Lynne Hugo
Author Interview - Lynne Hugo
Author of The Language of Kin
Despite a shared passion for their work, Kate McKinsey and Marc Lopez, co-workers at the Dayton Zoo, have profound professional differences. As a primatologist, Kate believes the crucial goal must be to save the great apes' native rainforest habitat. If captivity is unavoidable, give her beloved chimpanzees minimal human interaction and a naturalized setting in which to live in social groups. Marc, a primate keeper, believes zoo captivity must be a part of any plan to save great apes from extinction, and he works to create a bond of trust with humans. Nothing can make Kate and Marc agree on the issue.
Then Eve arrives. A chimpanzee orphaned by poachers and sold to a medical lab, Eve has spent years isolated and subjected to painful experiments. When Kate and Marc are assigned to acclimate Eve to her new zoo life, their differences take on new importance. But as they are forced to work together, they uncover a profound connection: both are the sole caregivers for their mothers, one who has been deaf her entire life and the other who recently lost her ability to process words. When a life-threatening crisis occurs at the zoo, will they find the courage--and the shared language--to reach across these silent divides to heal Eve, their loved ones, and each other?
Author Interview - Lynne Hugo
Author I draw inspiration from:
I honestly think this has changed and continues to change as I evolve as a writer. Initially I was writing lyric poetry--influenced by poets such as Mary Oliver, Stanley Kunitz, and Jane Kenyon. My first accepted pieces and published book was lyric poetry. At some point, I read more of Sharon Olds and Raymond Carver and my second book was a mix of lyric and narrative poetry, a sequence of forty-eight poems that had a story arc, as I leaned into storytelling. This was back when I had small children, and now I wonder if these early choices were shaped by the limited time spans available to write and my need to test the waters. As the children grew, I wrote some short stories, and finally a first novel. My earliest influence was surely John Steinbeck (all of his work, but specifically The Grapes of Wrath, which showed me that I could use fiction to address social justice concerns), and later, John Irving, who showed me how memorable quirky and complex characters are and how well they carry a story like The Hotel New Hampshire. Now I read widely and continuously in contemporary fiction; my most recent love affair has been with Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark.
Author Interview - Lynne Hugo | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
In bed at night! and it has to be dark. Or out on our shady porch with a glass of iced tea. Well, now that I think of it, I also love to read when I'm on a plane.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
The character I choose is Guncle Patrick from The Guncle by Steven Rowley. He wouldn't have the kids with him, but he'd have a little girl's pink underpants falling out of his pants pocket. He'd glance down, notice the underwear, realize I am watching as he stuffs them back to invisibility and laugh as he stumbles over an embarrassed explanation that would start out, "It's okay, they're mine. I mean, not to wear, oh crap, wait, uh, I didn't mean crap like that, I mean, they're my kid's, well, she's not my kid, she's...oh...this isn't going well, is it?"
Author Interview - Lynne Hugo | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
I told my aunt Elsie when I was in 4th grade and gave her an example of a (pretty bad, way too long) metaphor I was definitely going to use in my first book. (I didn't.) I think she was the first person who'd asked me what I was interested in doing like I was a serious person. Hearing myself say it was when I knew.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
Hardback: I like the perceived lasting quality but dislike the weight and cost. Paperback: I like the reduced weight, cost, and the ease of loaning, but dislike the storage issues. Audiobook: I like for car travel, dislike because harder to refer to a passage for discussion in a book group. Ebook: I generally prefer because I can adjust font and background color for ease of night reading; it will open automatically to my page, two people can share a book and read at same time; it's the less expensive option, also easy to also borrow from library (although not easier or harder than physical books other than that no pickup or return trip needed). Downside is that when "library is full," one needs to start deleting but really, that's no different than the storage issues for physical books!
The last book I read:
Blue Skies by T.C. Boyle. Boyle is a beautiful prose stylist and I really admired the writing. This novel, which published on May 16 '23, is set in the near future, and dramatizes where we're inevitably headed due to ongoing climate change. He focuses on Florida and California. I found it an incredibly powerful book because, by showing us what life will be like--realistically, not as science fiction--and including characters who are taking it very seriously and those who are deniers, Boyle harnesses the real power of a well-told story.
Author Interview - Lynne Hugo | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
For the drafting itself, definitely computer. But for the preliminary planning, paper and pencil, and it looks very sketchy because I turn a yellow legal pad sideways. I start with a written premise that I've boiled down to two sentences, and, using pencil, sketch out the story arc, usually in five "acts." I use vertical lines to delineate sections: an opening, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. Then, on a different page, now using the horizontal lines like a normal person, I name the protagonist(s), antagonist(s), and peripheral characters. Going back to the page or pages for story arc, starting with the opening, I break that into chapters, then into scenes, and figure out what has to happen in each scene, and the point of view in which it needs to be written. I generally don't work with more than a third of the novel at a time, drafting the sections consecutively. I have an unfortunate tendency to revise as I go along, which slows me down a bit, but once I have a complete draft, I go back and revise the entire manuscript. I'll revise several more times, as ways to deepen the characters and story emerge once it has "cooled" some and I can see it more clearly.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
Angus in Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I love her ability to accept a situation as is, and how that acceptance coexists/trying with wanting to save someone she loves. She has a sense of humor, a quality that's essential to me. She knows when to back off. She's articulate and very, very smart.
Author Interview - Lynne Hugo | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
A therapist. I have been and still am a licensed therapist, and so that would make it my first, second and third career, I think.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
Okay, this is the hardest question yet. Is "classic" a style? I'm always behind everyone else figuring out what the trends are, and by then it's something that would look ridiculous on me. I guess, if I checked my closet, it would be the decade from 2008 to 2018? I try, but I'm not exactly gifted in this area.
Place I’d most like to travel:
Paris or Montreal. I worked in Paris one undergraduate summer and fell in love with that city. I've been back and loved it once more. Now I'd like to go there (or Montreal) to try to get by on my rusty French and have that wonderful European experience all over again.
My signature drink:
Non-alcoholic is definitely the Blueberry Bai drink. Alcoholic would be a glass of chilled sauvignon blanc. And once in a while my husband makes wicked good margaritas from fresh limes, served in a glass with a salted rim. I never turn one down. Oh, and my brother-in-law makes a summer drink called a Peach Fuzzy, created with fresh peaches. That definitely has some alcohol in it, and is dangerously excellent!
Favorite artist:
Claude Monet. One of my favorite places is Musee d'Orsay in, where else? Paris. Those impressionists!
Number one on my bucket list:
I'm looking forward to creating a bucket list. I definitely think I should have one and now that you ask, I'm wondering why I don't!
Anything else you'd like to add:
I love to laugh and to make people laugh. I try, often unsuccessfully, not to be too argumentative about the women's, minority, and environment issues about which I'm passionate. I'm devoted to my still-growing family, regularly do a water aerobics class, and am really grateful that I live by so many really beautiful wooded hiking trails that wind around wide, singing creeks. While southwest Ohio has been our home for decades, you can't take the New England out of the girl. Finally, my husband and I have never been without a dog since we were married. The kids come first, but, yes, there's that Lab sticking his nose in.
Find more from the author:
https://www.lynnehugo.com/
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/LynneHugo
Author Bio:
Lynne is a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship recipient who has also received repeat grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. The Language of Kin is her tenth novel and thirteenth book. Her memoir, Where The Trail Grows Faint, won the Riverteeth Literary Nonfiction Book Prize and her novel, A Matter of Mercy, received the 2015 Independent Publishers Silver Medal for Best North-East Fiction. Another novel (Swimming Lessons) became a Lifetime Original Movie of the Month. More recently, The Testament of Harold's Wife was a Buzz Books Fall/Winter 2018 selection. Through the Ohio Arts Council’s renowned Arts in Education program, Lynne has taught creative writing to hundreds of schoolchildren.
Born and educated in New England, Lynne and her photographer husband live in Ohio. They are grateful parents of two, have three grandchildren and large, rowdy extended families. She hikes with her husband and their yellow Lab, Scout, Terror Of All Squirrels, who excels at playing shortstop, barking, and rolling in anything stinky on the hiking trails.
