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Sunday, February 15, 2015

Q&A with Lauren Francis-Sharma

Lauren Francis-Sharma is the author of the new novel 'Til the Well Runs Dry, which is set mostly in Trinidad.  She has practiced law in New York, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., and lives in the Maryland suburbs of D.C.

Q: How did you come up with your main character, Marcia? 

A: Marcia is a character loosely based on my grandmother. 
What I knew is that she was born and raised in Blanchisseuse, she had a
difficult relationship with my grandfather, and she ended up taking a domestic
position in the U.S., leaving the kids behind and coming to Maryland, where
something happened and she ran away to New York.  That was the bones of the
story. 

Marcia’s personality was what I thought my grandmother’s
personality would have been when she was younger. 

Q: Did you know your grandmother? 

A: Yes, I spent many summers with her.  But know and know are
two different things.  She was a very private person.  I did not ask her
questions—that’s one of the regrets I live with.  I wonder whether she would
have been receptive, and the answer is probably no.  Culturally and
generationally, self-revelation and introspection were not part of her fabric. 
I knew a little, but her heart and mind—not really. 

Q: Why did you decide to tell the story from the
perspectives of three of the characters? 

A: I started with Jacqueline [one of Marcia’s daughters] as
the narrator.  I knew Marcia would be her mother.  It was supposed to be a young
girl discussing her mom and the secrets her mother tells, her relationship
[with her father], the past. 

There’s a scene in the book where Mr. Harlow comes to the
house [to talk] about Marcia coming to the U.S.—that scene was my first scene I
had written.  The mother is banging the spoon on the pot lid, and Jacqueline is
getting up, she’s awakened this way. 

I thought, I’ve got to tell a little about the mother to
tell my story better.  I thought it was backstory, but this voice then took over
the story!  I thought, all right, it’s a mother and a daughter. 

The problem was that Marcia was very private.  I struggled
with the daughter not knowing the mother’s secret.  The mother was not telling. 
So how do I let the reader know?  That’s how Farouk [Jacqueline’s father] came
about.  It became necessary.  I’m so happy it worked out that way! 

Q: Did you set the novel in the 1940s-1960s because that fit
with your grandmother’s experiences? 

A: There’s probably a five- or six-year difference.  I moved
it up a little mostly because I wanted to cover the elections in Trinidad in a
particular way.  I wanted to bring the uncle in. 

Q: What kind of research did you need to do to recapture that time period? 

A: My father was born in 1941, and he remembered a lot, particularly around the
time of the elections.  When I went on a trip to Trinidad, I spoke to people.  I
picked up books. 

Dr. Eric Williams, the first prime minister of Trinidad, he
wrote an incredible book that takes you from the late 1800s right up to the
election.  It’s a really dense piece of work. [ Trinidad was] lucky that the
first prime minister sits down and decides that everyone in the country needs
to understand its history.  History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago.  He has
two books.  I also bought books by another author, Michael Anthony. 

[Also important was] being on the ground talking to
people—what the roads are like, what it felt like. 

Q: How was the title selected? 

A: That was supposed to be the working title.  It was
something my mother used to say to us all the time, if we were being
ungrateful—you never miss the water till the well runs dry.  It’s something that
just stayed with me.  I was thinking about the title of the book, and it was
fitting. 

A: I think I’ve always been really captivated by Toni
Morrison.  The Bluest Eye made me sit up and say, Oh my God. 

I think because my parents came from a former British colony
and my mother is a huge reader of British literature, I keep coming back to the
old English classics.  Very often they don’t seem to be in favor all the time,
unless you’re in an English department at a university, [but] Wuthering Heights
is still one of my favorite books.  I read it every single year. 

Khaled Hosseini—I like that he writes these books that take
you places you’ve never been, in ways that are approachable and readable. 
Hilary Mantel—the kind of research she does for a book—she’s magical.  Stephen
King—just the ability to tell a story that holds you by the edge of your seat: that’s
fantastic. 

The first time I thought to myself, I could do this!,  is
when I was reading Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day.  It’s still one of my favorite
books.  It’s a family story and a love story at its core.  I just love it. 

Q: Did you know how your novel would end before you started
writing, or did you make many changes along the way? 

A: Yes, I knew that it would end with a journey, but I was
not exactly sure who else, besides Marcia, would be taking this journey. 

My inclination was to wrap everything up as neatly as
possible, but with the guidance of my editor it became clear that this was not
that kind of story.  There could be no perfect ending when your characters are
at the beginning of a journey, there could be no perfect ending when some
characters are left behind, and there could be no perfect ending when there are
characters still longing for something. 

Yet, even with all these imperfections, I do love the
ending.  I remember a senior V.P. at Holt pulling me aside one day and saying
how thrilling it was to have a book with a happy ending.  And that's how I
see it too. 

Q: How have readers reacted to your characters? 

A: Oh, I'm so lucky.  The best part of this experience
has been the hundreds of e-mails and Facebook messages I've received since
April from readers who are delighted with this book and more specifically,
delighted to have met Marcia and Jacqueline. 

Farouk....well, I think I'm the only person who loves him,
though there are many readers who understand and appreciate him, and that's all
I can hope for with a character as complex has Farouk. 

Generally, however, readers are rooting for this
family.  They are deeply saddened by the tragedy, yelling at the pages set
in New York City, swooning over Jacqueline's teacher, sympathizing with the
brother, Wesley. 

My bookclub visits have been the most fun, as I have been
able to sit back and watch people discuss these characters.  It is truly
the most rewarding thing about this experience, thus far. 

Q: What are you working on now? 

A: I’m doing the same thing a lot of first-time writers have
to do—How do you write and promote at the same time?  That is a struggle! 

I’m actually working on a new project, but it’s not the same
as when you write your first book, [when] the thread of your narrative stays in
your head all day long. 

Now, there might be two or three days—I was off at a
literary festival, then the Congressional Black Caucus, I’m supposed to be at
another event, along with my two children, soccer, a birthday party.  I didn’t
touch my writing for three days, and it takes an hour or two to just get the
rhythm back. 

I’m working on something that has a little bit of the
Caribbean again—Trinidad, Grenada, and Cuba—set in World War II, in Baltimore. 

About Me

Author, THE PRESIDENT AND ME: GEORGE WASHINGTON AND THE MAGIC HAT, new children's book (Schiffer, 2016).  Co-author, with Marvin Kalb, of HAUNTING LEGACY: VIETNAM AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY FROM FORD TO OBAMA (Brookings Institution Press, 2011).