My guest this month is debut author, Galina Vromen, author of Hill of Secrets. Galina began writing fiction after more than twenty years as an international journalist in Israel, England, the Netherlands, France, and Mexico. After a career with Reuters News Agency, she moved into the nonprofit sector as a director at the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and headed their operations in Israel. There she launched and directed two reading readiness programs, one in Hebrew and one in Arabic, which gifted twenty million books to young children and their families during her tenure and were named US Library of Congress honorees for best practices in promoting literacy. She has an MA in literature and a BA in media and anthropology. She and her husband divide their time between Israel and Massachusetts where Galina loves to swim, hike, kayak, write, read and hang out with friends.
You can connect with Gallina via her website and Amazon author page. You can buy Hill of Secrets here.
What or who inspired you to first write? Which authors have influenced you?
My grandfather first inspired me to write. I sent him a poem when I was about eight and he sent me one back, riffing off of my poem. I was a big reader as a kid and I always imagined that I would write. My fantasy was to be a journalist for National Geographic Magazine and I imagined marrying a photographer and traveling around the world as a team, writing and photographing interesting places. In terms of historical fiction, I would say the biggest influences have been Kate Quinn and Kelly Rimmer. In terms of books with changing points of view, Kathryn Stockett’s The Help was a model that I very much admire and used as a guide. In terms of beautifully evocative, sensual writing, Andre Aciman is an author who sets a high bar to aspire to.
What is the inspiration for Hill of Secrets? Is there a particular theme you wished to explore?
I very much wanted to explore the notion of secrets, the role they play in our personal and collective lives, and to raise the question of when is it best keep secrets and when is best to reveal them – and for whose sake? I chose WW2 Los Alamos as the location for my novel because it was arguably the most secret place in the US at the time (even though 6,000 people lived there!). And my main characters all have personal secrets, except for one (Gertie, a teen) who desperately wants to learn everyone else’s secrets.
What period of history particularly inspires or interests you? Why?
I like 20th century history in part because it is a century where so much happened and because so many events then still influences us today.
What resources do you use to research your book? How long did it take to finish the novel?
I read a lot about Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project, including American Prometheus, the very detailed biography of Robert Oppenheimer which the film Oppenheimer was based on. There are lots of oral histories of people who lived at Los Alamos during WW2, including children, wives, maids, manual workers and those testimonies were very important in my research. In addition, quite a lot of people who lived at Los Almos during WW2 later wrote memoirs, so I read a lot of them. The book took me 12 years to write but I started reading about Los Alamos for about a decade before then.
What do you do if stuck for a word or a phrase?
I use google to look for any kind of synonym for the word or phrase at the tip of my mind. Or – terrible habit – I go to the kitchen and eat something. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help me find the word I’m looking for, just means the more words I can’t find, the fatter I get.
Is there anything unusual or even quirky that you would like to share about your writing?
I like to write in small, spare rooms. I wrote my undergraduate thesis in a walk-in closet to concentrate, and I like to write in study rooms in libraries, where I have no excuse to get distracted. Because I was a news reporter for many years, writing while several different radio and TV stations were going on at once, I also can write with a lot of noise around me.
Is there a particular photo or piece of art that strikes a chord with you? Why?
I was blown away by the mosaic work of Antoni Gaudi at the Guell Park in Barcelona. First of all, I love mosaics and love making mosaic work myself, so I was in heaven just being there. I love the riot of colors and how each small bit is part of a whole, how each piece both fits in and yet stands out at the same time. Mosaics just seem such a metaphor for so much in life, and it was just beautiful!
Do you use a program like Scrivener to create your novel? Do you ever write in long hand?
No, I haven’t used Scrivener though I would consider doing so in the future. I never write in long hand because I type very fast from years of being a reporter and I can riff with a keyboard and keep up with my thoughts much better by typing them than by writing long hand.
What advice would you give an aspiring author?
Persistence is what it’s all about. You just have to keep at it. And don’t let the detractors, the nay sayers, get to you. I stopped writing for about three years because of something someone I trusted said about my work. I should have just ignored her. Another piece of advice: less is almost always more. Don’t use two adjectives when one will do, don’t overexplain to your reader. So often, writers (including me) feel a need to set a scene, give background before they jump into a chapter, when they could start a page or two down, and get into the action, without the preamble. And there is a tendency go on too long at the end of a chapter. So always look at those first few and last few paragraphs of a chapter and consider whether you really need them.
Tell us about your next book.
I’m thinking of doing a sequel that would follow one of the characters in the book into the 1950s. The idea is not very formed yet.
When Robert Oppenheimer gathers a group of scientists at the clandestine desert outpost of Los Alamos to create the world’s first nuclear weapon, their families move there as well with no explanation other than to “Stand by. Make do. And above all, don’t ask questions.” In this immersive novel, the lives of real historical figures intertwine with fictional characters who must cope with suppressed yearning, irrepressible love and guilt. Among them are Christine Sharp, forced to abandon her art restoration business in New York to support her husband’s career and must re-invent herself. She forges an unlikely friendship with Gertie, the precocious teenage daughter of German-Jewish refugee and prominent physicist Kurt Koppel. Gertie enlists Christine to help her capture the heart of Jimmy, a shy soldier, and to deal with parents haunted by their past. Kurt, anguished by what the Nazis have done to his family and bent on defeating them, carries burdens he longs to share. In revealing the complexities of life for those at Los Alamos who knew about the bomb and those who couldn’t be told, HILL OF SECRETS explores the complicated web of secrets we all spin and hold as we navigate our way through life. And like Oppenheimer and his team, they all must contend with the moral questions and aftermath of creating the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Thanks Galina – the novel sounds complex and fascinating. I hope you figure out an angle for the sequel.
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