Q: You first received a degree in English, which is not uncommon for authors, but then went on to earn a masters in theatre. How did the later correlate with writing a novel?
A: I grew up enamored with books. Nobody in my family had been to college, and I was thrilled to discover I could read my way to a degree. The only drawback to studying great literature is it can be highly intimidating to a would-be writer. At least it was in my case. I couldn't help feeling my efforts were pointless. Yet, I had stories I wanted to tell. Like many beginning authors, I erroneously figured short stories would be easier than a novel. After all, they are shorter, right? Short, but infinitely difficult to do well. Plus, I noticed I kept producing lots of dialogue. So I decided it would be fun to try playwriting. I won a national contest with my very first play and thought I'd found my venue. Only problem was I lived in New Mexico, which is not exactly a theatre mecca. Uninterested in moving to a big city, I returned to my first and truest love - fiction. Theatre, however, had taught the importance not only of dialogue, but also of setting scenes.
Q: Junkyard Dreams has a cinematic quality to it. Did you envision it as a film?
A: Actually, it was initially a play. As such, it garnered some interest but not enough, so I set it aside. Later it occurred to me that I could expand upon the narration, include more characters, and resurrect it as a novel. My experience in playwriting probably lends my fiction a more visual choreography. As I write, I see pictorial moments which I then translate to the page. It would be terrific to have a director fall in love with the book and convert it into a movie. That way people less inclined to read could still pick-up on the story. And I can't help thinking a set designer would have a great time depicting Rita's junkyard and Parker's sculptures.
Q: Do you have a message you want people to take from Junkyard Dreams?
A: Oh, that's a toughie. When it comes to matters close to my heart, I have to fight didacticism in my writing. Like Rita, my love of nature grounds me. Watching towns spread out to the point that they wipe out the surrounding countryside and a more rural form of existence while preserving very little opportunity for people to connect to the land....What can I say? That saddens me greatly. We are one of the wealthiest nations in the world yet we are incredibly impoverished when it comes to a sense of real values. Material things cannot overcome spiritual bankruptcy. See! I just went off on a rant! The very thing I tried not to do in the novel. I guess what I'd like for us to contemplate is how we can live a more conscionable life.
Q: Rita is a Hispanic woman, yet you are Anglo. Didn't you feel like you stepped over a line there?
A: I agonized over that a lot. It seemed audacious to speak for a ethnicity other than my own. I debated, afraid I would step on toes. Finally, I decided it was an important enough story - the displacement of Hispanics in New Mexico by Anglos - that I wanted to tell it. Besides, nobody asks how I, as a woman, dare to create male characters.
Q: New Mexico has been a great inspiration for you, hasn't it? Yet you're not from there originally.
A: My father was in the military and got transferred so much that until he retired, we never stayed anywhere longer than a year. Among the many places our family lived, was Carlsbad, in the southern part of the state. We went there to be with my grandparents while my father was stationed in Korea. Later, when I moved to New Mexico with my husband, it felt like returning home. The state, indeed, has nurtured my work and is the setting of my second novel for which I'm currently seeking an agent.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: The only other state that has ever felt like home to me is northern California. Recently, my husband and I took up temporary residence in Mendocino. Jim's a landscape painter drawn to the coastal scenery, and I have begun a novel very much based in the area. It's too early for me to say with any certainty what it's about, other than that the main character is a botanical illustrator.
Q: Will it,too, be a story based on the land? Can you tell us that much?
A: I don't think the plot will address environmental issues, but, yes, an underlying theme will be the importance of preserving natural habitats.