Interview of Claire Bocardo

By

Jeanette Cottrell

1)                 Tell me about your book.

SWEET NOTHINGS is the story of a woman who, painfully discontented with her life, writes ironic comic verse to keep herself sane. When she discovers that her husband has rolled a tootsie in her own bed and then learns he’s robbing the family business, she leaves him and returns to the town where she grew up, convinced that she’s through with men. (She’s not, of course.) This book is the closest thing I’ve written to a “real” romance, but the romance is a subplot; the story is about Ginger putting her life back together after it’s been torn apart.

2)         What kind of character interests you the most?

I’m most interested in mature women who are encountering painful, totally unexpected problems and have to find a way to work around them. All my books contain lots of comic elements, but also some pretty serious stuff.

3)         Do you find that any particular social problems creep into your books because the problem is close to your heart?

Social problems as such aren’t of much interest to me, except as they impact individual lives--and then it’s the life that interests me, and how the woman overcomes the problem. My message, if I have one, is that we’re each responsible for our own life. We can seek help, of course, but nobody but us can fix our lives; we just have to pull our socks up and solve our own problems, however haphazardly. One of the most important things ever said to me (at just the right age--17) was, “There’s always a choice. I don’t care if somebody’s standing with a gun at your head, you can still choose to let him pull the trigger!”

4)                 What, primarily, do you want your readers to gain from your books?

First, of course, that sense of responsibility for their own lives. Second, a few really good laughs (life is often absurd). Third, that love is always the answer. Not romance, necessarily: love.

5)                 If your heroine were stuck on a deserted island (no running water, no electricity, and cell phones do not work!), what and who would she take with her? She is limited to what could fit in a small rowboat, which of course is hopelessly wrecked upon landing with no super glue available for repair.

What a great question! I suppose she’d take the same things I would: books (both fiction and non), a megawatt flashlight, food, blankets, maybe a CD player (with batteries, of course) and a stack of music. A good, stout knife and a length of rope would doubtless be useful--plus soap and a hairbrush! And if she could take somebody with her, a man might come in handy.

6)                 Does your recreational reading tend to come from the same genre you write, or is your mind drawn to other kinds of books as well? If so, what kinds?

I read all kinds of books: women’s, literary, fantasy (Connie Willis, time travel, etc.), and magical realism are among my favorite kinds of fiction, and I read widely in practical subjects, including books about writing. I tend to read in cycles: this summer I’ve read about two dozen books on quantum physics, metaphysics, psychology, and religion. A few years ago, when I was planning my house, I read everything I could get my hands on about passive solar design, recycled and natural building materials, and the like.

7)                 Any plans to work in additional genres to the one you’ve chosen?

I may move into some kind of fantasy or magical realism. I think I‘ve pretty well said what I have to say on the subject of middle-aged women rebuilding their lives, and I’m looking for a new theme.

8)         What's your next project?

My next book, which Wings ePress will release in February, is LOVERS AND FRIENDS. It’s about a couple of fiftyish women--one very down-to-earth, and the other quite her opposite--who’ve been friends since high school. Flo, who’s been very happily widowed for 25 years, takes Ivy in while Ivy’s third marriage is ending, and they drive each other crazy. Each sets the other up with a man--Ivy because she believes that no woman can be really happy without one, and Flo to get Ivy out of her hair--and complications arise from there. BECOMING SARAH will be released in April; it’s about a 35-year-old virgin living under her father’s oppressive thumb, and how she manages to get out from under.

10)      Who is your favorite author? And what do you like best about him/her?

Oh, lord! I have so many! Elizabeth Berg. Ann Tyler. Robertson Davies. Sue Miller. Reynolds Price. Ellen Gilchrist. Fred Chappell. Some of Larry McMurtry’s contemporary novels.  Susan Howatch. This is a disparate lot, but what they have in common is honesty about the human condition, women who seem like real women, some humor, and a show of hope.

11)      What would you have liked me to ask, but I didn't?

“How did you become a novelist?” The answer is, I didn’t; I was born one and didn’t figure it out till I was in my forties. Novelists (all artists, I think) are born in observation mode and never leave it; you can be in the most horrendous fight and think, “Oooohh, good line! I’ll have to remember that!” or suffering intolerable grief and think, “This is what it’s like when somebody dies; remember this.” Until I realized what that was about, I thought I was a monster.