Heather’s Bookshelf: Author Interview with EM Harris

What inspired you to write “The Year of the Snake”?

Harris: An opportunity came up to work in mainland China. I knew from the moment I arrived that I was going to write a book based in the country.

How did you come up with the names of your main characters?

Harris: Carefully, but having fun with it too. Like most writers, I consider personalities and origins. If the character has an outstanding trait I might use that. But I also think about sound. Any good name needs to sum a character up, and a name that starts with a hard consonant creates a hard phonetic edge.

Is there anything that you want readers to know about you, your writing process or your book?

Harris: I work in the publishing industry, and because my job there is demanding it took a long time to write “The Year of the Snake,” which is my first novel. “Snake” was a learning laboratory: frustrating, demanding, exciting, annoying, and defeating by turns. Even though I’m a book editor, it took awhile to develop my own process. I had to teach myself to write in drafts, very ironic since I told authors to do this every day at work. But I quickly learned that telling and doing are entirely different things. I had to rewire. I forced myself to just get ideas down in the first draft and walk away, to fill in research in the next draft, to open up to the characters and their situation more honestly in the next, and so on.

At times, especially in the beginning, I’d find myself feeling defeated. I think I understand that response now. Writing a novel is like pretending to be a little god on every page: you’re trying to create life, a world that people walk and talk in. In novel writing, words and dialogue alone can’t bring a character to life—they need the spark: the actions, thoughts, gestures, movement, the sounds of the world around them that make them real. They have to walk through that world for extended periods, days and months on end, and that is quite a different thing from writing narrative poetry or nonfiction, and really from any other form of writing. At least in screenwriting and plays you have the advantage of giving stage directions and using props. I couldn’t spark my characters into life with one big jolt, it took time and practice, and something I continue to work on.

Are there any tips that you would like to share with other aspiring authors?

Harris: I think learning from failure is important. That, and not beating yourself up. Don’t feel guilty about failing, or about the time and space you need to write. Taking yourself seriously is important, too, that is, understanding who you are. Writing is often about finding or confirming your own identity, especially when success is elusive. A first draft of “Snake” won national recognition in a competition then flopped. The manuscript went through rounds with literary agents and editors who liked the story but were concerned that the audience wasn’t there. You can’t know whether your work is going to take off or wind up in a dumpster, but it doesn’t make you any more or less of a writer either way.

What is your favorite genre, book, and/or author?

Harris: I have a lot of favorites. Historical fiction and crime are my favorite genres, Ava Larsson my favorite crime novelist, but I love any piece that amazes me, from a remarkable new translation of the “Iliad” to a beautiful poem-novel to anything that makes me laugh, like Elizabeth Peters’ egomaniacal sleuth Amelia Peabody or Georgette Heyer’s “Faro’s Daughter,” and anything that really scares me, like Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot” that made me sleep with a light on for weeks.

What are you working on next?

Harris: I’ve recently finished a nonfiction book, “The Sea,” and am going to work on a historical crime novel of a different type, probably loosely based on the life of sculptor Camille Claudel.

Interested in submitting your book for review? Visit my review page for guidelines and submission requirements.

review