Author Interview and Book Review: Sara J. Henry, Learning to Swim

Interview with Author Sara J. Henry After the Book Review!

*Scroll to the end of the Interview for a chance to win an ARC of this amazing book!*

I was very lucky indeed to receive an ARC from Sara J. Henry of her debut novel, Learning to Swim, coming out on February 22nd from Crown Publishing Group, an imprint of Random House.

Sara has been a columnist, soil scientist, newspaper & magazine editor, bicycle mechanic, copyeditor, sports editor, website builder, book editor. Learning to Swim is a thriller with a lot of heart. Please scroll down to the end of the book review for a charming interview with this amazingly friendly author.

Overall Rating:

Release Date: 22 February 2011

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 304

Buy the Book: Amazon

(From Booklist, by Joanne Wilkinson)

When Troy Chance spots what she thinks is a small boy being tossed off the back of a passing ferry, she instinctively jumps into the icy waters of Lake Champlain. She rescues the youngster and discovers that his arms were bound with an adult sweatshirt. He’s incredibly frightened, speaks only French, and won’t tell her what happened. Troy determines that she will keep him safe rather than turn him over to the police. When he finally begins to confide in her, he tells a bizarre tale of being kidnapped, hearing his mother murdered by gunshot, and then being held for months. As Troy tracks down the boy’s father, she begins to question whether she will be able to let him go, since he has unleashed within her a maternal instinct she had no idea she possessed. In her debut, the first in a projected series, Henry proves herself to be a smooth and compelling storyteller. And her lead is highly appealing: an athletic, fiercely independent young woman who, like crime-fiction author Gillian Flynn’s feisty females, is capable of making delightfully acerbic observations.

This book was a lot fun to read. Troy Chance is a wonderfully strong, but plain heroine with a heart bigger than she realizes. When she risks her life to save a small boy, Paul, from drowning, she falls head over heels in adoration with him. What she doesn't realize is the amount of danger she signed up when she started to care.

Troy's one act of bravery is nowhere near as brave as Troy will need to be once she starts to investigate what happened to Paul and why he was thrown overboard.

Henry leads us on a complex and wonderfully convoluted journey full of twists and bends in this new take on the whodunit mystery. The characters are so real and alive that one must wonder if they are inspired by real people, living out there today. The character Paul is endearing and adorable, with his gabble of excited French and halting but earnest English. And his father is just delicious—the brooding, rich widower. Almost Jane Eyre-esque, the novel is a good mesh of mystery and thriller, fill of calm deduction and tense moments where I was reading under the covers.

An exciting and easy read, very enjoyable and often unpredictable, with an ending that will keep your mind turning for days. Just the way we like it! A brilliant debut.

Characters 5/5

Dialogue 4/5

Writing 4/5

Plot 4/5

Style 4/5

Opening 4/5

Ending 5/5

I was lucky enough to be granted an interview with the author of this amazing book, Sara J. Henry. What a wonderfully friendly woman she is. Scroll down to find out a bit more about her.

DK. Troy is such a compelling character, she’s strong, independent, tomboyish. How much do you personally identify with her? How much of her story and character reflects your own?

SJH: If I tell you that Troy is me – just younger, and braver – it’ll sound like I can’t invent a main character. But I think it’s common in a first-person first novel to base the main character a lot on yourself. I lived in the town she did, lived in the house she lived, worked on the newspaper she did, freelance wrote like she did, and had very similar roommates. I love computers and bicycles and kids like she does – and I had a dog named Tiger, like the one in the book. I also had a nurse friend a whole lot like the character Kate, who’s still a nurse in Lake Placid.

I never, however, dived off a ferry. Or ever considered it.

DK. Glad to hear that! Diving off of a ferry sounds terrifying! It just goes to show how strong-willed Troy is. Can you tell us how long it took you to write “Learning to Swim”? What was the process like for you?

SJH: About seven months. I had a neighbor and a writing friend waiting for chapters, so I kept churning them out. At the time I was just starting to suffer from a chronic muscle pain and fatigue condition, so I mostly wrote it in bed on a laptop.

But that was the first draft. The middle was a muddle – it wandered all over the place, and the plot wasn’t fully developed. The problem was I had no idea how to rewrite – I knew how to edit, but not rewrite. Then I ended up doing a five-week houseswap to Summer Hill, New South Wales, Australia, at the beginning of winter, just after I’d snapped a bone in my right foot and had it pinned back together. As I said in another interview: cold rainy weather + painful broken foot + no friends nearby + limited internet = perfect time to learn to rewrite.

Then I spent about two to three more months of concentrated work, continuing to rewrite and polish.

DK. That does sound like a good way to get to the book! Can you describe the journey you’ve had with this book, from the idea, to writing it, to the journey through publication?

A long and winding road.

Seriously, everyone’s journey is different. I wrote the book quickly, sat on it for a long time with no idea how to rewrite or revise and without the time to dive into it as I needed to, and finally made the commitment and did it. It was insanely hard work and I thought my brain would break, but I did it – and then I kept polishing.

From then on, it all went pretty smoothly. I got an agent quickly, and sold the book quickly, although it took a good long while until publication. In the meantime I’ve been busy writing the sequel.

DK. Fantastic! I eagerly await the sequel. Is the character Paul based on anyone from your own life?

Not really, although he didn’t really came alive to me until the Australian house swap – I got there a day or two early, and the family’s son, Luke, was a very intense and bright little boy, a year or two younger than Paul. While Paul isn’t based on Luke, he really helped the character of Paul come alive for me. Suddenly I could see the child that was Paul, all the way through the book, while I couldn’t before.

DK. Where is your favorite place to write, and what time of the day do you find most productive for writing?

I can write anywhere, and I use a laptop. I prefer sitting in front of a window looking outside – my most productive actual writing time is either very early, before my brain wakes up completely and gets busy with the demands of the day, or late in the evening when I’m tired enough that my brain has shut down a bit. Editing or light revision, especially on paper, I can do any time, anywhere, as long as I’m not exhausted.

DK. It sounds like you are born to write. Any advice for aspiring authors out there?

Learn to rewrite. I don’t mean revise or edit – I mean rewrite. Dig deep and bleed on the page. Make it all count. I believe you learn to write in rewriting – I’m a hugely better writer than when I began this novel.

That is some fantastic advice from Sara. To find out more about her, check out her website here. If you'd like to read the first chapter of Learning to Swim, you can find it here. Learning to Swim goes on sale in bookstores in the U.S. on February 22nd and can be ordered from independent booksellers, Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Amazon. It will be published in Germany by DTV. Sara’s website is SaraJHenry.com. Don't forget to check it out on Goodreads too.

For a chance to win an ARC of this amazing book, simply leave a comment on the blog post before Feb 15th! USA, Canada and UK only, please.

Winner will be chosen at random.