Interview with Claire Cook

While recovering from my hip replacement this past January, I was lucky enough to have landed a copy of Claire Cook's latest novel, LIFE'S A BEACH. Wow! What a perfect escape it was from the blistering snow we were having here in Maryland, not to mention it kept my mind occupied as my body was trying to heal.

For me, a novel must achieve two goals for it to be successful. The first and probably the most important, it has to take me right into the middle of the action as if I were the lead character's best friend and both of us were in it together. Secondly, it must be a constant source of deliberation, meaning that I have to continually debate if I should A. Do my chores, errands, make dinner or B. Steal a few more minutes and read another chapter hoping that my family won't notice when they have nothing to wear the next day. LIFE'S A BEACH fit my requirements and then some.

Without giving too much of the plot away, it's a lively story of two sisters who come to terms with each other's idiosyncrasies while discovering their true selves in the process. As did her previous novel, MUST LOVE DOGS, I predict that this one too will make it to the big screen. It's really that good. Not only is Claire a talented writer, but also she is a kind and caring person. It has been such a pleasure getting to know her these last few months. No doubt about it. She is a classy lady.

As part of the interview, three lucky readers will win a copy of LIFE'S A BEACH, so don't forget to look for the trivia question at the end. So grab yourself an iced tea and get to know my new friend, Claire Cook.

Jen: Have you always wanted to be a writer? Who or what gave you that needed push to finally sit down and write a novel? And please tell us a little it about your educational and professional background.

Claire: I've wanted to be a writer since I was three. My mother entered me in a contest to name the Fizzies whale, and I won in my age group. It's quite possible that mine was the only entry in my age group since "Cutie Fizz" was enough to win my family a six-month supply of Fizzies tablets (root beer was the best flavor) and a half dozen turquoise plastic mugs with removable handles. At six I had my first story on the Little People's Page in the Sunday paper (about Hot Dog, the family dachshund, even though we had a beagle at the time -- the first clue that I'd be a novelist and not a journalist) and at sixteen I had my first front page feature in the local weekly. I majored in film and creative writing in college, and fully expected that the day after graduation, I go into labor and a brilliant novel would emerge fully formed, like giving birth.

So what happened? In a word: nothing. I guess I knew how to write, but not what to write. Looking back, I can see that I had to live my life so I'd have something to write about, and if I could give my younger self some good advice, it would be not to beat myself up for the next couple of decades. Instead, I pretended I wasn't feeling terrible about not writing a novel, and did a lot of other creative things. Hmm, let's see. I wrote shoe ads for an in house advertising agency for five weeks, became continuity director of a local radio station for a couple of years, taught aerobics and did choreography, helped a friend with landscape design, wrote a few freelance magazine pieces, took some more detours. Eventually, I had two children and followed them to school as a teacher, where I taught everything from open ocean rowing to creative writing.

Years later, when I was in my forties and sitting in my minivan outside my daughter's swim practice at 5 AM, it hit me that I might live my whole life without ever once going after my dream of writing a novel. So, for the next six months I wrote a rough draft in the pool parking lot, and it sold to the first publisher who asked to read it.

So many women have written to say that my story has been an inspiration to them, and I hope that's true. It is pretty cool if I stop to think about it. My first novel was published at 45, and at 50 I walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the movie version of my second novel.

Jen: As far as your writing process, how do you arrive at the premise? Plot first? Outline? Characters?

Claire: For me it's all about the characters. I'm always surprised when I read, "Claire Cook writes about relationships" or "suburbia" or "transitions" or "family," because I thought I was writing about Ginger and Geri and all the rest of them.

I never outline. It would make it feel too much like a term paper to me. Robert Frost once said, "No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader." If I knew what was going to happen, I'm not sure I'd need to write the book anymore. Half the fun of it for me is to keep writing to find out what's going to happen to the characters next.

Jen: From conception to completion, about how long does it take for you to complete a manuscript? What is the most challenging part of the writing process for you?

Claire: I write two polished pages a day, seven days a week, when I'm writing a novel, which gives me a draft in about six months. Of course, this is only the beginning, and I'll spend at least the next six months revising.

The most challenging part is sticking with it, day in and day out. I've found that every day of my life presents me with dozens of perfectly valid reasons not to write. My kids, my house, my hair. And occasionally even more glamorous things like interviews and movie deals. So, for me, the only way to actually write a novel is to get really disciplined. If I don't finish my daily page quota, I'm not allowed to go to sleep. It gets ugly sometimes, but it works.

It's all of the stuff surrounding the writing that's hard. You have to push yourself past the procrastination, the self-doubt, and the feelings of utter despair. When you find your zone, your place of flow, or whatever it is we're currently calling it, and lose yourself in the writing, it really is quite wonderful. I've heard writers say it's better than sex, though I'm not sure I'd go that far.

Jen: MUST LOVE DOGS is a delightful book that I highly recommend and thoroughly enjoyed reading. Where were you when you got the call that your book was going to be made into a movie? What was your initial reaction?

Claire: Thanks, Jen! The way that it happened was that I'd just come back from doing a book event in Vermont, and the store made a display with the extra copies of MUST LOVE DOGS I signed for them. Gary David Goldberg wandered into the store, just looking for a book to read. He wasn't even planning to make a movie. But his five dogs were waiting for him in the car, and his wife is from a big Irish family. He bought the book, read it that night, and called my literary agent in New York the next morning. My initial reaction was YIPPEE!!

Jen: Did you have a hand in the selection of the actors for the movie and were you able to visit the set? If so, were you able to give your input?

Claire: Gary David Goldberg and I became fast friends, and he invited my input every step of the way. I hung out on the set, and they even gave me my own director's chair. Diane Lane, John Cusack, Christopher Plummer, Dermot Mulroney, Elizabeth Perkins, Stockard Channing and the all the rest of the actors autographed it for me, and it now sits in my dining room. I think of it as my throne.

I went on location and also hung out at the set on the Warner Bros. lot. I also went to the wrap party and to the Hollywood premiere. I even got to go to the table read, which is the first time the actors all read the script together. They all clapped when I was introduced. It was very cool.

Jen: What surprised you most about Hollywood and the movie making business?

Claire: Everybody will have to read LIFE'S A BEACH to find out!

I loved everything about hanging around during the filming of the MUST LOVE DOGS movie, and really wanted to share some of that experience with readers when I wrote LIFE'S A BEACH. So I took lots of notes on the movie set, and in the first draft of the novel, the fictional movie took place in Hollywood. But the Hollywood parts didn't seem as fresh as they might be, so in the next draft of the novel, I moved the movie to Cape Cod, where it really came alive!

When you read the book, you'll be able to see the exact place where the movie changes location. One of the fun things about writing fiction is that the things you don't plan often turn out to be the best parts of the novel.

Jen: Just for a moment, please let us live vicariously through you! What was it like walking the red carpet at the movie's premiere? What did you wear?

Claire: It was amazing. I did 35 interviews on the red carpet, including Access Hollywood and Extra, and I even made the Hollywood Variety premiere photo spread. Everyone was so nice to me -- the AP reporter said in 25 years he'd never seen an author have so much fun at the premiere of movie adaptation of her book.

A funky black dress. Shoes that hurt my feet. And, most important, a black leather purse shaped like a dog, with a pink feather boa collar, with a copy of MUST LOVE DOGS sticking out of it -- it made almost every photo! For me it was all about what the book looked like -- not me!

If you scroll through my blog at clairecook.com , you'll find plenty of pictures!

Jen: Your latest release, LIFE'S A BEACH, is what I like to call a feel good novel that centers on the relationship between two sisters. An obvious question, are the main characters modeled after your sisters? What role do your siblings play in your life and in your career?

Claire: I'm always the last to know what my novels are really about, so it wasn't until readers started telling me they couldn't wait to send a copy to their sisters, or reading it made them want to call their sisters, or even wish they had a sister, that I realized LIFE'S A BEACH is about two sisters. Nobody loves you like a sister, or drives you crazier.

I have four sisters, plus three brothers. We're scattered all over the country now, but we're still very much, in order of birth, DannyClaireCathyMarySusieJimmyTriciaandKevin.

I'm sure there are little bits of my sisters in both Ginger and Geri. (And probably in Allison Flagg, too, but don't tell them that.) Still, my fiction never feels particularly autobiographical to me. It's as if I take all the things that are real, and all the stories I've heard, plus everything I imagine, and put them into a paper bag, shake them up, and then take them out in a completely new configuration. I guess that's my Shake 'n' Bake theory of writing a novel.

I relate to all the characters, both two and four-legged, in my novels. I think you have to, at least to some degree, in order to write the characters. It's all about being a good eavesdropper, and it's all grist for the mill. I've always been that person at the restaurant listening to the conversation at the next table, at your table. It's nice to finally have found a career where that becomes non-deviant behavior.

Jen: If you had to choose, who is your favorite character in this book and why?

Claire: That would be like trying to pick a favorite child -- I just couldn't do it! So far, everybody seems to have a different favorite character in LIFE'S A BEACH, usually the one that most reminds them of themselves, or someone in their lives.

Jen: In the book, you talk about sea glass and glass blowing. What is your experience with this or did you just do research for the book? Is it a hobby of yours or has it become one since completing this novel?

Claire: The beach is a minor character in all my novels, and each one gives me the chance to explore some interesting aspect of coastal living. I spent a lot of time watching glass blowers while I was writing LIFE'S A BEACH. It's so fascinating -- if you've never seen it, you should! And I love sea glass jewelry, and it's a lot harder to make than you'd think!

Jen: What do you like best about LIFE'S A BEACH and why?

Claire: I'm too close to it to tell. But what I hear from readers are things like, "I can't remember when I laughed out loud like that" and "I couldn't put it down." And my very favorite comment of all might be, "Ohmigod, you're writing my life!" Also, a woman came to one of my book events to tell me that, the week before, she'd missed her subway stop because she was reading LIFE'S A BEACH. That might well be the litmus test for a good read, don't you think?

Jen: Might we see LIFE'S A BEACH on the big screen?

Claire: There's lots of interest already, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Jen: Of course, LIFE'S A BEACH just came out this month, but are you already at work on your next novel? What can you tell us about it?

Claire: Voice, the new Hyperion imprint that published LIFE'S A BEACH, will be publishing my next one, too. As soon as people start telling me what it's about, I'll let you know! But look for it some time in 2008.

Jen: How has your life changed now that you are a famous author? What is the biggest perk of being an author?

Claire: I soooooo don't think of myself as a famous author! I just feel lucky readers are telling their friends and family about my novels, and more readers are discovering them because of that. The nice thing about being an author is that you get to live your same old life, with the occasional book tour or movie premiere thrown in. Also, when my husband goes to pick up a pizza in our hometown, they never make him wait in line anymore!

Jen: If you could change one thing about your career, what would it be and why?

Claire: Not a thing! In one of the many gifts of midlife, I don't look back -- just forward!

Jen: Whose opinion do you most respect concerning your work and why?

Claire: I don't write for critics or other authors or my former English teachers or any of that. For me it's all about the readers. I have the smartest, funniest, kindest readers in the world, and their support means everything to me!

Jen: Do you have author phone chats? If so, how would my readers go about scheduling one?

Claire: Because I'm lucky enough to be spending the summer doing a big, beachy book tour, I'm inviting readers to take a field trip to one of my book events. I'm happy to give book groups an exclusive meeting before or after an event. Just call the hosting bookstore or library to see if it's possible to set something up. As for phone chats, once I'm back home and settled, your readers can email me through my website.

Jen: Do you have a web site? Blog? Any public appearances scheduled? Book signings?

Claire: Oops, I jumped ahead on that one! Yes, I have a very active website, clairecook.com. I have a blog, and also a LIFE'S A BEACH Walk of Fun, which is a photo gallery of the most creative flip flops readers wear to my LIFE'S A BEACH book tour events. I'm encouraging everyone to put on their fanciest flip flops, call their friends, email their sisters, and pile into the car to come see me this summer. We'll have a blast, I promise! To see my book tour schedule, just go to my website or everywomansvoice.com.

Jen: It has been such a pleasure being able to interview you and I absolutely love your novels. I wish you the best of luck in your future.

Claire: Thank you so much for all your great questions, Jen, as well as your kind words about my novels. I wish you the best of everything in your future, too! And I hope you'll come say hi to me this summer if I'm on book tour anywhere near you!

I hope you have enjoyed my interview with Claire. Don't forget to visit her website and get the lowdown on her upcoming releases. Now here comes the part where you get the chance to pick up a copy of her book!! Enter the June Jen's Jewels contest with the correct answer to the following trivia question and perhaps you'll be one of the three winners. Good luck!

What did the Claire wear to the premiere of MUST LOVE DOGS?

Next month, I will be bringing to you my interview with Kristin Gore, author of SAMMY'S HOUSE and daughter of former Vice-President, Al Gore. You won't want to miss it!!

Until next month...Jen