Guest Post: Inspiration and Surprise, by Patti Callahan Henry, author of The Stories We Tell

Today's guest post is brought to you by Patti Callahan Henry, author of The Stories We Tell, recently released - check back soon for a review and giveaway of the book, or click HERE to purchase a copy.

Patti Callahan Henry
via: her website

As writers, we are inspired by so many things but usually I start my novels with a “what if?” question. This novel, my tenth, was the first one I’ve written that didn’t start out with that question. This novel was inspired by the beauty and handmade world of letterpress and typography. In our fast-paced world where image is everything in social media and branding, where does the handcrafted, honest life fit in? I imagined a woman who valued not only the image of her life and family but also the creative life that nourished her. I saw these two worlds colliding as she struggled to keep both worlds alive in a tension of opposites. Eventually something had to unwind, which of course it did. As an ex-nurse who specialized in closed head injuries, I was also inspired by the constantly wavering life of memory and imagination. What is real? What is imagined or remembered? How accurate is our memory, especially after a head injury? These fascinating questions pulled the story along as I uncovered the answers.

Sometimes writing a book is like going on a blind date, and discovering that the date is someone completely different than you’d been told about. It’s the magic and mystery of writing – we start off with one idea and end up writing about something else all together. I did write about all the things that inspired this novel, but its end destination, its final message was about “believing before seeing” and the innate ability of creativity to heal a life and heart.


About the author:
New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan Henry has published ten novels: Losing the Moon, Where the River Runs, When Light Breaks, Between the Tides, The Art of Keeping Secrets, Driftwood Summer, The Perfect Love Song, Coming up for Air, And Then I Found You, and The Stories We Tell. Hailed as a fresh new voice in Southern fiction, Henry has been shortlisted for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, and nominated four different times for the Southeastern Independent Booksellers Novel of the Year. Her work is published in five languages and in audiobook by Brilliance Audio. Her first book, Losing the Moon, was published in 2004.

About The Stories We Tell:

Eve and Cooper Morrison are Savannah’s power couple. They’re on every artistic board and deeply involved in the community. She owns and operates a letterpress studio specializing in the handmade; he runs a digital magazine featuring all things southern gentlemen. The perfect juxtaposition of the old and the new, Eve and Cooper are the beautiful people. The lucky ones. And they have the wealth and name that comes from being part of an old Georgia family. But things may not be as good as they seem. Eve’s sister, Willa, is staying with the family until she gets "back on her feet." Their daughter, Gwen, is all adolescent rebellion. And Cooper thinks Eve works too much. Still, the Morrison marriage is strong. After twenty-one years together, Eve and Cooper know each other. They count on each other. They know what to expect. But when Cooper and Willa are involved in a car accident, the questions surrounding the event bring the family close to breaking point. Sifting between the stories — what Cooper says, what Willa remembers, what the evidence indicates — Eve has to find out what really happened. And what she’s going to do about it.