Three Questions with Author Gretchen Anthony

We talk about chapters in our lives, interstitials and more

Gretchen Anthony’s new book, The Book Haters’ Book Club, out this week, felt like it was tailor-made for me. It’s a novel about the power of finding the right book at the right time. I launched this newsletter two years ago to help do just that.

Her two previous novels, Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners and The Kids Are Gonna Ask are big-hearted, joyful reads about complicated families learning how to support and love one another.

I had a lovely conversation with Gretchen. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

As a bonus, she and her publisher, Park Row, have kindly agreed to give a copy of The Book Hater’s Book Club to one lucky What To Read If subscriber. To enter the raffle, leave a comment about a book that you found at the right time and follow Gretchen on Twitter. 

What was your path to writing and publishing?

Being a novelist is my second writing career. I worked in corporate communications for 20-some years and loved it.

One of the things that corporate communications taught me was writing in different voices because I wrote messages from CEOs and division leaders. My challenge was to make it sound authentic, and to learn their voice. I didn’t realize it at the time, but as I moved into fiction, what I was doing was learning to write in different characters’ voices. Now, I apply that skill to fictional characters instead of real people.

I went through a layoff in my old job and I met with an executive coach after. He took one look at my resume and said, “It reads like chapters. So what’s your next chapter?”

And the minute he said that I realized I didn't want to be in corporate America anymore. I remember having this moment in his office and I said, “I want to write a book, like I've always wanted to write a book, but my time is narrowing.” And he said, “Well, quite literally, maybe that's your next chapter.”

What can you share about your new book?

The Book Haters’ Book Club is about a trio of unlikely co-conspirators who come together — surprising even themselves — to save an iconic Minneapolis bookstore called Over The Rainbow Bookshop.

As the book opens, Irma, one of the store’s co-founders, announces she is selling the store to condo developers. This decision is very much to the surprise of her daughter Bree, who becomes one of the three conspirators, and to the life partner, Tom, of her co-owner, Elliot, who recently died. Tom is not shocked that she’s selling the store, but is shocked by how little she’s willing to sell it for. And the third co-conspirator is Irma’s other daughter, Laney, who made it clear very early on that she wanted nothing to do with the store.

To their great surprise, the three of them (Bree, Tom and Irma) for very different reasons, join together and try to save Over The Rainbow.

Your previous two books include found elements — holiday letters in Evergreen Tidings and podcast transcripts in The Kids are Gonna Ask. What draws you to this style?

They're called interstitials, which is a term that I learned well after I was already using them. I really globbed onto the idea when reading Fannie Flagg. In Fried Green Tomatoes, she tells that story through a main storyline, but throughout she also includes clippings from the small town newspaper that adds color commentary. I just thought ‘what an amazing storytelling technique’ because it adds a level of depth to the story that she wouldn’t otherwise be able to include.

Evergreen Tidings was originally an epistolary novel, written all in letters, but my writing teacher said that approach was causing me to lose some of the depth of the characters. The letters were so fundamental to who the main character is, and the way she envisions the world, that I wanted to include some of them. The Kids Are Gonna Ask has a podcast at its heart and it just felt more natural to include snippets and give them a life of their own on the page.

And now, this one, The Book Haters Book Club takes its name from the newsletter that Elliot, the co-founder, sends. He has a philosophy that you can turn a book hater into a book lover just by getting the right read in their hands. In his newsletter, he shares anecdotes about those experiences.

I think interstitials have become a part of my style. I find myself relying on them a little. I'm working on very early versions of what could be my fourth book, and I don't know what the interstitials in there could be and I feel a little uncomfortable about it.

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Thanks to Gretchen for talking with me. When I asked if she had any books she wanted to suggest, she said The Book Haters’ Book Club is full of book recommendations. They include not only her favorites, but also books suggested to her by librarians and bookstore employees from across the country.

You can follow Gretchen on Twitter and Instagram and purchase her books here. If you’d like to enter the giveaway, remember to leave a comment about a book you found at the right time, and follow her on Twitter.

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