Marcia Bradley with E.C. Murray
/1. On your Website bio you use the term “Second Lives.” What does that mean to you? How did it play out in your own life?
There’s a magic to believing ‘one day I will (fill in the blank).’ Like many people, I worked in corporate America for years but often said ‘one day I will write a book.’ Except that was as far as the plan went. I now know that second and third lives are waiting for us. The trick is to believe in possibilities, no matter how fantastic or outlandish, and go for them.
2. At some point you made the leap from a salaried job with benefits to being a novelist and short story writer. What happened?
After the economy went bust in 2008, I returned to college with the truly capitalist intent to reinvent myself for a better job. But then luck, or destiny, and a super Antioch University teacher reached into my life. The result was my chance to change my game … and finally become a writer. The one caveat I offer is, that it wasn’t easy, I took a lot of risks, became a poor student who went to campus events for the free pizza, and during grad school at Sarah Lawrence, I lived in a hovel above a garage.
3. Your debut, Home for Wayward Girls, is uplifting, but about a difficult subject. Why did you choose this subject matter?
While in grad school, I was looking for a subject to write a novel about—it had to be fiction—I was determined to show I could do it. During summer break, I was driving down a back country road out west and very fast, too fast, we zipped past a building with a sign that said Home for Girls. This was the seed. The experience also caused me to think about one of my sisters who had lived most of her life in institutions (but not on a ranch in the middle of nowhere) and I wondered what she’d gone through. Lots of research later, I wrote my book. It’s about an important current issue in this country—teens sent off to wilderness programs, and that matters to me.
4. You received your bachelor’s degree from Antioch and masters from Sarah Lawrence. When did you decide first that you loved writing and second, that you were determined to have writing as a life goal?
To be honest, I’ve always been a writer. In my corporate life that helped me with my career in marketing (which is what I recommend young writers do to make money). Along the way, I took some local classes, and I wrote what I call my ‘primer books’ which were my very early attempts at books. One year I entered the 3-Day Novel Contest (https://www.3daynovel.com/about/) and must admit, I had no idea what I was doing. But I guess all that led me here. I’m very grateful.
5. In what way are you a better writer than you were say, five years ago?
Oh, wow, to be honest, I’m a better writer today than I was yesterday. I mean it. When a word comes to me in a flash and I run to put it in my new manuscript, it’s joyful! To be a truly good writer (and I am not there), I believe in opening all sorts of books every day, listening to podcasts, reading lots of online stuff on writing, and I never miss the NY Times Book Review as well as many other lists. I strongly recommend taking a walk and listening to Brad Listi’s podcasts (https://www.otherppl.com/). I don’t agree with everything he says, and some of the writers are far too lofty for me, but I learn something new always.
6. What was most difficult to learn as a writer?
That the most important feedback is the stuff I don’t want to do. Usually, I knew the fix was needed but I think sometimes we writers think ‘oh, it’s good enough’ and we all know ‘good enough’ plain sucks.
7. Do you feel you know your own strengths and weaknesses as a writer? If so, what are they?
My strength is that I believe in readers, I absolutely think they are smarter than some give them credit for, I know they are pages ahead of us (when reading our books!). My weakness is similar, sometimes I expect the reader to figure things out. That’s not good. I tell the writers that I teach to remember that we are a book’s tour guide—you know that person with the sign ahead of the group in Times Square yelling “and over here you’ll see.” Readers trust us to direct them, to take them where they need to go, to hold their hands through to the end.
8. Are there any specific writing skills you’re working on at this point in your career?
I love to write. I can write for hours about sitting on a park bench. That’s not plot. That’s not tension or a climax. I’m always working on being a literary writer who also delivers plot. In The Home for Wayward Girls, I have quotes that are nods to everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt, Charlotte Bronte, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Helen Thomas, and many others. These incredible people were on the journey with me as I wrote my book, they helped me stay true to my literary spirit. My favorite was from Virginia Wolfe, who wrote that we each have a past shut away life the leaves of a book. Wow!
9. What were the steps you took to get published by Harper?
I was fortunate to have been taken on as a client by an agent here in New York. We started out working on selling my book, there’s more to it. Part of the agent-client relationship is having trust and belief in each other not just now but for the long term. We have built a solid foundation together and I’m forever thankful. My agent took my book to a great editor at HarperCollins and it clicked. I’d refer back to my earlier comment about destiny. Sometimes life just works out.
10. What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Accept that it may not take a long time to write a story or book, one that might even get published. However, it does take a long time to write good stuff that you can be proud of. Think about how much time you really spend seriously writing. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about how you need to spend 10,000 hours to become an expert at something (read Outliers). There are only 8760 hours in a year! If you spend ¼ of your time writing, that’s still only 2190 hours a year. Be patient with yourself. Be kind and good to you. Know that lots of what you write may need to be put into a drawer ‘for later’ but you will get there. I wrote a book in grad school. It was my thesis. It was close to getting published, but it didn’t happen. For which I’m glad. It was not the book I would have wanted to be the start of my publication journey. The Home for Wayward Girls is.