Writer's Voices

Having lived in Santorini for a few years as a child helped Godfrey make the decision to set her story in a fictional Greek island rather than a real town in Greece. “Santorini is the island I know best, but it belongs to many people and it’s also extremely crowded, so I knew going in that I needed a less traveled island and one of the smaller ones would do great, but I hadn’t been there and I didn’t want to do any island injustice by assuming a lot, and I think I would’ve had to… So making up an island… it’s allowed me to control the environment in a way that I needed to for this story because the island is very small, the tourists don’t come very often, there’s an infrequent ferry, it’s not on one of the big ferries from Athen’s stops… and no cruise ships, which is key…”

For authors seeking publication, Godfrey suggests, “Read widely in the genre that you want to write in, read as much as you can, pay attention to what you like and pay attention to what you don’t like, and know that there’s a lot of rejection and none of it’s personal. It’s a business and if you give up, then you don’t get there. So, giving up under the weight of all that is not going to make you succeed. It just doesn’t.” She also disagrees with the myth that an author either knows the craft or doesn’t, and that improvement in writing isn’t possible. “I don’t think that’s true at all. I think you can absolutely improve. I know I did. The first novel I wrote was like 160,000 words… it was terrible, terrible! I didn’t know anything…”

In the first draft, the character voice isn’t distinct. I don’t yet know what they care about deep down. I don’t always know their problem. I have to hear their voice a little bit. Usually by the second draft I have a handle on who they are.

It takes a lifetime to discover Greece, but it only takes an instant to fall in love with her.”

The inspiration for the unique title came from one of Kittle’s favorite lines in a poem. “I love Mary Oliver, the poet, and this is a line from her poem, Invitation … the line says, ‘It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in this broken world,’ and I love that so much because the world is broken …all of these characters are facing some really hard times and some serious struggles, but it is a serious thing just to be here and that line has always meant a lot to me. I’m a two-time breast cancer survivor and… sometimes on the terrible days, like a day of car trouble, when I realize, this is it. This is it for this car and I’m going to need a new one, I have this thought of like, ‘I get to be here for this. I get to be here for the car trouble because that story could’ve gone a whole different way, right? I get to be here for the bad stuff and the good stuff’ …so that is what I was really, kind of, going for with these four coming together.”

For her readers who aspire to become authors, Kittle says persistence is the key. “You’re going to hear no a lot. There will be all kinds of obstacles thrown up in your path. There’s lots of rejection, and if this is something you want to do you just have to know those obstacles are coming, those no’s are coming, and just keep going. But if this is really what you want to do, you cannot let anything stop you.”

I think all my books share that theme of found family. The idea that we lift each other, we need each other, we lift each other, and we are stronger when we’re together.”

One of the things that Homayoun stresses and teaches her students is the power of organization and how staying organized can help them plan and prioritize, therefore reducing their stress levels. In addition, being organized can also motivate students to develop their own systems, such as establishing the daily routines, habits, and skills they need to accomplish tasks successfully. “I really believe if we help kids with these skills, they’re going to transcend any expectations of them in a way that really supports their socio-emotional well-being, as well as their economic stability, because we also want our kids to have, you know, an ability to live in this world and feel comfortable financially, whatever that looks like…”

For Homayoun, writing this book took a great deal of commitment and diligence. She spent an extended amount of time developing her thoughts and ideas, devoting much of her weekends and mornings working on it. “This book was a labor of love that, I did the interviews with all my former students… it was really a very active experience that I feel really good about and am really proud of the book… [Their stories] gave me such hope because these are such different people and I’ve been so fortunate to work with such amazing young people that are also different, and their stories are different and their perspectives are different and their interests are different, and what I hope readers come away with is that idea that… there are so many different pathways and there’s no good, bad… there’s just different.”

All kids should have the opportunity to develop their own blueprint for success.”

Being the first to cross the finish line makes you a winner in only one phase of life. It’s what you do after you cross the line that really counts.”

Key West, which is located in the southernmost part of the United States and about 159 miles southwest of Miami, is a popular destination known for its rich history, lively nightlife, and beautiful beaches. The population of the city is about 26,000, but the island draws in many more visitors over the winter due to its mild temperatures and sunny weather. Regarding the writing community in Key West, what is it that attracts so many writers there? Initially, the great American novelist, Ernest Hemingway, put it on the map when he moved there and wrote some of his best works. Additionally, “It was also cheap in those days… Word got around that it was convivial to writers, the weather was good, and it became a kind of magnet.” Winfrey explains that the writing community there is also closely connected. “Almost everyone knows everyone, all the writers. Sometimes… the usual suspects show up at various libations and events and dinner parties… it’s a very tight-knit community and it is a very non-hierarchical community…” Interestingly, Key West is also home to many stray cats and feral chickens. Many of the cats wander the streets in the older areas of Key West. However, the chickens have become a nuisance and contrary to popular belief, crow at all hours of the day, not just at dawn. Winfrey remarked, “They crow all night long and it can be awful if they’ve decided that your backyard is where they want to live and roost.”

It doesn’t matter if you’re a best-selling author or a first-time writer, you are encouraged, and accepted, and welcomed.”

I want to get to Key West and get away from it all.”

As far as why Sather prefers writing short stories, she says that the limited space of short stories allows her more creativity, with each sentence conveying much more meaning. Additionally, the smaller space also feels less overwhelming to fill than the immensity of a novel. “In the book business, everyone wants to hear about novels… for me at the time, I couldn’t hold a novel. I just didn’t know how to hold that much space. It felt too big and almost vacant in a way and a short story had this, the size of it, felt manageable and I could do it in short pieces, which is sort of the time that I had then, and then the other part of it was I was really fascinated with how much you could do in a small space and the demands in a way of the form.” When creating her stories, Sather says that her ideas often materialize when she feels a conflict between two people. “Some of the stories are adjacent to experiences I’ve had. They aren’t exactly experiences but they’re sort of like a glimpse or a moment where I think, ‘oh, what if it went this way?’ and I follow a darker thread and I don’t really know where the story is going to go. I mean, I have a sense of the mood and so I think in ways the mood shapes what’s possible to happen for these characters, but I’m very much discovering them as I’m writing… I try and write for my first draft, not fast, but just keep moving and not worry necessarily about whether this is good enough or whether I picked the right word because I just want the momentum of the possibility of what could happen next.”

Sometimes having a limitation is a spark for creativity. I was always thinking, ‘Ok, what can a sentence do? Like how can a sentence do more than just say one thing?'”

Fame is a series of misunderstanding surrounding a name.”

While Erasmus’ book is tailored for both aspiring and seasoned writers, the book can be beneficial for any audience. Since writing is an essential skill for daily life, this book is a handy tool even for those whose writing consists of day-to-day emails, messages, texts, or social media posts. Erasmus explained, “My book is geared for anybody who wants to write, who wants to write for publications, who wants to learn more about the craft, working with editors… and I feel that it’s translatable. It’s also tips and tricks for people who have been writing awhile and want to get their platform a bit more elevated, and that’s how you can do that… Writing, it’s so interesting. If you know how to write persuasively and you know how to write to make an impact and get attention and get noticed, you can get your insurance claim taken care of. You can write a good email in business, you can do things in your life that can make a difference, and so knowing how to do this, I feel, is a very translatable skill.”

Start with a story, not a topic. Instead of saying, ‘I want to write about peace in the Middle East,’ you can say, ‘I want to write about people on both sides of the religious walls sharing their philosophy.'”

Look for patterns in storytelling that make it compelling. Either educate, entertain, or emotionally engage the reader with your writing.”

Regarding her writing process, Angoe prefers to focus on character development first rather than the plot itself. “I’m one who thinks for a long time. I like to marinate on my story and hash out all of my issues before I sit down and write it… I have to really know what is motivating my characters and how they’re going to be, how they’re going to behave, prior to sitting down and actually writing it…” She advises, “Know your characters. Your characters drive your story.”

I don’t write in order. I write whatever the scene is that comes to me and that I’m excited about. I feel like it sounds better when it’s something that I really, really want to write.”

There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.”

In early reviews of House of Marionne , there were many comparisons of Elle’s book to the Harry Potter series. As in Harry Potter, the characters in House of Marionne also attend a modern-day magical boarding school that includes a house system complete with house sigils, colors, and allegiances. Additionally, there’s also a genuine camaraderie within the houses. Elle explains, “There is a similar dynamic here, the difference is that in Harry Potter this is a world in Europe that… all of the schools are in different places and in different countries… in House of Marionne , the houses function more like lords, back as things were years and years ago, and so what you have is the the countries sectioned into territories and each territory has a house that serves that territory, so it’s all here.” House of Marionne also includes themes of power and conformity. “Part of the reason I’m exploring power is I want the people who don’t have power and what happens when a group of people aren’t given the freedom over their own lives… what happens when a person can’t have freedom, when it breeds revenge and who do we blame? … That’s part of what I was trying to create, which is why in this world you have such a very clear picture of an oppressive, powerful system where there are people within it who are clamoring to hold on to their power… “

For me, if the reader doesn’t care about the character, to me I think that the world can only hold a person’s attention for so long, so for me, it’s all about the character. I like to write deep, emotional stories and so the emotion connects to the character, not the world as much, so that’s where I hang my hat.”

Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart, and they both take practice.”

Despite the seriousness of the time periods, readers and pastry-lovers will delight in the recipes found throughout the book. In the 1870’s timeline, Lisette opens her own bakery to feed her starving neighbors and keeps a notebook of recipes with personal notes added as she creates her delicious confections. Runyan explains, “It’s not a cookbook, it’s her notebook. It’s Lisette’s notebook, and Micheline starts adding to it… I wanted her to add to it. I wanted it to be a working, living document…” However, she advises readers against actually following the recipes. “…for those of you following along who are avid bakers, I would not suggest trying to follow them because they are, you know, put it in a hot oven. Well, what the heck is a hot oven? Which is about 450 degrees, but it would be easier to find more modern recipes…” As far as incorporating more food in her stories, Runyan has included recipes in a few other books and explains why baking is important in her historical novels. “…It’s really becoming a thing for me… foodie fiction…. I had a baker in my very first book… Baker was one of the most important, esteemed people in the town back in the 1660’s, especially, we can’t overstate the importance of bread in the French diet, and the further back you go the more true that is.”

I think the biggest value that one gets from these [writing] associations is just a sense of community… you don’t have that kind of competition because we’re all trying to lift each other up in the writing industry. I found that the few people that seem hyper competitive don’t tend to make it as well because they’re not supporting the community, and therefore aren’t being supported in turn, at least not as much as they could be.”

Regarding his writing process, Jaworowski explained that he took a different approach to writing this book than what he’s done in his previous works. “This one I decided to take a different path. I said, ‘Don’t worry… sometimes I would stop after two or three sentences and admire my beautiful work and stall, and I said to myself, ‘No. write. Just keep writing. Go back to it later and edit it,’ and there were sometimes that I would write 3 to 4 pages when I finally edited it. I would bring it back to a page or even a paragraph. So, I listened to the characters and followed them along and just kept writing. In the past, I was so concerned about every single word, and this time I wasn’t… I focused primarily on storytelling and on editing. So that’s the big change I made this time around.” And for anyone who aspires to be a novelist, he advises, “Remember your audience. Absolutely. You can’t just write for yourself and for years, I did, and again, I know this is a tough novel at times too, but I think readers can understand what’s happening and I’ve written for them just as much as I’ve written for myself.”

The Greeks believed we should view tragedy to have a catharsis and to release those emotions in us that may not be so pleasant.”

People in small towns, much more than in cities, share a destiny.”

In small towns people scent the wind with noses of uncommon keenness.”