SidenoteCal: "Stay"

When Ms. Allie Larkin asked if I would read an advance her debut novel, Stay, and host a Blog Book Tour here on Sidenote I said "YES YES YES" and checked the mail every day until my copy arrived. Then I read it in less than 36 hours. (It would have been more like 12 but I had to sleep, work, and eat. Lame.)

It was funny and sweet and since I "accidentally adopted" a furry, black pet once upon a time (Haaaaiiii, Ebbie), I could completely relate when the main character went impulse shopping. For a German Shepherd. Here's a little video trailer of the book and my interview with the lovely author herself. I'd highly recommending going out and buying yourself a copy. It is available starting this week!

How did you decide you wanted to write a book in addition to blogging? Was it a difficult transition or did it feel like the natural next step?

I actually started writing fiction before I started blogging. I started blogging as Allie’s Answers for another website in 2007. When that site ended, I started my own green blog (which evolved into TheGreenists), and eventually realized that I wanted to have a personal blog too. I loved reading other people’s personal blogs, and wanted to be able to share myself a little more with all the personal bloggers I’d been following since I started blogging. I do think being responsible for writing something on a regular basis, and getting more comfortable with your voice through blogging is a wonderful way to develop your writing skills. And being a part of a community of bloggers is such a gift. It’s amazing to have outside support and a connection to other bloggers when you spend so much time working alone.

What came first, the characters or the story? (AKA...Did you have the characters all formed in your head and then make a plot to fit them or start out with the plot and then craft characters to fit into it?)

Van, the main character in STAY, appeared in a writing exercise I did in a class in college. The result of the exercise was a story told from someone else’s perspective and doesn’t at all relate to STAY as it stands now. Something about Van interested me enough to want to keep writing about her. The idea for Janie showed up soon after, and I started writing a story about the two of them discussing Van’s messy love life over caramel macchiatos at Starbucks. In writing that scene, it occurred to me that maybe Van’s messy love life was the result of her affections for Janie’s husband. And then Peter evolved. The story spent some time in a drawer after I graduated. I hadn’t seen it as a novel. But when I pulled it out to work on in a writing group a few years later, I realized there was a lot more to the story. The other characters grew out of the plot. If Van was at Janie’s wedding, what were Janie’s parents like? Where was Van’s mom? In answering those questions, I created new characters. And once we got Argo, I knew Van needed a big, lovable German Shepherd, too.

Is there anything that got cut from the book during editing that you miss/wish had been left in it (an alternate ending, a steamy make-out, a quiet moment)?

A lot of things changed in the editing process. In the final rounds of revisions I really got to take my story and the characters to a new level and that was thrilling. Of course I had my moments where one little sentence seemed like the most important thing in the world, and hitting delete felt awful. I think that’s pretty normal. I go through the same process when I’m revising on my own. It’s hard not to get tied to lines or scenes I love, but ultimately it’s about what makes for the best story overall. In reading and in writing, I really care about flow. I want to be pulled through the story when I read. As a writer, I’d rather let a beautiful line go and preserve the overall movement of the story. It’s all a part of the process, and making those choices is vital.

If you could have any one person (dead or alive, famous or not) read your book who would it be and why?

I have a huge fascination and admiration for Willa Cather. I would love any excuse to talk with her (as long as she wasn’t in zombie form).

How much of yourself do you see in the main character, Van?

Van isn’t a version of myself going through the paces of STAY’s storyline. But we are similar. And if Van were real, I think she would be one of my very best friends. Some friends who have read the book have said that they see a lot of me in her. My friend, Lady, who knows me very well, thought it was interesting that I’d written a character so different from me. I am not a big drinker. I live for the occasional junk food binge, but I am usually fairly disciplined about how I eat. I think Van’s a little more outspoken than I am, and we look different. But I know I wear my heart on my sleeve the way she does, and I spill coffee on myself a lot, and my dogs changed my life too.