Genevieve Plunkett

Genevieve Plunkett is the author of Prepare Her: Stories. A recipient of an O. Henry Award, her short fiction can also be found in journals such as New England Review, The Southern Review, Crazyhorse, Colorado Review, and The Best Small Fictions 2018. She lives in Vermont with her two children.

Plunkett's debut novel is In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

I wrote songs before I started writing fiction, so the cadence of the title was important to me. In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel has a catchiness that I hope draws people in, even if they don’t know what the book is about. As for how it connects to the story itself, the title comes directly from a conversation between Portia and Theo. They are bandmates, who are also in love, searching desperately for a way to be together, when it seems otherwise impossible. The lobby of a dream hotel is a central place and also a nowhere place, kind of like hope.

What's in a name?

Elizabeth Bowen was perhaps the first author that I truly loved as an adult reader. Her novel, The Death of the Heart, is centered around sixteen-year-old orphan Portia Quayne. My Portia--Portia Elby-- is not modeled after her, but it was comforting to choose a name that I had a connection to, in a certain quiet, literary way.

Alby Porter, the rock star who Portia obsesses over, was called Alby Porter before I even understood the significance of how the names mirrored each other: Portia Elby > < Alby Porter.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel?

Once teenage Genevieve got over the shock of discovering that I actually finished something, she might be surprised at how romantic certain parts of the novel are. She might think I’ve gone soft. And I suppose I have.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

I was writing on a (loose) deadline, so the end of this book was a distant--but fast approaching--mystery. I was sure of it when I reached it and the ending has not changed since that first draft.

In general, beginnings are more difficult to discern. A novel or story can start at any point, from any angle. Sometimes I must discard what I thought was the beginning to find the true take-off point. Beginnings, for me, require skill, while endings are mostly discovered through intuition, trust, and luck.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

I have had the great misfortune and pleasure of experiencing manic and hypo-manic highs. I wanted a chance to describe this state through Portia, to write a book driven by mood rather than time. Mania can create the illusion (or maybe it is not an illusion--who knows?) that all events are taking place at the same time, like a kaleidoscope. That might be why the novel is scrambled chronologically.

That being said, I think I put the best of myself into Theo’s character--his sensitivity, his worries, and his dreams.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

So many! I have always been mystified by song lyrics. As a child, I felt that the songs of artists like David Bowie, Grace Slick, Neil Young, and Captain Beefheart, were exclusive worlds. I wanted access, but believed that I was too naive, or not intellectual enough to understand. It took me a while to realize that the songs were not written for the intellect. That’s where I find the stories in my head now--by reaching past the meaning of them, right into the strangeness and confusion. It reminds me of music, and probably comes from the same creative longing, ignited by listening to those artists at such a young age.

Visit Genevieve Plunkett's website.

--Marshal Zeringue