Title: The Cortlandt Boys
Author: Laura Vanderkam
Release Date: 16th December 2014
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A small town high school basketball team wins the Pennsylvania state championship with an improbable last second three point shot. The Cortlandt Cavaliers celebrate their unlikely victory, but good fortune changes the boys’ worlds in unpredictable ways. This story revisits the characters 10 and 20 years later as the ramifications of their youthful success play out over the course of their lives, forever linking them and the people around them to this little town that has its ways of not quite letting you go.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
What is your name, where were you born
and where do you live now?
Laura Vanderkam. I was born in Raleigh,
N.C., and I now live outside of Philadelphia. In the meantime, there have been
stints in Indiana, New Jersey, Washington D.C., and New York City.
Did you always want to be a writer? If
not what did you want to be?
I’ve always wanted to be a writer.
Writing is what I’ve done just for fun since I learned how to read. I’d
considered other career possibilities, but mostly because I didn’t know one
could make a living as a writer. It turns out you can!
When did you first consider yourself as
a "writer"?
I’d been freelancing for newspapers and
magazines as a way to make money all through college, but when I was 24, I
finally quit my last part-time “regular” job. Writing was paying my bills, so I
couldn’t call myself anything but a writer. I guess that’s when it dawned on me
that I really was one. I’ve been writing books and articles ever since.
Did it take a long time to get your
first book published?
I was fortunate enough to observe the
book publishing process by being hired as the co-author for an education book
about a year after I graduated from college. That made it relatively easy to
get my first non-fiction book contract, which was for a book about young people
and self-employment. The problem? That book didn’t sell very well! My first
book that got any attention, 168 Hours, sold when I was 30 and came out when I
was 31. So I guess in that sense it took a while. Fiction has been an even
longer process. I’ve written several novels before, but The Cortlandt Boys is
the first I’ve published.
What is the name of your latest book,
and if you had to summarize it in less than 20 words what would you say?
The Cortlandt Boys: A small town
basketball team wins the state championship, then deals with that lucky break
for decades after.
How long does it usually take you to
write a book, from the original idea to finishing writing it?
It differs for fiction and non-fiction.
With non-fiction I generally have a contract with a specified deadline and
target publication date. That means it’s about 2 years from starting to seeing
books in stores. With fiction, everything is more fluid. I wrote The Cortlandt
Boys over 10 years, though most of that time wasn’t spent writing. I wrote half
of it at the beginning, sat on it for about 8 years, then came back to it to
finish it.
Which of your books were easier/harder
to write than the others?
The Cortlandt Boys was definitely more
challenging. I kept thinking I was done, then I’d put the manuscript away for a
bit, come back to it, and not be happy. I had dozens of other people read it
and critique it, and I hired multiple professional editors as well. Eventually,
I was satisfied with how it turned out, but since there wasn’t a deadline, it
was a leap of faith to declare myself done.
What can we expect from you in the
future? ie More books of the same genre? Books of a different genre?
I do plan to write more novels. The
Cortlandt Boys doesn’t fit in a particular genre, and I’m not sure my future
novels will either. I write what I enjoy reading, and my tastes don’t fit into
a particular genre. There are usually strong female leads, small towns, and
someone will be a writer. But beyond that, it’s all up for grabs! My next
non-fiction book, I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of
Their Time, will be published by Portfolio in June.
If you had to choose to be one of your
characters in your book/books which would you be? and why?
I probably identify most with Max, the
intrepid reporter who’s the heroine of the first half of The Cortlandt Boys.
But she’s a lot gutsier than I am. I wish I were that bold!
Where do you get your book plot ideas
from?What/Who is your inspiration?
The seed of an idea for The Cortlandt
Boys came from something that happened. Years ago, the basketball team at my
high school in Indiana won the state championship. It was such a big deal. I
got to wondering what life would be like when something so fantastic happens to
you when you’re so young. What is your adult life like after that? The rest of
the book is complete fiction, but that was the original inspiration. I also
tend to be inspired by places. The town of Cortlandt is modeled after the
geography of Jim Thorpe, PA, which I love visiting. When I was finishing up the
novel, I visited the town for a weekend for a writing retreat, and spent a lot
of time just walking on the snowy streets. The next novel I plan to write has
been partly inspired by a house I drive past close to daily. It’s got red
siding and stone walls, and looks like such a rustic retreat. I’m picturing my
characters living there. Hopefully the more I drive past it, the more I’ll
figure out!
Do you have a certain routine you have
for writing? ie You listen to music, sit in a certain chair?
I have a home office where I do a lot of
my writing. My desk looks out at my backyard, which has lots of trees, and
lovely flowers in spring and summer. The one issue, though, is that I think of
my office as being reserved for “serious” (i.e. billable) work. When I started
working on the novel, there was no way of knowing how it would turn out. I
often needed to go to the library at night to write to get around that idea
that I should be writing articles someone was going to pay for when I sat at my
desk.
Do you read all the reviews of your
book/books?
I do! I have Google alerts out for my
name, and I try to read everything people write. It’s hugely flattering that
people take the time to read my work (fiction and non-fiction). I try not to
have a thin skin. I’m well aware that I can improve, and if people take the
time to engage with my ideas and prose, I appreciate that.
What was the toughest/best review you
have ever had?
My first time management book, 168
Hours, got a fair number of critical reviews (you can check the Amazon page if
you want to read some of them). But the book has long since sold out its
advance and I continue to hear from people all the time that it’s changed their
lives. The people who like it tend to really like it.
Do you decide on character traits (i.e.
shy, quiet, tomboy girl) before writing the whole book or as you go along?
I generally have a rough idea of my
characters before I start writing, but then I learn more about them as I write.
I see parts of their personalities as I see how they’d react in a situation. We
get to know each other as part of the writing process.
Do you basic plot/plan for your book,
before you actually begin writing it out? Or do you let the writing flow and
see where it takes the story?
As with characters, I have a rough idea
of where the story will go. But some developments can only come after you’ve
written a fair amount. Plot points beget more plot points. For me, at least,
it’s important to get a draft down. Then the real work can begin.
Where can readers follow you?
Blog: www.lauravanderkam.com
Facebook page: facebook/168hoursbook
Goodreads author page: Laura Vanderkam
Twitter: @lvanderkam
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