Are there any resources you would recommend for individuals and families living with OCD?
I urge anyone battling obsessive-compulsive disorder to contact the IOCDF at www.ocfoundation.org for a list of support groups and psychologists versed in the language of CBT and exposure therapy. Not all psychologists are created equal, and OCD is highly individualized. Connecting with the right specialist is vital. I also found useful information through the English group OCD-UK.
I joined a support group for parents of obsessive-compulsive kids about a year ago and have no idea why I waited so long. My son is an OCD success story, but stress and exhaustion can always trigger an episode. I love being able to share with people who understand the simple phrase, “He was checking.” Our group starts each meeting with tears but finishes with laughter. Find a tribe. It’s a blessing.
As for reading material, I recommend anything by Dr. John March and the following memoirs: Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig; Rewind, Replay, Repeat by Jeff Bell; and Nowhere Near Normal by Traci Foust.
Do you have a favorite scene in The Unfinished Garden?
The scene in The Chase has always been my favorite. The setting is loosely based on Badby Woods in Northamptonshire, which dates back at least seven hundred years. The woods are carpeted with bluebells in spring and magical year-round. My sister lives nearby, and every time I step into that forest, I’m transported into another world. As James and Tilly head deeper into The Chase, everything strips away until we see just the two of them. They’ve already begun to trust each other, but this is where their relationship truly begins.
If I had a second favorite scene, it might be when Rowena and James are sitting on the floor at Bramwell Hall, after Rowena quotes Sir Winston Churchill’s “Keep buggering on.” I wrote the whole scene around that phrase.
Did anything in the manuscript surprise you?
Once I unleashed James, he surprised me constantly. For example, it was a shock to discover everything went back to his father, not his mother. I had been so convinced his mother was the root of everything. And the scene where he takes off running through The Chase came from nowhere—with a sound track. (“I Wanna” by All-American Rejects.)
Why did you choose to set the novel in both England and America?
I needed to see Tilly in both environments to figure out which garden she would ultimately choose—the one that belonged to her childhood or the one she had crafted out of grief. A garden can become such an important part of someone’s history and emotional well-being. (Did I mention I’m a gardening addict?) The question is, can grief be transformed into love?
The Unfinished Garden is your first published novel. Have you written any other novels?
The Unfinished Garden was the second novel I wrote. The first is hidden in the closet where it belongs. However, a fascination with mental illness keeps drawing me back to messed-up characters, so my current manuscript is another love story with damaged people. The romantic in me always wants to believe those who need each other will find each other.
What is your writing process?
I start with a “what if” question, lose myself in research and follow my instincts. This part of the process includes interviews, reading autobiographies, photographing settings, building character profiles, etc. I have way too much fun with research and have to wrench myself away. I love to connect the dots between ideas, and I love to people-watch to steal quirks.
At some point I start writing, and when I do, I have the first and last scenes in my head, but everything in the middle is a journey and can change many times. I believe in the Anne Lamott theory of shitty first drafts, and I rewrite endlessly. I also use stream of consciousness writing as a tool to go deeper and deeper into the same scene.
I’m not a great plotter—wish I were—but after the first draft, I create a working outline and force myself to be somewhat analytical, even though my brain doesn’t function that way. As I type this, I’m staring at character goal/motivation/conflict charts and lots of colored sticky notes plastered over my office wall. That’s the closest I come to being logical.
I write every morning between two fifty-mile round trips to school and back. (My son is gifted, and we were fortunate to find the perfect school for him. It is, however, quite a trek!) On the weekends, I work in my jammies before breakfast, while the house is quiet. If I’ve fallen behind on my schedule, I work at night, but that’s never a great option for me or for my family. If I’m not heading to bed with a novel by 10:00 p.m., I’m just plain nasty.
How did you become a writer and what was your road to publication?
As a child, I wrote stories and poems and dreamed of becoming a novelist, but as a teenager, I gravitated to fashion journalism. After a detour through history at York University—I studied mainly women’s and medieval history—I ended up as a public relations person in the London fashion industry. I was fortunate to work for some of the world’s premier designers, including the amazing Vivienne Westwood, and wrote as many press releases as I could. (Writing is still writing!) Everything changed after I met my husband at JFK Airport and moved to a small Midwest college town, with a resume no one understood.
I started a fashion page on the local newspaper, and I dabbled in fiction writing. Then I landed a soul-sucking marketing job, which practically killed my ability to function outside the office. I didn’t return to my manuscript until I was a stay-at-home mom in rural North Carolina with a son in preschool. I soon developed a dirty little secret—writing when I was meant to be cleaning the house. But it wasn’t until I stumbled into an evening class at the local arts center that I found the courage to say, “Hi, my name’s Barbara, and I’m a writer.”
I lost some years to my son’s OCD but eventually learned to cut out time each day to write. I finished my first novel and started what would become The Unfinished Garden. As my son grew and OCD no longer held our family hostage, I went to conferences, networked, entered writing competitions and read authors I admired. Like most writers, I started querying too early, so lots of rejection followed. But I refused to give up and kept adapting and rewriting. I queried more selectively, the rejections improved, and I started getting requests for pages. One Friday morning, after two weeks of polishing my query letter, I sent a submission to Nalini Akolekar. The following Friday, a day I will never forget, she called. And was completely unfazed by my lack of intelligent remarks. (I think I said wow over and over.) Nalini made everything so easy from the get-go. Three months later, I had a publishing deal.
Who are your favorite authors?
I tend to have favorite books, not authors, and my reading goes all over the place—from nonfiction and memoir to psychological murder mysteries, women’s fiction, historical fiction, YA, Victorian classics…and thanks to my son, who has won national awards for his poems, I am rediscovering the pleasure of poetry. My favorite novel is Jane Eyre, and authors I consistently enjoy are Kate Atkinson, Eoin Colfer, Dave Eggers, Therese Fowler, Tana French, Jennifer Haigh, Kristin Hannah, Angela Huth, Marian Keyes, Barbara Kingsolver, Carole Matthews, Kate Morton, Jodi Picoult, Karen White and Denyse Devlin/Denyse Woods. And I think Terry Pratchett is a genius.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Other than avoiding housework, I love to be home alone with my family, to potter in my woodland gardens and to read. My favorite thing in the world is to
clamber into bed at 9:00 p.m. and read until I can’t stay awake. I have a weakness for hanging out with girlfriends (cocktails, heart-to-hearts, shopping…I’m not that fussy), and I live for our annual beach holiday with dear friends Chuck and Ellen, and Ken and Cathy. My husband would add, with a sigh, that I have a weakness for plant and book sales and indulge in too much retail therapy at my favorite boutique in Chapel Hill, LARK.
If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected].
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ISBN: 9781459237841
Copyright © 2012 by Barbara Claypole White
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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