Hey, everybody! After a looong hiatus, during which Baby McNees made her way safely into the world, the author interviews are back! And I have so many wonderful authors and books to tell you about. Today I am very glad to welcome Lois Leveen to the blog. Lois’s debut novel The Secrets of Mary Bowser is a fascinating look at a woman you’ve never heard of who changed the course of history. Mary Bowser was born into slavery and freed as a young woman, when she moved north for an education. Risking her own safety and freedom, Mary then returned to Virginia and posed as a slave in order to spy for the Union and push forward the cause of abolition. It’s a remarkable tale and a lovely debut. Welcome, Lois!

What is your favorite quality in a person?

Humor.  It sounds a little shallow when I say it like that, as though cracking jokes is more important than being kind or brave or any of those virtuous characteristics.  It’s not!  But what gets me through every day is the ability to laugh.  To laugh at myself.  To laugh at things that are obviously hilarious.  To laugh at things that might otherwise seem daunting.  We laugh when we’re happy, sometimes happy despite crummy circumstances.  So I celebrate people who have the wonderful quality of seeing the humor in a given situation.

What is your least favorite?

Meanness.  I cannot abide people who deliberately indulge in petty cruelties.  Or in great big cruelties, for that matter.

What is your greatest fear?

Stultification—I need to feel challenged, to know I’m stretching in some way, whether it’s artistically or intellectually or emotionally or physically.  Of course, I like a certain amount of routine in my life, and I’m not an adrenalin junkie who loves huge risks, but I need things to push me beyond the familiar and easy, fairly often.

Who is your greatest love?

I have been in a wonderful relationship with a charming Newfoundlander (a guy, not a dog) since I was twenty-one years old.  But, as he knows, the true love of my life is/was Bruce the Cat (a feline who originally belonged to the guy who’s not a dog, but quickly became “our” cat).  Bruce taught me about unconditional love in a way that my parents never did.  He made me the sort of person who could be in this wonderful relationship.  He made me sit in the chair revising just a little longer every day, because I couldn’t bring myself to get up when he was napping in my lap.  Alas, cats’ lifespans are shorter than ours, and Bruce is gone now.  I will be forever grateful for the fourteen years during which I had the pleasure to wait on him hand and foot, or paw and paw.

What is your idea of a perfect day?

Up early with an inspired few hours of writing, then brunch with my honey, then—because in my perfect day it is sunny—a long bike ride or hike, then dinner cooked at home from our farm share, then some wacky evening activity with friends, like a square dance or an 80s sing-a-long or an obscure film festival.  I like to do a lot.

What place do you love?

What a cruel question!  There are many places I love; I’ve lived in half a dozen cities, and I’m a sucker both for familiar haunts, and for exploring new places.  But to choose just one:  I’m a dedicated bicycle commuter (believe me, my younger self would not have anticipated that, so I encourage you to try it sometime and see if you, too, will fall for biking), and when I am coming home from downtown, I cross a very beautiful bridge over the Willamette River.  When you bike across at night, you see the moon and the lights of the city reflected in the water, along with boats on the river and trains crossing other bridges.  Whenever I make that crossing with someone, I usually say out loud what a beautiful place Portland, Oregon is, and how lucky I am to live here.  (Note:  I do not sing Portland’s praises quite so loudly when I am looking for great eggplant parmesan or a kasha knish).

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

The practical answer is a teacher.  Probably not in the conventional way, but I’ve always worked in or around education.  I still teach in various venues, even though it is in some ways a distraction from writing.  I get a huge charge from guiding people to push their own thinking.  I believe in education the way some folks believe in religion:  I think it can save people.

The over-the-top answer:  an art buyer.  Wherever I travel, I visit galleries and museums. A lot of them.  My secret dream is to find some rich patrons who want me to go around the world buying things for their collections.  What fun that would be.

Which person, living or dead, do you most admire?

Is it corny to say Mary Bowser?  I wrote this novel because I wanted to imagine what would lead her to make the choices she made, and what those choices might have cost her, personally.  She really is my hero.  And on days when it seemed hard to keep writing and editing, I thought, I have no right to complain—she did the hard work.

What are the words you live by?

The words to the theme song from The Dick Van Dyke Show.  When I get the blues, or the green meanies, or any color of out of sorts, I just sing that song—you really want the tune as well as the words—and it turns me right-way round again.

All right, people–my reading time is about to get severely restricted by this very demanding little bundle who will arrive in March. What do I absolutely HAVE to read in the next six weeks? Please comment below with your recommendations!

Author of THE LOST SUMMER OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT Kelly O’Connor McNees’s IN NEED OF A GOOD WIFE, the story of three women in a group of mail-order brides who travel from New York City to Nebraska in 1867 — a combative Civil War widow in financial ruin, an introspective Bavarian laundress, and the barmaid-turned-matchmaker who launches the venture to thwart her grief after the death of her baby, to Claire Zion at Berkley, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (NA).

That’s IN NEED OF A GOOD WIFE. IN NEED OF A GOOD WIFE, IN NEED OF A GOOD WIFE, IN NEED OF A GOOD WIFE. Just forget all about that other title!

Think you need an English degree to write novels? Think again! Here are four writers (and University of Michigan grads) who came to writing from subjects and interests other than English. It was a treat conducting the interviews with these four talented Wolverines!

I am so pleased to welcome Susan Gregg Gilmore to the blog today. Susan’s second novel, The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove, is now out in paperback! If you haven’t picked it up, here is what you need to know: Coming of age in a house darkened by the remnants of the Old South as well as by her family’s own sordid secrets, Bezellia struggles to find a way to live in her world where the only genuine and steadfast love comes from the people who are paid to care for her.

This is an enchanting book from a talented writer I am so lucky to call my friend. When you read her answers below, you’ll want to be her friend too. Welcome, Susan!

What is your favorite quality in a person?

Courage. Courage to do what’s not popular. Courage to realize a dream. (And then couple that with empathy and somebody who loves to clean, and you’ve got just about the perfect person!)

What is your least favorite?

Selfishness!

What is your greatest fear?

I have a few of these and some are more emotional and mental than others. Some are more political and environmental. But hands down, my number-one fear would be to find myself stuck in a parking garage elevator on a hot, humid Southern day with no water and no cell phone. From there my mind would take over and I would imagine that  the shaft was on fire (yes, yes, I could smell the smoke), the emergency call was not heard, my heart was beating irregularly, and my air supply was running out.

Who is your greatest love?

My precious husband. We just celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary and even our oldest daughter commented recently that she really needed to start a support group for “children of affectionate parents.”

What is your idea of a perfect day?

Starting the day with a latte, a long walk with my husband (8 to 10 miles), time with my girls (possibly including a raucous game of Bananagrams) and then a dinner at home with everybody pitching in.

What place do you love?

To choose one place is almost impossible for me.  But I think I feel most comfortable in the hills and mountains of my native Tennessee.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

Again, hard to say. I love to do so many things. (I once thought of being a chef, museum curator, and park ranger, and that was all probably in one year.) Honestly, I’ve often thought I would have made a great funeral home director. I think it is such a male-dominated profession and really needs a more womanly perspective and touch. I’m sure this comes from being the granddaughter of a revival-bred preacher. In our family, funerals were big events.

Which person, living or dead, do you most admire?

My sisters. We’ve all lived our lives differently but we have always admired one another, supported one another, and valued one another.

What are the words you live by?

Simply put, the Golden Rule.

Sense of humor.

Bragging.

Painful illness.

My husband holding our dog.

In Paris–a visit to L’Orangerie, a walk by the Seine, sitting at a cafe and watching the world go by and a street organist playing La Vie En Rose (I’m a sucker for Piaf.).

Museums.

A painter–I almost was.

It changes, but lately anyone who doesn’t belong to the Tea Party.

There is no beginning, no end, only the infinite passion of life  –Fellini.

I think I will let Neil Gaiman (Neil Gaiman!) speak about Maria Dahvana Headley’s Queen of Kings: “. . . a powerful work of the imagination, stalking the murky, dangerous territory between Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned and Robert Graves’ I, Claudius and should appeal to those who like their historical fiction, and those who crave dark magics and sharp teeth in the night. I can’t wait to read what Headley writes next.” That’s some pretty high praise! Welcome, Maria!

What is your favorite quality in a person?

Curiosity plus enthusiasm. I love people who keep extending the horizon, reinventing their interests, and learning new things. I’m also crazy about people who can speak passionately about the things, people, places, and ideas they dig.

Small-mindedness, particularly the kind you find in people who can’t feel compassion and empathy for those whose circumstances are different from their own. One of the job requirements of being a fiction writer is that you must imagine yourself into the consciousness of both your heroes and your villains. I think you should try to do that in life too. Sometimes it’s bitterly hard. Some people are just rotten. I could name names here. I won’t. Um, I want to. But more understanding = better action.

Apocalypse caused by stupid human choices.

My husband, Robert Schenkkan. Both of my books are dedicated to him for a reason. He’s forgiving when I start muttering about the problems of my imaginary friends, because, screenwriter and playwright that he is, he has a posse of imaginary friends running around our house too. We read each other’s drafts, and he gives genius, generous feedback. Also, among his many other fine qualities, he brings me coffee in bed every morning.  12 years after we met, he’s still exactly what I always wanted. I met him when I was 21, and I can only say that I got wildly lucky. My two books have little in common except for the fact that both of them have big love stories at their centers. That’s because I have a big love story at the center of my own life.

Coffee in bed, delivered by aforementioned Greatest Love. Maybe he stays in bed for a while, with me and my coffee. Hell, maybe we stay there all morning. Then, research into something insanely interesting (not unusual–everything I research tends to be insanely interesting), followed by writing on a new project. Rewriting is the most productive kind of writing, but really nothing can compare to a first draft surging out of your imagination faster than you can type. Then dinner with a bunch of loud, opinionated, funny friends, and dancing somewhere to soul music. Yep. That’s a good, though rather greedy day.

Santorini, Greece. The most fabulous sunsets I’ve ever seen were from the top of the cliffs there. Being there, looking down into the caldera where the volcano exploded 3600 years ago, possibly the root of the legend of Atlantis, immerses you in ancient history even as you’re living in the modern world.

Shakespeare. All those stories. Grabbed and quilted and embroidered from all those diverse sources (in a moment when English was just beginning to be used as poetry) and then made more glorious, hilarious, tragic and beautiful than the original sources. Damn. I think that’s pretty amazing. There are people who did, and are doing more giving things, but Shakespeare just dazzles me.

Give more. Love more. (Or, you know, I try to live by these words. Sometimes I live by coffee and loud music.)

A sense of humor.

I am really not fond of anyone who can be described as boring.

Losing the people I love.

I just said I hate people who are boring, and still, I’m going to answer this in a ridiculously predictable way.  But it’s the truth: my greatest love is my daughter, Elili, who is fifteen months. And yes, she is hilarious and never boring.

I’m not sure what this says about me, but I can’t think of a single place I love.  People, yes.  Places, not so much.  I am bit nomadic and not at all monogamous when it comes to place.

I was a lawyer before becoming a writer, so I guess I have to say lawyer by default.  More accurately: an unhappy lawyer.

I’m a big fan of the work of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And I have a major writer crush on Nora Ephron.

Oh man, I wish I had a motto to live by.  I need to work on that.

What is your favorite quality in a person?

Kindness. A kind gesture makes everybody’s day a little brighter.

What is your least favorite?

Unkindness. Mean people really do suck.

What is your greatest fear?

Like every mom, I guess, that something awful will happen to one of my kids.

Who is your greatest love?

It’s a three-way tie between my husband and two kids. Sappy but true!

What is your idea of a perfect day?

Taking a long walk on my favorite marsh trail and running into a flock of herons.

What place do you love?

The place inside my head that I create while writing a novel. It’s realer than real.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

Been there, done that! Being a writer was the career I almost didn’t have. Before that I was a teacher, continuity director of a radio station, a dance aerobics choreographer, and I also did some landscape design. It feels so good to finally be doing what I was born to do.

Which person, living or dead, do you most admire?

My mother, who died suddenly just before I turned eleven, but not before helping me figure out that even if it would take me decades to come to terms with it, I was a writer.

What are the words you live by?

Karma is a boomerang. It’s the truest thing one of my characters has ever said.

Claire’s new novel, Best Staged Plans, is the story of Sandy Sullivan, an almost empty-nester professional home stager trying to get rid of her own house while her husband drags his feet and her son moves back in and turns the basement into his bat cave. It’s a June Indie Next pick and received a starred Library Journal review. Booklist says, “Addicts to HGTV marathons will drool…genuinely delightful.”

Claire Cook is the bestselling author of eight novels, and her books have been translated into 14 languages. Check out her writing and reinvention pages at ClaireCook.com and hang out with her at Facebook and Twitter.