Novelist D. J. Green joins me today to chat about her new post-World War II action-adventure novel, No More Empty Spaces.
Bio:
D. J. Green is a writer, geologist, and sailor, as well as a bookseller and partner in Bookworks, an independent bookstore in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She lives near the Sandia Mountains in Placitas, New Mexico, and cruises the Salish Sea on her sailboat during the summers. No More Empty Spaces is her debut novel.
Welcome, D. J. Please tell us about your current release.
No More Empty Spaces is the story of a man, his family, and a mountain valley. It’s 1973, and Will Ross, a divorced American geologist has signed on to work on a troubled dam in a remote, rugged part of Turkey. He decides to take his three children, 15-year-old Kevin, 12-year-old Rob, and 4-year-old Didi, with him, but they think they’re only going for their usual two-week stint of shared custody, not to live there. Once the family gets to Turkey, Will finds himself struggling for control—of his family, his work, the landscape the dam is to be built on, and ultimately, himself.
The story is told in three points of view: Will; his son, Kevin; and Paula, a young American woman who teaches the English-speaking children at the dam site. Part-family story and part-adventure, this book is about the forces we can control, and those we can’t.
What inspired you to write this book?
I was inspired to write this book to find the essence of the truth my late husband, a truer truth through fiction, if you will. Will Ross is loosely based on him, but as I wrote into the story, Will became more himself, and less the man who inspired him. Also, as I got deeper into the story, other inspiration took hold—like families, always a rich vein to be mined, and how we define progress and is all progress as positive as we’d like to think. As a geologist, the Earth and the geologic processes that shape it have always inspired me, and in the book, I strive to translate the wonder I feel to non-scientist readers by weaving science into the fabric of the story.
Excerpt from No More Empty Spaces:
Aromas washed over Kevin like a wave when he pushed one of the heavy wooden doors—twice his height, spanned with iron bands, and studded with nails the size of his fist—and entered Istanbul’s spice bazaar. His senses were inundated with smells and colors and sounds, and he felt like he could taste the air swirling around him as the massive door closed behind him.
Nuts and beans rattled into bins. Cans and jars clinked against each other as they were stacked higher than Kevin would dare. Bakers placed cookies artfully, like edible mosaics. Candy sellers carefully built structures of their rolls of freshly made sweets that reminded Kevin of the Lincoln Logs he’d played with as a kid. The merchants seemed so casual, shaping their powders and pods into steep pyramids, and Kevin wondered how it didn’t all cascade over the rims of the bins and boxes. Red, ochre, black, green, and even deep purple spices filled stall after stall. Some were labeled with just the price. Others, more helpful to Kevin, named the spices on small placards, like curry, sumac, paprika, and chile (or chili or chilly—the spelling varied from stall to stall).
He never knew there were so many colors of pepper—white, green, red, and black. Mild, medium, and hot too. Then there was “Mother-In-Law Chilly,” which the vendor said was extra hot, for unhappy brides to mix into their husband’s mother’s dinner. Kevin wondered if his mother ever did that to Gran. Gran would tell Mom her pie crusts were tough, her fried chicken soggy, and her cookies burnt. If there was an American version of Mother-In-Law Chilly, Gran probably deserved a helping of it, even if her fried chicken was way better than Mom’s.
What exciting project are you working on next?
I’m writing my second novel; its working title is Chances. It is story of a woman taking the helm of her life, as she learns to command the helm of her sailboat, as told by the ship’s intrepid dog.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
It took me a long time to claim “writer” for myself, even though I’d been writing for years. I’d have to say it was the moment when I completed the first full draft of No More Empty Spaces. When I printed it out and held the manuscript in my hands, felt the heft of it, that’s when I really felt like a writer.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I’m retired from geological consulting, so in that sense my job is being a writer. But I don’t write 40 hours a week, as I’m a partner in and part-time bookseller at a local, independent bookstore, Bookworks, in Albuquerque. With respect to my writing process, I tend to write in spurts, making a lot of progress in a story, then I might experience a lull, where I’m not writing much. But I hope the story is still percolating in the subsurface during those lulls.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
About 15 years ago, I learned a practice called Yoga-As-Muse. It helped me to switch gears from the technical work I was doing as a geologist to creative writing. I still use it. It helps me define my writing intentions, big and small, and helps me to focus on each writing session as I start it.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was a little kid, if someone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d reply, “I’m going to get a PhD in ornithology.” I remember getting some really funny looks with that response, but I was drawn to science quite young. I also wrote (truly awful) poetry as a little kid, so I guess I was headed toward writing early on as well.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Thank you for reading this, and for your interest in No More Empty Spaces. I would love to hear what you felt or thought about the book. You can leave a review, contact me through my website, or reach out on social media. Thank you!
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