Author Jennifer Epstein ~ Interviewed

Jennifer Cody Epstein’s fiction has appeared in several literary magazines and has been a fiction prize finalist in Glimmertrain. She has lived and worked in the U.S., Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Italy for publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Mademoiselle, Self and Parents, as well as for the NBC and HBO networks. She has a Masters in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA in fiction from Columbia. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, filmmaker Michael Epstein, and their two daughters.


What is your current project? Tell us about it.


It's set against the firebombings of Tokyo in 1945--a kind of unexpected love story that also explores the larger themes of what constitutes crime in a time of war, the complex dynamic between victor and vanquished, and (as in Painter) the ways that different cultures and art forms can intersect and connect people. There will be some familiar themes but some new stuff too, hopefully. I'm about two chapters in and already really enjoying it (well, as much as you can enjoy writing about firebombings, I guess).


Share a bit of your unique writing journey.


It wasn't a straightforward path, that's for sure! I've always wanted to write novels--pretty much from when I could first read them. But I was afraid—as I think are many writers and artists--to take the leap; which is primarily why I ended up in journalism for so long. I did find being a journalist helped a lot in terms of learning to economize with language—and, essential for this book—to research and interview effectively. The fact that I’d gone to school for International Relations and was a foreign correspondent--and hence was used to writing about people in different places and worlds--made it slightly easier to take on something of this magnitude of difference from my own life, though a journalist it’s probably that much harder to let yourself veer from fact. For better or for worse, though, as I’ve said, there was really limited fact to work with in Pan Yuliang’s case; so it forced me to take leaps I probably would never have dared otherwise.

In terms of my path to Norton…I found my agent, Elizabeth Sheinkman, first, although it took a couple of tries to sign her on (I first approached her with less than half the book finished). She led me to Norton—as well as eight other publishers (to date) in Europe and South America. She’s amazing.



What has been your biggest writing challenge and how have you overcome it?

At this point, just finding the time! I started "Painter" when my older daughter was just three months old and I couldn't afford a sitter (not the most pragmatic planning on my part, I guess!) and in the beginning, at least, found myself working largely in the dark--quite literally--sometimes from as early as 4:30 in the morning. These days I have two daughters in school until the afternoon and a sitter most afternoons as well--which would have seemed like a universe of time 7 years ago. But it's amazing how hard it can still be to set a schedule and just get down to it.


You've done much research to write your novel. Do you have any helpful hints for us?

I'm a bit of a research addict--but even by my standards I did a lot for this novel. I think I'd read up on her and taken Chinese history classes at Columbia for at least a year or two before I felt ready to start writing my prologue; and even then I continued to research in tandem with my writing. I read (or at least started) every book I could find on China and Paris and painting--some of the biggest and most helpful finds, in fact, were 100-year-old guidebooks that I found through interlibrary loan or on online secondhand bookstores like Alibris. Obviously, the Internet is a life-altering source for historical novelists (I honestly don't know how people like Michener did what they did without it); you need to vet your sources, but it's amazing to me how one can daisy-chain to such great details. I spent a whole day once trying to figure out what kinds of cigarettes people smoked in Shanghai in the 1940's--and en route, found so much other fascinating stuff (old posters that gave hints into the way people dressed, for example). I also took painting classes, interviewed painters, and sat in at the New York Art Student's League for a day.

I think the biggest advice I can give to anyone taking on something like this is to not be afraid to avail yourself of anything and everything--you never know where the smallest but most telling details are going to come from. At the same time, you also have to have the discipline not to use each and every fact you find that seems of interest to you--there was so much that I tried to twist and tweak to fit into the novel because it interested me, but in the end, if something isn't organically a part of your story, you need to be able to cut it out. Maybe not delete it--but just put it aside for use another time.


With the clarity of experience what advice would you offer to the wet-behind-the-ears you if beginning this writing journey today?

Honestly, the Nike ad is what always comes to mind--you just have to do it. Sit down, and write. Even if it's no good; or you think it's no good; or the people around you say it's no good (and some will--never doubt it). Take advice from people whom you trust, don't be afraid of criticism, and just keep going. Eventually, that's what will get you to a place where you know what is good for yourself and what isn't.


What event/person has most changed you as a writer? How?

It was actually one event and two people. The event was the Modern Chinese Art exhibit at the Guggenheim, about a decade ago, and the people were my husband and (without sounding baldfacedly self-promoting) Pan Yuliang herself. Up until that point I'd been working on and off on trying to be a fiction writer, but without much motivation, and (for the most part) on some fairly insipid semi-autobiographical coming-of-age stories. At the Guggenheim, though, I saw my first Pan Yuliang painting and a short summary of her astonishing life. Between that and my husband's rather unanticipated and (I thought at the time) wholly absurd comment that Pan's life would be a great novel for me to write, a seed was planted. As months passed and the idea took root, I found myself actually beginning to see the idea as feasible, and finally (in the dark, with a sleeping baby behind me) began to tentatively to try to write it out. And as I said above, from there it was just doing it--fitting it in when I could, resigning myself to wasted days or weeks or chapters, learning to smile through unwanted or unhelpful comments and to absorb productive (if sometimes painful) criticisms with some degree of grace. That process is what really made me a writer, in the end. It's been a phenomenal experience.


Have you discovered any surefire marketing ideas that you'd like to share with us? Or have you encountered any that our readers should avoid?

For me, the Internet is a potentially enormous marketing device that--somewhat to my surprise--a lot of publishers and publicists haven't yet quite figured out how to really fit into their marketing plans. But I think it's worth it, as a writer, to take some time and introduce yourself and your book to the scores of thoughtful bloggers and reviewers who have reading followings of various sizes. Even the smaller blogs will probably garner at least a few hundred hits--far more attention than at most readings. Partly under the guidance of people like M.J. Rose (an author and inimitable online promotion pro--she runs "Authorbuzz") I spent alot of time writing to blogs and book sites that looked interesting to me, and ended up with close to 60 really thoughtful (and mostly positive) reviews and mentions and a handful of blog ads. I think such venues are great resources for introducing debut authors and readers to one another.

In terms of marketing ideas I'd--maybe not avoid, but approach with caution--the idea of trying to tie your book automatically to another one in order to attract readers. From the get-go "Painter" has been--somewhat expectedly, I guess, and initially even by me (when I was trying to sell the idea to agents and publishers)--compared to "Memoirs of a Geisha." As the publicity effort developed so did that comparison; and while I do appreciate that to some extent ("Memoirs" was, after all, an extraordinary book) I did start to feel that it was taken to the point, at least by some readers, where "Memoirs" was seen as the bar, and any differences between it and my novel meant that "Painter" necessarily fell short. And of course--thank goodness (for who wants to read the same book twice?)--there are many, many differences between the Arthur Golden's book and mine. Apart from taking place in China (which is a VASTLY different country from Japan) "The Painter from Shanghai" is (again, for me) far less about life in a brothel than about art, and how an artist develops despite--or perhaps even because of--unspeakable hardship. I also think the writing was very different; a bit more experimental (or at least that was the intent), and I know that some reviewers found that less accessible than what they'd expected based on the "Memoirs" comparison. So while I understand the commercial instinct to go for a proven, large audience in promoting a book as "being like" a breakout bestseller, I think the next round I'd probably be more inclined to try to set the book up on its own terms from the beginning. Though who knows, in the end--book promotion is such a counterintuitive and imprecise science!