a discussion with M.A. Harper
How did you arrive at the idea for this book?
Several of these characters resemble some of the imaginary people I
wrote about when I was kid, and I guess they were still knocking about in my
brain. They had once been very real to me, teenagers having way more
adventures than I was, and a few years ago I thought it might be interesting to
re-imagine them through an adult's perpective. But it's been a long time since
I was fourteen, and they had accordingly grown up and grown so severed
from their origins that they were now entirely new people. One of them even
turned out to be dead. But I found that very intriguing. Too, I've always
enjoyed the sort of cocktail party conversation that begins "I don't believe in
ghosts, but . . ." People who don't believe in ghosts will still confide some
amazing true happenings if you get enough wine and camaraderie into them.
Much of the phenomena in this novel is rooted in truth. Or what has seemed like truth to
someone.
When you wrote the book, was there a specific plan for how the
story would progress or did you let the story direct itself?
I never have specific plans about anything. If something is all
planned out for a first draft and I already know what's supposed to happen, I lose
interest. But I always rewrite the whole book about three or four times,from
beginning to end, so by the second draft I know what's going to happenand am
able to begin to foreshadow it and make everything clearer.
Is there something of an autobiographical element in your work?
Not in this ghost story. I don't even give myself a cameo, not even under an assumed name.
What do you want readers to come away understanding from your book?
That the universe is an incomprehensibly strange place, and that what we
call "love" might in some ways be the same thing as gravity: an actual law of
physics. The nature of love in all its many aspects seems to be a central
theme in my books---like those of most writers, I guess---but with me it gets
tangled up with physics. The nature of time. Intelligence. What I always seem
to be doing is coloring outside the lines, going for the uncharted areas
that awe me. The universe awes me, and I'm paradoxically comforted by that.
I am put in my place by it.
How do you think readers view your work?
"Original" seems to be the adjective most often used. Other than that,
and opinions like "witty" and "audacious", I really have no idea. What I
might also like to hear would be terms like "deep", "meaningful", and of
course "the greatest damned novels ever penned in human history." Don't
hold your breath for that one.
Do you enjoy readings and tours, and hearing from readers?
Very much. I get to stay in some nice places where somebody else has to make the bed, and I can eat out every night without feeling guilty. As for readers, they balance the equation. All books are written to be read. Whenever I hear from a reader, even if they've hated what I've written, I have the deep satisfaction of knowing that the necessary link of communication has been completed, I have communicated. This is what I used to lock my poor sister in the bathroom to get.
What advice can you give to aspiring authors?
As somebody once said, "If anything can stop you from writing, let it." But, if not, two words: rewrite and read. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Don't get hung up on trying to sell a book you think is perfect as is. After a rejection, go live your life for a while, work at your day job, read other authors, fall in love, read other authors, fight, eat, read, move to a new apartment, read, so that when you can stomach another look at your own book, you'll be able to really see its weaknesses and where it doesn't work. Once you can genuinely see where it needs work, if you really love it, nothing will hold you back from trying to improve it. And the more you improve it, the more its chances of attracting a publisher improve. Also, accept at some point that it might be a dead horse, begin writing a new work, and stop flogging it. You can always go back to it one day and re-examine it for signs of life.
Are you working on anything new, and if so, what can you tell us about
it?
The working title of my fourth novel is Things That Can Fall. It's
partially set in New York City during the disco era, before anybody had heard
of herpes or AIDS or Osama bin Laden, and concerns characters who suppose
they'll stay young forever and are making spectacularly bad decisions without
enough data. The other half of the story, set in Summerville, South Carolina,
deals with the consequences decades later. And, yes, there's love. That's a
big part of the problem.