Author Confessions: Janet Skeslien Charles

On overcoming extreme writer's drought and making The List.

When I finished reading Janet Skeslien Charles’s The Paris Library a few years ago, I texted everyone I knew to pick it up. It’s one of those special stories that sticks with you long after you finish. Set in Paris as the Nazis invade, the main character, Odile, works alongside her library colleagues to save the books and the building from destruction. The novel was an instant New York Times bestseller, which may have been a little jarring for the author, since she’d struggled to sell another book for ten years after her debut in 2010.

When I heard that

Janet Skeslien Charles

had a third novel coming out this April, I had to know more. It turns out she hasn’t left the library. Her latest well-plotted, charmer Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade whisks us away to World War I to follow real life Jessie Carson, an American woman who took leave from the New York Public Library in 1918 to help rebuild libraries in war-torn France. The novel is historical fiction at its best. Think: lively cast of characters, vivid historical scenes and plenty of drama. Welcome, Janet! We’re so excited you’ve stopped by to talk about writing these wonderful books!

Where did you get the idea for Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade?

Thank you for your kind words! While I started to research the directress Dorothy Reeder for The Paris Library in the American Library Association Archives, I stumbled upon Jessie Carson, another American librarian who was in France during a world war and was immediately smitten!

I love that she came to France on her own. It was very brave of her. I also loved that she came here to create libraries in the ruins of war, and that the model she created was then used in Paris and later all over France. She changed so many lives, and outside of French library circles, no one knows her name. I hope to change that.

Have you ever had a moment where you doubted yourself as a writer? How did you overcome it? Please be specific. 

I sold my first novel in 2008 (Moonlight in Odessa) and did not sell another one until 2019. That decade of drought was very hard. My first editor rejected The Paris Library. My first agent didn't want to go out with it, so we parted ways. I wrote very targeted query letters to agents, but it took years to get another one.

I could not see how to improve the manuscript and needed time away from it. I kept my head down and kept writing, moving to Miss Morgan's Book Brigade when I couldn't take The Paris Library any farther. I gave TPL to a writer friend to read, and I researched Jessie Carson and the American Committee for Devastated France.

Looking back, I see I spent several years depressed. But I believed in the stories and kept going. Maybe it helps to have real-life characters counting on you. 

Things that kept me going during that decade were staying connected with my writing group -- I loved reading the other works in progress; and having three of the short pieces I wrote published. When you are working on an endless, unwieldly novel of over 100,000 words, it feels great to finish an essay or a short story. Readers remembering my first novel also sustained me. I will always be grateful to readers like Melissa Amster who did a Throwback Thursday post six years after Moonlight in Odessa was published. 

You spend half your time in Montana, the other half in Paris. How has place influenced your writing?

I spend about a month in Montana each year and love going back. Montana is much quieter than Paris, and I appreciate the silence and seeing family. I think I live the same way in both places. Lots of coffee and writing.

Place is the anchor of all of my books. Every story I have ever written starts with place. I feel that we are who we are based on where we are from and/ or where we live. In Paris, I was inspired by the library because it is a place where people from all walks of life intersect. I wanted to explore those relationships, first with Dorothy Reeder during the war and then in the 1990s in my new novella. 

During my years in France, I was fortunate to cross paths with women who lived through the Occupation. Interviewing them was a great help to my novel and a real pleasure. 

I am incredibly grateful for the technology that allows us to have access to archives. Most of the information for The Paris Library came from the American Library Association archives. To get the war bride sections of my novel right, I read interviews with actual war brides who had settled in Montana. I got the PDF transcripts from the Montana Historical Society. There is usually a way to get the information you need.

What is the best piece of writing advice you've ever received?

I love reading about the processes of other writers! My favorite advice came from a class with Vivian Gornick, who said, "Every work of literature has both a situation and a story. The situation is the context or circumstance, sometimes the plot; the story is the emotional experience that preoccupies the writer: the insight, the wisdom, the thing one has come to say."

In my first drafts, I worry too much about facts (the battle began here and ended there, Brumby was the name of the general, this is what he ate for breakfast) and not enough about the character's emotions. In successive drafts, I find the feelings and fears and hopes of my characters. Perhaps the facts are something I can hold fast to while creating the world and the beating, beating heart of the characters.

When it comes to your writing, what comes easiest? What do you struggle with most? Please give specific examples.

I'm not sure anything comes easy.  But I love the writing, even when it's hard. I love creating a universe to inhabit. 

I probably struggle with social media the most because it takes me hours to create one post and I'm not very good at making videos. But I try! It is such a pleasure to engage with readers on social media. I love seeing their creativity with photos and reviews. I personally find it very hard to encapsulate why I love a book, and Bookstagrammers do an amazing job of saying why they loved a novel. Thanks to them, I have added many books to my TBR.

The narration is done in two very different voices with specific historical vocabulary in the dual timelines. It’s excellent. How did you manage to pull this off?

That is so kind of you to say! Well, I am an 80s child, and I love the bodacious words and rad fashion of that time. It was fun to revisit. In Miss Morgan's Book Brigade, I read the letters of the real-life characters and tried to create speak patterns for each one. Several of the younger characters used slang -- "It's too killing! or "We work like nailers!" -- and it was fun to try to recreate how they spoke and thought.

How do you feel about social media and promoting your book?

Some author friends do ten reels a day to try to garner interest in their work, others have zero social media presence. I'm really glad to have a website and social media. I love hearing from readers.

I worked for a decade on The Paris Library, and I am very happy to have the chance to promote it. In 2019, my publicist at Atria introduced me to Instagram. I was late to the game but happy to try to catch up. Now I just started a newsletter and feel like I am the last author on the planet to do so.

As authors, we can only do what we can do. But I will always do my best to get the word out about my books. I worked hard on them and will do what I can, even when I am uncomfortable, to try to promote it. The reward is making connections with readers.

I couldn’t agree more! Thank you for coming, Janet! I appreciate your honesty and verve. Dear Fiction readers: Don’t forget to order her novel. It’s out today and I’ve read it and loved!