Immersed in History with Lucy Sanna, author of THE CHERRY HARVEST

Lucy Sanna's debut novel,THE CHERRY HARVEST released this June, but she's a successful author of both fiction and nonfiction, writing poetry and short stories as well as feature science articles and self-help books.

Jen: Lucy, Thank you for joining us here at Fresh Fiction! THE CHERRY HARVEST takes place in Wisconsin during WWII. What inspired you to take on the challenge of writing about WWII?

Lucy: When I learned that German prisoners captured during World War II were shipped across the Atlantic to Wisconsin, my home state, I immediately saw the potential for a great homeland conflict.

POWs were initially housed in military bases, but when the Army realized that the POWs could pay their own keep by replacing migrant workers who had found more lucrative jobs in factories, replacing the men who had gone to war, the POWs were sent to rural makeshift camps—vacated schools, fairgrounds, migrant worker camps—and were put to work in canneries and on local farms. Between 1942 and 1946, Wisconsin had 39 such camps, which, in total, housed more than 45,000 POWs.

In thinking of the story that would become THE CHERRY HARVEST, I pictured a frightened family, the enemy just outside the door. As I dug into the history, however, I learned that in many rural areas the prisoners were needed more than feared. One such area was Door County, Wisconsin. The war is raging overseas when my protagonist, 37-year-old Charlotte, persuades the county to release prisoners to work on the family cherry orchard. In doing so, she brings the war home.

Jen: Research for THE CHERRY HARVEST must have been fascinating. What is your favorite part of writing historical fiction?

Lucy: My favorite part of writing fiction of any kind is immersing myself in the time and place. To do that for historical fiction, I need to go to where the story takes place and I need to be able to “translate” it into the way it was in that time. At heart, I’m a science writer and I love research, digging in, getting the details. Through the years I’ve honed my interview skills. I’m not afraid to ask anyone anything.

To get a quick foundation on the summer of 1944, when my story takes place, I first turned to the Internet. That helped me with the details of the time (fashion, speech, prices, concerns, and so forth), but it didn’t have much to offer regarding the POWs, and what it did was not reliable. To get the real story, I went to the source. I spoke with people who lived on cherry orchards in Door County in 1945 when the prisoners were there. I also spent a good deal of time at the Door County Library, going through historical reference books and newspaper microfiche. Once my manuscript was complete, I sent it to the curators of the Door County Historical Museum for a thorough fact check.

To clarify dates, German POWs picked cherries in Door County in 1945. But I twisted history a bit for the sake of drama. In 1944, the war was still on, so that’s when my story takes place. German POWs are on the family farm while Charlotte’s beloved son is fighting the Nazis in Europe. I also gave Charlotte a 17-year-old daughter who catches the attention of the POWs.

Jen: You grew up in Wisconsin, and still split your time between Madison and San Francisco. Some might find these locals vastly different. What draws you to calling both places home?

Lucy: I was drawn to the San Francisco Peninsula, Palo Alto, in particular, when I was about 21. It was a magical place with so many exciting things to do within a short drive—ocean beaches, pine-scented mountains, and predictably sunny weather, among other things. What I missed were the lakes and the Midwestern seasons. Spring and fall are my favorite times of year. I also love Wisconsin winters. I grew up in Menomonie, in the snow belt, and I recall the joyous snowball fights and ice skating and coming home to a cup of hot cocoa.

From a writer’s perspective, however, Madison and the San Francisco Bay Area have lots in common—vibrant neighborhoods, intellectual college towns, major art scenes, award- winning theater, beautiful environments for all sorts of outdoor activities, and lots of really good writers.

I have my family roots in Madison, and I have my daughter as well as my writing group (my second family) in California.

Jen: You quote the famous first line of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier in the opening chapters of THE CHERRY HARVEST. What novels have inspired your writing and which ones do you find yourself reading over and over again?

Lucy: William Faulkner’s THE SOUND AND THE FURY opened my eyes to a new way to tell a story—nonlinear and from an interior perspective. I’ve gone back to that book again and again to try to figure out how he moved so easily in time and voice. I sought out others who wrote from the interior, in particular, Virginia Woolf, Dylan Thomas, and later (much later) James Joyce.

Along the way I fell in love with the sensuality of writers from the American South whose stories dripped with humid emotion. In addition to Faulkner were Katherine Anne Porter, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Conner. And then I discovered the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Lewis Carroll, and Isabel Allende.

Other writers I can read again and again include Katherine Anne Porter, Margaret Atwood, Thomas Hardy, Doris Lessing, and Italo Calvino. They write engaging stories grounded in a sensual world.

Jen:Our readers want to know what’s at the top of your Summer Reading list?

Lucy:I’m currently reading Louise Erdrich’s THE ROUND HOUSE and T.C. Boyle’s THE WOMEN. I keep up with both of them—two of my favorite novelists—on a regular basis. Next on my nightstand stack is Ellen Meister’s DOROTHY PARKER DRANK HERE. I’m also eager to read Harper Lee’s GO SET A WATCHMAN, Judith Claire Mitchell’s THE LAST DAYS OF WAR, Scott Simon’s memoir about his mother, UNFORGETTABLE, and Erik Larson’s DEAD WAKE: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania.

Jen: Lucy, thank you so much for your gracious answers and time!

About Lucy Sanna

Lucy Sanna, author of both fiction and nonfiction, has found success in venues ranging from poetry and short stories to feature science articles and self-help books. With an education in English literature, a nose for research, and a passion for sensual detail, Lucy easily moves through time, place, and voice, bringing both creative fancy and authenticity to her work.

Her debut novel, THE CHERRY HARVEST (William Morrow) launched in June 2015.

Lucy has been featured on national television and radio, including CBS, NBC, NPR, and FOX, and her books have been recognized by national press, including the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, Playboy Magazine, and Men’s World Magazine, to name a few.

Since 1999, Lucy has served on the Executive Planning Committee for the National Kidney Foundation's annual San Francisco Authors Luncheon, the premiere authors event of the SF Bay Area, founded by Amy Tan and Ann Getty.

She has also served on the Board of the California Writers Club, San Francisco Peninsula Branch, and she is co-founder and faculty member of the Gold Rush Writers Conference, now in its tenth year.

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About THE CHERRY HARVEST

A powerfully sensuous and gripping debut laced with suspense, THE CHERRY HARVEST reveals a hidden side of World War II's home front, when German POWs are put to work in a Wisconsin farm community . . . with dark and unexpected consequences

It's the summer of 1944 in Door County, Wisconsin, where even the lush cherry orchards and green lakeside farms can't escape the ravages of war. With food rationed and money scarce, the Christiansen family struggles to hold on. The family's teenage daughter, Kate, raises rabbits to save money for college, while her mother, Charlotte, barters what she can to make ends meet. Charlotte's husband, Thomas, strives to keep the orchard going while their son—along with most of the other able-bodied men— is fighting overseas. With the upcoming harvest threatened by the labor shortage, strong- willed Charlotte helps persuade local authorities to allow German war prisoners from a nearby POW camp to pick the fruit.

But when Thomas befriends one of the prisoners, a math teacher named Karl, and invites him to tutor Kate, both Charlotte and Kate are swept into a world where love, duty, and honor are not as clear-cut as they might have believed. Charlotte and Thomas fail to see that Kate is becoming a young woman, with dreams and temptations of her own. And when their beloved son, Ben, returns from the battlefield, wounded and bitter, the secrets they've all been keeping threaten to explode their world.