By The Way...

Wednesday, January 31, 2007
5:03:00 PM EST
Hearing Misguided Angel -- Cowboy Junkies
It's time again for the Wednesday Author Interview, and this time around we have something a little different for you -- instead of an author discussing fiction, we have an author talking about her memoir. She's Adrienne Martini, and the memoir is Hillbilly Gothic: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood, Martini's poignant look at how she dealt with post-partum depression, and how that depression has followed her family through the generations. It's a weight subject, but Martini handles it delicately and with wit, which is one reason why Publishers Weekly declared that "In its humor and empathy, it's a nonjudgmental resource for the thousands of mothers battling the 'baby blues.'"

1. Quick! Tell us about yourself and Hillbilly Gothic: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood.

Gothic is about families, Appalachia and mental illness -- but funny, in the weird way that I seem to be funny. It's like a good bluegrass song, complete with moonshine and harmony but without a drowning.

As for me, I'm about 5'8" with brown hair. I have two kids, two cats and one husband, which is the right number for each right now. I had a complete nervous breakdown with kid number one and turned my collapse into a book about post-partum depression. I'm also a college professor and an avid knitter. I'm an Aries. I don't like pina coladas but love getting caught in the rain.

2. The two things about Gothic that stand out for me are how vivid your descriptions are of being in the throes of post-partum depression -- and yet how mordantly funny the book can be, and often when you're least expecting it (but when it was often the most welcome). When you were writing the book, did you make an effort to leaven the rawness with humor, or was it all of a piece?

This is one of those seemingly straightforward questions that requires a much longer answer than you'd suspect. Bear with me.

Most of my writing life has been spent in the newspaper business. Eleven-ish years ago, I starting by writing theatre reviews for the Austin (Texas, y'all) Chronicle, then went back to school for a degree in journalism, then was the Arts and Entertainment editor for an alternative weekly in Knoxville, Tennessee. That paper was small enough that editors didn't just do editor things; we all had to write quite a bit each week as well. During that span of time, I also did quite a bit of freelance work for magazines like American Theatre, Cooking Light and Interweave Knits. I had a lot more free time then, given that I only had the cats and the spouse.

I can't quite pin down when I realized that I had developed a "voice," which you have to imagine me saying in that echo-y movie announcer way. I didn't personally recognize it -- I don't know that I do even now -- but other people started pointing it out to me. My editor at the Chronicle sent a review back to me with only one note in the margin:
relax and do that "funny" thing you do.

When I was trying to sell Gothic, what struck most editors was my voice. A few hated it and wondered how I could be so flip out something as dire as mental illness. Those editors, I suspect, have no real-world experience with crazy people. Most of those editors still passed on the material because -- sheesh -- it's dark stuff and dark stuff isn't easy to market, nor does it sell well unless you are tapped by the great Saint Oprah -- but it is more likely that you'd be struck by lightening while buying a winning lottery ticket.

But the few who enjoyed my voice and the story -- the ones who "got it" -- realized that it is all of a piece, that that black humor was a way to navigate through a maelstrom. I couldn't talk about it with any other voice but my own.

3. Memoirs are by nature confessional, and in your case, since you detail your family's history with post-partum depression, you're putting a spotlight on others as well. In your case as a writer, where do you draw the line and say "here's what readers should know -- and here's what we keep to ourselves"?

It's a hard line to draw, frankly. With a lot of the details about my family's history, I had to keep asking myself why I wanted to include it. Was it because whatever nugget of information served the larger story or create a rounder character? Or was it because I am bitter and mean and whiny? If it was the latter, I cut it. My goal was to protect my family as much as I could but still tell the story with as much emotional impact as possible. I can't say that I walked that line perfectly but I can say that most of the bits about other people wound up being deleted.

4. Share a piece of writing advice you've been given.

Omit needless words, respect your deadlines and remember that it will be fishwrap tomorrow morning.

5. In addition to being a writer, you are also a book reviewer, for the Washington Post Book World and the online lit site Bookslut among others. Was having been a book reviewer of any use at all when it came time to write your own book? What is your take on reviewing now that you're on the other side of the appraisal?

The only way that having been a book reviewer was of use while I was writing was simply that it has forced me to read quite a bit more and with more variety than I might have otherwise. I've always been a voracious reader -- but it's much easier to block out more time for reading when you are going to be paid for it. "Sure, I'd love to clean the bathroom, honey, but I *have* to read this book about spaceships instead. It's my job."

In order to write, you have to read as much as you can. Writing is the sort of profession where the only manual you have are other books -- not how-to books, mind you, actual books. It's such an idiosyncratic process that, aside from a few general principles, the only way to learn how to write is to see how other people do it, what you think works and doesn't, then to put your rear end in a seat until you are done.

Other than that, no, I don't know that being a reviewer was much help when it came to the actual writing.

My take on reviewing hasn't really changed. I've never been all that mean-spirited (except for a certain book by a former Monty Pythoner who should have known better), so I didn't have a Scrooge-like awakening after my own book was published and reviewed. Both reviewers and authors are doing their best to serve the reader. As long as everyone is playing on that field, either sort of writing is a force for good.

6. Your Web page says that in addition to having written this book, you're also working on a "space opera" -- i.e., an old school science fiction work. On the surface of things there's a pretty big gulf between memoir and science fiction work, but down in the mechanics of the writing, do the lessons you learn writingone sort of book become useful when writing another?

I'm of the writing is writing is writing school, where once you have a good sense of how to put words together, you should be able to write almost anything. However -- let's imagine that I'm a good swimmer. It is my exercise of choice. I swam before I could crawl. A day without swimming is a day without sunshine. Etc. You get the idea.

One day, for reasons that remain unclear, I look at a jogger and decide that, gosh, as much as I like to swim, I would also like to jog. It looks like fun. Running would take me to different places, vast and exotic locales that I would never see if I stayed in the pool.
One afternoon, I up and go for a run. It's hard because it uses my muscles in different ways than they are used to but there's a familiarity since I am already athletic.

For me, that's what it is like to move from writing non-fiction (like a memoir or reviews) to making stuff up. I'm a decent swimmer who would also like to run.


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This entry has 4 comments: (Add your own)

• #4 Comment from gothicgirl263 
  10/10/07 4:50 AM | Permalink

  Very interesting.
  
  http://journals.aol.com/gothicgirl263/gothic-love/
• #3 Comment from lurkynat 
  2/1/07 1:44 PM | Permalink

  Wow john! Sounds sppoky and well... spooky!
  Wonder what Marina and Charlie would think...
  hugs,natalie
• #2 Comment from princesssaurora 
  2/1/07 12:26 AM | Permalink

  Interesting... thank you!
  
  be well,
  Dawn
  http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/
• #1 Comment from monponsett 
  2/1/07 12:11 AM | Permalink

  It'd be cool if she put a bounty on some armed robbers in her blog, like I did.