BookView Review

Welcome to BookView Interview, a conversation series where BookView talks to authors.

Recently, we interviewed Jan Krause Greene about her writing and her recently released novel, The Space Between Dark and Light. (Read the review here.) Jan worked as a high school English teacher, educational consultant, and from the mid-80s to mid-90s, she had a weekly column, “Homefront” in a daily newspaper, the Middlesex News (now the Metrowest News). It was reflections on life as a Mother, Teacher, and Writer.

How did this story first come to be? Did it start with an image, a voice, a concept, a dilemma, or something else?

That’s a question I am often asked. A big part of the inspiration for this book was a little boy named George who popped into my imagination and made a lasting impression on me. Ideas about George would pop into my head at random times, even though I didn’t start to write about him until a few years had passed. It was as if he was insisting that I tell his story. Another inspiration was people asking me

to write a sequel to my first novel, I Call Myself Earth girl. I wanted the sequel to work as a stand-alone book for readers who had not read ICMEG, and I realized I would need two seemingly unrelated story lines at the beginning of the book.

By the time I started to write about George, I knew that his story takes place in the future, and that the effect of climate change on society would have a lot to do with what happens to him. But the first book was set in contemporary times and I wanted to keep the characters from that book in the present. Because of this, I needed to create two separate narratives – one in the present and the other 100 years in the future – that would merge at some point in the book. It was challenging to work with two very different plots and settings and lead them to a point where they come together. But it was fun, and I think it works well for both sets of readers. I can’t say more on this point without a major spoiler, so I’ll stop here.

You mentioned that George popped into your head and you couldn’t let go of him. Can you say more about what sort of relationship exists between you and the characters you created in this book?

Well, like most writers, they become like real people to me. I care about them. When they are going through difficult times, I feel sorry for them. I know that sounds silly because I am making up those difficult times, but it doesn’t feel to me like I am creating them. With some characters, like George in this book, when they first enter my consciousness, they already have a bit of a story – George came with a specific set of circumstances, and I felt like I was telling people what happened to him, instead of creating it. Much of his storyline flowed onto paper without me having to think about what the next plot point would be. Just like the character Earth Girl in my first novel, once George came into my mind, I had to write about him. For me, that’s one of the most interesting things about writing. Some characters pop into my head and insist on having their stories told. It was the same with Earth Girl. I had no idea where her story was going when I sat down to write, so I just let her tell me. To be truthful, at first, I didn’t know what to do with her, because her story seemed … otherworldly… or like the disjointed images in a dream. But she kept “telling” me more and I kept writing until it all came together.

Which scene changed the most from first draft to published book?

There’s a scene very close to the end of the book that I wrote over and over again. In it, one of the present-day characters is giving a speech, and what he says is very important to the rest of the book. I knew I wanted it to be hopeful to counterbalance George’s story which portrays a very difficult future. But I just couldn’t get it right. Eventually, I realized I needed to have it set about ten years after the rest of the contemporary story. Once I made that change, I was able to change the speech. With that revision, the epilogue works much better. A lot of readers tell me that the hopeful ending was uplifting to them. Of course, that’s gratifying to hear.

What do you hope readers will take away from this story?

First and foremost, I want it to keep them turning pages. Even when a book has a message, and this one does, I think it has to have a compelling storyline and characters that readers care about.

What I want them to take away from this story is hope – hope that most problems can be solved, most relationships can be repaired, and most of all, hope for the generations who will come after us. And I want that hope to be linked to the fact that we – those of us living on earth in the 2020s – hold their fate in our hands. We can help to ensure future generations will not live in a dystopia. I want readers to know that climate change is real, but we still have time to stop global warming and to come up with sustainable adaptations that will improve the quality of life for us and generations to come.

I think that many people believe that it is too late, or that the problem is too big. But we do still have time, and now that more governments and corporations are finding economic benefits in creating solutions, we can make swift progress in stopping global warming. One of the characters sums up my take-away well: “We know the task before us is huge and complicated. But there are billions of us, each with a unique combination of knowledge, wisdom, talent, and resources. Each of us has something of value to offer. For most of us, our daily choices will make a significant impact on preventing further global warming. Probably more of an impact than most people realize … I believe each of us living now, in this pivotal space between, has been chosen by God or the universe to be living on Earth now. We have been given the awesome privilege of preserving the Earth’s ability to sustain us. Let us be worthy of this honor so that someday historians will say of us: They held the fate of humanity in their hands, and against all odds, they came together to save future generations from a climate catastrophe.”

I truly believe if we envision the future we want, instead of the one we fear, most of us will be motivated to make that future a reality.

Which scene was most difficult to write? Why?

All of the scenes where bad things happen to George were hard, even painful, to write. So were the scenes describing the back stories of some of the characters he meets. It was very difficult for me to create this dystopian picture of the future, but I felt the most effective way to get people to care about the generations who will be most affected by climate change was by having a child living through it. Yet, the end of the book suggests we can prevent that future. That’s why I include the epilogue in which George is happily celebrating a holiday with his family.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a writer?

This question brings up a dilemma I have with my writing. I find promotion and marketing to be harder than writing because my books don’t fit well into any one genre. Real living humans don’t experience life in a defined box. Any one person’s life is so full of situations, emotions, obstacles, triumphs, surprises, tedium, and adventure that it could never be contained in one category. I try to reflect that complexity in my characters and my plots, so I don’t follow the conventions or tropes of a specific genre closely. I prefer to characterize my novels as general fiction because they tell stories in which the relationships between the characters and their reactions to their personal situations are the focus.

Having said that, I understand that aspects of my plots lead people to characterize them as science fiction, and I guess they fit into that category better than any other genre. Recently, I came across a sub-genre of sci- fi I had never heard of – solarpunk. It explores ways technology could work in synergy with nature to solve the climate crisis and to create better living environments for everyone. It encourages readers to think about what kind of world they want their children and grandchildren to live in. And, importantly, to think about how to create that future. That was one of my goals with this book.

I like to think that solarpunk belongs with eco-fiction or climate fiction as much as it belongs with sci-fi. It has an aspect of utopian literature, but it also focuses on what is possible in the here and now, not in some far-out future radically transformed world. I think the epilogue in The Space Between Dark and Light is a tiny example of that ethic. Maybe my next book will be the solarpunk version of young George’s life. That would be fun to write!

What else would you like readers to know?

First, I want to thank BookView Review (or wherever you choose to feature this) for interviewing me, and I especially want to thank readers for the time they spent reading this.

If anyone is interested in reading I Call Myself Earth Girl, they should contact me at the email below. I am in the process of buying back the rights to it, and the publisher is no longer printing new copies. I have about 20 available now, but I plan to re-release it during this year.

I love to visit book clubs (either through Zoom or in-person), and I like working with high school students using parts of my books as prompts for discussion and writing activities. I would especially like to work with students on creating their own solar punk stories. Please contact me at jan.krause.greene@gmail.com if you are interested in either opportunity, or if you would like to receive my newsletter. It only comes out a few times a year. I promise you won’t be flooded with emails from me.

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