Author Karen Bonner in Conversation with Eileen Madden
Karen Bonner’s debut novel, Witching Moon, is magical tale of healers and mysterious immortals living just the other side of our awareness. Karen created this magical space while working full time as an anesthetist in Atlanta, Georgia. When Jamie Thome saw me post about Witching Moon this summer, she asked me to interview Karen for our A House, Haunted October events at Artists Book House. I met Karen at a residency in another magical mansion in Tennessee three years ago. She was several years into her manuscript by then, and her enthusiasm for the work was contagious. That enthusiasm in evident in our conversation about Witching Moon, which was published this year.
Where did Witching Moon start for you? Are you one of those authors who sees the whole thing from start to finish, or was it an idea that grew over time?
When it comes to writing, I’m an improvisor. I rarely see the finish before I start, and if I do, the ending taunts me by strapping on snowshoes, tramping into a blinding snowstorm, and hiding in a dilapidated trapper’s cottage until I can find it. Endings are frustrating that way. I rewrote the ending for Witching Moon at least twenty times before I wrangled it into submission.
The fun of writing is discovering the story as you write. I have little control over the story as it unfolds. When I’m deep into writing I enter an almost hallucinatory state where I am hyperfocused and reality seems to slow down; the same thing happens when I’m involved in an emergent situation in the operating room as well.
You had to create two worlds in this novel – the land of Amaranth, and the 19th c. Southern United States. I think you’re from South Carolina originally? I really had such a great sensory experience while reading this. How did you manage the two very distinct worlds in the novel?
I began with Anne and Mama Jane, I saw them both very clearly. I knew that I wanted to send Anne on a physical journey, and that she would begin in the lowcountry of South Carolina, a place that I know and love. The lowcountry is a magical place: it has Geechee and Gullah heritage, an authentic food culture, it’s swampy with pluff mud and teeming with critters and abundant life.
As the story unfolded, an immortal showed himself, I had not planned on this happening, then I had to decide what the rules were for the immortal world. Unbeknownst to me, I had made my book a historical fantasy where Anne would travel both physically and spiritually to Amaranth.
Immortals don’t want to unnerve regular human beings, so they hide in plain sight and use mortals to manipulate wars, currency, etc. And by the way, there are multiple immortal tribes, or septs, that are either friendly or not, as they all vie to control their domains. As a rule of thumb, I use various countries as templates for my immortal sept rules. I based Amaranth on Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, a place that I’ve only seen in photos, that has a dreamy vibe.
I love sensory details: the coquina shells crunching under one’s boots, the gray dust billowing off of the road as the horses gallop along, swarms of mosquitos forming black clouds hovering over swampy water.
I wrote down the date: 1865 and researched everything that was happening during that time. How did people live? What did they eat? What were they wearing? What was going on politically? Then spun the story around that.
I love the first person narrator, Anne. It’s such a good way to have a mystery unfold for readers when the narrator is finding it out, too, but that can also be a challenge since you can only show what the narrator knows. Was it always first person, or did you try any other points of view?
Since Anne was whispering in my ear, I was compelled to write Witching Moon in her voice. It made sense to me to write from her POV.
I love her family on Cusabo Island, especially Mama June. Her role as a healer is a great bridge to the world of Amaranth and Anne’s growing powers. You’re a writer and an anesthetist. How did your own role as a healer influence this novel?
I’ve been an anesthetist (anesthesiology physician’s assistant) for 27years. I do understand a good deal about pharmacology, anatomy, and physiology, so it was natural for me to make Anne, Mama Jane, and Ruth healers. Healers and witches have always fascinated me. There is magical realism in healing, and I do love magical realism.
How long did it take you to write Witching Moon? That nursing job must have made it a challenge to find the time and space to finish this book?
I began Witching Moon in November of 2010, eleven years before it was published. The idea to begin the story at the end of the American civil war came to me while sitting at a traffic light at 6:15 AM on the way to work. My husband and I were struggling through financial hardships at the time; his building business had gone bankrupt, he was struggling to find work, we were in the process of losing our home to foreclosure, I was working long hours, and we had two small children. Writing Witching Moon became my therapy. I took care of patients every day in the operating room, came home, cooked dinner, played with the kids, and wrote for thirty minutes every night if I was lucky. Sunday was my writing day; I would go to the basement and lock the office door and write for as long as I could. During those eleven years I joined a critique group, went to writer’s colonies, attended SCBWI events where I signed up for professional critiques and met agents and editors, and wrote, and read, and rewrote. Perseverance is the key. Writing a book is an ultramarathon, you must keep putting one foot in front of the other and never, never, ever give up. Your life is going to pass you by whether you write your truth or not. Do what brings you joy.
Do you read a lot of YA books? What about that genre appeals to you as both a writer and a reader?
I do read a lot of YA, and middle grade, along with memoir, fiction, nonfiction, short story, romance, and anything that I pick up that appeals to me. Everything that I read teaches me something.
YA and middle grade books are important to me because they helped me though my own childhood, which wasn’t a happy or secure one. Judy Blume, S.E. Hinton, Scott O’Dell, and other great writers helped me through some difficult times. No matter how bad things were at home I could always curl up with a book and disappear into another world.
I think YA and MG are incredibly important genres. Authors who write YA and MG are providing a road map for survival. They are showing that life gets better.
About Karen Bonner
Karen Bonner was always the first kid to sit down during a spelling bee. It wasn’t until she was an adult that she was diagnosed with dyslexia, which explained why she always had to study three times harder than her peers. Being dyslexic taught her perseverance and kindness, her two favorite attributes. She lives in Georgia with her husband, two sons, and two dogs. When not writing, she loves to read, swim, explore new places, and meet fascinating people. If you have a dog, she would love to scratch behind its ears and tell it what a good pup it is.
About Eileen Madden
Eileen Madden was the co-owner and operator of Evanston Print and Paper – a letterpress print shop. She opened that business fifteen years ago after teaching English at Maine East high school. She has been an active member of the Caxton Club of Chicago, an organization dedicated to the history, production, and preservation of books. She is currently the Chair of the Caxton Club’s Grant Committee and was a member of the Caxton Club Council for six years. She served on the Board of Transit Residency, which aimed to serve artists from multiple disciplines within written, visual, music and performance arts, who seek opportunities to create in an urban environment and/or specifically culturally rich Chicago.
Ms. Madden is currently a member of StoryStudio Chicago’s Advisory Board, working to engage the community in the literary events that organization hosts. She was an officer of Chicago Hand Bookbinders, a group which was dedicated to the art and craft of hand bookbinding. She also served on the Board of Chiaravalle Montessori School for six years. Ms. Madden created a book arts show in Chicago, words|matter, a show that was a “library” for artists books.