Taking Flight with Tanya Sousa

The animals talk in Tanya Sousa’s new novel, THE STARLING GOD.  They offer comfort to one another, hold conversations on the activities of the powerful bipeds they regard with awe, and reflect on their place and purpose in the grand scheme of things. “There is greatness,” one communicates to another, “in sharing what we were born to tell.”

Sharing what she was born to tell is exactly what Tanya Sousa is all about.

An award-winning author with a BFA in writing from Johnson State College, Sousa has held positions in human services and community development while steadily building her writing resumé.  She’s written three books for children; her articles and essays, most relating to animals and the environment, have appeared in numerous magazines and been widely anthologized. With her first novel, though, Sousa has passionately stepped up her game.

In THE STARLING GOD, which several reviewers have called reminiscent of the best-seller WATERSHIP DOWN, Sousa displays not only a lifetime of keen and reverent observation of the natural world, but a philosophy that stresses the interconnectedness of all living things and a love for the beautiful Earth we share.  “I like the idea of blending into nature more and standing out like a sore thumb less,” the author says of her goals of downsizing, and of incorporating solar and wind power into her lifestyle. “I want my impact on the planet to be less than it is now.”

But the decidedly independent Sousa, with her bright smile and signature waist-length blonde hair, is unlikely to blend into any background.  With THE STARLING GOD, she’s proved herself to be not only an articulate champion of the animals she so clearly loves, but a compassionate commentator on the most invasive species on the globe: humankind.  Readers will find her message, as told through a young starling’s search for answers, affecting and profound.

Tell us about growing up in the Kingdom and how it shaped your work.

I've lived in the NEK since I was 4, the youngest of two girls. My parents bought a defunct farm with a small pond, endless mysteries inside the old barn, and fields and wooded trails galore. My German-born mother was an avid animal lover and valued my independent spirit. My quiet, thoughtful father was happy to let me be whatever I wanted to be as long as I let him read his books and watch his sci-fi movies in peace!

This setting and these parents were vital in creating my drive to write and to specifically write as a champion of other living things. I played outside and explored the fields, woods, barn and pond for hours on end, watching the creatures I found there and sometimes catching them and learning more about them before setting them free again. The family dog and these wild things were my family and my playmates. I didn't feel separate from them or above them, but part of the whole continuum.

When I was old enough to read, I devoured books about animals. My imagination placed all these living things in vivid scenarios with me - and when I began to write, my poetry or stories were often about none other than animals. I didn't play with dolls unless they were a prop for the animal figurines I played with most!

I've had people ask me why I ended up writing about nature instead of pursuing a scientific career for instance. Part of it is genetic, I believe. My father was always a philosopher and thinker and had the quiet, observational bent of a potential writer. He's also very imaginative and "in his own head" quite a bit, which is where stories evolve. My mother actually wanted to be a journalist in her youth and encouraged my writing and reading, so I grew up thinking of "writer" as a noble career. When you put those parts together I'm sure it's obvious how I came to be a nature-oriented author.

You’re a licensed guidance counselor and have written several picture books for children.  How did those books come into being?

I didn't intend to write children's books, but I've always loved picture books. The artwork captivated me at any age, and I loved how stories could be so effective with so few words. After working with school-aged children as a guidance counselor for about a decade, I realized how few books there were, or that I liked, that taught empathy or about the environment in more than a dry, didactic fashion.

There's a big push right now not to anthropomorphize animals in children's stories, and there are studies that claim kids don't do as well in science if they read mainly tales that use anthropomorphism. I say that's garbage, and have always been very suspicious of "studies" and "statistics."

I abhorred "realistic" nature books as a child, and my experience with children tells me imagination is the place where their learning begins best - that knowledge delivered through the playful is more effective than facts alone. With that in mind, I began writing the kind of children's picture books I longed to see more of and could use in my classes.

I have three children's books out now. FAIRY FEAST introduces the idea of growing your own food and eating a rainbow of foods (through a fanciful and rhyming tale that shows every food having a companion fairy as mythology has tree spirits for each kind of tree).  The book also shows the fairy and human characters interacting kindly with other living things throughout the beautiful paintings by Monique Bonneau.

Another of my picture books is LIFE IS A BOWL OF CHERRY PITS. This one is illustrated by the whimsical and child-at-heart artist Katie Flindall and won a Moonbeam Children's Book Award. It's about a disgruntled boy who learns—thanks to his eccentric, fun-loving and farming grandmother, that the glass is indeed half full.

The last one is NINNY NU’S ORGANIC FARM. I wanted to introduce children to the concept of "organic" food, and did so through a story of an organic-farming cat (Ninny Nu) and a “traditional” farming rabbit (Farmer Jack) entering a contest to produce the most delicious food in the valley. I was lucky enough to have that one endorsed by actor Paul Newman's daughter and CEO of Newman's Own Organics, Nell Newman.

The books are now on sale through (Vermont based publisher) Radiant Hen and are part of a program called "MyBooks," where they are given out to NEK school children thanks to the generosity of donors. The classroom teachers have access to resources that go along with the books, and I love that. My purpose in writing has always been to make a difference, and I think this does the job!

Your new book, THE STARLING GOD, features an intriguing premise and point of view.

Because this novel is told from the point of view of birds, people often assume it's a Young Adult story, but it absolutely is not. It's a book that is very much about adult themes and for adult readers. I think it would be good for high school or college-aged students, but certainly not younger unless the readers are very interested in birds or in social and environmental issues.

The story follows a newly fledged starling who has been raised by a new wildlife rehabilitator from such a young age he only recognizes her as “mother.” Once released into the world of birds –who, in an attempt to make sense of humanity’s often devastating behaviors, have formed a religion deifying human beings -- he sets out to learn the truth about this connection after being told he is "The Starling God," a bird destined to help other starlings be more like the humans they revere. Is he what they say he is? The truth he discovers is important to the survival of his kind and all kinds of living beings - including humans.

THE STARLING GOD is a reminder that we share this planet with other species and that we are all connected. Forgetting that, which is what humans have done (and other species are beginning to do in the tale), is dangerous to all living things.

Why did you write THE STARLING GOD?

I wrote this novel because it had to be written. It wouldn’t stop pushing me until I did. It’s a “life’s work,” I suppose you could say.

I have a stack of journals that I've kept over the last 30 years. I write about observations in nature, my deepest thoughts, dreams - literally - anything that pulls at me to document. Sometimes there are seeds to stories or articles within those entries, and one such entry was about starlings singing on a sloping roof outside my bedroom window.

During a trip to Germany, I discovered they are actually "European starlings" and are an invasive species that have been reviled here in the states. This inspired many questions - aren't WE the most invasive species alive now? Why don't we recognize that and how can we judge what deserves to live or flourish or spread and what doesn't?

The thought led to noticing we even decide what a "weed" is versus a "flower" and we tear out what doesn't meet our "flower" criteria. We do the same with all living things - one tree is "bad.” One tree is desirable. One bird is "bad" and we shoot it or poison it or shoo it away. Others are welcomed, fed, loved, photographed, etc. It seems like such egotistical and god-like behavior, I thought, "What must the other creatures think of us?"

That long thought process lead to an essay called "Mirror.” It was first published as a runner-up in an essay contest and then later in "Thrive in Life" magazine. It discussed starlings being reviled when in actuality they are strikingly like us, and poses the suggestion that we focus more on our own invasiveness. It finally coalesced into the idea for a novel, and in 2014 the work came to fruition and was published by Forestry Press (based in Tennessee but with strong Vermont roots).

Readers have liked my work, my other books and articles, but this novel is touching something deeply in people, and I am honored beyond words. When readers write reviews that say the story is life-changing, or discuss how the effect it had continued to haunt their thoughts for months after reading it even though they've read many other books since, you know something has worked.

It took five years to complete this novel and I'm incredibly proud of the result. If anyone ever wondered, "Who is Tanya Sousa?" all they would have to do is read this and they'd see into what I see, what I wonder, what I think. The fact that others have found it profoundly moving is more than I could have hoped for.

And so, what’s next for Tanya Sousa?   

I've been writing a number of very varied children's picture books and sending them out - five are looking for a home right now. I haven't sold those yet, but I've had some lovely personal replies from publishers saying they like my writing style and asking me to keep submitting. It's important not to give up!

The picture books range from a very simple and non-fiction work about my growing up and spending time with wildlife (called "Frogs in the Baby Carriage”) to a fantasy of another culture in another world where the people make life-long bonds with giant, intelligent insects (think dragonfly riders and carpenters who work side by side with ants and mud daubers). That one is called "Dryft Wing" after the main character. I have more ideas than I can get out.

I also have three ideas for novels and am actively involved in research on the subject matter of all three. My next step is to figure out which one to actually write first. These novel ideas are also very different from each other, and I'm afraid I can't share details about the storylines at this point. Let's just say one calls me to travel to Montana to meet a very special beef cow, one would take speaking with academics who know the most about the seeming human population bottleneck that took place about 75-80,000 years ago, and the other is a more New Age novel completely different from anything I've written before.

Beyond writing, my goal is to be happy.  To me, that means having control of my own schedule as much as possible and living in a more flexible way than many jobs allow. It must be "the artist" in me that calls for that. My first words (that's right, not first word but first words!) were uttered when I was toddling about and my mother called for me to come to her. I was exploring my environment, and busy, so I balanced precariously against a living room chair and replied, "Wai a mini (wait a minute)!" My mother couldn't believe it, so she gasped, "What did you say?" She said I looked at her, quite serious, stuck out my arm and put my pointer finger up and said, "Wai a mini!"  So to go with that flow that's always been a part of me – that would be ideal.

You'll find THE STARLING GOD at Amazon and also Forestry Press:  Forestry Press  To purchase Tanya's children's books, visit Radiant Hen:  Radiant Hen Press

This interview appears in the September 2014 issue of The North Star Monthly.  Check out their site:

The North Star Monthly  

With a Candle to Light the Way: Author Joyce Mandeville

 “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:

http://www.northstarmonthly.com