Pump Up Your Book Chats with NY Times Bestselling Author Nancy Thayer

Nancy Thayer is the New York Times bestselling author of Summer House, Moon Shell Beach, The Hot Flash Club, The Hot Flash Club Strikes Again, Hot Flash Holidays, The Hot Flash Club Chills Out, and Between Husbands and Friends. She lives on Nantucket. You can visit Nancy Thayer’s website at www.NancyThayer.com.

Thank you for this interview, Nancy.  Do you remember writing stories as a child or did the writing bug come later?  Do you remember your first published piece?

From the moment I read books as a child, I knew I wanted to write.  I was always writing, or reading.  I guess I could say my first “published” piece was when I was in sixth grade.  On Friday afternoons, the teacher allowed me to read my short stories to the class while we waited for the bell to ring.

What do you consider as the most frustrating side of becoming a published author and what has been the most rewarding?

Being able to write, to do the work I love, has been the most rewarding part of writing, that and the responses I get from readers who’ve been good enough to let me know they like my books.

Of course, rejection is the most frustrating part of writing.  All those early attempts, the revisions, the hopes, the waiting, and the sense of failure and defeat when something was rejected.  Every writer goes through it.  It’s like a wall of fire you must pass to get to the other side.

Are you married or single and how do you combine the writing life with home life?  Do you have support?

I’m married now, but I was divorced with two little children when I first started writing.   I was lucky to be able to work at home when the children were small.  I’ve been very disciplined, writing six days a week, every morning.  As for the home life—let’s just say I’m not a perfectionist when it comes to housework and cooking.  Fortunately my husband and two grown children love books as much as I do, so they think spending hours alone in a fantasy world is normal.  I must say my husband is wonderful—he buys all the groceries, does his own laundry, and helps in a hundred other ways.

What do you like to do for fun when you’re not writing?  Where do you like to vacation?  Can you tell us briefly about this?

Of course I love to read, and I love getting together with friends for drinks, lunch, or dinner.  I love walking on the island—we call it “running the wharves”—I walk down from my house to the town pier and along the sandy beach, over to the other wharves, and around our little town.  I love this walk in any weather and do it as many times a week as possible.

My husband and I love to hike.  Wales, Arizona, Utah, and the moors of Nantucket.

If you could be anywhere in the world for one hour right now, where would that place be and why?

Where I was this past Saturday—in the woods with my 3 year old grandson Ellias and my 2 year old granddaughter Adeline, chasing lions and bears with our swords!  Or perhaps just sitting with them, reading children’s books.

Who is your biggest fan?

My husband.  What that man puts up with!  And he is my first reader and my best copyeditor!

Where’s your favorite place to write at home?

I have a storybook study tucked away on the top floor of our house My desk is next to a half moon window, so as I write, I look out over the harbor and the lighthouses and the town.  I didn’t always have such a wonderful aerie, and I cherish it.  I have book cases with my 20 novels and photos of my family and friends and shells and paintings and lots of little “treasures.”

Do you have any pets?

Indeed.  Two cats.  Regina, a calico we should have named Rotunda, and Rex, a cinnamon male who knocks things off my desk if I don’t feed him his dinner in time.

Tell us a secret no one else knows.

I have a huge crush on Sawyer on Lost, but I suspect my husband’s aware of that!

What’s on your to do list today?

Work in the morning.  Do the exercises the physical therapist has given me to help my shoulders and arms.  Go for a walk.  Try to figure out how to use my $%@* video camera.  Continue rearranging my library and taking books to the Thrift shop so our guest quarters has room for guests.  Read Elizabeth George’s new mystery—yum, can’t wait!  Talk to my husband about the book he’s reading.

Now I’ve got a couple of fun questions for you.  If Tom Hanks, in the movie Cast Away, unearthed a copy of your book, how would that help him find a way off the island?

He’d read my novel, then do exactly as he did in the movie, but when Wilson blows away, he’d remember the lesson of hope in my book and feel less despairing.

You have a chance to appear on the hit talent show for authors, American Book Idol, with judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara Dioguardi and the newest addition, Ellen DeGeneres, to determine whether your book will make it to Hollywood and become a big screenplay where you’d make millions of dollars.  What would impress them more – your book cover, an excerpt or your author photo – and why?

The book cover, I think.  It’s optimistic, bright, and  catches the sassy summer feel of three young women bravely on their way through life.

You just got word that your book has received the 2010 NY Times Bestselling Book Award and you have to attend the ceremony to give an acceptance speech.  Anyone who’s anyone will be there and it’s your shot for stardom.  What would you say and who would you thank?

The book business is very complicated, changing almost every minute by technology.  What remains the same—what matters—are the readers.  If I won this award, the “anyone who’s anyone” would be all the readers who bought the book, who found something enjoyable in my book, and I would thank them first of all.  I’d thank my brilliant editor and agent and the entire hardworking team at Ballantine.  It would be a very short speech, because I’d be in a hurry to get back to work on the next book.

I understand that you are touring with Pump Up Your Book Promotion in July via a virtual book tour.  Can you tell us all why you chose a virtual book tour to promote your book online?

This is the digital age, and I love it. Online book tours make It possible for me to connect with lots of readers without waiting at an airport for a plane!

Thank you for this interview, Nancy Thayer. Good luck on your virtual book tour!

Thank you!  It was fun!

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