Talking with Sarah Beth Durst

 
You had me right at the beginning: “When you can’t control when you go, it’s nice to at least control how.”  How did you come up with the concept for this novel?
I was taking a walk past the stump of an old tree when the first lines of The Warbler came to me: “My mother is a willow. She stands by a stream that burbles like a toddler’s kisses, and her leaves dip into the water whenever the wind blows, to be nibbled by fish who don’t know any better…” These lines led me to Elisa, a woman who believes she is cursed to always be on the move, to never stay and put down roots. And I thought to myself, What if a woman who cannot stay comes to a town she cannot leave? This book grew from that single question.

Control is a huge theme. Is it also a theme in your other work?  And if so, how does this theme help create cause/effect in your work?
Control, power, choice – these are themes that show up in my work over and over again in different ways. I believe in the importance of chosing who you want to be and what dreams you want to chase. Loss of control, helplessness, powerlessness, having someone else shape who you are and who you become – that’s the nightmare.

How did you come up with Elise’s rules? She never stays longer than ten months anywhere. Why ten?
Elisa doesn’t have a rulebook for her curse, and neither did her mother, Lori. Lori invented the ten-month rule because she didn’t want Elise to have to move mid-school-year. If they stayed ten months, then Elisa could start a new school in the fall and then move again in the summer. Lori didn’t dare risk the curse by staying any longer than that, but she didn’t know for certain that was the limit. In fact, she didn’t know for certain that the curse was real at all… But she believed it was, and that was enough to keep them moving every ten months.

Elise is a protagonist wanting to not only establish the why over her life, but also some control. Yet, she is a traveler. Can you explain this irony?
One of the things I wanted to explore in this book is the idea that one person’s choice can be another person’s curse. Rose wanted to travel; Elisa is forced to travel. Having agency over your actions is sometimes more important than what those actions are. Being always forced to leave can be as much of a prison as never being allowed to go.

Mother-daughter theme is also another great theme. What do we inherit from our mothers--another of your reoccurring themes? Mother over father?
I do write a lot about family – how your family can strengthen you, damage you, shape you, free you, chain you. What’s meant as a gift can be a curse, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t given with love. We’re all trying our best.

All of the characters have great arcs. We want to follow and resolve all the history. However, Elise is a character that will remain in every reader's mind. How did you get into the “soul” of this character?
Every character’s voice has its own music – its own melody and its own rhythm. I can’t write a single page until I find that music. I found Elisa’s voice while she was packing to leave yet again – that moment was emblematic of all the times she’d left before, saying goodbye to who she was and moving on, and I knew it had to be the first chapter.

Which scene in the story did you hope would produce the most emotional impact on your readers?
I hope every reader finds the scene that resonates the most with them—reading is a highly personal experience. That said, I structured the novel to build, and I very much hope the moment near the end with the bird cages feels satisfying.

Which is your favorite scene?
My personal favorite moment is when Elisa realizes the bookstore has a cat.

The magical stone where wishes are made: I liked the paranormal used in this story. Is the paranormal something you enjoy placing in your plots? And this paranormal, making wishes, seemed something we might all do?
I do love to write about the impossible. I think it offers a way to bypass fact and go directly to truth.

I know it would be hard for me to pass up a new book of yours. What are you working on now that you think readers would enjoy with some of these same themes? Or are you working on something entirely new?
Right now, I am working on cozy fantasy – The Enchanted Greenhouse comes out on July 15, and it’s about a librarian, a gardener, lots of magical plants, and second chances. It’s a different kind of book from The Warbler, but I think you’ll recognize a lot of the same themes: choosing who you are and who you want to be, as well as finding strength through connection to others.
 
Thanks for the chat, Sarah.
Thanks so much for chatting with me!

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