Linda reading at Murder on the Beach bookstore in Delray Beach, FL
Linda Rosen, a writer and fitness professional, meets with me today to discuss her new book, The Disharmony of Silence, recently published by Black Rose Writing. She and her husband split their time between New Jersey and Florida. Linda was a contributor to Women in the Literary Landscape: A WNBA Centennial Publication for the Women’s National Book Association. She’s had stories published in Foliate Oak and Crack the Spine, both in their online magazine and print anthology and has won the Notable Stories Award in Gemini Magazine’s Short Story Contest. When not writing or teaching fitness classes, Linda enjoys creating with clay in ceramics class and curling up with a good book. She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and the Women’s National Book Association where she is National Recording Secretary and Selections Coordinator of the Great Group Reads committee which chooses books for National Reading Group Month. Her website www.linda-rosen.com links to her blog, “The Literary Leotard.”
SS: Can you share a bit about your background?
LR: I’m a Fitness Professional turned writer, though I still teach group exercise classes three times a week in spring and summer when I’m home in New Jersey. The other months, I’m a snowbird living in south Florida swimming, playing tennis and pickleball and reading on the beach rather than shoveling snow. I’ve been happily married for 47 years and have two sons and two grandsons, two grand dogs, and an extended “family” which is a theme reflected in my novel—family is more than blood.
SS: Have you always been driven to write? Or did you begin writing in response to a particular stimulus?
LR: I always said I wish I could write a novel though never thought I actually would. Then, as I was nearing my sixtieth birthday, while perusing an adult school catalogue looking for a photography class to better understand my digital camera, I came across a writers workshop. That was it! Just what I needed. From the start, characters sat on my shoulder talking to me and my fingers sped across the key board. I turned into a writer. And now, my debut novel has just been published. It’s thrilling.
SS: What literary pilgrimages have you made?
LR: Not sure you can call this a pilgrimage, but a year ago I had one day in Paris with my husband and another couple. I insisted, before going anywhere else, that we visit the 100-year-old bookstore, Shakespeare and Co. With all its nooks and crannies and books piled on shelves, it was fabulous!
SS: Do you have a day job? If so, is it a distraction, or does it add another element to your writing?
LR: As I mentioned before, I’m a Fitness Professional. Since 1982, I’ve taught group exercise classes, land-based and aquacise, and have worked with private clients as a Medical Exercise Specialist. After writing several drafts of my novel, my protagonist, Carolyn, insisted that she, too, was a fitness trainer. And, she got her MES certification. She even used some of my favorite exercises in several chapters.
SS: Which non-literary piece of culture could you not imagine your life without?
LR: Music
SS: What writer would you be most thrilled to hear wants to meet you?
LR: Barbara Kingsolver
SS: What is your writing Kryptonite? What’s most likely to stop the flow of your words?
LR: I can be in my own world, the words pouring out of me, and if my grandsons call to come over and play or need me for anything, that’s it! I’m done.
SS: Did you ever incorporate something that happened to you in real life into your novels?
LR: Yes. In chapter 15 of The Disharmony of Silence, Carolyn is at her mother’s bedside in the nursing home, though she’s not sure her mother hears all she’s saying. The scene was taken directly from my life, from my last moments with my mother. The words poured from my heart on to the page. I hope the scene and the words Carolyn says touch my readers.
SS: Do you write with an imaginary reader in mind? If so, tell us a little about that person.
LR: As a long-time member of two book clubs and co-coordinator of the Women’s National Book Association’s Great Group Reads Committee which, yearly, curates a list of books recommended for book clubs, my imaginary reader is a member of a book club. She is someone who loves talking books and digging in to characters and themes. I’ve added a list of discussion points at the back of my book and have given myself a 100 Book Club Challenge. Readers can contact me on my website www.linda-rosen.com to have me come to their book club or to Skype with it. We can even do it while exercising in a pool!
SS: What was your first recognition/success as an author?
LR: When I received my first acceptance for a short story to be published in an on-line literary magazine. You can find links to my stories on my website www.linda-rosen.com.
SS: If you stray from chronological time frame, did you write the book in the order in which it appears on the page, or did you write it in a chronological order and later rearrange?
LR: It took a while, though I did finally write it as it appears on the page now. Originally, I had two POVs set in present day. After many revisions, the book is now in dual time line with one POV in third person set in the 1920s, the other in first person set in early twenty-first century.
SS: Is there a phrase or quote about writing you particularly like or that inspires you?
LR: Yes, from Barbara Kingsolver. A novel’s extraordinary power is to allow a reader to take possession of the inner life of another.
SS: How important are romance and romance tropes in women’s fiction? Do you ever feel the need to break free of their constraints?
LR: They’re not important at all. Women’s Fiction can be Romance. It can be Historical or Contemporary. It might even be Dystopian. The one specific aspect that places a novel in the Women’s Fiction category is the focus on the main character’s emotional journey. It is a layered story, which makes it great for book club discussion where, as stated on the Women’s Fiction Writers Association website, “the plot is driven by the main character’s emotional journey.”
SS: Another genre that you would love to write:
LR: Historical Fiction
SS: What are you currently reading?
LR: Queen of the Owls by Barbara Linn Probst.
SS: I just finished that and it’s extraordinary! Loved it—of course, I’m a Georgia O’Keeffe fan from way back.
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The Disharmony of Silence is available through:
Amazon | B&N | Black Rose
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An excerpt from The Disharmony of Silence:
Ida stood next to the mahogany dining room table resting her hand on the curved armchair. Kate stepped back from her to view the entire ensemble: dress, shoes, and jewelry. “No Grandma,” she said. “The pearls aren’t right. Don’t you have a brooch you could wear instead?”
Ida brought her hand to her throat. She felt the softness of the ecru lace beneath her fingers. “I used to have a cameo. It would have been perfect.”
“Used to?”
She nodded and gave her granddaughter a doleful look.
“Did you lose it?”
“I believe I did.” Ida’s voice was soft and faraway. She seemed to be contemplating the floral design on the dining room wall.
“How? What happened?” Kate sensed the cameo was very important to her grandmother from sad timbre of her voice and the droop of her shoulders. “When did you lose it?”
Ida waved away the question. “Forget it, sweetheart. Just create one.” She reached behind her neck and unclasped the double strand. “I’ll take the pearls off and you paint whatever you want.”
Just like when she was a little girl confused about something, Kate tilted her head and looked up at her grandmother with narrowed eyes. She wanted to know the story, but this time Ida didn’t respond. She simply removed the pearls and handed them to her granddaughter. With the jewelry dangling from her fingers, Kate walked to her easel wondering why Ida was being so secretive, then placed the jewelry on the easel’s shelf. She adjusted the canvas and turned back. The sun streamed through the window casting a golden glow on the centerpiece, a cut-crystal bowl filled with fresh apples and pears.
“Beautiful,” Kate said. “Grandma, move a little closer to the table. I want to make it like you’re arranging the fruit.”
Kate picked up her pencil. With simple, crude strokes she sketched the preliminary lines of what would evolve into an oil painting. Every time she looked up, she wondered about Ida’s mournful eyes. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about the lost cameo. “What did your pin look like?” she asked anyway. “Describe it to me.”
A soft smile crept up Ida’s lightly freckled cheeks, though sadness veiled her eyes. “It was beautiful. Grandpa gave it to me when your mother was born. It was the first piece of jewelry he bought me in America.”
Kate pulled back from the canvas and gazed at her grandmother’s wistful expression. “You must have been so sad when you lost it.” Her voice was soft and tender.
“Yes, honey. I was.” Ida sighed and closed her eyes.
A moment passed; the air seemed heavier. Neither woman spoke though Kate watched every breath her grandmother took. She watched the rise and fall of her chest as it went from quiet, gentle lifts to one large expansive breath, like the final punctuation mark on a declarative statement.
Ida opened her eyes. “Focus on the painting, sweetheart, and make sure you put a little silver flower on the cameo. Grandpa had the jeweler add that to make it special. Paint it behind the woman’s ear, as if it’s holding a strand of hair in place.”
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