The Power of Never Giving Up
Time flies. We all know it. Whether you’re having fun or not. Whether the years are filled with sublime happiness or utter sadness, or, like most of us, with a combination of both. It simply goes, and sometimes, our dreams go with it. We turn around and ten or twenty years have whipped by and we are left to wonder what else we could have, should have, done.
As a big reader, I admired writers above all and I’d always wanted to write. But it seemed there was never the time or space, or the confidence, to begin. And, then everything changed, (divorce, business shuttered, remarriage), and I finally sat down and wrote nearly every day.
At first, it was a kind of journal, but after a year I decided it needed to have form, to tell a story, and I started a novel. I didn’t have any idea of what a difficult goal I’d set for myself, didn’t know enough not to do it. And, so I kept writing and I found the heart of the story that would later become my first novel, Time Is the Longest Distance.
A year into it, I got sick. The kind of sick that knocks you for a loop and threatens your life. But I was one of the lucky ones, (twenty-one years later, here I am), and more than anything, I wanted to finish my book. I kept writing for another year until I had what I thought of as a first draft. But the real turning point came when I happened into an extension class at UCLA with the best of all possible teachers. Someone who became a mentor, a guide. I threw out everything I’d written and started over, changing it from third person to first. Writing, as every writer knows, is rewriting.
Fortunately, I had simply fallen in love with the process. After multiple drafts and a few more years, I had a finished manuscript which I sent out and miraculously found an agent in New York. I thought my troubles were over. I was wrong. The agent did nothing, zip, zilch, and I was beyond discouraged. But I realized the wrong agent might as well be no agent, so I fired her and worked on a new book, although in the back of my mind, I kept returning to my Australian story.
So, now, hardly a debutante, I am making my debut with Time Is the Longest Distance to be published December 11, 2018 by a small press out of Australia. It’s been a while getting here, but I truly believe in the power of not giving up and I like to think it took just as long as it was supposed to. I write to be read and hopefully this story will find an audience. The time is now.
Why Australia? Why this story?
Always fascinated by Australia, I recalled hearing years ago about a man who had spent most of his life in the United States and returned home to Australia for his father’s funeral only to find that he had a whole other family living on the other side of the country. It started me thinking about families and secrets, a vast, solitary land, and all the spaces where we hide ourselves. The distance between us not always measured in miles.
I realized, too, that whenever I’ve traveled far away, especially outside of cities, it was usually the sky and the air that made the greatest impact on me. And, so I was drawn to the openness of the Australian outback and particularly to the old stock routes where cattle once ran. My story is set along the famous Canning Stock Route that runs from Halls Creek in the Kimberley of Western Australia to Wiluna in the mid-west.
My protagonist, Lilly, a 45-year-old New Yorker, is persuaded by her newly-found father, Cameron, rogue and legendary explorer, to take on the Canning, still considered the most difficult outback track in the country. Joined by her half-brother Grant, attractive scientist, and Jen, his twenty-something daughter, Time Is the Longest Distance is a moral story of immorality in a place where “night comes on like a door slamming shut.”
The hard days and long nights provide time and space for Lilly to recall the years with her ex-husband, Stephen, artist and all around drunk, perhaps the great love and surely the great disappointment in her life.
Like a moon walker far from her life, Lilly, entangled in an unlikely love affair and witness to an unsavory death, is forced to examine her own mistakes and imperfections as she learns first-hand about the power and destruction of secrets, sexual taboos, and the thrill of transgression. Out of her element, she must deal with her new family members, the extraordinary harshness of her surroundings, and an unorthodox passion that tests her idea of right and wrong. This is a story that presents a lesson in the choices we make, burdened by the imperfection from which we all suffer.
Like so many books, Time Is the Longest Distance went through many changes, as did I. What I learned beyond the extraordinary joy of writing, was to never stop, to always make time to do what you love most, and above all, power on!
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About TIME IS THE LONGEST DISTANCE
“In deft, clear prose that reminds of both Cheryl Strayed and Michael Ondaatje, Janet Clare’s debut explores—in riveting, unflinching detail—a woman’s search for connection and meaning. In Lilly’s journey, with unfamiliar family in unfamiliar territory, we have a protagonist wanting in the ways we are all wanting: to find that thing that will make us complete. There are depths in these characters and I loved every word.” — Christian Kiefer, author of The Animals
Set in the harsh desert of the Australian outback, Time Is the Longest Distance is a moral story of immorality in a place where “night comes on like a door slamming shut.”
Lilly, a 45-year-old New Yorker, is persuaded by her newly-found father, Cameron, to take on the Canning Stock Route, the most difficult outback track in the country. Crossing the dead heart of the Great Sandy and Gibson deserts, she is joined by her half-brother, Grant, and his twenty-something daughter, Jen.
Like a moon walker far from her life, Lilly becomes entangled in an unlikely love affair and witness to an unsavory death. The hard days and long nights provide time and space for Lilly to recall the years with her ex-husband, Stephen, artist and all-around drunk–the greatest love and disappointment in her life–forcing her to examine her own imperfections as she learns, first-hand, about the power and destruction of secrets, sexual taboos, and the thrill of transgression.
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing
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Congratulations! You are an inspiration.
Too kind, thank you so much and all best.
Spent eight years writing my first book with writing partner Susan Pape. But learned such a lot en route and second book took just eight months., plus a couple more on editing. Completely agree about the pure joy to be found in the whole process of writing and imagining and writing again.
Keep on it! Best to you!