Beyond the Book

Brian Strause was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and now lives in Silver Lake, California.  In the interview, which you can read in full at BookBrowse, he answers a number of questions including the inevitable one asked of first time authors - whether Maybe A Miracle is based on his own experiences.  To which he replies: 

"They say to write what you know, but unfortunately the life I've lived isn't exactly chock-full of drama. And indeed, I grew up in Columbus on an idyllic street in a storybook neighborhood. But it's not like Blue Velvet, where it was sordid once you start peeling back the layers. It was all quite painfully normal. Which is all to say, my own family – while incredibly supportive of me – are not particularly helpful when it comes to making up stories.....In a lot of ways Maybe a Miracle is a sibling love story, but unfortunately I don't have a sister. Writing this book, though, allowed me to imagine what that dynamic might be like and by placing his sister in a coma from the very beginning I figured I'd be giving an eighteen-year-old boy the opportunity to be reflective about that relationship in a way he otherwise wouldn't have had.  I guess that's what I like most about writing – I can put myself into situations I never would have the opportunity to inhabit in real life. That's what attracted me to this story. I could throw myself in the middle of a so-called miracle and see how I might react.'

This article is from the November 30, 2005 issue of BookBrowse Recommends. Click here to go to this issue.

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