Pamela Glasner is the debut author of the novel Finding Emmaus, a historically accurate dark fantasy that discusses empathy, the way society handles abnormalities, and the pharmaceutical industry. After a fortuitous meeting on Twitter, I spoke with Pamela about her new novel, the importance of research, the pharmaceutical conspiracy, and social media.
Reflection’s Edge: After years in Real Estate and renovating historical properties, what inspired you to start writing?
Pamela Glasner: It’s funny. I’ve written all my life. I’ve just never written a novel before. In fact, when they would send me to camp my family lived in fear of my letters. The longest letter I ever wrote was twenty-three pages long. When I was in college we were assigned a project to write a comparison between two works by the same artist. My teacher gave me an “A” and compared my writing to George Bernard Shaw. I thought maybe I should pursue writing, but every time I sat down to try and write a novel nothing came to me. Then one day I was looking at a line drawing in my room of an old man and it came to me. The entire story came to me in less than fifteen minutes.
RE: The idea came in fifteen minutes. How long did it take for you to actually write it?
PG: It took five months of writing, research, and editing.
RE: The book is told from the perspective of Frank and Katherine (Frank in first person and Katherine in third person). Why tell this story using two different points of view?
PG: I wanted it to be easy for the reader while they are going through the book to always know where they are in the story, who is talking, and in what century. Frank would be telling his own story to Katherine, so he is speaking in the first person. Also, Frank is from the 17th century, but I couldn’t write in the exact dialect of that century and have it be understandable. I made his voice formal so that it was clear he was from the 17th century, but so it is still accessible to the reader.
RE: How did you handle developing two distinct voices in two different points of view?
PG: First I wrote Frank’s story in its entirety and then I wrote Katherine’s. My editor and I cut them into pieces, spread them out over a table, and then decided how we would piece them back together.
RE: The book is being labeled as a “well-researched dark fantasy.” What kind of research did you do and how important was it to developing the book?
PG: I got some information off the internet, but I also took a trip to London. Most of the records from the 17th century are kept there. I had to become a “Registered Reader” with the Royal Society of London and the British Library in order to access the records. Their records were kept in great detail including the patient records from Bethlem Hospital. There were detailed drawings of the methods used and how the hospital operated. It was really quiet gruesome, but it was important to building the reality of the story. It may be a fantasy, but in order for people to believe the fantasy elements, you have to make everything else as realistic as possible.
RE: A major theme in the story is how society handles abnormalities. Was there a certain motivation for adopting this theme?
PG: I started out immediately wanting to write about empathy, but in my research I found that there are several psychological disorders, such as bipolar disorder, that mimic the same symptoms. In the book the person who has empathy could be misdiagnosed as bipolar even by the person who has the ability. It’s not easy to explain a feeling, especially if you are receiving feelings from other people and you don’t understand that you’re an empath. There are just too many things that can’t be explained and are not easy to identify.
RE: How does the pharmaceutical industry figure into this theme?
PG: My research into bipolar disorder led me to uncover the interworkings of the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry. The anecdotal research by itself is very moving, but to read the reports by and given to the CDC–studies that are supposed to be done ostensibly by people that are unbiased so that the findings are objective, and to see how they are skewed in favor of the pharmaceutical industry or done by companies owned by pharmaceutical interests was appalling. At least 70% of the time drugs are not effective. My friend, Kevin Miller, who is the producer and director of the documentary “Generation RX,” has informed me about this entire issue. He became an authority on this subject and wrote the forward to Finding Emmaus. I never thought I could be an agent for social change, and though it’s fiction, it is grounded in fact with a real human cost at stake.
RE: Why choose empathic ability as the perceived illness instead of a more common or accepted mental or physical illness?
PG: My book’s way of dealing with the 70% failure rate is by saying it’s because of empaths. I am not a physician and I am not advocating complete abstinence of drugs. Stopping cold turkey is very dangerous and weaning off is very difficult too, so I am careful to state that these are my feelings. Still, consult your physician or if you need to change doctors then do so. Also, I have always been interested in the whole subject area of empathy. It’s an interesting angle that paralleled common stories of geniuses that aren’t accepted in life. The lead character, Frank, dedicated his entire life to help people who were empaths only to die not being accepted or believed.
RE: This is book 1 of the series. Why did you choose to make it a series instead of a standalone?
PG: It just developed that way. I have already started on book two and I know there will definitely be a book three. I don’t know about fourth.
RE: Will the next installment continue the dual character theme?
PG: I haven’t decided yet. I am still trying to decide how to address a few loose ends left in Frank’s life. I also think it might be fun to use one of Frank’s contemporaries.
RE: On a side note, marketing and social media are important and tense topics for writers. This interview is a prime example of how authors and publications can use social media to their advantage. Pamela and I found each other on Twitter. Here is what she had to say about social media and marketing:
PG: It’s amazing as a promotional tool. I block major spammers, of course. In general the people I follow and the people following me all know I’m an author. I introduce myself as an author. How else would I be able to connect with people in England, Australia, and Canada? I met radio host Tony from Australia online and have already been interviewed by him. I also found my publicist, a couple of attorneys, and received interviews in New York, Arizona, and California all because of Twitter. I have a Facebook page, but I’m bad when it comes to technology so I am still figuring out Facebook.
RE: How did you market your book to an agent?
PG: I was outrageously lucky and maybe it was meant to happen. After I neared the end of the editing process I started putting the word out. I was absolutely terrified of the query and thought I would rather meet someone. I belong to a private club in Hartford, a woman’s club, and one of my fellow members knew a woman who was an agent. The agent only handled nonfiction, but she was well known and well respected. She liked my book so much that she took it on even though she doesn’t do fiction. Within weeks Greenleaf picked up the book. I got the first agent and the first publisher I went after!
Finding Emmaus, Book One of the Lodestarre Series, releases on October 1, 2009.