This novel is set in Philadelphia, primarily during the time of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 – a virus that claimed a staggering 50 millions lives worldwide, twelve thousand of them of whom were Philadelphians. They are masterful writers of historical fiction and just being in the same room with them makes me happy.įor those who are unfamiliar with your novel AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN, how would you introduce it? I am so honored to have as friends and colleagues so many brilliant writer friends, including Lisa Wingate, Pam Jenoff, Greer McAllister, Chris Bohjalian, Jamie Ford, and Ariel Lawhon. I love them.Īre there authors that you’re excited to engage/work with? My favorite book outside my genre is any Inspector Gamache mystery by Louise Penny. Just writing about it now makes me want to read it again. It is a beautifully written story about the resiliency of the human spirit. It’s a book about a Native American girl who, according to legend, spent eighteen years alone on island far off the coast of California after her tribe left the island and unknowingly she was forgotten behind.

If I go way back to the books that I read as a young girl and which still echo in my heart and head, I’d say my favorite is The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. It’s like trying to choose my favorite breath of oxygen. I am having a nervous fit right now trying to come up with my favorite all-time book ever. It’s good to know what you love to do and are wired to do, because you can skip out on meaningless jobs that can’t ever satisfy you.īeyond your own work (of course), what is your all-time favorite book and why? And what is your favorite book outside of your genre? High school especially showed me what I was good at and what I loved, and likewise it showed me what I wasn’t so good at and would likely not enjoy as a life pursuit. Looking back, I’d say what shaped me the most is learning – discovering – what I was already wired to do, and that is write. What was the greatest thing you learned at school?

What’s one thing that readers would be surprised to find out about you?Įven though I am comfortable with public speaking and attending big book events and meeting people, I’m a bona fide introvert who is happy when the mega event is over and I can retreat into a quiet corner with a glass of wine and a novel and maybe have just one other person sitting there beside me who sits there and lets me read.

As bright as heaven by susan meissner