Memoirist Leslie Johansen Nack is chatting with me about Nineteen, A Daughter’s Memoir of Reckoning and Recovery.
Bio:
Leslie Johansen Nack is the author of two award-winning books: her debut memoir, Fourteen, and her historical novel, The Blue Butterfly. Her forthcoming sequel, Nineteen: A Daughter’s Memoir of Reckoning and Recovery, concludes her raw and deeply personal story, chronicling her path to sobriety and a renewed sense of hope. Nack graduated from UCLA with a degree in English literature and overcame past traumas to raise two children in a healthy, loving home. She is a member of NAMW, the Historical Novel Society, and the PNWA. She lives outside Seattle with her husband.
Welcome, Leslie. Please tell us about your current release.
Fans of Fourteen: A Daughter’s Memoir will welcome my long-awaited follow-up, Nineteen: A Daughter’s Memoir of Reckoning and Recovery. In it, I recount an unusual and dangerous childhood with my adventurous father—delivering sailboats, enduring a wilderness survival course, trying to free my mentally ill mother from confinement, and even recovering a stolen boat for an insurance company in the Virgin Islands. When my larger-than-life yet abusive father died suddenly in a plane crash in Mexico, I spiraled into addiction, fueled by a traumatic and grief-filled adolescence in 1980s Southern California. Ultimately, mine is a story of resilience: I chose sobriety and happiness, built a healthy marriage, and raised two children. At its heart, Nineteen affirms that acquiring new skills and investing in oneself are essential to breaking free from the destructive lessons of childhood.
What inspired you to write this book?
I have spent my entire life recovering from my childhood and pairing that with wanting to be a writer, made the choice easy. I was inspired by other brave women who wrote their stories like Mary Karr and Jeannette Walls.
Excerpt from Nineteen, A Daughter’s Memoir of Reckoning and Recovery:
“Growing up unconventionally, I loved my father desperately, as any little girl loves her hero father, but I also hated him fiercely. I would have done almost anything to escape him. He was the best
and the worst father in the world. The line between protector and
predator forever blurred.” P 3
What exciting project are you working on next?
I’m considering a joint book-writing project with my twenty-something daughter, who dreams of writing an adventure romance with her mother. But we shall see…
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Secretly, I have been a writer my entire life, starting first in my diary when I was very young, then with poetry when I was a teenager, and finally with short stories from my childhood written on the back of log sheets. But I became a “real” writer when I published my first book, Fourteen, ten years ago.
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 have dreamed of writing my entire life. I prayed to the universe to let me know when it was my time to write because we had such a full life and I couldn’t attempt anything creative while raising a family and running a business. The “call” from the universe came in 2011 when I was invited into my first writing group at age 51 by a UCSD writing teacher I had worked with sporadically. I write full-time now and am retired.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I like to go to a foreign country where I don’t know anybody, rent an apartment, and write a book.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A writer, an oceanographer, a photographer, a captain on a sailboat, an undercover operative, a park ranger.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Memoirs written today about dysfunctional childhoods are changing the culture we grew up in. Every generation becomes more self-aware than the last (we hope) so if you want to write your story, do it! Be part of the discussion happening now.
Links:
Website | Simon and Schuster | Audible