Author Kristin Hannah with Susan Elizabeth Phillips Discusses Her Career and Latest Book “The Four Winds”
The Friends of the Coronado Public Library have teamed up with Warwick’s Bookstore and the Coronado Cultural Arts Commission to present Kristin Hannah in Conversation with Susan Elizabeth Phillips as she discusses her latest work, The Four Winds. The award winning and #1 New York Times The best-selling author drew an amazing crowd for the March 15 benefit at the Coronado Performing Arts Center.
Books were piled in the arms of fans who queued to have their novels autographed before the discussion began. Interviewer Susan Elizabeth Phillips is a New York Times, Publisher weeklyAnd United States today Bestselling author who writes contemporary romance novels. She and Hannah met thirty years ago and quickly became close friends. Phillips opened the event with a playful question about how Hannah, despite all the successes she’s achieved, has kept her humbleness. The two reminisced cheerfully and crossed paths as she went from being a lawyer to being a writer.
The Four Winds follows Elsa Martinelli’s pilgrimage west toward California during the Dust Bowl era of the Great Depression.
Donna Lerbet from San Diego read The Four Winds for her book club and said, “I loved the way she developed the characters and thought it realistic how the author talked about how they had to make choices to survive. It was really compelling to discuss [those themes] as well as the prejudices during the time of the Great Depression and the move to California.”
Event attendee Julie Howe was impressed when she explained, “The female lead was so strong and brave. Even in the worst of times, she continued to carry her family on her back. It was really remarkable and the character development was unique. Just sensational as you could feel her heartbreak and determination.”
path to becoming a writer
Hannah’s mother was the main inspiration for why she started her journey into this career. While she was battling breast cancer, her mother decided they should write a book together. They settled on their mother’s genre, historical romance, and plotted their ideas for when Hannah would go to the hospital after law school. When her mother died, Hannah packed everything in a box and moved on.
While pregnant with her son, she went into early labor at 14 weeks, resulting in bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. So her husband suggested that she finish what she and her mother had started. Hannah humorously explained, “I pulled everything out and I was like, I’m going to write a book, how hard can that be?”
With little to no editing and a lot of confidence, she decided to send it off to an editor. Many months later they responded by saying: Maybe you have talent, it’s impossible to say. It was that special moment 35 years ago when Hannah revealed, “I realized I had made a decision to do something that not only could I fail, but could fail for years. That’s when I decided I wanted to do this, I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, so I’m going to do this stationery.
Phillips continued to explore how audiences began to grow in response to the boundaries she pushed with the whimsical sense of her historical romance novels. During the time of “Home Again” and “On Mystic Lake” there was a shift to the present. Her drive was never the desire for success, but “an opportunity on the pitch”.
The two friends continued to share the harsh reality that most editors choose what has already proven successful. It takes the few exceptions to take a chance and see something unusual that doesn’t necessarily fit the niche. The common theme in every Kristin Hannah novel is the power of female relationships. Hannah explains this core element in her stories as a reflection of her upbringing and as the cornerstone of her life.
Her childhood was shaped by a hippie lifestyle. Born in Huntington Beach, she remembers her parents loading everyone into the Volkswagen and driving around the Pacific Northwest for four months. Her nose was always buried in a book, which Hannah believes has greatly influenced her writing. Her favorite adventures started with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and morphed into her geek years indulging in Dune.
Epic stories like the French Resistance and the Great Depression challenged Hannah to step out of her comfort zone. They had to be written for “Lost and Forgotten Stories of Women That Must Be Passed On”. As news week proclaims, “The Four Winds” is “brutally beautiful”.
Hannah’s writing process and a new book
The eloquent images and crucial lessons are all written in longhand. Hannah’s process is messy, but she can’t write any other way. She will research for a year before starting to put it on paper. During the first draft of The Four Winds, she hit page 450 when the character of Elsa entered and she couldn’t ignore her powerful presence. The idea of motherhood was absent, so she had to throw away a year’s work and start over. Phillips jokingly referred to her process as “Screwy,” but in the end, her work is truly wonderful.
As Phillips and Hannah finished their conversation, an excited roar erupted from the audience. The internationally acclaimed author announced that she is working on a new book that will be released in February 2024 and will be set on Coronado Island!
Tickets and details of all upcoming events can be found at https://coronado.librarycalendar.com/