Interview with RJ Keller, author of “Waiting for Spring” — CONTEST CLOSED

Friday, October 30th, 2009 | Posted by: Andrew Kent, R.J. Keller

The following interview was conducted by Backword Books author Andrew Kent, author of “Spam & Eggs: A Johnny Denovo Mystery.” At the end of the interview, you’ll find out how you can use your Twitter account to win a free, autographed copy of RJ Keller’s excellent novel, “Waiting for Spring.”

Andrew Kent: Tell me about how you wrote “Waiting for Spring.” How long did it take? What was the source of the initial spark? How did you find time to work on it?

RJ Keller: “Waiting For Spring” was born out of frustration. I was housebound, sick as a dog (with what would later be diagnosed as hemochromatosis), and bored out of my skull, because I’d read every book I owned seven million times (give or take). What I ached for was a gritty book about a strong, yet flawed, woman who did…well, I actually didn’t care what she did, as long as the book was gritty and she was flawed. But all I could find were those chick-lit books, the sherbet-colored kind with squiggly drawings of high-heeled shoes and martini glasses on the cover. Blech! I didn’t want a high-heeled book. I wanted a L.L. Bean Boot book. And I couldn’t find one.

Then I remembered what Toni Morrison said: “If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” So I did. From first word to final edit, it took about eighteen months. In a way, being so sick was beneficial. I wasn’t able to work outside the home, so I had plenty of time to write.

Andrew Kent: Why did you choose to set the book in the parts of Maine most people don’t see, the off-stage sections outside the tourist spotlight?

RJ Keller: I love tourists. They entertain us with their accents and leave their money behind before they head back home. But most of them visit the coast or spend the summer on a camp by the lake and think they’ve seen Maine. As a result, there’s a general perception that Mainers are either dim-witted fishermen or backwoods hicks. I wanted to show people Real Mainers. Not in the Sarah Palin “Real America” way, but in the “if you prick us, do we not bleed?” way.

Andrew Kent: How much of Tess Dyer was inspired by an actual person or situation?

RJ Keller: There’s nothing biographical or autobiographical about Tess. I mean, there are bits and pieces of people I know in her. For example, my first roommate bleached anything that didn’t move and some things that did. I’m superstitious about the Red Sox. (The team really is affected by my moods. Jason Varitek, in particular, can sense when my faith in them is wavering.) That kind of thing. But at their core, Tess and the events of her life are purely fictional.

Andrew Kent: Your book has a good number of sex scenes. How fun were those to write? Who did you have read them to in order to see if they worked? How fun was that?

RJ Keller: I loved writing the sex scenes for this book, and I’m very proud of how they turned out. They’re definitely hot, but they’re not gratuitous. Brian and Tess’s first time is actually a battle to define the nature of their relationship. Towards the middle of the book, Brian is upset about a confrontation with his father, and Tess comforts him with sex instead of with words, because it’s what she knows. Later on, when he’s really floundering, he turns to her for sex instead of for comfort, because it’s what she’s conditioned him to expect.

The book explores the various means people use to hide from or cover over their problems. Rachel uses drugs. Tess uses sex. So each of those scenes is in there for a reason other than titillation. Although “if it’s gotta be there, it might as well titillate” is my motto, so I did have great fun writing them.

I didn’t run each scene by anyone to get feedback. I just passed the entire manuscript over to my trusted beta readers, and then to my editors, as is. I figured the best way to judge whether or not those scenes worked was to let them unfold naturally with the story. If I had included a note that said, “You might need a cold shower after chapters X, Y, and Z,” it would have changed the impact of those scenes, and the way the reader absorbed them.

Andrew Kent: How do words feel to you when you write? You have such a natural touch with poignant moments, I wonder how you perceive language and how you know when you’ve nailed a moment.

RJ Keller: When it comes to pivotal scenes like that, I engage in what I like to call “method writing.” That is, I strive to become the character I’m writing. I sit down to the computer in the dark, eyes closed, with my headphones blaring out angsty music. I don’t think about plot points or structure or theme or anything like that. I just concentrate on my characters, about how they’re feeling at that exact moment of their lives; whether it’s scared or excited or pissed off or turned on…whatever it is. I do my best to lose myself in them. And once I’ve got it, once I’m feeling scared or excited or pissed off or turned on, that’s when I start writing. Because if I’m feeling it, that means my character will. And that means that, eventually, people who read it will feel that way, too.

Andrew Kent: Some of my favorite moments involve Tess explaining the subtext of verbal exchanges. Do you find yourself thinking that way at times? Getting under the veneer of social conduct?

RJ Keller: Absolutely. I’m a firm believer in cutting the crap and saying what you really mean. Unfortunately, that kind of lack of diplomacy raises eyebrows and causes hurt feelings - not to mention world wars - which is why Social Conduct Veneers were invented.

But when I first started the book, I tried to write as though Tess was nearly always unaware of the subtext of what was being said or done around her, but in a way that the reader would understand completely. I can’t remember why I wanted it that way, but I did. I had to stop it after about three chapters, though, because Tess came off as a complete idiot, which is exactly what I didn’t want.
That’s when I decided to write it as it is now: Tess is very much aware of the Unsaid, but isn’t always sure what to do with it. A good example of that would be nearly every conversation she has with Jason, her ex-husband.

And that’s when I knew. I’d blown it. For real. Because it wasn’t shock I’d seen on his face. Not amazement that the slacker standing before him had a brain. It was Realization. I’d gone out and bought a book about a man whose words I knew he loved. Read it. And then I’d let him know it. I’d punched a hole right through the We’re Just Friends Having A Few Laughs Every Morning façade and forced him to face what was really going on.

I’d acted like A Girl.

He blinked rapidly, then closed his eyes, trying to piece together what he should say. Not that it mattered. Whatever the words were going to be, they’d boil down to the same thing; even if he wrapped them up in a Sorry.

It’s not going to happen, Tess.

I waited for them anyway.

Andrew Kent: I found myself wondering at the class structure that’s at play in the book. It seems that Tess is exploited in a few ways inside that class structure, as an artist and a worker. Was this a tension you concentrated on revealing? Or was it a natural outcome of telling her story?

RJ Keller: It was a little bit of both. “Waiting For Spring” is set in a small, impoverished lake town that attracts wealthy, out-of-state, summer residents. This naturally leant itself to exploring the issue of class structure, both the realities of it and peoples’ perceptions.

Still, I used that setting deliberately because class is something I’ve wanted to write about for a long time. I know a woman who is a great admirer of people who work hard, yet she’s suspicious of people who are financially successful, even if that success is a direct result of their hard work. I don’t know her well enough to ask her about it (see definition of Social Conduct Veneer), so I concocted a fantastical story instead, which I then tweaked to fit Tess. That’s all I’ll say about that aspect of it, in deference to those who haven’t yet read the book. I hate spoilers.

Andrew Kent: What’s your favorite sentence from the book?

RJ Keller: Tess’s response to Ashley, Brian’s ex-whatever-she-was: “Oh, please, little girl. You don’t know shit. I was playing with dicks when you were still playing with dolls.”

Andrew Kent: Aside from Tess, who’s your favorite character in the book? Why?

RJ Keller: That’s a hard question to answer, and my answer actually changes each time I’m asked. But right now I’ll have to go with Rachel. My next project is an as-yet-untitled prequel/sequel/companion to Waiting For Spring in which Rachel appears, both as a young girl and as she is in WFS, so she’s been on my mind a lot lately. She’s such a beautiful, wounded soul. She’s very much what Tess would have been if Jason hadn’t reappeared in her life when he did.

Andrew Kent: Zeke’s bar — is this a place you’ve been before?

RJ Keller: Zeke’s is 100% fictional. I created the kind of bar I’d like to hang out in: laid back, friendly, comfortable. A little on the shabby side, but not seedy. And, of course, with a large, flat screen television tuned to New England Sports Network hanging on the wall. If any enterprising Central Mainers are reading this, I’d consider it a personal favor if you’d open up a place like this near me. Thank you in advance to your attention to this matter.

Andrew Kent: Do you find “Waiting for Spring” appeals more to men or to women? Was that what you expected?

RJ Keller: As I was writing, I was very conscious of creating something with universal appeal. Since my protagonist is a woman, though, the book has had more female readers than male, which is what I expected. However, I’ve had very positive response from those men who have read it, which is what I hoped for.

Andrew Kent: What’s next for R.J. Keller, the author?

RJ Keller: Like I mentioned, I’m working on my next novel. It focuses on Brian’s parents, Rick and Wendy. WFS readers were only given Brian’s side of their story, which was colored by his reverence for his dead mother. But the truth is that we rarely get to know our parents as people, apart from their role as our parents, so our perceptions of them are always a little skewed. That’s why I want to go back and examine the story of these relatively minor WFS characters, apart from Brian’s perceptions. I think it will be fun to create something new and fresh with pieces of something that’s already familiar to readers.

Andrew Kent — Bonus Question: When did your (quite proper) obsession with the Boston Red Sox begin? Is Tess as rabid a Sox fan?

RJ Keller: Here’s my embarrassing admission: I am not a native Mainer. I was born near Los Angeles, California, and lived there until I was ten years old, although my family is originally from Maine. Thus, I was born a Dodger fan. However, my very wise and loving grandmother had instilled in me a deep and genuine (and quite proper) hatred for the New York Yankees since the time I was old enough to understand the word “evil.” That, combined with my deeply held belief that rooting for the underdog is a righteous thing, put me more than halfway on the road to Red Sox fanaticism by the time we moved to Maine. It seems odd to me that my children are acquainted only with the “2004/2007 World Series Champion” Boston Red Sox, rather than with the “Holy Shit, They Blew It Again” Boston Red Sox. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. It’s just strange.

I did let Tess inherit my love of the Red Sox because, one, it was fun for me to write it that way and, two, because I wanted to give Waiting For Spring a distinctly New England flavor. I also passed onto her my worship of Bill “Spaceman” Lee, former Red Sox pitcher and philosopher extraordinaire.

How to Use Tweet2Win!

• Using your Twitter account, tweet the phrase “Great Interview with author RJ Keller” along with a link to this post, and you’ll be entered in the contest to win a free, autographed copy of “Waiting for Spring.” Contest ends November 6, 2009, and the winner will be selected and notified by November 9, 2009.