Hello everyone! Today I’m talking with author Marci Nault about jumping off cliffs without a parachute, healing, being an outsider, and a woman standing in front of three flames.  Yes, our conversation roamed around and about!

I read her book, The Lake House, and loved it, so wanted to share it with you all, and a bit about Marci, her life, and her Dreams Co. organization.

Hint: Dreams. Making them come true.

Cathy Lamb: Welcome, Marci. I’m always so curious about writers and their lives and how they became writers.  Could you please give us the short version of your journey through life thus far…

Marci Nault: My life has always been a series of jumping off cliffs, knowing I don’t have a parachute and hoping I can make one on the way down. Sometimes it works great and my dreams are fulfilled bigger than my imagination could’ve seen. At other times I’ve hit bottom with a loud kerplunk forcing me to dust off and find my strength again. I’ve often wondered if I’d be better off settling into some semblance of steadiness, but every time I’ve tried, life has had a way of blowing things up, forcing me to once again stand at that ledge, gather my courage, and jump.

Marci, I am so familiar with that ledge. Perhaps you and I have been on it at the same time? I’ve jumped also.  But why writing? What made you decide you wanted to write?

By the time I was nine, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I loved creating stories, and I spent most of my youth with my nose in a book or living out imaginary lives in my head. A few high school teachers made me feel horrible about my writing, even though I was a straight A honors student, they made me believe that I didn’t have the talent.

Over the years, stories had a way of haunting my sleep–the characters in my head refusing to be silenced. I finally gave in. There’s nothing more satisfying than sitting at my computer watching my words create a world bit by bit. It’s frustrating, terrifying, courage-provoking, and the greatest ride.

I see the world in scenes that can be written–from knock down emotional battles to being on the back of a motorcycle, the wind in my hair, a very hot guy driving the bike–I’m thinking, “Capture this, bring it into your heart so you can write it later.” I’ll never forget the time I was sobbing, tears soaking my sweatshirt sleeves, but a part of my head was trying to dive deeper into the emotions so I could write it later.

Marci, I have cried over all my books, writing and editing certain scenes.  By the time I’m on my eighth edit, I am a true and inglorious mess. But I always think, if I don’t cry over these scenes, neither will the reader. I don’t feel it, they won’t feel it. So grab the tissues, right?

But I ramble. Tell us about your book, “The Lake House.”

THE LAKE HOUSE came to me in a dream where I found the perfect home on a lake and bought it without any research. Then when I moved in I realized all my neighbors were over the age of seventy and had lived in the community their whole lives. In the dream they were stopping by with casseroles and trying to set me up with their grandsons. When I woke I knew I had to write the story.

Victoria’s character quickly became a strong presence in my life. The first time I saw her in my mind, she was standing on her porch with three candles lit. The only thing I knew was that the flames represented the three women she’d lost in her life. For years, as I wrote the book, she’d wake me at four in the morning demanding I tell her story. I know this sounds a bit crazy, but it was the way it unfolded.

The story is about relationships, how we create them, how we break them, and how we put them back together. It’s about finding’ home’ in the most unlikely place for twenty-eight-year-old Heather Bregman when she buys her dream home and finds out her elderly neighbors are mostly unhappy to have her in residence while Victoria and Molly are determined to befriend her.

The story spans generations and shows us that healing, even the toughest of losses, is possible when you finally allow yourself to come home.

Which character in The Lake House do you most relate to and why?

It’s strange, you would think I’d relate more to the young character, Heather, but I most relate to the older character, Victoria. I come from a small New England town where most of my high school friends married their high school sweethearts and had families right away. A part of me wanted the comfort of that life and being part of the community, but like Victoria I needed to roam and see the world.

While I lived on the other side of the country, sometimes when I returned home I felt more like a novelty in my circle of friends because of the way I lived my life–becoming almost an outsider because I was gone so long.

I think that most authors feel like outsiders, at least sometimes, some authors feel that way all the time.  I think we observe, study, analyze, often from that outside circle. At 48, I’m pretty comfortable there. In fact, I like it! I bet you’re comfortable feeling like an outsider now and then, too. 

Was any part of the plot, in particular the challenging elements of life, taken from your own life?

I think all books have moments of truth from an author’s experience, though we hate to admit it, feeling that our characters are outside of us. When I viewed the book after publication, I started to see how each character had been influenced by either something I’d experienced or seen, a commonality to someone I loved or even disliked.

As for plot, Molly’s condition came from something I experienced with my grandmother when I was a teenager.

The two devilish old men who play pranks on Heather to make her want to leave are definitely based on my late grandfather and his brother.

Grief was a strong element in the book. I teared up many times. And yet your book was so realistic to life, which I liked and appreciated, as we are all hit with grief in life many times.  Was it hard to balance the grief with all of the other plot lines of the book without the grief taking over?

I definitely cried many times with Victoria, her heartache so real it was if I experienced it with her. As for balancing the grief, I come from a large extended family that in the worst times always seems to find humor to keep us going.

There are moments when it’s incredibly inappropriate, like at my grandfather’s funeral where my cousins and I were crying so hard that we ran out of tissues. One cousin had Dippin Donuts napkins in her pockets and suddenly we’re all blowing our noses on napkins with donuts printed on them. We started laughing so hard we couldn’t contain ourselves, which only worsened as we tried to stop. The sadness didn’t dissipate but the laughter was healing.

I wanted THE LAKE HOUSE to have the humor that comes even when life is at its hardest. I wanted my characters to find love even when it felt impossible to re-open their hearts. These are the stories that are real in our lives. To set it in a place that has such deep nostalgia for times gone past was a secondary way for them to heal.

How do you start writing your books?  Do you have a single image, a picture, a thought, a theme that is the spark for a story?

With THE LAKE HOUSE, it was the idea of writing about a young woman moving into a community of elderly people. The story really became about two women needing to heal and the unlikely friendship that saves them. I never expected it to go the way it did, but I love where it took me.

My next book started with a vision of a woman standing at the ocean crying. I knew she lost everything, but I didn’t know what she lost. The only other part I knew was that the story would be about how memories affect our lives.

Oh, you have already snagged me for that  book! Can’t wait to read it! 

Besides writing, you also created Dreams Co.   101 Dreams Come True. Tell us about that venture.

When I went on book tour for THE LAKE HOUSE many women wanted to talk about my list of 101 Dreams that I’d made public on my website www.101dreamscometrue.com.

I heard a recurring theme among many book clubs that it was better to be a giver, someone like Molly, than to be a Victoria who pursued her dreams. I was surprised by this conversation and how many women didn’t want to share their dreams unless it was in private, behind their hand, as if saying it aloud were somehow wrong. I wanted women to think more about their own dreams and celebrate them, but so many didn’t even know where to begin to know what those dreams were.

I had an idea to create events where women could come for a day and try out different things on their life-lists from ballroom dancing to writing the first page of a book. So far it’s been a very hard endeavor to get underway and a long journey learning about business and being a boss. I’m much happier tucked into my house writing stories. But I believe in this dream and when I was given the opportunity to have a radio broadcast on URBusinessnetwork.com to talk about women pursuing their dreams and doing for themselves, I took the opportunity.

Now each Saturday you can listen to Dreams Cafe as I interview guests talking about going after their dreams ranging from NY Times Bestselling authors, to Burlesque dancers, and everything in between.

I love doing the show and hopefully in the coming years we can get the events going nationwide. I just need to find the right business partners instead of the ones with huge resumes that like to sit on their high thrones.

Thank you for interviewing me on Dreams Cafe. I so enjoyed our chat.http://101dreamscometrue.com/marci-nault-dreams-cafe-radio-show-launches/

What are you working on now?

I’m deep into book two, which I can’t discuss at the moment since my agent is in negotiations with editors. What I will say is that it’s about a family reaching towards one another in a crisis, but that the secrets that have been hidden for many years along with the mother’s disease, stop them from being able to find their way through their heartache. It’s set in New England in Boston and on Cape Cod. I’ve been doing lots of research this summer at the beach as I eat lobster.

Three places you want to visit in your lifetime and why?

My next stop off on my tour of the world is Istanbul and Uganda and possibly Dubai with some girlfriends. I want to see the architecture of Istanbul and learn the history. In Uganda I’m hoping to teach creative writing through a volunteer program, raft the Nile, and see the mountain Gorillas. I think next on the list after that is Petra and Egypt. I haven’t been to the Middle East yet and the culture and history fascinates me. So often we only hear the bad, but I know that it’s steeped in the good as well.

Three favorite classics? My all-time favorite stories are Bel Canto, The Great Gatsby, and The Glass Menagerie. And yes, I know the last one is a play, but I read it in high school and it stayed with me.

Three people, dead or alive, that you want to have dinner with? Ann Patchett – I met her once and I was completely starstruck–I’d like to be less of a babbling fool at the dinner. The Dali Lama–my friend was able to interview him and she said it was like being in a champagne glass because the energy around him is was effervescent. Einstein. Can I have a guilty pleasure fourth? Tom Brady – I’m a huge Patriot fan.

Thank you so much for your time, Marci. Links below if you would like to chat with Marci further.

Twitter: @101dreamslist

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marci.nault?fref=ts

Dreams Cafe: http://urbusinessnetwork.com/category/marci-nault-dreams-cafe/ www.101dreamscometrue.com

www.elegantbridaldesigns.com ( my bridal business)

Youtube video for THE LAKE HOUSE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqCIipbWI8I