Interview with Kristan Higgins - author of "Pack Up the Moon" releasing 6/8/2021
Where did you get the idea to address a disease like IPF in a book? How much research did you do before writing? A metric ton! I wanted to present a character who is faced with her approaching death and makes the decision to make the remaining time the best years of her life. IPF—idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis—is an unfortunately common disease, but not one you hear about too often. Each year in the United States, more people are diagnosed with IPF than breast cancer. Unfortunately, there is no cure at the present time, and its progression is hard to predict. I got the basics of the disease from the Mayo Clinic, where I always go when I’m writing about a medical condition. But the deeply personal research I had to do in order to portray Lauren realistically came from Charlene Marshall, a young woman who writes for pulmonaryfibrosisnews.com. She’s been an incredible source of insight, information and reality, and she was thrilled that PACK UP THE MOON would give some attention to this disease. We’ve become friends over the past year and a half, and I could not have written this book without her.
How did you gain insight into the grief that you put so profoundly and descriptively in the book? Was that grief hard to write without getting emotionally attached - why or why not? Oh, I am incredibly emotionally attached! This book was that metaphoric opening of a vein. But we all grieve during our lives. We all have to face life without a person who means everything to us at some point or another…or we have to acknowledge that, like Lauren, we’re going to be that person who breaks everyone’s heart by dying too young. Grief is one of the faces of love. It’s a layered, complex process that never ends, but it’s also a sign of how deeply we loved that person, and were loved in return. Being able to grieve and learn to carry loss as part of us, rather than the end of us, is something all humans have to do.
What were the hardest aspects of writing this book? And on the flip side, what was your favorite part of the book to write? Writing Josh’s grief, especially in the first few months, was wrenching, which was why it was so important to me to infuse those months with humor here and there. One of the things I hoped to do with PACK UP THE MOON was to provide a map of how to endure loss. That’s what Lauren does for her husband—she creates the path through that first year with her letters and tasks, almost walking beside him as he confronts life without her. Her last letter was so hard to write as well…knowing she would never communicate with him this way again, and truly leaving him in that moment, alone in the world without her. And yet that act (and that letter in particular) is such a loving moment between Lauren and Josh. My favorite parts of writing PACK UP THE MOON were definitely the funnier scenes—that dinner party, Josh taking a karate class, going on his first date as a widower. I also loved writing scenes with Mr. and Mrs. Kim, who are like a second set of parents, and Radley, the first friend he makes after Lauren’s death.
Who was your favorite character to portray in the book and why? Oh, Joshua for sure. This book idea came to me when I was on the beach in Cape Cod one winter. It was very cold, and my dog and I were heading home when I saw a man, all by himself, looking out to sea in the bitter wind. I thought, “That man looks like the loneliest guy in the world,” and just like that, I wanted to write his story. As a boy raised without ever knowing his biological father, as a person on the spectrum who works by himself, as a man who never expected to love someone or be loved as intensely as he experienced, and as a man who is uniquely unprepared for his wife’s death, I just wanted to take him home and cook him a hot dinner, you know? I think he is the most vulnerable and also the strongest male protagonist I’ve ever written.
Why did you choose Providence, RI as the setting? Does the city mean something to you personally? I love Providence! I went to a year of college there, and I have friends there still. It’s a bustling, thriving city, almost like New England’s best kept secret. It has such a rich culture and identity—can’t swing a cat without running into your former babysitter, librarian, schoolmate, etc. College Hill, home of Rhode Island School of Design and Brown, gives the city so many cool aspects, from art shows to beautiful architecture. But the Rhodie aspect—Del’s Lemonade and coffee milk, stuffies and bubblers—is something that really appeals to me as a Yankee.
Did you plan out the path of Josh's grief and life after Lauren before writing it or was it something you created as you went? Both, actually. Sometimes what you have in an outline doesn’t work so well on page 314. The ideas were there, but they grew and changed as I wrote the book.
How do you feel the absence of Josh's father growing up shaped him as a character? As a writer behind Josh's character, do you think he was able to relate and help Lauren through more with the loss of her dad because of his father's absence? Josh is fiercely independent, like his single mother, and in part because of his neurodiversity. He is a legitimate genius engineer who creates medical devices that help those in the most need. He’s successful, well-off and good-looking. But I don’t think a person ever gets over being unacknowledged by one’s parent. Josh’s dad knew he was going to become a parent, and he skipped town. That leaves a hole, mostly filled by Mr. Kim, but something Josh can’t ignore. More than him helping Lauren, I think she helped him. She had a wonderful, nearly perfect dad, and she knew how lucky she was, despite his premature death. In that respect, I think she could see that there was a question Josh had about his biological father.
How was this book different from others you have written? In the most obvious way, PACK UP THE MOON is told more from Joshua’s perspective than Lauren’s. But in a more emotional way, it’s braver, I think. I’ve written widowed characters before, but not a person who has to walk through the death of their person as well as the immediate days that follow. Josh’s transformation throughout the book unfolds chapter by chapter. We’re right there with him as he negotiates the hours, days, weeks and months. And it’s ironic that I wrote this during the pandemic. I started it before we’d ever heard of COVID-19, but there I was, apart from my family, writing about grief during a time when millions of families were dealing with sickness and death. In that sense, I think PACK UP THE MOON will be very healing and timely. And uplifting! It’s a journey we’ll all take, and if we’re lucky, we’ll end up where Josh is—grateful, happy and well aware that he was, and is, a happy man.
Can you describe your journey to becoming an author and leading up to your success today? When did you know you wanted to be an author? I kind of fell into being an author. I was a reader from the age of four, and I worked in advertising after college (very much like fiction!). When my daughter was born, I became a stay-at-home mom, and when my son came along, I decided I wanted to keep it that way. But I couldn’t let my husband struggle away with two jobs while the kids were in school all day…that didn’t feel right. So when my son was about three, I thought, “I wonder if I could write a book.” I picked romantic comedy because who doesn’t like rom-coms? After a few books, I started writing more women’s fiction, in that there was less emphasis on romantic scenes and more on the journey of the main character. To be honest, I never thought I’d be writing books as a career. There’s so much luck involved in publishing. I figured a few books until the kids were older, and then, all of a sudden, they were in college, and I’d been doing this for nearly 20 years. The success I’ve been granted is all thanks to readers, booksellers and librarians. You can’t plan to be a successful author…it’s something readers decide for you. I’ve been really lucky to have my publishers get behind my books and do their part, but in the end, nothing matters nearly as much as word of mouth from regular people. I’ve had that for two decades now, and I’m incredibly grateful, and still a little in awe that folks want to read my books.
How long does it typically take you to write a book and get it published? Oh, gosh. A year? Sometimes a bit less, sometimes a bit more. It’s not easy for me. New ideas take time and space. I have thousands of pages of deleted scenes and crappy ideas. It usually takes about a year from passing the book in to my editor to it hitting the shelves, and in that year, the art department makes a cover, the book gets edited three or four times, the marketing and sales teams meet to discuss how to present the book…there are hundreds of very talented people involved.
Where do you pull your inspiration from? How do you get past moments of writer's block? I believe that every person has a novel-worthy life. However “normal” or extraordinary your life is, there are parts that would (and do) make a great story. So I listen to people’s stories. That’s it! As for writer’s block, I generally just keep working. Even if what I write gets deleted later on, it’s progress.
What advice do you have for aspiring authors? Believe in yourself. No one was born published. Every famous author, from Stephen King to Kristen Hannah, was once exactly where you are—wondering if they had something people might like to read. Sit down in that chair and type. You never know where it will take you.