Embedded Files
Well, obviously we've gotten a little more sporadic with the interviews. As proud as I am of them, it can take a lot of time and work - and I simply don't always have that. There will continue to be more interviews here from time to time, but I can't guarantee how many or how often.
There's just one interview that I want you to read today. I hope you take the time to read and enjoy it!
NoahAn Author Interview – Consuelo Baehr -
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Please tell us about your book.
CONSUELO BAEHR: I have six kindle books for sale in Amazon's Kindle Store. Some of them are traditionally published books that I have reissued as e-books. A couple are e-book originals.
The book I would like to talk about in this interview is Daughters, a historical family epic based loosely on my paternal grandparents who were born and lived in a little Christian village ten miles north of Jerusalem.
I did not start out to write historical fiction but the treasure of information available to me as oral and written history was too tempting to pass up. The period I write about begins in the late 1800's and ends in 1957. It bypasses the current turmoil although we see the seeds of it in the period after the British Protectorate leaves the area and
the countries are divided up. The time I write about includes two world wars and two foreign governing entities (first the Turks and subsequently the British). The focus of the story is the generational shifts within one family as they try to hold on to their traditions, their love for the land, their love for family amid the turmoil of war and the encroachment of
Western ideas. It was a challenge to weave the research seamlessly into the story however, I had the gift of oral history to make me comfortable with the tempo and activities of daily life.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Please tell us about your protagonist.
CONSUELO BAEHR: There are several protagonists in Daughters,mainly the strong female characters in each of the three sections. Miriam, daughter of a deaf mute whose marriage is arranged, survives the horrors of war, the death of her son from cholera. The most indelible event is the bewildering entanglement with a German doctor with whom she falls in love while her husband is conscripted into the Turkish army. Circumstances demand that Miriam, who is barely able to read and write, rise to enormous challenges and cultural onslaughts. She is the indomitable backbone of the book and grows to understand all that has happened to her. Nadia, her daughter, the rebellious second generation , wants to break the bonds of traditioan
and ends up the most constricted of all. Her daughter, Nijmeh (Star) is heir to the trauma of all that has befallen the family.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What effect do you hope your story has on your readers?
CONSUELO BAEHR: Because this part of the world (Jerusalem and the surrounding villages) are so much a part of current history, I wanted to present a comprehensive picture of the area before the tragic divide of the present day. The area was a fantastic, cosmopolitan destination for many sophisticated people and the most humble peasant spoke three languages.
Mark Twain, Agatha Christie (among hundreds of others) visited Jerusalem.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What are you doing to promote your work?
CONSUELO BAEHR: Daughters has only been in the Kindle store for three months. I try to do guest blogging, interviews, promotional threads where they are allowed and I've bought two small ads on the Kindleboards. I've also begun a blog. Marketing is an ongoing effort. Right now, I'm running a book giveaway on Goodreads. Every day, several small actions will eventually equal a decent network and result in sustainable sales.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Please tell us about your background.
CONSUELO BAEHR: I was born in El Salvador of Palestinian/French parents, grew up in Washington D.C. where my father owned an upscale department store, Jean Matou, where Jackie Kennedy and Bess Truman often shopped. I attended George Washington University, wrote copy for Macy's and Grey advertising, married, had three children.
Currently I leave in East Hampton, New York in a small house in the village.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What do you like to read? Watch? Listen to?
CONSUELO BAEHR: I have an enormous capacity for pop culture. I like to see it and I like to write about what I see. I venerate F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Cheever, Willa Cather, Trollope. I admire Anne Tyler, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Strout, Jonathan Franzen. I read every Sue Grafton mystery.
I watch junk television when I can although pbs has an excellent series of American Masters. I saw just such an episode last night on the last days of John Lennon. It was excellent. (I just blogged about my base tastes in culture.)
I mostly listen to what is going on in my head but when I do put on music, it tends to be things like Willie Nelson, Ella Fitzgerald, Satchmo. I like Rod Stewart and Paul Simon, too.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Do you consider yourself the sort of person who would do well in a post-apocalyptic world?
CONSUELO BAEHR: Yes. I am very adaptable and I love problem solving. Also, I have the capacity to be alone for long periods of time. Why or why not?
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Do you have any other up-coming or previous publications that you would like us to know about?
CONSUELO BAEHR: When I began e-publishing I found all these terrific books that I had begun but because of the daunting strictures of present day print publishing did not have the heart to continue. Now I can finish them and publish them.
My present Kindle books include two women's contemporary fiction: Nothing To Lose and Best Friends; a non-fiction book (my first book) Report From The Heart: one ordinary day in the life of a wife and mother; One Hundred Open Houses: a middle aged woman begins to doubt the validity of her life and decides to leave her idyllic life and search for the apartment that will help her find meaning. If nothing else you will get to go to one hundred open houses in New York City (this is a funny and poignant book). Spellcheck Nation is a group of four short stories as varied as life itself.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Would you like to ask me a question?
CONSUELO BAEHR: I would love to know your journey up to this point
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: I was born in Montclair, New Jersey. When I was nine years old my mother took my brother and I back to live for a year in her native Australia. Otherwise, I lived in Montclair until I was 15.
At that point she decided that we would move to Sullivan County, New York. It was a pretty difficult transition for me to go from a wonderful and affluent suburb to a rural, middle-of-nowhere town in the woods. My new novel is actually set in Sullivan County, which strikes me as a very strange fact. I made some really great friends there, people who are still important to me, but it was a very difficult four years until I left and went to college. Voluntarily moving back – in the form of my book – seems slightly insane to me! ;)
I went to college at Bard where I studied Philosophy and Creative Writing. Bard was my heaven. If I end up, or already have ended up a wash-up Al Bundyesque has-been sitting on the couch, it will be Bard that I keep reminiscing over. Those were my glory days! ;)
After college I moved to Boston and I sang in some rock bands. I worked some terrible jobs in customer service before the entire industry moved to India, and then I began working as a recruiter.
I moved to Los Angeles to sell a cowboy-zombie movie that I’d written. (It’s still available, if anyone is interested!) The funny thing is that as soon as I’d gotten there I lost interest in writing movies and began writing longer works. I wrote my first few novels there and really began to grow creatively.
Oh, but that’s enough about me! Why don’t you all go and read Consuelo’s book, and then when you’re done maybe go and check out Luminous and Ominous? That’s how you’ll really learn about me….
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