Gail R. Fraser

(Scroll Down for Interview)

 

I chanced upon The Lumby Lines in my neighborhood Borders. I’m a great believer that cozy books can often be picked out simply by their cover art. The Lumby Lines’ cover is a beautifully rendered scene of downtown Lumby – with moose and all! Once I read the jacket blurb, I was hooked. (Think a more secular Mitford.) The Lumby Lines (the title comes from the newspaper that serves Lumby) focuses on Pam and Mark Walker, who decide to move west to purchase a former monastery with hopes of turning it into a bed-and-breakfast inn. This is one series I hope goes on for a good long time, maybe even longer than the six books the author has planned out. I see Ray Romano as Mark.

 

Books:

 

 

Brief Bio:

 

Gail R. Fraser continues to work full time on her six-book series about the extraordinary small town of Lumby and the humorous, benign mayhem surrounding it.  Prior to changing her life and becoming a novelist, Gail had a successful career in “corporate America” holding senior executive and upper management positions in several Fortune 500 and start-up corporations, and traveling extensively throughout the world.  She studied at the University of London, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English at Skidmore College and completed the Masters in Business Administration at University of Connecticut, with additional graduate work at Harvard University.  Married to artist Art Poulin, Gail is also an avid potter, gardener and cook.  Art and Gail live with their dogs, Emma and Yoda, in the rural landscape of upstate New York. 

 

Author Website: www.lumbybooks.com

 

Author Interview:

 

Cozy Library: I see you’re from upstate New York … yet Lumby is set in the Pacific Northwest. Did you have a specific reason for placing Lumby in that locale? Is it based on any towns you are familiar with?

 Gail R. Fraser: I would have to say that Lumby took on a Northwest locale more as an end-result than any preconceived planning on my part.  For several reasons, I wanted Pam and Mark Walker to be from the East Coast and to face a physical relocation away from their old lives – to venture out into a somewhat unfamiliar environment.  In looking at geographic options, I was most comfortable with the Northwest – I had lived in both Montana and Colorado and did extensive fly fishing in the area, so I have some understanding and an attraction for the region.

I’m frequently asked, “So, where exactly is Lumby?” which I can’t answer quite yet.  I can say that although Lumby represents so many small towns in which I’ve lived or traveled through, it is rooted in a few specific locations I visited along the way.  As the series progresses, the reader will be given more references as to its location.

CL: Animals play a huge part in the community life of Lumby: the goats in the bank vault, the dog running for mayor, the deer and moose constantly in the news, the flatulent cows, and the honeybees – even Hank the stuffed flamingo. The town veterinarian, Dr. Campbell, is only mentioned in passing. Do you have plans for her in future books?

 GF: Lumby most definitely has more beloved four-legged residents than it does the other variety, so animals will be the constant background throughout the series.  And, yes, Dr. Campbell, along with a young resident-in-training, are main characters in Book Three and will carry their own plot line.

CL: One thing that sets The Lumby Lines apart from most other novels is its use of illustration throughout: maps, newspaper clippings, etc. I see your husband, Art Poulin, did the wonderful cover illustration. Was The Lumby Lines your first creative collaboration with him?

 

GF: It’s definitely not a collaboration of equal parts; his cover paintings and illustrations are 98% his vision and talent and less than 2% input or feedback from my corner.  He reads the manuscript and then develops one or two broad concepts for the cover, which he discusses with my publisher at Yorkville Press.  My contribution is to confirm small details of Lumby or the novel that he includes in his compositions.

 

The Lumby Lines cover was a perfect match of what Art initially proposed and what the publisher wanted.  For Stealing Lumby, there was more of a discussion because the cover needed to be a broad landscape of the area incorporating specific components of the novel (the barns of Lumby, for example). 

In addition to the canvases he has painted for the covers, Art continues to work on his “Lumby Series” – all enchanting scenes of Lumby.  His latest and my personal favorite, Lumby Feed Store, was tremendously received in Colorado and then a few weeks later in Connecticut.  Since Art’s agreement with the publisher requires that the cover paintings not to be shown before the novels’ release dates, “The Barns” which will be used for Stealing Lumby, remains under cover for a few more months.

CL: Art’s work can be seen at http://www.artpoulinstudios.com/

 

CL: Many of your characters seem to have a career transition in their present or immediate past. Pam leaves a successful business career to run an inn. Brooke’s looking for a change. Even the beekeeper, Chuck Bryson, was formerly a college professor. Seeing that you made a career transition similar to Pam’s, how much of your experience made its way into The Lumby Lines?

 GF: The basic theme of “transition” in The Lumby Lines is driven more by my fascination with change than by any past events in my life.  I believe we are all in flux (emotionally, physically, psychologically, financially – we are complex works in progress) and those transitions are layered, some running deep and slow while others run shallow and fast.  Career transitions are occasionally surface changes, blatantly noticeable updates of title or address.  But sometimes that type of move goes deeper and is more compelling and demanding, as it was with Pam, forcing her to look inward and question fundamental values and priorities. 

 

But there are other transitions in the novel as well; Brooke and Joshua defining themselves as a couple, the monks of St. Cross Monastery meeting the demands of a successful business enterprise, even the rebellious boys grow an inch (figuratively) towards the end in The Lumby Lines. 

 

And that thread of transition is felt at a deeper level still in Stealing Lumby when two major characters overcome their own self-created obstacles in life.  Change is an amazing subject matter to consider and will be reoccurring in each of my subsequent novels.

 

CL: After I read your bio, I saw some similarity to Pam Walker’s history. How much of yourself and your personal story is reflected in Pam’s character?

 

GF: There was never an intentional effort to reflect parts of me in any of my characters, but I think it’s far easier to write about what one knows – to begin with what is familiar and then branch out.  So to shadow much of my own corporate background into Pam’s life before Montis Inn was natural.  Having felt her conflicts and trepidations about leaving her “comfort zone” made that subplot one of the more unconstrained to write.  

 

CL: Will Pam and Mark (and Montis Abbey) remain the central focus of future books in the series, or do you plan to have more of an “ensemble” cast, with the focus moving to different characters?

 

GF: Mark and Pam, Brooke and Joshua and the monks will all have significant weight in future Lumby novels, but other characters, other Lumby residents, will be brought into the forefront to weave the large plot lines as well.  For example, in Stealing Lumby, the main characters (if one could call them that) are Katie Banks, a dynamic but cautious young widow who owns a goat farm as well as the famous barns of Lumby, Dana Porter, a very old and tired artist living in Vermont, and Charlotte Ross, who everyone met in my first novel.  But Mark, Pam and the “ensemble” are very much involved with the turning of events in that story and also have their own subplots.  Another example, the monks of St. Cross, who have more of a secondary presence in Stealing Lumby, come front and center and lead one of the major story lines in Book Three.

CL: Although I wouldn’t categorize The Lumby Lines as “religious fiction,” Montis Abbey and some of the brothers who lived there play key roles in The Lumby Lines.  How did you come to include those elements in the story?

 

GL: One of my oldest and dearest friends is a Russian Orthodox monk.  In fact, the entire community of New Skete Monastery http://www.newsketemonks.com/ has been a large part of my life for almost twenty years, but only recently have I lived close to them.  Growing older with the brothers is one of my warmest comforts.

 

My husband and I go to the monastery each Sunday, although I’ll be the first to admit that I am more spiritual and theologically curious than I am religious.   I adamantly believe that the goodness of man is directly attributable to the values, morals and integrity that each of us carries within us on a daily basis. Our individual and collective behaviors are a reflection of a responsibility we have to ourselves, to each other and to God.  

CL: I’m guessing some readers see Lumby as a bit like Jan Karon’s Mitford. How do you feel about that comparison? (I actually think your stories and characters are much better!)

GF: I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t read her novels but any comparison is well received, given Jan Karon is a New York Times best selling author.  I understand the similarity is that both of our series are gentle reads that use a small town venue; however I think Ms. Karon emphasizes the religion of the town’s residents while I lean towards the quirkiness, humorous oddity and innate goodness of it all.

CL: One of the characters I especially liked was Charlotte Ross, the nonagenarian and Lumby’s matriarch. Whom did you base her character on?

 GF: Charlotte is one of my favorite characters as well, and she becomes a leading force in Stealing Lumby.  I love the grace in which she carries her old age and the wisdom she has from her long life, and I admire her honesty and directness. 

 

I’ve been fortunate to know several women like Charlotte, so her character is more a collection of those friends, most of whom have passed away, versus one specific individual.

CL: How long do you see yourself continuing to write the Lumby novels? Do you have plans for any other non-series books?

 GF: Lumby is a six-book series; books one and two are complete and the third is well under way.  I’m writing, on average, a book every ten months, so this will keep me committed (and I use that word cautiously) for another three years.  Although I have an idea for another series -– quite different and set in New England, I won’t be structuring that until sometime next year.  I also have a few ideas for stand-alone novels but none that I have developed enough to discuss with my publisher. 

 CL: How long have you been a writer?

 GF: I had an idea for a novel for quite some time but didn’t start writing full-time until a year and a half ago, in June 2004.  I wrote The Lumby Lines in a little over four months. After it was finished, I sent the manuscript to the monks of New Skete, asking them to for feedback on the monastic elements in the novel.  I wanted to ensure I didn’t cross any lines or push the envelope too much. They liked the novel and thought their own publisher, Yorkville Press, might be interested in it – so they sent it along.

 

[The monks have written several internationally bestselling books to include How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend and The Art of Raising a Puppy.  The monks are also famous as breeders of German Shepherd dogs; I met them twenty years ago when I bought a New Skete Shepherd.] 

 

By December 2004, I knew The Lumby Lines was going to be published the following summer and that it would become the first of the Lumby series.  It has been an amazing journey and I feel incredibly fortunate that I didn’t have to face an upward battle in finding not only a publisher, but a great one at that.  

Once Yorkville gave me a multi-book contract, my destiny for the next several years was sealed.  Last summer we moved to the hinterlands of upstate New York. The move to North Carolina was strategic, but moving to New York was from the heart – we were returning to where we always wanted to be.

CL: Who are you favorite writers?

GF: Those are unusually difficult questions to answer, perhaps because I majored in English and studied the classics (how can someone exclude James Joyce or William Faulkner from any list?) or my reading is just too diverse to only list a few.  But here’s my best shot:

 

As to major influences, I think many of us remember when we began our love for reading – those books that we secretly took to bed and, under the blankets with a flashlight, tuned the pages with wide-eyed involvement.  For me it was the Nancy Drew series… every last one of them.  During my college years, I would have to group J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut and Philip Roth together as they collectively represented a slice of fiction that I found so compelling that I majored in English.  About the same time, Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead) played a major role in defining my philosophical cornerstone of personal accountability.

 

More contemporary favorites would have to include Sue Monk Kidd (I thought The Secret Life of Bees was tremendously well written) for fiction, David McCullough (1776) for history and  Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy) for biographical fiction. As for non-fiction, I find Malcolm Gladwell’s books (The Tipping Point and Blink) total fascinating.

CL: What are you reading now? 

GF: The Lobster Chronicles by Linda Greenlaw and The River Why by David James Duncan

 

I’ve been reading less since I’ve been writing. When I was in the corporate life, I traveled by air several times a week. When you have 18-hour flights, you read a lot. I also have a fundamental fear of picking up an idea that’s not mine. Probably because I’m a fairly new writer, I don’t want to be influenced or have an idea mutate into my novel without its being my own original idea.

CL: Which authors have most directly influenced your writing?

GF: Specifically influencing the Lumby series, I would have to give this award to the dozens of small town papers I have read in the past and continue to read now on a weekly basis.  These newspapers and their portrayals of their respective small towns across America were the most significant influence in writing The Lumby Lines.