What:
I write fiction: three novels so far and short stories. I have written the occasional essay but mainly that isn’t what I do. My newest novel The Red Car recently came out in paperback. I am also the author of Bad Marie, which is how Linda first found me, and Twins.
And I keep a journal, which is a combination of the stereotypical what is my life kind of writing, lists of things that I need to do that day, and the occasional sketches. I like the sketching part, which, of course, is not writing.
Why:
This is a question I don’t usually ask myself.
At this point in my life, writing is an career for me, and it is actually a smart for me to write. I might make some money. I have readers who want to read what I write. This is incredibly gratifying.
But really, on a completely unpractical level, I feel better when I am writing. I feel good typing, creating a sentence that I like, expressing a thought or a feeling. I know that I wrote The Red Car because it was a book I needed to read. The story and the sentiment behind it somehow didn’t exist, at least not the way I required, and so I created it. Much later, rereading what I had written in actual book form, I thought wow, this writer gets me. That was a funny moment for me.
How:
It is always a mystery, but it starts with me and my computer, the willingness to try. I sometimes I take my computer to a café and that can work. I have written in libraries. I write at my desk at home and sometimes on my couch. When I am working on a book, I write constantly. In between novels, I write shorter things. I find that new ideas are the hardest, it is hard for me to begin things. I know many writers who know just what they want to write next and then what will come after that and I envy them.
There is, now, a literary term for a book you can’t stop reading that makes you stop to think. It is “The Red Car.” ~ The New York Times
If you want to fall in love with a book almost at first sight (i.e paragraph four)…read Marcy Dermansky’s The Red Car.” ~ Elle Magazine
“In vivid, dreamlike prose. . . Dermansky delivers a captivating novel about the pursuit of joy that combines dreamlike logic with dark humor, wry observation, and gritty feminist.” ~ Kirkus (Starred Review)
“Funny, unpredictable, and moving, The Red Car is an irresistible book for anyone who’s ever felt stuck.” –Buzzfeed, Best Books of 2016
“One of 13 Books To Read This Fall” — Vogue Magazine
Bio:
Marcy Dermansky is the author of the novels The Red Car, Bad Marie, and Twins. Her short fiction has been widely published and anthologized, appearing in McSweeney’s, Guernica, Lenny Letter, and elsewhere. Her essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Lithub, and Salon.com. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey with her daughter Nina.
(I’d like to add that Marcy has received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and The Edward Albee Foundation. She is the winner of the Smallmouth Press Andre Dubus Novella Award and Story Magazine Carson McCuller short story prize. Her first novel, Twins, and her latest, The Red Car, were both New York Times Editor’s Choice Picks. Bad Marie was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book, and has been optioned for film. She also offers private editing services for selected manuscripts, working one-on-one with writers to help them find their way from draft to finished manuscript. I highly recommend her!)
Links:
website
Twitter
Instagram
Amazon
Linda K. Sienkiewicz is the author of In the Context of Love, adult contemporary fiction about one woman’s need to tell her story without shame.
2016 Sarton Women’s Fiction Finalist
2016 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist
2016 Readers’ Favorite Finalist
2016 USA Book News Best Book Finalist
2015 Great Midwest Book Fest Honorable Mention.
“With tenderness, but without blinking, Linda K. Sienkiewicz turns her eye on the predator-prey savannah of the young and still somehow hopeful.” ~ Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of the #1 NY Times Bestseller, Deep End of the Ocean
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