TALIA CARNER - Interview



  

BLOG INTERVIEW - AUTHOR OF THE WEEK
Author of "China Doll" and "Puppet Child"

Back Cover Blurb from "China Doll":

A riveting journey to save one life...

While American music icon Nola Sands is on a goodwill concert tour in China , a baby is thrust into her arms. Nola's well-orchestrated life is thrown out of orbit as she bonds with the infant against her husband-manager's plans. She resolves to save her from death in the dumping ground of China's orphanages only to find herself on a collision course with her label company's business interests in the vast new market. Worse, the world's two superpowers, the U.S. and China 's governments, are determined to silence her.

In a stunning story that begins with passion and ends with victory of an adoptive parent's unwavering love, Nola's flight across China is a tale not only of human rights abuses running amok in an astonishingly picturesque land: it is the gripping self-discovery voyage of a woman coming into her own.

Talia Carner's Website

Q: Hello, Talia. Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. Can you tell us how you put together this novel, in terms of creating a believable character who is a stadium-filling rock star, structuring a past for this character, and the inclusion of a social message regarding the conditions in Chinese orphanages?

A: Jennifer, you’ve touched on the many aspects of this multi-layered novel. The character came to life before I had touched my computer’s keyboard. I had the seed of an idea about a baby thrust into someone’s arms. Where could it happen? In China, of course, where the one-child-policy causes the abandonment and killing of one million babies each year. The woman instantly bonds with the infant. Why? Because she carries psychological baggage that prepares her for this moment and makes this baby more meaningful to her. But other people in her life object; they don’t want her to keep the baby. What kind of a person would be subject to such intense battle against making a change in her life? A celebrity surrounded by people whose livelihood depends upon her.

From this point I bounced off ideas on a couple of friends about the complex personality of an ambitious person driven by the demons of her past while relinquishing control of important aspects of her life to those who help build her career. While Nola's agenda and her manager-husband’s are the same for years, the baby’s sudden appearance challenges this balance. This is the juncture when the singer must seek independence in order to save the baby. But then there are the two governments—the U.S. and China—whose strained relationship Nola's concert tour was supposed to mend, and they are upset about the negative publicity she is creating for China. Upping the battle is the label company that owns the rights to her music, and which has business interests in the vast Chinese market. All these fronts are very realistic when you study the geo-political and economic issues of the region.

This was the thought process that structured the plot. What was at stake should the star capitulate to the enormous pressure was intrinsic to the story: The baby could die. Why? Because of the horrific conditions in Chinese orphanages. And that led me to the whole human-rights backdrop that underpins the novel’s premise.

Q. How do you conduct your research? Do you interview? Infiltrate? Takes notes while traveling?

A. When traveling in China, I spoke with women—university professors, industry directors, aging peasants and budding entrepreneurs—about their customs and apprehensions. I learned how, generation after generation, due to either lingering starvation, the social experiment of the cultural revolution, or the current sacrifice under the one-child policy, they have been losing their baby girls through coercion, prejudice, neglect—and outright murder. Back in the U.S. I interviewed officers of the U.S. National Security Administration, State Department, CIA and Foreign Service to learn and understand the principles—and the nuances—of U.S.-Sino relationship. Then there was secondary research on the internet, posting messages to Chinese dissidents living in freedom, and at the library for the texture of China, from architecture to the fauna and flora of a specific geographical area. For that physical aspect of China I also rented Chinese movies to supplement details to which I had been exposed to in my travels but hadn’t sufficiently noted at the time. On a third level, I spoke with Chinese-Americans in order to catch their speech pattern in English….

Q: This story seems not only to be about the relationship between a mother and her adopted daughter, but also an overview of all the important relationships in Nola's life. Do you feel that by revealing these past and on-going struggles they help to defines Nola's character and needs?

A: At the reading groups discussions I’ve already attended this month they all agree that the details of Nola's past were very important. I was surprised to hear from some that they were actually looking forward to these flashback chapters. My editor had fought me over those, so I was glad I had held my ground. The readers reported feeling close to Nola because she was someone like them, who dealt with lifelong traumas, and in this case, with a problematic sister.

Q: For the sections that contain flashbacks, did you write these sections simultaneously? Or did you add the flashbacks after you finished the draft about Nola's experiences in China? Do you have a technique, you can share, on creating a past for a character?

A: At the beginning I wrote the flashback chapters chronologically while I was penning the real-time chapters. Nola's past was so natural to her that it simply flowed as I went on with the story, working on a double track. Eventually, though, I had a lot more flashback chapters than one book could contain. I put them together into one document and worked on them as a separate novella, “killing a lot of babies” as we say about removing precious material. On the other hand, I filled gaps in this flashback story with an eye toward what was relevant to the main plot—while maintaining the turning points and the suspense arc of this second story. Later, when I chopped up the material again to insert the chapters in set intervals, I was able to keep the shadow narration, the themes in the flashback story echoing the main story’s. I must tell you that I went through this exercise with every major rewrite.

Q: From what I have read about "China Doll" and your first novel "Puppet Child", you enjoy writing fiction that has the power to influence people and bring about social change. Where does this drive come from?

A: I see the large canvas that is our globe, I have international business experience, I am a world traveler, I am a feminist, and I have always had passion for social justice. I am intrigued by the way individuals respond to the forces that shape our lives—from religious and political ideologies to economic infrastructures or the way geography creates nations. The drive to bring change is only because I find myself in situations where I can do it. But then again, the screensaver on my computer flashes a moving marquee: “Make things happen! Now!!!”

Q: Can you talk about the music in this book? Did you collaborate with a songwriter? Are you a musician or dancer yourself?

A. I often write about things I first know nothing about. Such was the music business to me. While I am a dancer and know the corporate world, I had never been exposed to the inside workings of the music industry. I was lucky to have a mentor in the form of Cousin Brucie, who actually sat me in front of videos showing live concerts and explained to me the mechanics of the large stage. In the following months and years, Bruce continued to answer my many questions. I also read Billboard (the music industry publication), while my daughter Eden, forever a music aficionado, had me listen to new releases, especially by female vocalists. She became an executive at a music company and was able to help me with the inside view. I also traveled to Nashville during a music festival and already on the plane made my first contact with a music publisher who introduced me to many others.

As for the lyrics, I wrote many songs that ultimately did not appear in the novel or only in part. My favorite is Runaway Kid. At one point, I handed a document with the description of the Dying Rooms orphanage to Sandi Bloomberg, a poet friend, to write lyrics to the same song I had written, Flower Babies. I ended up combining our efforts for this main-theme song. Of course, I gave her credit both in the book and on my website.

Q: When you are immersed in a writing project, how many hours a day do you write?

A: Ten to sixteen, six to seven days a week. It includes research, editing, and forever rewriting.

Q: What inspires you to begin a new novel? How does a new project usually begin: with an image or a piece of dialog?

A: Any nugget of an idea, an errant thought, or a sentence I happen to catch can open a floodgate of 130,000 words that later must be tamed and pared down. CHINA DOLL is my second published novel, but the third I had written. The first, HOTEL SPUTNIK, set in Russia after the fall of Communism, was never published. I am finishing my fourth, JERUSALEM MAIDEN.

Q: What is an example of an inspirational quote you have returned to while you are writing?

A. The quote I use in the opening page of CHINA DOLL, from Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: “Full many flowers is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air.” For me, these were the millions of abandoned and killed babies in China. I posted the lines above my computer, and rereading them, I could not abandon the babies again.

Q: What is the most encouraging compliment you have ever received about your writing?

A: “Can’t-put-it-down” is the repeated phrase among reviewers and readers for both my published novels. The second is from a recent Long Island Press reviewer saying that “substitute Dan Brown with CHINA DOLL and take it to the beach without the guilt of not schlepping War and Peace.”

Q: If you could place your book into the hands of five influential people, who would they be?

A: The President of the United States, the book reviewer for People Magazine, Barbara Walters, Celine Dion, and Steven Spielberg. Come to think of it, I’ll mail them all autographed copies this afternoon.

Thanks, Talia, for participating in this week's Blog interview. Best wishes for the continued success of "China Doll."