It’s almost here! The Hillsborough Local Author Book Fair at the Orange County Public Library is this Saturday, November 24! Details including reading schedules can be found here! We’ve been spotlighting our authors, and today we turn our attention to Barbara Claypole White!
Why do you often create fictional characters with OCD?
My first hero, James Nealy—sexy, brilliant, and quirky—is the reason I create characters who battle invisible disabilities. James has obsessive-compulsive disorder, and years after I waved him off into the world, I wanted to return to OCD. This much misunderstood, chronic illness frames my life as a wife and as a mother. I know the toll it takes on relationships, and for years I wanted to find a character who had lost a huge part of his or her life to OCD and survived.
That character is Katie Mack, a metal artist living in Durham, and the heroine of my 2018 novel, THE PROMISE BETWEEN US. When the story begins, Katie’s keeping a dark secret. Ten years earlier, she was Katelyn MacDonald: a teacher, a wife, and mother to seven-month old Maisie. In order to protect Maisie and keep her safe, Katie made the unimaginable decision to abandon her family. To run away and never return. Her mind was unraveling through undiagnosed postpartum OCD, and she believed she was a monster. Like many people living with OCD, Katie’s struggles were easily hidden from others, but manifested as intrusive, obsessive, disturbing images of harming her baby. She was trapped in a private horror movie that played relentlessly in her head—with her starring as “Norman Bates in unwashed yoga pants.”
Many new parents and grandparents suffer with postpartum OCD in silence, too ashamed to seek help. I wish we could obliterate that shame; I wish we could celebrate the strength and courage it takes to live with mental illness and the scars it leaves behind. In Japan cracked objects are mended with gold—to enhance the notion that damage brings history and beauty.
In THE PROMISE BETWEEN US, Katie finds her own gold—in redemption, honesty, and love.
If we were to tweet one sentence from one of your books, which sentence would you choose?
I would probably choose this sentence from ECHOES OF FAMILY: “There is no reprieve when you have a broken mind; cease-fires are rare.” Those words came straight from the heart. I might also cheat and include the sentences that follow: “Even on good days, you know everything could change on a dime. Fear is your constant shadow.”
What was the hardest part of the writing process for you to master?
My journey with craft continues up a vertical slope. However, I have always found pacing to be my greatest challenge. I love to describe the natural setting, especially flowers, light in a forest, bird song, etc., but descriptions can kill the tension and bore the reader. I’ve had to train myself to use my descriptive instincts to deepen character and conflict rather than paint pretty visuals. I ask my characters constantly: What is your relationship to this setting? Why does it make you uncomfortable? What are you fearful of here? I can’t eliminate my love of description, but these days, it has to work hard to stay.
Read more about Barbara at www.barbaraclaypolewhite.com
