Thursday, February 24, 2022
Bookpleasures.com welcomesas our guest S.W. Leicher, author of ACTS OF ATONEMENT.
S.W. grew up in the Bronxin a bi-cultural (Latina and Jewish) home. She moved to Manhattanafter earning her Master’s degree in Public Policy and raised herfamily on the Upper West Side, where she still lives with her husbandand two black cats. When not dreaming up fiction, she writes aboutsocial justice issues for nonprofit organizations
Norm: Good day S. W.and thanks for taking part in our interview.
S.W. It's a pleasure.
Norm: In your opinion,what is the most difficult part of the writing process?
S.W.: It varies. Sometimesit’s the overall architecture of the piece. Sometimes it’sthe research that’s needed.
In the case of Acts ofAtonement, the biggest challenge came from the fact that it’s asequel. I had to figure out how to bring readers who haven’tseen the first book quickly up to speed on certain back-story factsand relationships, without exasperating the readers who already knowall that.
I must have re-written theinitial few chapters fifty times, testing out ways to be boththorough and subtle.
Norm: Whatinspires you?
S.W.: For the pastfew years, the greatest inspiration for both my fiction and mynon-fiction has been the girls and women that I’ve met through mypolicy and advocacy work.
It doesn’t matterwhether they are Latina or fervently Orthodox Jewish or BlackAmerican or Asian—they are invariably the unsung heroes of theircommunities. They take care of everyone else: their youngersiblings, their own children, other people’s children, their ownparents, other people’s parents.
They work grueling hoursin the low-paid service and retail jobs that keep our economy afloat.They face bias and barriers on all sides—from within and outsidetheir cultures. And yet they keep dreaming, keep giving, keepstriving. It was easy to write about Serach and Paloma becauseI’ve seen so many shining examples of young women coping with toughodds in remarkable ways.
Norm: What are thepreponderant influences on your writing?
S.W.: Other authors havetaught me everything I know. S.J. Rozan’s mystery novels havehelped me learn ways to tell the intertwined stories of two equalprotagonists.
Oscar Hijuelos’ bookshave provided guidance on how to swing back and forth betweendifferent cultural points of view. Nora Johnson and JudithKrantz have offered models for portraying female friendships.
Recently, I’ve beendiving into Sigrid Nunez’s works to try to figure out how she’sable to weave intimacy, wit, and vulnerability into a single shortparagraph. Haven’t gotten to the bottom of any of those authors’magic—and perhaps I never will—but I intend to keepplugging.
Norm: What do you thinkmakes a good story?
S.W.: Maincharacters who capture both the imagination and the heart—who makeus care about them even when they behave like cads or fools.
Places that make us laughout loud. Passages that make us say: "Yes! That'sexactly how it is!" And incidents that make us say: "Goodheavens—you’ve made me see things in a completely new way!”
Norm: What helps youfocus when you write?
S.W.: Focus is one of thefew things with which I don’t struggle. I can write for fiveor six hours straight, day after day, for weeks on end. And when Ifinally look up from the computer screen, my concentration hassometimes been so deep that I feel totally disoriented. “Wait!Where am I? Wasn’t I just in Jerusalem?”
Given that tendency, whenI do find my mind wandering, I generally just cut myself some slack,call it a day, and go off and do something else.
Norm: Do you write moreby logic or intuition, or some combination of the two? Pleasesummarize your writing process when creating ACTS OF ATONEMENT.
S.W.: The entirecomplicated plot of Acts of Atonement played out in my brain in asingle day without my consciously doing a thing. And individualscenes and passages of dialogue continued popping into my thoughts asI went along—often in the middle of the night.
I wrote the first draftover the course of a year—editing certain parts as I went, butbasically just ploughing ahead. I then gave the manuscript to acircle of trusted readers to check it out for tone, accuracy,logicality, and clarity. And—once they responded—I spent a fullsecond year on the painful, methodical, critical process of goingdeeper into the research, re-organizing, re-writing, and pruning outa full two hundred pages of gratuitous characters andsubplot.
Norm: Did you have amessage or goal for the novel?
S.W. Not when Ifirst began. I was just madly scribbling down the story thatwas exploding in my head. But over time, as readers of allbackgrounds and identities began telling me how at home they feltwith my characters, a clear goal emerged.
I began to want my booksto show that wisdom and foolishness, bias and open-mindedness,nurturing and neglect, kindness and cruelty are not limited to anyone gender or sexuality or background or upbringing. That love andfaith and atonement cross all sorts of boundaries—and possess theunparalleled power to heal.
And that, given both howdiverse and how interconnected we all are, it is vitally important tokeep learning from—and learning to care about—one another.
Norm: Where didyou get your information or ideas for your novel?
S.W.: Some ideascame out of my social justice work. Some came from myhalf-American-Jewish-half-Costa Rican-Catholic family. Some came fromexperts that I consulted. Some from chance encounters. Iturned to a rabbi friend for information on Orthodox Jewishobservance.
And to a colleague withexpertise on the Bronx court system to learn about the workings ofthat world. And to a native Spanish speaker to make sure mysometimes) inventive Spanish was correct. One pivotal scenesprang out of the observations of a Protestant friend who visitedIsrael a couple of years ago and saw it in a very different lightthan my Jewish friends do.
Norm: How did you goabout creating the characters of Paloma Rodriguez and SerachGottesman? Are they based on people you know?
S.W. Originally,Serach was simply going to be the narrator of what I thought would bea short story about a pious little Orthodox Jewish boy namedShmuely.
But she quickly madeherself the star and turned it all into a novel. Characters dothat—they take control. She’s not directly based on anyoneI know, though she does have bits of my husband’s kindness andlogic in her. Paloma appeared when I decided that Serach neededa partner and that it would be cool to make that partner Latina—sinceI know a thing or two about bringing those two cultures togetherunder one roof.
And then she took off aswell. She isn’t based on anyone either, though her compulsiveflirtatiousness reminds me of one of my childhood friends, and herimpulsiveness contains traces of my own.
Norm: What was one ofthe most surprising things you learned in creating the novel?
S.W.: I was completelytaken by surprise by what I ended up saying about the healing powerof love, faith, kindness, and atonement. I always thought ofmyself as being somewhat cynical on that front, but it turns out thatI’m not. I couldn’t have written all that with suchconviction if I didn’t believe it.
Norm: Any unique waysyou'll be marketing your book that is different from how otherauthors market their books?
S.W.: I don’t knowhow many other authors have a marketing plan that simultaneously andstrategically focuses on reaching women, LGBTQI individuals, Latins,and Jews. But—since so many people with other demographic profileshave told me that they’ve gotten caught up in my characters andsettings—I’m hoping that I can also reach considerably beyondthose groups.
Norm: Where can ourreaders find out more about you and ACTS OF ATONEMENT?
S.W.: MY WEBSITE and my PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE offer more information about me andabout ACTS OF ATONEMENT—plus a quick way to order the book.They also have information about (and an order button for) ACTS OFASSUMPTION—the first book in the Serach-Paloma saga.
And if anyone would liketo hear me narrate my novels, they can order the audiobooks throughAmazon.
Norm: Whatis next for S.W. Leicher?
S.W.: I am working on abook of Torah and Haftarah commentaries in partnership with myhusband. I’m mulling over some ideas for a murder mystery, and ashort story about a largely ignored but marvelous Biblical figure.
I’m also toying with theidea of trying to break into the world of voiceovers so I can narrateother people’s audiobooks. I’ve rarely had as much fun as I didwhile narrating mine.
Norm: As this interviewcomes to an end, if you could invite three novelists to your dinnertable (dead or alive), who would they be and what would you ask them?
S.W.: I would inviteJames Baldwin, Amos Oz, and Elena Ferrante over for a good CostaRican meal of rice and beans and platanos and ask them to talk abouthow they think they’ve shaped people’s views about the culturesBlack American, Israeli Jewish and Neapolitan Italian) that theyportray so beautifully.
They’ve certainlyinfluenced my thinking, and I’d love to hear whether that was theiroriginal intent—and whether they think they’ve succeeded.And—oh—wouldn’t I just love to see who Elena Ferrante reallyis!
Norm: Thanks once againand good luck with all your future endeavors.
S.W.: You are very kind. Thank you!
FOLLOW HERE TO READ NORM'S REVIEW OF ACTS OF ATONEMENT
Norm Goldman of Bookpleasures.com