Interview with Heather Sellers and Margaret McMullan's Writing Workshop 490 class at the University of Evansville

Heather Sellers: Hi Class, I am online, just let me know when you are. Looking forward to chatting!

Betsey: Good Morning! Welcome to Sarabande in Education's Author Interview Chatroom. This morning, Margaret McMullan's class from the University of Evansville will be interviewing author Heather Sellers.

Betsey: Hello Heather! Now we just wait a bit. Are you having a good morning?

Heather Sellers: Hey Betsey, I sure am. Getting connected this morning eas really easy....I'm all set to go...I'll standby until the class comes on...I'm looking forward to this!

Heather Sellers: Hey Betsey -- what's your weather like there?
It's snowing here, 28, and beautiful.

Betsey: Actually, it's been really weird. Wednesday, it was in the 60s!..very unseasonable for us. Now, it's in the 40s I'd say. Cold and sunny, not too bad.

Betsey: I hear you'll be at AWP again! It should be a blast.

Shaun: Hello Heather, hello Betsey. It's Margaret (the teacher) here, typing on Shaun's computer. We're getting set up, but Shaun here is going to ask the first question.

Heather Sellers: Hi Shaun, class, and Margaret--I'm ready!

Betsey: Hello there. Sounds great...let's get started!

Shaun: My first question is about the back story. I would like to know what Buck and Mary were in their previous lives and why they would get married?

Heather Sellers: Hi Shaun. First, thanks for reading the book. That is a good question, about the backstory. I mostly work by the composite method, taking
a little bit of this person, a little bit of that person--folks I know, characters in other books, family members, etc. Then, I combine...and voila!
Buck and MC were like you, and me. They went to college. They got good jobs, they moved to Florida like so many others in the booming 1960s Space
Rush. I think they realized, in that Florida isolation, in all that heat, that they were two very different people. Does that happen a lot, do you think, when people get married young?

Shaun: I don't I'll have to find out. I got engaged last night so I'll just have to see.

jenn: What are your favorite subjects to write about? Do you feel like these are the things a writer should and does write about? If not what do you think they should write about (ex. the things they fear, hate, etc.)?

Heather Sellers: Shaun--congrats--your marriage will be great because you are thinking and reading books. good luck to you. Hi, Jenn. Well, as you can see, I like to write about families, and probably always will, in some way or another. But I don't believe in "shoulds." I don't like too many rules for choosing a subject--I think you have to write what you write. What's right for me might be a terrible idea for you. Tapping into the deep emotions is a good place to start from--but I am not sure all what I fear and hate (I'm trying to find out, but that's hard stuff!) but I do think I have to know something about what my characters fear and hate..... I write about girls, women, bodies, growing up--the stuff that is hard for me to figure out. The stuff that doesn't go too well, too often, from what I have observed. That's what I like to write about...

Adrienne: In the book, Georgia's age skip from 14 and then back to 12. Are the stories in the order you wrote them, or are we supposed to see some sort of development and change in Georgia and her family?

Jackie: My question is a lot like Adrienne's, I was wondering which story you wrote first and which character you developed first?

Heather Sellers: Adrienne, hi. I love your name. If I had a daughter, that is what I would name her. So, are yall all sitting around a bunch of different computers, or what? Has your class done this before, talked to a writer? I feel like I am underwater, signing to yall....it's fun and weird, too! So, okay, your question--the stories are supposed to be in order, so you can trace a kind of development (or lack of). We are supposed to grow up, as in UP, forward, smarter, growing, developing. But I see it differently. I see people often getting STUPIDER. Like in my book, most of the kids start out pretty smart, kind, savvy, good. Adults though, are not. As kids turn into adults, I think they don't always get more mature. I think it's the opposite. So the jumping around nature of the book, the reason it is a novel in STORIES is because of these ideas of mine about the developmental process--messy, slippery, not at all what is is "supposed" to be.

jenn: I agree with you!!!

Heather Sellers: Hi Jackie. Good questions. I wrote a bunch of Sid stories, actually, but my publisher wasn't that crazy about them (Hi Sarabande! : ) -- they are listening in to us, I think) They wanted the mom story and the dad story--The mom story I am not that crazy about. I wrote all these kid stories, I have a whole drawer full of Georgia and Sid storeis, and their friends....but I picked the ones that showed different kinds of Georgia moments....there is a lot of overlap in my work. Hey Jenn=--I'm just seeing your message--you agree on what?

Aja: In the book, MC goes onto a "protect your body" bender....When she discovers that Georgia is no longer a virgin, she doesn't say anything....why?

Margaret: We're all at different computers. We're reading your answers -- to ourselves, outloud, whatever. Just so you know.

Heather Sellers: Aja I like the way you word it....that's MC. She doesn't confront GA's body stuff because she is in complete and total Freaking Out Mode.
It's not denial--that's too easy--she just decides to REWRITE Georgia's body. She figures if she can just clamp down, etc--it will be okay. I like the word bender in your question, cuz MC's terror of the body is a lot like an alcoholics terror of not having alcohol....

jenn: I agree that when we are young we seem to know things that we then in turn seem to forget when we're older. I know I seemed much smarter to myself when I was younger and I keep waiting to get that same insight again.

larry: So what happened to the Sid stories? Why'd they get cut?

Heather Sellers: Yes, Jenn, exactly. What kinds of stuff are yall working on in this class? What else have you been reading?

Jackie: I think that's really interesting. I thought Sid was a great character. I loved the blurb about his candy selling sceme. I wanted a story about him.

Aja: Thanks...I know that if my mom found about information like that about me at such a young age --well, even, now..there would be lots of ranting and raving going on...

Janette: It's mostly a workshop class, so a lot of it will be our own work, to help each other out with constructive criticism

Leeandra: We were talking in class about how most authors get stuff from their own life experiences, but a lot of people in the class said that if they were you, they wouldn't admit to being like Georgia because all she thinks about is sex. So, the question is...when you were fourteen, did you have a perverted mind like Georgia has?

Heather Sellers: While you are telling me what you are up to in this class of yours, I will talk to Larry, Hi Larry!. Okay. Sid stories. They weren't maybe my best stories. Some of them are good. Some had too much overlap with other Georgia stories. If I had it to do over, I would make sure I worked really hard on some Sid stuff--I feel he gets really short changed in the book, you know, like he doesn't have a chance to tell his side. He's this little shadowy skinny kid (is there a Sid in your class?) and he's always lurking around the edges..... I think he will turn up in another book though. I am not done with Sid. Right now, I'm working on a novel.....No Sid. Fri Jan 25, 2002 11:23 am
Emily: Hi Heather. My question is what do you want your writing to do? Teach, entertain, inspire, change the world? I guess my real question is why do you write?

larry: What's the novel about? I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours?

Jackie: I just finished a story about a boy dealing with his brother losing his hand in WWI. Now I'm "working" (really just sketching out ideas for) a story about a girl that is hitchhiking her way to the Grand Canyon

Heather Sellers: Well, darlings. I don't think thinking about sex is perverted at all. Not at all! I think we do a real number on people--girls and guys, but in weird ways to girls--we do this weird stuff with sex, like here are all these half naked women everywhere in the world, to be looked at by guys (and women are looking.....where?) but you should look like them, but don't really look like them. And think about sex (buy stuff!) and dno't think about sex......it's pretty confusing and wild to be 14. Remember? I mean you know everything and you really can't QUITE figure it all out....it's overwhelming. When I was 14, I had NO CLUE about sex. I remember Andrew Snedeker asking me what a condom was. I said I know, but I am not telling. Georgia is a lot more sophisticated than I was. I was an idiot. But, sex, come on! Hello?

Aja: The story that I'm working on is about a detective in a police department -- she catches a serial rapist with a drinking straw...I'm sure there's one hell of a backstory there....

Betsey: Make sure Heather gets a chance to answer all the questions. She's got three right now. Thanks!

Heather Sellers: Emily, I write because I have an agenda. As you can see by my last answer. I write because I want to teach/entertain/inspire--I want to tell more of a truth about what it is to be a girl growing up, I want to cut through some of the bs, and say this is one Girl's Life and you need to look at it even though it isn't neat and Buffy the Vampire or American Pie--the world has real edges to it, here's one. That's my mission. For the other questions, I do believe this, and I really stress it to my students: you have to have, I believe, a really good cultural understanding of your main characater. You have to really, really know someone like that person (it doesn't have to be you). You can't, I believe, and many will disagree, but I believe you can't convince a reader of the story unless you really, really, really, really know that person. Someone similar to your background.

Margaret: Hreather, thank you so much for saying what you say about having to really really know your characters before you write about them. Now I'll stepn aside again.

Heather Sellers: Larry-- thanks for asking. (This is a good class!) My novel is about a single mother living in a small fundamental Christian town in the midwest. She's looking for a good guy to marry.
Meanwhile, her daughter joins a fundamental church movement, gets arrested....etc. I'm liking writing it a lot. A novel is hard though!

larry: Betsey, how are you doing? Hows the poetry? am

Betsey: fine, thanks Larry!

Emily: Thanks Heather, what an inspiring answer. I hate how women are treated in our culture, not that I'm a raving feminist, but I think books like Georgia are great for our culture to read.

Heather Sellers: Margaret--it's true, isn't it. I have a friend who won't let his students write any characters (POV character) who are older than they, themselves, the writers. I think that is a little strict, but I see his point. It's too hard, writing fiction, as it is. To have the reader's mind wandering off wondering--does this person really know what she is talking about? I don't think we want to take that risk. I think you have to share common cultural experiences with your characters, or it's too hard for a reader to really sink into what you have to say, what you want to reveal.

Luc: Obviously copyright is an important part of the writing profession. Have you ever had a problem with this form of artistic impression and do you have any advice for us young writers concerning copyright?

larry: So far I got I guy who goes to a wedding of his lost love. It's been six years since he's seen the bride and when he gets there she stands up the groom. The narrator then gets stuck driving the best man around-real tense stuff. So...we're both writing about marrage? Ever been married?

Margaret: Luc is paranoid!

Leeandra: OK, I guess Georgia's constant thinking about sex does not make her a pervert, but she does some things that are definately outside the bounds of normal, even for a kid from a dysfunctional family. For example, she tries to seduce her father, and then there's the whole baby blanket scene. How much of the sex is to show what it's like to be a fourteen year old girl, and how much is to show how over the top dysfunctional her life is?

Heather Sellers: Luc, beginning writers don't have to worry about copyright at all. Never put that weird little symbol on your work--only beginners do that. When you publish, your work is automatically copyrighted, and it is actually sort of the the ONLY thing you don't have to worry about.
(Luc isn't paranoid--he's a good business man!)

Heather Sellers: Leeandra-- I think GA's relationship with her father is really, really unhealthy. You are dead on right. I don't think she really gets a chance to develop regular normal sexual thoughts (I do'nt think really too many of us do!--that's another whole lecture!!). I think you are right--she wants to be an infant, she wants to be a wife--she's all over the place. That's pretty common. The level of dysfunction in her house--might be sadly, too common. I think you are right in that it's confusing--for GA, for the reader--what is "normal" kid weirdness, what is this family doing to this girl? Those are my questions, the questions "steering" the book...does that make sense?

jenn: Do you feel like there are a lot of questions left unanswered at the end of the story? Would you have added more to make people change? Do you see any of them as improving in the story and if so how? Or was you point to say that we do degenerate over time?

Luc: normal is just a setting on the washing machine


Leeandra: Sort of.

Heather Sellers: Luc rules!

Aja: Okay -- While we're still on the "sexual dysfunction at 14" bandwagon...why is the scene with the trucker never seen...All she talks about is sex for 100+ pages, and when she gets some, we don't see her reaction to it...why?

Heather Sellers: Jenn, you are like hte Norton anthology, man, these are good, hard, interesting questions. Okay. (How many people are in your class, in the room? Are there windows? Who are you?)

I like my ending a lot, because you have no idea which girl she is going to be--we really don't know. She's got some great coping skills, and she's a terrified scared girl. I don't think we "degenerate over time" but I do think getting smarter, getting kinder, keeping that great kid part of us--trusting, savvy, sweet, self-protective--keeping that alive is really really hard. I see GA trying to stay open--then the trucker, whooops, toooooo open, and then trying to stay on track--whoops, parents, on track, not a good track in this case! So, she grows (like all of us) in a really zig-zagged way. I like the way it's not a "happy" ending--I am such a realist, as a writer, I couldn't imagine having the dad learn, having the mom learn, having GA learn--that's NOT how life works. Many publishers told me I had to change the ending, and have the dad die, and GA grow, and the mom learn. I couldn't do that. I tried (I really wanted to publish my book!) but I couldn't do that. I hate that. I just hate it--it's just not what happens. Ever. I hate that. Aja--did you not think we get Ga's reaction in the hotel room?

Luc: well, we are on the second floor of Hyde hall. there are 8 windows, a lot of computers and the sun is shining. temp is around 40

Erica: How did your family and friends respond to the stories, especially concerning the more sensitive issues?

larry: You can't kill Buck--his charisma will live forever!

Heather Sellers: Thanks, Luc--for some reason that helps me.
Larry--did you like aspects of Buck? or did you find his selfishness too off-putting?

Margaret: Heather, I have to jump in and say what I was wondering--it's aninteresting decision that you made --not to write the actual sex scene when it is what we are waiting for. Can you talk a little bit about holding back?

Luc: i am happy the lawn tractors aren't cutting grass today because it really causes some problems while class is going on.

Janette: (not to mention with allergies!)

kristina: by the time you send a manuscript or something to a publisher, how much confidence do you have in your own work?

larry: Buck seems like he's genuinely looking for fun in life and everything else that happens in between is his ACTUAL life--he may not be a role model, but at least he knows kind of what he wants.

Heather Sellers: My mom really can't handle the use of the "f" word. My mom, when I was home over Xmas, turned off Ally McBeal--it's not "appropriate," she said. I am, I have to say, 37 years old! I have that kind of a mom. Strict Catholic, you know the type? So, the book is really hard for her. We focus on my children's books. My friends love the book, they like the humor (when I read it aloud, it comes out funny, which is good) and people have been really nice....when I read men in the audience with 14 year olds kind of freak out.

Luc: there's an old pencil sharpener in the corner next to the trash can.

Heather Sellers: Larry--I think that's really perceptive--It's hard for me to get distance on the characters.

larry: You sould come speak here.

Heather Sellers: I think if GA takes a little of Buck's attitude, and a little of her mom's, she will be okay. It's that balance thing. I worry about Sid.

Luc: this room is not adequate for auspicious feng shui

Jackie: Why do you worry about Sid, he seems to be the one who is in the most control.

Heather Sellers: Let me get to Christina's question, then Margaret's..... I have that weird combination of feeling like it is the best thing I have ever, ever written....possibly the best thing ever WRITTEN BY ANYONE and combined with that a deep feeling that it sucks so bad. But I work with a great writer's group, and that helps a lot. They see everything first. I do many, many, many drafts of each story--like seventeen, probably, before they go to the group. So by the time my editor or agent see the work, it's pretty much as good as I can get it. I am a big reviser....

Heather Sellers: Luc, you will have to do something with the room.
That seems clear.

larry: Sid will get to be about twenty and realize that he's on top, that he's been through a lot, but in so many ways he's like his father except maybe more thoughtful. He's the horoic sensitive character that may get walked on, but never falls into betrayal.

Margaret: Heather, can you also tell us how you balance your time between writing and teaching? You teach, right?

Heather Sellers: Margaret--did you think it was holding back?I am going to have to look at that sex scene again. I thought it was pretty explicit...
sex, and violence, are really, really hard to write. You do'nt want it to become like a medical textbook...This Part Went Here, While This Part Went There. It's hard for that reason, so I think really sex -- writing sex-- writing anything--it takes place in the brain. That's the organ we have to really focus on, the perceiving brain. That's really what is interesting.

Heather Sellers: Larry and Jackie--that's good stuff on Sid. I think you are absolutely right. It's amazing what people survive, what they get through.

Aja: When is your next book coming out? I'd like to read it.

Heather Sellers: I get more done if I am a little bit busy.Is that true for you? I write every morning, from about 6 am to 8 am, then I go for a little
run, then I work again from 9:30 or so til 12. Just a little of this is writing-writing--the rest is revising, moving papers around, playing SimCity.... : ) And, I teach in the afternoon. I love teaching, I really love to be in the classroom....it's a great way to live, actually--I feel really lucky.

Jackie: Shaun would like to say thank you for chatting and for the congrats before we all leave for our next classes. His computer shut him down.

Heather Sellers: Aja-- now, that is the question. I am so slow! I take FOREVER. And I have been on book tour with GAunder H20, so it has slowed me down. I need to finish it! I will email you when I do. "Okay bye! areyou all leaving? thank you!

Heather Sellers: My last words: WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW!!!!!! Write your stuff.

jenn: Thanks Fri

Margaret: Heather, thank you so much for your time, for your fine words about writing, about your book, about your life and work. We loved reading and talking about Georgia Under Water -- it's a great book with a ton of powerful writing. This chat has been such an education for me and for all of us..

Thanks so much again. I've got to let these students get to their next class.

Heather Sellers: Thanks, yall. This was lots of fun. Good luck with your writing projects. Listen to your teacher. Thank s Bye!!!!!

Betsey: Hey guys, I see you picked up on the fact that we have about five minutes to wrap up. Thanks Everyone! This has been a great chat! I'll e-mail the transcript to everyone who registered. Fri Jan 25, 2002 11:56 am
Jackie: Thank you, it's been really interesting.

Janette: thanx & bye!

Heather Sellers: Betsy, will you mail me the chat, too?
And we will talk more about New Orleans, thanks for moderating Betsey. I am going to sign off then,

Betsey: Sure Heather! Talk to you soon!

Margaret: Betsey:
will you be in New Orleans at the AWP? I'll be there too

Margaret: Heather you too? in New Orleans? I'd love to meet you and talk about getting you to Evansville!

Betsey: Yeah, Nickole, Sarah, and I will all be there. Make sure you stop by our table! I'd love to meet you in person.

Betsey: Several of our authors will be there, and of course, books, books, books!!! Your class was wonderful, Margaret! I had a great time eavesdropping.

Betsey: So long! I'm going to go ahead and archive this chat! Fri Jan 25,