i gave this interview for motherhood later.
there's a lot more to say about being a stepmom. i focused on cordelia, but i also have a stepson i love from another marriage.
you didn't know about my complicated past, did you?
please go here for tickets to the off broadway play motherhood out loud.
Below is an excerpt of a Q & A I had recently. Question: You made your writing debut in 1985 with ANGELS ALL OVER TOWN. THE SILVER BOAT is your twenty-ninth novel. How --- if at all --- has your writing process changed over time? Have the Internet and other technological advances affected your writing experience?
Luanne Rice: In many ways my process has changed very little. My novels always begin with a character. I wait for her to tell me who she is; often she inhabits my dreams. Once I know her name, I'm ready to start writing. Although I now work on a MacBookPro 15, I still like to write the earliest scenes on a yellow legal pad with a fountain pen. The Internet makes research go faster, but something is lost. It's too easy to search for information, take what I need, and move on. I prefer to do research from books, getting lost in the background and immersed in the realm of whatever I'm trying to learn.
Q: The importance of family is a recurring theme in your novels. How did your own upbringing influence your decision to become a writer?
LR: My family was loving but complicated. Our house was filled with secrets and bass notes. As a child I was a detective, listening at walls and going through drawers, looking for answers to what was wrong. My writing has been my lifelong solution to figuring things out, finding the love I know was there, learning everything I can about the way families work, ways of loving and trying to be happy.
Q: "Was that the inspiration for Dulse's latest adventure? Dar wasn't sure. She only knew that her ideas came from deep down, experiences and emotions of her own" (p. 282). Part of what makes your novels so heartfelt is that each of them comes from a deeply personal place. What was your inspiration for THE SILVER BOAT?
LR: The answer has three parts:
a) Like the McCarthy sisters, my sisters and I had to face what to do with our beloved family beach cottage after our mother died. It was an immense challenge. The house contained so many ghosts and memories. My grandparents had built it; no other family had ever occupied it. It sits on a granite hill, and the top step still has three pennies placed there by my grandfather in 1938, the year it was built. We put it on the market for ten seconds --- selling felt unthinkable. My sisters were very generous and let me buy them out. I still want it to be the family house.
b) My father had a way of disappearing. Not forever, like Michael McCarthy, but frequently, and without explanation. I've been writing my way into that situation my whole life.
c) The silver boat actually exists.
Rhiannon Ally and Kevin Roberts talk to Luanne about The Silver Boat.
Adam interviews Luanne for the Big App Show about The Silver Boat
Luanne talks about The Silver Boat on the Pix 11 Morning Show.
The Silver Boat comes out on April 5, in just a few days, and this is a busy, exciting time.
I've had pleasure of giving interviews for radio, print, and blogs, talking to many wonderful people about writing, sisters, inspiration, family secrets, and Martha's Vineyard...the novel's setting. After the solitude of writing The Silver Boat, it feels so good to share the story. Here's a Q+A I did with Pat Grandjean of Connecticut Magazine.
Travel plans are shaping up--my first book tour in a few years. I'm so looking forward to visiting bookstores and libraries, and to meeting as many of you as possible...
My kick-off event will be 3/8, R J Julia in Madison CT,(shown in the drawing above) followed by 3/11 Barnes & Noble, Upper East Side, NYC. (I haven't read in NY in ages--I hope you'll come out to see me!) I'll update with other dates/stops as well.
The following interview appeared on Book Page in 1999. Luanne talks about her book, Cloud Nine. Luanne Rice describes Cloud Nine as a book that demanded to be written. Like Susan, Luanne's experience of caring for her own dying mother affected her profoundly, and for two years she was unable to write. Her mother "was the constant, encouraging figure in my life," notes Rice. She attended the same small public school as her mother, and credits her teachers with reinforcing her mother's support of her writing. "The years of her treatment and decline were so terrible and compelling," Rice says. "The whole thing affected me really deeply, and I stopped writing. I stopped being able to think like a novelist, I couldn't make the emotional connections I've been so blessed to be able to make."