The Story Behind the Story: A Good Family
People often ask me: what was the inspiration behind your debut novel, A Good Family?
Several years ago, I wrote my first book – a young adult novel – and was unable to find an agent to represent me. Frustrated, I said to myself: “I’ll show them! I’m going to write a page-turner that no one will be able to resist and that will go on to become a best seller, and then all those agents will rue the day they declined to take me on as a client.”
Ha! Easier said than done, right? Bleak reality quickly set in. I asked myself: how do I write that page-turner?
I decided to sign up for a weekly in-person writing workshop so I could get both inspiration to write as well as feedback on my writing. It was in the cozy living room of workshop facilitator Christopher DeLorenzo that A Good Family was formed.
One week, the writing prompt was “One too many chocolate martinis.” From that, I wrote the first draft of the first chapter of A Good Family. My fellow workshop participants encouraged me to keep going.
Another week, we scribbled down as many words of profanity as we could in one minute and read them aloud in a circle, eliciting lots of laughter. From that, I wrote Sam’s firepit speech in chapter 3. Everyone in the workshop loved it.
After several weeks together, I felt safe enough to write something that felt scary: a piece inspired by my personal experience taking my young nieces to visit their mother in federal prison. When I finished reading my scribbles, the room was quiet before someone finally said, “That’s a great story.”
By the end of that 8-week writing workshop, I had a handful of pieces that felt like they had promise. I set aside a full day – six whole hours! – to sit in a café with those pieces, an empty composition book and brand-new gel pen, and a copy of Structuring Your Novel Workbook by K.M. Weiland that my husband had given me the previous Christmas. I ordered a large pot of tea from the waitress and started outlining the manuscript that would one day become A Good Family.
So, the short answer is, while some aspects of A Good Family are drawn from my own personal experience, I get most of my inspiration (and encouragement) from my writing community.
Another question I often get is: how long did it take you to write A Good Family?
It took me about one year to write; 18 months to revise; 18 more months to publish.
With my first book – the YA novel that never got published – I was able to write every night after my two sons had gone to sleep. I’d write from 9pm to midnight. Looking back, I can’t believe I had that much energy.
With my second book – which would become my first published novel, A Good Family – I did not have the energy to write at night. My writing time was limited to weekends, and I didn’t have many free weekends. I tried to squeeze in as much writing as I could, whenever I could.
After a year of writing my manuscript, I turned to the ego-destroying phase of publication: querying agents. I spent countless hours researching different agents who I thought would be a perfect fit for me and my book. I imagine it’s a little bit like online dating. You read a profile of someone that you convince yourself is the perfect soulmate for you, reach out to that person in the most heartfelt way possible, only to be met by long days and weeks of utter silence.
When do you admit to yourself that Mr./Ms. Soulmate has “swiped left” on you?
I had some moments of heart-stopping excitement. The agent for Gone Girl requested a full. (In layman’s terms, that means she was intrigued enough by my query email and first five pages to want to read the full manuscript. She later declined.) Other agents told me they loved the book but weren’t in a position to take me on as a client.
I was feeling discouraged – discouraged enough to quit writing – but then I had a really bad day at work. A day that made me feel like I wanted to quit my day job. But I couldn’t quit my day job AND quit writing at the same time.
There was an agent who responded so courteously to my YA novel that I wanted to re-query him with my manuscript for A Good Family. The only problem was that this agent required not only a query letter and first five pages (par for the course) but also a synopsis.
I did not want to write a synopsis.
But after that really bad day at work, I decided that I’d rather write a synopsis than give up on writing altogether. Soon after submitting my query, first five, and synopsis, the agent asked for a full. And then he offered me representation.
My agent worked with me for over a year to refine and revise the manuscript into something that he could pass along to publishers. Within two weeks of submission, we got offers from two publishers.
Moral of the story: Find a community of writers. Have faith in yourself. And, when all else fails, write that darn synopsis.
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A.H. Kim is an immigrant, graduate of Harvard College and Berkeley Law, lawyer, and mother of two sons. She lives in San Francisco with her husband. A Good Family is her first novel.
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A GOOD FAMILY
A good family is a compelling debut novel inspired by lawyer-turned-author A.H. Kim’s personal experience supporting her brother and his young children while his wife was serving a nearly eight-year prison term at Alderson Federal Prison Camp.
Beth Lindstrom is a beautiful pharmaceutical exec who has it all: a handsome husband, two adorable daughters, a designer wardrobe, and a luxurious weekend home on the Chesapeake Bay with enough bedrooms to accommodate her entire dysfunctional family. But after Beth pleads guilty to a white-collar crime and turns herself in at Alderson Federal Prison Camp, sister-in-law and law librarian Hannah Min slowly discovers that the seemingly perfect Beth also has a closetful of secrets, including the mystery of who might have conspired with her nanny to file the whistleblower lawsuit that tore Beth’s world apart.
Told in alternating points of view, A GOOD FAMILY is the story of the Min-Lindstroms, the all-American family, who begin to implode under the weight of their own secrets, lies, and desire for wealth and power. With equal parts domestic noir and privileged family satire observed with a gimlet eye and garnished with the zest of Orange is the New Black, A.H. Kim has crafted a masterful story of two immigrant families brought together by marriage and tragedy, while exploring a range of themes – from Wall Street corruption and inside-the-Beltway politics to Big Pharma and #MeToo.
“A story of money, family, who you can trust, and the extremes to which one will go for blood. I couldn’t put it down.” —Lisa Ling, host of CNN’s This Is Life
Category: On Writing
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