 |
| ||||||
| ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
Barbara Delinsky www.barbaradelinsky.com/ 
Publisher: Simon & SchusterInterviewed By: Simon & Schuster 9/21/99 S&S - Life in ''Small Town'' New England is a theme carried through most of your novels. You are a native New Englander - how has growing up in New England influenced your writing? BD - I was born and raised on the outskirts of Boston, but my first sixteen summers were spent in upper New England. Whether I was visiting relatives on Sebago Lake in Maine, or going to summer camp in Harrison, or climbing mountains in New Hampshire - my happiest childhood memories come from those summers. In subsequent winters, I skied in New Hampshire and Vermont. Once I married my husband and I rarely passed a year without visits to the Maine shore, or to Vermont's picturesque Woodstock or to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Small town, back roads New England speaks to me of relaxation, calm, happiness and simplicity, all in contrast to the busy work-oriented lives my husband and I lead. I believe that many of my readers lead the same hectic lives we do, and therefore appreciate the escape to a simpler life that my books offer. I certainly do. During those nine months that I spend intensively writing a book, I live, figuratively, in whatever locale the story is set. What could be better than spending that time amid the beauty and serenity of New England? S&S - Social dynamics between family and community play a huge role in your stories. Do you find that your characters are shaped by the towns they live in? BD - My stories extol communities in the broadest sense. It isn't that my characters are shaped by the towns that they live in, but that their life experiences are enhanced by living in or returning to places where closeness and caring exist. Readers often write to say how much they love living in my small towns during the course of a book, and that they feel the closeness and caring, and would like to have more of that in their own lives. S&S - Although you are currently writing mainstream fiction, you began writing romances. Did you find the change from the two genres to be a natural progression? BD - The progression was ''natural'' only in that my old romances dealt with many of the same issues as my current books. Otherwise, my moving from romance to general fiction was a concerted effort that entailed addressing ever-larger issues, streamlining my writing style, and butting heads with the publishing world in an attempt to change my image. I have always felt that there was a huge, untapped readership that would identify with my characters if only they new my book existed - which meant that those books had to be shelved in fiction rather than romance. This is finally starting to happen. That said, I believe that romance writers and their work are often maligned. Much of romance fiction is superbly written by skilled, well-educated authors who are both insightful and hard working. In many instances, their finished product is every bit as memorable, and not all that different from what is packaged in a more literary way and sold as mainstream fiction. S&S - Lake News takes a rather harsh look at today's media. The only saving grace is offered by way of John Kipling, a small-town newspaperman who has left big city reporting to find a more ethical forum for his writings in a small-town paper. You spent some time writing for the Belmont Herald. What are your feelings about how today's media is handling today's issues? BD - I remember the days when the evening news took thirty minutes - ten for local news, ten for national/world news, ten for sports and weather. Now, the evening news can drag on for more than ninety minutes. Is there really more news to report? Not in the sense of important news, and not in the sense of simply reporting the news, as opposed to interpreting it, or giving an opinion on it. Today's media does a frightening amount of the last two things. Today's reporters are instant experts. More, they are showmen, using their hands, tones of voice, or choice of words to slant the story, and to inject emotion or approval or disapproval where they see fit. In that the public often knows only what it sees on the television or reads in the paper, and that such information is tainted by the agenda or point of view of the reporter or news station or newspaper, today's media has inordinate power. Lake News is about the abuse of this power. The problem terrifies me. Biography: Since the 1980s, Barbara Delinsky has published more than sixty novels, including, most recently, Coast Road, Three Wishes, A Woman's Place, For My Daughters, and More Than Friends. Published in twenty-five languages worldwide, her books regularly appear on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and Publishers Weekly.
Delinsky is a lifelong New Englander. She and her husband have three sons.
| ||||
| ||||
