Towner

And it was a very intense mother-daughter scene where Towner is very angry at May, and she wouldn’t be quiet about it.

Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » A conversation with Brunonia Barry, part 1 2009

He said, The reason it’s not working is that you have an unreliable narrator at best — crazy at worst — and everything happens at the end of the story because it’s entirely in Towner’s point of view.

Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » A conversation with Brunonia Barry, part 2 2009

You’ve said that it started not in Towner’s but in May’s point of view, and that you realized partway through that May was not the true protagonist.

Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » A conversation with Brunonia Barry, part 1 2009

BB: Yes, I tried to become the character and act as they would for a day or two, and in Towner’s case for about a week.

Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » A conversation with Brunonia Barry, part 3 2009

I could walk around as Towner anywhere, including the grocery store.

Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » A conversation with Brunonia Barry, part 3 2009

She was the more interesting character to explore, and I kept coming back to May, but Towner took over every chapter as the story grew.

Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » A conversation with Brunonia Barry, part 1 2009

That sometimes represents the gaps Towner has in her memory, but there are also gaps in the book on purpose.

Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » A conversation with Brunonia Barry, part 2 2009

I meant to set the book more on Yellow Dog Island and less in Salem, but as Towner took over the story it became obvious that Salem was a bigger part of the story.

Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » A conversation with Brunonia Barry, part 1 2009

One way to look at it, I think, is that your characters have each been through something like a war – certainly Towner, but also Rafferty and May and Jack and Emma — and because of that, there are these big cavities in personality and memories, even what you think you want and need out of life.

Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » A conversation with Brunonia Barry, part 2 2009

Say in The Lace Reader I need a note to myself like, “Eva knew Towner went to Cambridge.”

Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » A conversation with Brunonia Barry, part 1 2009