SL_Spotlight_8_19_Spotlight 8 / 12 / 19 12 : 16 PM Page 1 Nanaville has the subtitle Adventures in s Q & A Grandparenting . In what S P O T L I G H T ways has grandparenting been “ adventurous ” ? Well , for one thing , there are constant sur - prises because you’re usually not doing it in real time the way parents do . I see [ my grandchildren ] Arthur and Ivy a lot , but not usually every day , so all those micro ways in which a toddler and a baby change in a very short period of time are exciting . And all the rest is an adventure , too : seeing what kind of father your son has turned out to be , rediscovering the books and games you used with him and his sibs and are now using with his kids . The rediscovery is in many ways as big an adventure as the ini - tial discovery was : Wow , I had completely forgotten about that . A lot of people want to write , want to become “ writers ” for a living , but very few do . What about your voice , your experi - ences , and the things you have to say have enabled you to do so ? I honestly have no idea . From a very young age I had a high comfort level with telling elaborate stories . In other words , I was an inveterate liar . No brag , just fact . I was also pretty comfortable with words on the page . But in most ways that matter I’m very average , and in some ways I think that has been my ace in the hole , given the number of readers who have said to me , “ What you wrote is exactly what I think . ” Quite a Story Did growing up in Philadelphia inform or stoke your desire to become a writer ? Nanaville author Anna Quindlen leaves the I’m not sure it was Philadelphia exactly , but my Philadelphia family , which on my drama on the page . BY BILL DONAHUE father’s side was large and Irish Catholic . People have asked whether there were Anna Quindlen parlayed a skill she developed in childhood — telling extravagant writers in my family , and the literal answer stories — into a lasting , far - reaching career as a novelist . So far , she has nine novels under is no . But there was a lot of storytelling , her belt , though her bibliography also includes numerous works of nonfiction , including a much of it embellished as the story was 2012 memoir called Lots of Candles , Plenty of Cake , which climbed to No . 1 on the New told and retold , and there’s no question York Times bestseller list . She even has a Pulitzer Prize to her credit , earned in 1992 for dis - that that influenced me . tinguished commentary while penning columns for the Times . Born in Philadelphia and raised in the suburb of Drexel Hill , Quindlen suggests she had What’s next for you , in your publishing a very happy childhood — “ my greatest shortcoming as a writer . ” work and otherwise ? “ I walked to school and to the houses of all my friends , which tended to be those kind I’m working on a new novel , and I’m going of rambling older center hall colonials that I’m still partial to , ” she says . “ Lots of tin to do a nonfiction book on writing — not a rhododendrons and azaleas , old - growth trees , the kind of place in which it seemed nothing rov writing for people who want to be writers bad could ever happen . ” K ria but writing as a way of making sense of our Although she no longer lives in the Greater Philadelphia Area , she’s a frequent visitor . Ma lives and leaving a legacy for those we love In fact , as part of this year’s Bucks County Book Festival ( bucksbookfest.org ) , to be held in by h in this crazy hyper digital age . Most of the Doylestown on Oct . 12 and 13 , Quindlen will be the keynote speaker at a ticketed event on grap fiction writers I know try to live really hum - Saturday evening at Salem United Church of Christ . oto drum lives to leave the drama on the page , We spoke with her about the upcoming festival , as well as her skills as an “ inveterate ph r and I’m no exception . Quiet , orderly , very r , ” and her newest book Nanaville , in which she explores the adventurous terrain known lia utho ? fulfilling . Caffeinated . as grandparenting . A SUBURBANLIFEMAGAZINE.COM AUGUST 2019 80 |