Authors on the Map: Gin Phillips (Alabama)
Being brave does not always involve standing up to an attacker, bungee jumping, or leaping into a fire. Being brave is also finding the discipline and motivation to seat and write your first novel late at night, after you have taken care of the other tasks that pay the bills and keep the house running. I am glad Gin Phillips was brave to do just that some years ago when she set up to write The Well and the Mine.
Gin is an author I came upon as I was putting together a list of books set in Alabama for The Reading Passport. I had included The Well and the Mine in my list, but I also knew I was not done reading books written by Gin Phillips. As I was adding her books to my TBR I talked myself into reaching out to Gin and ask her for an interview. The result of our conversation/correspondence is below, and I invite you to read it while enjoying a well-crafted old-fashioned.
Grettel from Two Book Ramblers (G): On average, how long does it take you to write a book? Which one of your books have you written in the shortest amount of time?
Gin Phillips (GP): How long a book takes to write has a lot to do with whether you find the right center of the story in the first draft. In both The Well and the Mine and Fierce Kingdom, I feel like I found the heart of the story very early on, which meant the first draft was reasonably close to the final draft. Both those books took me about eight months until I had a solid draft I was ready to show to my agent. (Which is pretty fast!)
GC: The premise of Fierce Kingdom is thrilling. How do you come up with it? Is this how you usually come up with ideas for books or was Fierce Kingdom an outlier?
GP: At the point I started writing the book, I’d spent plenty of time in our local zoo with my young son. All that wandering from merry-go-round to flamingos to reptile house gives you plenty of time to daydream about potential novel ideas. I knew I wanted to write a story about motherhood, but I couldn’t settle on a particular shape for the story.
Likely because of events in the news, one day I found myself wondering what I might do if a shooter burst into the zoo—where would I go? How would I handle my son? Eventually it occurred to me that maybe that dark fantasy of a life-or-death situation could be the center of a novel about motherhood. Maybe all the complexities of motherhood—the love and pleasure and sacrifice and animal pull of it—might be brought out most intensely in the most intense situation.
I think all of my book ideas have started with a what-if, and then I start playing through the possibilities.
GC: The setting for Fierce Kingdom is the Birmingham Zoo. Did you visit the Zoo while writing the book? How did writing Fierce Kingdom change this place for you?
GP: I liked the zoo as a setting on several levels. It worked so well because it encapsulates the day-to-day routine of parenting, and yet…there are wild things in boxes. Alongside strollers and cotton candy, there are sharp teeth and claws and the promise of everything that is undomesticated. There is power.
I think that sense of complexity works well for what plays out in the story. And, yes, I spent plenty of days in the zoo as I wrote that book…and after I finished it. Fierce Kingdom didn’t leave me any less comfortable at the zoo: the plot and pacing of the book is what I’d called architecture, and it’s a pretty intellectual task, so I’m not emotionally caught up as I map it out. Plus, I’m in control of how everything ends! I imagine it was a less tense experience to write the book than to read it. I still love the zoo and go whenever I get a chance.
GC: Several of your books are set in Alabama. Do you want each of your books to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
GP: I think each book stands on its own. I’ve loved each book and missed the characters and the world every time I finish that final round of edits…but I’m also ready to move on. I love a new challenge. A new world. A new story.
That said, I think a reader can certainly find connections in my work—as writers, I think we all tend to come back to certain themes and questions that fascinate us. I think in all my books you’ll see me returning to motherhood, the connections between strangers, the ways the past shapes us, and what it means to do the right thing.
GC: The first line for The Well and the Mine feels like a blast from an explosion. These are my favorite types of first lines, the ones that grab you by the collar and demand your attention as a reader. How do you decide what line is going to introduce your books?
GP: That’s an interesting question. That particular line came to me immediately and was the first sentence I wrote down. I think you pick a first line mostly by feel—by gut instinct. And I agree with you—I want it to grab someone by the collar, but I also want it to capture the voice of the character or the story. Sometimes the first line comes right away, and sometimes I tinker a lot to make sure it hits just the right tone. Not every sentence in a novel has to be perfect—they can’t all be perfect—but I think the first and last lines need to be.
GC: When I came across The Well and the Mine, if I had not been sold on it already, the fact that the front cover in this particular edition said the book contained a foreword from Fannie Flagg would have done it for me. Is Fannie Flagg an author you look up to? And/or are there any other authors you look up to as an author yourself?
GP: I still remember the first time I read Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Fannie Flagg’s debut novel. I was a teenager, and I was so taken with the voice of the story. So, yes, I’d really liked Flagg’s work, and I’d been thrilled to meet her when she came to my college and I got to show her around. It was a dream come true for her to write the introduction to my first novel.
As far as authors I look up to, I love everything by Elizabeth Strout. I am always amazed and inspired by Toni Morrison. I’m a big fan of Ann Patchett, Penelope Lively, Colson Whitehead, and Anne Tyler.
GC: There are very well-received versions of your books as audiobooks: a feature of Fannie Flag in the introduction for The Well and the Mine, or Joshilyn Jackson narrating Family Law, for example. Would you ever consider narrating one of your books? Why or why not?
GP: Thank you—I do especially love Joshilyn in Family Law! I think narration is a talent and an art. It takes skill and experience…and usually some acting chops. While I really enjoy reading passages aloud at book events, I think I should leave the narrating to the professionals. (Although I wouldn’t turn down a chance to try it!)
GC: When it comes to translations, they say a translator is as important as an editor. To my knowledge, your books have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Lithuanian, Finnish, Dutch, French, Polish, Romanian, Danish, Swedish, Ukranian, Greek, Czech, Norwegian, Stonian, Slovak, Russian, Chinese, Turkish, and Catalan. How do you feel about being read in so many different languages? Do you worry about the intended message of the book translating well? Do you work close with translators?
GP: Another good question—Fierce Kingdom was translated into 29 languages, and, of course, I speak almost none of them! It’s an act of faith, I suppose, to trust that translators capture your meaning. You as the author can’t possibly check on all the versions. I occasionally get questions from translators about meaning, and I always find those questions very interesting. And occasionally I’ll hear from a reader about a particular translation; for instance, I have a friend fluent in German, and she explained how the ending plays out differently in the German version of the book because of how German culture vs. American culture frames descriptions of dying and life after death. (I don’t want to be too specific because I don’t want to give spoilers.) I love hearing about those sorts of shifts that play out in translation.
GC: How do you come up with the title for your books? Are there any interesting stories around any of your titles?
GP: Until Family Law—which was my sixth published book—I had never picked a title that stuck! Editors changed them every time. I always have a working title, mind you, but marketing issues factor into titles. For instance, I called The Well and the Mine simply “Mine” in draft form—I liked how the word could refer to the coal mines or who the baby belonged to or all the other forms of possession in the book. But it turns out you don’t want to have a one-word title for people to search on Google or on bookstore Web sites. It makes it harder for readers to find your book.
At least, that’s what the marketing people tell me. I’ve decided, over time, to focus on what’s inside the pages, and I let the experts steer me in terms of titles.
GC: Have you modeled any character after someone you know? If so, what character and after who?
GP: The list would be too long to type out! Every character I’ve ever written has some element based on a real-life person, and often I’m combining multiple people. I think there has to be at least some small percentage of myself, too, or I couldn’t write them in the first place. In The Well and the Mine, each main character has, I’d say, the spine of a real member of my family. Some fundamental characteristic—like Virgie has my grandmother’s sense of propriety and Tess has my great-aunt’s joy in life. I took those backbones and added to them to make the fictional characters. In Come in and Cover Me, Silas is very much my husband. In Fierce Kingdom, Lincoln is completely copied from my own child. Mostly, though, there are smaller pieces of real-life inspirations in my fictional creations.
GC: If you could be any character in one of your books, who would you be and why?
GP: Well, one reason I wrote Come in and Cover Me was because I found archaeology to be so fascinating. I’m not actually great at scientific thinking in real life, so I’d be delighted to step into Ren’s shoes—or boots—in Come in and Cover Me and live the life of an archaeologist making fascinating discoveries in a beautiful New Mexico landscape…all while falling in love. I’d be happy to live that life for a while!
GC: It feels to me that naming a character must feel like naming a child, but I am not a writer and I can be very wrong. How do you come up with your character’s names?
GP: Sometimes the names come easy, and sometimes I go through half a dozen choices before I land on the right one. I always like looking through cemetery listings to get some good ideas.
GC: If any of your books was made into a movie, which actors would you like to play your characters?
GP: I always say that all I want is for George Clooney to be involved. He can play any part in any book. I’m not picky.
GC: Are you writing or planning a new book? Can you tell us anything about it?
GP: My next book follows a 90-year-old woman and her full-time caregiver as they both wrestle with how to write a new ending for themselves. It involves a road trip to Gatlinburg, Tenn.
GC: What are you currently reading?
GP: The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson and The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai.