Today we're chatting with Historical Author Elizabeth Guider about her book, "Milk and Honey on the Other Side" and what's coming next.
What brought you to write this book?
It's hard to grow up in the Deep South and not be steeped
in historical lore and absorbed in the whole issue of race. Plus, I wanted to
write a love story that captured just how difficult it was to prosecute a love
affair across the color divide, especially for the woman in question. The
period of the 1920's was one of huge social change though and that made it
possible for the characters to eventually figure things out for themselves.
Why spend months/years of your life writing this book?
I had been writing as a journalist for thirty years and it
seemed like a fun, if challenging, change of pace. With of course its own
hurdles and its own gratifications.
What are you trying to achieve with this book?
Ideally, to reach people who wouldn't ordinarily know or
care much about the politics or the people or the passions of 100 years ago.
What got left out in the final draft?
A couple of very minor characters, a long riff on race
which didn't need to be there, and a lot of excess ADVERBS.
Where there alternate endings you considered?
If so, what were they??
I did consider not letting the two main characters end up
as they did but deep into the writing I figured out a plausible way for their
reunion.
What's next for you? What are you working on now?
I've gone back to my freelancing as a journalist and am
toying with two different ideas for a next novel, one historical and one
contemporary. Hope to begin in ernest by year end.
What made you want to start writing?
When my grandmother from New Orleans came to live with us
in her latter years, she shared my bedroom. A voracious reader, she and I read
all of Charles Dickens together. Took about two years. From then I went on to
George Eliot, Anthony Trollope, Henry James and into the 20th century with
James Joyce and William Faulkner. It all paid off: I graduated valedictorian of
my high
school class and went on to do a Ph. D. in Renaissance
literature and history at New York University.
What things have you read that have especially helped your
writing?
In the last few years I've read a lot of contemporary
novels, especially from writers like Anthony Doerr, Jonathan Franzen, Donna
Tartt, Elena Ferrante, Ian McKeowan, etc., and, in doing so, I've taken a few
notes on their differing styles, their use of perspective, their voice, even the arresting punctuation or
grammatical constructions that they use.
What's the hardest thing about writing for you? Finding the
time to do it on a regular basis.
What do you wish you knew before you started? More
about how to pitch to potential publishers and then how on earth to promote to
the readers who most likely will be interested.
Why did you choose to write in your particular field or
genre? If you write more than one, how do you balance them?
As I suggested, I've always loved history and doing
research. Then coming up with characters to properly and convincingly people
the period in question.
Where did your love of reading & writing come from? As
I said, from my grandmother, then my parents and the great English teachers I
had in high school and college. I learned early on it was important to figure
out what was GOOD to read, meaning well-written, informative, provocative, eye-opening,
and fulfilling rather than reading just to be moving the eyeballs.
How long have you been writing? As a novelist, four years.
My first novel, The Passionate Palazzo,
set in Rome in 1978 when I was living there, came out in 2013.
What was the hardest part of writing this book? The
hardest part about writing Milk and Honey
on the Other Side was not letting the fascinating history of the period get
in the way of a good fictionalized story.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
That I think I captured the feel of the place and the time
in which the story is set and the way people behaved -- and that readers will
be able to sense it too.
What is the biggest thing that people THINK they know
about your subject/genre, that isn't so? I don't think a lot of people (especially young people) know
just how hard it was for women to assert themselves back 100 years ago, nor
just how fraught with danger relations between the races were, especially if
those relations had any hint of the sexual.
What is the most important thing that people DON'T know
about your subject/genre, that they need to know?
How much the country, even the South, was beginning to
change after the Great War and into the 1920s, starting with women getting the
vote and throwing off their corsets, as it were.
What makes your book stand out from the crowd?
I think it's both a compelling love story and at the same
time a family saga shaped by the political and cultural winds blowing across
the country at the time (1918-1930).
What question do you wish that someone would ask about
your book, but nobody has? Write it out here, then answer it. How did you
presume to write about a young black man since you are a not-so-young white
woman?
I fell in love with this character -- who is based on a
number of black men I have been acquainted with over the years. What they have
in common is their decency and their striving to better their lot. I tried to
imagine just how much MORE difficult that would have been 100 years ago, but I knew
there were such people. In fact, I had always heard stories about such folks
when growing up. I wanted to try my best to draw such a portrait in the
character of Curtis Jefferson in the novel.
What does your "writing cave" look
like? Hardly a cave. In Vicksburg, where I wrote half the book, it was on
the sunporch in the house I inherited from my mother, full still of her
beautiful plants and with hummingbirds and neighborhood cats outside the many
windows. In Los Angeles, my preferred space is a patio table in the backyard,
where I can sit under an umbrella and work most months of the year.
Do you use music as inspiration? Can you tell us about
what type of music inspires you? I usually opt for silence when I write but
when I edit I sometimes turn to Bach's Brandenburg Concerti or big band music
from the '30's and 40's.
Must have beverage & snack while writing? In the
morning when I'm writing a cup of strong coffee is just the ticket: if at night
I'm happy with what I'm editing, a glass of cold white wine from the California
Central Coast is just the thing.
Thank you for sharing your process, and thoughts about your book.
You can find her,
Name: Elizabeth Guider
Email address: elizabethguider@hotmail.com
All social media links: All under my name: Facebook
(authorElizabethGuider), LinkedIn, Twitter (#GuiderElizabeth), Goodreads
BUY LINKS
https://www.amazon.com/author/elizabeth.guider
https://www.foundationsbooks/library
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7080392.Elizabeth_Guider
PLUS www.lulu.com, BarnesandNoble, Baker&Taylor,
Smashwords,
