Interview With Thriller Author Elana Michelson

 

1. What inspired you to write this book?

When people ask why I set Part of the Solution in 1978, I have a simple answer: because the first version of the book was written in 1978.  I had just finished a PhD in literature, and I knew I’d never have such disciplined writing habits again.  I’d been reading murder mysteries as a break from the deathless prose of the ages, so I decided to sit down and write one.  Forty years later, I pulled an old, typewritten copy out of a drawer. I grimaced as I reread it, finding the writing and characterizations sophomoric.  But the core mystery plot held up, with all the clues, red herrings, and misdirections where they should be. It occurred to me that I could completely rewrite the book as a period piece, a retrospective on the counterculture that was both a comedy of manners and a reflective look back on one particular community that was representative of the times.

 

2. What exactly is it about — and who is it written for?

Part of the Solution is set in a mythic counterculture village in the Berkshires at the tail end of the seventies. Jennifer Morgan, hiding out from grad school and running the village café, is appalled when her idyll in the countryside is disrupted by the murder of one of her housemates. The hippie-hating police chief is ready to pounce, and all of Jennifer’s friends are suspects: the anti-war hero, the Tarot-card-reading baker, the peacenik minister, the trash-talking organic farmer, and the Yeats-wannabe poet with a connoisseur’s taste in drugs. Solving the crime will take more than Jennifer’s usual strategies – she can’t joke, quote literature, or worry her way out of this one.  Instead, she teams up with Ford McDermott, an earnest young police officer who becomes a partner in more ways than one. Jennifer solves the mystery in the end, but the compromises required change her forever. What does justice mean, and for whom? What does loyalty mean, and to what?  And exactly what future could she ever have with Ford, for whom those words have very different meanings?

3. What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book?

I hope that folks who remember the seventies have a chance to revisit the look, feel, and soundtrack of those days. I hope that others who wish they’d been there get a vivid sense of the times.  I want readers to laugh at the foibles of the characters and, at the same time, get a sense of the counterculture as a coming together of earnest, smart people who were ready to try something new. 

 

4. How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design?

The phrase “part of the solution” comes from a statement by Eldridge Cleaver, one of the leaders of the Black Panther Party. The whole quote is usually given as “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”  The phrase was very well known in 1978, and it seemed the obvious title for a left-leaning murder mystery.  It refers to the `solution’ that is the key moment in any murder mystery, of course. It also refers to a more specific plot line that includes the brine of homemade pickles.  So on the one hand, the title is tongue-in-cheek.  On the other hand, the characters in the book want very much to be part of the solution, and in the course of the book some of them learn the hard way how difficult that is.

I can’t say much about the cover design except that my publisher did an amazing job with it. It’s totally reflective of the sixties and seventies – the peace sign, the flowers, the sun --, but the colors are somber, and the pickle down in the lower righthand corner is actually a murder weapon.

5. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!?

LOL. Running isn’t actually a bad choice. Writing is hard, and writing a novel takes a very long time. I’d say two things.  The first is: if it isn’t fun, don’t do it. Chances are you won’t write a book for the ages, and the world will go on its way whether you write it or not. The second, though, has to do with what writing it will teach you about your own humanity.

Writing Part of the Solution was wonderful fun – I got to go back and be twenty-eight years old again, get it on with an entirely inappropriate love object, quote Bob Dylan to my heart’s content, and drop out of my expected life trajectory because I thought that time was on my side.  But I also had a chance to think about how hard it is to try to live with integrity. The world is going to change, and we all have to change with it. But I learned a lot about myself in the course of writing the book, learning to see myself as someone whose life is shaped by history and both enriched and confounded by memory and regret.

 

6. What trends in the book world do you see -- and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading?

I had a conversation with someone in publishing recently that points to what I think is wrong with where the industry is heading. I was complaining about the ways in which I was being asked personally to market Part of the Solution as its author, and this person said, “Remember, being an author is your business. You keep working it and continue to build customer relationships.” I think my mouth literally dropped open. To me, the business of authors is to write, not sell books.  And to me, authors don't have customers; we have readers. 

That said, publishing has never been a level playing field.  The same power differentials and entrenched inequalities that impact other aspects of society largely determine who gets published and who doesn’t.  Some voices have always been louder than others and some perspectives more visible. So I don’t want to pretend that everything was fine before Best Seller lists were replaced with algorithms on Amazon.

 

7. Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book?

Absolutely. A few people have asked me how I “researched” 1978, and I’ve said, “I closed my eyes and remembered.” The characters are often composites of people I knew, and the dialogue draws on the things we talked about and the ways we talked about them. I also had the draft of the original manuscript, which was at least good for reminding me what we were wearing and what posters we had on the walls. 

 

8. How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to?

In some ways, my writing style is breezy and a bit off-the-cuff. I lean toward humor in many scenes, trying to convey a sense of the ridiculous. At the same time, the characters are grappling with moral and social issues that are anything but ridiculous.  They care deeply about justice, community, and each other, and many of them are seriously committed to social and political change. The challenge was always to make the characterizations and dialogue fun to read while not letting the characters -- or for that matter the reader -- entirely off the hook.

The writer I would most humbly like to emulate is Jane Austen, who brilliantly cut her characters down to size without ever resorting to caricature. Her books are huge fun, yet we are wiser, better people for having read them. Would that I could ever manage a single sentence that came close to her genius.

9. What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book?

The challenge was to take an old, deeply flawed manuscript that I originally wrote as a present-day narrative and turn it into a retrospective. I needed to keep the vividness of the late 1970s intact while adding the wisdom that comes with the passage of time.  Part of the challenge was to steer between preachiness on the one hand and nostalgia on the other and still retain the liveliness of the original draft.  I did that in part by letting the times literally speak for themselves using dialogue, inner dialogue, and the song lyrics that are the soundtrack of the book. For example, there is a moment at which my main character confronts the fact that she has done something truly scuzzy.  She does it by having a fight in her head with Leonard Cohen, whose “Sisters of Mercy” is playing on the tape deck.

10. If people can buy or read one book this week or month, why should it be yours?

Instead of what? King Lear? One Hundred Years of Solitude? Despite aspiring to model myself on Jane Austen, I’m not that arrogant. But here are some reasons why their one book might be Part of the Solution:

·         Because they loved the ‘60s and ‘70s, and it would be fun to be back there.

·         Because they wish they could go back in time and share a joint with their Boomer mom.

·         Because the sun is setting early these days, and there is a shawl, a fire, and a cup of tea on offer.

·         Because they’ve booked a family winter holiday in the Yucatan and they need a good beach read, not to mention something besides tequila to get them through it.

·         Because it’s hard to come to terms with the gap between the hopes we had and the lives we made, and stories are a way to share that pain with each other.

If I may, I’d like to ask that question somewhat differently.  We’re heading into the holiday season.  Why should someone buy this book as a Hanukah or Christmas present?

·         Because they need a go-to $20 gift for their old college roommate, their uncle who was at Woodstock, and the friend who fancies herself more rocker than rocking chair.

·         Because Part of the Solution is a way into a conversation across generations and political perspectives, and those conversations are often really difficult these days.

 

About The Author: Elana Michelson is a New York City native who has encamped to the Hudson Valley, where she writes, reads, gardens, and volunteers with local social justice organizations.  After thirty-five years as a professor, she has put down a beloved career of academic writing in favor of writing murder mysteries.  She earned a PhD in English from Columbia University, but gets her knowledge of the life and times of Part of the Solution by, well, having been there. For more information, please see: www.elanamichelsonauthor.com.  

 

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About Brian Feinblum

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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 was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

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.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum