Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What inspired you to write Counterfeits?

I began writing Counterfeits when a story that had haunted me for years finally demanded to be written.

The 1918 Spanish influenza took the grandmother I never knew, a twenty-six-year-old kindergarten teacher in a small southern town. She left behind her husband who was a traveling candy salesman and her four-year old son, my father. Since his father’s sales route crisscrossed the south, her little boy went to live on his grandparents’ farm.

Since you write historical fiction, how do you go about your research?

Driven by curiosity about the past, I tend to immerse myself in the world I’m researching, whether it be aspects of daily life, music, literature, film, food, clothing or the economic-political events of the era.

I’ve been known to disappear into the research rabbit hole for days, mining historical gems that may inspire stories and characters.

In researching the 1918 pandemic, I am indebted to the works of historians, science journalists, and medical researchers. Survivor accounts and oral histories proved invaluable for the rich details and first-hand accounts of suffering and loss during the Spanish influenza. I was struck by how few authors touched by the pandemic chose to write about it in their published works.

The extensive collection of local newspapers archived by the Library of Congress proved a priceless resource for details about life during the pandemic and World War I.

I also discovered a windfall of World War I posters in the Library of Congress as well as in private collections. Tacked everywhere at the time, these colorful notices provided information, conveyed warnings, appealed for volunteers, and solicited many forms of fund raising for the war effort. Often the posters, riddled with prescriptive messages, bordered on propaganda.

Although I began my research for Counterfeits well before the present-day Covid 19 pandemic struck, a new wealth of information from various media sources surfaced during the resurgence of interest in the Spanish influenza.

Describe your typical writing day.

After a brisk morning walk, I flip open my office shutters and settle in at my writing desk. I don’t practice rituals like special background music or lighting candles and incense.

Although preferring absolute quiet, I don’t mind the occasional “whit weet” of the curved-bill thrasher outside my window. Not so much the Gila woodpecker who drills the metal chimney cage then flits by the motion detector, setting off an alarm.

Depending on where I am in the writing process, I continue my research or review the day’s previous work. Typically, editing and revision consume most of my time.

Who are some of your favorite authors?

I frequently add to the list as I discover new writers but here are some of the authors whose work has moved me:

Gabrielle Zevin, Emily St. John Mandel, Celeste Ng, Jamie Ford,  Geraldine Brooks, Barbara Kingsolver, Colson Whitehead, Lisa See, Sandra Cisneros, Angeline Boulley, S.A. Cosby, Lucy Foley, Philip Gray, Khaled Hosseini, Abraham Verghese, Nathan Harris, Kazuo Ishiguro, Elizabeth Strout, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Colum McCann, Thrity Umrigar, Dennis Lehane, Toni Morrison, Jane Smiley, Kristina McMorris, Amor Towles, Ann Patchett, Rohinton Mistry, Ruta Sepetys, James McBride, Kristin Hannah, Cormac McCarthy, Ellen Marie Wiseman, Erik Larson, Maya Angelou, Ann Napolitano, Christina Baker Kline, Ian McEwan, Nancy E. Turner, Tea Obrecht, Chris Bohjalian, Tana French, Jon Krakauer, Jhumpa Lahiri, Frank McCourt, Jose Saramago, Kent Haruf, Tony Hillerman, Barbara Tuchman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Tennessee Wiliams, Wiliam Faulkner, John Milton