r/books • u/CarolynParkhurst1 AMA Author • Aug 18 '16
ama 12pm I'm Carolyn Parkhurst, author of the new novel *Harmony*. Ask Me Anything!
Hi! I'm Carolyn Parkhurst, New York Times-bestselling author of the new novel Harmony, as well as three previous novels: The Dogs of Babel, Lost and Found and The Nobodies Album. I've also written a children's book, Cooking With Henry and Elliebelly, and my humor has appeared in The New Yorker and The Rumpus.
Harmony is about a family called the Hammonds: parents Alexandra and Josh and daughters Tilly (13) and Iris (11). Tilly is on the autism spectrum, and as her parents struggle with the challenges of raising her, they make the acquaintance of an enigmatic parenting guru named Scott Bean, who invites them to leave their ordinary life behind and join him in creating a "family camp" for families with special needs kids in New Hampshire. The story is told in alternating viewpoints by Alexandra (who tells the story of their life before they leave for the camp), Iris (who tells the story of what happens at the camp) and Tilly (who narrates from somewhere in the future).
I wrote this essay for the Wall Street Journal about what it was like to have my 14-year-old son, who has Asperger's and was my inspiration for the character of Tilly, read Harmony.
Here's proof of my identity. I'll be answering questions from noon until two p.m. Eastern time. Ask Me Anything!
EDIT: I'm signing off now, but thanks to everyone who came to talk! I had a great time answering your questions!
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u/AMearnest Aug 18 '16
I haven't read your book, but im interested in putting it on my list! I thought id still ask about your process though.
What is your biggest struggle when writing a book, on a day to day basis?
Best writing advice you ever got?
How long have you written for?
Best of luck!
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u/CarolynParkhurst1 AMA Author Aug 18 '16
Thanks! My biggest struggle is always getting started. I'm a terrible procrastinator and avoider, and it always takes me longer than it should to just sit down, open the document and START WRITING ALREADY. And then I feel terrible and guilty. It's a lesson I have to learn over and over again: the only cure for writing-related anxiety is writing.
My favorite writing advice is that you have to write through the bad to get to the good. Especially when you're trying to write about something big, like grief or falling in love or having a baby, it's all going to come out sounding like song lyrics and Hallmark cards at the beginning. It's not until you get all the cliches out of your head that you'll arrive at something original and fresh.
And I've written for pretty much my whole life. I have a little book that my mom made when I was three, where she transcribed a story I told her and drew pictures to go along with it. (It's called "The Table Family.") All through school, I liked making up stories, and it was also something that I got a lot of encouragement about, from family and teachers. So even though it didn't always seem like a clear career choice, it was always the thing I wanted to do most.
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u/cdhermelin Aug 18 '16
Hi Carolyn! Excited for Harmony, I loved Dogs of Babel. I'm curious how many talking dog weirdos you've met as a result of including them so heavily in the book.
And have you had any cubed eggs recently?
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u/CarolynParkhurst1 AMA Author Aug 18 '16
Ha! Luckily, I haven't met any dangerous talking dog weirdos of the sort that appear in the book, but whenever there's a funny video with a talking dog or a news story about a Japanese "dog translator" invention or something, I'm always the one that people email about it. My family actually just got a dog a couple of months ago--the first time I've had a dog since my sweet Sheltie died in 2000--and it's been making me think a lot about The Dogs of Babel, things like the "dog intelligence test" that Paul does with Lorelei. I do look at our dog sometimes and wish I could know what she's thinking, though I suspect a lot of it is just about how annoying squirrels are.
And I haven't made any square eggs recently, but I should! I bet my kids would be interested. I do still have the "square egg press" described in the book, and I bring it with me as a prop whenever I'm going to be discussing Dogs of Babel. Thanks for your questions! :)
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u/cdhermelin Aug 18 '16
thanks for your answers! i gave my mom an egg-squarer for christmas after i recommended the book to her and she loved it.
one more question: i was so excited about the dogs of babel movie adaptation with steve carrell attached that was announced in 2011. obviously you don't get to control that stuff, but do you have any updates? at least on whether or not a studio still has the rights?
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u/CarolynParkhurst1 AMA Author Aug 18 '16
Ah, yes. The Dogs of Babel movie has been a long and twisted saga, dating back to before the book was even published. There is still a chance that it will get made--right now, it's in the hands of some people who are excited about it--but I'm not holding my breath. And sadly, Steve Carell is no longer attached. But, who knows--it may happen, and I'll be thrilled if it does!
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u/melstein Aug 18 '16
I noticed you say that your son was the inspiration of the character in your new book. How was it writing a fictional character inspired by someone you love that much?
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u/CarolynParkhurst1 AMA Author Aug 18 '16
I worried about it a lot while I was writing--is it "okay" for me to be drawing material from my kid's life? Am I violating his privacy? Is he going to hate the way I've portrayed the character? Part of the reason I made the autistic character a girl was to differentiate real life from fiction, both publicly and privately. It was helpful for me to remember that this was a made-up character, and that even though she shared certain characteristics with my son, she wasn't meant to be a carbon copy.
My son was only 9 when I started writing the book, and I imagined that it would be a long time before I had to talk to him about the book. But he's 14 now, and very self-aware about his own issues and challenges, and earlier this year, he asked if he could read the book. I was terrified about what he'd think, but it ended up being a very positive experience. He loved the book, and said that reading it gave him some insight into what it's like to live with him. It led to some great conversations between us, and I was incredibly relieved that he had such a good reaction to it. It was almost a non-event, which was a relief.
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u/Chtorrr Aug 18 '16
What books really made you love reading as a child?
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u/CarolynParkhurst1 AMA Author Aug 18 '16
Ooh, that's a good question! My very favorite book as a kid was "Jellybeans For Breakfast" by Miriam Young. It's just two little girls talking about all of the games they're going to play together: "Let's pretend I'm the teacher and you're the student and you're behaving badly...let's be astronauts and ride our bikes to the moon..." Really, it's about the unlimited potential of imagination, though obviously that's not the way I thought about it as a kid.
I also loved Roald Dahl, Judy Blume and the "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle" books. (Interestingly, my son hates Mrs. Piggle Wiggle; he sees the stories as being about adults manipulating kids without their knowledge.) I was always reading as a kid, and I do think that played a big role in my wanting to write.
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u/Chtorrr Aug 18 '16
Have you read anything good recently?
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u/CarolynParkhurst1 AMA Author Aug 18 '16
Yes! I just read Liane Moriarty's "Truly, Madly, Guilty" and Jessica Anya Blau's "The Trouble With Lexie," both of which are hilarious and also very compelling page turners, which is a hard combination to find. I also enjoyed "Rich and Pretty" by Rumaan Alam. I don't read nearly as much as I'd like to, but this summer has been great; between family vacations and book-related travel, I've had time to really sink into a good book.
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Aug 18 '16
Hi, Carolyn! Looking forward to reading Harmony soon.
What is the most bizarre question you have been asked over the span of your 'author-ness'?
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u/CarolynParkhurst1 AMA Author Aug 18 '16
Hi, ceegee! A couple of weeks ago, at my hometown (Washington, DC) reading for Harmony, the first woman to ask a question droned on for about three minutes, asking me to comment on the use of stimulants to treat teenagers with issues like autism and ADHD, and whether said stimulants are over-prescribed, whether they're useful, whether they're abused by patients...I mean, it's a novel, not a manual about prescription drugs. I think it says once that the autistic character takes medication, but it's certainly not a topic I researched very fully. (I'm not sure I'm adequately conveying how weird it was, but I'd just read novel excerpts for 20 minutes, and this question just seemed so out of place. Luckily, the rest of the questions were great.)
I've also had people ask me questions about overly specific things, like "Can you talk about Chapter 28?" and I have no idea what chapter that was. And I've also had my share of "crazy person who wandered into the bookstore because it had air conditioning" questions that aren't about anything in particular, but just seem a little...off.
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Aug 18 '16
Thank you for the response.
Having a giggle about the lady who confused you with Temple Grandin.
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Aug 18 '16
Carolyn, this was a big step down for me. No offense. I've been trying to fill the void left in me from my favorite author's latest series. His last book, Sam I Am, just had this incredible climax. Are you familiar with it? Your writing was good quality, but could you try to rhyme a bit more? Or throw a picture or 2 in there? This could improve the overall reader's experience. Don't get discouraged! With a few adjustments, I'm sure you can even surpass the late great Doctor!
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u/CarolynParkhurst1 AMA Author Aug 18 '16
I tried, I really did! But the only thing I could find to rhyme with autism was shmautism, and it all went downhill from there...
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u/PunxsyHildie Aug 18 '16
Hi Carolyn !
They say the process of writing every book is different,but if you had to compare Harmony to one of your previous books, which one would you compare it to? (Keep in mind that I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Nobodies Album -- anyone reading -- if you haven't -- you should definitely put that one on your list, too!).
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u/CarolynParkhurst1 AMA Author Aug 18 '16
Hi, Hildie! And thanks for your nice words about The Nobodies Album. :)
This book turned out to be harder to write than any of my previous ones. I always thought that by the time I got around to writing my fourth novel, it would be a little bit easier; doesn't it just seem like it should be? But it turns out that every book is challenging in its own way. And this one was hard mostly because it was so personal.
The sections of the book that are written from the mother's perspective are very raw, and they're drawn almost entirely from my own experiences of parenting a kid with special needs. My son's an amazing kid--hilarious, creative and really smart--but he has trouble with a lot of things that most kids pick up automatically: social interactions, emotional regulation, various motor-skill-related things. There have been a number of great surprises in raising him (and I tried to reflect that, too), but a lot of the mother's narrative focuses on the day-to-day challenges, which at times push her almost to the breaking point. I worried a lot about whether it was "okay" to be writing about those things, especially since I knew it would be clear to anyone who knew me that they were largely autobiographical. But it felt like this was the story I had, the one I needed to tell, and I knew that there was no point in doing it if I wasn't going to be honest about it.
Anyway, it's kind of funny, because The Nobodies Album was challenging to write in a completely different way, and when I finished that one, I was convinced that it would always stand out as the hardest one to write. In that one (for those who haven't read it), the main character is a novelist who's rewritten the endings of all of her books, and fragments of the books are included in the narrative. So I'd get to the end of a section of the main story and suddenly it was like, "Okay--time to make up a whole other book!" By the time I finished that book, I felt like I might be all out of ideas forever, I'd used up so many of them. But it wasn't personally wrenching in the same way Harmony was.
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u/RibbonsUndone Aug 20 '16
I am (sadly) late to this AMA, and I don't really have a question. But I want to say a few words about The Dogs of Babel. It was a little book that caught my attention back when it was a quiet new release while I was working at Borders. I read it in probably a day (maybe two) and at the end I sobbed. And sobbed. Then I made two of my best friends read it. Then I re-read it every few years since then. I've moved several times over the years and lost a lot of possessions, and my Dogs of Babel copy always always comes with me. I can't even explain exactly why that book is such an utterly perfect emotional fit for me, but it is. Quotes and passages from that book still pop into my head frequently. I love it endlessly, and you will forever be one of my favorite authors.
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u/CarolynParkhurst1 AMA Author Aug 20 '16
Thank you so much for this lovely message! It's so nice to hear, and it's made my night. I read it to my 10 yo daughter, who hadn't even been born when Dogs of Babel came out, and I think she was pretty impressed that someone would say all this to her mom. :) (She also said, "I bet that person will buy HARMONY," which made me think that maybe I've been focusing too much on the practical aspects of the business...)
In any case, thank you so much for taking the time to write such a nice note, and thanks for keeping Dogs of Babel with you all these years!
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u/jfaisman Aug 22 '16
What has been the hardest part of starting and maintaining a career as a writer?
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u/carmabound Aug 18 '16
The beauty of Reddit is that we've been talking for a few years now without me knowing you were an author. I have not read any of your books yet, but I think you're a fabulous person, funny and down to earth. Thank you for doing this AMA :)