The Author Talks About Second Chance

Before we talk about the book itself, can you talk a bit about your process in writing it? How much of the novel had you imagined as you began writing?
 

I know that some authors imagine and outline the entire story, or at least parts of it. before writing a draft. but for me, the process was less conventional. The novel‘s plot and its characters evolved only gradually and not in any chronological order—over years actually. In 1993 while I was teaching law, I took a night class in creative writing at a community college and wrote parts of two short stories. The only thing the two pieces had in common was that they took place in New Mexico. One 
grew out of memories of conversations I had heard once in a café. The other grew out of true story my mother told me about arriving in New Mexico on a train. I forgot about the stories until I was clearing out some files twenty years later.

 

One of the two stories eventually became dialogue between a Sheriff and his Deputy in a café in the final third of the book. The other—involving an arrival on the train—eventually became a pivotal moment relatively early in Second Chance.

 

For a long time the two stories were unconnected, but as I began writing freely about people and places I knew as a child, pieces like these began to find each other and fall into place in the elaborate tale that became the novel. I like to say that the characters led me through their stories and the plot and I just followed along. Even once there was a full draft, the writing and re-writing continued in fits and starts for years. I wouldn’t recommend it as a process to anyone starting out, but it was fun and satisfying.

​

Obviously it was a huge undertaking. Looking back, can you say what it was that kept you working on it.?

​

Well,  in part, I was eager to share what I remember about the beauty of northern New Mexico and to create a story with some imperfect but sympathetic characters based on composites of people I had encountered there. None of the characters in the book come across as purely heroic or completely irredeemable, but most of them struggle with the internal and external challenges they face with resilience and often with humor. And I ended up loving them all, in spite of their flaws.

Tio be honest I also wanted to write something entertaining that I could leave behind for family and friends.

Finally, I hoped to fold into the novel some issues involving cultural and ethnic history and identity; class and privilege; the role of fate/luck/chance, and some different perspectives on the lives of immigrants at the border. At the same time, I have worked hard not to let themes get in the way of the personal stories of the characters who drive a compelling and engaging story.

​

You have an interesting background. How would you say your experiences have influenced the book?

​

I would say Second Chance grew from my early life with my parents and with the neighborhood friends I grew up with. As an adult, I learned more about the issues that shape Second Chance from my teaching experiences in Newark and Cambridge; in New Mexico politics; in practicing and teaching law; and, in working with Native American
groups on Reservations and with immigrants in northern California and at the border of Mexico.​

​

The book does involve lots of chance encounters Some of the characters view those encounters as part of a miraculous plan. Others see fate or serendipity. How did you decide to bring those themes into the story?

 

I guess I think that however they are viewed, what Dylan called “simple twists of fate” play a role in all our lives. Mine included. I met my wife as the result of a confluence of timing and events. And we did not learn until later that generations earlier our two families -with very different family backgrounds had settled, and ultimately had a business relationship in, an isolated tiny town in the mountains of northern New Mexico. That discovery played a role in the selection of “Hermosa,”
New Mexico as a major setting in the book.

​

At what point did you decide that a mystery which begins as a search for a birth- father would develop into a broader story?

 

I think that what may have started as a multi-generational genetic mystery about Chance Ramsey’s origins gradually expanded into the story of a  successful, but isolated physician whose world is suddenly upended in mid-life, forcing him to reconsider what he wants his life to become. I guess I’d say the book could be called a search for values that was just wrapped in a complex multi-generational genetic mystery.

​

But you had an interest in both the “biological” secret and the “ethical” dilemmas that Chance faces?

 

Before I began the book, I had an interest in genetic issues from teaching Bioethics and Law and from experiences with someone close to our family who had an inherited genetic disorder that created questions about her heritage. But as I mentioned,  I also had an interest in the social issues that shape Doctor Chance Ramsey’s journey as he reconsiders his past and must rethink what it means to live a life worth living. Here, Chance’s discoveries about his parentage obviously affect
the future he contemplates.

​

Was there something personal for you about the idea of a major uprooting that  to major life changes?

 

Well, it’s not a new theme in literature or psychology. I suppose there’s a reason that the term “mid-life-crisis” is a part of our popular culture.

But yes, serious life fractures were part of my family’s life as well.

My father survived prisoner of war camps in Germany during World War II and made a search for values a central part of his later life.  My parents’ experiences during and following the War led them to uproot themselves, move from the East Coast to New Mexico as a cure for his tuberculosis, and to adapt to new circumstances far from the lives they had planned.

 

It just seemed that a good mystery that is gradually resolved but leaves the central character with some fundamental issues yet to be worked out might be of interest to readers who would enjoy a good read but might also appreciate some food for thought about past, present, and future decisions in their own lives.

 

Were your parents models for characters in the book?
 

Not models, no. But they are both present.   There were things about my mother’s supportiveness, strength and good humor that showed up in several of the female characters in the book. Parts of my father’s biography became the background for a character whose personality otherwise bore little resemblance to my father’s.  

That’s not to say they weren’t models for me, in different ways. In particular, they both were thoughtful writers. As I mentioned, my father was interested in values and wrote on the subject. My mother was a poet. So, although I didn’t take much notice of their writing when I was young, I at least absorbed the idea that there was no disgrace in becoming absorbed.

Many of the characters you mentioned earlier, even the ones who have many strengths, also have problematic pasts and secrets that have haunted them. Some of them tell half-truths or do things that hurt others, yet they do not become villains. What did you have in mind there?

It's funny. I think all of the main characters have redeemingcharacteristics-humor, good works, a capacity for love, etc., in addition to their weaknesses. I don’t think I consciously set out for that to be the case; I suspect that they reflect some of my own views about people.

I said earlier I followed where the characters led, but I have to take some responsibility for their strengths and weaknesses.

​

Your main character, Chance, has more than his own share of struggles near the end. Were you too hard on him?
 

Well, I suspect that, in the end, although his infirmities were a hindrance they also were pushing him to complete his self-imposed task of finishing his life well--in order to tie things up.  A common concern as we all age.

​