Title: Falling Under
Author: Danielle Younge-Ullman
Publisher: Plume
Paperback: 368 pages
ISBN: 978-0452289659
1. First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about?
Falling Under is an emotional rollercoaster of a book about a reclusive young artist whose past starts to catch up with her when she falls in love. It’s gritty, sexy and raw, with complicated characters and a wry sense of humor. The story touches on a number of issues–everything from the difficulty of having faith when everything and everyone you count on is falling apart to the powerful draw of inappropriate men and the use of sex to punish oneself for crimes real or imagined. My heroine is equal parts courageous and neurotic and the book contains two interwoven stories, one in first person and the other in the rarely used second person. It is adult fiction.
2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.
I was pregnant, living in a renovation zone, teaching pilates and searching for an agent. The day before I was due, I sent a query to an agent I had a really “feeling” about and within an hour he asked for me to email him the first fifty pages. The baby came on her due date and the day after I got home from the hospital I had an email asking me to send the full manuscript. Six weeks later I signed with the agency-not with the initial agent I queried but someone I really liked. (Eventually I ended up with the assistant who moved to another agency to become a full agent, but that’s another story.)
Falling Under went on submission in early March of 2007. I tried not to obsess. Ha. End of week two came with the first rejections and week three brought more. I’d been an actor so I thought I was ready for the rejection but it started to get to me-bouts of crying in the car, feelings of hopelessness, deep sighs, etcetera. When the phone rang on the Friday afternoon of week three it was the first time in three weeks that I didn’t think: this is it! Even when I saw my agent’s number on the call display, I didn’t think this was it. I figured she wanted to talk about a Plan B. But instead she said we had “interest.” I knew this was good but also knew “interest” doesn’t always lead to an offer. I almost didn’t hear the words, “and I have an offer on my desk.” My baby girl, waiting for her bath, peed on the floor. I just stared. “An offer?” I made my agent repeat the words a few times before I believed them and I’m sure I sounded like a bit of a dolt, but it took that long to sink in. I got off the phone and dialed my husband, burst into tears the second I heard his voice, scaring the crap out of him, and then gasped and wailed something like: “Everything’s fine! Bookahhh ahhh! Offer! Published! Going to be…ahhh, ahhh, pubishedahhhh!!!!” The following week more offers came in and on April 9, 2007, we held an auction and sold the book to Plume. There were many sleepless nights in between.
3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?
I am working on something and hope to have it ready for my agent soon after Falling Under is released. I find it’s better to wait until a book is finished before I start trying to describe it though since things tend to change drastically as I go along.
4. What’s your process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?
I used to be a night person but motherhood has completely changed that. Plus, I find if I write in the evenings I have trouble falling asleep. I now write in the morning, which is also when I have childcare.
As far as process goes, mine is still evolving but so far it seems to involve a combination of outlining and writing by the seat of my pants. Truthfully, it’s a bit of a mess because I write the outline, start off using it, veer wildly from it and then write until I’m stuck, go back to the outline, throw it out, write a new one based on where the story has taken me, and then do the whole thing over again. I do that as many times as I have to until the book is finished. Not smooth, but it gets the job done eventually.
5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.
Oh dear, I’m horribly allergic to cats or I’m certain I would be a cat person. I do have a dog who is soft enough and has attitude enough to be a cat. I don’t know how this information will affect your study…
