Meg Tuite asked Larissa Shmailo:

You are one of the most powerful (translated as vulnerable and speaking the truth) writers I am thankful for every day to know, admire, and adore!!! How do you walk that fine line that marks the depths of our despair in life and what we have survived, with the written replay of that? What would you say to a new writer out there who has much to uncover but is afraid to cut to the blood?"

Larissa Shmailo Dear Meg, thanks! I sobbed as I wrote Patient Women, head to keyboard, but I was all intellect when I edited. The autobiographical novel, especially one that depicts the morass of addiction and sex abuse, is a gnarly proposition; I followed the Compte de Lautremont's dictum, "Show your reader the experience that came of suffering; do not cry in public." For new writers of autobiographical material, I would advise: Write with your heart; edit with your head; let your heart resolve any conflicts.

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