Award-winning author Suzanne Feldman has an MA in fiction from Johns Hopkins University, and a BFA in art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her short fiction work has been in Narrative, The Missouri Review, Gargoyle, and other literary journals. She lives in Frederick, Maryland.
Feldman’s latest novel, Sisters of the Great War revolves around two sisters, Ruth and Elise Duncan, who in 1914, decide to make a difficult journey from Baltimore to Ypres, Belgium to escape their extremely strict father and determine a path of their own. Ruth is training as a nurse, but longs to be a doctor during a time women are only allowed to assist men in the field, yet she’s determined, especially when a handsome army doctor from England believes in her wholeheartedly. For her sister Elise, who’s quiet, joins the all-female Ambulance Corps where she explores who she is, along with her growing attraction towards women, specifically an ambulance driver who quickly wins her heart. Although each sister is on a different path, they are drawn together by the challenges of war and, ultimately, love.
Sisters of the Great War is available at BookShop.org, Harlequin, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Books-A-Million, and Powell’s.
Author Suzanne Feldman – photo by Tim Stephens
Your books have won quite a few awards. Do you ever feel pressure when you write a new book to make it an award-winning book?
Suzanne Feldman: I do love awards and who doesn’t? (I’m striving for a Pulitzer!) But awards are sort of a wonderful perk for what I already love doing, which is making something big from a little spark of an idea. I think it’s a stretch to think to yourself, ‘I’m going to write something for THIS award.’ because what if the book doesn’t win anything? I’m much happier just writing and editing until I think it’s ready to go out into the world–then we’ll see how it does.
What inspired this book?
Suzanne: Sisters of the Great War was a four-year project that started one morning as I walked into my classroom at some pre-dawn hour. I’d been thinking about my next project after ‘Absalom’s Daughters’ and I knew I wanted to write a war story–but there were already so many books about WW2. So I thought, what about WW1? Could I write something epic yet intimate about that period? I wrote on a post-it: ‘WW1; epic yet intimate,’ and put it in my pocket. After school that day, I found the post-it and by some miracle, I still knew what I’d meant.
I started doing research and realized pretty quickly that the reason WW1 literature peaked with All Quiet on the Western Front was because it was a trench war, and over the space of four years, the trenches barely moved so there were very few ‘victories.’ The war itself was awful beyond description. Troops went out and were mowed down by new weapons, like the machine gun, tanks, and poisonous gas. It’s hard to write a glorious book about a barbaric war that had no real point, so I decided to explore the lives of the forgotten women–the nurses and ambulance drivers who were in the thick of the action, but not really mentioned in the movies and books about the period.
Where is your favorite place to write?
Suzanne: I have a room where I write, my ‘office.’ I have all my favorite art, my most-loved books, and a bed for my dog. I love being able to close the door and just get into the groove of writing, but I have been known to write in coffee shops and libraries. When I was teaching, when I would get an idea, I would write on a post-it and put it in my pocket, so, yes, technically I have written at work as well.
Do you have a writing routine?
Suzanne: My writing routine involves getting really wired on coffee in the morning and then taking a long walk with my dog, sometimes by the river and sometimes in the mountains. I get my ideas for the day in order, and the dog gets tired. Then I spend about four hours working on writing projects–sometimes novels, sometimes short stories, and drinking a lot more coffee. By then the dog has woken up, and we go out for another walk. I like to treat writing as a job. It’s not too exciting, but it works for me.
Are you a plotter or pantser when it comes to writing?
Suzanne: I’m a pantser and proud of it! I love not really knowing what’s going to happen, and I love the discovery of plot points and personalities that might not show up in an outline. My favorite part is when a character does something on the page that I never thought of, and I get to go with that. What’s funny is that as a teacher (before I retired) I needed a plan for everything!
What is a fun fact about you?
Suzanne: I was a high school art teacher for almost 30 years, and I am also a visual artist. I do a lot of abstract painting, which you can see on my Instagram account, Suzanne Feldman Author. I’ve taught every art class you can imagine, from darkroom photography to ceramics. I had a wonderful time teaching, and I loved nearly all of my students.
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