It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book I couldn’t put down. In fact, your book, Time of my Life, made me wish my commuter flight from New York to Los Angeles would never end. It’s that good! With heavy issues like abandonment, divorce, escape and fate, what inspired you to write the book?
Well, I’d been contemplating doing a time-travel story, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. I mentioned it to my agent, and I think she was deeply perplexed by both the idea and me! But I didn’t know how to sort it out in my mind. But then one afternoon while the idea was brewing, my best friend called while she was on vacation where her ex-boyfriend lived, and she said, “I’m so weirded out…I can’t stop thinking about what my life might have been like.”
Then we had one of those intimate life conversations that you can only have with your closest friends, about her what-ifs and my what-ifs, and I assured her that this was all very normal, even though people didn’t really talk about how much they wonder about what could have been. We hung up, and I headed out for a run, and BAM…the idea, characters and plotlines just presented themselves very clearly. I came home, wrote what are now the first 14 pages, and sent them off to my agent, who flipped for them. I think, as so many of us get older and look back on our younger years with nostalgia, it’s very easy to consider what the other possibilities could have been –and I wanted to explore that.
As a flight attendant, I love my job because it allows me to jump on a plane and go wherever I want whenever I want, as long as there’s an open seat available. Just knowing I can travel like that brings a sense of calm to my life. My job also allows for a little “me time” since I’m gone for a few days at a time each month. Women today are so busy working full time jobs and then going home to clean the house, make dinner and take care of others, they have a tendency to forget about themselves. Which is why I believe escape is a popular theme for women and why so many women wonder about what could have been if they had made different choices in life. Have you as a wife, mother, and a New York Time’s best selling author, ever wondered – what if?
Definitely! As I said above, I think this is so, so, so common, but it’s a strange thing – we’re all sort of hesitant to talk about it, as if talking about our “what ifs” somehow mean that we’re truly unhappy with our current lives. But I don’t think that’s it at all – I think you can look back and reflect and use those memories, those what ifs, to propel you toward MORE happiness rather than less. Remember the choices you made and why, and if you ARE unhappy, remember your original list of goals and maybe tweak your current course to get back to where you wanted to be. But…yes, I’m totally guilty of what-ifing. 🙂
Continue reading GALLEY GOSSIP: INTERVIEW WITH NEW YORK TIME’S BEST SELLING AUTHOR ALLISON WINN SCOTCH and find out what she likes to do in New York, her favorite hotel in the Grand Caymans, and why she’s afraid to fly….
Heather Poole 