TBR: Go Out Like Sunday and Other Stories by Barbara P. Greenbaum

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?

 

Go Out Like Sunday and Other Stories is a collection of sixteen short stories, featuring a cast of characters facing moments of decisive change. From a bullied boy in high school, to a couple shopping for coffins, the folks in this book face betrayal, loss, violence, grief, and yearning while dancing with the joy of new directions.

 

 

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

 

Of all the stories in the book, I enjoyed writing Park & Ride the most perhaps because that voice came to me so easily. I instantly could hear her. And yes - I too like pickup trucks - so I had a natural affinity. And she was just so much fun!

 

Several stories in the book took a while to develop. Midnight Swimmer was the most emotionally difficult because it was close to the bone. I left my home in New England after being in CT for almost fifty years. It took a bit to work to get to the psychic distance I needed to tell Cynthia's story. 

 

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

 

For me, the highs and lows collided. I found out the book had been accepted for publication by Main Street Rag the Tuesday after my husband died unexpectedly during an operation. While I was thrilled that I would be working with Scott on the book, my husband's death stopped me for a while. The last story in the book, The Midnight Swimmer, was the last story he ever read for me. I knew the story wasn't yet finished, yet it took me almost six months after he died before I could work on it again. I was lucky enough to attend the Writers in Paradise Workshop in St. Petersburg with Stewart O'Nan specifically to get help with it. It paid off. However, it would be another year before the book felt finished to me and we could go to press. Main Street Rag's publisher Scott, and his wife, Jill, were incredibly understanding about my situation and waited for me. I will be forever grateful for that.

 

When the book finally appeared, with the cover designed by my artist friend Randy Gillman, I felt just joy that it finally happened. There is no better feeling that seeing your work in print and so beautifully done.

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

This one is simple for me though there are days when I don't get there. Write every day. When I was working full time, I somehow convinced myself that I had to find an hour or two to write successfully. Then, while moaning to a friend that I could never find the time, he looked at me and said - fifteen minutes. From then on, whether I had to set the clock a bit earlier, I would write every day for at least fifteen minutes. Most often I would write before work with my first cup of tea. But I was almost immediately amazed at how much I could do in such a short period of time. And even when I had to stop, the stories and voices would often spill over into the day and those thoughts would add to the story for the next day. This helps me stay in that creative stream.

 

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

 

I hadn't realized until the collection came together how much I enjoyed playing with voices and genres. Each story in the book is very different and yet I can't help but really like these folks. I'm so glad I got to spend time with them.

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

I am very bad at titles. The title story of the book had a different title originally. (It's honestly too embarrassing to name here.) The editor of the Louisville Review wrote to me to say she loved the story, hated the title. I confessed my title deficits, and she suggested Go Out Like Sunday. I loved it immediately. When I was searching for titles for the collection, I knew immediately that's what it would be. It just felt right.

 

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

 

Evie makes pot roast in Dishes and as it happens, I make Dutch Oven pot roast with root veggies that is so easy it's criminal.  Secret - deglaze with Port Wine. And it's amazing!

 

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READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: https://www.barbaragreenbaum.com/

 

READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/go-out-like-sunday-barbara-p-greenbaum/

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/go-out-like-sunday-barbara-p-greenbaum/

 

READ AN EXCERPT FROM THIS BOOK, “Dumb Ass”:

https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/go-out-like-sunday-barbara-p-greenbaum/

(click on “sample”)

 

 

 

TBR: Outside the Lines: A Memoir by Helen Fremont

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?

 

Outside the Lines is a queer love story between a young public defender and a married mother of two, who meet in a writing workshop in Boston in the 1980s. Drawn together by surprisingly similar family secrets, hidden identities, and a deep connection to the Holocaust, they fall in love. Subsequently, a terminal illness changes and intensifies their relationship with each other and with their families.

 

What boundaries did you break in the writing of this memoir? Where does that sort of courage come from?

 

By the time I got around to writing this memoir (my third), I’d inadvertantly become something of an expert at family demolition. After my first memoir (which I thought was pretty tame) was published, my family disowned me and declared me dead.

 

It took twenty years for me to get up the ovarian fortitude to write a second memoir, in which I told the rest of the story, including many of the gory details I’d tactfully left out of the first book. (My parents had died in the meantime.)

 

I think the need to write these stories as memoir stems from the need to claim one’s own voice and one’s own truth, when the writer’s reality has consistently been denied or disavowed. Family secrets manipulate and mess with one’s sense of self, which is why they are so potent.

 

In my new memoir, Outside the Lines, the two main characters died many years ago, so I feel a little less anxious about writing my story as it relates to them. Once again, I’ve changed names and details, and omitted scenes in order to protect the privacy of surviving family members. But of course, I worry a great deal about how family and friends will feel. I don’t think it’s particularly “courageous” to write memoir; I think it’s compelled by a need to speak your truth when it has been consistently denied.

 

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

 

I’ve wanted to write this book for a long time, but apparently I wasn’t ready to dive into the material until a few years ago. Writing the scenes set loose a flood of memories, both exhilarating and agonizing. So as with all writing, the highs and lows are always built right into the daily work. I write something one day and think it’s brilliant; I look at it in the morning, and it’s turned to garbage.

 

Perhaps my greatest high with this book came from my writer buddies, who never cease to amaze and inspire me with their own poetry and prose, and who never pretend something is working when it’s not. Every time we’d get together to talk about our work, I came away on fire to fix the things they’d suggested, and excited about the whole impossible project of bringing a bunch of words on the page into a completed book for publication.

 

It was also thrilling when my agent (whom I adore and revere) read the manuscript and liked it. Her belief in this little book was so powerful, it made the first slew of rejections from publishing houses less painful. Of course, when the next slew of rejections came in, and the ones after that, my mood descended  in direct proportion to the rise in rejections. Needless to say, it was wonderful to find a publisher I admired who liked this book enough to want to publish it. Working with her and her team has been a blast.  

 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?

 

“It’s all draft until you die.” The poet Ellen Bryant Voigt said that. Just conjuring her name makes me happy. She is the founder and mastermind of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, my alma mater. Ellen is all about process, all about doing the work, without letting yourself get distracted by anything else—the market or the critics, or your own inner judge. She reminds us that we can keep fiddling with a draft as long as we like, long after it’s been published, or long after we’ve given up on it. Writing is not just our work; it’s our play, it's what reminds us we’re alive.

 

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

 

I was surprised when I wrote a sentence I liked for more than twenty-four hours. And I was surprised—well, more like embarrassed—to discover how incredibly immature and clueless I was at the age of thirty. It’s sort of amazing to see the effect that thirty-plus years of perspective had on my memories and feelings—even sensory perceptions—that came back to me when I was writing. So as you see, self-absorption really does have its own rewards.

 

How did you find the title of your book?

 

I am terrible at titles. Prolifically terrible. I must have scribbled down hundreds of titles, one worse than the other. For a while, I was convinced that if I just found the right Leonard Cohen lyric, I’d have my title.

 

Fortunately, my wife pretty quickly came up with the title, Outside the Lines. I liked it immediately, and then went on to brainstorm another couple hundred awful titles. But I kept coming back to this one, because it’s about coming out, and it’s about the complications of navigating a life outside the norm. The title lasted through all my mood changes, so it’s a keeper. (So is she.)

 

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

 

I am a low-brow baking fiend. I usually need to bake cookies and brownies and other easy-to-handle platforms for the delivery of chocolate, sugar and fat. I baked my way through a lot of this book. There are way too many recipes for me to list here, but they all basically boil down to butter + sugar + flour. Usually 72% bittersweet chocolate is involved.

 

Here's an easy one:

 

Chocolate Chip Rye Caraway Cookies

            (Credit: Sycamore Kitchen)

 

¾ c (1 ½ sticks) butter, room temp

½ c brown sugar

½ c sugar

1 c all-purpose flour

1 + c dark rye flour

½ tsp + baking soda

¾ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp kosher salt + for sprinkling

½ + tsp caraway seeds, some ground

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

8 oz. dark (70%) chocolate, chopped into chunks smaller than ¼ inch

 

Pre-heat oven 350 degrees.

Beat butter & sugars till light and fluffy – 3 – 5 min

In a separate bowl: whisk flours, soda, powder, salt & caraway seeds.

Add egg & vanilla to butter and beat till fully combined.

Add dry ingredients, beat till almost incorporated. Add chopped chocolate.

Scoop dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Sprinkle with salt. Bake till crisp edges, soft in middle ~ 15 min.

 

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READ MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR: www.helenfremont.com

 

ORDER THIS BOOK FOR YOUR OWN TBR STACK:

https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=outside+the+lines+helen+fremont

 

SUBSTACK: https://helenfremont.substack.com/