Authors To Watch: Laura Munson Author Willa's Grove #authorstowatch

LAURA MUNSON is the bestselling author of This Is Not The Story You Think It Is, which chronicles her journey through her own midlife crossroads. Drawing from the striking response to her memoir, the essay version of it in the New York Times “Modern Love” column, and her speaking events at women’s conferences across the US, Laura founded the acclaimed Haven Writing Retreats and Workshops. After watching hundreds of people find their unique and essential voices under the big sky of Montana she calls home, Laura created Willa, the invitation, the friends, and the town to share what she has learned with people globally. Her work has been published and featured in many media outlets throughout the world.

WEBSITE &SOCIAL LINKS:

Website: https://www.lauramunsonauthor.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lauramunson
Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/lauramunsonauthor/

 

 

In this powerful and inspiring novel, three women, from coast to coast and in between, open their mailboxes to the same intriguing invitation. Although leading entirely different lives, each has found

herself at a similar, jarring crossroads. Right when these women thought they’d be comfortably settling into middle age, their carefully curated futures have turned out to be dead ends. The sender of the invitation is Willa Silvester, who is reeling from the untimely death of her beloved husband and the reality that she must say goodbye to the small mountain town they founded together. Yet as Willa mourns her losses, an impossible question keeps staring her in the face: So now what?
Struggling to find the answer alone, fiercely independent Willa eventually calls a childhood friend who happens to be in her own world of hurt—and that’s where the idea sparks. They decide to host a weeklong interlude from life, and invite two other friends facing their own quandaries. Soon the four women converge at Willa’s Montana homestead, a place where they can learn from nature and one another as they contemplate their second acts together in the rugged wilderness of big sky country.

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We welcome you to My Bookish Pleasures! Can you tell us how you got started writing fiction?

I started writing books my last year in college in 1988 and have never stopped. Most of my work is fiction, but I’m known for memoir. Fiction is my true love and it takes a long time to learn the craft of making up a place, a plot, and the characters who people it, in a voice that is all your own. I’m really proud that this book is my first published novel. It’s lived inside me for many years and I love it.

Describe your writing process. Do you plot or write by the seat of your pants? When and where do you write?

When I am structuring a book I begin with a central question and then ask who would be asking this question. So the question begets the character(s), which beget the plot. I don’t use an outline for the first draft. I go intuitively. Then in the next draft, I see what I’ve got and start to piece it all together. The process of writing a novel takes me many drafts. You have to love the process and I do! To that end, just like I’ve raised flexible children, I’ve raised a flexible writer in myself. I write wherever and whenever I can find a window. And I work hard to commit to doing this on a daily basis.

Can you tell us about your most recent release?

Willa’s Grove is a novel about four women who are at major crossroads moments in their lives. They’ve isolated themselves as so many of us do when we are staring down the barrel of the question we all ask many times in our lives: So now what? Maybe life didn’t turn out the way we’d planned, or maybe we’re in our next chapter and we’re not at all sure how to nagivate it. The crossroads moments of our lives can be paralyzing, and the four characters in Willa’s Grove are all facing challenges that either you or someone you love are facing, have faced, or will face sooner than later. And so much of it has to do with identity. Who am I now? What is my next step? Who can help me take it? Sometimes you have to reach outside of your comfort zone to find the exact people you need—who are facing the same sort of question with the same level of fear, shame, dashed dreams, and harried hope. And that’s what this book models: Four women coming together to help each other find what’s next…all set in the inspiring landscape that is Montana.

How did you get the idea for the book?

The idea came to me after leading one of my Haven Writing Retreats in Montana. Over and over I hear, “This just changed my life.” Or “From now on it’s before Haven and after Haven.” Or “Yes, this was about writing, but it’s about so much more.” And I thought, How can I possibly capture the magic of what happens when people come together far from home, to powerfully and intentionally tap into the essence of their self-expression, their voices, their heart language? How can I show how essential temporary community can be? How can I call people to take this stand for themselves—especially when they feel alone or misunderstood or isolated in their lives? How can I make a case for bridging to people outside your daily life in order to bridge more authentically back to your home community? And these four women were born. This book is in no way about a writing retreat. But I feel that the spirit of what happens at Haven…happens in the pages of Willa’s Grove.


Of all your characters, which one is your favorite? Why?

I love all four of these women equally. I like to say that “they are not me, nor are they anyone I know. But they are all of us.” In fact, they are so real to me that last winter I was walking in the woods and came upon a stunning aspen grove. An aspen grove is one organism and these women become like their own grove, hence the title. So I dug my hand into my parka pocket, pulled out my cell phone, lifted it to just the right angle capturing four of the aspens in the grove, took the picture, smiled, and then searched for the ongoing text feed that surely must exist between these characters and me. Surely. And then I blinked and shook my head and said aloud, laughing, “My God. They don’t exist!” But they absolutely exist in my heart. I hope they will live in your heart too!

What was the most challenging aspect of writing your book?

Letting go. I love it deeply and dearly and it’s been with me for eight or so years. I’m going to miss living in this world that I made up in a part of Montana very far from mine. Luckily, the lessons that these characters learn are available to us wherever we live.

What projects are you currently working on?

I am working on another memoir, and a book about creative self-expression. And I have five or so finished novels which I’d love to see in print, but the books that I’m working on now are my first priority.

What advice would you offer to new or aspiring fiction authors?

There is no recipe or ten steps to writing fiction, nor to writing in general. You simply have to sit down and write, whether you write intuitively or use an outline. Get to know yourself on the page in the genre of your choice. Be true to yourself. Show up as often as you can. In order to sustain this, it’s important to find a writing practice that works for you, based on who you are, what your life is like, what your habits and responsibilities are, when the creative juices flow and when they don’t. And you have to honor that and know that these variables will change. So be flexible and committed and kind with yourself. Develop an inner champion who knows how to calm the inner critic. She’s just a scared child, anyway, who knows exactly what to say to break your heart. And even though writing is a solitary act, it comes from living in community. So join a writers group. Come on one of my Haven Writing Retreats in Montana! Seek community. Know that you don’t have to do it alone!

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