Featured Author Laura Monagan

Featured Interview With Laura Monagan

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in New England and moved to the Washington, D.C. area as a youngster. I was the fourth in a family of five children. I was the kid with all the pets, the one with the broken finger from playing football, the last one out the door. We lived in a friendly neighborhood surrounded by woods, fields, and streams where we wandered until the fireflies told us it was time to go home. My parents enjoyed music and travel and reading. They allowed us a great deal of independence, but they also believed strongly in serving the community. I went to Catholic school and public high school, and I finished college with a degree in education.

I’ve had the good fortune to have lived in several different places in the United States including California and Colorado, and overseas including London, Berlin, and a small town in eastern Slovakia where my husband and I taught English to factory workers after the Velvet Revolution. I lived for three months on a farm that rescued abused farm animals, and another three months on an island in Puget Sound. In 1986, I walked across America on the Great Peace March. For the time being, I live again in the D.C. area, my home base, rekindling old friendships until the next adventure.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Walter Farley’s “Black Stallion” series, Jean Craighead George’s novel “My Side of the Mountain,” and a biography of Amelia Earhart (the author of which I have unfortunately long since forgotten) were stepping stones to my love of books and reading. These were the stories that made me realize the author’s awesome power to bring her reader on a great adventure.

I have the good fortune to have grown up in a family that encouraged and celebrated creativity. From an early age, my four siblings and I developed our musical, artistic, dramatic, and literary skills. I showed little talent for painting or acting, but I picked up the guitar at age ten and, with occasional help from my brother, taught myself to play. I played at our church folk Mass, on Girl Scout camping trips, and throughout high school. I listened to the music and lyrics of the beautiful, sometimes haunting old American folk tunes being revived by Peter, Paul, and Mary, and so many others. This led me to write my own songs. Over time, I developed a general love for writing poetry, journals, non-fiction, and fiction that continues to this day.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
In fiction, I am drawn to engaging literary devices, a well-timed plot, and realistic characters. My favorite novel of all time is “Moby Dick,” one that I hope to read several times. My love of non-fiction started with “The Long Walk” by Vladamir Radicz, “Kon-Tiki” by Thor Heyerdahl, and “Alive,” by Piers Paul Read, and led to Sebastian Junger’s, “The Perfect Storm,” Nathaniel Philbrick’s “In the Heart of the Sea,” and Rebecca Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” all gripping tales that teach about science and history. I find inspiration in the writing of authors such as Anthony de Mello and Oliver Sacks who observe humanity and just know how to tell a good story.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
“The Unaccompanied Tour” takes its title from a term used in diplomatic and military circles to describe a tour of duty in which the spouse and family are not allowed to join the tour. Generally, an unaccompanied tour involves a posting in a war zone or on a dangerous mission. In my story, Evelyn Tucker, the “trailing spouse,” finds herself suddenly thrust into danger as a terrorist attack destroys Washington, D.C. and forces her on a 6,000-mile trek to reunite with her daughter. This “champagne and pearls” type must learn to trust the lower class characters she meets, all of whom seem better equipped to handle hardship than she. Through their stories, she begins to appreciate a wider scope of humanity as she strives to reach her daughter. However, all is not as it seems, and Evelyn soon finds herself involved with a secret society closely linked with the terrorist plot unfolding around her.

Tagline: “Motherhood is a cliffhanger.”

It took me nearly three years to finish writing “The Unaccompanied Tour.” I wrote most days in a process that was not at all what I expected — certainly not what they taught us in school! Writing the novel was organic, unpredictable, holistic. I never imagined there would be so much going back and forth to weave the plot, but that’s what made it so much fun. I was surprised by how much research was required to write fiction. I think it was John le Carré who explained that if the facts of a novel are correct, it lends credence to the fiction.