In the news recently, we’ve seen a lot of stories about non-fiction writers who’ve taken certain liberties with the truth, enhancing their lives and their accomplishments in the same way many people these days tend to embellish and bolster their resumes. And while this is a big no-no for non-fiction writers and historians, it’s the best part about being a fiction writer, the idea that you have complete and utter control over the truth.
But imagine if the opposite were true. Imagine if you could change all of the things about yourself and your life just by writing it down and calling it the truth. The concept is rather intoxicating, and suddenly the lure of rewriting history for non-fiction writers makes much more sense. The idea that you can reinvent yourself and your life simply buy writing a journal of the way your life should’ve been.
That’s the premise for a new book by Holly Christine called Tuesday Tells It Slant, an excellent read that you might want to consider adding to your summer reading list.
In the book we meet Tuesday Morning, an odd young college student who doesn’t fit in and is fed up with her entire life. Sounds like a typical story of a young student, right? Well, all of that is about to change when Tuesday, while researching a term paper on Emily Dickinson for school, comes across a poem that will change her life, past and present. Tuesday, who has kept a detailed diary of her life since 1989, can literally change the past simply by erasing her diary entries and rewriting her present, making herself skinnier, more popular, more desirable, more anything she wants. What follows is a thought-provoking and entertaining story that highlights the timelessness of life and experience and how these events in our lives ultimately shape who we become.
Tuesday Tells It Slant by Holly Christine is available on her official website, where you can learn more about Christine and her other books. I had the chance to interview Holly Christine about her book and her life, so please take a few more minutes to read the revealing interview below.
Q. Can you tell us a bit about Tuesday Tells it Slant and what readers can expect?
A. Tuesday Tells it Slant is about one girl, one diary and one past. At the age of 23, Tuesday decides that she is tired of her past. She wants to make it into something more desirable. To do this she uses her diary. She packs away her old diary entries and transforms a new past. She becomes enviable, skinny and popular. In doing this, she loses a bit of herself with each new entry. The books flows like puzzle pieces, each narrative, poem and diary entry fitting into the larger picture of Tuesday’s real identity.
Q. What an interesting premise for a book. How did you come up with this idea?
A. The concept itself came about, alarmingly enough, during the drive into work. John Mayer’s Who Says was playing on the radio and I was intrigued by one part of the song: Who says I can’t be free/ from all of the things that I used to be/ Rewrite my history/ Who says I can’t be free? I was thinking of a way for a character to actually rewrite their history and a diary struck me. I have always kept a diary or journal of some sort and have fought the temptation to lie in an entry or two, trying to make up a day that I wanted instead of a day that I actually had.
Q. Where did the title of your book come from and what does it mean?
A. The title came up from an Emily Dickinson poem: Tell all the truth but tell it Slant/Success in Circuit lies. It seemed fitting for the concept of the story. During my senior year of college, I studied Dickinson for an entire semester. Each chapter is divided by a Dickinson poem that relates to memory, hope and fleeing from the past.
Q. I’ve read that you wrote this book very quickly. How long did it actually take you to write Tuesday Tells it Slant?
A. 30 days with an unfathomable amount of coffee and cigarettes. This was during December of 2009 and I stopped at 65,000 words and jumped right back into cutting out unnecessary fluff and back-story. I like to create testing reads and try to make a reader think.
Q. A lot of our readers at LA Books Examiner are writers who, especially after the previous question, will want to know how you get so much done -- and so quickly. Can you discuss your writing process?
A. It’s disturbing. My office becomes a sort of campground; filled with ashes, post it notes and gigantic pieces of paper, all taped together to allow me to fill in the plot holes as I go along. I sit for hours, but never begin before the voice of the narrative hits my head. From there, the muse takes hold of my brain and I don’t stop until the voice stops. She’s very demanding of my time. I also write in silence, but many of my characters’ traits are inspired by music.
Q. Why did you choose to self-publish your book?
A. With Tuesday Tells it Slant, I never questioned whether to self-publish or not. After I finished cleaning up the prose and editing, I almost immediately made the story available for Kindle. I wanted to know what readers thought of the tale and, because it did well with Kindle sales, I made it available in paperback. Self-publishing opens many doors. It isn’t a dead end street. Major publishers later picked up many self-published authors who made their works available for Kindle: Boyd Morrison and John Rector to name two.
Q. I hate this question, but it’s one readers love to know, so when did you decide that you wanted to become a writer?
A. During my sophomore year of college, after reading Emerson’s Nature, I decided that I wanted to create prose that inspired readers. I like the challenge. I enjoy the process. And I love to hear the responses from readers.
Q. Who are your favorite authors, as both a writer and as a reader?
A. Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Hunter S Thompson, Tom Wolfe, Saul Bellow. I also really enjoy reading Tana French and Kate Atkinson. I read non-fiction as well, especially when researching for a new project. When reading, I like a challenge and at times like to break it up with some prose that allows me to relax. A bit of everything, really.
Q. Can you share something about yourself that few people know?
A. I took piano lessons for nine years and quit as soon as I got to the age when everything was embarrassing. I grew up in the country and once a week, my teacher would come to the house for one-hour lessons. I hid in woods behind my house before one lesson and watched from the trees as my mother and piano teacher yelled for me. My teacher became livid, as she should have, and my lessons ended on that day. I still feel guilty for doing this. I was grounded for all of eternity.
Q. What’s next for Holly Chistine?
A. A little bit of this and that. I’m playing around with the concept of mimicking a piece of Roman architecture with language and mythology twisted with current narratives. It’s demanding, but I’m enjoying learning about ancient architecture right now.
Tuesday Tells It Slant by Holly Christine.
*photos courtesy of Holly Christine
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