Conclusion ~ Interview with author, Christina Dudley
Q. Do you think we will see, in our lifetime, the total demise of paper
books?
CD. I doubt it. They’re expensive, but plenty of people love paper books. I do think traditional publishers might start to do smaller print runs for books that aren’t expected to be blockbusters. I myself don’t do print anymore unless I want to look at maps or find it at a used bookstore, because who has the space?
Q. What makes a writer great?
CD. No two readers will ever agree on this! When I put my own fiction-reader hat on, I’m looking for books with rounded characters and plausible situations, even if it’s set in a fantasy world. Bonus points if the story makes me laugh. Not too much navel-gazing, please, and a plot with a traditional conflict-rising action-climax-denouement. I must be too old to enjoy the stories where there’s no real conflict, or where it’s resolved with 25% left to go, and then it’s just 25% of people riding off into the sunset. Yawn.
When it comes to nonfiction, which I also love, I want to learn something and have it told to me like a story. Books like The Boys in the Boat and Into Thin Air delight me.
Q. How have your life experiences influenced your writing?
CD. With Pride and Preston Lin, I threw in everything from my life, it felt like. I sent Lissie Cheng to my high school and had her live in my hometown. The family restaurant was one I ate at frequently throughout my life. My husband and I met in grad school at Stanford, so that played a prominent role. Heck, even my English country dance lessons and my time as a swim official for youth swimming made it in! And though the book takes place mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area, I placed a pivotal scene at the King County Aquatic Center up in my neck of the woods, as a nod to all the hours and hours I spent there when my kids were swimming.
But even my Regencies reflect my life: my love for Austen and Regency romances; how I almost studied 18th century literature in grad school because I had a fabulous professor for an Austen seminar; how my favorite stories involve lovable families (think Laura Ingalls Wilder and Betsy-Tacy and All-of-a-Kind Family); how I love English literature in general, from Renaissance poetry to the end of the 19th century, etc.
Q. What’s your downtime look like?
CD: I walk daily, am involved at my church, belong to the same book club I’ve been in for decades, and otherwise love all things sedentary, including reading, eating, and watching baseball.
Q. Have you or do you want to write in another genre?
CD. Yes! I’d love to do more contemporary romance and am excited to do another. But I’ll always love Regency.
Q. Note to Self: (a life lesson you’ve learned.)
CD. Trying to make a living wage writing is like trying to be struck by lightning. You can’t make it happen, but you can put yourself in the best places where lightning strikes.
Did you miss the beginning of my Interview with the talented, Christina Dudley?
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