Author News & Interviews

Author Talk: Katherine Pancol, author of The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles

Nov 4, 2013

Question: The title of your book refers to Antoine’s new life and livelihood in Africa, but it also seems to work as a metaphor of sorts. What does it mean to you?

Katherine Pancol: One morning when I was in New York I read an article in The New York Times about a man who went off to raise crocodiles because he was sure he would make a fortune. He was like a Forty-Niner during the Gold Rush. As it happens, raising crocodiles can be very profitable, because every part of the animal can be used, from its hide to its blood and claws. Antoine thinks he’ll make a fortune and realize his dream of becoming a rich, powerful businessman. In fact, the opposite happens. He winds up bankrupt and despairing, tracked by the crocodiles who watch him at night, waiting to get close enough to devour him. The crocodiles’ yellow eyes shining in the darkness represent the appeal of riches, the glittering gold that leads men to their doom—and women, too.

Author Talk: Tatjana Soli, author of The Forgetting Tree

Oct 4, 2013

Question: The Forgetting Tree is your second novel. Was it easier or harder to write than the first?

Author Talk: Tatjana Soli, author of The Forgetting Tree

Oct 4, 2013

“Claire would be loyal to that mystery to the end of her days, because it was identical to the mystery of life, which one loved without ever fully comprehending it.”

Author Talk: Dianne Dixon, author of The Book of Someday

Oct 4, 2013

Question: What do you love most about writing?

Dianne Dixon: I love the thrill of telling stories about ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. I love exploring the mysteries of the human condition. And I love the poetry of words.

Q: What inspires you the most as a writer?

Author Talk: Lynn Cullen, author of Mrs. Poe

Oct 3, 2013

Lynn Cullen is an award-winning author of both adult and children’s fiction. Her latest novel, MRS. POE, provided her with the opportunity to reflect on the “writing life,” and to create a character who experiences the same “joys and terrors” of the experience as Cullen herself does. MRS. POE is the story of poet and single mother Frances Osgood and her illicit love affair with Edgar Allan Poe at the height of his career. In this interview, Cullen discusses the strange coincidence that led her to write about Frances and Poe --- one that was both welcome and appropriate, given the tentative climate of her professional life (at the time). She also opens up about her inspiration for the dark and charismatic Poe, and just how much of herself she saw --- and imbued --- in Frances.