Authors At Home: Cai Emmons, “Sinking Islands”

This week’s spotlight Q&A is on Cai Emmons and her new novel, Sinking Islands, published by Red Hen Press on September 14, 2021. We chatted with Cai about her love of science, when she felt like she’d become a “real” author, and what she’s working on now.

When did you first think, “I want to write a book” and when did you first feel like a real author?

Since I was eight I have wanted to write books. My father worked in publishing and books were a big part of our family life. I wrote poetry back then and one Christmas I put together a book of my poems for my parents. I loved turning my writing into a physical artifact that could be held; I loved that it had a cover and pages that turned.

I felt like a “real author” when I got my first book contract, for the novel, His Mother’s Son. I knew at that point that I would continue to write even if I never published, but getting that contract felt as if it legitimized the whole operation in the eyes of the world. It was a very memorable moment. My son had been begging for a Game Boy and I had been putting him off, telling him I would get him a Game Boy when/if I sold my novel. He was up vomiting all night, and the next morning he and I were watching cartoons in a daze when the call from my agent came in saying we had an offer. That call snapped me out of my daze! We immediately got into the car and drove to Toys R Us to get him the Game Boy. What joy we both felt!

What’s your day-to-day author routine like? Do you write every day? Do you have a set time/schedule for being creative?

I am a big believer in the Pavlovian power of habit. So yes, I write every day, except on certain holidays, or when I’m traveling. I always write in the morning, as soon after waking as possible, trying to take advantage of the free-associative aspect of the dream state. I prop myself up in bed with a cup of coffee (we have a coffeemaker in the bedroom) and I begin to work, writing longhand with a pen on a pad of lined paper. I don’t check email, or answer the telephone, or even converse with my husband. Those activities are too distracting. My husband knows not to talk to me then. I write for four hours or so, longer if I don’t have any obligations. The afternoons are often occupied with typing up what I’ve written or taking care of business, either the business of being a writer, or the business of being a person in a complicated world!

Are you working on a new book? If so, can you share what it’s about?

I am working on a new novel that is moving forward very slowly, because I began with a very ambitious idea — wanting to investigate the evil at large in the world these days — and I quickly realized that I needed to drop the idea and focus on the characters, which meant letting go of various elements of the novel. I’ve always known that it is danger to write from a strong idea rather than from character or story; it’s important to allow ideas to emerge from the characters and the story situation. Often what emerges is very different from what you expected at the outset. Writing is a process of exploration that follows a path from a very hazy state of being drawn to subject without knowing entirely why, to an end point where there is greater clarity. That process can’t be rushed. The end point can’t be known in advance. At least for this writer.

Who are some of your favorite authors? Favorite books? Who inspires you when it comes to writing?

There are a few things I really prize in books. One is the use of beautiful or surprising language (Tony Doerr, Ann Pancake, Colum McCann). Another is an outlook on the part of the writer that prods me to think a lot after I’ve finished the book (Rachel Cusk, Carol Shields, Amor Towles). Also, I am a glutton for an immersive read, a novel that sucks you up and keeps you there to the last page (A Little Life by Hana Yanagihara or Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan). Another thing I like is a certain tone that transfixes me, almost hypnotizes me with its lyricism, such as the books of Alice McDermott or Kent Haruf. There is a simplicity in the language of those authors that I find elegiac and mesmerizing. The books I love always deliver at least one of these things, sometimes more. I could list so many writers I adore, but certain writers spring to mind immediately: Tony Doerr, Alice McDermott, Rachel Cusk, Jennifer Egan, Colum McCann, Kent Haruf, Ann Pancake, Carol Shields. I could go on and on. I loved J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, Susan Minot’s Evening, Colum McCann’s Transatlantic, Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping. And I can’t forget the works of Virginia Woolf — Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, in particular, but really all of them — which I revisit on a regular basis. I have a bunch of favorite books that I keep in a Tupperware tub under my bed. Included there is The River, by Rumer Godden, one of the first books I fell in love with as a kid. It is narrated from the point of view of a young girl, Harriet, whose family is English but living in India. Harriet wants to be a writer. Her world is turned upside down when her brother, Bogey, is bitten by a snake and dies. That book made a real impression on me, and it played a role in making me want to become a writer.

We know you are passionate about weather and climate change. If you weren’t an author, would you be doing something weather-related?

I have always loved science. All my life I’ve been obsessed with weather, but I’ve been drawn to other arenas in science too. I remember dissecting a frog in high school and being absolutely riveted by the process. I thought I might want to become a surgeon. And in recent years I have become equally riveted by neuroscience, all the discoveries being made about brain function. For my most recent novel (Unleashed, to be published in 2022) I did research about cephalopods and various other animals. All of this is to say that science is for me the path not taken — I would have loved pursuing it, perhaps as much as writing though I have a hard time imagining not being a writer. Because I like so many different scientific disciplines, I think I might have been very happy as a science writer, knowing enough about a bunch of different areas of science that I could summarize and translate research discoveries to the layperson.

When you wrote Weather Woman, did you imagine you would go on to write its sequel?

I had no intention of writing a sequel. I do not see myself as a sequel writer. I think of sequel writers as being more common among mystery writers, or writers of historical novels or thrillers perhaps. So no, I did not intend to write a sequel. But when I was done with Weather Woman, several people said they thought there was more to be said. One woman in particular was very insistent that I should write a sequel. And she wouldn’t give up; she kept bugging me. The more I thought about it, the more I saw she was right. For one thing, there was more to be said about the relationship between Bronwyn and her mentor Diane. Also, I was concerned about leaving the idea in the air that the efforts of one person can save our climate. I don’t believe that, and I didn’t want to leave the impression that that is how I see things. So, I began writing the sequel and it poured out of me very quickly.

What is one big message you want readers to take away from Sinking Islands?

My main “message” (I am a bit loathe to see my books as having a direct message, but maybe this one does!) is that we must collaborate to fix the degradation of our climate; it is not a situation that any single person can remedy. We need all hands on deck. Hence, we see Bronwyn teaching others to do what she does and encouraging local action.

About Sinking Islands:

Sinking Islands continues the story of Bronwyn Artair, a scientist who possesses the power to influence the natural forces of the Earth. After several successful interventions, including one in Siberia, she has gone into hiding, worried about unintended consequences of her actions, as well as about the ethics of operating solo. But circumstances call her to action again, and an idea takes shape: What if she could impart her skill to other people? Gathering a few kindred souls from climate-troubled places around the world — Felipe from São Paulo, where drought conditions are creating strains on day-to-day life; Analu and his daughter Penina from a sinking island in the South Pacific; and Patty from the tornado-ridden plains of Kansas — she takes them to the wilds of Northern New Hampshire where she tries to teach them her skill. The novel, realistic but for the single fantastical element, explores how we might become more attuned to the Earth and act more collaboratively to solve the enormity of our climate problem.

About Cai Emmons:

Cai Emmons is the author of five books of fiction: the novels His Mother’s Son (Harcourt), The Stylist (HarperCollins), Weather Woman (Red Hen Press), and Sinking Islands (Red Hen Press), as well Vanishing, a collection of short stories which won the Leapfrog Press Fiction Contest. His Mother’s Son won the Ken Kesey Award for the Novel; Weather Woman was awarded a Nautilus Book Award and was shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize. Cai’s short work has appeared in such publications as TriQuarterly, Narrative, Arts and Culture, LitHub, Ms. Magazine, and Electric Literature, among others.

Before turning to fiction, Cai was a dramatist. Her early plays (Mergatroid and When Petulia Comes) were staged in New York at Playwrights Horizons, Theatre Genesis, and The American Place Theater. She studied film at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where her thesis film, “A Man Around the House” won a Student Academy Award. In New York she wrote, directed, and edited independent and documentary films (aired on A&E and PBS); subsequently she moved to Los Angeles where she wrote feature-length screenplays (optioned but unproduced) and several produced teleplays, including episodes of the CBS drama, “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill.”

In addition to a Summa Cum Laude bachelor’s degree from Yale University, Cai holds two MFAs, one in film from New York University, one in fiction from the University of Oregon. She has taught fiction, screenwriting, and filmmaking at various colleges and universities including UCLA, the University of Southern California, and the University of Oregon.

Cai Emmons lives in Eugene, Oregon.

Visit her website here.
Twitter: Cai Emmons
Facebook: @CaiEmmonsBooks
Instagram: @caiemmons