Authors Interviewing Characters: Carolyn Jack

Character interview by Carolyn Jack

THE CHANGING OF KEYS

With his father dead, a gifted, fourteen-year-old pianist finds himself sent away from his Caribbean home against his will, to study classical music in the U.S. with a family friend he’ s never met. His first angry, frightened step away from the controlling mother he’ s never been able to reach becomes a sharp break with her expectations: he leaps into the dramatic and cutthroat world of opera.

In this high-stakes milieu, his fierce desire to be a star fires both his brilliance and the dark distrust of women and of love that is the legacy of his childhood, a legacy that threatens his career, his impulsive marriage, and the young daughter he never wanted.

—

Carolyn Jack: Hi! So, face to face at last.

The Character: I’m here only because you promised me toffees. 

CJ: You weren’t at all curious to meet me?  

TC: More vengeful, I’d say. You have an awful lot to answer for. 

CJ: Yes, I suppose all creators do. What do you want to accuse me o-, um, talk about? Oh, and what do you want me to call you? 

TC: I’m not to be called anything, thank you very much. 

CJ: But ….

TC: I have to assume that if you had meant to name me at all, you would have done it in the first place. And as you haven’t, it seems a bit disingenuous to come along after the fact and pretend that I now have some choice in the matter. I believe I’ve proved rather nicely that no name doesn’t mean not memorable.  

CJ: Oh, I think you make yourself memorable. But I meant, how should I address you? Would “Sir” do? 

TC: Hardly. You’d have everyone confusing me with that alcoholic actor geezer in “The Dresser.” Or the high-school teacher Sidney Poitier played. And I gather you wanted me to be unique, so stop trying to retroactively pretty me up with a veneer of conventional good manners and pitch me a more interesting question. If you can put one over the plate.

CJ: Still a softball fan, I gather. But what about piano? It was a fraught activity for you as a boy. Do you ever play at all now, and why or why not?

TC: I’m sure you know that I do. It’s something of a work requirement. Do you still play at writing? 

CJ: Careful. Your toffees are at stake. Ok, here’s another: As we both know, you’ve lived on three islands: in Britain, in the Caribbean, and on Manhattan. Since becoming a New Yorker, have you missed living in the tropics? 

TC: Oh, now who’s playing softball? Ask me something tough or go home. 

CJ: All right, then. Last try – what are the best and worst things about being my character? 

TC: The worst is easy – you forced me to suffer. A lot. You’re rather a sadist. And the best? I’m tempted to say it’s that you’ve finally stopped messing with me after all these years. But the truth is that you gave me music. I can never regret that. 

CJ: I can’t either. Enjoy your toffees.    

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Carolyn Jack has won the Meringoff Prize for Fiction and The Westchester Review’ s Flash Fiction Contest. Her literary work has appeared in such periodicals as Literary Matters, the Blue Mountain Review, and Pen + Brush in Print. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and an award-winning arts journalist, she holds both an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts and an MA in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Interviews, On Writing