Interviews
On Tuesday, September 1st, barnesandnoble.com welcomed Sara Donati to discuss INTO THE WILDERNESS.
Moderator: Good afternoon, Sara Donati, and welcome to the Auditorium! We are pleased you could join us to chat about INTO THE WILDERNESS. How are you today?
Sara Donati: Thanks for having me. I'm very well and looking forward to talking to your readers.
B.J. from Idaho: INTO THE WILDERNESS was recommended to me by a friend who said that not only was it a wonderful story but it also touched on some interesting environmental themes. Could you tell us more about this? Thank you. I am looking forward to reading your book.
Sara Donati: Most of us tend to think that environmental concerns are very new, but they have been in the public consciousness for a long time. There were already hunting laws and hunting seasons in place in 1792, for example. I wanted to draw on this history to make the time and place seem more real and immediate. I hope you enjoy the novel!
Chris from Los Angeles: Where did your idea for this novel begin?
Sara Donati: Hi, Chris. My idea for the novel was fairly simple. I wanted to take characters similar to those in Jane Austen's novels and put them in an unfamiliar place. Who ever thinks of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and James Fenimore Cooper's frontier as having happened at the same time? So I based Elizabeth Middleton on the daughters in her novels: upper middle class, very socially correct, from quiet country neighborhoods. And then I put them together with Cooper's frontierspeople and watched them grow and change. It was a challenge, but also a lot of fun.
Minnie from Cooperstown, NY: I've noticed that James Fenimore Cooper shows up often in your novel. Is this because of the setting, or was he a strong influence on your book?
Sara Donati: Minnie, thanks for dropping in. I'd have to say that the novel is a very loose retelling of Cooper's THE PIONEERS -- I borrowed some of his characters and a little of his plot. It's an affectionate tribute, but it's changed a lot, too.
Christina Lawson McGovern from Washington, D.C.: What a whopping huge novel for a debut! Longer seems like it is a trend lately (and I'm glad to see it!), with such great big books as CLOUDSPLITTER and UNDERWORLD. Why is INTO THE WILDERNESS such a big book? And how long did it take you to write it?
Sara Donati: Well, Christina, I started writing, the characters came to life, and the story began to evolve. Seven hundred and five pages later, the story came to a logical stopping place. I didn't plan for it to be so long, and even I'm a little surprised at its length. But in the end, the story demanded it. For all its length, I think it's a fairly fast-reading novel, no? And it took me about two and a half years to write it, but I was writing another book at the same time, and teaching as well.
Reg from Pittsburgh, PA: What was your biggest challenge in writing this novel?
Sara Donati: Reg, that's an interesting question. I think the biggest challenge was getting the Mohawk history as factually and emotionally correct as I could. I felt a real obligation to avoid stereotype and not to cast the Native American characters as victims. It was a difficult challenge, and one that still occupies me a lot.
Naomi C. Lindemood from Binghamton, NY: I read that you live on the West Coast, and yet your book explores the wilds of New York. Have you spent a great deal of time in New York? What interested you about this setting?
Sara Donati: I do live on the West Coast, but I grew up in the Midwest and I spent a lot of time in New York State where my father's family lived. The setting interested me because I wanted to write about postrevolutionary times and the lives of everyday people facing many challenges. Also, I did want to retell some of Cooper's story, so that pretty much meant New York.
Oren from Boston: Did any of the characters or events in your book spring from real historical people and events?
Sara Donati: Oren: Yes! I'm glad you asked. One of the things I like to do best is to interweave fiction with fact. Some of the characters were real. The scene at dinner in Albany with the French immigrants -- they were real men, and they came to found a settlement called Castorland, which failed after much hardship. There are other real characters too. I always wonder if readers catch them or not.
Bethany Church from Evanston, IL: You must have done some fascinating research to write this book. What was the most surprising thing you learned?
Sara Donati: Bethany, I think the most fascinating thing is to get a picture of the real turmoil that existed in the few decades after the Revolution. The process of becoming a nation was a long and difficult one, although we tend not to hear about that much in history books. Did you know that there was no U.S. currency until the mid 1790s, and then it took a long time to get going? Up until then, people still used British currency, along with every other kind -- from as many as seventeen other nations. Taxation was a mess (even more than it is now!), there were still debtors' prisons. A truly interesting period.
Lillian from Houston, TX: INTO THE WILDERNESS is historical fiction, but it also seems to be a truly moving love story. A lot of authors are afraid of having their books labeled as romance. How do you feel about this? Would you call your book a romance novel?
Sara Donati: Lillian, I don't mind if people want to call it a romance or a love story -- that is, after all, the most important of the story lines. It's not a traditional romance, of course: It doesn't end when Elizabeth and Nathaniel become a couple. The majority of the novel explores how they change and evolve after they are married. But I think many people like a good love story, even if they don't want to call it a romance. So I'm easy, I suppose, on that one.
Mary M. from Greensboro, NC: What other book were you working on while you were writing INTO THE WILDERNESS? Was it another novel? Can we expect to see it anytime soon?
Sara Donati: I have another novel out [that I wrote] under a different name. That novel is very different from this one, so I used a different name to keep them separated -- apples and oranges, so to speak. If you're really interested, it's called HOMESTEAD and it's under the name Rosina Lippi.
Jen Moore from Baltimore: Congratulations, Sara Donati. I'm halfway through your book, and I must say it's an amazing debut. Do you have any advice for a young writer?
Sara Donati: Jen: I'm so glad you're enjoying it. My advice for any writer is always the same: 1) Read. You have to keep the fire stoked, as I like to think of it. 2) Write! Keep at it. 3) Learn how to take and use constructive criticism from other writers. This is often the hardest part for new writers, who are very protective of what they produce.
S. Paul Greene from Wilmington, DE: How did you conduct your research for INTO THE WILDERNESS?
Sara Donati: I read about 300 books in whole or part, visited museums and archives, and most important I spoke to experts in various areas -- especially to hunters and trappers, medical people, and historians. It was hard work, but it was also a great deal of fun and very satisfying.
Gwen from Ohio: I am reading your novel and just love it. Thanks for such a pleasurable read! My husband and I are going to visit friends in upstate New York, and I would love your recommendations on what to see, based on your delightful book. Can you recommend anything?
Sara Donati: Well, first you must be prepared for a very big lake that wasn't in my story. In the late 1800s, they dammed the Sacandaga to make the Great Sacandaga Lake, so some of the sites in the novel are now underwater. But otherwise I can't think of any place in the Adirondacks that isn't worth visiting. I love the whole area. If you venture further west, the Finger Lakes are wonderful too. I would suggest the Schuyler's home -- where Elizabeth and Nathaniel were married. It's still standing. The name of the town is no longer Saratoga, though. They renamed it Schuylerville, and what is now Saratoga is a newer settlement. Hope this helps!
Ziggy from East Village, NYC: What authors have influenced this book? You as a writer?
Sara Donati: Ziggy: I like this question. I always look at it as an opportunity to push my favorite books and authors. Jane Austen and George Eliot are right at the top of the list because of the way they develop female characterizations. More recently, my favorite authors are Alice Munro, Mark Helprin, Barry Unsworth, A. S. Byatt (POSSESSION is one of my all-time favorite novels). This book specifically was influenced by Cooper, as I've said here already. But it was also influenced by Barry Unsworth and by a novel written by Charles McCarry called BRIDE OF THE WILDERNESS.
Cat from Rochester, NY: What are you reading right now?
Sara Donati: I'm reading Carol Shields's LARRY'S PARTY and Margaret Lawrence's HEARTS AND BONES. I love this Lawrence novel, which is set in Maine in the 1780s. Absolutely wonderful.
Nickie from Atlanta: If you could be there for any part of your book, which would you choose? Which character would you be?
Sara Donati: That is a wonderful question, Nickie. I suppose if I could project myself into the book, I'd like to be Elizabeth, as she experiences so much. But I'd also like to be Hannah, who is very close to my heart. The part of the book I'd want to live through myself...hmm. I'd love to be at the lacrosse game at Barktown.
Liz from Plano, TX: Why do you think historical fiction has become so popular again? Do you plan on writing any contemporary fiction?
Sara Donati: I think people are hungry for meaty stories, and historical fiction usually provides that. Good characterization is important too, of course, but the story is first and foremost for most readers, it seems to me. I do have an idea for a contemporary novel, which I may start fiddling with soon.
Pac87@aol.com from XX: Can you tell us a little bit about your experiences with teaching? Did you ever show your students your books? What about showing them earlier versions?
Sara Donati: When I teach creative writing, I don't usually use my own work in the classroom. Sometimes, toward the end of the course, I will have the students read a short story of mine if it fits into what we are discussing. But the course is supposed to be about them, not me. I have a fear of turning a class into a fan club. I know it happens to other writers on rare occasion, and I'm very wary of it. However, [students] often take heart from the knowledge that I have to rewrite and revise and revise and rewrite, so I do talk about that process and how it works for me personally.
Diane from Williamsburg, VA: It must be interesting to write historical fiction about women, since different societal constraints used to be placed on women than perhaps in today's society. It must make for compelling literary territory. What do you think?
Sara Donati: Diane, yes! This is exactly what interested me. It was a very fertile time for women's rights. Mary Wollstonecraft was very visible in England, and women had a big role to play in the abolitionist movement. But overall women lived under great restrictions. On the frontier, some of those restrictions were eased and others were not. I found that really interesting and wanted to explore it. Elizabeth brings the outer world into Paradise, ideas about the rights of little girls (who would have thought to give them any?). She is not anachronistic, but she is unusual in this setting.
Roland from Denver: What are you writing next?
Sara Donati: The sequel to INTO THE WILDERNESS, as yet untitled.
Nelson from New Orleans: How did you first get published? Can you tell an aspiring writer how you got it done?
Sara Donati: I think I'm fairly typical. I had a first short story published in GLIMMER TRAIN when I was 32, and I struggled and struggled along for ten years. Then, in a rather hectic chain of events, my agent sold three novels in three months (I suppose that is where the usual story line changes in my case). All I can say is, find a good agent!
Helen from Syracuse, NY: I read in the bn review that you use some of the details from James Fenimore Cooper's work in your novels. Could you tell us more about how this came about and how his work plays a role in your own? Thanks, I can't wait to read your book. I'm a big fan of Cooper's work, and I think I would like to explore yours as well.
Sara Donati: Helen: I see I have a few more minutes! Yes, this novel is a loose retelling of Cooper's THE PIONEERS. I hope you won't be disappointed.
Moderator: Thank you so much for chatting with us, Sara Donati. It has been a pleasure. We wish you the best of luck with your book! Before you go, do you have any closing comments?
Sara Donati: I've really enjoyed talking to everyone. Thanks so much for this opportunity! There's a chat board at America Online for INTO THE WILDERNESS if anybody is interested. Look up "Women of the Wilderness" if you have the opportunity. Sorry to have missed some interesting questions here.
