Stephanie Gertler

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It was an honor to spend a little bit of e-mail time with Ms. Gertler, I wish her the best of luck with DRIFTING and anxiously await her next book! For more information on the author and her books, visit http://www.jimmysgirl.com

TRRC:  Welcome to TRRC.  It is a pleasure to have you join us as September’s Author Of The Month.  What made you become a writer?

Stephanie:  Thank you for having me!  I've always loved to write - and to read.  I've been writing since I was a child.  At New York University, I majored in journalism (quite different from fiction) and then spent the years writing for magazines and newspapers (with a hiatus of about eight years when I stayed home with my three then little ones who are now 16, 18 and 20).  Writing has always been my drug.

TRRC:  I read that you are in college going for a degree in Criminal Psychology.  Does this mean there is a chance you will work on a thriller/suspense in the future?

Stephanie:  Now, this is how rumors spread.

I am planning to get a master's in forensic psychology - hopefully starting next January.  It keeps getting bumped ahead.  I just have to figure out where to squeeze it in unless I can take midnight classes!  As for thriller/suspense genre - who knows?  I doubt it though.  I love writing psychological mystery, and I've always been fascinated with forensic psychology.

TRRC:  In JIMMY’S GIRL, the story is narrated by two characters, one a male and the other a female.  Did you find it hard to write the male voice?

Stephanie:  Not at all.  It was easier to write in the male voice.  More objective and more liberating, in a way. 

TRRC:  You’ve said your latest novel DRIFTING required a lot of research.  What aspects of the story did you need to research?  How do you go about the process?

Stephanie:  One of the characters is a blind child and therefore I read and read about blindness in children.  I spent time with a little boy -- an amazing little boy - who is blind.  Spoke to ophthalmologists.  I also did interview with parents of abducted children (another theme in the book) and read and read and read from websites and interviewed psychologists.  And interviews with veterinarians since Eli Bishop, one of the main characters, is a veterinarian.  The research about blindness in children and abducted children was grueling:  these are two subjects that I fear -- researching it not only educated me so that I could write the book, but also forced me to face these fears.

TRRC:  Your children are all in college, how much of Claire’s experience with the “empty-nest” syndrome came from your own experience?

Stephanie:  A LOT!  My two older children left for college one year after the other, and although my youngest is still at home, I cried and cried.  The whole dynamic in the house changed.  My house was always so filled with kids (my own and their friends) -- my kids are so close in age and it was always such wonderful chaos.  The quiet was deafening.

TRRC:  Writing can be a difficult task to manage, tougher when you have a family.  Do you write by a set schedule?  How do you plan around days when the words just don't want to come out?

Stephanie:  I write every day from about 7:30 in the morning until the mid-afternoon when my youngest comes home from school.  He's 16 but I feel it's important to be here -- to talk, to listen...and I WANT to be here for him -- these days fly by so quickly witnessed by the absence of my older two during the school year.  On days when the words don't come, I read and research and take drives and think -- sometimes thinking about what you want to say is as good as writing -- then the next day it all comes out on paper.

TRRC:  You’ve tackled different points of view.  Which POV do you find hardest to use?  Easiest?

Stephanie:  That depends on what the character is embroiled in or immersed in at that moment.  If it's a subject that is particularly close to my heart (as with Claire's empty nest), it can be harder to write because I feel like I'm baring my own soul -- but on the other hand, baring my own soul through a book is cathartic and makes the character come alive.  Truly, I don't have a problem writing from any POV -- I feel like I shift into that character and it all just comes out...

TRRC:  I’ve come to learn over time that there is a difference between women’s fiction and romance.  Why do you write women’s fiction over romance?

Stephanie:  I like the complications in women's fiction and the weaving of many characters together.  I don't think it was/is so much a deliberate approach but rather on that simply comes easily and naturally to me.  I love to analyze situations and look at different points of view -- but I do love to also write romantically.

TRRC:  What are you working on next?

Stephanie:  My next novel (working on it now) is about secrets in a marriage -- those we should be able to keep and those which can damage a marriage.  And what happens to a marriage when a secret comes out of hiding...

(Click here for a review of DRIFTING)

EDITOR'S NOTE:

As a rule it is our policy to acknowledge the TRRC team members that conduct interviews and reviews for the site. This interview and the associated book review was completed sometime ago by Tracy Farnsworth, who is no longer a member of The Romance Reader's Connection team. While the interview and review remain the property of TRRC, we no longer have the right to use Tracy's byline. For this reason we have removed any use of her name from both articles.

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