Mary Hogan stops by to share about her latest story THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTO
What’s the
story behind THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTO? How
did the book come to be?
I first had
the idea for this book 24 years ago! I’m not kidding. In 1992, my husband,
actor Robert Hogan, was in an off-Broadway play called On the Bum, also
starring Cynthia Nixon and Campbell Scott. The play was set in Johnstown,
Pennsylvania, several years after the epic flood. The characters talked about a
“lake in the sky” which piqued my curiosity. A few days later, I went to the
library to read about such strange geography. That’s when I read the real story
of the Johnstown disaster. Wow. I was blown away. What a great story! I held my
breath for 24 years worrying that someone would write my book before I got a
chance to. There are other books out there about the flood, but nothing like
mine.
How did you
conduct your research for the book? Are
any of the characters in the book inspired by real-life people?
While on
book tour in Pittsburgh for my first young adult novel, The Serious Kiss, I had
a free afternoon. So, I rented a car and drove two hours to Johnstown to see it
for myself. I could have stayed there for two weeks. There was so much of
interest for this Californian girl. Over the years, I would visit twice more.
Generously, the President of the Johnstown Heritage Association gave me a
day-long tour of everything I needed to tell a compelling tale, including
access to the inside of the private Clubhouse which is still standing! Aside
from the very real members of the exclusive club: steel titans Andrew Carnegie
and Henry Clay Frick, bankers like Andrew Mellon, U.S. Senator and Attorney General
Philander Knox, all the characters are fiction.
How was the
writing experience for THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTO different from your experience
writing your previous novel, TWO SISTERS?
Two Sisters
was a process of opening up my heart and spilling its contents onto the page.
Inspired by the early death of my older sister, I told a tale of family secrets
that I knew all too well. Writing The
Woman in the Photo was a completely different experience. First, I read a gazillion
historical novels. Then, I read every book I could find about Johnstown. I even
read a novel called, Annie Kilburn that was written in 1889 to get a feel for
the language of the day. Research, research, research. I was told that women
who read historical fiction are fiends about accurate detail. So, my biggest
fear about creating a main character who was an upper class woman of the
nineteenth century was getting her many corsets right.
Ah, yes.
Those bonds are complicated, indeed. I have yet to meet a woman who didn’t have
a knotty relationship with her sister or her mother. Even when they are smooth,
they are bumpy. In my case, my mother and I were very much alike, and my sister
and I were very different. So there were a lot of crossed wires. We hurt each
other even when we didn’t know it. My dad and my brothers sort of kept their
heads down and watched sports :)
For me, the
best characters are flawed, striving, loving, selfish, feeling, reacting, deep,
curious, furious, and worried—mostly—about their hair. In other words: women.
Is there a
particular message you hope readers will take away from THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTO?
One of the themes of this novel is: Is DNA your destiny? Are you born to be who you are? Or, can life itself mold you? I would love for readers to finish The Woman in the Photo with the sense that we are all on this earth to be kind to one another. To live together. Even on bad hair days.
About the Author:
Please visit
Mary Hogan on her Facebook page,
Twitter, and her Website.
To purchase her novel you can go to these fine retailers.
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