IndieView with Adrian Spratt, author of Caroline

With just one example I find unsatisfactory, there’s no mainstream fiction with blind characters written by blind authors. To that extent, I had no models.

Adrian Spratt – 15 February 2022

The Back Flap

In 1980s New York City, young lawyer Nick Coleman meets free spirit Caroline Sedlak in an evening fiction writing course. A vivacious fixture at a Greenwich Village bar, she remains mysterious about her life until their teacher reads her story submission to the class, and Nick realizes that a darker past lurks beneath her happy-go-lucky exterior. This doesn’t trouble Nick, who struggles with demons of his own: as a blind lawyer launching his career prior to the Americans with Disabilities Act, he struggles to prove himself at a law office that handles appeals for indigent convicted felons.

Nick’s practical, goal-driven approach to life balances Caroline’s quixotic nature, and their friendship soon deepens into something more. For some time, they’re happy together. But as the two become closer, Nick’s reluctance to commit collides head-on with Caroline’s need to be loved and belong. Soon, they realize that Caroline hasn’t left her past far behind after all … and the behavior that Nick once found charming first frustrates, then terrifies him. As the two spiral toward an inevitable clash, Nick must choose between the life he thought he wanted, and the woman he can’t bring himself to admit he loves.

About the book

What is the book about?

Here’s a logline: In early 1980s New York, a young blind lawyer seeks to help the woman he loves overcome her demons. To elaborate a little, the narrator, Nick, is blind, but the novel isn’t about blindness; it’s about Caroline and Nick’s relationship with her as he starts his career. Even so, readers will gain a better understanding of the disability by living in this world through him.

When did you start writing the book?

2014.

How long did it take you to write it?

The first draft took about a year, but I edited intensively, and Charis Conn (editor formerly at Harpers, etc.) worked with me on it in 2016.

Where did you get the idea from?

From leading the single life with exceptionally interesting, stimulating and often amusing people in New York and from working in criminal law in the 1980s. The prologue emerged from a dream I woke up with one morning. I no longer remember any details about the dream since the prologue has hijacked the memory, but it gave me a starting point and a story about a young man looking back on a relationship that made him aware of the responsibilities that come with love.

Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?

Some of the material, such as the abortion scenes, were emotionally and morally tough to write, as they still are to read. Like Nick, when it comes to writing and reading, I’m drawn to the andante but not the tragic.

What came easily?

The storylines. Somehow they flowed. The dialog also flowed, as if it were driving my fingers as I typed away. I loved imagining a variety of distinct and often entertaining characters and the kinds of funny situations in which you can find yourself in the city.

Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?

Fictitious, but with a qualification. One character might have an attribute of someone I encountered somewhere, a second attribute from another person, and a third that I completely made up.

We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?

So many authors have influenced me over the decades. I could cite Lawrence Durrell for atmosphere, especially with his novel Clear. War and Peace made me aware during high school how much I cared about a novel’s characters. Georges Simenon, Gianrico Carofiglio, and an undeservedly unknown police procedural novelist named Peter Grainger affirm my sense that compelling mysteries, suspense fiction and thrillers need not be driven by violence. All three authors write gently about fraught situations. With just one example I find unsatisfactory, there’s no mainstream fiction with blind characters written by blind authors. To that extent, I had no models. However, I found inspiration in, for example, Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs, where a protagonist feels like a stranger in the world and yet aspires to participate in it.

Do you have a target reader?

Yes: mainstream readers. This is crucial for me. Disabled authors should no longer be banished with their disabled characters to literature’s sidelines. I sense the reading public has a much greater interest in such fiction than mainstream publishers seem to assume.

About Writing

Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?

Sit at the keyboard and tell myself to type. Once started, words follow.

Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?

I don’t outline at the outset. When I imagine a novel, I seem to know where it’s going, so I have an ending in mind. What must then happen is for the beginning to take shape. After that, it’s about filling in the gap in-between. Once I’m well into the first draft, I’ll make an outline of the chapters drafted so far to help me map out the road I’m traveling.

Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?

I do edit as I go, but not heavily. For a substantive, informed edit, there must be a first draft from start to finish.

Did you hire a professional editor?

I did. Charis Conn who, sadly, has since passed away.

Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?

I rely on a speech synthesizer when I type, and so, sadly, music would interfere. But music does play a role. For example, at one point in Caroline, the characters become obsessed with Manfred Mann’s version of Springsteen’s For You. No coincidence that it was on my mind as I was writing that passage.

About Publishing

Did you submit your work to Agents?

Yes, but just a couple. In the early 1990s, I tried to interest agents in my first novel, where a young blind teacher is alone able to recognize that an apparent accident was actually a murder. While trying to persuade the police to look deeper, he develops a relationship with a sighted woman. A publicist friend believed in the novel and did yeoman work in making contacts for me, but we met with no success.

What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?

I became convinced that the publishing world, while enthusiastic about memoirs by successful blind people, wasn’t receptive to fiction with complex blind characters written by blind authors. The early rejections of Caroline, reminiscent of those I’d received twenty-five years before, were discouraging enough that I felt I had to go the self-publishing route.

Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?

I’m extremely fortunate to have the distinguished cover designer, Bascove, not only as a true friend, but also as the designer of Caroline’s cover.

Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?

There’s a third option: I’m relying on Books Forward for the marketing plan.

Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?

Write what matters to you. Seek out criticism and be receptive. Keep reading. After friends, writing group members or classmates have tested your work, hold on to your belief in it. Recognize that the publishing world is inhabited by people constantly looking over their shoulders at what others think. If you can find an advocate who doesn’t just engage in second-guessing what the public and publishers want, great.

About You

Where did you grow up?

I’m from the north of England and also lived in London. My father was transferred by his American employer to its New York City headquarters when I was thirteen, and I went to public schools in Connecticut. I spent seven years in Massachusetts while attending college (Amherst) and law school (Harvard). During that time, I broadened my acquaintance with America by taking jobs in rural North Carolina and in the Upper Midwest. I’ll add that I lost my vision as my family was moving to the US, so that I’ve lived in the world of the seeing as one who sees and as one who doesn’t.

Where do you live now?

Brooklyn.

What would you like readers to know about you?

I’d like readers to know about the novel. But I’m not shy about my life or talking about it. I led an active life for decades. I’m in a quieter but still happy place now, geographically and emotionally.

What are you working on now?

I’ve been editing the three non-published novels I wrote before Caroline. Each is different. The first, as I mentioned, is a suspense novel. In the second, the protagonist is an “all but dissertation” doctoral student who tries to make it in what he deems the real world only to get caught up in a complex scam. In the third novel, a man wrestles with midlife crisis as he runs a consumer protection program and tangles with ethically challenged members of the charity’s board on which he also serves. Both latter novels draw on my experience as a consumer protection lawyer. If Caroline meets with success, I hope to get these novels published as well.

End of Interview:

For more from Adrian Spratt, visit his website.

Get your copy of Caroline from Amazon US or Amazon UK.