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SRR: Welcome to Simply Romance
Reviews Kristin! We’re very pleased to have you.
Tell us a little about yourself.
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| Kristin Hannah:
Well, I
guess first and foremost I think of myself as a working mom and a recent
empty-nester. My son is currently in his second year of college, and my
husband and I are figuring out what our lives are going to be like in this
second phase. I’m hoping to do a lot of traveling. Also, like my
characters in Firefly Lane, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest
and that has really shaped who I am. I’m one of those people who actually
like the rain. |
| SRR:
What made you want to be a writer? Are there any authors that
influenced you? |
| Kristin Hannah:
My becoming a writer was almost entirely by chance in the
beginning. When I was in my third year of law school—obviously well on my
way to becoming an attorney—my mother became seriously ill with breast
cancer. It became apparent very quickly that she would not survive much
longer. So every day after classes, I would go up to be with her in the
hospital. That’s when she said to me: “You’re going to be a writer.” I was
stunned, as I had never written a word of fiction at that time. But, as we
all know, mothers know best. J
We ended up beginning a book together—an historical romance. It wasn’t very
good, but it was a start. Years later, when I got pregnant and was looking
for something to do, I picked up that box of research and began actually
writing the book my mom and I had plotted. That’s when writing really sank
it’s teeth in me. I never went back to the law!
As to authors that influenced me,
there are plenty. In the early days I was probably most influenced by
Stephen King, Anne Rice, and LaVyrle Spencer. It sounds odd, I know, for a
romance author to be influenced by two “horror” novelists, but Rice and King
were so evocative and powerful and pointed. All three taught me a lot.
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SRR:
Could you tell us a little about Firefly Lane? |
| Kristin Hannah:
I’ve
never been very good at synopsizing my own work. I’d rather write a whole
novel, but here goes. At it’s heart, Firefly Lane is the story of
two women who become friends as teenagers. They come together in the disco
seventies and make a pact to always be there for each other, and for more
than thirty years that promise holds true. Best friends forever. Until a
terrible betrayal rips their friendship apart and tests them as never
before. It’s a book about the importance of female friendship and the power
of forgiveness. It asks the question—how can you forgive a betrayal…and how
can you forget about it once you’ve made the decision to forgive. |
| SRR:
What influenced you to write about lasting friendships? |
| Kristin Hannah:
The truth
is that I’d been longing to read a big, juicy, emotionally complex, powerful
novel about two women of my generation for years. I guess I finally got
tired of waiting and decided to write it myself. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve
really begun to see how profoundly important our friends are to us as
women. As we all know, men and careers and kids come and go, but our
girlfriends last forever. We get each other through the hard times and we
celebrate the good times together.
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| SRR:
What is the message in your novel that you want readers to grasp? |
| Kristin Hannah:
I would say that this book is primarily a reminder that we need to
keep in touch with our friends. Like long term marriages, long term
friendships take work. It’s sometimes easier to lose touch or not forgive.
This book reminds us that we should always work just a little bit to stay
friends. You never know when you’ll face a difficult time in your life, and
you don’t want to do it alone. |
| SRR:
Are you working on any projects that you would like to share with
us? |
| Kristin Hannah:
Actually,
I have just finished the first draft of my novel for 09. I don’t have a
title for this one yet, but I can tell you that it’s extremely
romantic—possibly the most romantic novel I’ve ever written. It’s also the
story of a family in crisis. |
| SRR:
Thank you for stopping by Simply Romance Reviews. We enjoyed
having you here today! But before you leave, is there anything else you’d
like to tell the readers? |
| Kristin Hannah:
Thank you
so much for this opportunity. I have always loved being a part of the
romance community and I welcome the chance to say hello again. Also, thanks
so much to the early readers who helped put Firefly Lane on the New York
Times list in it’s first week on sale. |
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| ~Kristin Hannah was
interviewed by Angela for Simply Romance Reviews |
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