Hello Readers!!!
Exciting news today!
Today is the book birthday for Little Falls by Elizabeth Lewes!!
Upon receiving a copy of Little Falls before it’s release, I had the opportunity to email Elizabeth Lewes some interview questions about her debut novel. I hope you enjoy the interview!
Quotablebooks1: What was your inspiration behind Little Falls?
Elizabeth Lewes: The basic idea of a property tax inspector who sees too much came to me while I was reviewing documents for a deal. (I’m a tax lawyer by day.) I noticed when reading a property tax return that the property tax collector/inspector was just some guy and taxpayers were supposed to drop off payments at his home. That’s when it occurred to me that property tax inspectors must learn all sorts of interesting things, particularly out in the county! But I had written male characters before and did not want to write another. Then, a few days later, this image popped into my head of a female veteran who discovers a crime that plunges her back into her memories of combat in Iraq and the gaslighting she endured from her command (which I found to be all too common in the military). And that’s how Camille Waresch was born.
Quotablebooks1: What is your favorite part about writing/being an author?
Elizabeth Lewes: Pulling a reader into a story that subtly teaches them something more about the world than they were expecting. In Little Falls, I hope that I conveyed the complexity of being a female veteran and how disorienting it can be when people are both afraid of and in awe of you even while they shun you for not fitting into how they see the world. It’s a weird, weird experience and is only made more complicated by layering on the experience of combat and motherhood and other social roles women are expected to take on.
Quotablebooks1: Was there anyone or anything that influenced you to become a writer/write this story?
Elizabeth Lewes: I picked up Kayla Williams’ memoir, Love My Rifle More Than You, when the idea for Little Falls was first percolating. Like me, Kayla was a military linguist. (Strangely, we were at the Defense Language Institute at the same time, along with another terrific female vet author, Ryan Leigh Dostie.) Unlike me, Kayla saw combat and is married to a combat vet who has combat-related trauma. Kayla’s story was about a lot more than combat, though. Rather, her experiences as a woman going into the military and surviving—and even thriving—in it rang a lot of bells for me. However, it’s been my experience that fiction can touch a lot more people than nonfiction. For that reason, I wanted to write a story that pulled in a lot of the issues Kayla and I and a lot of other female vets I know have experienced while hopefully bringing a wider-ranging audience along for the ride.
Quotablebooks1: What is your favorite genre to read and why?
Elizabeth Lewes: I spent most of the first 30 years of my life reading every mystery and thriller I could get my hands on, but since I started writing seriously, I don’t read much fiction because I don’t want another author’s style or conventions to show up in my writing. But I still love a good spy novel (especially John Le Carre) or lighter sci-fi/fantasy a la Terry Practchett or Kage Baker. I’m also a complete archeology nut!
Quotablebooks1: Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Elizabeth Lewes: Yes, but I never considered that it would become a career. (That’s why I went to law school!) On a more serious note, I’ve always been a writer. I wrote my first novel when I was 10 and have been dealing with my mother’s questions about what she did to warp me ever since.
Quotablebooks1: What were the challenges in writing this novel?
Elizabeth Lewes: Finding people in the industry who understood Little Falls. A lot of people are not ready to try to understand the complexity of being a female veteran like Camille. Many women my age, including myself, have been told that they can be what they want to be. However, those of us who have been able to realize our goals—especially those of us who have served in the military—have done so in the face of the very rigid ideas many people still have about what women, and particularly mothers, should be. Even though there are a lot of women in the publishing industry, it was surprisingly difficult to find people who embrace the idea that women are complex, that we aren’t all interested in a relationship or clothes or children, but can STILL be whole people who also, incidentally, kick ass. And, that there are a lot of readers who want to read those complicated and sometimes not endearing characters.
This was such a great interview!!
Be sure to check out Elizabeth Lewes’s debut novel Little Falls, out now!!
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