I’ve
always been a writer. It’s been a
lifelong ambition to have a published work. Siblings tell me that I was only 5
or 6 when I first declared this. I
remember reading books by Enid Blyton when I was a child and being in awe of
the way a book could transport me into another world and allow me to experience
the adventures of other children. That’s
probably why I made this declaration. That desire has endured for my entire
adult life, and I have in fact always written pieces, even while working as a
teacher and a lawyer, so the transition to more or less full-time writing was
an easy and obvious one. In fact, while
I was a teacher, I saw it as preparation for being a writer, and while I was a
lawyer, I also saw the discipline of legal writing as part of the general
practice and art of writing.
- What
is your debut novel about? The
novel is about a family, viewed from the inside by both a father and the
children. The father tells of the
changes brought about in the life of a couple as they become parents, try
to preserve their individuality, and take on the responsibilities of
parenthood. He also talks about the
changes in his wife as she became a mother and about his own personal
challenges and how he saw each of his children. Then the children respond with their
versions, filling in the stories told by the father and revealing a little
about themselves. The reader sees
several sides
toof this family.
- What
inspired you to write it? During
the pandemic, family seemed to be at the forefront of my thoughts. I wasn’t able to see my family as I had
done so frequently before, as we live in several different locations- USA,
Trinidad, Venezuela, Barbados.
Friends all lamented this situation as well in terms of their own
families and when I decided to use the space given by the pandemic to
write, it seemed an obvious theme. The
book really flowed very well, and I began to realize that I had written
pieces of it many years before. In
a sense it was the book of my dreams, the book I was writing and preparing
to write all my life up to that point.
- How
much of you and your life are in these pages? I like to say that it’s an alternate version of my
family. There are definitely
autobiographical elements, but also elements from families observed and
families that I knew. I remember asking my sister about an event that is
recounted in the book and she told me that it was actually something that
happened to a family in the neighborhood.
I was very young and seem to have integrated it into my version of
the family story, but it was in fact lived by my family as observers. Some of the outcomes were also changed
in telling the story and some of the personalities were definitely
different from the ones that emerged in writing the book.
- What was it like growing up in
Trinidad, the youngest of 10 children? Trinidad
was and is a very creative country.
As a child, in my neighborhood, there was an air of artistic
excitement- someone was recording an album, someone else was writing
poems, others were dancers, painters.
I grew up with this artistic vibrancy around me and drank it all
in. Trinidad is the place where steel pan as an instrument was created and
innovations in the instrument and the music created for it were always happening.
Apart from that, as the youngest of 10 children, I lived in a world where
everyone knew me and my parents, I was known as the last of the
brood. I spent lots of time
observing the older siblings and trying to understand life from what I
observed. When I went to a new school at the age of 11, it was the first
time that I wasn’t known by reference to my family, as the last of the
brood and it was a life-changing experience. On a day-to day level in the family,
there were lots of pranks and practical jokes, and my siblings were always
trying to outdo each other in this regard.
A successfully executed prank would certainly be followed, even if
a few weeks later, with one that tried to outdo it.
- Your story takes place on the
island nation of Trinidad. How does that setting help the story
unfold? I think the
story could not have unfolded anywhere else. The heavy Roman Catholic influence in
the country is the background for the story, and the norms of society and
the influence of the church are all very much part of life in Trinidad
back in the day. Trinidad was also
growing-up, just as the children in the family were doing. In the course of the story the country
went from British Rule to Independence to Post- Independence. The story touches on the cocoa-planter
culture, which is unique to Trinidad.
While cocoa is grown in a few Caribbean islands, Trinidad was
really the country with the largest scale of cocoa production at a given
time. The vibrancy of Trinidad culture
also created the perfect setting for the story-Talent Show- in a nation
where talent was abundant, and the people loved displaying their talent.
They still do.
- Your
book asks the reader: “Do you really know your parents?” What do you mean
by that? We all look at our parents as figures of
authority, as providers, as role models even. But do we ever think of who they would
be without children? Who they were before the children and who is that
individual inside of the parent? What do the parents talk about when
they’re alone? What are their
private jokes? When I became a parent, I realized that my children
probably would not reconcile who I was as a young adult with the person
who was their mother. Being a role model and an example for my children meant
that they didn’t necessarily see all of me as a person, although I never
hid myself from them. A child’s
world doesn’t easily accommodate a broader view of the parents. I’ve also
noted that couples sometimes get divorced when the children leave. It’s as if they assume a different
persona once the major parenting is behind them.
- How
does your book force readers to reflect differently on their families? I think that the different perspectives offered in the
book help readers to think of and question how they see or saw their
families- as a unit and in terms of parents and siblings. We often take our parents for granted,
and focus on the support and guidance they provide or don’t provide,
without knowing, understanding or even reflecting on why they do what they
do. In reading the book I think
readers might recognize some of the family dynamics and revisit their own
families with the benefit of hindsight.
- There
is the death of a child in your book. How does a family come to grips with
that? Even with acceptance after many
years, it is an event that draws a line in the sand. Those who were around for the event
think in terms of a timeline that’s before or after the death. Those who come after, know about the
event as a loss for the family, even if they weren’t yet born and only
hear about it as a story. Somehow,
it feels as if the pain of the event is conveyed to the younger ones who
were not yet born when it happened, and is remembered by the older ones
who were alive when it happened, probably because of the deep loss
experienced by the parents, and the sadness in the household. It is an event that defies our notions
of life and death- parents aren’t meant to bury children and so on.
Eventually, the family comes to grips with it as time passes, with support
of family and friends and to some extent through their faith, whether they
are religious or not.
- There
are secrets hidden by your characters. What happens when some of them get
exposed? Exposure
of secrets always changes things. When some of the secrets get exposed,
the reader gets a more complete view of the events and understands the
perspective of the parent and the child.
It’s almost like the effect of connecting the dots- the picture is
clearer after the dots have been filled in, after the secrets are
exposed. Some of the revelations
explain an event that occurs or a personality that was introduced in an
earlier section of the book and the reader can understand the other side
of the story when the secrets are revealed. It’s what happens in life so often. As a lawyer I was always struck by how
each party in a lawsuit thought that their version of events was complete
and true, without ever considering another perspective or a detail that
could change everything. Then, when
a hidden fact came to light, it changed everything.
Do You Need Book Marketing & PR Help?
Brian
Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with over four million page
views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com He is available to help authors like
you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30
years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres.
Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!
About Brian
Feinblum
This
award-winning blog has generated over four million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts
over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by
BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs and recognized by Feedspot in 2021
and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”
For
the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He
formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the
head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director
of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time,
self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors
and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine
Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren
Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy,
Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.
His
writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s
The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).
He
hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and
has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah
Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association,
Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and
Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the
2024 IBPA Book Awards.
His
letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal,
USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester)
and The Washington Post. His first published book was The
Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook. It
was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.
Born
and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids,
and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog
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