Author Interview with Summer Wood

Summer Wood's second novel Wrecker was recently released and I had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her powerfully and beautifully written book.

I know that Wrecker is a novel you spent quite a few years writing, and that was inspired by your own experiences. Did you start with wanting to write about foster kids and then come up with Wrecker, or did he come first?

This book was sparked by the experience of having been foster parents to four little boys, back when our own three sons were young. It was a tough and beautiful and horrendous and heart-overflowing kind of experience, and it opened my eyes to what it must feel like to be a kid who’s lost his mother, or a mom – a parent – who’s separated from her child.

Honestly, I did not want to go there in my fiction! I mean, who would? But then into my notebook walked Wrecker the boy, not at all a symbol of a condition or a predicament but instead something more like a flesh-and-blood, bruised and bruising, beautiful child, and I was captivated.

Wrecker the novel isn’t really about anything other than this extraordinary boy and his birth mom and the crazy band of eccentrics who raise him when he’s taken from her custody. Well, it is, but not by intention. That’s the great thing about fiction: the truth is in the story, in the integrity of the characters, in the emotional response it earns – not in how well it cleaves to the author’s idea of what she wants to say. 

What kind of research went into writing Wrecker?

Can I tell you what I didn’t do? I didn’t go to prison. I didn’t deal drugs. I didn’t shoot a cop or lose a child or nearly drown in the ocean or chain-saw down an enormous tree or have sex in a – (well, wait. I’m not going to go into the details of that.) Seriously, nearly everything that happened in the book grew out of my imagination and was written first, and then followed up by research to make sure I had the facts straight. For that, I talked to people, read a lot, returned to the place where it’s set to make sure I got the plants and topography and weather right. I studied maps and read historical reports. I learned a lot, really – tons more than made it into the book. But if I’d done it the other way around – researched first, and then tried to build a narrative from what I consciously knew – I don’t think I would have been as effective at getting to the emotional heart of the story. 


Can you tell me something about how the novel developed? Did you always have chapters which included Lisa Fay's perspective, for example? Did the book change much from your first draft?

Everything exploded (energetically) when I allowed myself to follow Lisa Fay into that prison. I didn’t want to do that. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to properly handle the material. I made up all kinds of reasons to avoid writing that. But when I did – when I jumped off the deep end, so to speak – was when the book came together in a form that made real sense to me; that brought all the stories together, with the boy at the center. It was a kind of magic, really. The kind of magic that will appear when you do the hard work and then you take a leap of faith. That’s what I love about writing: the way a story will suddenly transform before your eyes if you allow yourself the courage to follow it to its depths.

What are you working on next? 

The next novel is in the works -- a multi-generational love story (what else?) set in the plains of southern Colorado. It seems with each book I want to stretch longer, encompass more time: about a year in Arroyo, twenty years in Wrecker, and with this new one I'm closing in on a century. Horses, and men at war, and women in love, and a look at what it means to be "Western" -- now, and in generations past. Who knows where it will take me? But it's got my attention and I'm willing to follow.

Thanks for the great questions!

Summer Wood is the author of Wrecker, published by Bloomsbury in February 2011. Her first novel, Arroyo, was published in 2001 by Chronicle Books. She lives in Taos, New Mexico, and writes a blog at www.thewhereofit.com

Thanks so much to Summer for taking the time to stop by In The Next Room. Wrecker was an amazing novel, you can find my review here, that I highly suggest everyone pick up. To learn more about Summer's book visit her website http://www.summerwoodwrites.com/

Wrecker by Summer Wood

Wrecker by Summer Wood is the story of an unexpected family, told over two decades beginning in 1965 with a three year old boy, Wrecker, whose mother has been imprisoned and who is now in the custody of his uncle. Unfortunately his uncle Len, has his hands full caring for his ill wife and so the responsibility of Wrecker is instead taken over by his hippie neighbours including Willow, Ruth, Melody and Johnny Appleseed. Wrecker is the story of how this unusual family raised a boy who had nobody, and the way that people can come together when they are bound by love.

Wrecker is not the kind of story I expected. Although the premise is certainly intriguing, I was still shocked by how immediately and powerfully I was taken into Wood's novel. To be honest the only complaints I have about this book are extremely minor. I wish that Melody's brother, Jack, had been introduced a little more thoroughly earlier Wrecker as he becomes a lot more involved in the last third and when his name was first mentioned it took me a little while to figure out who he was as he had been introduced so briefly. I also wanted to know a little bit more about Ruth's background, as the reader learns how Ruth came to the farm after an attempted suicide, but not very much about the time between meeting her lover, and Ruth's suicide attempt. Those two aspects aside, Wrecker was an incredible, powerful, and nearly flawless novel that I am certain will remain one of my favourites of 2011.

There are so many things I loved about Wrecker, but Wood's incredible writing and unique cast of characters are definitely the standout features. Throughout the novel, Wood often shifts the focus to different characters and for several chapters even returns to Wrecker's mother, Lisa Fay, to let the reader in on what is happening with her. The risk of such a technique is that the reader may never truly get a chance to connect with any of the characters. However, Wood's strong writing, in particular her ability to capture the tiny details meant that in this case, instead of one strong main character and weaker background cast, there is a full set of well-developed, interesting and unique individuals to fill out the story. That said, her strength was certainly with the females in this story as those were the ones I felt the most connection to, especially Melody and Willow.

In addition to the characters, Wrecker takes place in an incredible setting and Wood makes the forest and surrounding area where Wrecker is raised completely come to life. I just loved the story in general, it is so clear to the reader how much these people love Wrecker and as life can be so difficult for foster children it was nice to read a book that showed that even if something is not what you've planned for, good things can still happen. Although there were sad moments, overall Wrecker is a story of joy and it certainly makes the reader think about family and reminds you how important it is. The family Wood introduces the reader to in Wrecker may not be traditional, but that doesn't it any less wonderful. With enchanting writing, an incredible cast of characters and an even more amazing setting, Wrecker is certain to capture your heart. 

Release Date: February 15th, 2011
Pages: 290
Buy the Book
Source:

This review was a part of TLC Book Tours. Click here to read what other tour hosts thought. For the purpose of this review I was provided with a copy of the book which did not require a positive review. The opinions expressed in this post are completely my own. 

Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Blog Hop: Wrecker

Welcome to Hoppy Easter Eggstravangaza Blog Hop at In The Next Room. I'm offering one copy of Wrecker by Summer Wood.

Summary from Goodreads:

After foster-parenting four young siblings a decade ago, Summer Wood tried to imagine a place where kids who are left alone or taken from their families would find the love and the family they deserve. For her, fiction was the tool to realize that world, and Wrecker, the central character in her second novel, is the abandoned child for whom life turns around in most unexpe
...moreAfter foster-parenting four young siblings a decade ago, Summer Wood tried to imagine a place where kids who are left alone or taken from their families would find the love and the family they deserve. For her, fiction was the tool to realize that world, and Wrecker, the central character in her second novel, is the abandoned child for whom life turns around in most unexpected ways. It's June of 1965 when Wrecker enters the world. The war is raging in Vietnam, San Francisco is tripping toward flower power, and Lisa Fay, Wrecker's birth mother, is knocked nearly sideways by life as a single parent in a city she can barely manage to navigate on her own. Three years later, she's in prison, and Wrecker is left to bounce around in the system before he's shipped off to live with distant relatives in the wilds of Humboldt County, California. When he arrives he's scared and angry, exploding at the least thing, and quick to flee. Wrecker is the story of this boy and the motley group of isolated eccentrics who come together to raise him and become a family along the way. 

You must be a follower to enter this giveaway. If your GFC name is different than the one that shows up when you comment, let me know. To enter leave a comment letting me know what your favourite book about family, of any kind, is. Make sure you include your e-mail address so I have a way to contact you. The winner will be randomly selected using random number.org and will have 48 hours to reply to my e-mail. It is open the US and Canada only, no PO Boxes. This giveaway will close when the giveaway hop ends at 11:59 PM on April 25th EST.

Click here to return to the Hoppy Easter Eggstravaganza Blog Hop homepage and visit the rest of the awesome stops.