Today we talk about My Time in the Asylum: Surviving America, a book by Brenna Bozarth published with our publishing house Europe Books.
Europe Books had the pleasure of interviewing the author Brenna Bozarth, to get to know her better, what prompted her to the writing of her personal story in her book My Time in the Asylum: Surviving America, as well as how she defines her Writing style.
Below you can find our interview. Take a seat and enjoy your reading!!!
- What prompted you in the writing of your book?
When I was in grad school, we started hosting election night parties. We still do. It used to be fun. Now, it’s terrifying. I moved to Canada in 2016. At the time, I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be in DC, where we were coming from, when the US finally elected its first female president. Instead, we watched with an apartment full of guests on November 8th as the US did the unthinkable and elected Donald Trump instead. It’s possible that because I represented real estate investment trusts and online gambling clients in New York before being stationed at the Pentagon, I had a clearer picture of what that would mean than most. As I watched what unfolded over the next two years, it was beyond unfathomable that Democrats yet again failed to evolve into an effective opposition. I suppose that is what prompted me to write the book. Frustration. I was frustrated and disappointed in my country and my fellow citizens, particularly because none of what was happening was actually that difficult to predict. That last point makes me incredibly sad.
- What is the message you want to convey to your readers?
I feel like this question is cheating a bit. Hopefully, readers are able to pull their own message from the text. Ideally, they won’t all end up with the same interpretation I offer here. I suppose I want to encourage readers to think critically and challenge norms to find nuanced solutions to the complex issues plaguing us in the 21st century and to stop refighting 20th century battles. I want to discourage people from doing things simply because that’s the way they’re done and from voting for change without understanding what that change is. Truly, I want to encourage everyone to try to find time to step back and think. People in power play off the fact that the working and middle classes don’t have the energy or time to truly check what they say or do. We must find a better way to hold people accountable than social media, the current opium of the masses, or storming capitol buildings. If we decide to live and rule solely by the will of the mob Donald Trump might barely be a blip in a long list of epically awful leaders we are forced to endure.
- How would you define your writing style?
I’m not sure I have a writing style. As you know, I worked in public relations and politics for many years. A large part of my job was ghost writing. I spent time with a client and adapted my writing style to fit their personality. Often, I created a tone or personality for a business or campaign from scratch. The only thing these all had in common was that they weren’t me. I went from writing academic papers to cultivating multiple personalities in written form. It was great fun but after awhile I had no idea how to write anything that sounded like me. That might explain why this book came out, initially, in painful drips of short stories before a larger vision emerged. I always had a rough concept of what I wanted to do but it wasn’t as flushed out as I would have liked. I used these initial stories to fill out the meat of what I wanted and built backwards, then forwards, eliminating a lot of what I had. It wasn’t a terribly efficient process but I think it was necessary for me to find a voice, at least this time around.
- How was your publishing experience?
My publishing experience was surreal. I kept waiting for someone to tell me the whole thing was some cruel joke. That my first instinct was right, no one would ever want to read something I wrote. I was only persuaded to send my manuscript to a few publishers because of a Covid induced fever. However, everyone at Europe Books was kind and professional. They answered my endless questions and guided me to the correct team member when my brain leapfrogged part of the process set in place. There were moments I wished we all lived and worked in closer timezones and others I was grateful for an extra several hours to re-read proposed changes. This was my first publishing experience, so I have nothing to compare it to. I am very grateful for everyone’s time and expertise. Without their work, I would simply have a long forgotten word document somewhere in the cloud.
- Are you working on a new writing project, you can tell us about?
I’m working on a few projects. Most of my time is taken up with a story about women and how their lives are impacted by reproductive choices. Clearly, the subject matter is quite different than it was in this book but so is the tone and its approach. My Time in the Asylum is told from a first person perspective. This new project is told through the eyes of several women over the span of several generations. At first glance, the theme may seem more gently conveyed but I rather doubt that’s how the reader will feel by the end of our journey. Motherhood or its absence as a choice, with debatable latitude, told through the eyes of women in North America from the early 20th to early 21st century. It’s both wildly different from My Time in the Asylum yet helps inform how the society pictured in Asylum’s world came to be. At least, that’s how I imagine the book will end up. I have a great deal of work yet to do.
Europe Books thanks the author, Brenna Bozarth, once again for taking the time and answering our questions. We are really pleased to have walked alongside her on the editorial path that led to the publication of her book My Time in the Asylum: Surviving America. We wish her the best of luck for her future works.
To you, my readers, may this book allow you to develop your critical thinking and reflect with your own brain instead of thinking with the one of those who would like us all to be homologated. We are responsible for ourselves and it is necessary that all of us take responsibility, believe in our ideas and fight for them!
So, my dear reader, all I have to say is to enjoy your reading!
Your editor!