TBR: Behold the Bird in Flight, A Novel of an Abducted Queen by Terri Lewis

 Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.

  

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 

Behold the Bird in Flight is a coming-of-age story and a royal love triangle filled with danger and longing and inspired by real historical figures—Isabelle d’Angoulême, her fiancé Hugh de Lusignan, and King John of Magna Carta fame. Set in a period that valued women only for their dowries and childbearing, Isabelle has been mainly erased by men, but the medieval chronicles suggest a woman who developed her own power and wielded it.

 

Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And, which character gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

Isabelle was an absolute delight. I imagined her as a stubborn young girl with romantic tendencies and let her loose. That stubbornness served her well in a world where women were disregarded; the romantic fantasies got her into trouble. I loved watching her grow into a strong woman capable of acting to save herself and even others.

 

Isabelle’s betrothed, Hugh de Lusignan, was the most difficult. He came to me as a dreamer, not a doer, and under the thumb of his powerful father, but somehow Isabelle had to love him.

 

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

I started the novel in 2009 and began to query in 2014. Several agents mentioned a problem with Isabelle’s youth, but she was a real historical figure and I couldn’t just make her older. I set the novel aside to marinate. When I picked it up again, I decided to show how a medieval girl prepared for the world earlier than a modern girl. After another round of queries (87 in all, with seven requests), a friend suggested I try another route. The novel was accepted by She Writes Press two months after submission, a nanosecond in publishing time.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

Editing is not rewriting. Polishing the prose won’t fix structural or character issues. Your words may seem engraved on the page, especially if you’ve lived with them for years, but be brave: cut, write new, merge characters. That lesson took me a long time to learn.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

I was surprised how entertaining I found King John. His reputation as the worst English king is probably earned, but in person he was growly, full of excuses and complaints, oddly insecure, but when he got mad, he let loose. Not the kind of character I’d written before. I mean, swords and threats and swearing. As I wrote, I became convinced he really loved Isabelle and only treated her badly when he felt she didn’t love him alone. Which of course, she didn’t, at least in my telling.

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

My title came late. Because religion resonated through the middle ages, I had given each chapter a quasi Biblical quote. Curse Not the King. Suffer the Little Children. Also, Isabelle always noticed birds, not only in the sky and woods, but the hawks men carried, a little chicken she took into her heart. After several misfires, my subconscious handed me Behold the Bird. I added in Flight for her curiosity about the world and her need to flee danger. Voila!

 

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book? (Any recipes I might share?)

 

 

Isabelle has a sweet tooth and loves honey balls. (She uses them to bribe a skinny guard…) She also loves eels which look like a ball of black string licorice. I doubt a modern audience would like the latter, but here’s a recipe to the former, baked not deep fried for ease: https://www.almanac.com/recipe/baked-honey-balls-italian-struffoli

 

*****

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: https://TerriLewis1.com

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Behold-the-Bird-in-Flight/Terri-Lewis/9781647429102

 

SUBSTACK: TerriLewis1.Substack.com

 

           

 

TBR: ARE YOU HAPPY? by Lori Ostlund

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.

  

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 

The nine stories in this collection explore class, identity, loneliness, and the specter of violence that looms over women and the LGBTQ+ community. For personal reasons, I spend a lot of time with characters who  try—and often fail—to make peace with their pasts while navigating their present relationships and notions of self. I often say that I write sad, funny stories, and I think that is true of this collection.

 

Which story did you most enjoy writing? Why? And which story gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

The answer to both questions is the same: the final story, which is a short novella entitled “Just Another Family,” gave me the most trouble and the most pleasure, probably for the same reason. That is, when you struggle for a long time with a story, as I did with this one, the pleasure of finally figuring it out is considerable. I don’t know when I started the story, but my records indicate that I got my first rejection in 2015. I kept rewriting and sending it out, and it kept getting rejected. I set it aside finally for around five years, and when I returned to it in late 2022, the voice just kicked in and pulled me along, and the story nearly tripled in length. In the process, the story became more hopeful, the humor darker, the main character more dynamic.

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

During the pandemic, my former agent went out with a novel that was not quite ready. She was struggling with the pressures of the pandemic, as we nearly all were, and the submission process fell apart. We had always had a good relationship, so it was with some sadness that I parted ways with her. By this point, I had stopped writing, a fallow period that lasted a couple of years. I wondered whether I would ever write again, but then one day something turned back on, and I sat down at my desk and opened up the novella that I mentioned above. I wrote several more stories, and these combined with stories that I had written and published in journals earlier formed the basis of ARE YOU HAPPY?, which meant that I found myself in the awful position of having to query agents with a story collection. I was lucky enough to secure representation by an agent I had long admired. The process of selling the collection in some ways went smoothly, and in other ways was stressful as hell. I got an offer from Emily Bell, whom I had nearly worked with on my last book. Since then, she had moved from FSG to Zando, and shortly after I accepted the offer for a two-book deal, she moved to Astra House, ultimately taking me with her. There were lots of twists and turns along the way, but that is the tame version.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

Kurt Vonnegut’s advice to write for an audience of one. The advice, on the surface, seems counterintuitive, but the most unusual voices—which is what I am always drawn to—details and observations evolve out of this advice, I think. In my case, if my wife—who is my first and usually only reader—laughs or understands the nuance, I go with it.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

Oh, lots of things surprised me, but one of the things that surprised me only later, when a reader pointed it out during the galleys process, was that there were lots of cats in the book and they were all named Gertrude. I have never had a cat named Gertrude, but I thought it was a funny name for a cat, I guess, and somehow the joke just kept getting retold.

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

When I submitted the book to my now agent during the querying process, I had tentatively titled it JUST ANOTHER FAMILY, which was the name of the novella. The title works for the novella, but felt flat as a book title, not memorable. Another story was entitled “The Peeping Toms,” and I had toyed with that as a title also, since some of the stories deal with themes of voyeurism and being or feeling watched. When my agent and I had our first conversation about the book, he said, “Why not call it Are You Happy?” That was the name of another story, yet somehow I had never considered this as a title, but as soon as Henry said it, I knew that this was the title.

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book?

 

In “Clear as Cake,” several of the scenes take place in a dive bar that I spent a lot of time in during college, and the only food available came from a huge jar that sat on the counter. It was filled with pickled gizzards, which I occasionally sampled. In the story, I went with pickled eggs.

 

*****

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS AUTHOR:

https://www.loriostlund.com/

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: Either your favorite independent bookstore or Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/are-you-happy-stories-lori-ostlund/21741930

 

READ A STORY FROM THIS BOOK, “The Gap Year”:

https://electricliterature.com/the-gap-year-by-lori-ostlund/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ_GixleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFhVmRRTVROd2ZKNmRaSkRNAR6-H4MdyotRY5R41hpOPgBGlEQ_p1fSFIibs7GQObHcrEP28_GPH1WB2LsAlg_aem_b__YCipHXPXDOl6kzDlSlQ

 

TBR: Duet for One by Martha Anne Toll

Established in 2018, TBR [to be read] is a semi-regular, invitation-only interview series with authors of newly released/forthcoming, interesting books.

  

Give us your elevator pitch: what’s your book about in 2-3 sentences?

 

Duet for One is a lush and rewarding love story that follows the journey from grief to love within the world of classical music.

 

Which character did you most enjoy creating? Why? And which character gave you the most trouble, and why?

 

I most enjoyed creating three members of the supporting cast. The first is Thaddeus, a cellist who looks and sounds more like a lumberjack. Thaddeus is a person who calls it like it is. He’s an important counterweight to Adam Pearl, as Adam pushes through/and avoids grief following his mother’s death.

 

I also loved fleshing out Yvette, a professor of Caribbean studies at Penn who is humorous and grounded, in contrast to Dara’s tendencies toward seriousness and self-absorption. The same is true for Dara’s old friend Lydia, a fierce pianist whose cynicism masks a compassionate person whose life is filled with struggle.

 

I have worked hard to bring Adam Pearl to the page. Over time, as he’s moved to center stage, it’s been a challenge to render him with nuance. He’s a gifted violinist, who needs to know himself a lot better. He can be angsty but also kind and generous. He’s conflicted, like all of us.  

 

Tell us a bit about the highs and lows of your book’s road to publication.

 

This book took twenty years to get born. There were a lot of lows. Too many rejections to count, including an agent in the distant past. Highs include my yearly revision of Duet for One, a book that is close to my heart and that has grown and thickened with time. Another high has been trying to render music on the page, which will always be a failing proposition, but brings me great joy!

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

Get your tush in the chair and ignore all writing advice.

 

My favorite writing advice is “write until something surprises you.” What surprised you in the writing of this book?

 

I don’t know if it counts as a surprise, but if you would have told me in 2004 that this book was going to be published in twenty years, I would have been surprised on all fronts—that it was getting published and that it would take so long!

 

How do you approach revision?

 

For me, revision is the heart of writing. Everything happens there. I revise a lot as I am in process. I do multiple entire-book revisions where I review character arcs, nuance, interior life, plot, dialogue, and structure structure structure. My last revision is the one where I put every word under a microscope to ensure it has a purpose. Otherwise, that word has to go!

 

Inquiring foodies and hungry book clubs want to know: Any food/s associated with your book?

 

I wouldn’t say there are foods associated with this book (other than coffee, there is a lot of caffeine!), but I love to cook and bake and so I commend you on this question!

 

*****

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: www.marthaannetoll.com

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: https://politics-prose.com/book/9781646036004