Author Judith Deborah

Judith Deborah is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. She grew up about forty minutes outside midtown Manhattan and was educated at Duke and Oxford. She recently published a mystery novel, A Falling Knife, and started a pop-culture website. She's passionate about good writing, good mysteries, good movies, good wine, and good food, although she's been known to take great pleasure in terrible examples of all of those things.

Judith's novel has just received a glowing notice from Kirkus Reviews, in which it is described as satisfying, witty and sophisticated. The full review can be found here.

What is the current project you are working on?

I’m weighing some ideas for another book in the Evan Adair mystery series, but am also in the early stages of a novel that’s outside the mystery genre. It’s more along the lines of a comedy of manners. I’m also putting together a collection of short stories.

How do you define success?

Doing a job you love, doing it the best you possibly can, and getting paid for it.

How do you handle rejection?

Either by shifting gears and starting a whole new project -- which tells me I wasn’t that sold on the original project myself -- or by looking for a new way to make it viable. That can mean either tweaking it or changing the approach to selling it (or both, as happened with A Falling Knife).

Did you always want to be a writer?

Yes. I started writing stories when I was six. I’ve taken some pretty big detours, but writing has always been at the center of my professional life in one way or another. And I’ve known since I was a kid that ultimately I’d be writing fiction.

What inspired you to become a writer?

Two people inspired me to take the idea seriously: Laurie Colwin and Reynolds Price.

The first book of Colwin’s that I ever read was her collection of short stories, The Lone Pilgrim, which was recommended to me when I was a freshman in college. She wrote in a sunny, wry, sophisticated way about people who are very intelligent but completely confused in their personal lives -- articulate, warm, domestically inclined people who felt very familiar to me. She also did some wonderful (and very funny) food writing. I felt a certain kinship with her, with her style and personality as well as with her life choices, and she made me hopeful that if she could pull off the writing life -- make it a reality and not just wishful thinking -- maybe I could too. (I actually wrote her a fan letter once and she wrote back. She told me that she was writing a novel and having a baby, which was a combination she highly recommended. We lost her very young -- she died at 48 -- but she was a treasure.)

I studied writing with Reynolds Price while I was at Duke as a graduate student. He did a great deal for my confidence as a writer, and his example was a huge inspiration.

What is the best thing about being one?

Positive feedback from readers. I know I should hear “hey, liked the book!” with a mature, sober equanimity, but it always makes me feel like dancing on tables.

What is the worst thing about being one?

Waiting months for a response to a query and having it slowly dawn on you that the silence is itself the answer -- ugh. Not being able to see the end of a project. And of course the days when you can’t write your way out of a paper bag. We all have times when we either can’t crank anything out at all or can only seem to write garbage, and the harder we try, the more craptabulous the stuff gets. Days like that are enough to make you want to get back in bed, pull the covers over your head, and not come out for a couple of months.

Who is your favorite author?

P.G. Wodehouse. Laurie Colwin (see above). And I’m very attached to a whole roster of mystery authors, including Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Reginald Hill, and Colin Dexter. There are some individual works that mean a lot to me, too, like Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Richard Price’s novel Lush Life. All of Lush Life is amazing, but the prologue in particular is a master class.

How has your life changed since you became writer?

No more regular paycheck, which is both disorienting and highly motivating.

What is one piece of advice you can give to someone who also wants to be a writer?

Two things. First, prepare yourself for a lifetime of much more rejection than approbation, and consider if that’s really something you want to take on. And second, be absolutely, positively sure there isn’t something you’d rather do, or even something you’d just like to explore before committing. If there’s anything else you’re seriously considering -- furniture making or investment banking or dog breeding or marine biology -- do that other thing, because your odds of success will be better. It’ll also give you something to write about with some authority later, if you’ve still got the itch. Your writing will almost certainly be a lot more interesting.

What do you like to do besides writing?

Cook, blog, go to the movies, do crosswords, listen to audiobooks, eat, tinker with martini and gimlet proportions, listen to the Larry Miller podcast, and hang out with my kids.

Have you had any other jobs before you decided to become a writer?

I worked as a financial editor at investment banks in New York for a while. I also spent about a year and a half writing digests of the financial news for an online investment information resource. Nowadays, my main job is as mother to three young kids. Motherhood and writerhood segue rather neatly, I find (I have only mornings to work in because of school/activity schedules, and I’m the kind of writer who works much better with externally imposed time restrictions and deadlines).

How would you describe your education?

As an extremely lucky one. I studied English and US history at Duke with a whole lineup of great people. I also studied International Relations at Balliol College, Oxford, which was one of the best experiences of my life in pretty much every respect you can imagine.

What are some of your favorite American films? Foreign films? Television shows?

Oh boy -- I could go on all day with this one. Off the top of my head:

American films: Adam’s Rib, Pat and Mike, Desk Set, The Philadelphia Story (detecting a pattern here?), My Favorite Year, Young Frankenstein, You Don’t Mess With the Zohan (what can I tell you? I think I injured myself laughing), Best In Show,  The Rookie, 61*. Pretty much anything containing Allison Janney, Madeline Kahn, or Patricia Clarkson.

Foreign films: Diva, A Sunday in the Country, The Band’s Visit, The Lives of Others, Local Hero, Withnail & I, Mostly Martha, Strictly Ballroom, The Lion in Winter, Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers

Television shows: The West Wing, Mad Men, Northern Exposure, Inspector Morse, Sherlock Holmes (with Jeremy Brett), Columbo, The Good Neighbors (called The Good Life in Britain, a 70s-era comedy with Felicity Kendal and Richard Briers), Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister, House of Cards with Ian Richardson, Reckless with Francesca Annis and Michael Kitchen

How has social media changed the publishing industry?

Radically, and largely for the better.

You could have any first edition book. Which book would it be and why?

I actually have them already: Laurie Colwin’s novel Happy All the Time and P.G. Wodehouse’s Pigs Have Wings, which was a gift from my husband.

What's your favorite movie quote and why?

“I’m wearing a cardboard belt!” -- bellowed by Max Bialystock (Zero Mostel) to Leo Bloom (Gene Wilder) in The Producers, one of my favorite Mel Brooks movies. When I was a kid, my dad and I used to holler this at each other and then fall over laughing. It’s a lot to freight one sentence with, but for some reason this line evokes summer at my old house growing up, smearing a slice of rye bread around the bottom of the salad bowl to soak up the tomato juice and vinegar, and my dad laughing.

Oh, and one other one: Ruth Hussey saying “Belts will be worn tighter this year” in The Philadelphia Story, which exemplifies how terrific that script was. (Belts seem to be a theme. I have no idea why.)

What is your opinion on movie remakes and sequels?

Sequels can be great. Batman: The Dark Knight, for example, was an outstanding followup to Batman Begins, which had set a very high bar. I’m less sold on remakes, though. I can’t think of a single remake that was superior to, or even equal to, the original. I’m a big proponent of the American movie industry, but it has to be said that the pitiful American remake of a fabulous European movie is almost a genre unto itself. (I haven’t seen the US-made Dragon Tattoo yet, but the Swedish one was excellent. It didn’t need a remake, especially not so soon. I’m open to counterargument, though, particularly when it’s delivered by Daniel Craig.)

What is your opinion on book to movie adaptations?

They’re great if done well. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, for instance, was a terrific adaptation of a book. And that was a book I really loved, so I was apprehensive about the movie. In some ways I liked the movie better than the book.

That adaptation was pretty literal, but I also enjoy adaptations that take a whole new approach to the telling of a story -- Clueless, for example, which sets Jane Austen’s Emma in a California high school. That movie worked brilliantly.

There are certainly instances where the movie adaptation diminishes the book -- The Help comes to mind -- but in general I think they’re fine.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Only that I hope you’ll give my novel a whirl, and if you do, I hope you enjoy it! It’s called A Falling Knife and is available in paperback and for the Kindle. You’re also welcome to pop by my website, judithdeborah.com, or my Facebook page, and I’d love it if you followed me on Twitter: @JudithDeborah

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Thank you for doing the interview Judith. I will  read A Falling Knife ASAP. I don't have much time to read these days.  Good luck with your short stories and other books.