Did you find that you struggled with either sibling’s voice, or did they both come naturally to you? This story is told through the points-of-view of two of the Hurst children, William and Violet. From that point on, the book became more about finding the meeting place between the Hursts’ reality and their delusions of grandeur. I had an aha moment when I realized not all the Hursts could be self-aware because a narcissistic family doesn’t have a realistic self-image. It took me a number of drafts to get the release valve just right-to find that place where the characters revealed their true colors slowly and organically. That said, withholding information has never been part of my writing process.

Structurally, I was aiming for something that was a bit like Rebecca-one of those books where the sense of unease builds and builds until the moment of clarity (however twisted) feels like a perversely joyous relief. I wrote it the same way I used to drink: with no sense of moderation.īy comparison, Mother, Mother was an exercise in restraint. I guess you could say in Smashed, bingeing was both the subject and the process. My editor really had to help me crack it open and find the book encased within this crazy word count.

I wrote the first draft in four months and it was at least twice as long as it was supposed to be. All I had was youthful enthusiasm and the kind of poor boundaries that lead a person to overshare. Before Smashed, I had only written poetry and interoffice memos, so I had absolutely no concept of pacing. Smashed was probably the more difficult of the two. We caught up with Zailckas to ask her a few questions about her debut.ĭid you find it more difficult writing your first memoir ( Smashed) or your first novel? How did the processes differ? Her debut novel, Mother, Mother, is the story of the Hurst family, whose perceptions of themselves have been twisted by the machinations of their narcissistic and overbearing matriarch, Josephine.

Author Koren Zailckas, whose best-selling memoirs Smashed and Fury chronicled her troubled youth, again taps into her own life experiences-but this time, she’s writing fiction.

Mother mother by koren zailckas