![]() For example, I hired a graduate student in American history to go dig through the Manhattan municipal archives and make copies of a wide variety of meeting notes in the period 1800-1805. If the historical record is there, I do what I can to get hold of original sources. What’s your research process, and how do you determine when enough is enough, and what’s your rule of thumb for giving the reader the feel of the period without resorting to the dreaded info dump? ![]() Q: Historicals are demanding and yours are richly detailed, exploring how races and class boundaries collide in late 18th century/early 19th century New York State. That follows naturally from my academic training. You’d probably guess that matters of dialogue and language are really interesting - and important to me. For example, writing about the deep south, I listened to recordings of Andy Giffith and other dyed in the wool southerners, just to get the rhythms working in my head. I also listen to music, radio if I can get it, and recordings of local comedians. If linguistic field work has been done in the right place at the right time, I read that. As far as the contemporary novels are concerned, there’s a long preparation stage where I spend a lot of time with the characters and the setting. There’s something going on now that Elizabeth thinks is a very bad idea. These are characters I know really well, and they are very talkative and even opinionated. RL: I’ve been writing the Wilderness novels for so long that it isn’t very hard to get back into the setting. Do you find it difficult to switch back and forth between the eras, especially with dialogue? Historicals in particular are tricky because it’s easy to let an anachronisms slip in. Q: You’ve been able to carve distinctive voices for the two different genres you write, contemporary and historical. But an effort to try to answer your question in spirit rather than letter: I’m usually busy and focused on something because well, obsessive compulsive runs in the family. I think I write really slowly it certainly feels that way. It’s an odd thing, I get asked this question all the time and it always takes me by surprise. RL: In the interest of full disclosure - it’s been longer than nine years. Could you share with us your daily writing routine, and how to you keep your energy level up? I’ve got to ask where you find the time, energy and inspiration to write so quickly. Q: It’s mind-boggling to note that you write enormous historicals under the name Sara Donati and contemporary literary fiction as Rosina Lippi (nine books in as many years). Assuming the same good fortune that has allowed me to actually earn a living writing. So I suppose you could say that academics drove me to write fiction, but my guess is that I would have ended up here anyway. I was more and more involved in writing fiction, and less and less enamored of academic politics. ![]() Can you fill in the story of that journey for us? Do you think academia prepared you for writing novels, or did academia drive you into it? Q: You left academia to pursue writing fiction. We are pleased to present our interview with Rosina Lippi. Currently, she’s at work on her sixth title for the Wilderness series. In February, 2007, a second contemporary, The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square, releases. Tied to the Tracks, her first effort, is set in decidedly 21st century Georgia. She’s also made forays into contemporary women’s fiction. Written under her pen name Sara Donati, the Wilderness series has generated a highly successful series of historical novels and garnered legions of devoted fans.īut Lippi isn’t content to rest on her Wilderness laurels. But it was Into the Wilderness, a re-imagining of James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Pioneers which brought her widespread commercial success. Her debut novel Homestead won the PEN/Hemingway award in 1999 and was short listed for the Orange Prize in 2001. Her novels eventually enabled her to leave academia to pursue a successful career as a full-time novelist. A tenured professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan, she did what many of us aspiring novelists do–write fiction in the corners not filled by job and family. Novelist Rosina Lippi followed her heart and it led to critical and commercial success for her books.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |