Author Interview Lois Wells Santalo
Oops, I Lost My Sense of Humor
Interviewed by: Tamar Mekredijian, Pacific Book Review
January 2012
Today we have the pleasure
of being with author Lois Well Santalo to discuss her book Oops, I Lost My Sense of Humor.
Thank you, Ms. Santalo, for taking your time to be with us.
LWS: My pleasure, Tamar
PBR: You first published
your book, "Oops, I Lost My Sense of Humor," in 2002. What made you decide to add
to it and publish it again?
LWS: It’s such a scary, helpless feeling to be diagnosed with
cancer, and it’s happening to so many people these days. I wanted to let people
know that cancer is no longer a death sentence, that it’s possible to survive
for ten or even twenty active and productive years. I’ve survived breast cancer
for twenty years, and pancreatic cancer for ten, outlasting Steve Jobs who made
it for four years. In that time, I’ve published five novels.
PBR: In the book, you
speak a lot about your love for opera. When and why did your love for the opera
begin?
LWS: My mother owned stacks of those old-fashioned opera records
and used to play them for me in my childhood, and tell me the stories of the
operas while we listened. I couldn’t wait to actually see and hear an opera.
When I was sixteen she finally took me to Chicago for Aida. I was ecstatic and I’ve
never forgotten the occasion.
PBR: How does opera inspire
your writing?
LWS: As I learned more about literature, I realized that many of
the opera stories are pretty silly as stories. Yet great theater and great
sincerity of acting can lift them out of the silly category and make them very
powerful. I think it helped me learn to make my characters rise above the
limitations of the storyline and become larger than life.
PBR: Ms. Santalo, you have
had a few bouts with cancer. How have these experiences shaped your
understanding of the purpose of life?
LWS: It’s said that there are no atheists in the trenches. That
may well be true of cancer victims, too. That awful moment of hearing from the
doctor that your mammogram or your x-ray shows cancer cells is a moment when
you begin to think that there has to be more to the universe than you
heretofore believed. There has to be a reason why you are here and are going
through all this. Life makes no sense otherwise.
PBR: How have your past
illnesses hindered or delayed your writing? How did you press on?
LWS: Surprisingly, my three bouts with cancer greatly improved my
writing. I used to work for a literary agent and I firmly believed the way to
literary fame and fortune was to learn what publishers are looking for and then
do my best to provide it. I realized, under pressure of illness and possible
shortages of writing time, that writing-to-order tends to be mediocre and
lacking in passion. I learned from my illnesses that the right way to go is to
find one’s own voice and then express it, loud and clear. Personal experience,
and the conviction that comes from it, is far more meaningful than any
publisher’s suggestion one might crank out.
PBR: How often do you
write? Do you have a set routine?
LWS: I write for at least a couple of hours every day—and I do
mean every day! Even on Christmas I got up early to write before breakfast.
PBR: What advice might you
have for aspiring writers?
LWS: Write every day. If you have no ideas, write down a dream or
describe a vivid memory. You may be able to use it in a memoir someday, and it
will keep your mind focused. Writer’s block happens to people who don’t stick
to a schedule. It occurs when your critical ability outruns your creative—and
that happens when you take a vacation from writing.
PBR: Are you currently working on a new book? If so, when might we
expect to be able to read it?
LWS: I have two books ready. One, a memoir of my grandparents who
ran a Michigan poor house, is with the University of Michigan Press, being
considered for publication. The other I will probably send to iUniverse. The
third Jill Szekely mystery, it is the story of murder at a Crisis House for
Women. I was Night Director of such a house for seven years so I can guarantee
its authenticity.
PBR: Again, thank you for
being with us today, and we wish you the best of success in every way.
LWS: Thank you, Tamar, and thanks to Pacific Book Review for
“discovering” the Jill mysteries by selecting the first one, Dorothea in the
Mirror, as Book of the Month back in 2010. That was very exciting and
gratifying for me.
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