Today I’ll be hosting Robyn Bernstein on my blog. Her debut novel Songs From The Other Side is now available on Amazon.com
Robyn Bernstein is a Duke University graduate, currently living in Arizona with her husband and three children. Her fiction work is influenced by a decade of living in New York City, as she frequently highlights art, music and architecture as important aspects of her characters’ East Coast lives.
It is my pleasure to welcome Ms. Bernstein to this episode.
Me: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Robyn: I entered a writing contest for Seventeen magazine when I was fifteen. Out of thousands of entrants, my short story received honorable mention. Until then, I had never qualified myself as a writer because most of the work I did was either for academic purposes or journaling.
Me: How long have you been writing?
Robyn: I think I’ve been writing for as long as I’ve been able to pick up a pen and write, though the types of things I’ve enjoyed writing have changed dramatically. For a very long time, it was poetry or lyrics for songs. Despite early on, having won a lot of small poetry contests and even placing in that short story contest, I had always enjoyed writing as a very private thing. Most of my characters have strong elements of my own vulnerabilities and there was a sense of feeling exposed or revealed by sharing them.
Me: What inspired you to write Songs From The Other Side?
Robyn: After this past year, 2020, the confluence of hardship and loss for so many people, it seemed like Songs From The Other Side had tremendous relevance. It is is at the heart, a love story but one that taps into universal aspects of grief and how to honor and eventually overcome great loss. I wanted the writing style to be poetic, lyrical and to have the depictions and descriptions within the story be so beautiful at times that the words were comforting, even when the characters themselves were suffering.
You can now order paperback and Kindle version of Songs From The Other Side from Amazon.com
Me: Are your characters created from scratch or are they based on people from your life?
Robyn: They came to life for me so clearly when I was writing that I can only assume they are parceled together parts of people I know. Jonah, for example, one of my absolute favorite characters has the dynamic energy and sense of humor of my husband, but also the joyful optimism of our three boys.
Me: Were there alternate endings you considered?
Robyn: I knew the ending before I knew the entire story leading my characters there. There was never another ending.
Me: What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Robyn: I had a lot of trepidation about releasing my work to the public and I think that tapped into fears related to perfectionism. Not surprisingly, this theme shows up in some of the characters in the book but somehow they’re able to work it out in a much shorter time than me! Songs From The Other Side takes place over several months in 1985 and most of my characters are able to find some resolution before the end of that brief time.
Me: What is the most surprising thing you discovered while writing your book?
Robyn: The book alludes to the magical realism we apply to our own lives when seeking out answers, the idea that if we are attune to it, maybe there is some pattern or purpose affixed to the coincidences in life. For me, it felt like some fun universal joke to write a romantic book about messages, meaning and healing only to have the wrong manuscript be distributed when my book was first released! Why, for a book that was delayed (by me) in being released because I had such fears about perfectionism did the most flawed thing I could have foreseen actually happen? I hated but also loved the joke of it, to think that this forced me to realize that something creatively upsetting happened and I didn’t die. I fixed it and recovered which is actually the most prevalent theme of this whole book. How do we get to the other side?
Me: Who is your favourite author and why?
Robyn: Oh there are so many. Jeanette Winterson for her shattering honesty. Mary Karr for combining beauty and sorrow in her words. Donna Tartt because of her genius structuring of stories.
Me: What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
Robyn: Mary Karr. I love her ideas on framing, that how you tell a story is based on the perception of what took place. Something can happen and yet two people see the same thing differently. She writes about her own life but not all of her family members have the exact same or choose to allow themselves to have the exact same memories. That to me is what being a writer is, knowing that your story may have a hundred other stories within it.
Me: What is the best piece of advice you received about writing?
Robyn: Write every day. Sometimes my daily writing doesn’t actually get written down though. Sometimes I simply run little scripts of ideas or thoughts in my head, small character sketches. I find it generates a creativity without scattering it too far so that when I actually do sit down to write, I always have a starting point. Sometimes my starting point is – why didn’t I write that down! But at least this way, I never feel writer’s block, something else maybe, but never writer’s block.
Me: What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
Robyn: Excitement to see what’s going to happen next. And also my youngest two kids are still in the stage of high energy and constant creativity. So, I think curiosity about what they’ve done in the kitchen plays a role.
Me: If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
Robyn: Curious, Enthusiastic and Passionate
Me: Writing can be an emotionally draining and stressful pursuit. Any tips for aspiring writers?
Robyn: Allow yourself the separation required to write, to really step back from the world when you need to go inward and be interior to put your thoughts on paper because in order to have topics to write about, you’ll have to eventually pick your head back up and be able to engage and interact again. I think this balance is easier if you fully live in each space when you need to.
Me: Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with your readers about?
Robyn: Yes! I am almost done with my second book called Too Cold For Snow. I am so excited about this book about four wealthy sisters during the financial collapse of 2008. Each one has such an intriguing story line, all set in the desolate cold of a Connecticut winter.
You can follow my page @nycazwriter to keep up-to-date on the progress for this project!
About the book
Newly orphaned, Jayne reads her father’s physics notebook to comfort herself. The journal is filled with private lectures and hand written theories. These writings mirror the darkly restrictive circumstances unfolding in Jayne’s life, but also foresee the chance encounter with Jonah, another science nerd who may guide her through her grief. Despite the punishing judgment inflicted by Aunt Pauline, a religious zealot and Jayne’s new guardian, Jayne believes the contents of her father’s journal provide secret messages for her, encouraging her and Jonah to enroll together in a science contest that takes place in New York City. Jayne and Jonah’s friendship grows as they begin to plan their escape, hoping to win prize money for proving the science of salvation. But is Jayne willing to betray the lessons in the journal when they no longer align with what she and Jonah ultimately intend to do? Only Jayne can decide if new love is worth the risk of losing her last connection to her Mom and Dad.
Purchase here: Amazon.com
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