Author Interview – I’ll Get You Home

Why this book and why now?

This book is set in the recent past (1994) and as such technically qualifies as an historical novel, although it reads like a contemporary romance. Like the novel, the book itself has history.

I started writing it in 1995, when there was indeed a war happening in the Balkans. The central theme I was exploring was man’s capacity for violence. I extensively researched that war and set the novel in a fictitious city modelled after the Siege of Sarajevo.

Back then I was paying a mortgage, had a family, and a full time career, so it took me 15 years to complete the novel, working part-time.

Also, when I started writing this book, there was no such a thing as direct-publishing (Kindle) or e-books. Hence, I wrote it as a heterosexual romance, because I wanted to try to get it mainstream-published, and that was the only choice in those days. By the time I completed the book, Kindle had come into being, so I self-published the novel on Amazon, under another title. My son died around that time, and as I fell into depression, I did nothing to promote it. The book languished while I set myself to rights again.

Recently, however, I decided that a story with such good bones should not be left unpublished. I’d already invested thousands of hours of time into researching and writing the book, paid for a cultural sensitivity reader, and paid a professional editor, so I figured I should see if I could bring it back to life as SapphFic. I rewrote the story into a woman-loving-woman novel. I refashioned the female lead into a bisexual woman and made her love interest a lesbian while generally keeping the plot as it was.

What is a significant way your book has changed since either the first draft or the way you thought it would turn out when you first had the inspiration?

As a result of my son’s violent death, I have realized that as a society we tend to ‘normalize’ violence as entertainment—our stories are often casually violent. As a result of my own exposure to a real violent death of a beloved, I generally don’t read stories that contain these elements. Psychologically, I can’t because it is no longer theoretical. In the case of I’ll Get You Home, which is set in a war zone for the first third of the book, violence is unavoidable if the siege is to be represented authentically. I couldn’t rewrite a story set in war and not represent horrible things. However, during my revision, wherever possible, I stripped away as much gory detail as I could while still keeping the intensity of the narrative.

I’ll Get You Home was originally written when I was a different person. However, it is still a very good yarn about love, war, family, and redemption. It is a story about how love in all its forms saves us.

Would you and your main character(s) get along?

Both these women are above my station. They’re larger than life. I’m just real-life-sized. That said, I’d know how to behave myself while in their company (Mama taught me right), and I’m sure that at a back yard barbecue (at their place!) I’d super-enjoy chatting with them. I’d probably have the most in common with Grace.

Did any real-life events or personal experiences influence the story?

This story is set in a fictitious city modelled after the Siege of Sarajevo. I did exhaustive research into what that was like, on the human level. I was very strongly committed to not taking sides, but rather to explore the human condition. This story could have occurred in any of a number of places in the world where there are long-standing ethnic conflicts.

Is there anything you wish readers knew before diving into this book?

This first third of this book is set in a war zone and depicts some very intense situations. This may not be a novel that everyone can read. If you have PTSD or are emotionally fragile, don’t read it. It’s a good, deep story, but definitely not one that I would write as the person that I am today.

What’s one fun fact about your book that most people wouldn’t know?

Virtually every person in this novel who did a good thing, had to break the law in order to do that good thing.

What 3 things would your main character want with them if they got stranded away from civilization, and why?

For Brenna: She would need her cameras. Grace would need writing implements.

Which character do you relate to the most, and why?

Both of these women suffered serious personal losses. I’d relate to either of them on the level of having suffered, then refused to be victims of those losses, and in the long run, evolving into wiser people as a result of the hardship.

Which character was the most fun to write, and which was the hardest?

I loved the gay brother-in-law, Gary, who was a combination of great-heart and flamboyant queen. It was hardest to write the Captain who takes Brenna hostage. One other character in that sequence was an out and out villain, but the Captain was trickier because I wanted to portray him as broken, rather than evil.

Did any of your characters surprise you by developing in unexpected ways?

Grace’s mother, Margaret, proved to be a much more important character than I likely envisioned when I first envisioned her.

If your book had a scent, what would it smell like?

Cordite, cold air, and unwashed people in the first third. For the remainder of the book, a Washington, D.C. spring (peat moss and trees in bloom), breeze off the Atlantic Ocean, and warm sunshine.

Your characters are throwing a party—what’s the theme?

It’s a first birthday party for Squeak.

Do you outline your books in detail, or do you prefer to discover the story as you write?

I’ll Get You Home was pantsed. I wrote an extremely detailed hourly timeline for the three days in the war zone, but the rest flowed from character arcs and story lines. In fact, it was so unscripted that one day when I was sitting in my backyard doorway, writing, I realized: “Hey, I think I just finished the book.”

Do you have any writing rituals or habits?

I never rush fiction. I simmer. I write. I revise.