True Blue

While living there, I found out my mother had a brain tumor. She came to Paris to stay with me and have chemotherapy at the American Hospital. She'd never been on a plane before that trip. In spite of her illness, she loved seeing Paris. I took her to London for a week, and as a teacher of English and a lover of Dickens, that was her high point.

After she died, I returned to France and made a pilgrimage to the Camargue, in the South. It is a mystical landscape of marsh grass, wild bulls, and white horses. It is home to one of the largest nature sanctuaries in the world, and I saw countless species of birds. The town of Stes. Maries de la Mer is inspiring beyond words. Different cultures visit the mysterious Saint Sarah, and the presence of the faithful at the edge of the sea made me feel part of something huge and eternal. And all of it inspired my novel Light of the Moon."

During that period I also wrote two linked books Summer's Childand Summer of Roses. They deal with the harsh reality of domestic violence and follow The Secret Hour and The Perfect Summer When I look back at those books, that time of my life, I see myself as a brave person. Instead of hiding from painful truths, I tried to explore and bring them to the light through my fiction. During that period, I met amazing women and became involved with trying to help families affected by abuse in particular, a group near my small town in Connecticut, and Deborah Epstein's domestic violence clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. I learned that emotional abuse leaves no overt outward scars, but wounds deeply, in ways that take a long time to heal. A counselor recommended The Verbally Abusive Relationshipby Patricia Evans. It is life-changing, and I have given it to many women over the years."

Feature Interviews

In 2008, Luanne Rice took some time out to talk with us about his favorite books, authors, and interests.

What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer -- and why?
I'm tempted to separate the question into two parts, life and career, but that's impossible. Life is writing and writing is life. Even so, there are two books. The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson and Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Carson's book is scientific and poetic, and it taught me that every single thing we do contributes to the harm or well-being of ourselves and the oceans, the world at large. It influenced me to incorporate my love of nature into my fiction.

Franny and Zooey Glass are two of the all-time great siblings of fiction. Nothing has ever inspired me more than being a sister; when I was young, the only stories I wanted to write were about sisters from a close, funny, secretive family like mine. The Glass family was quirky and eccentric in ways that felt very familiar to me. Reading about them felt like breathing pure oxygen. The ways they talked to each other, and the ways they didn't... Salinger loved his characters so much, giving me permission to do the same. I remember reading an essay by John Updike, quoting Seymour Glass quoting R. H. Blyth: "We are being sentimental when we give to a thing more tenderness than God gives to it." Updike, though admiring, says Salinger loves the Glasses more than God does. I remember thinking, is there any other way? Salinger taught me to love my characters.

What are your ten favorite books, and what makes them special to you?
Aside from the two above...

What are some of your favorite films, and what makes them unforgettable to you?

Katharine Hepburn lived across the river from the town where I spent childhood summers. When I was young I went to a party on the beach near her house. It was a chilly night, and there was a driftwood bonfire. She walked down wearing old jeans, a turtleneck, and a ratty mink coat. My friend told her I did an imitation of her in The African Queen, and she made me do it for her. I nearly died, but to say no would have felt rude. And besides, try saying no to Katharine Hepburn. So I did it: I imitated Katharine Hepburn to Katharine Hepburn by saying "I suppose I was in the way going down the rapids!"

What types of music do you like? Is there any particular kind you like to listen to when you're writing?
I love music, but I can't listen to anything with lyrics while I'm writing. Gustavo Santaollala's work is haunting, moody, and without words, so that's good. I like cello and the double bass, especially Edwin Barker. When I'm not writing I'm always listening to those I love including Bruce Springsteen, Garland Jeffreys, Maura Fogarty, Hem, Elliot Smith, Etienne Daho, Dar Williams, Patty Griffin, Silversun Pickups, Josh Ritter, Bill Morrissey, Page France, Francis Cabrel, Steve Earle, Arcade Fire...

What are your favorite kinds of books to give -- and get -- as gifts?
All kinds. Novels-Anne LeClaire, Ann Hood, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Alice Hoffman. Poetry books-Jean Valentine, Mary Oliver, Gary Snyder, Eavan Boland, Hafiz, Rumi; nature books-Rachel Carson, Terry Tempest Williams, Marie Winn, Barry Lopez, Subhankar Banerjee...

Giving someone a book means really thinking about them, learning what moves them. If a person loves dogs-or fishing--there's no better book than Joseph Monninger's Home Waters: Fishing With an Old Friend. I also love his YA novel, Baby, about a young girl abandoned by her mother to the foster system in New Hampshire, and the way she's sparked back to life by learning to love and care for a team of sled dogs.

Do you have any special writing rituals? For example, what do you have on your desk when you're writing?
Beach glass, smooth stones, sea shells, a pile of books, a half-written song, a black notebook, and anywhere from one to three cats are on my desk at any given time. My ritual includes meditation, not speaking before writing, laying eyes on water-either the river or sea, depending on where I am-and lots of coffee.

Many writers are hardly "overnight success" stories. How long did it take for you to get where you are today? Any rejection-slip horror stories or inspirational anecdotes?
My mother sent my first poem to The Hartford Courant, and it was published when I was eleven. I had a brief, shining moment when I thought that all one had to do was write something and then watch it appear in print. Later, after I had dropped out of college to suffer for my art, I would write short stories, send them to the New Yorker with a self-stamped, self-addressed manila envelope. It never seemed to take very long for them to come back to me. Inside, clipped to my story there would always be a printed rejection slip. The rejected stories piled up on the corner of my desk; I stopped opening the envelopes. One day I decided to re-submit some to other magazines. I opened several and found handwritten notes on the rejections slips. "Thank you for letting us look at your work. Please try us again," one said. That day I felt I'd gotten straight A's and a full-scholarship. When I think back to how hard it was, how there were no guarantees, I'm amazed and grateful that I just kept going, trying, writing.

What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered?
For writers who've already been published, who have books or stories out there, keep writing. Put as much of yourself into your work as you can. Try not to think about reviews or sales or anything too far from your fingertips. In other words, stay at your desk and focus on your work. It's someone else's job to bring your pages to the marketplace. I've never gotten involved in that part of the process-I think it's antithetical to a writer's spirit. Or at least to mine. It took a long time and many books for my readers and I to find each other.

For new or not yet published writers, I'd say the same thing: write. Never worry about what your mother-boyfriend-first grade teacher will think about your work. Write what you love, trust your own voice. It helps if you can tolerate uncertainty, and if you know, deep down, that you'd be writing even if you knew you'd never get published. Talking about writing isn't writing. Neither is planning to write. Only writing is writing.