Fran Hawthorne
Author Interview - Fran Hawthorne
Author of HER DAUGHTER
"I’m only telling you in case the police contact you. Esme was arrested, but I’m handling everything, and she doesn’t want to hear from you."
That email from her ex-husband is almost the only information Alice Wilson has had about her 23-year-old daughter, Esme, in the six years since Esme abruptly ended all communication.
As Alice, an environmental activist, scrambles to learn why Esme was arrested and what might happen next, she inevitably also retraces the past. Her obsessive search up and down the California coast antagonizes her friends and jeopardizes her job. But none of that matters to Alice, as she uncovers hints of a daughter she’d never known—and of her then-husband’s role in their estrangement, even while they were married:
--Why did Esme become bulimic in college?
--Who is the Robert Corning who was arrested with Esme and why did she pay his bail?
--Why is she continuing to push Alice away, yet still chummy with her father?
--Most important: Will Esme agree to meet with Alice? And if she does, will Alice say the wrong thing—whatever that wrong thing is?
Author Interview - Fran Hawthorne
Author I draw inspiration from:
Maybe it's because I recently saw the exhibit "A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250" at the Morgan Library, but I'm feeling inspired by Austen right now. Start with the difficult logistics of dipping pen into ink, over and over, desperately trying to catch up with the words racing through her brain while her seven siblings chatted all around her--and the tiny, circular table on which she had to squeeze that pen, inkstand, and paper. Of course I'm also inspired by her brilliance and insight in creating people and worlds that still resonate as vivid, three-dimensional people and worlds today. Of her novels, my favorite is "Emma." Austen thought Emma was the least likeable heroine she'd ever created, but that's exactly why I like the book so much: Emma is the most modern and the most flawed of Austen's heroines.
Author Interview - Fran Hawthorne | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
On a long train ride: The seats are comfortable enough, and when you look up, you're not seeing your boring old bedroom or office; you're seeing something new out the window.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
How about Zoey Roberts, the brilliant scientist-sister in "Sea of Tranquility" by Emily St. John Mandel? She could briskly press the correct coordinates on her time-travel gizmo and whisk us safely out of the elevator. However, I don't think she'd be a very pleasant companion. She'd be all business, get the job done fast, and shoot me off to the appropriate coordinates for my home or job, all with the bare minimum of words and perhaps not even looking at me. As a backup, I'd choose Nancy Drew, from any of the books by the (nonexistent) Carolyn Keene. I'm sure she'd spy a hidden escape hatch or figure out how cut our way out of the elevator. Afterwards, she'd cheerfully drive me home in her blue roadster, or we might stop en route at the malt shop.
Author Interview - Fran Hawthorne | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
I can't remember a time when I didn't know.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
HARDBACK: Most important, I love reading something physical that's not on a screen. I also like the sturdiness of hardbacks but dislike the weight.
PAPERBACK: Paperbacks weigh less than hardbacks and share the advantage of not being a screen, but they're too easy to bend, fold, and tear.
EBOOK: I'm so so so sick of staring at screens all day. Still, when I'm traveling, the ebook has the advantage that I can bring "War and Peace" with me as easily as a novella.
AUDIOBOOK: I've only now started listening to audiobooks. The advantage is that I can multitask and "read" while working out on the stationery bike or taking a long walk; however, I find it hard to keep track of the plot. I also have a stupid fear that my earbuds will fall out of my ears in the middle of some muddy nature trail or busy street.
The last book I read:
The novel "Trust" by Hernan Diaz. I was blown away by the intricate plotting, the interweaving of stories and time frames, and the secrets that kept unspooling.
Author Interview - Fran Hawthorne | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
I hate to admit this: I write 90 percent on a computer. And I'm probably like 90 percent of writers when I claim that my handwriting has gotten too sloppy, and it's just so much easier on the computer to delete, insert, and move around my words, sentences, pages, paragraphs, scenes, chapters... Sometimes, though, I will print out key pages to revise by pen. I think the act of physically writing down my changes makes me focus more--plus, I gain an added level of editing when I input what I'd handwritten back into the computer file. And there's one more way that I write: If I'm mulling my book-in-progress while I'm running or on a long walk and a "brilliant" thought hits, I might dictate it into my phone.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
I could strike up a friendship with Maud Bailey from A.S. Byatt's novel "Possession." (Of course, this may be wishful thinking, because it's one of my top 10 favorite novels.) I think we share an insatiable curiosity and a drive to Get the Answer! Like Maud, I love to pore through old papers and books. I'm sure I would be both attracted to and awkward with Roland. And if I learned that I was descended from a brilliant writer--oh, I'd be thrilled!
Author Interview - Fran Hawthorne | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
An actor or a US senator. (Both, of course, are actually actors.) I've done some acting in community theater, but mainly these careers are theoretical.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
Back to Jane Austen and those flowing Regency gowns that hid so many flaws.
Place I’d most like to travel:
Antarctica, because it's unique. Also, there wouldn't be long lines at the stores.
My signature drink:
Green tea
Favorite artist:
If I'm allowed to cite an actor, I would say Meryl Streep. I know that to praise her range of roles is a cliche. But I want to add that as someone who has studied French, Russian, Spanish, and Hebrew (to varying degrees), I am in awe of her ability to pick up any language, any accent, as fluently as if she had been born speaking it.
Number one on my bucket list:
I once had the chance to ride in a helicopter in connection with a magazine article I was writing, but then the offer was canceled. I still want that helicopter ride, please!
Anything else you'd like to add:
I belong to four book clubs, which may be insane, but they each have their special joys and people, and I don't want to lose any of them.There's my original club, which is the classic 10-women-plus-wine-reading novels--although we've expanded to dinner and some nonfiction. (Six of us also went to Italy one year.) There's the club with my fellow volunteers at a local historical museum, where we read nonfiction. (We once selected Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence," which several members boycotted on the grounds that they don't read fiction; that was the last novel we ever tried.) Then there's the club that actually has a leader who chooses the books, and the club where the group votes on the list annually. That fourth club also sets a quota that one-third the books must be set in foreign countries or translated from a foreign language. Interestingly, even the three fiction clubs are reading some nonfiction now. I survive by alternating months.
Find more from the author:
INSTAGRAM. https://www.instagram.com/hawthornewriter/
BLUESKY. @hawthornewriter
GOODREADS https://www.goodreads.com/goodreadscomhawthornewriter
LINKEDIN. https://www.linkedin.com/in/franhawthorne/
MY WEBSITE. www.hawthornewriter.com
About Fran Hawthorne:
Fran Hawthorne
I've been writing novels since I was four years old, although I was sidetracked for several decades by journalism. During that award-winning career, I wrote eight nonfiction books, mainly about consumer activism, the drug industry, and the financial world, and I was also an editor or regular contributor for The New York Times, Business Week, Fortune, and many other publications.
But I never abandoned my true love: My first two novels, "The Heirs" and "I Meant to Tell You," were published in 2018 and 2022 by Stephen F. Austin State University Press and together won or were named a finalist for nine awards, including the Eric Hoffer Book Awards and the Sarton Award. HER DAUGHTER, my third novel, will be published in January 2026 by Black Rose Writing.
