I'm excited to announce the blog tour for As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back by Alle C. Hall.
Join us as we interview Alle C. Hall about her book, share more details about her inspiring story, and give you a chance to win a copy for yourself.
Before we get to that, here's more information about her novel:
Nominated for The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Book Award, Alle C. Hall’s debut literary novel, As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back is a-girl-and-her-backpack story with a #MeToo influence:
Carlie is not merely traveling. A child sexual abuse survivor, as a teen she steals ten thousand dollars from her parents and runs away to Asia. There, the Lonely Planet path of hookups, heat, alcohol, and drugs takes on a terrifying reality. Landing in Tokyo in the late 1980s, Carlie falls in with an international crew of tai chi-practicing backpackers. With their help, Carlie has the chance at a journey she didn’t plan for: one to find the self-respect ripped from her as a child and the healthy sexuality she desires.
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
ISBN-10: 1685131476
ISBN-13: 978-1685131470
ASIN: B0BVW7YCYT
Print Length: 267 pages
Purchase a copy of the book on Amazon, Bookshop.org, or Barnes and Noble. Make sure you also add it to your GoodReads reading list.
About the Author, Alle C. Hall
Nominated for The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Book Award and—tis just in—winner of The PenCraft Book Award for Fiction – Adventure, Alle C. Hall’s debut literary novel, As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back was winning prizes before its publication, including the National League of American Pen Women’s Mary Kennedy Eastham Prize. Her short stories and essays appear in journals including Dale Peck’s Evergreen Review, Tupelo Quarterly, New World Writing, Litro, Creative Nonfiction, and Another Chicago. She has written for The Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, and was a contributing writer at The Stranger. She is the former senior nonfiction editor at jmww journal and the former associate editor of Vestal Review. Hall lived in Asia, traveled there extensively, speaks what she calls “clunky” Japanese, and has a tai chi practice of 35 years running.
Find her online at:
Website: https://allehall.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allechallwriter
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allec.hall/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/allechall1
Substack: https://allechall.substack.com
Interview by Nicole Pyles
WOW: Congratulations on your book! You have an incredible number of prizes awarded to your work on this book. Were you surprised about that type of reception about your book?
Alle: Certainly, the reception has been far more celebratory that I expected. I mean, we all dream; but—six? It’s—I can’t even. It’s beyond flattering, beyond gratifying. There was a lot of rejection involved in bringing this novel to publication—as you can imagine. The subject matter doesn’t exactly go down like a Slurpee. That said, I had a strong sense that this novel would find readers. It’s the novel I would have loved to have had access to, when I was going through the hardest part of healing. There are always more survivors coming into that stage. They are who the book is written for.
"I want survivors to feel empowered. I want those who love and care about the survivor to understand their situation a little better."
WOW: That's so awesome. Your book deals with tough topics, including sexual abuse. What led you to write about these topics?
Alle: I think that every survivor has inside them their amazing story of endurance and being. For those of us who express through a tangible medium, we will express it.
Before I had the draft that I started shopping around, the topic of sexual trauma tried to make itself a part of everything else I wrote. Covering the breast cancer walk? It’s about sexual trauma! And out comes the editor’s red pencil. Once I had a draft of As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back, once all my thoughts about surviving and the part spirituality and love and community play in surviving were in a single Tupperware container, I felt free to write other things.
WOW: Interesting how that topic came out in other non-related work you did! What was your revision process like?
Alle: Revision can be challenging, even impossible-seeming, but it is not complicated: you get feedback and you apply it to the work. Then you get more feedback, and the circle continues until you think you have something worthy of consideration. Then you send it to agents and publishing houses to see if anyone agrees with you. If not, you go back to getting feedback.
WOW: It's part of the cycle! How did the book change from first draft to final draft?
Alle: The biggest change was in the style. My first draft came in over 400 pages. No agent actually laughed at me, but I did get some written finger-wagging. In my innocence, I didn’t know that the usual manuscript is about 60,000 to 100,000 words. Finally, an agent wrote back to me: “Cut it to 80,000 words and I will take another look.”
To borrow a theme from the book of eating disorders: the concept sent my overweight book into anorexia. I started by cutting out every adjective and every “I” that I could get away with. That technique led to a terse voice that really made sense for a teenager trying to keep it together while trying to find her way out of this sexually traumatic situation. When I got the word count down to 70,000, I allowed myself to indulge in a few adjectives. I let sentences open up. As a result, as the book progresses, the language blooms into something more luxurious. Readers have written me saying that they feel as if they are experiencing what it’s like to move from victim to survivor, then into thriving.
WOW: What a process! What type of advice do you have for readers who want to use their own trauma as inspiration for fiction?
Alle: It is so understandable, for a writer to want to turn the lessons she’s gone through into prose, and then turn that prose into a book. However, if you are not emotionally ready to have all those feelings come up, the writing can be triggering. I am definitely not saying, “Don’t write.” Rather, I suggest that you write without putting any pressure on yourself to publish immediately. Keep those pages as a kind of source material for when you do sit down to write that which you will publish.
The trying-to-get-published process is extra-hard for the trauma survivor because each rejection can feel like being abused all over again—if you haven’t done the kind of recovery that gives you the boundaries to handle that which it is: someone else’s business decision over which you have no control.
I strongly recommend doing enough emotional healing that you aren’t re-traumatized by the writing process and that you can handle all the rejection that will be part of getting the book published.
You will know when you are ready to write because you won’t be able to stop it from coming out. You will know you are good to publish when you receive rejections and you can think, “Ok, that hurts. Three on a ten-scale.” If your feelings go up to four or over, that is too much of a reaction about someone else’s business decision.
"The trying-to-get-published process is extra-hard for the trauma survivor because each rejection can feel like being abused all over again ... I strongly recommend doing enough emotional healing that you aren’t re-traumatized by the writing process and that you can handle all the rejection that will be part of getting the book published."
WOW: Fantastic insights. What do you hope readers take away from reading your book?
Alle: I want survivors to feel empowered. I want those who love and care about the survivor to understand their situation a little better.
WOW: I love that! For those who worry about reading a book with such a raw, emotional experience within, what would you say to them?
Alle: If you find yourself getting too triggered, skip to page 80. Seriously—everything you need to know about the plot you can get from the back of the book. About page 80 is where the Tai chi comes in and the healing starts.
WOW: That's incredibly helpful, I have to say. What advice do you have for readers who are worried about the type of reception their writing will receive?
Alle: Time for some tough love! If you want to publish in an emotionally satisfying way, you are going to have to get over trying to control what other people think.
The first step is to be able to separate your concept of self from your writing. Here’s a story with a connection to the WOW page: “I am not my muffins.” I used to chop vegetables at a little diner in the IBM Building, downtown Seattle. I begged and begged and finally, the owner let me make muffins. Back to the theme of eating disorder: I made them zero-fat by using apple sauce instead of butter. I proudly made a little, “Fat-Free!” sign and set it next to the tray, the whole bit. I am relatively sure that flowers and hearts were involved.
They TOTALLY BOMBED. Apparently, no one who worked at IBM in the early 90s cared about fat-free. I spent the day literally chanting to myself, “I am not my muffins.”
The diners weren’t rejecting me. They weren’t interested in fat-free muffins.
Same with writing. We are not our muffins.
Write the book you want to write. In the end, that is all we can reasonably expect to accomplish.
WOW: What fantastic insights to end with! Best of luck on your blog tour and your book!
-- Blog Tour Calendar
October 2nd @ The Muffin
Join us as we celebrate the launch of Alle C. Hall's blog tour for As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back. Read an interview with the author and enter to win a copy of the book.
October 3rd @ Seaside Book Nook
Jill will be spotlighting the award-winning book As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back by Alle C. Hall.
October 3rd @ Felicia Guest Writes
Join Felicia as she features an excerpt of As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
October 5th @ Fiona Ingram
Join Fiona for a guest post by Alle C. Hall about travel and travel writing.
October 7th @ Chapter Break
Julie will be spotlighting As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back on her blog today. She'll also be interviewing the author.
October 8th @ World of My Imagination
Visit Nicole's blog for her review of As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
October 8th @ Just Katherine
Don't miss Katherine's feature of an excerpt from As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
October 10th @ Just Katherine
Katherine shares a guest post by Alle C. Hall about the topic of joy.
October 12th @ Knotty Needle
Visit Judy's blog for her review of As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
October 14th @ A Wonderful World of Books
Visit Joy's blog for a guest post by the author about surviving traumatic, unkind, or simply less-than-nurturing events.
October 16th @ Storeybook Reviews
Visit Leslie's blog for a guest post by Alle C. Hall about coping.
October 18th @ Finished Pages
Join Renee as she reviews As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
October 19th @ Celticlady's Reviews
Kathleen shares a spotlight of As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
October 20th @ A Storybook World
Join Deirdra for her spotlight of As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
October 21st @ The Mommies Review
Don't miss Glenda's review of As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
October 23rd @ Bring on Lemons
Join Crystal for her review of As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
October 25th @ Mire Marke
Join Mire as she reviews As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
October 26th @ Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews
Visit Lisa's blog for her interview with author Alle C. Hall.
October 27th @ Freeing the Butterfly
Visit Michelle's blog for a guest post by Alle C. Hall about spirituality.
October 30th @ Jill Sheet's blog
Visit Jill's blog for her interview with author Alle C. Hall
November 1st @ Writer Advice
Visit B. Lynn Goodwin's blog for her review of As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
November 2nd @ Writer Advice
Join B. Lynn Goodwin again when she interviews Alle C. Hall.
November 3rd @ Choices
Visit Madeline's blog for a guest post by Alle C. Hall about trauma and creativity.
November 3 @ Boys' Mom Reads
Join Karen for her review of Alle C. Hall's book As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
November 4th @ Boots, Shoes, and Fashion
Visit Linda's blog for an in-depth interview with author Alle C. Hall about her book As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back.
***** BOOK GIVEAWAY *****
Enter to win a copy of As Far As You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back by Alle C. Hall! Fill out the Rafflecopter form by October 15th at 11:59 pm CT for a chance to win. We will randomly choose a winner the next day and announce in the Rafflecopter widget and follow up by email. Good luck!
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9 comments:
Fantastic interview! Alle: It's such great advice to make sure you do the emotional healing before you write about past trauma. I write memoir and definitely learned the hard way when I started writing. You never know what will come out during the writing process! I've heard advice to set a timer when writing about past trauma, so you don't sit with it for too long.
I love your muffin story! Hilarious! "We are not our muffins" could be a t-shirt slogan. ;) Good luck on your tour! It looks like a great one.
Many thanks, Angela. I like your idea of the timer, when writing about trauma. How long do they suggest setting the timer for?
Thanks, Alle! The tip was from one of Brooke Warner and Linda Joy Myers memoir writing workshops, and they suggest writing for only 10-15 minutes at a time about traumatic memories, then returning to the life you are living now. They also suggest creating lists of darker moments before jumping in to write, and making lists of happier, more positive moments where you found relief or happiness at the same time. The idea is to be gentle with ourselves. I know rejection is never easy, and you are so right about focusing on the emotional healing first.
I also loved hearing about your revision process! I'm a big over writer and need to cut everything I write in half. It's interesting how you mentioned cutting "I"s. I've heard novelists who practice minimalism talk about "submerging the I."
If you don't mind me asking, how long and how many queries did it take you to find your agent? I'm asking for a friend in the query trenches right now. :)
so inspirational
I would love to read this book and I know my daughter-in-law would, too.
I would love to read!
I enjoyed your interview. Do you ever attend conferences for writers and readers and if so which ones?
I am really looking forward to this read...
My sister in law is a author and writes from her own experiences and sometimes it's very personal so I haven't read much of her work other than what she shares with us and I don't seek it out. She loves to read all the time as well and I'm trying to read much more and always looking for great authors. I would definitely enjoy this and then have her read as well!
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