Interview: Amy MacKinnon, part 2

Last week, I interviewed Amy MacKinnon about her debut novel, Tethered, which has just been released in paperback. (Missed it? Click HERE, then come back.) This novel, which has been or will be published in ten foreign countries, is not only suspenseful, it’s beautifully written.

Today, Amy and I chat about her way with words, the challenge of revisions (and challenging revisions), writerly advice, and more.

Interview with Amy MacKinnon: Pt 2

Q: Clara believes in the case-closed finality of death, with nothing beyond the last breath, yet she ensures that each of her dead receives great care-especially when it comes to choosing flowers for them. Her attention to the meaning of flowers (“perfect loveliness,” “eternal sorrow,” “longing,” “you are splendid,” “warm remembrance,” “flattery,” “need to be kissed”) not only reveals something about her character, it adds a poignant depth and atmosphere to this story. How did you come to choose this literary device? What did you hope it would do for your novel?

AM: Clara’s life made it difficult for her to bind herself to the living, it was far safer for her to cope with the dead. What better way than through flowers, something we associate with funerals. And truth be told, because it’s such a dark novel, there needed to be some lightness, a spot of hope. The flowers served many roles in that they told us about each of the decedents, true, but even more about Clara herself.

Q: Your character descriptions are beautifully detailed. Here’s just one example:

There’s a hardness to Mike that coarsens the softness of his Irish features. His tall frame carries only lean muscle, each fiber rigid and flexed. His hair is fixed in place and his skin is forever pale. His lips are too full for a man’s and, when he isn’t speaking, usually pressed
closed. There’s a constant furrow about his brow; lines stream from the corners of his eyes as if dried riverbeds. Only his eyes seem bound to this world. An opaque blue, they’re always seeking the story from others, never revealing their own depths.

How do you compose such rich descriptives? Are you a people watcher-sitting in parks and taking copious notes as people catch Frisbees and walk dogs around you?

AM: Funny you should ask because I almost never can recall a person’s appearance. I’m much more intrigued by how they behave, their energy and body language. For Mike, I purposefully described someone corpse-like because he’s nearly as dead as Clara. I believed she’d find him safe and familiar as a result.

Q: Likewise, you have a smart way of using place to reveal character. Here’s one example, showing not only how Clara’s house unmasks her character, but revealing how stripped Clara feels while being studied:

What does it mean that my couch and chair are camel colored with striped blue pillows and a matching down throw? That I spent too much for a Pakistani oriental, but that the rest of my hardwoods are bare? He must notice that my living room is a jungle of Boston fern, palm, ficus, and ivy. I’ve never been anywhere that inspired a photograph; there are no pictures on the walls. He walks over to a row of bookcases, sturdy oak things I bought from a consigner in town, a savvy man who haunts the houses of the dead, offering cash to families intent on cleaning out and quickly selling Grandmother’s house… I don’t have the kind of life that produces bric-a-brac, so the shelves are cluttered only with books. Mike’s head tilts sideways as he scans the titles, and I feel as though he’s peering into me. What must he make of my Dickinson and Pearlman, Dang Thuy Tram and Albert Camus, Dalai Lama and Dostoyevsky, an entire shelf of Sibley’s guides to birds?

Is the development of place organic for you? Do you write these details quickly or ponder them for hours? And what is your process for linking place to character?

AM: I’d love to have a savvy answer describing how cleverly I plotted the details, but the truth is I don’t do it with any true intention, I simply follow the story, describing it as it’s revealed to me.

I love it when writers make their settings another character. As a reader, I want all six of my senses tingling when the author immerses me in the story’s environment. Much of my settings are imagined, such as Clara’s cottage, Mike’s house, and the apartment building where Trecie’s family lives, but I needed to go to the city of Brockton and just stand there to accurately capture it in a way Clara would perceive it. The same goes for Linus’s funeral parlor. I modeled it after my uncle’s in Whitman, Massachusetts. I could never have imagined the dichotomy of a place so eerie and yet so comforting.

Q: What was the most challenging aspect for you while writing Tethered, and how did you overcome it?

AM: Those nine loooong months of revising were the worst part because I didn’t know how, and I was terrified my agent would lose faith in me. My dear friend, Lynne Griffin, author of LIFE WITHOUT SUMMER, bolstered me throughout this period and my agent knew what I didn’t — that it takes as long as it takes.

Q: What sort of revision was required? What was holding you back?

AM: Tethered was originally written from three points-of-view: Clara’s, Mike’s, and Linus’s. My agent, Emma Sweeney, suggested I tell it from Clara’s only since it was her story and about 80% was written from her perspective. I had to decide if that was best for the novel. After much reflection, months really, I decided it was. Once I made the decision, weaving the men’s chapters into Clara’s was fairly easy.

Q: What revelations did you have about the story?

AM: As I said, I’m a discovery writer. I had no idea until Clara turned the knob and opened the door that she was a gardener. It thrilled me to learn this about her and helped to soften a difficult story. Everything else was intentional.

Q: Lynne sounds like a gem (and I know she is!). How important would you say it is to have writerly support while you’re working?

AM: Lynne and I know how lucky we are to have each other. She has kept me sane throughout this journey and she’s said I’ve done the same for her. That old chestnut comparing publication to a roller coaster is absolutely true. There are extreme highs and plunging lows. All in all it’s a humbling experience. Having Lynne helped me put it all into perspective and now I don’t think even an eviscerating Kakutani review could bother me in the least. I wish for every writer to have another writer friend with an ear as open as Lynne’s, a shoulder as soft, a mind as sharp, and a heart as enveloping.

Q: What was the editorial process like for you? How much did the story change once you had a home for Tethered, if at all?

AM: My beloved editor, Sally Kim, who’s now at Harper Collins, was a dream to work with from the very beginning. I spoke with her before she bought it and with what she wanted changed. Mere tweaks. The one big suggestion she had after it sold was to add one more chapter of Clara’s backstory. The moment she said it, I knew she was absolutely right. I can’t believe I didn’t come to that realization myself, it was that crucial to the story, but that’s why writers rely on good editors.

Q: What is the best advice you’ve ever received about the publishing industry?

AM: It’s advice I gave myself and love to share: In publishing, chaos theory prevails.

Q: What would you like to say to writers hoping to be published?

AM: I always quote from the great one himself, Sir Winston Churchill, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing…- never give in”

Q: What was the best thing you did for yourself to help promote your book?

AM: I signed with a fantastic publisher, Shaye Areheart Books. They went above and beyond to support this book for which I’m hugely grateful Other than that, it’s all about that elusive magic. Who knows what works?

Q: What’s on your keeper shelf?

AM: My keeper shelf is heavy with THE STAND, THE ROAD, ATONEMENT, THE HANDMAID’S TALE, and COLD MOUNTAIN. I also have a writer’s crush on Stuart O’Nan. He’s a brilliant changeling.

Q: What’s next for you?

AM: Right now I’m in the netherworld, writing between the first and last lines. Most days it’s not as much fun as Jonathan Franzen promised. Most days it is.

Thanks so much, Amy, for a great interview. Readers, you can learn more about Amy’s work at her website HERE. You can buy the new paperback edition of Tethered at bookstores nationwide or online.