Questions for Erick Setiawan? (Names)

[Erick_Setiawan]

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Adeline79 wrote:

I am interested in your thoughts on this post which I read on another thread and pasted here:

In what ways does this severe break up of Meridia and Daniel from their in-laws serve to help them start out on their own?

Everytime I read the story while these two were still living in Daniel's parents home I felt very heavy and just felt like I couldn't breathe. I don't know if that was because they felt restricted and suffocated, but once they broke out and moved into their own home, that feeling went away for me and I started to feel light and didn't have this cloud and negative energy over my head anymore. It was very weird. I don't know maybe somewhere in my past life I could relate to this story in a way.

by dclement04

It seemed to be a foregone conclusion that Daniel and Merida would live in Daniel's parents home. Why was it never considered that they live in Merida's parents home even after the big fight and Merida was chucked out? Was this because Gabriel would not want it, or were we to assume it was a cultural norm in the 'nowhere' place they lived?

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Hi Adeline79,

I'm glad you posted that comment from dclement04.  That's exactly the kind of atmosphere I had in mind when I placed the newlyweds under Eva's roof.  When Patina ties that apron around Meridia's waist, and later when Eva clasps that turquoise necklace around Meridia's neck, I wanted those things to choke her and suffocate her.  And the noose gets tighter and tighter.  As the chapters progress, you find out that Meridia is literally suffocating from the stench of the roses.  By the time she hurls that bowl of soup at Eva, she really has no other option.  Eva has her backed against the corner so completely that Meridia simply has to fight or die.

As to why the newlyweds never considered living in Gabriel's home . . . I'm hard pressed to think of a culture where the husband goes to live with his wife's family (I'm sure there are cases, but I think these are more the exception than the norm).  No matter where you live or what your background is, I think it would be severely bruising to the male ego to have to do this, especially when the man has no income of his own, and he knows he has to depend on his wife's parents for his livelihood.  You're right that Gabriel, for one, will never let Daniel live in his house (he seems to need the entire house as his battleground with Ravenna).  But in Daniel's case, there's also the fact that Ravenna has insulted him by chasing him away like a flea after the newlyweds separate.  Daniel will never consent to living under the same roof with her after this.  All these factors add up to the only possible solution: the couple must live on their own on Willow Lane.

[Erick_Setiawan]

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mwinasu wrote:
For the most part I loved your book.  I even stayed up all night to finish it.  It reminded me of a book I read called The Tapestries which was written by a person from Viet Nam.  I am guessing that you read in more than one language, and I am wondering what authors you read as a child  and what you read now.  Were you introduced to any English authors  as a child? 

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Hi mwinasu,

As a child, I read whatever books were available in Indonesian translation.  I remember reading a lot of those Tintin comics, a lot of Enyd Blyton (anybody remember The Famous Five?), the Grimm's fairy tales, and the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew classics.  As I got older, I got into Agatha Christie and read all her books that had been translated into Indonesian.  My first foray into English novels was through reading Stephen King and Sidney Sheldon.  I was fourteen or fifteen, just starting to learn English, and I didn't understand very much of what I was reading.  But in my own stubborn fashion, I read them to the end.  I recently reread Stephen King's It and boy, was I glad I didn't understand it the first time around.  It was one scary book.

[Erick_Setiawan]

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lmpmn wrote:

Dear Erick,

Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful book with us at First Look.  I'm absolutely enjoying it!

Thanks too for answering the question about the numbers.  That's one of the things I really wanted to know about.  I even went to some websites for information on the meaning of numbers in Chinese culture.

I love the way you wrote: your words, images, numbers, colors, magic, etc.  Everything fits so well together into one amazing story.  I cannot wait to finish it!

 

Erick_Setiawan wrote:

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Thayer wrote:

Erick,

Although this is not my usual genre of choice, I find that I am thorougly enjoying your wonderful debut novel.

This book has enabled me to "step out of the box" so to speak, and I realize that I must stop labelling (and therefore) limiting myself and become more unpredictable in order to not miss out on something unexpected and delightful such as your book.

As you mentioned that you have been reading our posts, you have found no doubt that we leave no stone unturned (i.e., we overanalyze EVERYTHING)   I am intrigued by your methodical use of numerical description. There are many references to numbers and values of time throughout the story.  What is the significance of such precise detail?

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Hi Thayer,

Thank you for your generous words.  I hope you enjoy "stepping out of the box" and I urge you to do more in the future.

About the numbers . . . I hope I'm not the only in the world who's obsessed with numbers. I find myself constantly counting bathroom tiles, kitchen tiles, the number of tables in a restaurant, the number of books in a stack at a bookstore, etc.  And what I find is that certain numbers occur again and again, either by chance or arrangement, and usually they're multiples of 3.  We're all familliar with the number 3 being dominant in fairy tales and mythology: the three bears, the three sisters, the three tasks, the three suitors, the three goddesses (remember the Judgment of Paris?).  And having attended Catholic schools for ten years in my early life, I am more than familiar with the Holy Trinity.  I suppose that's why I tend to look for multiples of 3 in life.  In Chinese culture, the luckiest number is 9, which is 3 x 3.  (The unluckiest, by the way, is 4--si--because it's pronounced the same as the word for death.)  My personal lucky number is 27, which is 3 x 3 x 3 (isn't that beautiful?).  That's why you see a lot of 3's and 9's and 27's in the book.  I wanted to create an atmosphere where, just as the dynamics between the characters and their resulting story lines have patterns, the numbers also repeat according to some patterns of their own.  If you notice, I also used a lot of colors in the book.  In life, numbers are as prevalent as colors, if not more so, even though fewer people are aware of this unless they're obsessed with counting like me.

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Hi lmpmn,

I'm glad you're enjoying the book and I hope you found some useful information during your research on numbers and Chinese culture.   I have an uncle who calculates everything and always looks for lucky numbers.  Whether he's building a house or planting a garden or playing the lottery, it's always about the numbers.  Ask him (I made the mistake once) and he'll tell you all kinds of systems and theories behind the numbers.  Fascinating, if you have the head for it.

[dg]

I'm so happy you were able to join the group.  I really enjoyed the book and, I couldn't believe it until you wrote about how you purposely avoided them but I never even noticed that I had no idea where or when the book had taken place.  I usually am very curious about that but I think this book may have given me so much to think about that the place and time became incidental.  Thanks for giving us the pleasure of reading this wonderful book.

[m3girl]

Erick,  Thanks for joining us for the First Look discussions.  I've participated from the beginning and enjoy being able to ask questions and put in my own 'two cents'.  Anyway, I am just back from the Iowa Summer Writers Workshop where I took a class on Writing Beyond Realism.  I would like to know if you think that readers (and therefore publishers) become more interested in fantasy and 'arealism' when the economy and overall environment are in the tank.  Do we want that fantasy escape even more when times are bad?  Just curious what your thoughts are on that.  I'm just starting a book which given my record might be ready right about the next economic downturn...

Thanks,

Susan 

[lisaterwilliger]

It's been so thrilling to read Erick's reponses to all the questions and to also get insight into such a fantastic book. I'm wishing there was a forum like this for all the books I read!

[Erick_Setiawan]

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canterbear wrote:

Erick,

great 1st novel. And thanks for letting us read it.

 I have some questions:

 Was much of this book based on customs, myths and supersitions from Eastern cultures?

Did you do any research into past customs etc.?

Were you writing it with any leanings toward metaphysical concepts?

 Where did your basic idea come from?

 Where did the idea of an invisible friend, Hannah, come from? 

And when Hannah and Meridia would go visiting neighbors did anyone else see Hannah?

 Was any of this novel based on personal experiences?

Have you ever had any mystical experiences yourself? 

Some of these questions may have already been asked..I have not read all the posts yet.

thanks.. 

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Hi canterbear,

The book draws on at least three different cultures: Indonesian, Chinese, and American (and a few others as well for those who picked them up).  Please read my post on Cultural Influences for more. 

I didn't write the book with explicit metaphysical concepts in mind, so I'll leave it to you to puzzle them out.  If you spot them, then they're there for a reason.  I must say that I'm very intuitive as a writer--I don't chart every concept, every angle, every perspective to the last detail before committing it to paper, and I don't go into a story with a specific message in mind.  I simply let the story tell itself, and whatever concepts or perspectives it contains are the natural result of that process.

My basic idea for the book was that I wanted to tell a story about these two families.  Please read my post on Origin of Story for more.

Please read my earlier posts on Hannah.  As we get closer to the end, I'll share my thoughts on her, but for now, let me just say that if those neighbors and townspeople can't see Hannah, maybe it's because they don't want to.  I'll let you figure out the reason.  Keep in mind that in every family or society, there is always one person or one group of people that we'd rather not see or acknowledge.

I can't say that I've had mystical experiences myself, but I know people who have.  When my grandmother died, my father knew the exact time and condition of her death without being told.  I've heard people tell me that their loved ones appeared as apparitions and said good-bye to them just before they died.  I don't see these things as spooky or supernatural--I see them as more proof of the bonds between us.  When you love someone, or are connected to someone in a deep way, some part of you knows when that person is in danger, in pain, or in need of help (which, by the way, is the basis for Ravenna's relationship with Meridia).

[Erick_Setiawan]

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PB684 wrote:

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Erick_Setiawan wrote:

Hi Thayer,

Thank you for your generous words.  I hope you enjoy "stepping out of the box" and I urge you to do more in the future.

About the numbers . . . I hope I'm not the only in the world who's obsessed with numbers. I find myself constantly counting bathroom tiles, kitchen tiles, the number of tables in a restaurant, the number of books in a stack at a bookstore, etc.  And what I find is that certain numbers occur again and again, either by chance or arrangement, and usually they're multiples of 3.  We're all familliar with the number 3 being dominant in fairy tales and mythology: the three bears, the three sisters, the three tasks, the three suitors, the three goddesses (remember the Judgment of Paris?).  And having attended Catholic schools for ten years in my early life, I am more than familiar with the Holy Trinity.  I suppose that's why I tend to look for multiples of 3 in life.  In Chinese culture, the luckiest number is 9, which is 3 x 3.  (The unluckiest, by the way, is 4--si--because it's pronounced the same as the word for death.)  My personal lucky number is 27, which is 3 x 3 x 3 (isn't that beautiful?).  That's why you see a lot of 3's and 9's and 27's in the book.  I wanted to create an atmosphere where, just as the dynamics between the characters and their resulting story lines have patterns, the numbers also repeat according to some patterns of their own.  If you notice, I also used a lot of colors in the book.  In life, numbers are as prevalent as colors, if not more so, even though fewer people are aware of this unless they're obsessed with counting like me.

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Hi Erick,

That is so interesting! My daughter, Emily Anne (9 letters) was born on 9/9! A Chinese relative told us that was a very lucky number...we in no way planned this! It has served her well so far

Paula

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Hi Paula,

That was indeed a very lucky number for Emily Anne.  I'm so happy for her!  And let me just say that I think a lot of Chinese mothers who happen to be pregnant at the moment are doing their best to deliver their babies on 09/09/09.  Isn't that a beautiful number?

[Erick_Setiawan]

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Mia_C wrote:

I've come to notice that many books now no longer fit any one genre and lovers of different types of books can now enjoy many of the same books.  Thanks for your description.  And yes, I certainly got a kick out of reading the book.  It's also one of those books that I would like to reread another time.  It's such a rich book that I'm sure I will find new things to enjoy the second time around.

I do have more questions, if you don't mind. 

Aside from your editors, who was the first person you asked to read your book? 

As it's part family saga, have any of your friends and family come up to you to ask if a specific character was based on them or anyone they know?  If it's happened to you -- or in case it happens -- how did (or would) you respond to that question, especially if the character they think was based on them was someone like Eva or another such character that doesn't exactly inspire love and admiration?  I always wonder where authors derive villainous characters from.

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Hi Mia_C,

I didn't show my book to anyone I knew when I finished it.  I figured that if you ask a hundred people about something, they'll give you two hundred different opinions.  And also because I was very shy, I couldn't summon up enough courage to go join a writers' group or a critique group.  So I went with my guts and sent the book out to agents.  My agent, Alex Glass, was lucky agent #13 (for more on the story of how I found him, read the Meet the Writer section on my book page).   In retrospect, it was probably unwise to send my manuscript directly to an agent before having it analyzed and critiqued by others, but in my case, it worked!  I highly recommend following your instincts.

As I mentioned elsewhere, Eva is based on my paternal grandmother, who passed away many years ago (please read my earlier post on Inspiration for Eva and Ravenna to find out more about them).  So I have nothing to fear from my grandmother unless she decides to plague me with bees from the afterlife.  I know that some readers are complaining that there are too many bees in the book, that they are annoying, etc., etc., but my mother will tell you that Eva is an angel compared to my grandmother. Many of the horrendous things that Eva does in the book I borrowed straight from my grandmother's page.

I hope my editor and I aren't the only ones who find the bees absolutely hilarious.  Read them with a bit of humor.

[Erick_Setiawan]

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nlsamson wrote:

Erick:

I am trying so hard to NOT read ahead, but it is proving very difficult.  I wasn't sure in the beginning how I felt about this book, but I can tell you that now, I don't want it to end.  At times I get so angry with the characters, at other times I love them.  Thank you so very much for giving us this fantastic opportunity, and for sharing your talent with us.

Nancy

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Hi Nancy,

Thank you for your compliment.  These words are music to my ear--I want you to feel angry with the characters, and to love them when they earn your respect.  That's what makes reading so exciting.

[Erick_Setiawan]

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Zeal wrote:

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Erick_Setiawan wrote:

That was how it started.  But the more I got deeper into the writing, the more I saw that the lack of locale also allowed me to challenge a few notions.  I think as a society we are very category-driven and eager to apply labels to the things and people we encounter. And when we can't readily put something or someone in a box, we feel unsettled and disoriented.  Why is that?  Why are we so fixated with branding and labeling everything? My answer to this was the mythical town in the book, where nothing is labeled, names are kept to a minimum (if you notice, no last names), and you judge a character by his or her action, not by your own preconceived notions.  I want my readers to rely only on their own imagination and the words I provided as they navigate through this world, and not on their previous biases.  When you read the first sentence, I want all bets to be off.  I want you to feel disoriented, I want you to feel the plunge into something not quite solid, and I want you to negotiate your way to a comfortable footing.  Only you and nobody else can decide where that footing might be.

This is one of the best reactions I've received for the book so far: A reader, a Caucasian woman, pictured Meridia as a Chinese woman.  Another reader, an Asian-American man, saw her as a black woman.  I love it!  I think this is how the world should be.

The question of time follows from this.  If the place isn't pinned down, why should the time be? I believe it was our brilliant moderator Paul who suggested that the story takes place in the past, present, and future all at once, and I can't agree with him more.  I think time is another label, useful for remembering things and meeting deadlines, but why can't it be fluid as well? What if memories and knowledge and premonitions all blend together and you can't tell which is which?

Back to your question, I found it much harder to write this way.  On the one hand, it gave me unlimited poetic license to do as I pleased. On the other hand, I couldn't rely on shorthands to do my job.  For example, when you set a book during the Holocaust, the mere mention of the name itself already brings up a whole host of associations in the readers' mind.  As a writer, you don't have to do the work yourself.  But for this book, I had to describe everything and build that world from scratch.  More work on my part, but it was certainly worth it.

Now for those of you who simply must have a specific time and place in mind, do so by all means.  You can set the story anywhere, any time--Ancient Greece, Elizabethan England, 19th century China--but when you run into anachronisms (and you will, since the book wasn't designed that way), accept them as an integral part of that world.  Anybody remember the movie Moulin Rouge?  It was set in Paris in the late 1800s but they were singing songs by Madonna and The Police.  Think of the book this way if you must, although I prefer you make up your own world.  After all, that is one of the greatest joys of reading.

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Erik,

I find your explanation for your lack of "labels" and details regarding the time, place, names, etc. fascinating and refreshing!  I am a teacher, and so often students are placed in a "box" so that we can "fix" them. Allowing your readers to use their own imagination and interpretation regarding these issues brings so much more to your novel!

Thank you so much for this experience...both reading your book for the "First Look Book Club" and reading your thoughts as the author!!   It is a pleasure to read your novel and interact with you!

Aimee 

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Hi Aimee,

You got it!  That's one of the things I wanted to do with this book.  I wanted to challenge all those labels and boxes, stereotypes and presumptions and preconceived notions.  At their mildest, I think they're a kind of laziness, an easy way for us to fill in the blanks.  At their worst, they form the core of hate and prejudice.

It is a pleasure to have you as a reader!

[FrankieD]

Sorry...no question comes to mind!!! I mjust want to thank you for the opportunity to read your book...it has been great and I'm sure the final part will not disappoint. Reading your book has gotten me through several "bad" days and added to some really good ones.

                                                      FrankieD

[eadieburke]

I have experienced mystical happenings also. One Sunday morning (3/12/06) around 5:30 am I was awoken by a woman's voice that said: "Your father died". My father was 84 years old at the time but was in pretty good health. He did have some circulatory problems where his leg would fall asleep during long car rides but nothing really major wrong with him. He was very active and would do his own food shopping and visited the library often because he loved to read. I waited for a decent hour of the day to call him and he said that he was fine, so I didn't tell him about the voice I heard.

He told me that he bought about 20 DVD's for $1.00 each and was mailing them to his friends and relatives. Some of the titles were "Pajama Game",  "Royal Wedding" and "The Lady Vanishes". On Thursday, 3/16/06 my daughter called me to say that she was calling her grandfather all day to thank him for the DVD's he sent her. I got a funny feeling in my stomach because if my father went out he would only be away for a couple of hours at a time. I looked at the calendar and suddenly realized that it was March 16th and it was the same day that my mom died in 1998. My father always told me about his dream of my mom in a blue dress in a field coming to get him.

Sure enough, I called my husband who works about 1/2 hour from my dad's house to go and check on him. My father had died very peacefully (the covers were up under his chin without a wrinkle) in his pajamas in his sleep and when the paramedics got there, they predicted that he died just about the time that it turned March 16th.

As I was calling all his friends and relatives, they were telling me that they were watching the DVD, "The Pajama Game" that he had sent them and they were going to call him to say "thank you". The neighbors arrived at the funeral and told me that he had put the DVD on their car windshield while their cars were parked in their driveways. I went out to the mail box and there were my DVD's waiting for me on the day he died. On the bottom of the "Royal Wedding" DVD it says "Young hearts take flight when love is in the air". That quote made me think that my mom came for him. I still have the DVD's in the same envelope that he sent to me.

It may not seem very mystical to other people but when these things are happening to you, it is a very knowing feeling.

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Erick_Setiawan wrote:

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Erick wrote:

I can't say that I've had mystical experiences myself, but I know people who have.  When my grandmother died, my father knew the exact time and condition of her death without being told.  I've heard people tell me that their loved ones appeared as apparitions and said good-bye to them just before they died.  I don't see these things as spooky or supernatural--I see them as more proof of the bonds between us.  When you love someone, or are connected to someone in a deep way, some part of you knows when that person is in danger, in pain, or in need of help (which, by the way, is the basis for Ravenna's relationship with Meridia).

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Message Edited by eadieburke on 06-16-2009 04:56 PM

[JerseyAngel]

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eadieburke wrote:

I have experienced mystical happenings also. One Sunday morning (3/12/06) around 5:30 am I was awoken by a woman's voice that said: "Your father died". My father was 84 years old at the time but was in pretty good health. He did have some circulatory problems where his leg would fall asleep during long car rides but nothing really major wrong with him. He was very active and would do his own food shopping and visited the library often because he loved to read. I waited for a decent hour of the day to call him and he said that he was fine, so I didn't tell him about the voice I heard.

He told me that he bought about 20 DVD's for $1.00 each and was mailing them to his friends and relatives. Some of the titles were "Pajama Game",  "Royal Wedding" and "The Lady Vanishes". On Thursday, 3/16/06 my daughter called me to say that she was calling her grandfather all day to thank him for the DVD's he sent her. I got a funny feeling in my stomach because if my father went out he would only be away for a couple of hours at a time. I looked at the calendar and suddenly realized that it was March 16th and it was the same day that my mom died in 1998. My father always told me about his dream of my mom in a blue dress in a field coming to get him.

Sure enough, I called my husband who works about 1/2 hour from my dad's house to go and check on him. My father had died very peacefully (the covers were up under his chin without a wrinkle) in his pajamas in his sleep and when the paramedics got there, they predicted that he died just about the time that it turned March 16th.

As I was calling all his friends and relatives, they were telling me that they were watching the DVD, "The Pajama Game" that he had sent them and they were going to call him to say "thank you". The neighbors arrived at the funeral and told me that he had put the DVD on their car windshield while their cars were parked in their driveways. I went out to the mail box and there were my DVD's waiting for me on the day he died. On the bottom of the "Royal Wedding" DVD it says "Young hearts take flight when love is in the air". That quote made me think that my mom came for him. I still have the DVD's in the same envelope that he sent to me.

It may not seem very mystical to other people but when these things are happening to you, it is a very knowing feeling.

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That was a wonderful story! You are right, if we all really think about it, things like this happen to all of us.

[Erick_Setiawan]

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PiperMurphy wrote:

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Zeal wrote:

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Erick_Setiawan wrote:

Now for those of you who simply must have a specific time and place in mind, do so by all means.  You can set the story anywhere, any time--Ancient Greece, Elizabethan England, 19th century China--but when you run into anachronisms (and you will, since the book wasn't designed that way), accept them as an integral part of that world.  Anybody remember the movie Moulin Rouge?  It was set in Paris in the late 1800s but they were singing songs by Madonna and The Police.  Think of the book this way if you must, although I prefer you make up your own world.  After all, that is one of the greatest joys of reading.

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Erick,

This is really an intriguing and perplexing thing. You have put words together that caused us to imagine different times, places, and cultures all co-existing at once. These things are unique to each of us, yet we are all understanding the same story. This is an incredibly amazing achievement. How did you do that???! The more I think about it, the more I appreciate what you have created.

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Hi PiperMurphy,

Thank you for your very thoughtful words.  I'm beyond thrilled that you completely and utterly got what I tried to do!

My answer goes back to my very first post on Time and Place.  When I started thinking about where to set the book, I really couldn't find an actual place in the world where someone like myself--a product of three different cultures which are at times in conflict with each other--would feel at home.  I've spent more than half my life here in the US, but I know that to the day I die, I will always be considered an immigrant and a foreigner, simply because of my history and of the way I look. I don't want this sort of boxing and labeling to happen in my book.  My characters, for better or worse, should be judged by their actions, not their origins.  And then I thought about how universal our experiences truly are.  Each and every one of us falls in love, falls out of love, experiences loss and heartbreak and death, and we all have families that give us both joy and sorrow.  If we aren't so different after all, then why can't we have a world where those barriers don't exist, and we're free to imagine it as we see fit?  That's the one question that I kept in my head as I wrote, and I created the town in the book as a response.  If we strip away the labels and divisions, then we can begin to emphasize what is common and universal to all of us.

[Erick_Setiawan]

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USwede16 wrote:
Erick_Setiawan wrote: daisy03 wrote:Who is Hannah??I think there's another angle that no one's considered before.  If nobody except Meridia seems able to see Hannah, maybe it's because Meridia doesn't want them to.  But why?  Go back to the chapter when they first meet and pay attention to what they're doing.  Can it be taken in a different context?  Remember that when Meridia meets Daniel and he begins taking her around town, she knows that she's retracing some of her adventures with Hannah, but keeps that to herself (p. 54).  Why?  And the second time Meridia parts from Hannah (p. 173), what is it that Hannah is trying to say that Meridia keeps interrupting? Just like the mists hide Gabriel, maybe Meridia is keeping Hannah a secret for a reason.  I'll  let the conjectures begin (and no, you can't ask Kerri!).

Hi Erick!

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer all of our questions! It truly is an amazing novel and I cannot put it down!

One of other possibilities I have entertained for Hannah and Meridia keeping her a secret is the possibility that they are in love. I took your advice and went back in the novel and read the scene where they first meet and Meridia “felt a curious tremor in her heart” (p. 37). Is this tremor the love she feels in her heart? When retracing some of her adventures with Daniel she decides that it should be “unmarked and untainted by a previous memory” (p. 54). The use of untainted makes it seem as if there was something wrong with the memory of going there with Hannah. For the most part, homosexuality is not the most accepted lifestyle suggesting that maybe this is why Meridia doesn’t want to mention her trip with Hannah. Finally, when the two part for the second time Meridia says that there is no need to explain because she understands. Is this because they both share this feeling?

I could be reading into this more than anything but it just seems as if there is more to Meridia and Hannah’s relationship that friendship. I would appreciate any thoughts you are willing to share on this. 

Christina 

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Hi Christina (bookworm_gp, bookloverjb85, Carmenere_lady -- I'm answering all your questions here at once since you also brought up Hannah),

You are very astute! Those passages you mentioned certainly allow Hannah and Meridia to be more than friends, and that's one angle I'd encourage you to pursue.  And you're right.  The things they say to each other when they part for the second time can be taken as Hannah trying to tell Meridia that she loves her, but Meridia doesn't want to hear it because she already knows that, not to mention that she's married to Daniel.  (Isn't it interesting that in that scene, Hannah disappears the exact moment when Daniel appears?  And what do you make of the last sentence in chapter 17: "Meridia hid [the letter] carefully in a pile of dresses, a memento of need and loss, along with the part of her that had once again shut"?)  Keep reading and see if your theory holds up!

Christina has brought up a very excellent point.  If Meridia and Hannah are indeed lovers, does that enhance your understanding of why Hannah is invisible to other people?  I mentioned before that perhaps Hannah is invisible because Meridia doesn't want people to see her. Can it be because she's keeping their love a secret?  Now consider the flip side.  If Hannah is invisible to others, maybe it's because those people refuse to acknowledge who she is and what she represents to Meridia, and therefore they don't allow themselves to see her.  Think back to the scene at the hairdresser's.  Meridia can see Hannah all right, but it is only when she looks in the mirror and she sees the hairdresser frowning and disapproving, that she realizes she can't see Hannah's reflection.  What does this tell you? 

Someone brought up that Hannah's name is a palindrome.  Yes, I did pick it very carefully, and I meant the name to reflect the fact that Hannah is Meridia's mirror image in some way.  I'll leave it to you to decide the true shape of that image.

[goingeast]

*********************SPOILER ALERT*************************** 

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Hello Erick,

I must tell you of my experience with your book.  The night I received it I, I fell in love with the cover.  The contrast of the orange/red with the black was beautiful and reminded me of lovely Spanish fabric I have seen.  Then I started reading.  I read the first sentence and hated it.  I read the second sentence and hated it.  Then it was as if a giant hole opened in the ground and I fell through, floating through each and every sentence on the page.  I read and read until I finished it, almost panting at the end.  You definitely pushed a lot of emotion to the surface with your story. 

I know someone who is Eva.  Unfortunately, I still have this person in my life.  So it wouldn't surprise you to know that my favorite part was when Eva was lying in bed in her own excrement.  I enjoyed that thoroughly and was quite upset with Meridia for getting her cleaned up.

I would like to know the significance of the marigolds taking over the roses, though.  If you've already answered this, I apologize for asking again.  Just tell me it's been covered and I will look for it. 

As for the setting, I really imagined the story taking place around the same time as Moulin Rouge, which you mentioned in one of these posts.  I think it is because you described the women as 'lifting their skirts" at various points so the time period would seem to fit turn of the 20th century.  I like that time period best of all, so it made the story much more enjoyable. 

As for the name Meridia, I had a hard time getting used to it.  I found Meridia to be very childlike and innocent throughout the novel.  She reminded me of the character of Scarlett O'Hara at times.  The ending reminded me of the ending of Gone With The Wind.  She forgives her husband, again, but won't take him back until he gets rid of his mother.  In Gone With the Wind, I think Ashley will have to go before Rhett takes Scarlett back.  Come to think of it, there were a few mists in Scarlett's life as well.  Perhaps a mist could come and take Ashley away, permanently.  Maybe you could write the sequel the way it should have been written?  But then again, you are so talented that I can't imagine you writing anything but something original. 

I just wanted you to know this is probably the best book I'v read in a long time.  It's always surprising when men write so easily about women.  Especially about evil women.  It always seems that men are oblivious about how some women can be.  I can only guess that you must have been around women most of your life.  You clearly have great insight about them. 

Again, thanks for a great read!

Ann  (goingeast)

**********************SPOILER ALERT***************************

Message Edited by goingeast on 06-16-2009 05:48 PM

Message Edited by goingeast on 06-16-2009 05:50 PM

Message Edited by rkubie on 06-16-2009 10:29 PM

[vivico1]

Hi Erick,

I just wanted to try to explain to you my personal problem with so much of the bees. I can't speak for others and I do want to preface this again with telling you that I DO like the story of these families. It is what keeps me reading. Here is the problem for me. As you mentioned below and before, you got the idea from what was said about your grandmother, how, I believe it was your grandfather, who said she is always ranting in his ear about something and won't stop and it sounds like a bunch of bees. That was cool to know where you got that. And it was fun to know that when first reading about them. But now, you see, you have an advantage over us because this was a family word for her and everyone knew what that meant. You guys knew it meant her moods, or what she was saying, or what she was doing as to when to use the phrase or if someone said it, you understood why. So you knew her and knew all the things that make it fit.

We do not have that same kind of connection with Eva personally. So if the bees are buzzing, we know she is up to no good and trying to tear people down but not having felt the emotions being them ourselves personally, rather than more bees for more abuse, I want to hear, read what the characters are feelings and saying at that moment, and also what Eva is feeling and thinking when she does this. I have started losing any contact emotionally with the scenes when the bees are around because of this. I just KNOW that there is trouble afoot, but now, its the bees, we all know the bees and so I don't FEEL with them anymore. It feels gimmicky now.

It is very similar to when as kids, we had a term for our Grandmother at times when she would get a subtle smile on her face but depending on the situation, we knew exactly what that meant! We would whisper, Mona, or say it behind her back. Mona, as in the subtle smile of Mona Lisa, but it mean an array of things to us. Depending on how we said it or why, it meant, she is hacked off at the world, watch out, or she is in her depressed mood and hiding her pain with that painted smile. It meant a lot of things to us see? I think all of us explained it that way to at least one friend or another at some time. BUT, I remember a time when someone said she was Mona today, and I had a friend with me and we had stayed and talked with my grandmother and others for a while and left. I was crying. My friend said, what is wrong? I said, she was really Mona today! She said, you guys say that and you have explained it to me but I don't understand, what just happened that has you crying, I don't understand? And she didn't, and she couldn't see why I felt emotional because she didn't know all the nuances that Mona meant to us or what my grandmother was doing at that time to be Mona that day.

This is what I feel here, in this book. You say, take it with some humor but Erick, I am not in on your family joke or understanding of what your grandmother did or made you guys feel when you talked about her bees! It is your word for things you have experienced with your grandmother that in this story, I am not experiencing with Eva. I know what she is trying to do for the most part and this story, for those who would like to get rid of Eva now, would not be the story it is without her, but I just wished I understood her more, or could get more emotionally invested with the characters at these times, rather than just be mad at the bees, who are now becoming detached to me from Eva in a way,so I don't care about the bees. They are starting to be like an adjective to me that is used repetatively to express her in ways that I would really like to have express to me in more terms each time so she or the bees don't get old, or like some are saying, the book is getting too long or seems like the same stuff over and over again. Well, I don't think the book is too long but I do understand how they could feel its the same stuff over and over because its the same descriptive word over and over. I hope this makes sense.

Its not just the bees for me either. You write some really wonderful passages and have me hooked into the drama of what is going on at the time, with such great lines and then suddenly we get the bird instead of the bees. Or we get winds instead of this or that, or I still do not get the whole thing with the ice over Gabriel and chipping away at it. I mean, ok maybe its a cold heart or something but ahhh, its frustrating lol, I wanted to read and feel the real emotions that were happening at that time. And you did do some of that, but its like then you went back to using a metaphor rather than other words that could express everyone's feelings in this scene, including Gabriel, that would have made sense to me and really grabbed me. It is the switching back and forth between wonderfully written scenes that make sense, maybe even with a touch of magic in them but completely understandable and feeling, and then drop the mysterious bomb, the figure this one out now thing. It slows my reading and the rhythm and pace of the story to me to suddenly have to figure these out and then I have lost my emotion about it all.

I really do like the idea, the plot of this story but its losing me as far as caring. Please understand that I do not say this in any mean way, as sometimes things can come off in internet writing. I just so want to explain, as best I can, what I am feeling because written without the magical metaphors, I really think this would be one of my favorite first read books ever. But, I am sorry , it is not. And I know that probably for every one of me, there will be one or more of people feeling the opposite, so all this may not matter to you, from me. But because this is your first book and we are here, I wanted to tell you what I thought in a very honest way.

I am sorry too, if this post is way too long, but I am doing my best at it. One last thought, every story should have some mystery in it, even maybe some mysteries that are never solved. As a reader, I don't need things always tied up in a nice neat bow, on the contrary. But one of the mysteries, to me, should not be in trying to understand the journey you are trying to take with the book, if that makes sense. Thanks again.

_________________________________________

Erick Setiawan wrote:

"....As I mentioned elsewhere, Eva is based on my paternal grandmother, who passed away many years ago (please read my earlier post on Inspiration for Eva and Ravenna to find out more about them). So I have nothing to fear from my grandmother unless she decides to plague me with bees from the afterlife. I know that some readers are complaining that there are too many bees in the book, that they are annoying, etc., etc., but my mother will tell you that Eva is an angel compared to my grandmother. Many of the horrendous things that Eva does in the book I borrowed straight from my grandmother's page.

I hope my editor and I aren't the only ones who find the bees absolutely hilarious. Read them with a bit of humor."

[lisally]

Erick,

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to everyone and share your thoughts with us!

I have to say that I am loving the book so far! I admit that it took me a while to get used to the writing style (may be because I read way too many boring scientific papers) but I was quickly able to get lost in the book and Meridia's world.  Having a good book take you away to another place like this is such a wonderful thing!

I'm one of the people who interpret the magical elements as both physical and metaphorical.  I think Eva really does have a swarm of bees when she is angry, the cold of 24 Monarch is the coldness of Gabriel and Revnna's relationship, and Ravenna releases her suppressed anger in the form of a visible spirit.  I interpret this world as a reflection of its inhabitants, with the magical elements as physical manifestations of the character's emotions.

That said, is Hannah actually a manifestation of Meridia?  I see Hannah as physically existing, but also borne of Meridia's loneliness and an intense desire for friendship.  Meridia makes Hannah visible at school to show off her firend to the other students and to shelter herself from their opinions of her.  Off the campus, I think Meridia wishes to have private moments with her friend, to have someone to care for her alone.  Maybe Meridia brings Hannah back only when she is most desperately in need of a friend?

Thanks again,

Lisa

[Erick_Setiawan]

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LISA-BRYAN wrote:

Erick-

You are absolutely right!  You can not learn to write unless you read!  Stephen King addresses the same thing in his book On Writing --- "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others; read a lot and write a lot. "  He goes onto to write "The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor."

If I had not become a biology teacher - I would have like to be an English teacher since I love reading and writing.

Thanks once again for such a wonderful book -- I feel honored to have had the opportunity to read it.

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Hi LISA-BRYAN,

Thank you for bringing up Stephen King.  Yes, I think every writer should use his On Writing as a bible. One of his advice--"Kill your darlings"--sticks with me.  It's about pruning all those sentences that sound so beautiful but serve no purpose in the story.

I applaud you for being a biology teacher (keep reading and writing whenever you have time).  I could never get past dissecting a frog!