A Deadly Affection (49 page)

“What's going on?” Finn asked.

I shook my head. “I can't see anything wrong with the boat, so I suppose one of the rowers must be injured.” I scanned the waterfront up ahead. The quickest to get to the pier would be on foot. “I'm going to walk from here,” I told the boys. “Finn, see that Frankie gets the truck back safely, will you?”

I hurried back to the truck for my medical bag and then started up the avenue. I was halfway to the gas company fence before I realized they were all still behind me. I swung around to face them. “What are you doing?”

“Going with you,” Frankie squeaked. “We don't want to miss nothin'.”

“You can't leave the truck in the middle of the street.”

His elfin features took on a familiar, stubborn expression.

“Finn…?” I entreated, looking to the older boy.

“Come on,” said Finn, taking Frankie by the scruff of his neck and turning him back toward the truck.

I continued alone up the waterfront, skirting the fence and cutting across the empty loading docks toward the recreation pier. The sun was hot in the clear July sky, and I was damp and flushed by the time I arrived in Jefferson Park a few minutes later. Apparently, the park had been the destination of the Italian paraders, for red banners were everywhere in evidence, and a motley collection of brass bands near the Pavilion was churning out a festive tune. I hurried on across the lawns, past children performing flag drills on the playgrounds and picnickers sprawled over blankets on the grass. Everywhere the air rang with the shrieks of children and the happy chatter of adults.

As I drew closer to the recreation pier, I was struck by the unnatural quiet that enveloped it. There should have been a holiday band playing on the upper deck, couples dancing, and children launching early rockets across the river. Instead, I heard only the flapping of the flags on the pier roof, along with a low murmur from the clumps of people who were huddled along the north railings of the pier and on the adjacent esplanade, all with their backs to me. I reached the jam on the esplanade and rose on my toes to look beyond it. To my surprise, there was a policeman on the other side, holding the bystanders back. Leading with my shoulder, I pushed my way through the crowd.

Your book takes place in New York City at the turn of the last century. What drew you to that time and place?

New York in the first decade of the twentieth century was a very vibrant place to be. There were problems, of course: three-quarters of the population lived in tenements, wealth was concentrated in the hands of a relative few, the government was corrupt, and workplace conditions were deplorable. But there was also tremendous optimism that these problems could be fixed, and a belief in the power of the individual to make a difference. President Theodore Roosevelt exemplified the attitude of the day when he declared, “Believe you can, and you're halfway there.” To me, this made the period a very appealing setting for a novel.

What would you say has changed the most since that time?

I think we've lost faith in our ability to make a difference, both as individuals and collectively against such seemingly insurmountable problems as environmental destruction and global religious conflict. Still, what struck me most as I was researching the book was what hasn't changed. Although the social codes and fashions and technology were certainly different a century ago, the feelings that people experienced, and the way those feelings made them behave, were pretty much the same as today. I found that comforting. It allowed me to feel a kinship with those who have come before and made it easier to imagine standing in Genevieve's shoes.

Your book deals with two difficult illnesses: Huntington's disease and dissociative identity disorder. Why did you decide to include them in your story?

I try to find topics that were garnering attention around the time of my series and let them be the matrix for my plot. These two illnesses particularly intrigued me because, after receiving considerable scrutiny around the turn of the last century, they both disappeared from the limelight and then reemerged nearly a hundred years later, in my own time. Unfortunately, despite the renewed interest, neither illness is yet fully understood, bringing to mind the adage “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” The good news is that the HD gene was finally isolated in 1993, after an intensive global research effort. Many consider this the first step on the road to a cure. Scientists are now working on understanding how the abnormal protein caused by the HD gene causes cell death within the brain.

Another piece of the past that figures prominently in your book is the “dollar princess” phenomenon. Was Olivia Fiske, your fictitious dollar princess, based on an actual historical figure?

Olivia was inspired in part by Consuelo Vanderbilt, the daughter of millionaire railroad heir William Kissam Vanderbilt. Consuelo's domineering mother, Alva, insisted among other things that her daughter wear a painful back brace to improve her posture and feigned a heart attack when Consuelo refused to marry the ninth Duke of Marlborough because she was in love with an American suitor. The marriage to the Duke eventually went forward, terminating in divorce. The only actual historical figure in the book is Dr. George Huntington, who by all accounts was a lovely human being as well as a brilliant diagnostician, and whom I would have very much liked to meet.

You wrote the book from Genevieve's point of view. Are there similarities between you and her?

I suppose there are a few. Like Genevieve, I push myself to face my fears and try not to let them limit my life. One reviewer described Genevieve as “an insecure risk taker.” I love that phrase! I'd say we both have a tendency to jump before we know where we're going to land. It's much more fun to make Genevieve take the risks, though. One thing she has to deal with that I don't is her tremendous burden of guilt. But I can imagine how difficult it would be to break free from that.

What's your favorite part of the writing process?

Revising! I could revise forever. It's getting the first draft down that's so daunting. Especially when you've never been published before, it's very easy to let your internal critic stop you in your tracks. You have to develop trust in the process. Over time, I've learned to force myself to just spill words onto the page, knowing that it will be awful at first but that there will be gems among the dross. Separating the two is where all the revising comes in.

You worked as a litigation attorney before writing your first novel. What brought you from the law to fiction?

Although writing was always my first love, I wasn't sure how I was supposed to make a living at it. I went to law school at the University of Virginia with the vague understanding that lawyers write a lot of briefs and memoranda. And while I did enjoy that aspect during my years of practice, I could never quite escape the feeling that I was only pretending to be a lawyer. Eventually, I left the law to start up a freelance writing business, which kept my brain from turning to mush while my children were infants, but still, something was missing. I discovered what that something was when I started writing a novel during my sons' nap times. They say that if time disappears when you're working, you've found what you were meant to do. That's what happened to me, when I started writing fiction.

What books have influenced your writing?

I don't emulate anyone's style, at least not consciously. I can only write the story as I see and hear it in my mind. That said, I've always been drawn to books that evoke a strong empathic reaction, allowing me to experience the protagonist's journey as if it were my own. There's nothing like disappearing into an alternate reality for a time. I feel very grateful to those authors who have allowed me to do so.
A Deadly Affection
is my attempt to repay the favor.

How do you feel about happy endings?

I love them. A protagonist needs to change internally in some way over the course of a novel, and I'd prefer to have him or her end in a better place. That doesn't mean he has to be blissfully happy or that all his problems have to be solved, but simply that he's grown in some way through his struggle and has reached a point where he accepts where he is and is ready to move forward with hope and conviction. I'd like my readers to go away feeling there is always hope, always room for positive change.

You live in a part of Connecticut that has been home to many writers over the years. What's the attraction?

For me, it's the closeness and quiet of nature. Although we have all the modern conveniences within a ten-mile radius, I can still walk for miles on back roads without seeing a soul. I suspect that most writers are introverts. That doesn't mean we don't love spending time with other people, but it does mean that socializing tends to drain rather than to energize us. For recharging, a long walk on a dirt road does it for me every time.

And yet, your novel takes place in one of the biggest and busiest metropolises of them all.

That's the beauty of writing fiction. You can have your cake and eat it too.

Thanks first and foremost to my husband, Larry, whose support and encouragement have always gone far, far beyond the call of duty. Catherine Clark, Phil Andryck, Gisela Boelhouwer, Cuyler Holden, Ursula Overholt, Diane Decker, and Joe Veltre provided critical feedback during the long, solitary gamble known as writing a novel. Thank you all for helping me to see the forest as well as the trees.

On the research side, Dr. Tetsuo Ashizawa generously shared his knowledge of early treatments for Huntington's disease, while Dr. Jack Dunietz shared his library on dissociative identity disorder, providing welcome historical perspective. Of course, any errors in the depiction of either illness are entirely my own.

Many thanks to my agent, Victoria Lowes, for riding shotgun and letting me concentrate on writing, and to Anna Michels, the editor of my dreams. I am deeply grateful to Anna and to the entire Sourcebooks team for their enthusiasm, vision, and hard work.

Last but not least, I feel a debt of gratitude to the countless unsung writers of long ago, novelists and journalists alike, who captured their era in words and made it breathe for me a hundred years later.

Cuyler Overholt worked as a litigation attorney and freelance business writer before turning to fiction. Her interest in old New York was sparked in part by the reminiscences of her grandmother, whose life spanned over a century of the city's history. She lives with her husband in the hills of northwestern Connecticut, where she is currently at work on the next Dr. Genevieve Summerford mystery. To contact her or to learn more about upcoming books and events, visit her website at
www.cuyleroverholt.com
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