All of Us and Everything (32 page)

For my sisters—those from birth and

those I've picked up along the way.

I love you all.

I want to thank some good people who know Ocean City, New Jersey, far better than I—Trish Roach Baggott, Barry Criscuolo, David Blair, Kevin Michaels, Samantha Levy-Arnold, Clare Anne Darragh, and her wonderful mother, Clare. I want to thank Hayley Heineken for giving this book a new kind of life. I'm very thankful to Kara Cesare and Shauna Summers, for being so generous and for making this a stronger book. I should shout out to Noelle Howey and other folks at
Real Simple,
who published my piece about a time when I wrote a love letter for a stranger on a plane, as well as Alexa Faigen, who made me realize that there was a much larger story within that piece, and my manager, Justin Manask, for encouraging me on a pitch about a very specific kind of cherrypicker. As always, to my agent, Nat Sobel, thanks for all that you do—I think you know me pretty well by now. Thanks for tolerating me.

Thank you to my father, who handed over the brutal yet beautiful snow-struck night in DC before JFK's inauguration when he was stuck on a bus with a view of a motorcade cutting through Ellipse. I'm thankful to my mother for the details of the era, making it all very real, and I'm even thankful for the personal Glenda-and-Bill-Baggott tour of DC that I never asked to go on—the old, run-down mansion, the antics of young law students…I'm thankful I was raised by storytellers.

Of course, thank you to my partner in it all, Dave Scott, and our sweet brood. It's all about love.

My Husband's Sweethearts

The Pretend Wife

The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted

All of Us and Everything

B
RIDGET
A
SHER
is the author of
My Husband's Sweethearts
,
The Pretend Wife
,
The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted
, and
All of Us and Everything.
She has also published award-winning novels for younger readers under the pen name N. E. Bode as well as books under Julianna Baggott, most notably, The Pure Trilogy.

She is an associate professor at Florida State University's College of Motion Picture Arts, and holds the William H. P. Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross.

BridgetAsher.com

Random House Reader's Circle:
At the risk of asking what Ru would consider a “stupid question,” would you shed some light on where you got the inspiration for this novel? Do you agree with Ru that we should stop asking this question as a society?

Bridget Asher:
Ru and I have a lot in common. We both have two older sisters, both write, both brood in similar ways. But, no, I don't think we should stop asking this question. Honestly, some writers are struck by moments of brilliant illumination—their skulls suddenly lit up with story. Each of my novels contains a million tiny flares, many of which happen while I'm living my life and scribbling notes and many of which happen while writing. But, also, it's worth noting that some of the flares that made this novel have been around for a while. I once wrote a love letter for a stranger on a plane, a kind of win-back. (The essay appeared in
Real Simple.
) Liv, the cherry picker, has been a character I've wanted to write for a long time. I could never find the right place for her to land. And I've also written a little about the snowstorm that hit DC the night before Kennedy's inauguration, using my father's memories of that night, but I finally found the larger love story within it.

Society should keep asking, but, from me, one can expect a longer, more intricate answer.

RHRC:
How is your authorial approach and perspective similar to or different from Ru's? Was it surreal to bring another writer to life in this character?

Bridget Asher:
It's a relief to write about a writer. So much of our lives we can't quite shove into the lives of characters with other professions, so there's a feeling of ease in writing about a writer and a lot of opportunity to be comedic. Ru's disastrous reading at the public library, well, let's just say I didn't have to rely wholly on imagination.

RHRC:
You've written more than twenty books, but said
All of Us and Everything
is your favorite one to date. Why is that? How is this book different from your others and what was the experience of writing it like?

Bridget Asher:
I've written as Asher, but also under Julianna Baggott and N.E. Bode, and people ask me all the time which of my own books is my favorite. The intent is often to find out which of my books they should pick up. I usually ask them what they like to read, rearranging the question so I'm not forced to answer. But
All of Us and Everything
is the novel that I want my really good friends and family to read, the people who know me very well and who've known me for a long time. In writing this novel, I had the opportunity to write out a kind of spirited take on sisterhood and motherhood that I've never allowed myself to do before.

RHRC:
You paint Nick's background as a spy with such finely rendered detail. How did you go about investigating that aspect of the novel?

Bridget Asher:
I had the opportunity to interview someone who worked in intelligence for his entire career. Twenty years retired, he was able to answer questions; what I really wanted to know wasn't about his assignments, but rather about the culture of the work, how love, marriages, and families operated within that culture. I asked him if he was nervous about divulging things. He said that he lived his life assuming that anything he said might be on the record. That was very telling.

RHRC:
This book features a predominantly female cast. Did you find it
different/exciting/challenging
to focus pointedly on this singular matriarchal family while the men are so behind-the-scenes? Did you arrive at any new revelations about the relationships between mothers/daughters and sisters by zeroing in on the Rockwell women? Which aspects of their family dynamic do you think makes them universal?

Bridget Asher:
I come from matriarchal family lines. My father was raised with his two sisters by a single mother and her sister. My mother's mother was the clear matriarch of our family for most of my life. I would say that my own mother has taken her place in that role. I have a brother and two older sisters, and I have two daughters and two sons. This novel allowed me to really dig into the ways I've seen sisters operate: old scores, unwanted nicknames, family jokes and secrets, petty turf battles—that don't feel petty at all, some thievery, long memories, as well as incredible tenderness and love, the ties that bind sisters. This goes for friendships as well, people who've known you for what seems like forever. There is something about being known by others for an entire lifetime. When it comes down to it, these sisters are truly there for one another. Just the way in which these sisters—and Atty too—orchestrate a guy showing up for dinner is, I hope, familiar to a lot of people. I think that these kinds of politics, as well as clumsily expressed love, exist in many families.

RHRC:
Did you relate to, sympathize with, or want to spend time with any of the Rockwells in particular? Which of them was the most fun to write?

Bridget Asher:
I relate to Ru, absolutely, as the precocious youngest of three daughters, and as a writer. But Liv was the most fun to write. I love her edginess, her self-delusions, her strange acts of kindness and generosity. I miss her the most, though Atty is a very, very close second. She would always surprise me, offering up my favorite lines.

RHRC:
Channeling the spirit of Augusta and Atty, if you could lead a personal movement of your own, what would it be?

Bridget Asher:
Tolerance. If we could allow others to live as they choose, to be who they are, to honor and celebrate our rich diversity, and not perceive others as a threat, I believe the world would be a safer place.

RHRC:
Atty's observations on life and her family lend such comic relief to the narrative. Did she spring from a conscious effort to explore the ways we interact with social media today, or is she just a product of her time?

Bridget Asher:
One of my husband's first jobs was at a boarding school in Delaware, and that school and certainly the spirit of being a faculty brat living on campus is something I've always wanted to write. I didn't set out to make a statement on social media. Atty arrived pretty whole, live-tweeting from the get-go.

RHRC:
You've written some epic win-backs in this novel. Have you ever had to script one in real life?

Bridget Asher:
Well, in addition to the win-back that I wrote for the stranger on the plane, I do write win-backs in various ways. I still believe that words are powerful and change someone's way of thinking, change their mind, as well as possibly win their heart. When my mother hands you a letter, you know that she has something to tell you that she can't tell you without crying. The tradition began there, perhaps. The truth is win-backs don't always work. My oldest sister, actually, is the one who's tried to tell me that I always think I can fix things with words. Sometimes words fail. But when they win, it's a beautiful thing.

RHRC:
What is the most important message you'd like readers to take away from this story?

Bridget Asher:
I want people to see pieces of themselves, their sisters, their mothers, their best friends, the loves of their lives. I want people to find lines that nail some emotion or thought or family dynamic so hard that they have to share them with someone else. After my father read the book—he was one of the first—we had an immediate set of catchphrases, a secret language of inside jokes. I want this book to do that for people.

RHRC:
Are you a Nancy Drew fan yourself? What shaped your own reading tastes as a child? What sorts of books do you gravitate toward now?

Bridget Asher:
I liked stranger, more magical stories. My love of Roald Dahl quickly turned into a love of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, then Lee Smith and, for family dynamics, Anne Tyler and John Irving. I also saw a lot of theater as a kid and that may have been even more influential than what I was reading in terms of developing my ear.

RHRC:
What's in the works next for you?

Bridget Asher:
I want to write a Paris novel. I loved writing
The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted
and, of course, doing the research it required. I'd love to find an excuse to go to Paris for a little while. Who wouldn't?