Joining us today is Gail Graham, author of the literary novel, Sea Changes. We’ll talk to Gail about her career, her latest release, and the challenges of reaching an “untargetable market.”
CM: Welcome, Gail. It’s wonderful to have you with me.
GG: Thanks so much for inviting me. It’s a real privilege to be here.
CM: Can you please tell readers a bit more about you? How long have you been writing? Where did you grow up? Do you have any hobbies or unique interests?
GG: I’ve been reading—and writing—for just about as long as I can remember. When I was in kindergarten, I used to keep a pad of paper and a pencil in one of Grandpa’s cigar boxes. I carried it with me everywhere, and when people asked me what was in the box, I said, I’m writing a book.
I grew up in South Orange, New Jersey. I hated it. Nothing ever happened. When I was 18, I moved to New York. A couple of years later, Los Angeles. A couple of years after that, Hawaii. In 1970, I moved to Australia and I stayed there for thirty-two years. Those early, dull years in New Jersey turned me into a wanderer!
Other than reading, writing and caring enormously about animal welfare, my main interests are Chinese art, history, and literature. I read, write and speak Chinese, and am currently translating a Chinese novel. I helped curate a wonderful exhibit of Chinese art at the Tucson Museum of Art, and I teach classes in Chinese history.
CM: What is it that made you first put pen to paper?
GG: I loved reading. I loved imaginary worlds. And I wanted to create imaginary worlds of my own.
CM: Is there someone or something that inspires you? Someone who is your cheering section?
GG: My late husband Rollyn was the one who inspired and encouraged me. He’s been dead for twenty years, but I can still hear his voice in my head saying, “You can do it, sweetheart.” Nowadays, my little Shih Tzu Bao is my cheering section. He thinks everything I do is wonderful.
CM: What was your first release and who published it?
GG: I published my first short story when I was sixteen, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. My first book was a children’s book, The Little Brown Gazelle. It was published by Dial Press in 1963. Since then I’ve published five other books with Pantheon Press and (in Australia) Angus & Robertston and Pan Macmillan Australia.
CM: How has the industry changed since your first release?
GG: It hasn’t so much changed as disappeared. The editors and publishers have been replaced by marketers and accountants, and their former role as literary “gate-keepers” has been taken over by agents. This has led to a real dumbing-down of American literature. If it’s not genre, most agents won’t touch it. So that’s a bit depressing. But what’s exciting is all the new, independent presses. Publishing is actually reinventing itself. Within the next few years, we’re going to see authors joining together in publishing co-ops, and we’re going to start seeing all the wonderful, exciting new works that the agents won’t touch. It’s a great time to be writing, especially if—like me—you’re writing non-genre fiction.
CM: Let’s talk about Sea Changes. What is this book about? Where did the inspiration for this one come from?
GG: Sea Changes is about what it’s like to hold two contradictory ideas in your mind at the same time. My protagonist, Sarah Andrews, lives in two worlds. One of them is the so-called real world. The other is a world that cannot possibly exist … and yet it does. Which world is real? This is the central dilemma of Sea Changes.
The inspiration actually came from a BBC documentary about people who believed they’d been taken by aliens. I was struck by how ordinary these people seemed. They weren’t deranged, and they certainly weren’t publicity-seekers. Some of them were barely articulate. Yet something had happened to them, and they were quite certain that it had happened, even though they knew that the rest of the world thought they were delusional. I wondered how that felt, to know that something impossible had happened to you; to know that it couldn’t have happened, but it did.
