Today I’m interviewing author Andrea Lochen, a new mother and a great writer with a truly stunning imagination. 

So, Andrea, before we dive into that imagination of yours, I’m as curious as everyone else is about authors and their lives. Tell us about yourself.

Andrea Lochen: I’m the author of two novels, Imaginary Things and The Repeat Year, both of which are a unique blend of women’s fiction and magical realism. I like to write about ordinary people living in otherwise ordinary settings who encounter extraordinary opportunities (Such as seeing your child’s imaginary friends or reliving a year of your life, respectively.)

Nine months out of the year, I’m also an English lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha where I teach writing to undergraduate students. I live in Madison, Wisconsin with my husband, my two-month old daughter, and my Teddy Bear dog (an adorably fluffy Bichon Shih Tzu mix).

In my free time, I’m an avid reader and baker (cupcakes with butter cream frosting are my specialty!)

Cathy Lamb: Lovely. Now I have something to look forward to when I see the postman. I love butter cream icing!

But on another note that is not about scrumptious cupcakes, in your book, Imaginary Things, Anna Jennings can see her son’s imagination. I absolutely love that. 

What was the spark?

I was a very imaginative child, and though I never had an imaginary friend, my older sister and I loved to play these very involved games of make believe. Some of our favorites were orphanage, the Box Car children (Yes, we were very into orphans, apparently!) school, and gift shop.

I remember sometimes getting so involved in these elaborate scenarios that our little fantasy worlds would actually feel real to us, so imagination has always been something that preoccupies and fascinates me. When starting a new writing project, I tend to use a “what if?” question as my jumping off point.

For Imaginary Things, that question was: what if a parent had the ability to see their child’s inner life of pretend play? And voila! Anna and David were born.

I loved the first paragraph of your book because it sounded true. “There was something about driving an ancient Dodge Caravan packed with all of my worldly possessions, including my four year old son and my cat, that reeked of failure and desperation.”

Have you ever been in a situation like this yourself?

Thankfully I’ve never been in a situation quite as dire as Anna’s (one that financially requires her to move herself and her son in with her grandparents), but I certainly have had more than my share of do-it-yourself moves, cross-country (from Mississippi to Michigan, for example) and otherwise.

Packing up all of your belongings into a car and hauling them across state lines really makes your life seem small and portable in a way that I find disconcerting. It also requires you to sort through your personal possessions, as well as the memories attached to them, and decide what to keep and what to cast off.

And it’s always a little unnerving starting over in a new place, which is the off-kilter feeling I wanted Anna to have at the beginning of the book.

What part of yourself, or your life, is in the character of Anna Jennings? Authors often share, in one way or another, what they think, how they feel, and their past, etc. through their characters. Did you do that here?

Anna and I are actually more different than similar. I put a lot more of myself into the protagonist from my first novel, Olive Watson (who is more reasonable and tends to play it safe), so when I started Imaginary Things, I knew I wanted to break away from that and write someone who was a little more reckless and impulsive.

That was one of the reasons I chose to write this book using a first-person point of view rather than third-person; it was easier for me to get into Anna’s perspective if I was also in her distinctive voice.

What’s interesting to a lot of readers is that I wrote this novel about a mother and child relationship a few years before I actually became a mother. But the tender scenes between Anna and David were some of my favorite to imagine and write.

And though I don’t have the magical ability to see my daughter’s imagination (although, who knows? She’s currently much too young for that kind of play!), I feel like Anna and I both share an incredibly fierce love for our children.

Aw, we mothers. I totally understand both you and Anna. The love we have for our kids is endless, isn’t it?

But mother to mother and author to author, what was the hardest part about writing this book?

Figuring out why Anna could see David’s imagination and what it all meant. So as she is struggling to figure out the rules of this bizarre phenomenon and what it all adds up to in the novel’s action, I, as the author, was as well! My writing process tends to be a kind of puzzle-solving that requires me to work backwards.

Oh, that is so interesting. I have a general idea of where I’m going in the story, but things shift and change while I write. I often take out characters in my fourth or fifth edit. I think of writing as a puzzle, too, only sometimes the puzzle is head bangingly difficult and it seems like I can’t find the right pieces.

How long did it take you to write Imaginary Things? How many times did you edit it?

Imaginary Things began as a short story I started writing back in 2006 which eventually morphed into a novel. So if you count that as my starting point, eight years? (Gulp!) Of course, I wasn’t actively working on it that entire time since I was focusing most of my attention on my first novel, The Repeat Year. But once The Repeat Year was published in 2013, I returned my attention to David and his dinosaurs.

I’m a really fast drafter and a terribly slow (and kind of whiny!) reviser. I think it took me about eight drafts and some very helpful feedback from my trusted readers to finally get it right.

What challenges do you face as a writer? What do you love about it?

Finding time, of course, but I know that’s also kind of an excuse! As I mentioned above, I absolutely love the creative process of drafting—inventing new characters, concocting dialogue, weaving plot, describing settings, and the joyful sense of discovery. Revision is much more challenging for me, because it feels more like work than play, but I’m gradually getting better at it.

How long have you been teaching at UW – Waukesha? What are three most important pieces of writing advice you have for your students?

I’ve been teaching at UW-Waukesha for the past six and a half years, and I love it! It’s really invigorating working with young writers and it helps remind me of the passion, enthusiasm, and sense of unlimited possibility that all authors should strive to keep alive in their writing.

I advise my students to 1) Never start a story with a character’s alarm clock going off and starting their day, but rather start as close to the action as possible. 2) Learn “the rules” of writing in order to be able to consciously break the rules, and 3) Persevere, persevere, persevere!

I always tell them that the only difference between the amateur writers and the professionals is not talent, but hard work, belief in oneself, and the ability to revise.

What is your goal as a novelist?

To, in some small way, improve the lives of my readers, whether that is through recognition of themselves and their struggles in my characters or just pure entertainment and enjoyment!

If you had a whole day to yourself, what would you do?

As a new mom with a two-month-old daughter, I immediately knew my answer to this question! SLEEP! In a darkened room with a fluffy down comforter and gentle white noise in the background and no alarms or cries to wake me. Just deep, uninterrupted sleep for as long as my body desires! Then once I woke up (if I had any time left!), I would maybe get a massage or pedicure and do some long overdue clothes shopping with a friend.

Thanks for your time, Andrea, and for letting us peek into that imagination of yours.

Andrea’s website: http://andrealochen.com/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/andrealochen.author

Amazon link to purchase IMAGINARY THINGS: http://www.amazon.com/Imaginary-Things-Andrea-Lochen/dp/1941286119/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412872737&sr=8-1&keywords=imaginary+things