Two
interviews
Marie DesJardin has published science fiction, fantasy, cartoons, and humor in Dragontales, SPECTRAL, Truckers/USA, /Update, and Reader's Digest magazines. A new short story was supposed to appear in DNA Publications in 2005, although that rumor has yet to be proved. She has a successful home business as a contract technical writer that (thankfully) leaves her with enough time to write new stories, bike, and climb mountains. For the Time Being is her first published novel.
Follow-up interview, March 1999:
Q It's been a year now since your novel first came out. What's it like being a published author?
A For some reason, people expect their lives to change. Perhaps fame will come knocking on the door, and all that. In truth, there's been very little change. You still have to manage the staff, make sure they polish the silver instead of sloughing off. And the limo always needs washing. Mostly the same old stuff.
Q But it must feel good to have a novel out there.
A Definitely. It's funny, meaning strange. I'd imagined people reading the book. I'd imagined good reviews (and bad) and getting royalty checks. I've even (oh, definitely!) imagined my good friend Steven Speilberg making a movie out of it. But when people actually buy the book, right in front of me -- that's a shock. It's like, I have this thing and I can actually make money from it. It's weird.
Q Do you have any advice for aspiring authors out there?
A Never give up. You never know if this might be the day that changes your life. Trust your inner voice. Keep going.
Q Where are you going?
A To have the helicopter serviced. You know, some things never change.
Original interview, March 1998:
Q How did you come to write For the Time Being?
A I'd just finished college and missed my college buddies. I originally wrote it as a nostalgia piece for them.
Q How long did it take you to write it?
A It took me two years to do the first draft, and two years for the rewrite. This is all on a part-time basis, before and after work. When I was finished, I distributed it to my friends and forgot about it.
Q What caused you to resurrect it?
A Novel envy, I'm afraid. I was in a couple of writing groups by then, and lots of people who'd started out later than I did were starting to get books published. I'd been concentrating on short stories for a couple of years and had a few sales, but I didn't have any novel-length fiction to market. So I dusted off Time Being and pitched it at a writing conference. Write Way Publishing wanted to see it. After two more years and two major rewrites, we ended up with the final version. So it really took me six years altogether to complete it.
Q That's a long time.
A Well, the novel had to lose a lot of weight. Most people measure their manuscripts in page count. I measured mine in pounds. I think the first draft was about twelve pounds. Then I got it down to ten pounds, then five, once we started playing tricks with line spacing and justification. The finished book is about half the size of the manuscript I started out with.
Q You must have had a lot to say.
A Actually, I started out to write a short story. I was just clipping along, having a good time, and wrote myself into a corner somewhere around Chapter 8. So I had this French guy called Jacques show up and rescue everybody. At that time, my college buddies were reading every chapter as it got done. They hated Jacques! "No way," they yelled. "These guys have to rescue themselves!" It was pure rebellion. So Jacques ended up in a wad of crumpled paper on the floor, and I went back to work. It took me another 800 pages to figure out how to rescue these guys.
Q I've noticed you pronounce your last name "DAY-zhar-DAN" after the French fashion. Do you speak French?
A According to one priest who had a French history, my father's family is descended from a soldier named Antoine who came to Canada in 1685 to fight the British. Before that, he was Antoine "of the gardens", who was supposedly the gardener for King Louis the 14th. Unfortunately, after the Canadians drifted to America, the French-speaking ability sort of fell by the wayside. They've weeded all the gardening genes out of my line, too.
Q Are you aware that every French-speaking person in the world can pronounce your last name better than you can?
A I could never get that "DAH" part right at the end. I actually had a French lady coaching me: "Day-zhar-DAH" she would say, and I'd repeat "Day-zhar-DAH" and she'd say, "No, Day-zhar-DAH". I felt like I was on Get Smart.
Q You must realize that "Des" is plural and "Jardin" is singular. Shouldn't your name have an "s" at the end?
A Our family "Americanized" the name and I inherited the spelling. Can we change the subject?
Q Are there any other insecurities that you would like to address publicly?
A How about my other works in progress?
Q Why would these make you insecure?
A Because they're all different.
There's no one audience for them. I've got a humorous novelty book about
corporate America, and I've got a fantasy novel for young adults that's
serious. I've got a very dark, quite adult science fiction novel that's
in the works. I've also written lots of short stories, some funny, some
not. I'd like to do another funny novel, though, when I'm through with
this one.
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