Lexington, KY - Lexington author and Lansdowne-Merrick neighbor Kim Edwards was thrust to the top of the international writing scene with the success of her debut novel, "The Memory Keeper's Daughter," which spent a daunting 122 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list (23 of which were at No. 1), in 2006.
Her highly anticipated new novel, "The Lake of Dreams," was released earlier this year. The story takes place in upstate New York, where Edwards is from (a large portion of "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" takes place in Lexington), and tells the story of Lucy Jarrett, who returns to her hometown after traveling around the world and witnesses the changes that are transpiring there. She also discovers a stack of old letters that sends her on a quest to discover the secrets of a mysterious ancestor.
Edwards moved to Lexington 15 years ago when her husband, Tom Clayton, took a job at the University of Kentucky. Since then, Edwards has also taken a position at UK, where she is now an associate professor.
For more information on Edwards and her work, visit kimedwardsbooks.com.
Given the success of "The Memory Keeper's Daughter," was it intimidating trying to write the followup novel?
It would have been, I think, had it happened to me when I was in my 20s and I had had that kind of success happen to me right away. I've been writing for a long time, and I've written through a lot of ups and downs. But I also had started "The Lake of Dreams" already before "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" was even published. I was well into the story, and it was a real gift to have that novel to come back to, because it did get disrupted for a couple of years. It took me a few months, when I came back to "The Lake of Dreams," to catch my breath and regather my focus so I could write again.
Do you always find inspiration for your work in places that you live or have lived before?
I think I like to use the places I know well because it frees me up to imagine the characters if I don't have to worry about the logistics of place. They're also places I have an emotional attachment to, so it's fun to write about them.
Have you always been a writer?
I always wanted to be a writer, but I didn't know how to become a writer. I didn't know anybody who was a writer, and in high school I wrote really bad poetry. In college I confessed my burning desire to write to a professor who was also a fiction writer, and he saw something in a story I put up for workshop that made him think I could do it. He became a wonderful mentor to me and suggested I go to grad school for writing. So I started writing seriously when I was in college.
When you first started writing in college, what's something you wish you would have known that you know now?
I've learned over the years that writing is a discipline. It's something you need to do everyday, whether or not it goes well or doesn't go well. I always tell my students they need to write for the joy of it, because it's intrinsically valuable to write. There's something powerful about the experience, aside from what happens to it when it goes out into the world, which you have no control over. I think that's the biggest thing I've had to learn over time. I wrote for years and years and years when I was not being published, and I'd like to think I'd still be writing even if I hadn't have been published.
Now that you're teaching writing, how has being an instructor influenced your creative process?
It's great. It's really symbiotic in a lot of ways. Some of the exercises I have my students do are exercises I use myself.
Where do you like to do your writing?
My husband was a carpenter before he was an English professor. He built a wonderful room above the garage of our house. We each have an office up there.
What do you like to do with your spare time when you have some?
I love being near water. I like to kayak. We've taken a wonderful vacation the past two summers to the Great Lakes region. I like to swim in lakes, not so much pools.
What are you working on now?
Don't I get a break?! Seriously, I have a feeling about the next novel, but haven't gained enough distance from "The Lake of Dreams" to start writing it yet.