Please welcome Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Wednesday Sisters. Meg will be chatting on LibraryThing until May 22nd.

Mensagem editada pelo seu autor, Maio 12, 2009, 9:43am.

Good morning, everyone! I'm looking forward to connecting with you. As I know I've told some of you individually, it was an Early Reader giveaway that was at least in part responsible for getting the buzz for The Wednesday Sisters going in hardcover, so I feel particularly fortunate to be a part of this community.

The Wednesday Sisters is a book about books, and writing, and friendship - and a whole lot of social and personal issues as well. For anyone who hasn't read it yet, there is a wonderful (and short, one minute) book trailer that makes a terrific introduction to it. You can see it here.

I'll look forward to answering questions about almost anything - the story, the writing of it, the whole getting-into-print business, my drug of choice to get me through it all (caffeine or chocolate? don't make me decide between them!).

And I'd also love to hear your own stories.

So I'll start out with two questions myself I'd love to hear your answer to when you post:

Have you ever attended a women's rights demonstration of any kind?

and

Have you ever watched the Miss America Pageant?

Mensagem editada pelo seu autor, Maio 11, 2009, 10:30am.

Hello! I'm just dropping in to say hi and thanks for joining in the author chat. :)

I bought a hardcover of your book - The Wednesday Sisters - after hearing good things about it on LT and seeing you in discussions in groups, I think Girlybooks. But, I haven't read it yet. (One of these days! I promise!)

As to your questions -

I think I was born a bit late for women's rights demonstrations, but I did attend a few (albethem small and very reserved) while I was in college. However, I found my time of better use when volunteering for the domestic abuse hotline or other organizations. I think demonstrations serve a good purpose in raising awareness to issues, but I'm not so sure that it is lack of societal awareness that is still at the root of these problems.

I have watched Miss America pageants and know a handful of women who funded their education with pageant money (not from the Miss America level but from smaller pageants).

Do you have answers to your own questions?

Edited to fix a few fundamental grammar typos. ;)

Mensagem editada pelo seu autor, Maio 11, 2009, 11:17am.

Hi Meg,

I followed you here from Twitter. Loved the old photos and music in your book trailer. I put your book on my list to read.

I have never been to a women's right demonstration, but I live in a suburb of Rochester, NY, the home of Susan Anthony, so I am very familiar with the history of women's rights.

As far as the Miss America pageant, I haven't watched it since I was a kid. I once made a bet with an uncle that I could pick the winner, and if I did, I would get a triple-scoop ice cream cone. Well I did, and the ice cream was so tall, it fell on the ground on the way back to the car. I still remember it: watermelon sherbet.

Mensagem editada pelo seu autor, Maio 11, 2009, 5:53pm.

I found you on Twitter via a list of 100 authors on Twitter. Congratulations for embracing new technologies - I think readers really appreciate when they have different ways to interact with their favourite authors.

Macuser and LyzzyBee, how nice to make the jump together from Twitter to LT. I still struggle with what is appropriate to Tweet, so was relieved (and pleased!) to see that I made that top 100 list. A bookseller recently told an assembled group of pals that she now knew what one author has for dinner every night. After we'd finished laughing, someone else said, "more than you need to know" and she answered, "No, actually. I find it fascinating."

I do think most authors love to connect with readers, too, so the appreciation works both ways. I love doing book group visits, because it's a nice little bit of intense interaction with readers.

>Do you have answers to your own questions?

I do. I've never demonstrated for women's rights, even though I came of age at the time when the ERA was battling (and ultimately failing) to be adopted. And I watched the Miss America pageant all the time when I was a kid. I ask this question at readings and book groups, and have always gotten the same answer: most of us watched Miss America and few of us have ever demonstrated. It was true even at my reading in Berkley, CA, which I think of as ground zero for the second wave (1960s-70s) women's movement.

The reason I like to ask the question is because it's one of the things I had a good time exploring in The Wednesday Sisters - how the women's movement changed the world even for those of us who never in a million years would have called ourselves feminists. At the time, I was uncomfortable with what I thought of as aggressive tactics, but I've come to appreciate how much those attention-getting actions were necessary to get attention focused on the issues. And I've come to think very little would have changed if not for those few women who did step up to demonstrate.

But I explore it from the perspective of women who are homemakers and mothers when the second wave came along, and who wouldn't have called themselves feminists. (Well, except maybe Linda.) Women I think of as like my mom.

6 - I was an LTer long before I was a Twitterer (Tweeter? Twerson?) but it was amusing that I found you were on Twitter then came over to refresh my Talk pages and found you were doing a session on here too! I do find it oddly fascinating...

re Miss America etc - I watched Miss World as a child, wouldn't watch now - and although identifying as a feminist, having done Women's Studies stuff at University and having been on other demos, I've never been on a women's issues one. Interesting.

>Twerson?

LOL. I love this! And me too: LT'd long before I Tweeted. Hard to say much about a book in 140 characters, although I have seen some pretty funny plot summaries. Not the same as a nice long thread on a group read, though.

I hang my head in shame. I have been remiss in chatting here! (I'm actually chatting on GoodReads right now!)

On to the questions, no, I have never attended a women's rights demonstration, but I have attended other equal rights demonstrations.

My grandmother and I used to watch the Miss America competitions when I was younger, but it's not something that I have watched in a long time now. I quite honestly couldn't even tell you if there was any significance to her watching the pageant or not, other than the novelty of it, but it was something that she didn't miss for many years. I don't remember when or why we quit watching, but there did seem to be a break in her watching. One year we did, the next we didn't, and never watched it again. Of course, in retrospect, now that I'm typing this all out, I wonder what the significance was for her of both watching the pageant and what made her stop?

> I don't remember when or why we quit watching, but there did seem to be a break in her watching.

It's interesting to see the evolution in what women did over the course of the 1960s and 70s. One of the most telling things is the dramatic increase in women in professional schools, from small percentages to now more than half of many schools. And the dramatic decrease in the number of viewers of The Miss America Pageant, which went from being the highest rated show on television in the 1960s to a show that has trouble finding a television home. Most recently, it was dropped from ABC, the CMT, and now appears to be trying to find a place on TLC as an interactive, viewers are involved in picking the winner show.

Still, it took many of us (myself included - and The Wednesday Sisters, too) years to break the habit or tuning in in early September.

In some ways, that whole angle is just background for The Wednesday Sisters. And yet it's important background. How we see women as a society definitely shapes how we see ourselves and our opportunities.

Mensagem editada pelo seu autor, Maio 14, 2009, 5:16pm.

It is interesting to see how the pageant and it's followers have changed over the years. I don't watch it myself these days, so had no idea that it is even having trouble finding a home on television these days. I just figured it was still going on as usual and I was just unaware of its happening.

And not wanting to hijack the thread entirely, but I also wanted to let everybody over here know that I am giving away a paperback copy of The Wednesday Sisters. And even better? Meg has offered to sign it for the winner! You can read more about that here. Thanks Meg!

I read Wednesday Sisters and loved the way the characters grew and changed during those chaotic days of the 60s and 70s. Stories written about that era always take me back to my own years growing up.

I have never demonstrated for women's rights (or anything else for that matter). I guess I like to go about making change more quietly.

My mom and four sisters ALWAYS watched the Miss America Pageant. We would all watch and guess who would win. For us, it was a family ritual. After I married and moved away, I more or less stopped watching, because my husband didn't care about it, so we watched other things instead. It's the only pageant I liked because it had the talent portion.

Are you working on another book, Meg?

>I read Wednesday Sisters and loved the way the characters grew and changed during those chaotic days of the 60s and 70s

Thank you!

>I guess I like to go about making change more quietly.

Me too, although I'm coming to appreciate the need to stir things up sometimes, esp. at the beginning of change.

>Are you working on another book, Meg?

I am. I'm pretty much always writing. There is a lovely W.H. Auden quote Brett might have used (but didn't): "Get up early and get going at once, in facr, work first and wash afterwards." That's usually what I do.

I'm really fortunate at the moment to be writing a new novel under contract with Random House-Ballantine. I've always written first and then sold, but my agent sold this one last September based on a proposal. So this is new for me.

The new novel is called THE MS. BRADWELLS, and it's about four law school friends whose reunion at a Chesapeake Bay island family home leads them to face the truth about an unexplained death years earlier, their very different career paths, and the redemptive power of friendship.

I will get a copy of The Wednesday Sisters soon. I'm going to Hay-on-Wye in a few weeks and it's on my list to hunt down...

Did you know there are 6 copies on registered on BookCrossing at the moment http://www.bookcrossing.com/search/?titl...$20Sisters&titleExact=0&author=&authorEx... oops that was clumsy, hope it works. Anyway they're not travelling widely yet but it'll be another way to get known and loved once there are some more on there...

Thanks for the link, Lyzzy.

Back to the original questions:

Yes, I've participated in women's rights demonstrations, human rights, peace, environmental, GLBT -- I'm pretty vocal that way! and other ways too - writing, organizing.

I watched Miss America when I was a child/teen and was quite enamored of it (I can still hear Bert Parks singing "There she is...."). Now I find the whole idea of a beauty pageant demeaning, demoralizing and sexist. What really breaks my heart is seeing very young girls (4, 5, 6 years old) get caught in the beauty pageant trap. We've come a long way, but I think we need even more diverse role models for girls these days with much less emphasis on personal appearance.

Meg, I enjoyed The Wednesday Sisters and the strong women characters. Looking forward to your next book.

Mensagem editada pelo seu autor, Maio 19, 2009, 3:25pm.

Life is incredibly busy for me but I'm so glad I took the time to read Wednesday Sisters. It gave me insight to an era that I was a mere child in as well as deep female friendships that were very well written. I actually felt like I knew these people! Maybe some day, life will slow down and I can find friends as meaningful as those in this book! Thanks!

teelgee, I'm so glad you enjoyed The Wednesday Sisters. Thanks for your kind words.

And I absolutely agree that we've come a long way, but...

In some ways, I think the emphasis on how a woman looks has only gotten worse in the forty years since The Wednesday Sisters opens. I saw an absolutely horrifying program recently on how much fashion magazine photos, for example, are doctored. Not just models made slimmer and taller, bustier, smaller waisted, but things like freckle distribution being evened out. I thought: holy Toledo, even the models no longer look good enough to be models.

And one of the scariest things, IMHO, is that it is women who buy the magazines that continue to promote this unattainable perfection.

shortmama, I'm really glad you found the time to read!

I know for me it takes a long time to form close friendships. I'm pretty shy (I'm a reader, not, say, a thespian), and I'm not unlike some of my characters in my reluctance to have my shortcomings known.

One of the things I've found, though, is that friendships add so much to my life, that the time I spend on them pays back in multiples. Even in small ways: for example, when I run or walk with friends, I go much further and easier than when I run alone. When I read a book for a book club, I find myself thinking more deeply about what I'm reading, in part because I want to participate meaningfully in our discussions.

And my friends inspire me, too, so that I reach for things I perhaps wouldn't otherwise. Honestly, I don't know if I'd be able to call myself a novelist today if not for the support of friends who believed I could do it when I wasn't always quite sure myself.

Mensagem editada pelo seu autor, Maio 20, 2009, 10:28am.

Well, I didn't discover this discussion until the waning hours, but I'm just under the wire to comment...

Meg, I read The Wednesday Sisters when it was first published last year. I was a the first child in my family, born in December 1968. So your novel chronicles the period of my life almost exactly, but what it was really about is my mother's life. And that's what so fascinated me. My goodness how things have changed (or stayed the same) in the course of one generation!

Also, I'm in San Francisco, and very much enjoyed the ride on the time machine your descriptions took me on. I was curious enough to visit your website after reading the book and was shocked to see how young you are!

I will look forward to your next novel. As a native Marylander, you've once again managed to write a novel with ties to my home. Best of luck with the publication of The Ms. Bradwells.

Sueto, looks like I can slip in just over the wire to respond. Thanks so much! It's kind of amazing how rewarding it is as a writer to have people respond to what you've written. I'm a bit older than you, but The Wednesday Sisters are more my mom's generation than my own, and although none of the sisters is based directly on any of her friends (or mine), the book is certainly in part a tribute to the strong friendships she has had over the years, and the friends I've been blessed to have as well. The book is dedicated to my best friend in the world, who was my law school roommate, and my best writer-pal, the novelist Brenda Rickman Vantrease (The Illuminator, The Mercy Seller).

The writing story draws heavily from my friendship with Brenda, and the writing group we shared with, among others, author Leslie Lytle (Execution's Doorstep: True Stories of the Innocent and the Near Damned). We weren't any of us published beyond a small travel article (Brenda's) when she and I first started writing together (or reading and critiquing each other's work, to be more specific), but we now count seven books published or being written under contract from our little writing group of four, along with numerous essays, stories, articles and poems. It's has been - and continues to be - a remarkable friendship. So one of the great joys in writing The Wednesday Sisters (and it was a great joy to write) was that even though my closest friends now live thousands of miles away from me, I sat down every morning and wrapped myself in the spirit of those friendships. It's a lovely place to write from. (Which is, I suppose, the real reason I've chosen to do it again with The Ms. Bradwells.)

Mensagem editada pelo seu autor, Maio 23, 2009, 12:45pm.

Thanks, everyone, for joining me over the last couple weeks.