My own memories of small town life informed my ability to write the sense of community that I tried to portray.
Maren Cooper – 22 July 2022
The Back Flap
Charles Booker is thrilled to start married life in Two Harbors, Minnesota, with his ambitious ornithologist bride, Caroline—but he sabotages his own happiness when, blinded by his desire for a family, he tricks Caroline into a pregnancy she doesn’t want.
Caroline, bold and unapologetic, follows her own nature and holds Charles to his promise to parent their daughter without her help—an arrangement that allows her to travel the world and follow her birds, wherever they may take her. This uneasy truce results in near tragedy for their daughter, Grace, who comes of age in a household full of toxic resentment on the one side and suffocating love on the other, and increasingly struggles with her mental health as she grows older.
Told by all three of the characters involved and set against the backdrop of Lake Superior, Finding Grace is a piercing chronicle of the struggles and eventual insight gained by each over the years, starting with Charles and Caroline’s courtship and continuing into Grace’s early adulthood—and a poignant coming-of-age journey for both Grace and her parents.
About the book
What is the book about?
Star crossed lovers who marry before they discover they have opposing views on having children.
Charlie Booker is thrilled to start married life in Two Harbors, Minnesota with his ornithologist bride, but blinded by his own need, he succumbs to an impulse to trick his wife Caroline into a pregnancy she doesn’t want. Eventually, their daughter Grace falls through the schism between her cold mother and desperate father.
When did you start writing the book?
Late 2019
How long did it take you to write it?
About a year, with a year of revision and edits added to that.
Where did you get the idea from?
In a class I was taking that summer, I played with the character traits of unreliable narrators and anti-heroes. Those concepts grew into a novel.
Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?
Caroline is an unconventional anti-heroine and I struggled to make her believable and somewhat loathsome….but eventually a character that could be understood.
What came easily?
Writing descriptions of Minnesota’s Lake Superior with its harsh beauty came easily as it is my favorite place in the world.
My own memories of small town life informed my ability to write the sense of community that I tried to portray.
Are your characters entirely fictitious or have you borrowed from real world people you know?
My characters are built on traits that I have observed in people, but of course, perhaps not manifested as dramatically. The small town doctor is modeled somewhat after my own small town doctor growing up. Walt Riley personifies the humanity of a caring community.
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?
Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, Faith Sullivan, William Kent Kruger, Leif Enger, Liane Moriarty, Kristin Hannah, Jodi Picoult, Emily Giffin, Celeste Ng
Enger, Sullivan and Kruger write engaging stories about Minnesota small town life. All write stories about believable people whose life experiences provide universal appeal—real stories that pull readers in.
Do you have a target reader?
For Finding Grace, my target readers are:
Readers of contemporary fiction who appreciate complicated family stories, parents who are challenged by troubled children, adults raised by narcissistic mothers, feminists outraged with double standards, secret-keepers, fathers who sacrifice for their children, all who appreciate the precarious situation of the natural world, people who struggle to get mental health care for their families, small town aficionados, young women finding their way after challenges, couples who struggle with parenting decisions and child-rearing.
About Writing
Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?
My novels are character driven and once I determine what motivates a character, I allow the character to lead the story, and make a mess of things with at least one other character. Then I continue to complicate their lives until they find a solution, or somehow come to a conclusion with the plot.
Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?
I use a storyboard process to outline what happens in each of three acts of the story.
Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?
Write, edit, revise, write, edit revise some more…..
Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?
My best writing music is a CD of Turkish folk songs I brought back from a trip a few years ago. Dramatic, then peppy and fun, all mushed together.
About Publishing
Did you submit your work to Agents?
Only the first time, and then once I realized I didn’t want to spend my time that way, searched for and found a hybrid publisher. This allows me to concentrate on what I want to do, and know that they will take care of the production side.
What made you decide to go Indie, whether self-publishing or with an indie publisher? Was it a particular event or a gradual process?
After about six months of looking for an agent, it became clear I wanted to go a different route. I know what I want to control, and what I am prepared to give up to the process of publishing.
Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?
My publisher, She Writes Press has a great professional book design team. Once I gave them my thoughts and ideas, they offered choices to me. I’ve been very happy with my two novels to date.
Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?
I have a publicist, and do some of my own marketing as well.
Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?
Educate yourself by doing research and talking to other published authors before you decide how you will go forward. There are many options now.
About You
Where did you grow up?
A small town in Minnesota.
Where do you live now?
St. Paul, Minnesota.
What would you like readers to know about you?
If you had asked me when I was twenty-five if I would ever write novels, I would have laughed out loud. It was only many years later, when I had the time to study the art of writing that I got the bug, and tried it. Writing stories provides me with a profound intellectual challenge and a joy I didn’t expect. So glad I took a chance!
What are you working on now?
Novel #3, not yet titled, will be out in the fall of 2023.
End of Interview:
For more from Maren Cooper you can check out her website as well as follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
