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A Conversation With Lee Fullbright Author of The Angry Woman Suite
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/4846/1/A-Conversation-With-Lee-Fullbright-Author-of-The-Angry-Woman-Suite/Page1.html
Norm Goldman


Reviewer & Author Interviewer, Norm Goldman. Norm is the Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com.

He has been reviewing books for the past twenty years after retiring from the legal profession.

To read more about Norm Follow Here






 
By Norm Goldman
Published on April 25, 2012
 



Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com Interviews Lee Fullbright Author of The Angry Woman Suite






Follow Here To Purchase The Angry Woman Suite

Author: Lee Fullbright

Publisher: Telemachus Press

ISBN: 978-1-937698-53-9

Today, Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com, is pleased to have as our guest, Lee Fullbright, author of The Angry Woman Suite.

Good day Lee and thanks for participating in our interview.

Norm:

Please tell our readers a little bit about your personal and professional background. As a follow up, how did you get started in writing?

Lee:

Hi Norm, and thank you for the opportunity to talk about the genesis of The Angry Woman Suite.

Creative writing was never a part of my “day job”—ophthalmology practice management—but my personal life has been rife with interesting people and their stories—and I love stories. I will listen to most anybody’s story.

The first storyteller in my life was my mother, who was absolutely magnificent at bringing scenes to life. She could tell an everyday story about going to a dance, what she wore, what the orchestra played, who she danced with, making it so vivid it was as if I was right there with her; plus, I was an early, voracious reader. So when my mother gave me her childhood Louisa Mae Alcott books, the love of stories and reading and Alcott interfaced, and that’s when I knew what I wanted to be and do for the rest of my life: I wanted to be a storyteller like my mother, but I wanted to write my stories down, like Alcott, so I’d never run out of stories to read.  

But prior to that, and during, I had to pay the rent.    

Norm:

Is writing a form of personal therapy for you? Are internal conflicts a creative force?

Lee:

It’s interesting you should ask that one, because just the other day I published a post to my blog titled, “Writing, Creativity, and Meditation: I’m in a Yogi State of Mind,” in which—to summarize an 850-word (and sort of funny—I think) post—I wrote that writing is like meditation (in fact, writing is meditation)—especially writing fiction, because creating stories enables separation from self and ego; it’s a total out-of-body experience. At the end of a writing session, coming in for a landing, I experience a feeling of renewal; a calmness—um, that would be on a good writing day, though . . . but, basically, I am so not a tortured writer at all.

As for internal conflicts being a creative force: yes, yes, yes. Life is conflict. Relationships are conflict, and so on. All stories have conflict, something to overcome, a point to make, a goal to reach—otherwise, words become drivel, not stories at all.        

Norm:

How has your education informed your writing? Did you learn anything from writing your book and if so, what was it?

Lee:

I was slated to be an English teacher, my parents’ pick for me, so there’s that: I have education to thank for what I’ve been told are still excellent punctuation and grammar skill sets. But I wanted to write for a living, not teach English—the problem with that was the rent thing again (oh, and I could never actually finish a writing project)—or I wanted to be a psychologist—and the problem with that was love. I’d fallen in love—and the only problem with love is that it sometimes makes us forget what we wanted to do first, like finish the formal education required for becoming a psychologist.

No regrets, though, about not going back to school. None. I married the man I love—an optometrist, which is how I stepped into managing ophthalmology practices.
But did I learn anything writing The Angry Woman Suite? Absolutely. I learned a great deal, the first being that I could finish a project with less than 160,000 words (what, ouch, my very first completed—and completely unpublishable—novel clocked in at), and, second, I confirmed something I already knew but hadn’t yet articulated as such: Families are paradox. They are the best and the worst of us. They nurture, and they take no prisoners.         

Norm:

Are the characters in your book based on people you know or have encountered or are they strictly fictional? As a follow up, how did you go about creating your three narrators​?

Lee:

Two of the three narrators were partially inspired by real people; keeping in mind that, for storytellers, everything and every person encountered is grist for a story.

For instance, Aidan Madsen was inspired by the real-life Christian Sanderson of Chadds Ford, PA, whose passion was the Battle of the Brandywine, and he did start his own museum.

Matthew Waterston’s character was somewhat inspired by artist Andrew Wyeth, also from Chadds Ford; and the hoopla caused by the unveiling of The Angry Woman Suite is reminiscent of the real-life hoopla that surrounded Wyeth’s “Helga pictures,” when they came to light in the 1980’s.

The first character I created was Francis Grayson; in fact, the novel originally began with Francis. But my critique group urged me to rewrite and make Elyse the start point. At first I resisted, thinking I’d rather cut off my right arm, but I came to realize the group was right. That rewrite took a year.

As to how I came to create these characters, it began with my curiosity about how people like Francis—good and bad, kind and mean—are made.     
        
Norm:

It is said that writers should write what they know. Were there any elements of the book that forced you to step out of your comfort zone, and if so, how did you approach this part of the writing?

Lee:

Yes, writing from the males’ points of view! (Aidan and Francis.) When I’m so not one. And how did I do it? At first, badly. Laughably.
But every line of their dialogue got the “treatment” from all the men in my life, trust me.      

Norm:

Can you tell us how you found representation for your book? Did you pitch it to an agent, or query publishers who would most likely publish this type of book? Any rejections? Did you self-publish?

Lee:

I queried agents. And I collected many rejections. But then I was offered representation by an agent connected with a well-known New York agency. My agent was excited and so was I. The only thing she wanted me to change was the title (originally Moonlight Serenade), and the subsequent (5) editors’ reads were extremely positive—but no sale. And then my agent left the business and switched careers entirely!

Now, I could have started querying agents all over again, but that’s where fate intervened—again. A writer friend of another friend invited me to lunch and filled my ear with a whole new idea: “going indie”—wow, what a concept—plus it sounded a whole lot more fun than writing queries for another six months. One thing let to another: another friend knew of someone who was publishing with the same group that put John Locke’s books together (Locke is the indie million-book seller at Amazon). That group is Telemachus Press, and they’re a great bunch of people. They put The Angry Woman Suite together.          

Norm:

Are you working on any books/projects that you would like to share with us? (We would love to hear all about them!)

Lee:

I am halfway through the first draft of a novel about a teenaged girl’s rape and murder in San Diego; a whodunit and why—inspired by the Chelsea King story. I’ve put it aside—a dangerous thing to do, I know!—while introducing The Angry Woman Suite around.    

Norm:

Where can our readers find out more about you and The Angry Woman Suite?

Lee:

I have my own suite at “Rooms of Our Own,” where I blog about writing, life’s curiosities, dogs, and books. Follow Here For My Blog.
The Angry Woman Suite is available in quality softcover at Amazon.com, and at the Kindle store, and through the Barnes and Noble website.   
 
Norm:

As our interview comes to an end, is there anything else you wish to add that we have not covered​?

Lee:

Yes, again, thank you for the chat—and the very good questions!   

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Follow Here To Purchase The Angry Woman Suite