Q&A: Stacey May Fowles shares her fave books and writing habits

To help our book club get some additional insight into Stacey May Fowles as a writer, we asked her 10 questions about her writing habits and favourite books.

We hope you’re reading along with the Cityline Book Club and enjoying Infidelity by Stacey May Fowles! Our Cityline team has been loving this steamy and engaging novel, and we’re already itching to have our book club meeting to fully discuss it together! To help our book club get some additional insight into Fowles as a writer, we asked her 10 questions about her writing habits and favourite books.

1. What was your favourite book as a child?

My parents are British, so I read a lot of Enid Blyton’s children’s books as a kid, like The Famous Five and The Secret Seven. I also loved Charlotte’s Web, remembering it as the first book that made me cry. When I got older I just inhaled books like Sweet Valley High, The Baby-Sitters Club, and anything by Judy Blume. I also loved those amazing teen thrillers and horror novels by R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike.

2. What’s your current favourite book?

My absolute favourite book for so many years running is Joan Didion’s Play It As It Lays. It was the first writing I ever read of hers, back when I was about seventeen. I’ve since read almost everything else she’s written, but I return to the novel every so often for comfort, I suppose. I even have my battered high school copy, which has all of my favourite passages highlighted. For me, at the time, it felt like a radically different way to tell a story, and I loved it.

3. Was there a moment when you first knew you wanted to be a writer?

I don’t think there was an exact moment — I always remember writing stories and plays when I was in elementary school, so I think it always seemed like the kind of thing that was a given. I do remember going to to see John Fowles launch a book at a downtown bar when I was about eighteen. It wasn’t that long before he died. I drove downtown in my parents’ car to meet him, and in retrospect, I’m surprised I wasn’t carded at the door. I dressed up in my best (and only) black dress, and I remember naively thinking the whole scene seemed so glamorous, with agents, and publishers, and other writers. Maybe that was the moment when I thought I wanted to be part of a community like that — it seemed so exciting to me at the time.

4. What is your favourite music to write to?

I used to have to write to music and had a number of carefully chosen playlists set up for when I went on writing binges. It was usually pretty aggressive, emotive music that I’d choose depending on what was happening in the scene I was trying to write. Lately I’ve been writing in silence, which might have something to do with the more structured non-fiction I’ve been doing.

5. What author do you wish you could write like?

I think Joan Didion is an absolute, otherworldly genius. No one in the world writes like her. It seems totally futile to even wish for it.

6. Where is your favourite place to write?

It’s always shifting, but right now it’s at the dining room table. That’s particularly hilarious because when we moved into our house we made sure we had an office set up. Right now the office is more like book storage and “the cats’ room,” while I’m typing away where we eat our meals. I think most writers just tend to adapt to their spaces and do what works in the moment. I really believe a space can become stagnant, so you have to rotate.

7. What time of day do you do your best writing?

Any time other than the early morning. I’m just completely useless then. I know that for many writers that time is their most productive, but I just can’t even imagine writing (or even speaking) a coherent sentence before 8am.

8. What was your last great read?

I really loved S. Bear Bergman’s Blood, Marriage, Wine and Glitter. Bergman has such an amazing non-fiction narrative style, such a welcoming voice — the writing is just so charming, moving, and stunning.

9. What is the last book you gave as a gift?

I gave my dad Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding recently — half because of our shared love of baseball, half because it’s one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read.

10. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Cooking. Napping. Watching episodic television. Thinking about how I should be writing.

Are you enjoying Infidelity so far? Share your thoughts in the comments – we can’t wait to discuss it with you. Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with Fowles, coming up right here in the Cityline Book Club next week!