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 Have
you ever given any thought as to how well you
know your parents? Sure, you probably can name
their alma maters, birth places, and the top three
crazy relatives on each side, but how about their
innermost feelings of joy or deepest, darkest
fears? It seems as if life is like a merry-go-round.
We just keep spinning round and round rather than
taking the time to experience the simple pleasures
of being with the ones we love.
This month’s Jen’s Jewels, Nicole
Seitz, explores the unchartered waters of familial
issues in her latest release A HUNDRED YEARS OF
HAPPINESS. It’s the story of a family from
South Carolina’s low country, forced to
come to terms with ghosts from the past. Beautifully
written with an unforeseen ending, this book will
leave its imprint on your heart and soul. Without
a doubt, it is a must-read novel for May.
As part of this interview, Thomas Nelson has generously
donated five copies for you to win. So, don’t
forget to look for the trivia question at the
end. And as always, thanks for making Jen’s
Jewels a part of your reading adventure.
Jen:
Being an artist as well as an author enables you
to creatively blend the many facets of your personality.
Please paint for us a picture of your educational
and professional background that led to your career
in publishing.
 Nicole:
Originally I wanted to be in television. I thought
60 Minutes was my ultimate career path. So I went
to school for Broadcast Journalism at University
of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. My senior year,
I interned at a medium-sized market station in
Raleigh, NC, and realized that television was
not quite for me. Not yet, anyway.
I was bummed and baffled, but wound up going to
Savannah College of Art & Design for another
degree in Illustration. I could envision using
my writing and art to do freelance articles and
illustration for magazines like Gourmet and Conde
Nast Traveler. But I never did. Instead, to help
pay for SCAD, I wrote freelance articles for The
Bluffton Packet and The Island Packet newspapers
in Hilton Head Island, SC. I especially loved
personality profiles and painting pictures of
my subjects with words.
After SCAD, I went into graphic design and then
web design. I worked for several large corporations
as a web designer until I married and started
my own web/graphic business. It had been many
years, but I was feeling the urge to write again.
I wrote two articles, one on three Lowcountry
artists and their studios and another on a local
sweetgrass basket maker for SouthCarolina Magazine.
I was getting back in the swing of things. Working
from home allowed me the flexibility to work at
all hours of the day, which, with my background
in journalism, all came together when I got the
idea for my first novel about five years ago.
Jen:
Having experience as a freelance writer and illustrator
allows you to dabble in various areas of the business.
What was the driving force behind your decision
to become a novelist? And did you intend to write
for the Christian market from the get-go or do
you believe God steered you His way?
Nicole: I don’t
feel I really decided to become a novelist—instead,
it feels as if my first book simply wrote itself.
I was pregnant with my second child when I woke
up with my character, Essie Mae, telling her story
about family, sweetgrass, and heaven. After bed
rest and an emergency early birth for my son (he’s
fine, by the way), I would wake at all hours of
the night, having to tell that story. My mother
convinced me to try and sell it, so I got an agent
and within the year, it sold in a two-book deal.
As for the Christian market, I really knew nothing
about it. I am a Christian and my character was
African-American, loved Jesus, and explored heaven.
I believe the Christian publisher who bought the
book simply saw the faith of my character and
thought it fit the market. I went under contract
for four more books with Thomas Nelson, so I definitely
think God steered me this way. Fortunately I landed
with a publisher who allows me to write mainstream
novels from a Christian worldview.
Jen:
Before we talk about your book, let’s chat
about your artwork. Each cover of your three published
novels portrays your original works. Are the paintings
completed before, during, or after the writing
of the books and why so? And, do you paint more
than one piece for each novel? Also, are they
available for purchase?
Nicole: My first painting,
the one on the cover of The Spirit of Sweetgrass,
was painted after the book was written and sold.
I didn’t realize it would one day be on
the cover at the time, I was just moved to paint
it. With each novel, I wait until the book is
written and well underway before I begin painting
for the cover because I want to make sure I really
know what the book is about—that it’s
not going to change. And yes, I do paint more
than one painting for each book. The publisher
and I decide which one will work best. Sometimes
I have to tweak it to get it write. The cover
of my latest, A Hundred Years of Happiness, is
actually a composite of two paintings and one
of my photographs. All of my paintings are available
for purchase and listed on my web site.
Jen:
Your latest release, A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS,
is such a powerful novel on so many levels. Not
only could I not put it down, but also I did not
see that ending coming. Truly, this book is phenomenal.
How did you arrive at the premise?
Nicole: A couple
years ago, my husband and I took my parents out
for their anniversary, when my stepfather opened
up about his time in Vietnam forty years ago.
It was an earth-shaking, eye-opening evening for
me, so I went home and wrote the scene. I wrote
what my stepfather had told us about a recent
terrifying experience he’d had confronting
“the enemy” from so long ago. My husband
loved it, but my mother, my reader, said, “Oh,
don’t write about this.” I knew in
that moment I needed to write about those things
that we’ve been silent about my whole life—the
lingering effects of war on families and next
generations.
Jen:
In my opinion, there are four central characters
in the story. So, let’s talk a little bit
about each one and how he/she contributes to the
overall fluidity to the plot.
First of all, Katherine Ann is your typical career
woman turned stay-at-home mom with a Southern
twist. She has some self-esteem issues (don’t
we all?), but generally I find her to be a solid
woman with a level head on her shoulders. Why
then has she chosen to dig up skeletons from her
father’s past despite her fear of discovering
some dark, hidden truth?
Nicole: I’m
glad you see Katherine Ann as a fairly solid woman
because she’s VERY loosely based on me J
She chooses to dig up her father’s skeletons
because she has a greater fear of what may be
happening to her and to her own kids. She starts
experiencing unraveling and tension and anger
in her own life, and it looks a whole lot like
her father. Isn’t it easier to “fix”
someone other than ourselves? Katherine Ann simply
talks herself into believing that her father is
at the root of her pending demise.
Jen:
Throughout the novel, I feel as if Katherine Ann
treads lightly when it comes to being around her
mother, Betty Jo. Why does she keep her mother
at arm’s length? What is she afraid of uncovering?
And, why does Betty Jo accept their somewhat disjointed
relationship?
Nicole: Wow, good questions.
Katherine Ann is very connected to her mother,
yet from a distance. In fact, she spends every
morning at her mother’s house, with her
friends, the Water Lilies. I think she wants to
be close to her mother, but as Betty Jo is a bit
private and stand-offish, Katherine Ann chooses
to simply be present for her. I don’t think
it’s so much that Katherine Ann is keeping
her mother at arm’s length, but rather the
other way around. Betty Jo has some things that
she is hiding that she’s never shared with
anyone. Yet she keeps the persona of being perfectly
coifed and put together. There comes a point in
all mother-daughter relationships when you don’t
try to change the way things are, but rather to
work on accepting each party for who she is. Accepting
those things you cannot change. I think this is
where Katherine Ann and Betty Jo find themselves.
Jen:
Secondly, John Porter, Katherine Ann’s father,
is a Vietnam veteran trying hard to make peace
with his past. His relationship with his daughter
is undeniably a strong bond that holds them, as
well as his family, together. How does this father/daughter
relationship affect John’s marriage to Betty
Jo? How does it impact Katherine Ann and RC’s
marriage?
Nicole: John is a hard man to be around at
times. Katherine Ann is not close, per se, with
her father. She simply wants to be. So when John
opens up about the war, Katherine Ann feels connected
for a moment, and convicted, of never having known
or cared to know these things about him before.
Thus, her quest to help her father—and ultimately
herself—becomes a way for floundering Katherine
Ann to feel rooted and connected. Betty Jo acts
much more put together than she actually is, so
at times, Katherine Ann can pick up on twinges
of jealousy when her father spends time with her.
When we’re silent about things, it can separate
us from our spouse or our child, or our God. There
is a lot of silence between John, Betty Jo and
Katherine Ann.
RC, on the other hand, is the opposite of John
Porter. He is a rock, a good balance for Katherine
Ann. I think the relationship Katherine Ann has
with her father, one of unpredictability, only
strengthens her view of her own stable husband.
Jen:
Thirdly, Lisa the illegitimate daughter of a Vietnamese
woman and an American soldier, has lived her life
with many unanswered questions as to her origins.
Now she is faced with the cold, hard truth which
ultimately will impinge on her future. What aspect
of her personality contributes to her ability
to boldly face adversity despite the emotional
warfare it may potentially unleash?
Nicole: Lisa has lived
a dual life. She has had a Vietnamese upbringing
in the home and an American life on the outside.
Growing up in Georgetown, SC she’s always
been different. By now, with Uncle dead and her
mother mute for six months, Lisa has been extremely
alone, more than any time in her life. She has
run the restaurant on her own and had no “parents”
to talk to for months. I think she’s been
forced to see what she’s really made of.
Forced to analyze her life or lack thereof. It
is this priming that allows her to boldly move
forward in an effort to dispel the lies and get
to the truth. When you’re grieving over
the loss of a loved one (and she’s grieving
her mother as well), you think that perhaps you’ve
dealt with the worst there is.
Jen:
Lisa’s mother consciously chooses to become
mute upon the death of the uncle. Is this a cry
for help or perhaps is it a way of punishing herself
for past transgressions?
Nicole: I think it’s a bit of both.
Uncle was the one person who knew Doan Vien in
Vietnam and in America, her life before and after.
She had no secrets from him. Yet she does with
Lisa. I think Doan Vien not only grieves the loss
of her brother, but allows this sadness to take
her back to when she felt destitute as a young
woman. What is there left for her to say now?
In essence, she has given up.
Jen:
The fourth and what I believe to be the most powerful
character in the novel is Ernest, John Porter’s
comrade from Vietnam. There is so much I would
like to ask you, but for obvious reasons (plot
spoilers), I can not. Let’s stick to what
we can talk about! What makes him put all his
trust into John’s judgment? Is he gullible
or simply a man fearful for his life?
Nicole: Ernest
is a gentle soul. He grew up on a farm, a simple
life, loving parents. War, to him, is a shock.
He finds himself far from home, terrified, with
no way out. John, on the other hand, has had a
rough life. He enlisted in the Army to get away
from it all. He has also developed a persona that
is rough and tough out of necessity. But he is
loyal. Ernest and John have a true brotherly bond.
It is John’s willingness to protect and
Ernest’s need to be protected that makes
this bond so strong.
Jen:
How would each of the four main characters (Katherine
Ann, John, Lisa, and Ernest) describe their definition
of love in respect to their faith? Would you say
it’s the driving force behind their actions?
Why or why not?
Nicole: Part of the reason
each of these characters is tossed by the wind
and waves is that they do not have a strong faith
in God. They choose to put their faith in one
another, in circumstance, in themselves. When
those things fail, the impending crisis brings
out this crisis of faith. Ernest’s journey
exemplifies best the growth of faith in each of
these lives. Love has a tendency to be limited
or one-sided when it emanates only from ourselves
and not from something larger than us.
Jen:
When the ink was finally dry and it was time to
say good-bye to these characters, how did it make
you feel? Why so?
Nicole: Oh,
many things. I was happy to be done with it. It
was a hard book to write at times. I had to delve
into war which was emotionally trying. Yet when
it was done and my vision had come full circle,
I was so pleased it had worked. I was amazed it
worked. I cried as my characters’ journeys
ended, but was left hopeful and pleased. Writing
this book, as with all, was cathartic. I was ready
to let them go and move on.
Jen:
Please tell us about your website. Are there Reading
Group Guides available for your novels? Do you
participate in author phone chats? And if so,
how would my readers go about scheduling one?
Nicole: I have a web
site, www. Nicolseseitz.com, where readers can
contact me, join my mailing list, read about my
books, see my paintings, and more. You can find
excerpts and reviews of my books as well as reading
group guides and questions there. I love to meet
with book clubs and can always arrange a telephone
or video chat. If you would like to schedule a
book club chat, just contact me on my web site
and we’ll set it up!
Jen:
Are you currently at work on your next project?
If so, what can you share with us?
Nicole: My next book,
Saving Cicadas, will be released December 1 of
this year. Like my other books, this one takes
place in the South, in a small fictitious town
called Cypresswood, SC. It is narrated by an eight-and-a-half
year old girl named Janie, who tells about the
summer her single mother got pregnant again unexpectedly,
and how she hauled the whole family in the car
to escape including Rainey Dae, her 17-year-old
sister with special needs, and Poppy and Grandma
Mona. It would be the last family vacation they
would ever take. It’s a tender and sometimes
shocking look at the difficult choices grown-ups
make and the secrets and ghosts that remain in
every family.
Jen:
Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing
your book with my readers. I was so moved by your
work. Best of luck with A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS.
Nicole: Thank you! I loved this interview,
Jen. Your questions were thoughtful and probing.
It was a true pleasure, and I’m so glad
you enjoyed my novel. Hope you look for the next
one.
I hope you, my readers, have enjoyed my interview
with Nicole. Please stop by your local bookstore
or local library branch and pick up a copy today!
Better yet, would you like to win one? Okay, be
one of the first five readers to e-mail me at
jensjewels@gmail.com
with the correct answer to the following trivia
question and it’s yours!
Name the title of Nicole’s upcoming
December 2009 release.
Later this month, I will be bringing to you my
interview with children’s author, Katy Kelly.
You won’t want to miss it.
Until next time…Jen
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Meet
the Author: featuring Jen's Jewels