AMERICAN HISTORICAL NOVELS discussion
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The Last Suppers
THE LAST SUPPERS: Q&A with Author Mandy Mikulencak
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How did you first begin writing? When did you consider yourself an author?
I had high school teachers encourage me to pursue a career in writing, and I thought that meant getting a journalism degree. So that’s the route I took. I stayed in newspapers for a little while, and then was able to write in every nonprofit job I held for the next two decades. I didn’t think about writing fiction until 2009. I had attended a women’s writing retreat and was inspired. I started with flash fiction and short stories, and had a couple of stories accepted at literary magazines. After that, I started thinking about writing novel-length work. I wrote four books before I got my agent, and during that whole time I never thought of myself as an author. It was when I signed with an agent that I really felt that I was a true author.
What does your writing routine look like?
I actually don’t have a daily routine, even though that’s what most established authors advise. Because I still take on freelance editing projects, I find it hard to switch gears and be creative on those long work days. However, when I get in the groove, I can write for seven hours straight. My degree in journalism taught me to write quickly, so I tend to use my writing time wisely.
Can you describe the layers of research you underwent in order to capture this place and time period?
That was a really rewarding process, because in writing historical fiction, I think that we owe it to readers to capture the time period as accurately as possible, while also taking the creative license to fictionalize some aspects. With the penal system, I was fortunate to stumble upon my primary source, which was Politics and Punishment: The History of the Louisiana State Penal System, written by the late Mark T. Carlton, a former professor at Louisiana State University. Details from his research made the fictional Greenmount Penitentiary come alive. Such as the fact that prisoners were used as guards and were often more brutal on their fellow prisoners than paid guards. This set up a really vicious hierarchy within that system, and the warden and the paid guards let that all play out. Also, DeathPenaltyUSA.org has a list of actual prisoners executed in Louisiana in the 1950s which gave me insights on the types of crimes committed, the ages and races of inmates, and the Louisiana parishes where they lived. I didn’t use actual death records out of deference to actual death row families. I fictionalized the inmate stories and races and crimes on purpose.
What’s the hardest thing about writing?
Overcoming self-doubt. I thought it’d get easier after getting published but, like many authors, I will be in the middle of writing a book and think it’s nothing but crap, or that I’ll never be able to finish writing a full-length novel again. (I hit that point in all six books I’ve written. It’s usually around the halfway mark.) Then, I take a break and come at it with fresh eyes, which helps me see more clearly what’s working and what needs cutting or revising.
What’s the best thing about writing?
Hitting the point in the story where it starts to feel like it’s writing itself, that I’ve tapped into some collective creative force that is propelling me forward. It’s very woo-woo; I guess what other writers might call their muse.
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