Sarah Stonich's Shelter

by Joan

In an area where “the iron content in the rocks is so high that compasses fail,” Sarah Stonich spent ten long years building a cabin “smaller than Thoreau’s.” Just what was it that pulled her to the land in frigid Minnesota? What motivated her to keep going, to fight bureaucrats about a potential highway abutting her land, to spend days at “home” without water, indoor plumbing, or electricity to run “the holy grail of all appliances: a refrigerator.” Reading her memoir, Shelter, one gets the sense that by living so closely connected to the land, and so far from what we call “civilization,” a different set of values exists. It’s a place where a stranger will extinguish a fire on someone else’s property or share abundant well water with those who live “dry.”

I found the stories about her ancestors poignant and enjoyed learning about her neighbors and her new found love. Many of her sentences mesmerized me, enough to draw me back for a second reading. A passage in which she writes about her first alfresco meal at a newly built picnic table overlooking the lake plays beautifully on the page: “Autumn was full on. The bugs were gone, and the fallen leaves were dry underfoot and loud as Doritos. Those still on the trees were thrumming loose from branches to join the eastward curtain of wind, slowly opening the view to the lake across the wooded slope. On the floor of the roofless cabin, eddies of fallen birch leaves swirled like schools of guppies and sawdust lapped at the walls.”

If you’re like me, weak-hearted and content with outdoors as long as you stay closer to the beach and away from the forest, don’t ask what you do with your recently-deceased cat when the ground is too frozen to bury him. Or what happens when you run headlong into a cougar. But Sarah Stonich can write about sticks and stones (or cats) and I’d read it. Infused with both humor and deep-felt emotion, her memoir is an engaging read. (She retells a hilarious story about two sisters fighting over the bones of their dead paramour that had me cackling.)

In Shelter, Sarah touches on all six senses. Being in a cabin in the woods may be quiet, but we learn it is never silent. Birds call, beavers clap, woodpeckers peck, frogs belch, hummingbirds flitter, breezes sing through screens, snow squeals underfoot. Each season is bursting with its own noises, enough to spur this non-outdoorsy type to consider a week in the woods, albeit a little less rustic.

When she describes how the Stonich name is scarce, “cropping up more often on headstones than in phone books,” I got a real sense of what this pilgrimage has meant to her. Her ancestors long dead, time passes, animals and trees turn to ash. But “whether life is being gently rocked or swamped, the land is just there.”


And now, a few questions with Sarah Stonich and a chance to win a copy of Shelter!

WWW: Congratulations on the release of Shelter. Can you tell our readers a little about what this book means to you?

SS: In some ways this book represents closure for me, the end of a long chapter of uncertainty, after five years of a sort of “will we or won’t we” lose our land. The limbo of not knowing, and not being able to go forward, either to plan or build, has been frustrating and upsetting. But at least I could write about the land, and have something to give my son - if not this place in the woods, at least a book about his family and a place that was “nearly ours.”

WWW: Your experiences were truly rustic, yet you’ve described incredibly gorgeous landscape. No doubt the trade off is worth it?

SS: Mostly. Going without water is a bit of a hardship, but the peace is priceless. There is a lot that we’ve been spared because of our remoteness – no jet-skiis or power boats, no ATVs barreling down our road, no neighbors blasting old ACDC records. I’d say the trade-offs are worth it, but I have realized how easy living with amenities makes our everyday city lives. Go without refrigeration for a week and you will come to appreciate the magic of it.
WWW: Oh, I imagine so. What motivated you to persist in your dream of connecting with your ancestors’ land?

SS: I was and still am motivated by the notion of land being a connection to our past and roots. My son didn’t know his grandfather, and I hoped this physical connection to the same land my father once bonded with might bond them in some way.

WWW: What does your son think of the book?

SS: He’s quite pleased. I ran it by him before publication and he jogged my memory over a few things, so he was helpful in that process (has a much better memory than I do, that’s certain.) Sam’s very well-read, but has only recently begun to read my work – he’s just finished reading my forthcoming book, Vacationland. He has yet to read my earlier novels, even though one features a character based pretty much on him.
WWW: I picture you in an Adirondack chair in the woods, leisurely recording your thoughts in a journal. Were you actually able to write there (long-hand, obviously!) or did you return home for the heavy work?

SS: When I set out, I had a vision that the place would be a retreat, not only in which to write, but to write brilliantly, with lots of inspiration and few interruptions. Of course I couldn’t have been more wrong. And let’s face it, a lot of excuses to not write are born of writers imagining they need everything perfect and in place and all ritual-ready before they can set pen to paper. Fact is that to write you only need the desire – only in mid-career has this sunk in – perfect circumstances do not foster writing, it’s all motivation and work. Tom Waits said it: “You gotta get behind the mule in the morning and plow.” It shouldn’t matter where the mule is standing.
WWW: Good advice for all of us. You managed to infuse humor and insight into this very personal book. What did you find most difficult about writing memoir?

SS: I’m a pretty private person, so wasn’t all that comfortable writing about myself, which seems rather narcissistic. I told myself in the beginning that it would be easier if the tone of the book was the tone of a conversation I might have with my son. There has always been a lot of play in our discourse and we like to entertain each other. I was a little more worried about the rest of my family – even when writing about my long-dead grandparents, it needed to be done very delicately. It’s important to portray anyone you write about in an authentic way that honors their character. Memoir, by definition includes speculating over the broader aspects of people’s lives – it needs to be done respectfully. Quite a lot was edited out of this book, but there are still a few passages I feel a little squeamish about including. That’s memoir.
WWW: Well, you succeeded in writing a truly authentic book. The cover is stunning—I imagine you were quite happy with it? (Readers, check out the book trailer, here.)

SS: Yes, as an author who has had a devastating cover in the past that actually hurt book sales and my career, having some say in a cover is most important. My last two book contracts have included a clause that I have input on the book jacket and right of refusal. I think this cover is just right – it nicely sets the tone of the story within.
WWW: My favorite of your books is The Ice Chorus. Do you plan on returning to Ireland for another book? Is another memoir brewing?

SS: Maybe one day I’d go back to Ireland. I really loved the Irish characters in The Ice Chorus and sometimes miss them. That’s the fun of writing – you not only get to choose who you spend time with for the duration of writing a book, but you actually get to build them and set them in places you’d like to spend time in yourself. I cannot imagine doing another memoir, but there’s lots of material I wouldn’t dare write in a memoir that will be much better milled into fiction.

WWW: That's why we love to write fiction! Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know?

SS: I’ve just finished a new novel, and currently am working on two more (I toggle back and forth, which only works because I’m ADD). I know many of your readers are writers themselves, so, I’d just like to encourage them to keep at it, get behind the mule as often as you can. Also, If you have comments or questions don’t hesitate to email (writers like to hear from readers – it validates our existence)
Cheers, Sarah

Thanks so much for your encouraging words and the lovely invitation to our readers. We'll be waiting anxiously for your next book.

Readers, comment here or on our FB page by Saturday midnight, and you'll be entered to win a copy of Shelter. Be sure to add your email address so I can contact the winner for her/his mailing address.

UPDATE RE BOOK GIVEAWAY: SUSAN VIGILANTE IS THE WINNER! Congrats Susan, and thanks to all who entered!

Reading and giveaway copies of Shelter provided by Borealis Books.

Q&A with Author Sarah Stonich

by Joan


Sarah Stonich’s first novel, These Granite Islands, became a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection, a Book Sense 76 Top Ten Pick, and a “2001 Friends of American Writers” Best Novel. Her second book, The Ice Chorus, is one of my favorites. Maybe it’s the alternating backdrop of a scorching Mexican beach and the cool, stony cliffs of Ireland. Perhaps it’s the tragic love story shot through a lens shrouded in misinterpretation and family secrets. More likely it’s the tightly-woven plot and multi-layered characters.

Just in time for the paperback release, Sarah Stonich joins us for Q&A.

JOAN: The Ice Chorus enthralled me when I first read it three years ago, and now upon second read, even more so. What do you think makes a book both timeless and memorable?

SARAH: Compelling characters – more than the story, I remember the voices that touched me, upset me, amused, shocked, or in some way pulled enough emotion up to make me think of them a month later, or ten years later. I still think of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and Francie Nolan, the character that inspired me to become a writer, or, the thief in The English Patient, etc. I think for any story to be timeless it needs to be evocative of place and time without being set down too hard with details such as street names or dates or factual references. It’s the story and people, and the sense of place.

JOAN: In addition to a strong sense of place, your books often feature themes of secrets and women conflicted between desire and responsibility. Do you think we all imagine our family to be full of secrets?

SARAH: Perhaps it is the nature of women to be conflicted between desire and responsibility – at least for many of my generation and those before us, raised to conduct our lives the way we should, not necessarily the way we would choose. I imagine most families do have secrets – some better kept than others (how would we know?!) If not secrets – at least stories that simply don’t get told. After a beloved aunt died recently, I discovered that as a field nurse in WWII, she’d been one of the first to staff a German hospital after liberation, treating freed Jewish prisoners right alongside injured German soldiers – all the while working closely with the surgeon she was falling in love with and would later marry. There’s a story – alas, no one thought to tell it…

JOAN: That’s definitely a book I’d read! I fell in love with Ireland through Maeve Binchy, captivated with its selkie lore through Regina McBride, and disheartened through Frank McCourt. How do you reconcile these different Irelands? Do you have plans to write another book set in Ireland? (Please say yes!)

SARAH: I miss Ireland, and I miss the characters I wrote in The Ice Chorus, particularly Remy and Siobhan, who very much represent the different Irelands I know. Ireland isn’t an easy place to be, but I feel more at home there than anywhere else. Like family, it has good and bad all mixed in. Will I write another book set there? Perhaps, yes…maybe… We all miss Frank McCourt – he was a tireless advocate for young writers, a real teacher, and avuncular in the best way. In a pub in the Aran Islands he told me that the title for These Granite Islands was a mistake. “It’s awful”, he said, “a dirge of a title” – he, of Angela’s Ashes. We had a good laugh over that.

JOAN: Any plans for either The Ice Chorus or These Granite Islands to be filmed? They both seem perfect for the big screen. Who would play Liselle in the movie if you got to choose?

SARAH: My first novel was considered, and then abandoned (twice) during bad times for the film industry. But now, The Ice Chorus will circulate to production houses, and These Granite Islands may again. Who to play Liselle? If Hollywood were my oyster I’d pick any of these three: Laura Linney, Marcia Gay Harden, or Emily Watson. I feel any of these women have depth, are authentic and easy to relate to. Rather than ooze sensuality, they seem to harbor theirs, carrying it more naturally, privately, as Liselle does - as a thing to be uncovered.

JOAN: Great choices. (Readers: Coincidentally, Emily Watson was in Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes.) I was encouraged to see you agree with the motto, “Write what you don’t know.” What advice can you give on making sure a story is authentic? Do you research before or during the actual writing?

SARAH: I research constantly, it’s one of the joys of being a writer, getting to delve into what subjects most interest me. I’m learning things now that I might use in a year or two, or maybe never. I researched hat-making and iron mining while writing These Granite Islands, and film-making for The Ice Chorus. I think a story reads authentically when the writer knows a lot about the subject, but only writes what is essential for the reader to build upon and construe in their own minds. The more you research, the more confidence you have in your subject, allowing you to say less. It’s always obvious when a writer has gone too far, making the reader feel lectured on a topic or bored by the minutia.

JOAN: Art plays a strong role in The Ice Chorus, and you weaved Charlie’s paintings of Liselle brilliantly with the climax. Did you research the craft of painting as you did with hat-making and film-making?

SARAH: I research most things, but I had first hand experience with painting - as a failed painter. There are two strong visual artists present in my work – Charlie, in The Ice Chorus and now Meg, in Vacationland. Through them, I have succeeded as a painter, albeit vicariously! Most of my characters are compelled to create in one way or another, and often their art or craft is essential to their character – in my unpublished novel, Love’s Tender Loins, the troubled protagonist, a Chicago housewife, emerges from her stasis by penning a rather bad romance novel. We need art.

JOAN: I enjoyed your book trailer. What’s involved in making one? Is that your voice?

SARAH: Thank You! I’ve turned to the Internet to market and promote, since traditional publicists do less these days, given shrinking budgets, and book tours are practically a thing of the past (and for good reason - they are mostly ineffective). A book trailer is a way to introduce a book to readers and to booksellers in a way they might not hear at a sales conference or in an ad or review. My computer-savvy husband put the thing together, and even wrote and played the music. The voice was supposed to be that of an Irish friend, but we couldn’t schedule, so yes, alas, that is my voice (doesn’t everyone hate their own?). We watched a lot of bad trailers on YouTube to learn what not to do – some were 5 minutes or longer, most didn’t describe the story in any compelling way. Surely they will evolve into a tool to sell a manuscript to an agent, a book to bookseller, or the story to a reader.

JOAN: When can we expect Vacationland and Shelter to hit the shelves? You’ve written mostly fiction. What inspired you to write Shelter, your memoir?

SARAH: I’ve just placed Vacationland with an agent, and since it’s short fiction it could take a bit, though I have renewed hope, since a similar book of stories, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, just won a Pulitzer. Shelter should be on the shelves in late autumn of ’10 by Borealis Books. Writing a memoir wouldn’t have occurred to me until I was inspired by my own questionable decision to hew out a writing retreat in raw wilderness. My grandparents immigrated to a small town near the Canadian border, and their experience is fictionalized in These Granite Islands, but now the name Stonich is fading from memory there, and so I returned. I was inspired by them, and by the ups and downs taking on this project, and how the ensuing experiences (and pratfalls) have provided endless, colourful, painful, hilarious material. In Shelter I wanted to emphasize the importance of “place” and how we often romanticize the concept. I also wanted to examine how we are affected or imprinted by our places, whether drawn to them, conflicted by them, or trapped in them.

JOAN: Fantastic news. We’ll look forward to reading both when they come out. What advice can you give an aspiring author in this strange and uncertain publishing market?

SARAH: Keep writing, keep your expectations of traditional publishing low and think outside the book – at least the book as we know it. Consider alternative publishing – zine, online, on-demand, writing cooperatives, etc... Consider publishing as much a creative process as the writing. That said, don’t lose sight that it’s the writing that matters, not the potential audience your writing might one day have – that will come, if the work is good enough.

JOAN: Do you have favorite books on writing?

SARAH: I’m a dyslexic high school drop-out – which more or less defines me as a writer who works intuitively and organically, and I’ve never read a book on writing. I learned to write by reading, paying close attention to the methods and techniques of authors I admire, then promptly endeavoring to forget their techniques so that I’m not over-influenced. I have a healthy fear of such books – afraid they might mess me up, or suggest that everything I’ve done so far is wrong.

JOAN: Tell me about your writing schedule now that summer is over. How do you manage the intrusion of the Internet?

SARAH: Since I work at home and my son is grown, the seasons and weekends all blur into one lump called time. My husband’s schedule actually structures mine – I work all day while he’s gone and when he comes home at 4pm it’s dismount! for both of us. Up until recently, I’ve made my living as a writer, but have found myself essentially unemployed. I’ve started a writing and editing service (wordstalkers.com). So, now I write fiction from 7am 11am. Then I do the business-business of writing. I rely on the Internet – but do not turn it on until my “real” writing is finished for the day. That one non-act (not pressing the Firefox button) takes much more discipline than sticking to a writing schedule.

JOAN: I noticed you’re writing in a new genre. As someone who is currently writing in two genres, how do you suggest approaching agents with two completed manuscripts?

SARAH: If the two manuscripts are both fiction, I would press forward with the one you want published first while making the agent aware you have another. My agent has more traction with publishers knowing he has two works of fiction to sell, Vacationland, and the next novel I’m planning, Fishing With RayAnne, for which I supply a synopsis and sample. Many publishers want a two-book deal (in case the first takes off) so it’s always good to show you have a follow-up book. As far as genres, nonfiction doesn’t always require an agent. After researching potential publishers I sold my memoir myself by submitting a chapter and a synopsis to the one house I thought was most suited to the work.

Thank you, Sarah, for sharing a bit of an author’s life with us.