Writer Jane Ward joins me today to chat about her new literary fiction, In the Aftermath.
Bio:
Jane Ward is the author of Hunger (Forge 2001) and The Mosaic Artist. She graduated from Simmons College with a degree in English literature and began working almost immediately in the food and hospitality industry: private events planner with Creative Gourmets in Boston, planner of corporate parties at The 95th Restaurant in Chicago, and weekend baker at Quebrada Bakery in Arlington, Massachusetts. She has been a contributing writer for the online regional and seasonal food magazine Local In Season and a blogger and occasional host of cooking videos for MPN Online, an internet recipe resource affiliated with several newspapers across the country.
Although a Massachusetts native, Jane recently settled in Chicago after returning to the US from Switzerland.
Welcome, Jane. Please tell us about your current release.
When David Herron—overwhelmed and despairing, his family’s business and finances in ruin due to the bursting lending bubble of 2008—takes his own life one chilly spring morning, he has no idea the ripple effect his decision will set into motion.
Two years later, his widow, Jules, is now an employee of the bakery she and David used to own—and still full of bitterness over David’s lies, perceived cowardice, and ultimate abandonment of her and their now-teenage daughter, Rennie. Rennie, meanwhile, struggles socially at school, resents her work-obsessed mother, and is convinced she’s to blame for her father’s death.
When Denise, the former police detective who worked (and, due to her own personal struggles at the time, mishandled) David’s case, catches sight of Rennie at her sons’ school, she’s struck by the girl’s halo of sadness—and becomes obsessed with attempting to right the wrongs she believes she perpetrated two years ago.
And as all this unfolds in Boston, Daniel, the guilt-ridden young man who, in his old life as a banker, helped create the circumstances that led to David’s suicide, continues to punish himself for his sins by living half a life, working odd jobs and bouncing from one US city to another, never staying long enough to make friends or build something lasting.
Ultimately, each of these very different people—all of them tied together by one tragic event—must learn in their own way how to say good-bye to the past and move into a brighter future.
What inspired you to write this book?
I was inspired by the financial collapse of 2008 and how it brought many stories of hardship and uncertainty into the nation’s consciousness. That time period was very dark for many people, and conflict and struggle – in this case the middle age job searches following a layoff or business failure, the anxiety of owning a home that was underwater, the uncertainty of not knowing what would come next – set the scene for a complex human story.
This period provided a lot of space in which I could reveal real people and real lives. Jules, David, Rennie and the rest of the characters in In the Aftermath became those folks behind the recession statistics, the people living in the margins and struggling to find their way back to living in a meaningful way.
Excerpt from In the Aftermath:
(Jules is in the bakery and beginning to hear things about the economy she has, until that moment, avoided paying attention to):
“They’re calling this housing market a bubble, like everything was inflated and it’s now about to burst. For once, I’m kind of glad I lost out on that that condo I made an offer on last year.”
Housing bubbles? This really was all news to Jules. Talk about a bubble; she’d been in her own, working and sleeping, driving her daughter here and there, for months seeing no one except the people who passed through the bakery’s doors. “If it helps, I remember the same thing happening about twenty years ago and the banks adjusted their lending. At least, that’s what our loan officer said at the time. I don’t really follow this much. But I’m sure things will straighten out again. Then maybe you can look for another condo. It’s nice to own.” She cleared her throat. “Hey, my muffins are all in and I’m going to clean up,” she said, putting an end to the talk about Sandy’s boyfriend’s anxieties and the stalled renovation in the café space. She walked over to the sink and mixed up a weak bleach and water solution that she took back to her bench and, head down, used to clean up the sticky worktop.
As much as she wanted to put these thoughts out of her mind, something about the boyfriend’s observations nagged at her, and for the first time Jules wondered about Nancy from the arts and crafts shop next door. One day, she’d been complaining that no one was shopping for art project kits anymore; everything they needed they could find online, delivered right to their doorsteps. The next day, there had been brown paper on the windows. At the time, Jules had given Nancy’s comment little thought. David’s excitement about the extra space finally opening up to them had eclipsed everything. She smiled, thinking about how infectious his enthusiasm had been. Just as quickly, though, an image of David popped into her head: David on the sidewalk outside the bakery, arms outstretched, palms up, exchanging words with the project boss, who only shook his head.
The timer rang and interrupted her wandering thoughts.
What exciting story are you working on next?
I am in the first draft stage of my fourth novel, currently titled Mothering. The main character is an older, adoptive mother, a woman who (we learn as the story opens) gave up the biological child she had when she was a young college student. It’s a part of her life she has kept secret from some of the people closest to her. When the secret is exposed, her family relationships begin to unravel. Big picture, the story is about being a mother, but it’s also about the different kinds of care women provide in all parts of our lives and the kinds of care we women allow ourselves to receive.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I’ve been writing stories for almost as long as I’ve been reading them. If I got especially attached to a book, I would continue writing short stories that imagined what new adventures the characters might be having simply because I didn’t want to let them go. Today it’s called Fan Fiction, but back then, I thought that’s what everyone did! It wasn’t until I was in college that I called myself a writer. I was in a creative writing class and was called on to read my year end project, my first time ever reading in front of an audience. There was a long pause when I finished and then my classmates erupted in applause. I knew in that moment I could write and give to others what good books had always to given to me.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I do write full time now and have been since 2015. I’m an early riser and get my two dogs out for a long walk while it’s still dark. I come back to read and take care of things like answering or writing email. At about nine o’clock I’ll settle down to write. On a good writing day, I’ll work until one o’clock. Some days are more difficult than others, but I try and stick to the routine even if the words aren’t flowing. A writing instructor once told our class that thinking about what you’re writing is writing too, and that helps to take some of the pressure off on the less productive writing days. In a rough patch, I’ll take notes or make character sketches and come back to a draft the next day with a fresh approach.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I’ll reveal my quirk, but I’ll leave it up to readers to decide if it’s interesting or just proof of my stubbornness. I write my entire first draft by hand because I never learned how to type properly. At my high school, girls got channeled into Home Ec and Typing classes while the boys went to Shop and Computer classes. I thought this was terribly unjust, so I refused to sign up for Typing.
Of course, I still have to type everything once I’ve written it all out and everything takes twice as long as it could (although I’m a pretty fast four finger typist). More than a few times I’ve thought about taking a typing class, but this method is such a part of me by now that it feels like it’s the way I have to do things in order to make stories.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to write stories, but I also wanted to be a physical therapist after going to PT sessions with my best friend when she was getting treatment for scoliosis. I actually started college in the Physical Therapy program before switching to become an English major. I remain fascinated by biology and physiology.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Because of a childhood spent in the library checking out the books I loved so much, I’ve dedicated a good part of my adulthood to library advocacy volunteer work. At a crucial time in my life, libraries gave me a safe space where I could explore the world of the imagination and figure out who I might become. I continue this work for the next generation of children who are right now bringing their stacks of books to the circulation desk, starting what will be a lifelong journey of discovering who they are.
Links:
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Thanks for being here today, Jane.