1--What is the title of your latest release?
A SUMMER MORNING
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Hi, I’m Anne Leigh Parrish. In my 13th book, A Summer Morning, Timothy Dugan has problems. His girlfriend wants a baby. He hates his job. He can’t quit booze. His parents are divorced—not the problem—they are about to get remarried, to each other—that’s the problem! Oh, and someone from his past just resurfaced who could ruin everything in his life. Will Timothy recover from his addiction and save his relationships? A Summer Morning publishes October 3rd from Unsolicited Press.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
This novel, like much of my fiction, is set in Dunston, New York, a stand-in for Ithaca, where I was born and raised. I can’t seem to get away from writing about this place, though I haven’t lived there for over fifty years!
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
To be honest, no! Timothy Dugan is a slow-moving train wreck that is gradually gaining speed. He’s not a terrible person, but he’s awfully self-indulgent and self-absorbed for my taste.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Selfish, lost, desperate.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
How hard a relationship is when the partners aren’t in the same place. To put it another way, I watched Sam, Timothy’s girlfriend, struggle with his growing dependence on alcohol, feeling increasingly powerless and isolated. She enlists members of his family, but he’s deaf to all entreaties. It was painful seeing her suffer.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I revise constantly, and everything is a draft until I send the most polished version I have to my publisher, usually on the day she needs the manuscript according to our editorial schedule.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I’ve discovered chocolate gelato. Otherwise, it’s popcorn.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
It’s a lovely space with original art on the walls and tall windows that let in the inspiring northern light found in the Pacific Northwest.
10--Who is an author you admire?
There are SO many! Tessa Hadley, Alice Munro, William Trevor, Jon McGregor, Yiyun Li. These are the people I read anytime they bring out a new book or have a new story in The New Yorker, with the exception of William Trevor (now deceased) and Alice Munro who stopped writing.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Everything I read changes my life to at least a tiny extent. I’d say the work of Rachel Cusk moved me off center more than other writers. After reading her I come away with a new understanding of what narrative can do in a novel, also in a short story.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I’ve been working with Unsolicited Press since 2016 when I signed my contract for my story collection, By the Wayside. After bringing out a few more titles with them, we developed an informal arrangement where I say when I might have my next title ready, get a publication slot on their calendar, sign a contract, and work according to the editorial schedule the publisher draws up. A Summer Morning followed the same pattern. I’d say in terms of timing, we settled on the book back in 2021.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
It used to be literary fiction, then “women’s fiction,” though I don’t understand that designation, to be honest. I’d say anything that deals with relationships, or one person’s inner life, tempts me. Interestingly, my own work has gotten more plot-driven, though this hasn’t transferred to the books I choose to read.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Laura, made in 1944. Love the noir atmosphere, not to mention the cultural attitudes about women. Not that I love those, just that I note them, study them, and wish them away.
15--What is your favorite season?
Fall, when the rain comes back to the forest. That said, about mid-February, I feel water-logged, and that’s when a trip to Arizona starts to sound wonderful.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
My birthday falls in the middle of January when the weather is vile, and Christmas is only three weeks in the rearview mirror. I’d rather hibernate, but my family pushes me into a celebratory mood which involves a nice dinner and some thoughtful gifts.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
A British series called C.B.Strike. It’s about a private investigator in London, set now. It’s produced by JK Rowling.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Try to catch my breath! Otherwise, edit photographs. Photography is becoming increasingly important to me.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
The Hedgerow, a novel, arrives in July 2024. This is a sequel to my 2022 titles, An Open Door. Then, in December 2024, my third volume of poems called Diary of a False Assassin. Both titles are from Unsolicited Press.
As Timothy Dugan makes his way through life, he is beset by a growing list of problems.
His girlfriend, a full-time college student, wants to have a baby, he hates his job, and his mother announces that she and his father, long divorced, plan to remarry. He copes by drinking too much. When his mother suggests it's time for another round of therapy, Timothy loudly resists. He knows his outlook is sour and vows to do better. Then Harcourt, a former fraternity brother, presents him with an attractive business opportunity to get in on a home-building business, and things start to look up. Timothy happily resigns his position as manager of the local GAP store. Harcourt, however, has a bad habit of cutting corners to save money and things fall apart. Timothy feels the best way to get his feet back under him is to nail things down with Sam, so he buys her an insanely expensive engagement ring she says is all wrong. She comes around to the idea of marriage after meeting Melissa, Timothy's former girlfriend, who has a son Timothy didn't know about. Timothy's feelings are stirred up by Melissa's presence, and he goes into a slow-motion train wreck. Promise after promise is broken until Sam reaches a breaking point. She's committed to Timothy, but their future is dark. Will her love light the way again? Or has she finally had enough?
Fiction [Unsolicited Press, On Sale: October 3, 2023, Paperback, ISBN: 9781956692570 / ]
Anne Leigh Parrish sat down one day at an ancient typewriter and banged out a short story. Nine years and many stories later, "A Painful Shade of Blue," found a home in The Virginia Quarterly Review. The story featured the real-life trauma of her parents' divorce when she was only ten years old. While other stories returned to that time and place, most ventured further afield, focusing on women in impossible situations, and blending stark reality with magical realism. In 2014 her first novel, What Is Found, What Is Lost, featuring four generations of women and their experience with religious faith convinced her that she also loved long-form writing. Women Within, her second novel, is another multi-generational story about three women whose lives intersect at the Lindell Retirement home. In both stories and subsequent novels, the Dugan family of Dunston, New York, a fictional town representing Ithaca, where Anne grew up, takes center stage. They're a tough, hard-worn bunch full of love, pain, and fierce devotion to each other - usually. Her linked story collection, Our Love Could Light The World, and her novels The Amendment and Maggie's Ruse follow them over years and many ups and downs. Her forthcoming novel, A Winter Night, due out in March 2021 centers on the eldest daughter, Angie Dugan, and her struggle to find love and self-acceptance. Anne lived in Seattle for thirty-five years until Amazon made driving anywhere a nightmare, then moved with her husband and black female pug to a forest outside of Olympia Washington where she continues to write stories, novels, the occasional essay, and most recently, poetry.
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