At book signings, I enjoy hearing what motivates writers to put words down on paper. I have lots of ideas floating around in my head, but I never seem to actually get them organized and down onto paper.
My friend Sarah and I went to the Morgantown Barnes and Noble last week to a book signing for Denise Giardina’s new book “Emily’s Ghost.” Giardina is an interesting person in her own right – an award-winning West Virginia author, an Episcopal deacon, an activist and a former gubernatorial candidate. I was hopeful she would have some helpful comments. She did.
Here are a few thoughts I took away from that evening:
1. Someone asked Giardina if her characters “spoke” to her, and she said that they did. The person who asked the question said she heard from many writers that their characters actually talk to them. That concept is interesting to me because I’ve always felt you can hear the “voices in your head” when trying to write dialogue.
2. Giardina didn’t write her first book until she was 30. I’m past 30, but this still gives me hope. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to accomplish goals by a certain age or we give up. Maybe once you’ve lived a bit more of life, you have more to say.
3. Giardina wanted to write the Bronte story from Emily’s perspective, instead of Charlotte’s. Because Charlotte outlived the rest of her family, her version of their family life became the official story. I imagine that I have a different family view from my siblings, so that makes a lot of sense to me.
4. I did not realize that her earlier books, “Storming Heaven” and “The Unquiet Earth,” were connected to Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights.” On her web site, Giardina states she considers “Emily’s Ghost” to be the third book of a trilogy. I’ll have to read the others.
5. Giardina did a great deal of research for this book and even traveled to Haworth, England, to tour the Bronte homeplace.
I am a couple chapters into “Emily’s Ghost” and am really enjoying it. As a lifelong Bronte admirer, I find it entertaining and exciting to read about them from a new perspective. I’m also feeling inspired to start listening to some of my own ghosts.
For more information about Denise Giardina or “Emily’s Ghost,” visit http://www.denisegiardina.com/index.htm.
