be proud or terrified, but she would immediately text me back with five perfectly good words.
joller@dispatch.com
++++++++++
By Julia Oller
By the time they reach the last few chapters of a Chris Bohjalian novel, readers have no idea how things will end.
And when he's plotting them, neither does Bohjalian.
“I don’t really think about creating a surprise ending per se,” Bohjalian said of his signature twists and turns. “I depend on my characters to take me by the hand and lead me through the dark of the story.”
The 54-year-old Bohjalian, who lives in Lincoln, Vermont, will appear Thursday at Westerville Central High School to discuss his 19th book, “The Sleepwalker” — in which family members in Vermont investigate the death of their wife and mother, a secretive sleepwalker.
Bohjalian keeps his record of shocking endings intact with his latest work.
The Dispatch spoke with the author before his visit, part of the Westerville Public Library's "Meet the Authors" series.
Q: How did you get the idea for “The Sleepwalker”?
A: Originally, I thought I was going to write a book about dreams — the great Freudian abyss. I was having lunch with a sleep doctor. I wanted to understand what the brain is doing when we dream. He had just come from a patient who was a sleepwalker, and, rather naturally, our conversation went there. He began to tell me stories about people who sleep-cook, sleep-drive, sleep-jog, sleep-sex, sleep-murder, and I grew hooked.
Q: You’re known for your surprise endings. What prompts the sudden twists?
A: I want my endings to leave the reader happily stunned. I am paraphrasing Aristotle here, but Aristotle said that the perfect ending is utterly surprising and absolutely inevitable. I want my readers to finish a book and say, “I didn’t see that coming, but I cannot imagine the book ending any other way.”
Q: How have you improved since your first novel, “A Killing in the World”?
A: My first novel is a train wreck, but not because I necessarily am talentless. I hope I have some talent. But it’s an apprentice work, and very few first novels should ever be published. .. . My first three novels should have been workshopped at a conference and been left to mildew in a drawer.
Q: What steps did you take to better your writing?
A: I think it’s the 10,000-hour rule. I just wrote and wrote and wrote. I amassed 250 rejection slips before I published a single word. By the time I got to my fourth and fifth novel, I had written easily 10,000 hours.
Q: You wrote a column for your local newspaper for many years. How did it affect your novels?
A: Lord, did I love writing that column for the Burlington Free Press. I wrote it for 23 and one-half years, every single Sunday but three. It was instrumental in helping me to become a better novelist. First of all, it honed my research skills. Second, it forced me to figure out how to set a scene fast. I’m the kind of writer who, if I’m not careful, it can take me 50 words to describe a sneeze, and in a 675-word column, you have to be dramatically more efficient.
Q: How do you discern whose opinion to listen to during the book editing process?
A: I’m really blessed in that I have three really smart people reading all my books. My editor, Jenny Jackson at Doubleday, is so wise. My wife, Victoria Blewer, is so honest. She once said to me, when she was criticizing something very intelligently, “Wouldn’t you rather hear it from me than The New York Times?”
I also have to give a shout-out to my daughter, Grace Experience, who graduated from college (in 2015) but who has been reading my books since seventh or eighth grade. She has been so helpful in creating the voices of some of my characters. When I wrote “Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands,” I must have texted her every day wanting synonyms for “hookup” or “wasted,” and I don’t know if I should be proud or terrified, but she would immediately text me back with five perfectly good words.
joller@dispatch.com
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I inherited my love of books from my grandfather, He barely finished HS, and I am certain, never heard of Aristotle. Gramma Jay would read anything, as long as it was a "good story, with a great ending." He read a lot of mysteries back then. Did the thriller genre exist 30-40 years ago? How do you go from an interest to an idea to a story to an idea? Is that process different in your historical novels vs your thrillers?
I guess that is more than one question..,