True Colors

How would you describe True Colors? Is it a family drama first and a love story second? A legal thriller? All of the above?

“At its very heart, this is a story about the way in which families. . . can break a part and come back together.”

That’s a really great question. There were times, in the writing of this novel, when I asked myself that question. Sometimes it felt as if it were all about the love story, but then I’d turn a corner and it would be a searing family drama, and then suddenly I’d be writing a courtroom drama/legal thriller. It would be easy to say that this novel is all of the above, but at its very heart, this is a story about the way in which families—especially sisters—can break apart and come back together. In the end, what mattered to me was the family and how it changed in the face of tragedy.

What is your favorite moment in the book?

Hmmm . . . favorite moment in the book. That’s a tough one. Certainly one of my favorite scenes in the book is when Winona makes Noah use duct tape for a belt. Maybe that’s because I remember those years with my son. We were constantly fighting the “pull your pants up and wear a belt” duel. So that scene on the dock never fails to make me smile. My other favorite scene in the book is when Dallas gets out of prison and he rides Renegade in the moonlight. Something about that image—the broken-down old horse who has been waiting ten years for his rider to return, and the broken-hearted man who has dreamed of being free again—always touches my heart. And then to have Vivi standing there, seeing her husband again after so many lost and lonely years. I really loved that. I guess I’m a romantic at heart.

Which sister is most like you?

I am all of these women, to a greater or lesser extent. Like Winona, I am seriously analytical and tend to see the world in black and white. I am sometimes judgmental and often intense. Like Vivi, I am profoundly optimistic, deeply romantic, and fiercely connected to my family. Like Aurora, I am constantly trying to bring peace into any setting. I think that’s the lawyer in me—or maybe the Libra. I like harmony.

One of the things that I love best about this book is that each sister’s strengths and weaknesses are relevant to the outcome of the story. Winona was definitely hard-edged and judgmental and obsessive. These “dark” traits led her to betray her sister. But it was exactly these character traits that set her on the trail of justice. Without that same pigheaded desire to be right, she never would have accomplished Dallas’s release from prison.

In the Grey family, Vivi is considered “the beautiful one,” Aurora “the peacemaker,” and Winona “the smart one.” How do perceived roles contribute to the hostilities that lie beneath the surface of the family? Is this dynamic at work in most families?

Actually, that’s one of the things that most fascinates me about families. They’re like high school—reputations are made early and they have a tendency to stick. Clearly Winona was much more romantic and easily wounded than anyone thought, and Vivi Ann was more rebellious than anyone gave her credit for, and Aurora hid a world of hurt behind every smile. Perhaps if these girls—women—had taken the time to reassess their girlhood perceptions of one another, they might have had less trouble when hard times hit. But as it was, old jealousies came out at some very bad times.

One of the aspects of the novel that I think is most true concerns the father-daughter relationships. I find it amazing that children who grow up under the same roof, in the same family, can have such opposing views of their parents. Often times, our view of our parents is really about how we see ourselves, how we imagine our family to be. Vivi Ann decided to love her father; therefore, she imagined a depth of emotion in him that couldn’t actually be seen. Winona pined for her father’s attention; therefore every slight was personal, given to her alone. She didn’t notice that he treated each of his daughters with the same disdain. Of the three daughters, Aurora demanded the least of her father and saw him the most clearly.

“Often times, our view of our parents is really about how we see ourselves, how we imagine our family to be.”

Can you tell us about the Innocence Project?

With pleasure. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. The organization is dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through the use of DNA testing. There are now Innocence Projects all across the country, including one at the University of Washington. All of the attorneys and law students at the Innocence Project are dedicated to freeing the staggering number of innocent inmates in our prisons. Additionally, they are committed to reforming the criminal justice system. It is an absolute tragedy that so many convictions are based on eyewitness misidentification, poor forensic science, bias, or false confessions. As of this writing, 242 prisoners have been proven innocent and freed—including 17 who served time on death row.

Can you tell us about your next book?

I don’t think it will come as a surprise to anyone to discover that Winter Garden is another novel that explores female relationships (Turn to page 507 for an exclusive sneak peek!). It’s about two estranged sisters who discover unexpectedly that their mother had a stunning secret life. It asks a fundamental question: How can a woman know herself if she doesn’t know her mother?

Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time—and all the way to the end. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina listen to a singular, harrowing story that shakes the very foundation of their family and changes who they believe they are.

For the first time in my career, I have written two parallel stories that make up a single novel. Much of Winter Garden takes place in a beautiful, faraway city during World War II and focuses on the shocking things people—especially women—sometimes have to do to survive. It is also a contemporary look at how one’s past must be reassessed in the light of new revelations, and how sisters sometimes have to fight to stay close. It’s about loss and love and tragedy and hope. Ultimately, I think it is a story for any woman who has ever wondered what she would do to hold her family together.

“Lead Changes”

An Original Essay by the Author

In many ways, True Colors is a valentine to the women and girls who love horses. When I was a young girl, I lived to ride. My first pony, Silver Birch, and I were inseparable. Weekends, after school, and all summer, I spent long hours on horseback, riding through the trails near my house. And then there were the horse shows. At first it was 4-H, and later, the breed shows. Like so many other thirteen-year-old girls, I worked all summer to buy a new bridle or a blue Stetson hat or a piece of sterling silver to decorate my saddle.

“I know now how quickly we can change direction and find ourselves in unexpected places.”

Many of my favorite childhood memories are tangled up with horses. My mom and I spent countless weekends together, driving from one arena to another. She was always there, standing at the rail, wishing me luck. She clapped when the ribbons were handed out (of course, I was mortified then by her exuberance), and at the end of each class, she walked back to the barn with me. I handed her too many things—lead ropes, bridles, saddle pads, empty Coke cans—but she never said a word, just quietly stood there beside me and helped. . . .

I lost my mom too early in life, so early that I didn’t understand for many years how truly special those years we spent together in dusty barns were, how much her encouragement would ultimately mean to me. She would say quietly that I was improving, that I was doing well, and then she’d give me a tip on how to change leads better or how to soften my touch on the reins.

Now I look back on those days and I smile. I’m a mother myself, so I know how willingly she went along with what I wanted to do. And a phrase from those years comes back to me often: Lead changes. I know now how quickly we can change direction and find ourselves in unexpected places, and I know how life can circle back on itself and lead you back to where you began. Decades later, when I signed my son up for riding lessons, I found myself standing at one of those arena rails, watching him move past me, and I could feel her beside me, whispering, “Yeah, this is what it was like; this is why I did it . . .”

For a while, like so many girls, I gave up on riding. I moved on, went to college, started my career, and there was no time—and no acreage—for horses. Then I married a cowboy—not his career, but his passion just the same—and suddenly I found myself back where I’d begun, in a world filled with barns and arenas and weekend rodeos.

True Colors is set in that world, and it’s a place I know well. The novel is about other things, too—a crime that shocks a small town, a terrible flaw in our legal system, sisters who have lost their way, a boy who doesn’t know how to become a man until he meets his father—but behind all of that, I hope you’ll enjoy your visit to a world you might not have seen before, a special corner of Washington State where girls still join 4-H and look forward to the County Fair and sleep in a dusty old stall every now and then.

Ideas for Book Groups

I have to admit that I came late to the whole Internet party. I was dragged kicking and screaming into the new millennium. With great reluctance (and more than a bit of whining), I updated my Web site and set about the task of blogging.

Who would have thought I’d enjoy it? You could have knocked me over with a feather.