Interview with Nicole Seitz

Have you ever given any thought as to how well you know your parents? Sure, you probably can name their alma maters, birth places, and the top three crazy relatives on each side, but how about their innermost feelings of joy or deepest, darkest fears? It seems as if life is like a merry-go-round. We just keep spinning round and round rather than taking the time to experience the simple pleasures of being with the ones we love.

This month’s Jen’s Jewels, Nicole Seitz, explores the unchartered waters of familial issues in her latest release A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS. It’s the story of a family from South Carolina’s low country, forced to come to terms with ghosts from the past. Beautifully written with an unforeseen ending, this book will leave its imprint on your heart and soul. Without a doubt, it is a must-read novel for May.

As part of this interview, Thomas Nelson has generously donated five copies for you to win. So, don’t forget to look for the trivia question at the end. And as always, thanks for making Jen’s Jewels a part of your reading adventure.

Jen: Being an artist as well as an author enables you to creatively blend the many facets of your personality. Please paint for us a picture of your educational and professional background that led to your career in publishing.

Nicole: Originally I wanted to be in television. I thought 60 Minutes was my ultimate career path. So I went to school for Broadcast Journalism at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. My senior year, I interned at a medium-sized market station in Raleigh, NC, and realized that television was not quite for me. Not yet, anyway.

I was bummed and baffled, but wound up going to Savannah College of Art & Design for another degree in Illustration. I could envision using my writing and art to do freelance articles and illustration for magazines like Gourmet and Conde Nast Traveler. But I never did. Instead, to help pay for SCAD, I wrote freelance articles for The Bluffton Packet and The Island Packet newspapers in Hilton Head Island, SC. I especially loved personality profiles and painting pictures of my subjects with words.

After SCAD, I went into graphic design and then web design. I worked for several large corporations as a web designer until I married and started my own web/graphic business. It had been many years, but I was feeling the urge to write again. I wrote two articles, one on three Lowcountry artists and their studios and another on a local sweetgrass basket maker for SouthCarolina Magazine. I was getting back in the swing of things. Working from home allowed me the flexibility to work at all hours of the day, which, with my background in journalism, all came together when I got the idea for my first novel about five years ago.

Jen: Having experience as a freelance writer and illustrator allows you to dabble in various areas of the business. What was the driving force behind your decision to become a novelist? And did you intend to write for the Christian market from the get-go or do you believe God steered you His way?

Nicole: I don’t feel I really decided to become a novelist—instead, it feels as if my first book simply wrote itself. I was pregnant with my second child when I woke up with my character, Essie Mae, telling her story about family, sweetgrass, and heaven. After bed rest and an emergency early birth for my son (he’s fine, by the way), I would wake at all hours of the night, having to tell that story. My mother convinced me to try and sell it, so I got an agent and within the year, it sold in a two-book deal. As for the Christian market, I really knew nothing about it. I am a Christian and my character was African-American, loved Jesus, and explored heaven. I believe the Christian publisher who bought the book simply saw the faith of my character and thought it fit the market. I went under contract for four more books with Thomas Nelson, so I definitely think God steered me this way. Fortunately I landed with a publisher who allows me to write mainstream novels from a Christian worldview.

Jen: Before we talk about your book, let’s chat about your artwork. Each cover of your three published novels portrays your original works. Are the paintings completed before, during, or after the writing of the books and why so? And, do you paint more than one piece for each novel? Also, are they available for purchase?

Nicole: My first painting, the one on the cover of The Spirit of Sweetgrass, was painted after the book was written and sold. I didn’t realize it would one day be on the cover at the time, I was just moved to paint it. With each novel, I wait until the book is written and well underway before I begin painting for the cover because I want to make sure I really know what the book is about—that it’s not going to change. And yes, I do paint more than one painting for each book. The publisher and I decide which one will work best. Sometimes I have to tweak it to get it right. The cover of my latest, A Hundred Years of Happiness, is actually a composite of two paintings and one of my photographs. All of my paintings are available for purchase and listed on my web site.

Jen: Your latest release, A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS, is such a powerful novel on so many levels. Not only could I not put it down, but also I did not see that ending coming. Truly, this book is phenomenal. How did you arrive at the premise?

Nicole: A couple years ago, my husband and I took my parents out for their anniversary, when my stepfather opened up about his time in Vietnam forty years ago. It was an earth-shaking, eye-opening evening for me, so I went home and wrote the scene. I wrote what my stepfather had told us about a recent terrifying experience he’d had confronting “the enemy” from so long ago. My husband loved it, but my mother, my reader, said, "Oh, don’t write about this." I knew in that moment I needed to write about those things that we’ve been silent about my whole life—the lingering effects of war on families and next generations.

Jen: In my opinion, there are four central characters in the story. So, let’s talk a little bit about each one and how he/she contributes to the overall fluidity to the plot.

First of all, Katherine Ann is your typical career woman turned stay-at-home mom with a Southern twist. She has some self-esteem issues (don’t we all?), but generally I find her to be a solid woman with a level head on her shoulders. Why then has she chosen to dig up skeletons from her father’s past despite her fear of discovering some dark, hidden truth?

Nicole: I’m glad you see Katherine Ann as a fairly solid woman because she’s VERY loosely based on me :-) She chooses to dig up her father’s skeletons because she has a greater fear of what may be happening to her and to her own kids. She starts experiencing unraveling and tension and anger in her own life, and it looks a whole lot like her father. Isn’t it easier to "fix" someone other than ourselves? Katherine Ann simply talks herself into believing that her father is at the root of her pending demise.

Jen: Throughout the novel, I feel as if Katherine Ann treads lightly when it comes to being around her mother, Betty Jo. Why does she keep her mother at arm’s length? What is she afraid of uncovering? And, why does Betty Jo accept their somewhat disjointed relationship?

Nicole: Wow, good questions. Katherine Ann is very connected to her mother, yet from a distance. In fact, she spends every morning at her mother’s house, with her friends, the Water Lilies. I think she wants to be close to her mother, but as Betty Jo is a bit private and stand-offish, Katherine Ann chooses to simply be present for her. I don’t think it’s so much that Katherine Ann is keeping her mother at arm’s length, but rather the other way around. Betty Jo has some things that she is hiding that she’s never shared with anyone. Yet she keeps the persona of being perfectly coifed and put together. There comes a point in all mother-daughter relationships when you don’t try to change the way things are, but rather to work on accepting each party for who she is. Accepting those things you cannot change. I think this is where Katherine Ann and Betty Jo find themselves.

Jen: Secondly, John Porter, Katherine Ann’s father, is a Vietnam veteran trying hard to make peace with his past. His relationship with his daughter is undeniably a strong bond that holds them, as well as his family, together. How does this father/daughter relationship affect John’s marriage to Betty Jo? How does it impact Katherine Ann and RC’s marriage?

Nicole: John is a hard man to be around at times. Katherine Ann is not close, per se, with her father. She simply wants to be. So when John opens up about the war, Katherine Ann feels connected for a moment, and convicted, of never having known or cared to know these things about him before. Thus, her quest to help her father—and ultimately herself—becomes a way for floundering Katherine Ann to feel rooted and connected. Betty Jo acts much more put together than she actually is, so at times, Katherine Ann can pick up on twinges of jealousy when her father spends time with her. When we’re silent about things, it can separate us from our spouse or our child, or our God. There is a lot of silence between John, Betty Jo and Katherine Ann.

RC, on the other hand, is the opposite of John Porter. He is a rock, a good balance for Katherine Ann. I think the relationship Katherine Ann has with her father, one of unpredictability, only strengthens her view of her own stable husband.

Jen: Thirdly, Lisa the illegitimate daughter of a Vietnamese woman and an American soldier, has lived her life with many unanswered questions as to her origins. Now she is faced with the cold, hard truth which ultimately will impinge on her future. What aspect of her personality contributes to her ability to boldly face adversity despite the emotional warfare it may potentially unleash?

Nicole: Lisa has lived a dual life. She has had a Vietnamese upbringing in the home and an American life on the outside. Growing up in Georgetown, SC she’s always been different. By now, with Uncle dead and her mother mute for six months, Lisa has been extremely alone, more than any time in her life. She has run the restaurant on her own and had no “parents” to talk to for months. I think she’s been forced to see what she’s really made of. Forced to analyze her life or lack thereof. It is this priming that allows her to boldly move forward in an effort to dispel the lies and get to the truth. When you’re grieving over the loss of a loved one (and she’s grieving her mother as well), you think that perhaps you’ve dealt with the worst there is.

Jen: Lisa’s mother consciously chooses to become mute upon the death of the uncle. Is this a cry for help or perhaps is it a way of punishing herself for past transgressions?

Nicole: I think it’s a bit of both. Uncle was the one person who knew Doan Vien in Vietnam and in America, her life before and after. She had no secrets from him. Yet she does with Lisa. I think Doan Vien not only grieves the loss of her brother, but allows this sadness to take her back to when she felt destitute as a young woman. What is there left for her to say now? In essence, she has given up.

Jen: The fourth and what I believe to be the most powerful character in the novel is Ernest, John Porter’s comrade from Vietnam. There is so much I would like to ask you, but for obvious reasons (plot spoilers), I can not. Let’s stick to what we can talk about! What makes him put all his trust into John’s judgment? Is he gullible or simply a man fearful for his life?

Nicole: Ernest is a gentle soul. He grew up on a farm, a simple life, loving parents. War, to him, is a shock. He finds himself far from home, terrified, with no way out. John, on the other hand, has had a rough life. He enlisted in the Army to get away from it all. He has also developed a persona that is rough and tough out of necessity. But he is loyal. Ernest and John have a true brotherly bond. It is John’s willingness to protect and Ernest’s need to be protected that makes this bond so strong.

Jen: How would each of the four main characters (Katherine Ann, John, Lisa, and Ernest) describe their definition of love in respect to their faith? Would you say it’s the driving force behind their actions? Why or why not?

Nicole: Part of the reason each of these characters is tossed by the wind and waves is that they do not have a strong faith in God. They choose to put their faith in one another, in circumstance, in themselves. When those things fail, the impending crisis brings out this crisis of faith. Ernest’s journey exemplifies best the growth of faith in each of these lives. Love has a tendency to be limited or one-sided when it emanates only from ourselves and not from something larger than us.

Jen: When the ink was finally dry and it was time to say good-bye to these characters, how did it make you feel? Why so?

Nicole: Oh, many things. I was happy to be done with it. It was a hard book to write at times. I had to delve into war which was emotionally trying. Yet when it was done and my vision had come full circle, I was so pleased it had worked. I was amazed it worked. I cried as my characters’ journeys ended, but was left hopeful and pleased. Writing this book, as with all, was cathartic. I was ready to let them go and move on.

Jen: Please tell us about your website. Are there Reading Group Guides available for your novels? Do you participate in author phone chats? And if so, how would my readers go about scheduling one?

Nicole: I have a web site, www.nicoleseitz.com where readers can contact me, join my mailing list, read about my books, see my paintings, and more. You can find excerpts and reviews of my books as well as reading group guides and questions there. I love to meet with book clubs and can always arrange a telephone or video chat. If you would like to schedule a book club chat, just contact me on my web site and we’ll set it up!

Jen: Are you currently at work on your next project? If so, what can you share with us?

Nicole: My next book, Saving Cicadas, will be released December 1 of this year. Like my other books, this one takes place in the South, in a small fictitious town called Cypresswood, SC. It is narrated by an eight-and-a-half year old girl named Janie, who tells about the summer her single mother got pregnant again unexpectedly, and how she hauled the whole family in the car to escape including Rainey Dae, her 17-year-old sister with special needs, and Poppy and Grandma Mona. It would be the last family vacation they would ever take. It’s a tender and sometimes shocking look at the difficult choices grown- ups make and the secrets and ghosts that remain in every family.

Jen: Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your book with my readers. I was so moved by your work. Best of luck with A HUNDRED YEARS OF HAPPINESS.

Nicole: Thank you! I loved this interview, Jen. Your questions were thoughtful and probing. It was a true pleasure, and I’m so glad you enjoyed my novel. Hope you look for the next one.

I hope you, my readers, have enjoyed my interview with Nicole. Please stop by your local bookstore or local library branch and pick up a copy today! Better yet, would you like to win one? Answer the following triva question and you could be one of five winners.

Name the title of Nicole’s upcoming December 2009 release.

Later this month, I will be bringing to you my interview with children’s author, Katy Kelly. You won’t want to miss it.

Until next time…Jen