Crying With Jenna Bush Hager

I first met author Juliet Faithfull at the Newburyport Literary Festival in April. We were asked to present on the same historical fiction panel during the conference, and I loved her nurturing, genuine and kind personality right away. I also loved her novel, Liar’s Dice, which I read as soon as I got home the following week. It’s tender and lyrical with a story that’s so compelling (and inspired by her real-life) that I understood right away why she was scheduled to go on “The Today Show” to speak about her book.

Liar’s Dice isn’t light but it’s worthwhile. Think: A heartbreaking look at 1970s Brazil and one young woman who is torn away from her disabled twin sister and forced to fight for a chance to see her again. I invited Juliet to talk about her twenty year journey to write the novel—and why getting her story out in the world may just heal her.

I’m not the only one who has noticed this novel either. Legendary writer Sandra Cisneros says, “I hesitate to call anything this beautiful ‘magic.’ It’s more than that. It’s sacred healing.”

Welcome, Juliet, to Dear Fiction!

I love to hear how authors get their ideas. Where did you come up with the premise for Liar’s Dice?
I don’t really write from ideas; I sit and write and then see what emerges. But I knew I wanted to write a story that included a character with a disability. My novel was inspired by my identical twin sister, who had cerebral palsy and epilepsy. I remember reading Dancing After Hours by Andre Dubus, where a quadriplegic man sits drinking at a bar. I cried. It was 1996, I think, and the first time I’d read about someone in a wheelchair in fiction.

I also wanted to write about the experience of being illiterate. My mother is illiterate and I only started school when I was almost ten. Once I had a few pieces, the story started to unfold. I wanted the military dictatorship to be part of the story too. I grew up in 1970’s Brazil, at the height of the military dictatorship. But I had to tell it from the point-of-view of a twelve-year-old (my main character). I wanted the dictatorship to be there in the way it was for me, always in the background, like the shade of a tall building.

How long did it take you to write? What were your biggest challenges, both personally and professionally?
It took me over twenty years to write! I started it in the nineties, but then I became a single mother to two boys, and I worked full-time so it was hard to carve out time to write. I had a Thursday night writing group, where we met and wrote together. That was the “room of my own,” a space where I could go and for a few hours, put everything on hold, and write. Much of what is now my novel, began there.

I think lack of confidence was the single biggest challenge. It’s hard to trust that it will all come together. It’s such a long-distance race. It helps to have the support of a writing community. I was so lucky to find that.

What kept you going? Were there any times you nearly gave up? Please give a specific example.
The support and encouragement of others kept me going. Both friends, and teachers. In 2016, I almost gave up. It seemed I would never have the space and time needed to write a novel, so I decided to go back to short stories. I found a chapter in my novel that I thought could stand alone (with some revision) and I sent it to the Bellevue Review and was published almost immediately. That gave me hope. And then an agent wrote to me saying that he had read my story and thought it could be a novel, would I consider writing one? So, it was back to the novel again!!

When my kids went to college, I decided to put writing first. I applied to Grub Street’s Novel Incubator, led by Michelle Hoover—and that program (and Michele) made all the difference. I collected all those pieces I’d written on Thursday nights and the Novel Incubator helped me to shape them into a novel. It wasn’t just craft-- it was the sustained support from the other excellent writers in the program. We read each other’s novels four times!

And how did those writings turn into Liar’s Dice?
Once the story of Mita and Dolores arrived, I knew it had to be a novel. It took over, and it was hard to write other things. Writing about my twin sister, even if I was “telling it slant,” meant facing the sadness of her life. Sometimes I avoided it. On the other hand, writing about Rio and Brazil was fun; it was a way to be there, even in the coldest winter! Sense of place (1970’s Brazil) is an important part of my novel.

I know your book just came out, but what has been the single biggest moment of your publishing career so far? Why?
There have been so many amazing moments! I sold my novel at auction the same week my twin died. I wasn’t sure I was up for going to NYC and meeting with editors, but I went, and I’m so glad I did! Meeting Jenna Bush Hager for the first time, discussing my novel and twinship with Jenna, my editor, my agent, all of us in her little office crying about my characters! I will never forget that!

My reading event at the Harvard Bookstore was the most joyful. We filled up the place, including the spare rooms with TV monitors. I was so touched. Looking out at a roomful of friends and family and people I had never met in the bookshop where I spent so many hours in as an undergraduate.

And the TODAY show. I was so nervous, but it was smaller than I expected and friendly, almost like being back-stage in a play.

If you could get one do over in your life, what would it be and why?
This is a hard one. I think of Tilly Olsen and that wonderful story “As I Stand Here Ironing,” the mother in the story thinking about her daughter, having to leave her to work, not being able to give her certain opportunities, so “all in her will not bloom—but in how many does it?” Those lines haunt me. I became a single mother when my boys were young (that is also why it took me so long to finish my book!) and I would have wanted to give them more in every way; more time, more ease, better opportunities. Maybe every parent feels that way…

I think we do. You’re not alone, Juliet. And thank you for giving us this gift of a story in Liar’s Dice. xo

Have a great week everyone! Special report from the sand next week. Ha!

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