Author Confessions: Jackie Friedland
Her important new novel, the ideas that stay with you + the moment she called herself a "real" writer.
I remember when we were at an author meetup and Jackie Friedland told me her idea for her next book. Based on a real life case of a doctor sterilizing women at a prison in Georgia, she wanted to tell a fictionalized version of the inmates who suffered under his scalpel. First, I couldn’t believe this would ever happen today. Second, I remember asking her: How will you write a book that doesn’t feel too issue driven?
Jackie’s answer: Create unforgettable characters. That’s exactly what she went on to do as she wrote her latest novel Counting Backwards, which is out today. Counting Backwards is a dual timeline and dual POV novel that tells the story of women (both past and present) who are grappling with motherhood, fertility and the decisions that are sometimes forced upon us. I particularly love her heroine lawyer, Jessa, who has the chops of Erin Brokovich. After taking on a probono immigration case at a local detention facility, she asks the hard questions, realizing that the terror facing her client is widespread.
I think this novel would make such a great book club pick because there’s so much to talk about in these pages—and the story is so compelling, you won’t be able to put it down. I invited Jackie, a dear writer friend, to tell us about her writing process, her greatest day in publishing and why this subject was so important to her.
Welcome, Jackie!
Let’s rewind in time for a moment. Do you remember what made you want to be a writer?
I always loved writing. For as long as I can remember, I was the kid who wrote poems for friends' birthdays or got asked to write the lines for our talent show skits. I loved writing so much that I never took it seriously as a career option. It fell into the same category for me as being a famous rock star or actress. Something super cool, but obviously unrealistic. But then when I was in my mid-twenties, working as a corporate litigation attorney, I missed being around stories and books so much that I knew I had to actually try my hand at writing a book. Otherwise I’d be destined to suffer my fate working a job I never wanted for the rest of my life. Nine years after graduating law school, I went back to school to get my masters in creative writing, and I have never looked back!
Where did the idea for Counting Backwards come from? Were you always certain that such a controversial topic would make for a great story?
When I was a senior in high school, my history teacher had each student choose a Supreme Court case to write a lengthy paper about. I found the 1927 case of Buck v. Bell, where the Court ordered that seventeen-year-old Carrie Buck could be sterilized against her wishes because she was, what they called, "feebleminded." They justified the decision on the grounds that they didn't want her to pass on any "defective" genes. As a seventeen-year-old at the time myself, I was floored that these Justices, who were considered great humanitarians of their era, would hand down a decision like this. Worse yet, I discovered in my research that Carrie wasn't even disabled. She was just a poor, uneducated foster kid who was costing the state of Virginia more tax dollars than they wanted to pay, and they didn't like it. The ruling of the horrible case always stayed with me.
Fast forward to 2020, I was on a news site and saw a headline that said, "The Uterus Collector." When I clicked on it, I found a shocking story about a nurse at an immigration detention center in Georgia who'd come forward as a whistleblower. She said that a doctor at the facility was sterilizing the female inmates, telling them they needed various gynecological procedures, and then removing their uterus or ovaries without their prior consent while they were sleeping. It was unthinkable to me that things like this might possibly still be happening in America almost a hundred years after Carrie Buck's case.
I felt urgently that more people needed to know about these things, and that's when I saw a path to telling both Carrie's story and the stories of contemporary immigrant women in one connected plotline.
Also, please note that there is currently a class-action lawsuit pending in federal court about the treatment of the inmates in Georgia, but the allegations have not been proven in a court of law. My book is a fictionalized imagining of a similar scenario.
You write from the first person perspective of a southern woman with such believability. Where are you pulling from when you write from a different time period?
Though I'm a born and bred lifelong New Yorker, I've always felt a strong pull toward the South. Two of my earlier novels are historical fiction, both set largely in the South in the years leading up to the Civil War. As you can imagine, those books involved a ton of research, and I really got to know the history, the culture, and the overall vibe. I also love language and have always been interested in the slight differences in tone and vernacular between different time periods or locations. Writing about Carrie in the same geographical areas I had studied so extensively only about seventy years later than the stories in my prior books felt like it came very naturally to me.
I've sat with her story for nearly thirty years since high school, thinking of her more often than you might expect. It was actually a relief when I finally got to sit down and give voice to the person I’d been imagining for so long.
How did writing Counting Backwards compare to your other novels? Was it more or less challenging and why?
Counting Backwards was the hardest book I've ever written but also the most rewarding.
The right to reproduce is not something that gets much attention because here in America, we assume certain rights are just never at risk. Yet, this intimate, personal part of our humanity is a type of bodily autonomy that deserves more attention. I started from that position, and then I needed to build characters who could be deeply affected by challenges in this realm.
Portraying the women in detention in modern day America was especially challenging. I wanted to make sure to get everything as "right" as possible, and I needed to learn so much. I spoke with inmates in detention, and I also channeled my own prior experiences as an attorney who represented an asylum seeker back in my former life as a lawyer. Coupling all that with the crazy political landscape we're living in, and the amount of attention immigration has been receiving in the news, there was just so much at stake. I do think it paid off and has resulted in a book that does all the things I hoped for: It explores an important social justice issue while also telling a very human story about family, love, resilience, and bravery.
And you do that! I love asking authors this question. If you could relive one day in your publishing life, what would it be and why?
I've had so many great days in publishing. It's hard to choose! I think the day I'd pick is the day in 2018 when I posted on Facebook that my first book, Trouble the Water, was going to be published. I'd been very shy before that about telling people I was writing a book. I felt like so many people say they're working on the next great novel, and it never turns into anything. I didn't want to be one just one more person talking about a dream that would never come to fruition, so I really only told my family I’d been working on a book.
Even after I got my first publishing deal, there was such a long period of time projected between the date of signing the contract to when the book would actually be published, so I still didn't let the cat out of the bag. Then, six months before the book was coming out, I announced the impending release to a few thousand friends and family members on Facebook, and suddenly my whole journey as an author became real. It was the culmination of so many years of hard work, and I was just so excited for everything that lay ahead.
Have any of your teenaged children ever read any of your books?
My children have not read any of my books, if you can believe that BS! At first, they were too young, and then by the time they got older, they were so familiar with the plots that they just weren't interested in reading stories where they already knew the ending. There's a lot of talk at our family dinner table about my storylines, especially when I'm trying to work out stickier plot points. As for whether I want them to read the books, I'd love for them to get immersed in something I've written. Unfortunately, my three sons aren't very interested in fiction, and my daughter is only in middle school. Hopefully when she gets a little older, she'll check them out.
Has there been a moment when you nearly threw in the towel on being a writer?
There are so many tough moments in writing. When you're trying to get an agent, and people don't come banging down your door. When you finally do get an agent, but it takes longer to sell your book to a publisher than you'd expected. When your book finally gets published and not every last review is five stars. The list goes on and on. It is definitely a challenge to keep the faith at all times, but I think the guiding principle has to be your level of passion. If you love the writing, which I really, really do, you will keep coming back to it. There is so much joy in the process, in creating multi-layered characters who you adore, in watching them grow and change.
And of course, there's also the writing community, so many authors who support each other and offer encouragement. With their hands on your back and the characters you've created overcoming their own obstacles, it makes it hard to sit back and say you can't beat your challenges too. I keep writing because I can’t not!
Lastly, is there an author (or three) whose writing you aspire to be like? In other words, if a critic called you the next _________, what name would you want in that spot?
The list of author comparisons that would make me swoon is long. But I would say I'm especially excited by the idea of having my writing be compared to Jodi Picoult's. We both write about social justice issues, and I love the way her books get deep into the topics they're covering, elucidating multiple perspectives, while still maintaining a gripping plot that's engaging and accessible. That was my goal with Counting Backwards, and I hope that others will feel that’s the kind of book I created.
Great interview! Congrats to Jackie on her publication of Counting Backwards. Looking forward to reading.
Brava! Congratulations to Jackie!