Today’s special guest is debut author Daniel Schorr and we’re chatting about his novel, A Brief History of Kate Parker.
Bio:
A Brief History of Kate Parker is Daniel Schorr’s first novel.
Daniel has been a New York City public school teacher for 32 years. He has a BA in history from Oberlin and a master’s in education from Hunter College. He is currently a master’s student at the Institute of French Studies at New York University.
Daniel is currently working on his next novel, Caje Anderson.
Welcome, Daniel. Please tell us about your current release.
I am not good at such descriptions, because I am overly conscious of leaving so much out of them, but “Kate Parker” treats the struggle of a resolutely middle-class young woman to find belonging and a degree of serenity after being taken out of her social element at an elite college and, subsequently, in her young adulthood in New York City. Though she is not extraordinary in any way, her efforts to negotiate friendships and intimate relationships demand extraordinary things of her, with results that she could not have anticipated.
What inspired you to write this book?
People always mention inspiration, but in my case what happened was past a certain point, it would just have seemed a shame not to see it through. This may sound grandiose, but the older I get the more I fear oblivion, and this fear is really my main motivation, and perhaps the only one.
Excerpt from A Brief History of Kate Parker:
It was a day in February like any other. Though it was not cold for the season, the sky had been overcast for many days on end. It had probably been a week since the last patch of blue had been seen, if anyone had even given it any thought. Yet the sky had been so leaden and the weather so uneventful that most people had stopped thinking about it altogether.
Kate Parker was pushing the stroller down the sidewalk with a listless air, which was not characteristic of her. She took passive note for a second time of the condition of the sidewalk cement: grayish green and raised here and there by the tree roots—trees that themselves had no right, seemingly, to be growing there. The two-year-old in the stroller must have seemed rather dazed, as Kate Parker was well aware. She knew that this was part of the normal range of expressions that an exhausted toddler would have assumed, and so was untroubled by his almost lifeless aspect.
What exciting story are you working on next?
My next novel is almost certainly going to be entitled Caje Anderson, and it concerns a Mississippi heir to a ship building fortune who aspires after the most exalted state of intellectual and spiritual being of which he is capable. The conscious foundations of this project are gently eroded over the course of his young life, with a resolution that is subtle, damning and, worst of all, impossible even for him to foresee.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I first thought of myself as a writer when I was 19. I tried without success to write short stories and longer fiction until I was about 30. When I was about 50 I began writing again, and now I foresee writing as long as I am able.
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 not write full time, for better or for worse. I am a full-time elementary school music teacher, and also a part-time graduate student at the Institute of French Studies at New York University. I find the time to write by setting aside an hour in the morning here, two hours after work there. I take advantage of holidays and weekends. However slowly, and at times, haltingly, I manage to make progress.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I only like to use fountain and quill pens and the only paper I care for is Clairefontaine.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I did not give it any thought until I was 19, at which time, as I mention above, I was sure I would be a writer.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
At the present time, no, but if the opportunity presents itself, I’d like to revisit this question.
Enter for a giveaway by clicking here: A Brief History of Kate Parker, Daniel Schorr
