From the author of And She Was...

Five Questions for Novelist Cindy Dyson

By Allen Jones, 2-27-06

New West Apart from the historical digressions, your novel, And She Was, is written in first person. How much of yourself went into the main character, Brandy? What do you have in common? How do you differ?

Cindy Dyson This is probably my least favorite question. Admitting to using some of my own experiences in developing Brandy cheapens the process for me. I like to think of Brandy, in all her trashy glory, as being the antithesis of me. The me I didn't become, thank goodness. I spent a good deal of my twenties in bars - working my way through journalism school as a cocktail waitress - and I'd see these women who were in their thirties and forties, still picking up men, still dressed like twenty-three. Somehow their age made their actions feel desperate to me. I had always wondered why. Why they got stuck in that party-girl mode and what it would take to set them free. So my main character was in essence what I imagined my life would have been if I'd stayed in those smoke filled dive bars. That said, Brandy and I share a passion for history, latrinalia, quirky people, mountains, caves, and edges. We both slung drinks at the Elbow Room. We both dealt with cranky motorcycles and cold outhouses. We're both a bit restless and curious enough to peek around corners.

NW The novel is set in one of the most desolate regions on earth, the rocky and windswept Aleutian islands in Alaska. As superficially dull as this place might seem, you manage to bring the geography truly alive. What made you choose this particular region as a setting for your story?

CD I can't imagine how a desolate, windswept place could ever be dull. I mean one of my fantasy vacations is to visit Antarctica. I lived on Unalaska Island briefly in my early twenties. I chose to set Brandy's story in the Aleutians because they are on the edge. The islands are the northern edge of the Ring of Fire, the edge of the Last Frontier. I think this frontier quality is part of the reason the place stayed with me for so many years. Not only is the natural beauty raw and powerful, but a frontier brings out a certain human beauty. A frontier has potential for danger and death, and at the same time second changes and redemption.

And the fact that the Aleutians and the Aleuts are fairly obscure to most Americans made it an attractive setting.

NW How did your nonfiction writing shape your fiction?

CD I don't think I could have created my first novel only from my head. I wanted a story with strong non-fiction components. In fact, it wasn't until I was researching the history of the Aleutians that I began to want to write a novel. Being able to dig into an obscure, meaty history satisfied the journalist in me and allowed me to slowly develop the freedom to write fiction, to just make it up. On those days when the muse was late for work, I could delve into research, dig into archeological studies and priest's journals. I love research, and I love the notion of taking a very real past and projecting it into very made-up characters to see what it will mean.

NW Whom do you admire as a writer? Do you aspire toward certain models in your fiction? Do you have an ideal reader in mind? When you release your stories out into the wild, what's your hope for them?

CD I admire so many authors - Robert Parker, Annie Proulx, Richard Russo, Mark Helprin, Stephen King, Mary Gaitskill. But when I'm writing, what I love most of all is a really, really atrocious book (no names). There's something about reading crappy writing that brings out the best in me.

I don't try to write like anyone, but I'm often inspired as I read. I'll even jump out of bed while reading something astounding and rush to my computer to try to capture it. I remember doing that with a great line from Chabon's Kavalier & Clay. Poetry, too, is wonderful to read while writing.

As for my ideal reader, I always picture my husband and my two sisters. They get me, or at least pretend to, and I hate to waste time, either in life or on the page, explaining myself to people who aren't as smart and compassionate and edgy as my family.

I'm not sure what I hope my book will do in the "wild." I'm still dismayed when I see it out and about. Some part of me thinks the story is still just on my computer. I only emailed it to an agent one time, and somehow it got into bookstores, which makes me feel oddly vulnerable.

NW Do you have plans for your next project? Can you tell us a little bit about it?

CD Yes, I am writing another novel, although I may do some more nonfiction after this one. The book I'm working on is about a young woman in 4-inch heels and a sequined boob tube who just may be a superhero (or deluded, or a saint). Of course, she dies on the second or third page, so it's really about Orin, the Montana spa owner who becomes obsessed with her. I'm researching New Age philosophies, spas, the Donner Party, computer hacking, and underground poker for this one.

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