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| Interview with Jane Isenberg, author of Death In a Hot Flash (2000) and The "M" Word (HarperCollins, Avon). Feature by PJ Nunn. Read our review. PJ NUNN - What prompted you to start writing fiction? JANE ISENBERG - As soon as I recovered from my first hot flash, I read several nonfiction books about menopause, and they provided useful information. But I’ve always looked to fiction for role models for life. And I couldn’t find a single fictional character experiencing what I was. I wanted to read about a flesh and blood midlife woman with whom my hormonally challenged friends and I could identify. So finally I stopped complaining and made one up. Have you published any short stories? No, not yet. How much of Jane Isenberg would we find in Bel? About half of my readers think Bel’s just like me, and the other half tell me she’s just like them! I think they’re all right. Actually Bel Barrett is named after Bel Kaufman, author of the ‘60’s bestseller UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE and Silvia Barrett, the young teacher who is that book’s protagonist. But Bel and I do have similar life experiences. For example, we both live in Hoboken, (actually, I moved to Amherst, MA a few weeks ago, but Bel’s staying put) and we both teach in Jersey City (actually, I retired last December, but Bel’s still in the classroom) and we both have two adult children. But there are lots of differences. Bel is always a super teacher whereas I simply did the best I could. Bel is also quite gutsy and sincerely interested in doing good whereas I am a total wimp and have learned to just say no when offered yet another opportunity to save the world. I am glad that a lot of readers, especially teachers at all levels, identify with Bel Barrett because I have taken the characteristics of a few of the wonderful women I have taught with over the years and blended them into Bel and her sidekicks. Like most fiction writers, I have shaped the reality I know to tell the story I want people to read. What inspired you to focus on the ‘over fifty’ sleuth? I wanted to create a sleuth who was experiencing the challenges and charms of today’s midlife, which is very different from that of our mothers. Menopause is just one of those challenges. There are others. Like our moms, we have to parent, grandparent, care for aging parents, deal with spouses and significant others, and do housework and community work. But unlike our many of our mothers, we do all these things while working full-time at demanding jobs outside our homes. Bel Barrett is a modern midlife multitasker. But midlife is more than challenge. It’s got a lot of charm too. For many women fifty is a magic number, offering us the possibility of transformation. No sooner did a lot of my friends blow out the candles on that big cake and slap estrogen patches on their butts then, like Bel, they found their way to grad school or ceramics class or that poetry writing workshop they’d always wanted to join. A few left unsatisfying marriages for the pleasures of single living, communal living, or, again like Bel, new relationships. Some made dramatic and satisfying career changes, adopted kids, or took off on trips to exotic places. Whatever we did, we found reason to appreciate anew our women friends as we nurtured one another through the rigors of care giving or the joy of packing for that trip to Tibet. Through Bel and her two partners in crime solving, Illuminada Guttierez and Betty Ramsey, I celebrate the special friendships of midlife women. So I see midlife women as multi-taskers and changers of change and collaborators of enormous creativity and energy. We make great sleuths. What do you most enjoy about writing mystery fiction? The research is a lot of fun. For DEATH IN A HOT FLASH, I had to explore erotomania, restraining orders, funeral service education, the history of the Paulus Hook area in Jersey City, the effects of excessive Valium on the elderly and the effects of prolonged submersion in the Hudson River on corpses. And that was all just for starters! But what I really love is making stuff up. I enter an imaginary world when I write. Believe it or not, I also really enjoy revising, which, for me, is part of writing. It’s so absorbing to try to find just the right word, phrase, or detail. Remember, I’m an English prof, and I like to play with language. Reading a chapter or two aloud to my writing group and hearing them laugh in all the right places is also rewarding. I really value the attention they pay to my work. I also treasure the camaraderie we share afterwards over wine and dinner. What is most difficult? Finding the hours and energy to write and teach full time used to be extremely difficult. Now that I’m retired from teaching, I should have more time to write. Accepting criticism and suggestions used to be very hard. After all, in the classroom I had been the one giving the feedback most of the time. I resisted anything short of a delighted response and was very defensive. Now I am getting better at hearing and using feedback. I solicit it and get it from my husband and kids, my writing group, and, of course, my editor. My writing group makes concrete suggestions for improvement that are invaluable on everything from word choice to nuances of character to historical accuracy. I have learned to be grateful even if, on rare occasions, I still do not take their advice. At first I was a bit resistant to my editor’s "suggestions" particularly with regard to titles. But I have come to appreciate her extensive knowledge of the mystery genre and the mystery reader as well as her straightforward manner and common sense. In the first draft of DEATH IN A HOT FLASH I had killed off a character my editor suggested I save. "She might come in handy down the road," was how she put it, as I recall. Well I took her advice and that character is now one of my favorites. Do you work with a local or online writer’s group? My writer’s group is not online and, alas, now that I have moved, no longer exactly local either. But the four of us have been together for over nine years, so tomorrow I will board a bus in Amherst and travel almost five hours to meet them in New York. How has the Internet influenced or affected your books? Like most midlife women I know, Bel Barrett is online often. She communicates by e-mail to her far-flung kids, her friends, and her students and belongs to an online menopause support group. Almost every chapter of each of my books begins with an e-mail either to or from Bel. Her sidekick Illuminada Guttierrez, PI uses the Internet to track down all kinds of background information on suspects. Like Bel, I use the Internet to research material for books whenever possible. I have a website (www.JaneIsenberg.com) and belong to DorothyL which connects me to other mystery readers and writers. My books have been reviewed online, sold online, and, obviously, I do online interviews when asked. How involved are you in promotion? Do you find it helpful? Enjoyable? Whenever a book of mine comes out, I send out review copies and press kits complete with bios, photos, and blurb sheets. Wherever appropriate, I leave my card, which features the jacket of my most recently published book on one side and my name and how to connect with me on the other. I also send several thousand postcards to bookstores, reviewers, libraries, and personal friends, and launch the book at a reading and signing at a local bookstore followed by a party at our home. I do television interviews, online interviews, maintain a website, and do lots of readings and signings and talks throughout the year. I advertise in at least one magazine and attend at least two mystery conferences annually, Bouchercon and Malice Domestic. I also solicit blurbs for my books. I belong to MWA and SinC and the Writers Guild. As of now, my promotion costs exceed my advances and I have received no royalties. The cost in hours and energy is also high. I do not know how to measure the effectiveness of any of my promotional efforts except that I know my editor appreciates them. Some aspects of promotion are gratifying. I really enjoy talking to readers, participating in panels, and being interviewed. The NY/Tristate Chapters of MWA and SinC are excellent sources of information and provide me with a supportive community of mystery writers. (I am the only mystery writer in my writing group.) However, I do not like making phone calls that are not returned, going to signings that have attracted few fans, sending out letters and press kits that elicit no response and feeling, at times, as if I am a publicist, not a writer. Promotion does take time and energy from the research, reflection, and writing that are crucial to authoring good books. When can we expect the next Bel Barrett adventure? MOOD SWINGS TO MURDER should be out by the end of this year. Are there any other books in the offing? I have been thinking about writing two historical novels, one set in colonial Massachusetts and the other on the lower east side of New York at the turn of the last century. I’m not sure yet if either one will be a stand alone or a series or even a mystery. What is the best advice you can give to aspiring or unpublished authors? I advise writers aspiring to be published to keep writing, form a writing group or join an established one that meets your needs, and develop a thick skin so that the inevitable rejections don’t stop you. Many agents rejected THE "M" WORD before it finally came to the attention of an agent who appreciated it and knew what editor to approach with it. I just kept on revising the manuscript and sending it out. |
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