“Books let me go anywhere I wanted.”
In Joyce Mandeville’s novel A Twist of Light, two young girls who
find their alcoholic mother dead decide to bury her and leave town before the
authorities find out and possibly separate them. By her makeshift grave on the bank of the
Kings River in California, beneath a canopy of cottonwoods where the sisters
feel their departed mother will stay safe and out of trouble, they stage an
impromptu funeral.
The elder, less creative Ellie suggests a
prosaic tune, a prayer, or a list of their mother’s few accomplishments to mark
the solemn occasion, while the brilliant Lizzy, who’d have preferred a fiery
Viking farewell, disappointedly recalls how she had interred dead birds and
road kill with more flair and feeling, with song and interpretive dance. In the
end, they say a simple goodbye and acknowledge that at least now they have and
can take care of one another, a job their mother did poorly.
How we take care of one another – through the
ties that bind and occasionally chafe – while remaining true to our inner
callings and creative natures are threads that run through much of Mandeville’s
work. Tall and vibrant, with a ready smile and an insightful wit that matches
the frequent humor – sometimes gritty and black – found in her novels, the East
Hardwick resident is the author of three published novels and many short
stories.
This year, as Little, Brown brings out e-book
versions of A Twist of Light, Careful Mistakes, and Glory Days, Mandeville, a daily hiker,
devoted Golden Retriever owner, and doting grandmother to two precocious girls,
has returned to writing full-time. She’s now at work on a trilogy of novels set
in Vermont.
Tell us about
your background.
I was born in Fresno California to a family that was
distinctly non-bookish. My father was the son of Swedish immigrants who
grew grapes and he stayed in the wine biz for his whole career. My
mother's family, from what I can gather, seemed to be something like
professional pioneers. They always seemed to be amongst the first
families to settle an area. Although my mother's family had several
generations of doctors in it, by the time my mother came along, two generations
of divorces, including that of her parents, had plunged them into something
very like genteel poverty.
My parents had what my mother considered to be a great
romance and that was a nice thing to grow up in, a great romance. We
didn't live in a child-centered home, which was perfect for me. I've
always liked to be a little below the radar anyway.
My love of books: I can still remember the first story hour
at the library I ever went to. I was four and the book was Bartholomew
something or other and I was hooked. Later that day, to my utter delight,
I picked out the word 'the' while my father was reading his newspaper and I
thought I had it all. As it turned out, I did. I learned to read
very quickly and books became and remained, the center my life.
They showed me worlds far beyond the dusty valley I'd always
felt stuck in and the books let me go anywhere I wanted. As a small
child, it took me a few years to understand that everything I read wasn't true
so I developed an odd overview of life that I think has served me well.
I've never given a lot of energy to what's real and what isn't.
I married very young to a lovely man who is still my husband
and we had two children. We moved around a bit between California and New
York for his work and in the early 90's we moved to the Sussex area of
England.
I've always been an Anglophile so I was thrilled, but it
turned out to be excellent for my career as well. I'd written a book for which
I hadn't been able to find an agent or publisher in the States, but in England,
I suppose because in the first time in my life I was exotic and foreign, I had
several offers of representation and Little, Brown UK gave me a three-book deal
almost immediately.
Living abroad isn't always easy, but I think it gave us, and
certainly our two children, who were teenagers by this time, a world view that
has enriched out lives.
My husband had been saying for years that when it was time to
go back to the States, the choice would be mine. There had never been any
doubt in my mind about where I wanted to land and that landing place would be
Vermont. I'd never been here, but something in me knew this was the
place.
When we left England, all our worldly goods were on a
container ship and we had three weeks to figure out where those worldly goods
were going to go. Our daughter had returned to the States a few months
before us and was working as a reporter for the Hardwick Gazette, so that was
the first place we looked. We found a fairly beat up Victorian house in
East Hardwick, but it was a divorce situation so the owners were already packed
and ready to move out.
That
beat up Victorian has become a wonderful home for us and we've never regretted
our move here.
You’ve been
writing for more than twenty years, but you’ve also enjoyed success as an
interior designer and manager of an art gallery. Now you’re writing
full time. Do you have a daily writing routine?
I do. I start every morning with a hike or a snowshoe
with my dog. Once we get back home I get nicely dressed (I'm much vainer
that I should be) and I go upstairs to my office with a cup of licorice tea and
light the candles. My office is a small bedroom with almost no natural
light, which is perfect for my needs. All the light is at the computer
with a little bit of glow from the candles. It helps to focus my mind.
Oh, and then I play backgammon on-line for a game or
two. I only write on the upstairs computer because it has a big screen
and an excellent keyboard. I never write longhand since I can't read my
own writing and I'm a terrible speller. If it weren't for spell-check I'd
be asking if you wanted fries with that.
I'm usually done by noon unless I'm doing heavy
editing. The actual process of fresh writing rarely goes beyond about two
hours. There are rare occasions where I'm able to get into some sort of
head space and words just rush onto the screen, but those days are few and far
between. If the morning has been productive, I will give myself a few
hours and then read what I've written that morning later in the day to see it I
was indeed productive. I try to think about the next days writing just before I
fall asleep. I don't know if this is really effective, but I think it
might somehow prime my subconscious.
Having had
the pleasure of being a guest in your home and at your table, I can attest to
how the beauty of place and the comforts of family life show themselves in both
your life and your writing. Are you conscious of creating a sensual
world for your readers?
That's an interesting question. I'm really more
interested in what's inside my characters than where they are standing.
Very often I have to go back to make the physical surroundings clearer, but
that's because when I'm writing I've got such clear pictures in my mind that I
sometimes forget that this is all going on just in my head.
As to a sense of place, I'm always very aware of how a place
can shape a character and a story. Since I'm more attracted to the small
places in the world, that's where my stories take place. I don't believe
I've ever set a story in a city or even a good-sized town. I love the
intimacy of living in a small town and really getting to know people and as a
writer I find it easier to form characters and stories in these small settings.
Your novels,
while rich and multilayered, often showcase female characters struggling
through difficult domestic situations, and you have attracted many admiring
male readers. What do you think of the label “women’s fiction”? Have you
avoided falling under it?
I dislike the term, because I find it demeaning in our still
chauvinistic society. I love women who love to read and they deserve
wonderful things to read. My issue is that within the industry there is
often a formula that seems to define women's fiction. There are clear
guidelines that some publishers expect for women's fiction as to point of
view, length of the book, at what point in the story the main character is
introduced, at what point the conflict comes in and what sort of ending is
required. I don't believe that the people I have in mind when I write are
looking for a formula to play out. Years ago I tried writing to some of
these constraints and after a week or so I hit the delete button and proceeded
to write something I could be proud of. Since I don't have an Adam's
apple, I don't think I can completely escape the 'Women's Fiction' label, but I
certainly don't think about it while I'm working.
Currently I'm published under Little, Brown's Sphere, which
is their mainstream fiction imprint. I'm still not sure how these
categories are determined by editors, but I'm assuming this means that my work
will be attractive to a more diverse audience.
My hope is that there will always be good fiction for people
of to read and good publishers who are willing to take risks to make this
happen.
The
paranormal plays a key role in your work as well. Why is that?
Well, I've been seeing things out of the corner of my eyes
for as long as I can recall. I've lived in a haunted house, which I found
to be very interesting and not really scary at all. I've had a letter
fall on my head that had been written by a late, great friend, who I had just
been thinking about. When I was a little kid I knew if my mother was sad
before I walked in the door. If I ignore these things in my work, I'm not
giving my readers all they deserve. I'm not going to write some nasty
vampire thing, but I want readers to consider a reality beyond the
conventional.
I've found it useful for my characters to question their five
senses and find an alternate explanation. I've also found that after the
second glass of wine around the table at dinner parties, most of the people
there will admit to an experience that could be considered paranormal. I
believe it's part of the human experience, but I try to keep it subtle in my
work. I don't have spooks jumping out of the closet, but I do have a
child who can sometimes read auras. I have two children who think they've
seen the Virgin Mary, but there are no ghouls.
Your books
are also laced with humor, some of it quite dark, with comedy often
underscoring the tragic.
I love to laugh and I can find humor in some very unlikely
places, but I think most people can when they feel free to do so. I think my
favorite movie scene ever is in Monty Python's The Life of Brian, the
crucifixion scene. The one where Brian starts singing 'Always Look on the
Bright Side of Life'? First Brian starts singing and moving his nailed
feet to the music and then all the other men on crosses join in. It sums
up my most closely held belief that isn't what happens to you, it's how you
deal with it.
Tell us a bit
about your current work, your Vermont trilogy.
I've got the first two of the trilogy completed. The
Luck of Opposites and Summerland are not yet available, but I hope
my publisher, Little Brown, will pick them up. The Luck of Opposites is
set in a tiny village in the NEK in the 1950's, back when there were just a
handful of paved roads. Summerland is about a family from
Connecticut who have had a camp on Lake Champlain for over a hundred
years. It's a family saga set in the 1960's with some strong elements of
magic realism.
I'm working on the Madness of Angels, also set
in Vermont and roughly based on the Spiritualist shows that the Eddy brothers
used to put on about 150 years ago in Chittenden. I'm going over to the
Lily Dale Spiritualist colony in New York later this month for research.
I'm quite certain I will continue to write about Vermont,
loving the state and its people as I do, but this will complete the Vermont
trilogy. I've been reading a lot about transgender people lately, and I've
got an idea about Queen Elizabeth I. Sometimes I think there are just too
many ideas.
Joyce Mandeville's three novels have been recently released as e-books by Little, Brown.
Wall Street crashed in far away New York, the Midwest is swirling with dust, and nobody has bothered with painting houses or planting flowers for at least three years. Then Glory and her best friend Pammy see something in the woods, and people start talking about miracles and the Virgin Mary. Soon the whole town seems to catch Mary fever, but the bad days aren't over yet.
From green and pleasant Sussex, Liz slowly reveals the story of her early life as a 'ditch-bank Okie Viking' and her struggle to overcome the mayhem and murder that marred her childhood. The story unfolds as young Lizzy and the adult Liz share the tale of of one woman's life and death.
Jilly, a 40-something widow, finds herself facing a barrage of crises: she is going to be visited by a mother-in-law from hell, while her beloved father, a retired bishop, is terminally ill and she is sitting his death watch. Then on the day she rushes off to collect her college-age daughter Chloe from the airport, the bishop dies and -bang- Chloe reveals she's pregnant.
This column appears in the August 2014 issue of The North Star Monthly. Check out their site:
