The First Book Club Visit for Shadow Campus<\/b><\/p>\n
I should have done a video of this book club visit because it was so enjoyable.\u00a0 Held in East Greenwich, Rhode Island it is a book club sponsored by the YMCA.\u00a0 It was my first visit to a book club as an author and the first time they\u2019d had an author come to visit.\u00a0 It was special.<\/p>\n
I found myself talking about Shamus, the lead character, and the others as if they exist.\u00a0 For me they do and what I truly enjoy is all the e-mails I\u2019ve received from readers telling me how much they like, are intrigued by, want to know more about, or hope will be in the sequel.\u00a0 There appear to be many women out there who would LOVE to meet Shamus and certainly want him in the books to come. \u00a0I’m pretty fond of him too — though he is rough around the edges.<\/p>\n
And what of the sequel<\/b>? I was asked.\u00a0 Will there be a sequel?\u00a0 At the moment I\u2019m working on two sequels. Soon I’ll be focusing completely on one. \u00a0And, yes, Shamus will be in both of them.<\/p>\n
What about Dr. Michaels?<\/b>\u00a0 That was the question from a young woman, Neta.\u00a0 She’s with the YMCA and visited the book club yesterday, especially to talk about the characters and how much she\u2019d enjoyed Shadow Campus<\/em>.\u00a0 She really knew the characters, which made it all the more enjoyable. \u201cWill Dr. Michaels become closer to Meg?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWill he even be in the sequel?\u201d she wondered.\u00a0 The handsome, competent, 50ish doctor is indeed hard to dismiss.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t see him extensively in the next book, it\u2019s likely he won\u2019t be gone for long.\u00a0 I guess the best answer is, \u201cWe\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n If you could choose an actress to play Meg, who would that be?\u00a0 <\/i><\/b>I\u2019m one of those people who aren\u2019t good at thinking of the names of actors off the top of her head, even when I remember great acting.\u00a0 One member of the group suggested I describe a part played by an actress who could do Meg\u2019s character and they\u2019d figure out who she is.\u00a0 But as that was being suggested, I thought of Sandra Bullock.\u00a0 She has an edge as an actress and could do the scenes between brother and sister with warmth, annoyance and anger as required.\u00a0 She can portray strong, but also sensitive.\u00a0 It seemed most of us liked the choice, thought I’m sure there are others.\u00a0 I mentioned Bullock would need to be sandy blonde.\u00a0 Neta said she tends to think of Meg as a red head.\u00a0 I asked if she thinks of Shamus as a red head too, and she said no.\u00a0 They both, however, have wavy hair that is sometimes bothersome to Shamus.<\/p>\n How long did it take to write Shadow Campus?<\/b>\u00a0 Now that\u2019s a tough question because between being a professor, writing articles and books about communication and politics at work, like The Secret Handshake<\/i> and It\u2019s All Politics<\/i>, raising three children and so on, the manuscript for SC rarely came out of my desk over the past several years except during the summers. \u00a0I’ve also dealt with some medical issues for which the YMCA has been a great help. \u00a0A marvelous artist friend of mine, Grace DeVito, when asked that question answers with \u201cAbout 25 years.\u201d\u00a0 What she means by that is that it took her 25 plus years to develop the skill that went into the painting being inquired about.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to say the same, but my career has taken a variety of twists and turns and so I\u2019ve been learning to write in many different ways \u2013 from weighty social science, Harvard Business Review type articles, to complex and simple, short blogs.<\/p>\n The \u201cbones\u201d of the entire story was written in a very intense week.\u00a0 Some time ago during a one-week semester break, I just couldn\u2019t seem to not get up around 5 a.m. and begin to write this story.\u00a0 It flowed. \u00a0I\u2019d get up, write, get the kids off to school, and write, write, write.\u00a0 That was the beginning of Shadow Campus<\/i>.\u00a0 To be honest, I think the story benefitted from being in the drawer so much over the past several years because during those busier times I could not have given the characters the attention they deserved.\u00a0 So let\u2019s say 5 years\u00a0 (5 \u00a0summers for sure) in the making, but maybe as Grace says, it was far more in the learning.<\/p>\n How did you feel when you finished and knew it would be published?<\/b>\u00a0 I had to think for a bit on this one when Judy, who’d arranged my visit, asked after the meeting was over.\u00a0 Even with my nonfiction books, when you\u2019re pushing for a deadline and the copyeditor is getting back to you and you back to him\/her, you’re painting sample covers as I did, \u00a0your husband is experimenting with graphics for the cover, there are loose ends to tie up, you\u2019re so busy there isn\u2019t time to think about being finished or what that means.\u00a0 But for a first novel, especially, publication is meaningful.\u00a0 I remember one night before going to sleep I was alone thinking, \u201cIt\u2019s really going to be published now.\u201d\u00a0 Shamus, Meg, Rashid, and the others who had lived in my brain and heart would now belong to everyone who reads Shadow Campus<\/i>.\u00a0 I wondered for a brief moment if they and I were ready.\u00a0 But fortunately that passed quickly.\u00a0 It\u2019s a little like having children, you\u2019re never truly ready.<\/p>\n I remembered my father asking when I was in my late twenties, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you write a novel?\u201d\u00a0 I was touched by his faith in me, but replied, \u201cI\u2019m not ready yet, Dad.\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cYes you are.\u201d\u00a0 So the book is dedicated to him \u2013 for always nudging me further — and to my mother who was always there for support, for laughter, for helping me understand people.\u00a0 I remember one day when I was quite young seeing someone in the grocery store acting oddly.\u00a0 I said something to my mother.\u00a0 She replied, \u201cKathleen, you never know what other people are going through.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ve never forgotten that.\u00a0 When I develop characters, they aren\u2019t people who we know on the surface only. \u00a0We sense, in most cases, that much has gone one in their lives because it must have.\u00a0 My mom gave me that awareness then and by the way she lived.\u00a0 \u00a0She was a good, caring, insightful person and funny too.\u00a0 None of us is a single note.\u00a0 We\u2019re each a symphony.<\/p>\n I loved the relationship development between Shamus and his sister and the way they talked with each other.\u00a0 How did you do that?\u00a0 <\/b>I have a brother, Kevin, who is three years older than I.\u00a0 While Meg and Shamus\u2019 interactions of defensiveness, warmth, anger, verbal sparring are not identical to the way Kevin and I talk, some of the tone is similar at times.\u00a0 I also have three children and a nephew and niece whose interactions likely contributed and friends whose siblings I also know.\u00a0 You can\u2019t help but pick up pieces here and there.<\/p>\n The scene where Shamus brings yellow flowers to Meg is a case in point. I was thinking of a particular brother and sister and extending that.\u00a0 It\u2019s tender and a bit self-judgmental with a twinge of residual jealousy.\u00a0 He loves his sister but he\u2019s still somewhat angry at her and at himself.\u00a0 We begin to see that not so deep down he has warm feelings for her and feels guilt.\u00a0 He isn\u2019t just her estranged brother who doesn\u2019t care and never did.\u00a0 He does care.\u00a0 But he is not comfortable with realizing that let alone saying such things unless, of course, as in this case, she is in a coma.\u00a0 That may say something about many sibling relationships.<\/p>\n Also, Shamus and Meg are in what is described in my nonfiction books and in some of the blogs below as an UREP (pronounced URP) \u2013 an unwanted repetitive episode.\u00a0 Most of us have those with someone close to us.\u00a0 They are negative patterns that we often can\u2019t seem to break because we don\u2019t stop to notice how repetitive and damaging they are.\u00a0 Nor do we use \u201cchoice points\u201d in the conversations \u2013 opportunities we have \u2013 to turn things around by not doing what we always do but instead tweaking and being less predictable.\u00a0 We learn early on in the book the burden Shamus carries, but throughout their changing relationship it is very difficult for Shamus, in particular, to break out of the UREP.\u00a0 Until people recognize UREPs in their relationships, they can\u2019t really change them.\u00a0 They are habits of communication that resist being undone.<\/p>\n How character names are chosen<\/b>.\u00a0 This came up when I was signing a book for Emma.\u00a0 What a lovely name that is.\u00a0 Whether that has anything to do with Jane Austin, I\u2019m not sure.\u00a0 But Emma and I talked about her name and her appreciation for it now that wasn\u2019t there as a child.\u00a0 Even that little story is something that can one day show up in fiction.\u00a0 I like to choose the names of people I know, mostly for fun, but they also need to fit the character \u2013 at least in my mind.\u00a0 Who knows, Emma may be a character in the future.\u00a0 The real Emma told me she is looking forward to it.<\/p>\n Thanks you to the Kent YMCA for the invitation to visit. \u00a0It was a pleasure to meet all of you and I hope to do so again. \u00a0K<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The First Book Club Visit for Shadow Campus I should have done a video of this book club visit because it was so enjoyable.\u00a0 Held in East Greenwich, Rhode Island it is a book club sponsored by the YMCA.\u00a0 It … Continue reading