Welcome to the Saturday Spotlight, a weekly feature that shines the light on Indie and Debut authors. This week I have the pleasure introducing readers to:
ULRICA HUME
~Author of An Uncertain Age~
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I’m a San Francisco writer and a labyrinth guide.
What inspired you to write An Uncertain Age?
Right after the events of September 11th, I began working on a short story about a man and woman who meet serendipitous on the Eurostar. When friends read the story, they always wanted to know what happened next. So I began to wonder myself. Sometimes the unknown is its own inspiration.
If you could pick a song that fit the mood of your book what would it be and why?
The characters in the book have different songs associated with them. For Justine, one would be “The Sea”, by Morcheeba (from Big Calm). It has a dreamy quality, which fits her mood, her sense of longing. For Miles, I’d say Carmina Burana, the medieval poems that were set to music by Carl Orff. Certain of these songs are full of bittersweet passion. They’re also connected to the philosopher Abélard, who is Miles’s idol. The character of Dara has her roots in India. I would think of her strange sad story as I listed to the eclectic music of Krishna Beats. Mesmerizing...
What are your three favorite books?
Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, Mating by Norman Rush—both for their heightened language—and anything by Alice Munro.
What would you like readers to walk away with after reading your book?
I would hope that readers are left with a sense of possibility. Justine’s search leads her into a dark night of the soul, yet she does arrive at a place of knowing.
Can you share any future plans?
I try not to talk of things unwritten. Just superstitious, I guess. Although I do have an idea floating around.
Ulrica Hume is an award-winning writer and labyrinth guide. One of her short stories was selected by the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project and broadcast on NPR. Her work has appeared in the San Francisco Examiner,Poets & Writers Magazine, The Bloomsbury Review, and most recently, The Huffington Post. She was a finalist for the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship, and a runner up in Stand Magazine’s International Short Story Competition in Britain. An Uncertain Age is her debut novel. Find out more at ulricahume.com
Giveaway
Today Ulrica is giving away one eBook of her novel An Uncertain Age. To enter please just fill in the copter. A winner will be drawn December 22, 2012.
Justine’s life is uncertain when she meets Miles Peabody on the Eurostar. She has lost her job, her fiancé, everything except her dream of becoming an artist. Miles Peabody, a retired librarian and beekeeper, has always led a cautious, philosophical life. Now, faced with his mortality, he needs a miracle.
Drawn inexplicably to each other, their relationship is tested when Miles invites Justine to join him on a Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage. But before she can answer, Miles goes missing. Desperate to find him, and nudged by the French police, Justine slips into a dark night of the soul. As her radical search turns inward, she begins to explore her faith (or lack of). The love letters of Abélard and Héloïse play a part—as do fractals, the physics of color, and Saint Teresa of Ávila’s excruciating visions. Also a rare, gnostic book, Secrets of the Epinoia, which is as elusive as its owner.
Helping Justine unravel the mystery of Miles are two women: Gwynneth, a lapsed Anglican, and Dara, a devout Hindu housekeeper (whose intentions Justine prays are good). Their cloistered world is turned upside-down when a charismatic visitor appears with the keys to Miles’s past. Haunted by questions of truth, betrayal, and loss, it seems they are all connected in an unlikely, even mystical way—whether in France or Spain, England, or far-off places around the globe.
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Nice that every character is associated with a song.
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