Interviews & Essays
Heart to Heart Interview with Susan Wiggs
Heart to Heart: This novel's topic is incredibly current. What do you think of the book in light of the events of the past year [2003]?
Susan Wiggs: Good question! It's always a little eerie when, as a fiction writer, you tap into the zeitgeist without really meaning to. I began working on the book after 9/11 but before the second Gulf war, and I was conscious of the conflict as I wrote the story. In fact, a number of my U.S. Navy research sources were deployed, leaving my questions unanswered. Now that the book is finished, I feel incredibly proud of it. I believe it's an honest, heartfelt portrayal of an American family and their triumphs, troubles and sacrifices.
HtoH: Why write a novel about a military marriage? Why does it intrigue you?
SW: The topic, common as it is, fascinates me. I think in the book I likened another couple's marriage to an undiscovered country. However, unlike many fiction writers, I'm not all that interested in relationships that fail. It's the successful ones that intrigue me. So I wanted this book to be about a good marriage between two people who love each other but, over time, have lost each other. Fiction is about conflict, so the marriage had to be both conflict-ridden yet good at its core. Setting the marriage of the Bennetts (yes, that's a nod to Jane Austen) in a military milieu provided the perfect answer. A navy pilot's way of life is inherently dramatic, and there were all sorts of delicious possibilities for testing and exploring the couple's relationship with each other and with their almost-grown children.
HtoH: Your main characters, Grace and Steve, have 20 years of marriage behind them when we meet them. How difficult was it as a writer to pick up with your characters so far into their story?
SW: For me, this wasn't difficult at all. I knew Grace and Steve extremely well. Before I ever sit down to compose a draft of a novel, I've done heaps and heaps of preparatory work on the story, the characters, their backgrounds. I write a 500-to-1,000-word first-person bio about the major characters, finding their voices and their defining issues that way. I often write scenes that never make it into the book, but that inform me so I can write a rich, believable story. For example, in this book, I actually wrote the first meeting of Grace and Steve when she's a college girl and he's in naval pilot training. I also wrote about them moving to Guam and dealing with snakes, and her saying goodbye to him while pregnant with twins, knowing he won't be home for the birth. I had a real sense of Grace and Steve as people, and I hope that comes through in the novel.
HtoH: In The Ocean Between Us, Grace forms a special bond with several young military wives. Could you speak about the bonds between military wives that you witnessed during your research?
SW: "Young" is the operative word. They are incredibly young, because that's when the military needs their husbands. In any gathering, a good percentage of the women will be pregnant. What I observed among navy wives was that they could meet as strangers and 15 minutes later be the best of friends. Because they move every three years or more, they learn to form swift, strong bonds and to support each other through thick and thin. When someone gets in trouble, the others flock to her. The gossip -- good and bad -- flies faster than the speed of light, I swear. It's a wonderful community.
HtoH: What's next?
SW: A treat! No aircraft carrier disasters and visits from the chaplain! In July 2004, I'll have a classic beach read on the stands. Summer by the Sea is a novel about food, fun, and family set against the backdrop of an Italian restaurant at a seaside resort. Recipes included, just for fun. Thanks for asking!
Read an Excerpt
The Ocean Between Us
By Susan Wiggs Thorndike Press
Copyright © 2004 Susan Wiggs
All right reserved. ISBN: 0786266716
Chapter One
Mishap
Mishap: Unplanned or unexpected event causing personal injury, occupational illness, death, material loss or damage, or an explosion of any kind whether damage occurs or not.
(NAVAL AVIATION SAFETY PROGRAM)
USS Dominion (CVN-84) 0037N 17820W
Speed 33 2215 hours (Time Zone YANKEE)
Steve Bennett glanced at the clock on his computer screen. He ought to be in his rack and sleeping soundly. Instead, he sat with his feet propped on the edge of the workstation, hands clasped behind his head while he stared at a scenic Washington State calendar and thought about Grace.
He was ten thousand miles from home, on an aircraft carrier in the middle of an unofficial communications blackout instigated by Grace herself. His wife. The mother of his children. The woman who had not spoken to him willingly since he'd been deployed.
She had maintained radio silence like a wartime spy. He received official communiquis about the children, and sometimes the occasional report that made him regret giving her power of attorney. But never more than that.
The cruise was nearly over, and for the first time in his career Steve felt apprehensive about going home. He had no idea whether or not they could put their marriage back together again.
"Captain Bennett?" Anadministrative officer stood in the doorway with a clipboard in one hand and a PDA in the other.
"What is it, Lieutenant Killigrew?"
"Ms. Francine Atwater is here to see you, sir."
Bennett hid a frown. He'd nearly forgotten their appointment. In the belly of a carrier there was no day or night, just an unrelenting fluorescent sameness, stale recycled air and the constant thunder of flight ops rattling through the steel bones of the ship.
"Send her in." He unfolded his long frame and stood, assuming the stiff and wary posture schooled into him by twenty-six years in the Navy. Killigrew left for a moment, then returned with the reporter. Steve would have preferred to use the public affairs office on the 01 deck, but apparently Ms. Atwater was adamant about exploring every facet of carrier life. It was, after all, the era of the embedded reporter.
Francine Atwater. Francine. A member of the "new media," eager to take advantage of the military's newly relaxed information policy. According to his briefing notes, she had arrived COD - carrier onboard delivery - and intended to spend the next two weeks in this floating city with its own airport. Both the skipper of the Dominion and Captain Mason Crowther, Commander of the Air Group, had welcomed her personally, but they'd quickly handed her off to others, and now it was Steve's turn.
"Ms. Atwater, I'm Captain Steve Bennett, Deputy Commander of the Air Group." He tried not to stare, but she was the first civilian woman he'd seen in months. In a skirt, no less. He silently paid tribute to the genius who had invented nylon stockings and cherry-colored lipstick.
"Thank you, Captain Bennett." Her glossy lips parted in a smile. She was a charmer, all right, the way she tilted her head to one side and looked up at him through long eyelashes. Still, he detected shadows of fatigue under her carefully made-up eyes. Newcomers to the carrier usually suffered seasickness and insomnia from all the noise.
"Welcome aboard, ma'am."
"I see you've been briefed about me," she said, indicating his notes from the PAO.
"Yes, ma'am."
"What a surprise. Everyone on this ship has. I swear, the U.S. Navy knows more about me than my own mother. My blood type, shoe size, visual acuity, sophomore-year biology grade -"
"Standard procedure, ma'am." Even in lipstick and nylon stockings, the media held no appeal to the military. Still, he respected the way she stood her ground, especially while wearing three-inch heels. Civilians were advised on practical shipboard attire, but apparently no one had wanted Francine to change her shoes.
A tremendous whoosh, followed by a loud thump, rocked the ship. She staggered a little, and he put out a hand to steady her.
"Tell me I'll get used to that," she said.
"You'd better. We're launching and recovering planes around the clock, day and night. It's not going to stop." He slid open a desk drawer and took out a sealed plastic package. "Take these. I always keep plenty on hand."
"Earplugs?" She slipped the package into her briefcase.
"Thanks."
He motioned her to a chair and she sat down, setting aside her bag. She took out a palm-size digital recorder, then swept the small space with a glance that shifted like a radar, homing in on the few personal items in evidence. "You have a beautiful family."
"Thank you, ma'am. I think so."
"How old are your children?"
"Brian and Emma are twins. They're seniors this year. Katie's in ninth grade. And that's Grace, my wife." A world of pain and hope underlay his words, but he prayed the reporter wouldn't notice. Every day he looked at that picture and tried to figure out what would fix this. He'd never deceived his wife before, so he didn't know how to undo the damage he'd caused. An ordinary husband would go home, take her out to dinner and say, "Look, honey. The truth is ..." But Bennett couldn't do that from the middle of the ocean.
And sometimes he wondered if he even wanted to, damn it.
He'd done his best to keep her from being hurt, but she didn't seem to appreciate that.
In the photo, taken at Mustang Island when they were stationed in Corpus Christi, the four of them were laughing into the camera, sunburned faces glowing.
"This is a great shot," said Ms. Atwater. "They look like the kind of people nothing bad ever happens to."
Interesting observation. He would have agreed with her, right up until this deployment. Grace and the kids were part of the all-American family, the kind you saw on minivan commercials or at summer baseball games.
"What's it like, being away from them for months on end?"
What the hell did she think it was like? A damned fraternity party?
Continues...
Excerpted from The Ocean Between Us by Susan Wiggs Copyright © 2004 by Susan Wiggs. Excerpted by permission.
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