An Interview with Author Nancy Geary About Her Latest Release
"Being Miss Alcott"
Interviewer Christopher Seufert sat down with author Nancy Geary
in between promotional events for the release of her latest
novel "Being Miss Alcott." Latest release and information about
Nancy can be found at www.NancyGeary.com.
Christopher Seufert: So you're teaching a class on how to write
your first novel?
Nancy Geary: Yes, at the Cape Cod Writers Conference.
CS: You've written four books and you're on your fifth now.
What's the difference between writing a first novel and writing
subsequent novels?
NG: Well, the idea of the "Writing Your First Novel" class, the
way I teach it, focuses on the choices that you need to be aware
of when you're getting started. We spend a day discussing first
person versus third person, which kind of voice is better for
the tone that you want, outlining a plot, which I think is
incredibly important, the themes of your book, and dialogue...
So I think there are various issues that are not so particular
to a novel. A novel is like any ambitious project. If you don't
have it all organized in your thoughts before you get started,
what's going to happen to these students is what happens to most
people- they start and don't finish. And so, the ultimate goal
of my class is to prepare the students to see their book through
to the end.
CS: Tell me about how you made the decision to leave your job as
a lawyer, and to move to the Cape to begin your first novel.
NG: Being a lawyer was taking 100 percent of my time and I just
didn't feel like it was 100 percent of me. And there was this
burning sense that I had something to say, that I had this story
to tell, even though I wasn't quite sure what it was at the
time. I'd grown up thinking that if I work really hard and I
keep trying, then everything's going to have a happy ending.
But, after my dad died I suddenly had this sense that, "My god,
every moment is so precious, everyday is so precious." I just
couldn't see myself staying a lawyer and never trying this.
Financially there were huge issues, and that's why I gave myself
two years. I said, "If I haven't made it as a writer within two
years I'm going to have to go back to being a lawyer." So it was
confined. I admire people who have written manuscript after
manuscript and keep on writing after being rejected. In fact,
sometimes I think those are the real writers because they're
internally driven. They're not writing for any sense of
commercial success or public acknowledgement. But for me,
because I was giving up so much and I was allowing myself
limited time, it was either going to work or not work, and it
was a huge risk.
I think that in this society your career becomes so much of who
you are. I remember when I quit my job, people would ask me what
I did for a living, and I would say "Nothing." I didn't say "I'm
a writer." I didn't know what I was at all because I wasn't a
lawyer anymore. Those first couple of months were some of the
scariest months of my life. But once I got to school and started
meeting other people who were trying to write and I found a
community of people that were trying to do the same thing that I
was, it got easier on a day-to-day basis. But in the end it
really wasn't until I signed a contract that I felt like I could
say I was a writer. Then I felt more comfortable about who I
was.
As for Cape Cod, the reason that I moved down to the Cape was
simply that it's a much more beautiful place to live and work
creatively. My husband was a lawyer up in Boston so I was going
back and forth a lot, but for me to work down here was such a
gift. I was able to get up in the morning and walk my dogs on
the beach and it was a real source of inspiration. It's
perfectly quiet in a way the city never is. It was really very,
very peaceful.
CS: Why specifically did you decide to use Chatham as the
setting for your latest novel?
NS: There was a very deliberate reason for choosing Chatham with
the book. Even though everyone says it's so scenic I think
Chatham is really very wild. When you walk on the beach and the
wind and the salt in your face... I remember just coming back
feeling totally exhilerated. I wanted that kind of natural
turmoil for what the heroine's experiencing. This is why I
choose Chatham for this book specifically. My other books
weren't set here.
CS: Now that you've moved away to New York, did you actually
makes trips down to visit certain locations again or was this
mostly drawn from memory?
NG: Mostly drawn from memory.
CS: Really? When did you first move to the Cape?
NG: My husband and I started coming to the Cape together. We
sort of ended up here by accident. He had had a huge case in
Singapore and he'd been gone for two months. And so when he came
back I made a reservation at the Chatham Bars Inn for four days
of vacation. We were down here and it was the middle of winter
and it was so beautiful. We were walking around and he said,
"Why don't we just go into a realtor's office?" The next thing
we knew we were down here every weekend and Chatham was part of
our life . We first bought our house in '93, I was here full
time by 1998 and then I moved in 2001. It was very sad to go. I
will never forget the day that we had the closing. My husband
and I had separated and he had returned to Boston. I had this
carload of dogs and sort of the last minute stuff that hadn't
been packed and a brand new baby. I showed up at the closing,
and I just... I don't know, it was very weird driving off the
Cape that day. It felt like I was really saying goodbye to
something. I think there was something about Chatham and the
house that we were in. It's just a very special, wild place.
I remember, once the furniture had been moved out I had
something called a champagne and Similac [A brand of baby
formula] party and invited people over just to say goodbye.
Someone at that party said to me, "You're never going to live in
such a nice place or in a nice house like this again." And it's
true. It was a very special house in a very special place. So I
do miss it.
There really is something about driving across the bridge and
smelling that salty air for the first time, and the moment that
you roll down the windows.
CS: So you are also beginning your fifth novel right now?
NG: I've just started, although it's kind of interesting because
I entered into contract with my new publisher without them even
seeing a proposal. So I've been working on a novel but they
haven't even seen it. I'm going to meet with them in September
and see if they actually want the one that I'm working on or
whether we'll come up with a new idea.
CS: This one is along the same lines?
NS: As Being Mrs. Alcott. It's certainly not a sequel, it has a
younger heroine and totally different issues and it's set in
Westchester where I live now but it's not a suspense.
CS: So it sounds like it will be interesting to see if you core
readers are mystery readers or Nancy Geary readers.
NG: I'm hoping they're Nancy Geary readers, though we'll see.
CS: Can they predict how changing genres like that will effect
the book sales?
NG: I don't think they know. I was at a Book-Span party and a
man from Barnes & Noble, who is a big buyer for them, said, "You
know, you're making a huge mistake because they won't know how
to shelve you!" On the other hand, the Barnes & Noble editors
picked Being Mrs. Alcott as their favorite read and that was a
huge, huge deal. I figure we'll see what happens. I think this
is the direction I want to go. I couldn't be a lawyer when I
really wanted to write, ultimately. I just can't write being
worried about where I'm going to be shelved.
Photos for this article can be found at www.MyChatham.com and
freely used.
- Nancy Geary Bio -
"I was born in New York City. Other than a year at boarding
school when I was constantly homesick, I was educated in
Manhattan and graduated from the Spence School, an all-girls
school on the upper east side. Because my parents were divorced,
I split my summer vacations between Southampton, New York, where
my father had a home, and Manchester, Massachusetts, where my
great-grandmother lived.
I graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1987 where
I studied American History and "Law, Ethics and Public Policy."
My honors thesis on AIDS in the pediatric population won the
Minnie Helen Hicks prize. I then went to Harvard Law School
where I represented indigent defendants through the Harvard
Defenders program, taught constitutional law at a nearby public
high school, and was a teaching assistant for an undergraduate
ethics course.
After graduating cum laude, I spent four years as an Assistant
Attorney General in the Criminal Bureau of the Massachusetts
Attorney General's Office. I initially did appellate work, but
later prosecuted public corruption, insurance fraud and
financial crimes. I also spent six months in the Lowell District
Court as part of the Urban Violence Strike Force prosecuting
primarily drug and domestic violence cases. I had the chance to
work with a wonderful group of assistant district attorneys and
dedicated police officers, including one cop who pursued a
fleeing felon on a tricycle and caught him! As difficult as the
work was, the days were exciting. Lowell District Court is still
the scene of my most vivid legal memories, both successes and
failures.
I went into private practice briefly at a large Boston law firm
before quitting my legal career to try to write. I enrolled in
several graduate seminars, participated in workshops on various
aspects of writing, wrote lots of short stories and read
constantly. Then one day on a vacation in Turks and Caicos, the
idea for Misfortune came to me. I couldn't sleep and scribbled
notes in a travel guide and on pages of my day planner. I
completed the book about a year and a half later and, in the
process, came to think of Frances Pratt as a real friend.
Misfortune was published in 2001,Redemption in 2003, Regrets
Only in 2004, and my latest novel, Being Mrs. Alcott will be
released in July 2005.
I live in Westchester County with my son, two Labrador
retrievers, and two rabbits in a house built in 1790. It has
crooked floors, uneven walls, and a basement that fills with
water every time it rains, but we love it. I teach creative
writing at the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts and am
currently at work on a new novel."