What inspires you to write?

In a word, LIFE inspires me to write. Early on, I discovered that expressing in writing my impressions and feelings deepens and enriches my experience. I’ve always wanted to make living and writing companion pieces of my existence, and becoming a professional writer enabled me to forge this alliance.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

My mother collected cutting edge contemporary painting, and quite clearly she wanted me to be an artist. I was regularly taken to the Metropolitan Museum and was given lessons at the Museum of Modern Art and The Art Students League of New York. But I never developed much of a facility for painting, and my mom would frequently look over my creations and critique them in ways which made me wish they were invisible. Writing was the way I learned to express my creativity without being seen and judged, because unlike with painting, I could write on the sly and hide what I produced. When I was 10 years old I started writing my first book, a biography of Florence Nightingale. Needless to say, it was heavily influenced by (and highly derivative of) a child’s biography of this 19th century pioneering nurse that I had been reading. My fledgling “manuscript” never got beyond a small stack of pages I kept rewriting and hiding in a desk drawer, but despite my inability to complete this early project, I loved the way it felt to record my thoughts and impressions and fervently considered myself a writer.

Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre?

I wouldn’t say I chose to write in a specific genre. My first novel, Footfalls, tells the (largely autobiographical) story of a young girl coming of age while her father is dying of cancer. Because my protagonist, Stevie, is a teenager, my manuscript got picked up and published as a Young Adult novel. When I sat down to write a second novel, the story of another teen protagonist came to mind, and so Watershed was also published as YA. My third book was an apparent departure from writing YA novels, but curiously, as I look back, I believe my adult biography of the French 19th century woman author, George Sand, is very much on a continuum with my novels that feature teen protagonists. It’s George Sand’s complicated development as a young girl growing up and her subsequently troubled relationship with her own daughter, Solange, that captured my imagination and became the fulcrum of my focus. So the short answer to this question would be: more than choosing a genre, I wove the thematic thread of girls coming of age and mother/daughter relations into the warp and weft of my writing.

What is the biggest thing that people think they know about your subject/genre?

I believe readers actually do know a lot about my subject/genre. We all come of age with our own individual personalities and proclivities, and the struggle to come to terms with who we are and what we’re capable of becoming is universal. The challenges we face may be various, but the experience of overcoming obstacles and prevailing in the face of adversity belongs to many, if not all of us.

What are some day jobs you have held, and how have they influenced your writing?

Besides a brief stint teaching French, my day job was making a home and being a mother. I was fortunate to have a husband who supported this endeavor as well as the freelance writing career I built around it. Surely my first-hand experience of raising children contributed to my development as a writer. “Field research” could be done around the kitchen table, and early articles about parenting and child development paved the way for writing novels for Young Adult readers.

What role does research play in your writing?

When I wrote my biography of George Sand, mindful of providing the documentary evidence and historical veracity to support my interpretation of her life, I spent many years doing research: reading a mountain of cticism and secondary source material, examining original documents and handwritten letters in European archives, and traveling far and wide to visit the places where my subject lived and spent her time. For my novels, my research has been more personal and closer to home. I write what I know well based on my own experience and let my imagination lead the way.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Read, read more, and keep on reading. Write, write more, and keep on writing. But don’t just read books you’re supposed to read, as in assigned reading for courses. And don’t just write to a form, such as essays, articles, chapters, or books. Read anything and everything that grabs your interest and think about why you like reading it, what pleases you about the way the writer describes things, how what you’re reading stimulates you and makes you feel, and then write about it. Write lots of notes and emails, become expansive about things that interest you and that you want to share with friends. Don’t obsess about proper punctuation and good grammar. Don’t angst over word choice and don’t worry about spelling. Enjoy yourself when you write. Make it fun and free. Make it funny and sad. Make it true and real. And most important: write about what you know and love so your readers can taste and smell and feel your passion.

Can you share a little bit about your latest book?

Neglected by her self-absorbed parents and facing the upheaval of their divorce and the loss of her best friend, whose family moves away, sixteen-year-old high school sophomore Carly Klein discovers a tantalizing distraction within her own home — the enigmatic patients of her therapist mother. Drawn to Daniel, a blind junior at Columbia College, Carly’s curiosity morphs into obsession, and she concocts a daring plan: masquerading as a Barnard College student to infiltrate Daniel’s world. What begins as a harmless ruse soon spirals into a whirlwind of emotion and intrigue as Carly navigates the dizzying highs and crushing lows of falling in love. Becoming Carly Klein takes readers on a rollercoaster romp through the exhilaration and disappointment of first love and the unintended consequence of disguise, deception, and discovery. 

What is your next project?

I’m so glad you asked, because I’m very excited about this one! My next project is an historical fiction set toward the end of World War II in the Alpine region of Haute-Savoie. This novel’s lead character is a young French girl whose family produces a traditional French cheese called Reblochon. Unbeknownst to her father, who sympathisez with the collaborationist Vichy government, Cecile is provisioning her boyfriend’s troup of Maquis (resistance fighters hiding out in the mountainous countryside), with wheels of Reblochon to sustain them as they organize attacks on the occupying Nazi forces. To avoid, spoilers, I won’t say more, but I’m thrilled to be working in a format that draws on my skills as a novelist and my nonfiction experience writing historical biography. Not to mention my love of French cheese!

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