A Notepad and a Dream - Rena Olsen

In a new series I'm calling 'A Notepad and a Dream', I'll be interviewing up-and-coming authors about their books, their writing process and their future plans.  If you have a book shortly due for release and would like to take part, or know someone else who would, please let me know via the 'Contact Me' page above.

In the first 'A Notepad and a Dream' episode, we'll be meeting American author Rena Olsen.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your novel?

I’m really quite boring. I live in the heartland of America, central Iowa, where we do, in fact, have indoor plumbing AND the internet. I work as a therapist with children in an inner city elementary school, which basically means I get to talk about cartoons and play games all day. My book, THE GIRL BEFORE, is about a woman who discovers the family she’s always known isn’t quite what they’ve claimed to be. It explores the world of human trafficking, but from a unique perspective. There isn’t a firm release date yet, but it should be available late 2016 from Putnam.


What made you want to write this book?

A few years ago, a friend introduced me to the End It movement, a push to raise awareness and end human trafficking. Honestly at that point I wasn’t even aware of what a huge problem modern day slavery is in the world. In my city! I started researching and read a lot of stories, and it got me to thinking about what it would be like to grow up in that world. From that, Clara, my main character, was born.


What are the central themes of your novel, and why did you choose these?

Wow, what a fancy question! Clearly, human trafficking is a big piece of the novel, but the main focus is Clara’s own perception of her world and her life, and how that changes as she is introduced to new facts and circumstances. I really strive to make all my characters multidimensional, and their circumstances believable. I’m not sure if you would call it a “theme,” but the psychological aspect of each character is super important. In simple terms, the themes that stand out most for me are love, truth, and redemption.


What would you say are your main influences?

This is the question where I’m supposed to impress with my big name influences, yes? It would be impossible to list all of them. I read close to 200 books a year, and each author adds to my own prowess as a writer. I try to capture the whimsy of authors like JK Rowling, CS Lewis, and JRR Tolkien, along with the ever-present wisdom they bury within an entertaining narrative. My biggest influence is Ray Bradbury. The way he is able to tell a story and still accurately capture the climate of various social and political issues is nothing short of magic. He is a master.


What would you say is your particular strength as an author?

As mentioned above, I really pay attention to the psychological aspects of each character. Strengths and weaknesses, likable and unlikable characteristics of each player. Because of that, my characters tend to be very distinct in their voice and actions. I’ve always loved dialogue, partially because the characters are always so opinionated on how they speak and what they say. Getting to write them playing off each other is probably the most fun I have when writing.


What are your future plans?

Well, I just received my edit letter from my editor today, so after I finish panicking, I’ll dive into revisions on THE GIRL BEFORE. The deal with Putnam was for two books, so after revisions are finished, I’ll pluck one of the many ideas from my brain and get to work on book 2. These books are for an adult audience, but I would like to be able to share some of my young adult writing with the world someday. Beyond that, I just hope to be able to keep writing for as long as the stories come to me. Most of all, I plan to keep dreaming.

This entry will be updated with links when THE GIRL BEFORE is available to purchase.

Renaolsen.com

Currently...

Current Read: Fahrenheit 451, by American author Ray Bradbury.

I got a telling-off only the other night from a friend for never having previously heard of Ray Bradbury, before I stumbled across Fahrenheit 451 in Norwich's Forum Library a few weeks back.

The story concerns a future in which society's obsession with television and other new visual media has led to the outlawing of the written word, and the role of firemen is to burn books. With all traces of their former role reduced to dangerous rumours, fireman Guy Montag meets his quirky teenage neighbour, Clarisse McLellan, in the aftermath of his wife's suicide attempt and begins to question the role he plays in society. What follows leads to murder and to a manhunt, and ends with the protagonist meeting a number of exiled academics, who travel from place to place, each with the memory of a single book held safely within their mind.

The written style is simple and it is not hard to imagine Bradbury typing away at a ten-cent typewriter in the basement library of a 1950s university, in much the same way as one might use an IT suite now. His story has since been subject to many interpretations, but the author himself observed how a love of visual media was leading to a loss of interest in books, information presented almost entirely without context, and the danger of not learning from past mistakes.

The week after I finished the book, Bradbury sadly died at the 91 after a short illness. I might never have previously heard of him, but news of his passing was greeted in an official public statement from Barack Obama at the White House.

Current TV Shows: This year has seen the end of two long-running TV shows that we in the UK had inherited from US networks - 'Desperate Housewives', which I have absorbed from my girlfriend via some kind of slushy, pink Stateside osmosis, and the seminal medical drama, 'House'.

I swear that when the latter series ended on Sky a few weeks ago, it felt like there had been a death in the family. I moped for days afterwards and clung desperately to the thought that there are still some episodes from the final series that I haven't seen and that I could always run through my old DVDs. But while I'll miss it, I'm anxious to see what project Hugh Laurie will work on next.

American TV never rests on its laurels for very long, and new series '2 Broke Girls' is looking like a promising sitcom. There's a cute premise involving a business startup and two likeable main characters, and I may be a little bit in love with Max, the sharp-tongued waitress from the wrong side of the tracks.

Current Food: Techincally it's a TV show about food - but in very few places outside of Heston Blumenthal's lab will you get away with cooking a goat curry with lotus flowers on British TV. When Eastenders gets too much for you, switch to the GoodFood Channel and watch 'My Sri Lanka' with Aussie chef Peter Kuruvita.

Peter Kuruvita - he cooks goat.

Part of this show's appeal is that Kuruvita is engaging and respectful, and he sticks seamlessly to the positive aspects of his journey despite visiting areas which were recently ravaged by civil war. It also certainly doesn't hurt that the landscape he is travelling across is some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Stop reading now and go watch it!

Current Drink: If I'm going by what's in the fridge, bottled water. My partner has decided to set up an emergency kit containing lots of tinned food, medical supplies and the like so that we're covered in the event of civil unrest. I'm politely sceptical but if the zombie apocalypse comes now, at least I'll be able to stay under the duvet for a few days longer before I have to go loot the Co-op.

Current Blogs: The TUC Touchstone blog has some excellent articles, not least this one about why Colombia should not be offered a trade deal by the EU while trade unionists are still being intimidated and assassinated there.

Ireland - rubbish at football, but they've got great craic.

Current Excitement: Euro 2012! The Balkans have put on a fantastic show so far, with only a few banana-throwing Russians trying to spoil the party. The lamentably poor Irish aside, every team I have seen in the tournament so far has brought something, and I am cautiously optimistic about England's chances tonight when nippy Man Utd paceman Danny Wellbeck gets his chance to run at aging Swedish meatball Olof Mellberg. If the football is as impressive as the electrical storm above Donetsk, we're all in for a treat.