So far 2020 has been … I don’t even know. We started our 2nd year with all kinds of ideas for the future then a pandemic that has thrown our whole Plume plans into… we don’t know. We do know we’re still focusing on our mission, which may now be more important than ever, to celebrate and encourage women writers. We are now going digital and for June 2020 we thought we’d go back to our first Featured Writer, Amy Wallen.
Amy most recent publication was a memoir, When We Were Ghouls but she’s been busy working on fiction again– an updated Nancy Drew. Amy tells me she first met this grown up Nancy about 15 years ago. “She was begging me to write her story, but I had so many other books and projects on the fire.” Amy was very hesitant because she I had never written a mystery and knew it was a different animal. She kept getting positive responses whenever she mentioned the idea. “It really rang a bell for so many postmenopausal women, even the ones who had never read Nancy as a girl.”
I spent some time interviewing Amy about her new project and life in the pandemic:
HOW DID A POST MENOPAUSAL NANCY DREW COME TO YOU?
I probably just imagined that like the rest of us she had to grow up at some point and she had such a perfect life I figured she’d be completely screwed up by now. Life just isn’t so perfect, especially if high school was perfect. She’s been a fun character to work with.
ARE YOU GLAD TO BE BACK IN FICTIONLANDIA?
I love being in fictionlandia. To me, it’s so much more fun. More playful. I can almost be more myself in fiction than in nonfiction. That’s not to say the non is not me, but in memoir I have to be more careful to see that what I’m writing isn’t being led by imagination more than my memory. How can we tell the difference some times!
DO YOU HAVE OTHER NONFICTION BOOK IDEAS?
I have started a book about my journey with my dad’s dementia. It’s really more about my parents’ marriage. I think. One never knows until it’s written. It’s funny, because if you can’t laugh at dementia then you’re going to go down a very deep depressing rabbit hole. And, my dad is a funny guy, so being demented is even wackier. Plus, he’s a Texan so there are guns involved. Lots of guns. Some of that’s not so funny.
HOW’S THE PANDEMIC AFFECTING YOU? WHAT STRATEGIES ARE YOU EMBRACING TO GET THROUGH THIS CRAZY TIME?
I just had someone say to me that now the rest of the world understands what a novelist’s life is like. It’s not that different for me. I started the quarantine by watching everyone panic and worry and I hoped that something good and positive would come from the hardships, that our society would see they needed to change. But after a couple of months, I realize that I shouldn’t be worrying about everyone else changing, I should consider how this changes me. And, so far, what I have observed is that I’m calmer. I’m a little more focused (I’ve been working on that specifically, so it may just be the effort not some side effect of the pandemic) and I enjoy the slower pace. I think I’m going to have a harder time with re-entry than I did with lockdown. I may not leave my house ever again, it’s been so peaceful.
ARE YOU STILL DOING THE PANDEMIC ROMPER ROOM VIDEOS YOU STARTED EARLY ON? (I admitted to Amy I’m trying to minimize my FB time because people are annoying me lately)
I haven’t done one in a long time, but I am going to start a vlog asap that is Perseverance focused. I have another book project that is about perseverance so I’m promoting that. I guess that’s another nonfiction project that I should have mentioned above. I have an excerpt coming out May 31st in OC Register and other So Cal media spots. And I’m pitching some other excerpts to try to get that book a following.
We at Plume look forward to all these projects, we’ll keep you posted, and you can get on Amy’s email list to see what more she has planned.
And be sure to get on our email list and you’ll get the updated digital version of our original Petite Plume edition republished for June 2020.
PS Amy makes pies and writes about pies and if you connect up with her you may get some great recipes and tips for making pies. She rocks savory pies, but everything she makes (that I’ve had) is fantastic!