On Writing Intersections by Karen F. Uhlmann

Years ago, I fainted, for no apparent reason, at a holiday party. One minute I was standing. and the next, I was on the floor. It was embarrassing and worrying. The next day, I was checked out by my internist, and there was nothing wrong with me. The fainting was a mystery, and there was something about it that I couldn’t let go of. This was how Charlotte came to me. What were circumstances in which a woman, who had not been drinking, would faint at a party?

In my novel, Intersections, Charlotte, fainted at a holiday party. It turned out she was pregnant, at nearly forty-five, and not by her husband. Her long marriage had been dead for years. She had also broken up with the lover who impregnated her, and she had no intention of telling him about the baby. 

A few years before my holiday party episode, a child had been killed in a hit-and-run in my neighborhood. A policeman, who was on the scene, became obsessed with her death and began videotaping at the intersection where she was hit. He was hoping to raise awareness and prevent more deaths. His image also stuck with me. Wanting to write a novel about friendship, I had Charlotte, who lived nearby, also witness the accident. In shock, she thought she saw her Prius flee the scene. Her daughter, Libby, a mentally ill addict, was the only one who could have been driving. Libby denied this, but there was a dent on the car. Charlotte did not have a chance to press her further, because Libby overdosed and nearly died the next night. 

Charlotte began bringing white roses to the memorial at the intersection, and here, she met the police officer, Ed. They became unlikely friends and confidants, although she did not tell Ed she witnessed the accident and had suspicions about her daughter.

So, there were two real incidents which became the seeds for the novel. But I didn’t know Charlotte (or Ed) until I began writing. Charlotte’s situation created a lot of questions. What would she do about her pregnancy? Would she get a divorce? If she decided to keep the baby, would she tell her ex-lover? Did she still love him? Would she eventually confront her daughter? She gave me a lot to think about. 

I wrote with no outline and no plan other than to write about unlikely friends. I don’t necessarily recommend this, but it left me open to many possibilities. I gave Charlotte a job as a style guru who successfully sold her good taste to wealthy clients in need of aesthetic direction. I constantly asked myself how Charlotte would react to situations and people, how she would dress, what she would make for dinner, what her house looked like. I love details, the more, the better.

Through writing, I discovered that Charlotte’s overwhelming fear was of losing her daughter to an overdose. Loss became important in this story. A family had lost their small child. Charlotte could potentially lose her daughter. Her new friend, Ed, had lost his best friend and work partner in a drug bust. 

Ed and Charlotte are externally different in every way. Ed was fifty-nine to Charlotte’s forty-five. He was blue collar, and she was upper-middle-class. But grief and loneliness created a bond, and they slowly discovered how much they had in common.

Although she was terrified of raising a child alone, as well as possibly bringing another troubled child into the world, Charlotte decided to have the baby. Motherhood was another theme that wove throughout my book. Charlotte believed she had failed Libby as a mother. She loved her daughter and had done everything possible for her, but nothing seemed to help. She was frustrated and scared. Pregnant, she had another opportunity to mother. Ed’s wife decided, against his wishes, to be a surrogate for their daughter who could not  carry a baby to term. Children were hope, a second chance. 

Writing Intersections, I tried to both be generous with my characters and answer some of my own questions and realized many had to do with safety. How do we keep our loved ones safe?  The answer, of course, is that we can’t. All we can do, like Charlotte, is try our best.

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INTERSECTIONS

For fans of Emma Straub and Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeny, a debut contemporary women’s fiction novel about obsession, forgiveness, and friendship between two unlikely people.

Style-guru Charlotte Oakes sells beautiful lifestyles, but her mentally ill daughter is an addict, her long marriage is dead, and she is pregnant with her ex-lover’s baby. Stunned after witnessing a hit-and-run in Chicago that leaves a child dead, Charlotte thinks she sees her Prius fleeing the scene. Her troubled daughter, Libby, is the only one who could have been driving.

His partner and best friend killed in a drug bust, police officer Ed Kelly learns that forensics has found that the fatal bullet came from Ed’s gun. Under internal investigation, Ed copes by filming cars at the site of the recent hit-and-run, hoping to catch the child’s killer. There, he notices Charlotte’s pilgrimages to the makeshift memorial, and over the weeks, the two become unlikely friends sharing intimate stories. But Charlotte won’t trust him with her most vulnerable secret of all: her suspicions about her daughter’s involvement in the accident.

When Ed finally learns the truth about, he struggles with his beliefs and duties. If he keeps quiet, he has breached his commitment to the law. But if he does the right thing as an officer, he may send Libby to jail—and lose Charlotte.

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Karen Uhlmann received her MFA in fiction from Bennington in 2010 and has published short stories and book reviews in Southern Indiana Review, Story, Whitefish Review, and The Common among others. She won the 2016 Rick Bass/Montana Fiction Award, and the 2012 Northern Colorado Writers Award judged by Antonya Nelson. She was recently shortlisted for the 2024 Lascaux Fiction prize and longlisted for a collection of short stories by Santa Fe Writers Project. She lives in Los Angeles but spent most of her life in Chicago. Learn more about her at her website.

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Category: On Writing