Barbara’s Comments (group member since Oct 11, 2007)

Barbara’s comments from the Barbara Delinsky Reading Group and Q&A group.

Good guess, Ruby. My mother died when I was very young, so I was raised by an aunt. That aunt was suffering with Alzheimer's disease at the time I wrote "Shades of Grace." She was definitely the inspiration for the book.

As of this time, there is no sequel in the works. I really do like to give my reader's imagination free reign to wonder as it will.

Besides, sequels are tough. I did it once, setting two books -- "Lake News" and "An Accidental Woman" -- in the same lake town in New Hampshire. Making sure that every little detail in the second book was consistent with every little detail in the first was a challenge. I also realized through that effort that, as a writer, I prefer to start each book in a new place with an entirely new cast.

I work at it. Rarely does a character's original name end up as the final one. I start by picking a name that I think will fit with the kind of character I'm creating. As that character evolves, the name may not feel right, so I change it.

I used to work with baby books for first names and telephone books for last names. I've even used obituary pages to find names. This is actually a good source, because I can go online to a newspaper in whatever part of the country a character is from and find a name that is appropriate to that region.

Another wonderful source, online, is the government listings of most popular names. If I'm creating a thirty-five-year-old character, I can go to the government list of the top 50 names for the year that character would have been born.

I avoid using the names of people I know. I also avoid using unisex names, which may be confusing to the reader -- speaking of which, readers often write to say that I've used their name in a book. It's pure coincidence.

Ditto to you, Niki! :-)

I totally take readers opinions to heart. When readers write saying that they love New England settings, this is incentive for me to stick with New England (which is what I know). When they write that they love strong women, this encourages me to create another strong woman.

I also listen to the negatives, which may mean that a very few readers have a strong influence. For example, when a new book comes out, I'll get a letter of two asking why characters need to use foul language. Actually, my characters don't do that often, but once in a while, when they are upset and swearing is a realistic response, I let them do it. But I think long and hard before I give them the OK. And I probably do it less often than I used to. That's the effect of readers' opinions.

Same my book "Three Wishes." Now, "Three Wishes" is one of my favorites, but I did do something with the ending that I've never done in a book before. It was really tough for me to write, so I had a feeling that I wouldn't do it again. But when readers wrote to me in tears, that clinched it. No more endings like that.

The problem is trying to separate constructive criticism from emotion. Constructive criticism is worthwhile. The other is harder to take.

I may surprise you all here, but I don't see FAMILY TREE first and foremost as a book about race. I see it as being about how we see ourselves and what happens when that perception differs from reality. Hugh's father Eaton reacted one way, Ellie Jo another, and the Senator different again. All of these people (Corinne, too) had a public face and a private face.

No, Amy, I don't see myself as having grown up in an atmosphere of racism and prejudice -- though there were places I couldn't go and groups I couldn't join because I was a Jew. Nor do I see New England as being a hotbed of bigotry. To the contrary. Part of the inspiration for my writing FAMILY TREE was seeing so many biracial families in my local supermarket and realizing how far we've come.

That said, there remain narrow-minded people everywhere in the world -- people who fear those who are different and would rather be with people like themselves. This is a sad fact of life. I like to think that as our worlds broaden -- as more babies like Lizzie are born -- this will end.

So here's a question. What do you think Eaton is going to do, at the end of FAMILY TREE, with the new knowledge he has about his family and himself?

Time frame for writing a book? It's kind of like growing a baby -- nine months in the making. I spend three months thinking up an idea, elaborating on it, conceiving of major characters, doing basic research. Then I spend six months in the actual writing. Keep in mind that some research is ongoing, as is character development. Both of these can shift, depending on the direction the writing takes.

I don't work from a detailed outline. I do know the general direction the story is headed, but I like allowing for spontaneity. Some of the best writing days are when my characters do something I didn't expect.

Okay. The book's done. Once my editor has read it, I may spend another 2-4 weeks making revisions. Then there are various read-throughs at the copy-editing and proof-reading stages. By that point, though, I'm usually on to the next book.

Your question about the length of my books is interesting, Tammy. I usually aim for a manuscript that is 400 pages, which allows for cutting and tightening, to finish at 350 pages or so. This gives me a comfortable length to tell a good story. Narrative versus dialogue? I have no set formula, but simply do what's necessary to keep the pace up. No, I don't give detail to every element of the story. Nor do I tie up every end in a neat bow. If I did, what would the reader do with his or her own imagination?

Q. What keeps you writing?

A. The contract I signed? The money I get? These may both be factors, but they are minor ones. If I worked solely for the money, my books would show it. We've all read books like that. Right?

Two things, really, keep me going. First, I love playing with words. There is nothing more satisfying than writing a passage, editing it and re-editing it until every last word fits smoothly, neatly, and rhythmically—then reading the whole thing and thinking, "Wow, that's nice." It's a puzzle. The moment when all of the pieces come together is magical.

Second, my readers keep me going. I work in solitude, some of the time thinking that no one but me ever sees that magical passage. Then I get feedback from you all, and any frustrations I feel regarding the down-side of this career (the business side, the traveling, the fighting for placement in bookstores) go right out the window. Knowing that I touch so many people is mind-blowing. Come the day when that stops happening—when my books fail to move readers—I'll pull the plug on my computer.

Q. Which comes first, character or plot?

A. Sometimes one, sometimes the other. In Looking For Peyton Place, for example, Annie Barnes came first, born of my desire to write about a writer whose life was shaped by Grace Metalious, the author of Peyton Place. The plot grew around Annie, coming to involve not only a town with secrets, the scourge of mercury poisoning, and Grace Metalious, herself.

The opposite was true in The Woman Next Door. I wanted to write about what happens to three married couples, each suffering personal trials, when their neighbor, a young widow, turns up pregnant and the three men with the easiest access to her are our three husbands. The characters formed to fit the plot in this book, well before "Desperate Housewives" was even part of our lexicon.

Then again, take Flirting With Pete. What came first, here, was a novella, which I had written several years earlier. I created a whole other story in and around it, with its new set of characters and plot themes.

Q. Where do you work?

A. My office is the room above our garage. It has four skylights above and two windows each at the front and back of the house. I have a U-shaped desk that holds my computer, a writing space, a fax machine, and a myriad drawers and file cabinets. There is a chair on the other side of the writing space; my assistant sits here when she comes in with questions. Bookshelves, with additional file cabinets beneath, face the desk. On my left as I work, is a seating area consisting of a rattan love seat and chair. On my right, a window seat runs under the front windows. That's Chelsea's spot.

Q. Where do you get your ideas?

A. This is the question I am most often asked. The answer? I get ideas from the newspaper, which I read every day. I get ideas from magazines, from movies, from the evening news, from stories friends tell. My very first full-length book, Finger Prints, was inspired by one of my lawyer-husband's cases. Another early book, Heart of The Night, was sparked by the lyrics of a country music song. A Woman's Place came from a tiny article I read in "Working Woman" magazine, and The Woman Next Door from a not-so-tiny newspaper piece on infertility. The Summer I Dared was inspired by September 11th, while Looking For Peyton Place, quite simply, was born of my long-time admiration for Grace Metalious and the original Peyton Place.

I also get ideas from my own life experiences. When my youngest children (the twins) went off to college, I wrote Together Alone, about the empty nest syndrome that so many of my friends and I were experiencing. When the aunt who raised me developed Alzheimer's disease, I wrote Shades of Grace. When I questioned the emotional underpinnings of The Bridges of Madison County, I wrote For My Daughters.

The key for me is opening up my mind to the world. Take people-watching at the mall. I have a vivid imagination that can take a facial expression or a piece of body language and build it into a full character.

Q. How do you decide on a storyline?

A. Instinct. I gravitate toward what happens to catch my fancy at a particular time. An idea that sounded wonderful four years ago may feel stale to me now. I like my storylines to be current, because that's the kind of book that would interest me.

Q. Of all the books you've written, which is your favorite?

A. Many of you have asked this question. One reader even said, "I'm sure they are like children and you love them all in different ways." How right she is. I do love all my books. The fact is that I couldn't spend months pouring my heart and soul into a book if I didn't love it. The pleasure I get from writing is similar to the pleasure I get from reading. In other words, I write the books I most want to read!

That said, do I have favorites? Well, For My Daughters will always hold a special place in my heart not only because I personally relate to it and cry each time I read it, but because it was my very first in hardcover. I love Coast Road for its setting (Big Sur) and because I liked the challenge of creating a woman who was a main character, though she was comatose for much of the book. I love Three Wishes because it is a beautiful story of eternal life. I love Flirting With Pete because it was based on a novella I wrote that I think was – is – the best thing I’ve ever written.

Over the course of my career, I've worked hard to broaden my stories and hone my writing style - in short, to become a better writer. So, if you were to pin me down about my single favorite book, I'd have to say what I've been saying for years: Which of my books is my favorite? The next one. That's The Secret Between Us, which will be published in 2008.

Q. FAMILY TREE deals with issues close to the heart such as love and relationships. However, it also speaks to larger social issues of identity, race, and community. What served as inspiration for your story? Were you influenced by larger, social issues?

A. Interestingly, there was no single event or newspaper piece or personal experience that inspired Family Tree. The book was inspired by the times we live in, with those larger social issue creeping into my consciousness and crying for expression. Interestingly too, I don’t see the book as one about race. Basic identity, yes. Community, definitely. But the book is also about hypocrisy — about those people who say one thing and do another, who wear one face in public and another in private, who want us to do as they say, not do as they do. We all know people like this, whether personally or in the news. Writing about them was a temptation I couldn’t resist.

Q. Dana and Hugh’s young family is almost torn apart because of Lizzie’s unexpected African-American physical traits. Hugh, feeling pressure from his Caucasian New England family, begins to doubt Dana’s fidelity and ultimately damages his relationship with his African-American friend, David. Is Hugh’s mistrust from outside pressures? Or do his reactions reveal his real attitudes about race?

A. That is a pivotal question in this book. Hugh is a lawyer who has, time and again, gone out on a limb defending minority clients. Yet suddenly, seeing that his own child has minority roots, he feels a qualm. Do I think he is racist? Absolutely not. I think he is stunned. He is frightened. He is savvy enough to know exactly what his bi-racial child will face in life. And, yes, he bows to outside pressures at the start. But he loves this baby from the get-go. She is the vehicle that enables him to honestly and realistically examine his attitudes about race.

Q. The notion of secrets resonates with every character and drives the plot of Family Tree. Questions of paternity and infidelity branch across generations, leaving change in their wake. For instance, why does Ellie Jo keep her husband’s secret?

A. Ellie Jo is of a generation that found shame in certain things, her husband’s secret being one of them. Times have changed; in the modern day, Earl’s secret would be easily handled, with little shame involved. But Ellie Jo is not of the modern day. Goodness, my mother died of breast cancer when I was a child, yet I didn’t learn it until I was nearly an adult. Why? My father couldn’t say the word ‘breast,’ much less ‘cancer.,’ and he was far from unique. His and Ellie Jo’s may have been The Greatest Generation, but it was also one of the most silent ones.

Q. Driven by Hugh to discover her ancestry, Dana delves into her ambiguous family past in order to learn about the father she never knew. Although he wants to develop a relationship once they’ve reconnected, why does Dana have a hard time opening up to her estranged father? As she learns about his life and his relationship with her mother, does her attitude towards her mother change? How does this alter her concept of family?

A. Dana has grown up without a father and, perhaps by way of rationalization, prides herself in neither needing nor wanting one. She goes looking for the man solely for the sake of her daughter, but a part of her remains resentful he never cared enough to look for her. Why does she have trouble opening up to him? Fear of being hurt, perhaps? Fear of being seen as the illegitimate one, the intruder in a tight-knit family? One of the problems is that he is a really, really nice man. Liking him, for Dana, though, means believing his story, which in turn means finding fault with her mother. In time, she is able to set fault aside and be realistic about both of her parents. She sees that people are human and do make mistakes. This helps her understand her husband.

Welcome to my Reading Group. Please post any topics or questions you have about my novel, FAMILY TREE. Read an excerpt from the first chapter here: http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/5344.Family_Tree_by_Barbara_Delinsky?chapter=1

I will respond to all posts from Nov. 1st through Nov. 16th. To get our group started, I’ve posted some questions and answers I get asked about a lot. Please feel free to comment on any of these topics, or to start new topics of your own. I look forward to an active dialogue in November!