Interview with Theresa Rizzo Author of The Lives Between Us

RM:

Hello Theresa,

          First of all, I want to thank you for writing such a beautiful book. It has been long since I read a clean book without blood, gore and villains. ‘The Lives Between Us’ was a welcome change to the run of the mill books! And to be frank, the appendix in the book, ‘The Lives Between Us Discussion Questions’ covered almost everything I noted down as questions for the interview as I read the book. So I have had to redraft my whole questionnaire (no complaints! I have never known anyone so thorough!)

TR: Thanks so very much for having me on your blog, Dhivya.

1.    While you set out to write this book, what did you expect it to be? (As in the drama element, or the impact of advances in medicine, or the struggles in politicians lives?)

Is there any event or book or news in particular that made you start writing this?

When embryonic stem cells were discovered and hailed as potential miracle cures for all kinds of diseases and disabilities, the moral controversy intrigued me. I could sympathize with scientists and pro-life people, yet thought they both simplified the issue. I think it’s easy to take moral stances when one is not directly affected, but what happens to your morals when it’s your child or your spouse who stands to suffer or died? That idea intrigued me and I had to write about it.

In order to attract readers and get the message I wanted to across, I knew I’d have to be very clever. Being preachy or too factual would turn people off, so I tried to develop great, relatible characters, and put them in an intriguing plot that allowed me to reveal the science and moral contraversy I wanted to include, without overwhelming them.

I didn’t intend to write about the struggles in a politician’s life, but it was born from my will NOT to write cliché characters, and my personal annoyance of how fans are so judgmental of famous people and pretend like they know them and have a RIGHT to know about their lives simply because of who they are and what their talents are. No doubt some celebrities court this attention, but I’m guessing 85% do not and fans take it to an obscenly invasive level in my opinion and it’s not right. Lecture done.

The romance I included for two reasons—one, romance readers make up more than 52% of all fiction books sold—so it’s a conscious marketing decision, but most importantly…I love romance and need that happy ending. My optimistic little soul needs a happy ending, so all my books will always have that, because that’s with I need. And if you don’t know it yet, it’s ALL about what I want <G>. Just teasing.

2.    The first thing that attracted me to this book was the title. Is there any significance or was it a catchy phrase?

Titles are REALLY hard to come up with. I very deliberately chose The Lives Between Us. Since the death of embyros is at the core of the contraversy of this story, it’s the little lost souls (embryos) that is at issue, coming between people. It’s fighting over Lives that comes between the characters.  Gosh, it HAS to have strong meaning ‘cause the title is NOT easy to say. I’d have chosen something liguistically easier if I could have!

3.    In the whole book, my favourite characters are Faith and Noelle. They are strong woman (though not the protagonists, they are very important to the development of the story). Which character did you enjoy creating the most?

You know, I have to say I love these women, too. So strong. And unlike most writers of emotional dramas, I come up with a plot that intrigues me, then create characters to move around the story to suit my needs, but Faith kind of became her own person early on. I was writing a scene—dialogue—and she popped out with these lines that showed me she has a great sense of humor. That surprised me.

But I think I fell in love with Edward. I loved the challege of writing a politician with morals. A loyal husband. A passionate man willing to work to try and change life for the better for society.  A man who wants to be a good father, but falls short, until this roll becomes a priority. Edward wasn’t perfect, but he had a heart of gold and he came through. That’s all I can ask for of my hero.

4.    When I started the book, I never imagined the book would turn out to have so many distinct flavours. It was a conflict between a good man’s political and personal lives, a good woman’s dilemma between reporting the biggest news of her career and refraining from doing it due to friendship – if asked to classify your book under one genre, what would it be?

That’s the beauty and curse of this book, and the main reason it wasn’t picked up by a traditional publisher when my agent tried to sell it. It offers something for many different readers—romance, the meat of a good literary read, the current events and science/medical to appeal to medical enthusiasts and fans of Jodi Picoult. It’s hard to know where to put it on a shelf in a bookstore, so it’s hard for a publisher to market. My dad claims my books are just “damn good books”—not women’s fiction. I laugh and tell him that it’s too bad there’s not just a “Damn Good Book” shelf in a bookstore.

I was hoping that The Lives Between Us would catch on like wildfire so my fans would solve this problem for me and I could just classify it under the Bestseller shelf.

5.    Skylar blaming Edward for Nikki’s death seemed far fetched and a bit unnecessary.  Are there any justifications? (and no, I haven’t changed my opinion after reading the book – I have always maintained that a single person could not be blamed for large scale events!)

Justification? In my experience, immature people don’t bother much with justification, especially when their emotions are involved. Skye is immature, as are many 20 somethings of my acquaintance. She’s also emotionally vulnerable due to the loss of both parents while in her teens. I know how hard it was losing my mom when I was in my 40s—experiencing that type of loss times two—as a teen, could have a very real, damaging impact on a person to my way of thinking.

There are millions of adults who live most of their lives not taking responsibility for themselves and their lives. They blame others for EVERYTHING. I didn’t raise MY kids that way, however there are plenty of people out there like this, so Skye’s attitude didn’t seem so far-fetched to me, but I couldn’t let her stay that way long.

The book takes place over about a year, so that’s a fair amount of growing up she did in that amount of time, so it worked for me.

6.    Who are your favourite authors/ inspirations?

Gosh I have too many to name. I have vast respect for Harlan Coban, Susanne Collins, Kaki Warner, Jodi Picoult, Lisa Kleypas, Christine Feehan, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Susan Wiggs, Tessa Dare, and I could go on quite a while.

7.    There is nothing I would change about the book, not even the ending – but was it a conscious decision to make sure the book had no real villains, only people who were influenced by their surroundings and motives?

Gosh, you ask the best questions. No, I don’t think it was a consicous decision to make no villains, though I kind of thought of Eileen as a villain. But I guess it was born of my belief that everybody has a reason for acting the way they do. It’s said that when you dig down deep, two main emotions motivate people, fear and love. Even bad villains –unless they’re mentally unstable—have reasons for what they do. And those reasons make sense to that person. So I like to illuminate the reasons behind characters’ behaviors.

8.    IF you wanted people to gain a message from reading this book, what would it be?

I want people to realize that moral dilemmas are difficult, multi-faceted problems—it’s simply not as easy as many people make it out to be.  Id like us all to be more compassionate and less judgmental. But for the grace of God go I.

9.    Are there any more such books in the pipeline?

Yup, I have a romantic suspense coming out this fall or Jan 2016 and then another suspense and after that, we’ll see.

Now for some quick fire questions –

·        Your favourite book / series?

I don’t have a favorite. I loved The Hunger Games, Loved Lisa Kleypas’s contemporary series with Sugar Daddy, Kaki Warner’s Blood Rose trilogy and of course the incomperable Harry Potter books.

·        Your hobbies?

Besides reading? I crochet, ski, hike, walk, I create cool tile mosaics, love to landscape my yard, spend time with my kids, playing cards—euchre, hearts, spades, canasta…

·        Any book you have read again and again (a comfort book, perhaps?)

Not fiction, really. I’ll re-read some fiction books to learn from them—like I deconstructed the Hunger games because the premis of the books is distasteful, so how does Collins pull it off and make us get over it and hook us on the story and make it so we couldn’t put it down? I want to master THAT skill!

·        What genre would we find in abundance in your bookshelf?

Romance.

·        One person you are constantly inspired by?

Susan Wiggs. She’s a fine writer, she’s been successful a long time in this fickle industry, and she’s genuinely a kind, sweet person. I want to be like Susan when I grow up J

·        Your preferred writing environment?

My study, though I move all over the house when I write—my bedroom, my desk over my treadmill, the family room… I don’t write in public like many authors I know.. I have zero capacity to block distractions out, so can’t write with noise around.

Thanks for taking time to answer my questions.