| Interviewer Christopher Seufert sat down with | | | | had separated and he had returned to |
| author Nancy Geary in between | | | | |
| | | | Boston. I had this carload of dogs and sort |
| promotional events for the release of her | | | | of the last minute stuff that hadn't been |
| latest novel "Being Miss Alcott." Latest | | | | |
| | | | packed and a brand new baby. I showed up at |
| release and information about Nancy can be | | | | the closing, and I just... I don't know, |
| found at Seufert: So you're teaching a class | | | | |
| on how to write your first novel?Nancy Geary: | | | | it was very weird driving off the Cape that |
| Yes, at the Cape Cod Writers Conference.CS: | | | | day. It felt like I was really saying goodbye |
| You've written four books and you're on your | | | | |
| fifth now. What's the difference | | | | |
| | | | to something. I think there was something |
| between writing a first novel and writing | | | | about Chatham and the house that we |
| subsequent novels?NG: Well, the idea of the | | | | |
| "Writing Your First Novel" class, the way I | | | | were in. It's just a very special, wild |
| teach it, focuses | | | | place.I remember, once the furniture had been |
| | | | moved out I had something called a |
| on the choices that you need to be aware of | | | | |
| when you're getting started. We spend a | | | | champagne and Similac [A brand of baby |
| | | | formula] party and invited people over just |
| day discussing first person versus third | | | | |
| person, which kind of voice is better for the | | | | to say goodbye. Someone at that party said |
| | | | to me, "You're never going to live in |
| | | | |
| tone that you want, outlining a plot, which | | | | such a nice place or in a nice house like |
| I think is incredibly important, the | | | | this again." And it's true. It was a very |
| | | | |
| themes of your book, and dialogue... So I | | | | special house in a very special place. So I |
| think there are various issues that are not | | | | do miss it.There really is something about |
| | | | driving across the bridge and smelling that |
| so particular to a novel. A novel is like | | | | salty air |
| any ambitious project. If you don't have it | | | | |
| all | | | | for the first time, and the moment that you |
| | | | roll down the windows.CS: So you are also |
| organized in your thoughts before you get | | | | beginning your fifth novel right now?NG: I've |
| started, what's going to happen to these | | | | just started, although it's kind of |
| | | | interesting because I entered into contract |
| students is what happens to most people- | | | | |
| they start and don't finish. And so, the | | | | with my new publisher without them even |
| | | | seeing a proposal. So I've been working |
| ultimate goal of my class is to prepare the | | | | |
| students to see their book through to the | | | | on a novel but they haven't even seen it. |
| | | | I'm going to meet with them in September |
| end.CS: Tell me about how you made the | | | | |
| decision to leave your job as a lawyer, and | | | | and see if they actually want the one that |
| to | | | | I'm working on or whether we'll come up |
| | | | |
| move to the Cape to begin your first | | | | with a new idea.CS: This one is along the |
| novel.NG: Being a lawyer was taking 100 | | | | same lines?NS: As Being Mrs. Alcott. It's |
| percent of my time and I just didn't feel | | | | certainly not a sequel, it has a younger |
| like it | | | | heroine and |
| | | | |
| was 100 percent of me. And there was this | | | | totally different issues and it's set in |
| burning sense that I had something to | | | | Westchester where I live now but it's not a |
| | | | |
| say, that I had this story to tell, even | | | | suspense.CS: So it sounds like it will be |
| though I wasn't quite sure what it was at the | | | | interesting to see if you core readers are |
| | | | mystery |
| | | | |
| time. I'd grown up thinking that if I work | | | | readers or Nancy Geary readers.NG: I'm |
| really hard and I keep trying, then | | | | hoping they're Nancy Geary readers, though |
| | | | we'll see.CS: Can they predict how changing |
| everything's going to have a happy ending. | | | | genres like that will effect the book |
| But, after my dad died I suddenly had | | | | sales?NG: I don't think they know. I was at a |
| | | | Book-Span party and a man from Barnes & |
| this sense that, "My god, every moment is so | | | | |
| precious, everyday is so precious." I | | | | Noble, who is a big buyer for them, said, |
| | | | "You know, you're making a huge mistake |
| just couldn't see myself staying a lawyer | | | | |
| and never trying this.Financially there were | | | | because they won't know how to shelve you!" |
| huge issues, and that's why I gave myself two | | | | On the other hand, the Barnes & |
| years. I said, "If | | | | |
| | | | Noble editors picked Being Mrs. Alcott as |
| I haven't made it as a writer within two | | | | their favorite read and that was a huge, |
| years I'm going to have to go back to being a | | | | |
| | | | huge deal. I figure we'll see what happens. |
| | | | I think this is the direction I want to go. I |
| lawyer." So it was confined. I admire people | | | | |
| who have written manuscript after | | | | |
| | | | couldn't be a lawyer when I really wanted to |
| manuscript and keep on writing after being | | | | write, ultimately. I just can't write being |
| rejected. In fact, sometimes I think | | | | |
| | | | worried about where I'm going to be |
| those are the real writers because they're | | | | shelved.Photos for this article can be found |
| internally driven. They're not writing for | | | | at and freely used.- Nancy Geary Bio -"I was |
| | | | born in New York City. Other than a year at |
| any sense of commercial success or public | | | | boarding school when I was |
| acknowledgement. But for me, because I | | | | |
| | | | constantly homesick, I was educated in |
| was giving up so much and I was allowing | | | | Manhattan and graduated from the Spence |
| myself limited time, it was either going to | | | | |
| | | | School, an all-girls school on the upper |
| work or not work, and it was a huge risk.I | | | | east side. Because my parents were |
| think that in this society your career | | | | |
| becomes so much of who you are. I remember | | | | divorced, I split my summer vacations |
| | | | between Southampton, New York, where my |
| when I quit my job, people would ask me what | | | | |
| I did for a living, and I would say | | | | father had a home, and Manchester, |
| | | | Massachusetts, where my great-grandmother |
| "Nothing." I didn't say "I'm a writer." I | | | | |
| didn't know what I was at all because I | | | | lived.I graduated magna cum laude from Brown |
| wasn't a | | | | University in 1987 where I studied |
| | | | |
| lawyer anymore. Those first couple of months | | | | American History and "Law, Ethics and Public |
| were some of the scariest months of | | | | Policy." My honors thesis on AIDS in |
| | | | |
| my life. But once I got to school and | | | | the pediatric population won the Minnie |
| started meeting other people who were trying | | | | Helen Hicks prize. I then went to Harvard |
| | | | |
| to write and I found a community of people | | | | Law School where I represented indigent |
| that were trying to do the same thing | | | | defendants through the Harvard Defenders |
| | | | |
| that I was, it got easier on a day-to-day | | | | program, taught constitutional law at a |
| basis. But in the end it really wasn't until | | | | nearby public high school, and was a |
| I | | | | |
| | | | teaching assistant for an undergraduate |
| signed a contract that I felt like I could | | | | ethics course.After graduating cum laude, I |
| say I was a writer. Then I felt more | | | | spent four years as an Assistant Attorney |
| | | | General in |
| comfortable about who I was.As for Cape Cod, | | | | |
| the reason that I moved down to the Cape was | | | | the Criminal Bureau of the Massachusetts |
| simply that it's a | | | | Attorney General's Office. I initially did |
| | | | |
| much more beautiful place to live and work | | | | appellate work, but later prosecuted public |
| creatively. My husband was a lawyer up | | | | corruption, insurance fraud and financial |
| | | | |
| in Boston so I was going back and forth a | | | | crimes. I also spent six months in the |
| lot, but for me to work down here was | | | | Lowell District Court as part of the Urban |
| | | | |
| such a gift. I was able to get up in the | | | | Violence Strike Force prosecuting primarily |
| morning and walk my dogs on the beach and | | | | drug and domestic violence cases. I had |
| | | | |
| it was a real source of inspiration. It's | | | | the chance to work with a wonderful group of |
| perfectly quiet in a way the city never is. | | | | assistant district attorneys and |
| It | | | | |
| | | | dedicated police officers, including one cop |
| was really very, very peaceful.CS: Why | | | | who pursued a fleeing felon on a |
| specifically did you decide to use Chatham as | | | | |
| the setting for your latest | | | | tricycle and caught him! As difficult as the |
| | | | work was, the days were exciting. Lowell |
| novel?NS: There was a very deliberate reason | | | | |
| for choosing Chatham with the book. Even | | | | District Court is still the scene of my most |
| | | | vivid legal memories, both successes and |
| though everyone says it's so scenic I think | | | | |
| Chatham is really very wild. When you | | | | failures.I went into private practice |
| | | | briefly at a large Boston law firm before |
| walk on the beach and the wind and the salt | | | | quitting my legal |
| in your face... I remember just coming | | | | |
| | | | career to try to write. I enrolled in |
| back feeling totally exhilerated. I wanted | | | | several graduate seminars, participated in |
| that kind of natural turmoil for what the | | | | |
| | | | workshops on various aspects of writing, |
| heroine's experiencing. This is why I choose | | | | wrote lots of short stories and read |
| Chatham for this book specifically. My | | | | |
| | | | constantly. Then one day on a vacation in |
| other books weren't set here.CS: Now that | | | | Turks and Caicos, the idea for Misfortune |
| you've moved away to New York, did you | | | | |
| actually makes trips down to | | | | came to me. I couldn't sleep and scribbled |
| | | | notes in a travel guide and on pages of |
| visit certain locations again or was this | | | | |
| mostly drawn from memory?NG: Mostly drawn | | | | my day planner. I completed the book about a |
| from memory.CS: Really? When did you first | | | | year and a half later and, in the |
| move to the Cape?NG: My husband and I started | | | | |
| coming to the Cape together. We sort of ended | | | | process, came to think of Frances Pratt as a |
| up | | | | real friend. Misfortune was published in |
| | | | |
| here by accident. He had had a huge case in | | | | 2001,Redemption in 2003, Regrets Only in |
| Singapore and he'd been gone for two | | | | 2004, and my latest novel, Being Mrs. |
| | | | |
| months. And so when he came back I made a | | | | Alcott will be released in July 2005.I live |
| reservation at the Chatham Bars Inn | | | | in Westchester County with my son, two |
| | | | Labrador retrievers, and two rabbits in |
| for four days of vacation. We were down here | | | | |
| and it was the middle of winter and it | | | | a house built in 1790. It has crooked |
| | | | floors, uneven walls, and a basement that |
| was so beautiful. We were walking around and | | | | fills |
| he said, "Why don't we just go into a | | | | |
| | | | with water every time it rains, but we love |
| realtor's office?" The next thing we knew we | | | | it. I teach creative writing at the Northern |
| were down here every weekend and | | | | |
| | | | Westchester Center for the Arts and am |
| Chatham was part of our life . We first | | | | currently at work on a new novel."Author and |
| bought our house in '93, I was here full time | | | | interviewer Christopher Seufert runs ( |
| | | | Chatham, Cape Cod's Online Guide, and |
| | | | |
| by 1998 and then I moved in 2001. It was | | | | |
| very sad to go. I will never forget the day | | | | |
| | | | ( Chatham's Online Store. |
| that we had the closing. My husband and I | | | | |