CELEBRATING 2008 SIRENLANDER GREG CHANGNON AT A CELEBRATION OF WORDS
By Lizzie Bradbury (Sirenland 08/09)
What a treat it was to meet up with fellow Sirenlander and good friend, Greg Changnon, in Nashville for the “Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word.” Greg had been invited to be on a panel of three authors reading portions of their stories from Best New American Voices 2010, which was edited by our own beloved Dani Shapiro.
The Southern Festival is an annual three-day literary event that welcomed more than 200 authors from throughout the nation for readings, panel discussions and book signings. Reynolds Price calls the literary festival the “most elegantly organized and realized” that he knows of.
So it only figures that Greg Changnon would be at the festival as one of the authors, elegant and organized man that he is, right?
Greg brought his support team from Atlanta that included truly beautiful wife Pola and charming, adorable daughters, Ava (9) and Jenny (13). Ava and Jenny were antsy with pride as they waited for their dad to have his turn on the panel. Throughout Greg’s reading, all three Changnon females exchanged knowing looks, nudges and lots of smiles.
I sat a bit further back with my family feeling every bit as antsy and proud as a Changnon. Fortunately, I had 3-year-old Annabelle Bradbury in my lap to keep me firmly pinned down.
Greg did Sirenland proud. He read with a professional confidence and engaging wit. The audience laughed, sighed and clapped at all of the appropriate places.
Greg’s story, Half Sister, is an emotional journey of twists and turns that chases down the dysfunctional dynamics consuming a grieving widow and her two teenaged daughters. The story, told from 12-year-old Joan’s point of view, primarily takes place in the back seat of a 1973 Cadillac as “Mother” drives her unwilling daughters to meet their mysterious half sister for the first time. Unsure who to blame for the bad hand she has been dealt, Joan, rages internally and externally.
“Joan lowered the bottle. Sometimes she thought there was a sort of weather in everyone – climates hidden beneath the bones – and her weather was bad. Cumulonimbus, thundersqualls, mackerel skies – words Joan had learned when her father flicked from one weather channel to another …”
Greg kindly agreed to an interview following the festival.
Q) Greg, so how was it sitting up there in the fancy Tennessee State Capitol chambers with an audience of eager literary types waiting for you to read from Half-Sister? Nervous? Excited?
If Buzz Aldrin (one of the other writers at the festival) could do it, I knew I could too. I rarely get nervous in front of an audience anymore after teaching middle-schoolers. If you can survive standing in front of an angry crowd of pre-teens, everything else is butter.
No nerves, but great excitement; it was a tremendous experience. It felt like another great event in the journey that started with Sirenland.
Q) What were the seeds of imagination that started your story, Half Sister?
I first began the story over 13 years ago when my wife was first pregnant. Imagining what children were like, I started with two kids in a car on a long drive. I wanted to prepare myself for fatherhood so I thought of possibly the worst family situation there is. The story petered out because those kids -- two girls -- had very little life to them. They were quite boring, with good manners and pink cheeks. Obviously, I was hoping for children just like that.
When I returned to the story last year, one of my girls was about to become a teenager and the other was 8 going on 18. Now I knew how wicked and strange and fun and fascinating kids really were, and the two fictional girls came alive.
Q) Interesting that the complexity and unpredictability of your own daughters' personalities helped to bring Half Sister to life. Are either Phoebe or Joan based on your lovely and engaging daughters, Ava and Jenny?
There's a little bit of them in those characters. But Phoebe and Joan are exaggerations. I hope.
Q) There is a scene in your story where Joan locks herself in the gas station women's restroom and Phoebe goes into the men's bathroom to try to talk to Joan through the vent:
Phoebe had to talk to Joan through a vent in the empty men's room.
She tired not to look at the machine that sold stuff she didn't want to think about. "Maybe she'll like me, "Phoebe shouted, through the metal screen. "And you like me." Phoebe let her lips touch the tile on the wall below the vent. It tasted like ginger. She knew this was bad, disgusting even, but she was getting tired of hovering on the right side of decency. "You do like me, right? Phoebe asked, her tongue skimming the porcelain.
When you read this section of the story your daughters looked over at each other and smiled with some kind of recognition? It seemed to strike a chord with them. Had one of your daughters told you that bathroom tile tasted like ginger?
No. I know I should respect the writers' code of honor and perform as much research as possible. But I nor anyone I know has ever licked the tile in the men's bathroom at a gas station.
Q) Why did you choose to set the story in 1973?
Some weird bit of a story came to me -- the girls watching GUNSMOKE with their father. I just ran with it from there.
Q) Are you most comfortable writing stories that are set in the past? And if so, why?
Not so much. I get very nervous about the accuracy of the details in stories set in the past. I'm terrified of anachronisms and that reader who will throw the book across the room if GUNSMOKE went off the air before 1973.
Q) Only after her husband dies does "Mother" tell Joan and Phoebe that they have a half sister. While it is easy to surmise why "Mother" wanted to keep this earlier child a secret from her husband, what do you believe is the underlying motivation for her wanting to connect with with the daughter of her first marriage now?
Half-Sister is now the opening chapter of a longer narrative so as I've been working, the character of Joan and Phoebe's mother has deepened and I've discovered many things about her. Her motivations are many: fears of a lonely future, the memory of a past love, but mostly it's the desire for an ally.
Q) I, along with others, felt that the end of Half Sister seems a little abrupt. We wanted to know more about this ordinary, yet very complex, family of three.
Actually, that's one thing the series editor, Natalie Danford, wanted to adjust about the story. Initially, the end of the piece was even more ambiguous than it is in the anthology. She felt it read more like a novel chapter than a short story. Besides helping me discover a more effective last moment for HALF-SISTER, Natalie introduced me to the possibility that these characters could live on. And so, I've pushed Phoebe and Joan through a very strange adolescence in the last year. They're barely making it out of their teens.
Q) During the question and answer period following your reading you spoke of some of the struggles of being a writer that many, if not all of us, face. You had success with being published ten years ago and then there was a dry spell. However, over the past two years, recognition of your talent has come from many different directions. What do you account for that down period and what advice do you have for those of us who are experiencing a similar frustration?
In 1998, I got my MFA in San Francisco then moved across the country with my wife and newborn child. I lost a sense of the valuable writers' community that we all need to protect us from doubt, insecurity, laziness. Then another child came and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to stay home and hang out with my kids. Life sort of happened and other things got in the way. With more time spent away from writing, the harder it got to actually get myself in the chair. The hardest thing about writing is the effort to start -- the first five minutes of a day's work is tortuous to me. The first five minutes got harder and harder the more time I spent away. But now that I'm back writing regularly, that transition has become easier -- well, not easier -- let's just say less tortuous.
Q) I was honored that you asked for my reaction to early drafts of Half Sister leading up to the final published story. It was fascinating to witness the changes brought on by the editing process. How did the editing process go for you?
I was thrilled and honored to work with Dani on the story and then later with Natalie Danford. Because I was in great hands, the editing process was effortless. I learned so much about my writing and how HALF-SISTER worked from their advice and suggestions.
Q) How did Sirenland 2008 play a role in your renewed passion for writing and current success?
It played the starring role. Not only did Sirenland introduce to me a group of wonderfully engaged writers, but it also allowed me to feel so much more positive about my own material. It gave me the kick-in-the-pants that I needed. I went to Italy as a teacher who writes and came back a writer who teaches.
Q) Tell us the ways in which Dani Shapiro, your Sirenland workshop leader, helped to restore your faith in yourself as a writer?
Dani's kindness and generosity moved me deeply, and her insights into my writing helped me see that I was getting a bunch of things right. She was brilliant in determining my strengths and my blocks not only in my writing but also in my creative life.
Q) What advice from Hannah Tinti affected your writing and writing process?
Hannah is such a beautifully positive presence. She is an inspirational example of someone who lives to embrace the art of writing. I was extraordinarily anxious arriving at Sirenland but her welcome –which included an acknowledgement of the story I submitted—made me feel instantly a part of this community. I also remember one of her amazing tidbits about craft that I now treasure. She spoke of the importance of props in a scene; how focusing on a crucial object—an empty soda pop bottle, a mother’s bulky purse—brings considerable power, meaning and richness to the scene.
Q) What specific advice did Dani give you in terms of craft that had the biggest impact on your writing after Sirenland?
Dani has the amazing ability to see you in your writing. She zeros in on the writer as a way into the writing. And nobody is better mixing sharp craft wisdom with specific feedback on workshop stories. The wisest advice I’ve ever received was Dani’s challenge to live fully in the work.
Boy, I can sure relate to that. I get all teary eyed just thinking about how, after so many years of writing, I met Dani and Hannah and honestly, for the first time ever, I felt like a “writer.” And huge inspiration also came from Jim Shepard (2009) even though he wasn’t my workshop leader. He was there for all of us.
Q) How did Sirenland 2008 differ from other conferences you have attended and why do you think Sirenland works so well? (And no – I don’t mean the views of the sea from the Le Sirenuse balconies, the amazing Carla and Antonio Sersale, open mic night at their beautiful home, the unbelievable food and gorgeous atmosphere of the restaurant, the kind and reassuring workshop staff and fellow writers, the walk down to the beach and long lunches over red wine, Allison, Jackie, Jenny, Roberto, music and dancing late at night in the bar … none of that! – the other stuff)
It was the first experience I've had where there was absolutely no hustling. It's not the job fair most conferences end up becoming. It's more about relationships -- relationships with mentors, with fellow writers, and with your own work -- than it is about product. And the perks aren't half bad. I recommend the plunge pool in the health spa. It felt almost metaphoric.
Q) Your short story, “How the Nurse Feels,” was a very sensitive, serious yet humorous look into the life of an adolescent girl who ends up learning a difficult adult life lesson as she researches her role as the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet. “How The Nurse Feels” was adapted into a musical and was presented in 2008 at the 13th Annual ASCAP Foundation/Disney Musical Theater Workshop. Any idea of when we’ll see “How The Nurse Feels” up in the Lights on Broadway?
The fantastic creative team – the composer, lyricist and book writer—are actively looking for investors. It’s a tough market, they say.
Well, Greg, I can say on behalf of all of us 2008 Sirenlanders we are very proud of this recent achievement and know you'll be sitting on the "other side of the panel" at many more writing conferences and book fairs in the future.
Thank you, Lizzie. And I can say on behalf of everyone, you are one special lady. Promise that I can interview you back when your book, BEAUTIFUL FREAK, hits the shelves. See you at Le Sirenuse.
And as always, thanks to Michael Maren for his never ending patience with technical support. L
