LiveWorld Transcripts

Time Warner Bookmark presents

Author Louise Redd
Discusses her latest book

August 05, 1999

Author Louise Redd chats about her second book, “Hangover Soup,” the story of a woman who leaves her alcoholic husband, and her first novel “Playing the Bones.”

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BookMark: Welcome to Time Warner Bookmark! Little, Brown and Company and The Talk City Network are proud to present our special guest for tonight, Louise Redd author of, "Hangover Soup." Louise is a graduate of Johns-Hopkins University and the University of Houston, and also the author of one other novel, "Playing the Bones." Welcome, Louise. We're glad you're here!

Louise Redd: Thanks

Nance: So, is there really a recipe for a 'hangover soup' or was that just an interesting title you came up with?

Louise Redd: (laughing) The recipe is just in my mind. I'm not a big drinker myself so I don't have a lot of experience with hangover remedies. I do, though, believe that garlic can cure anything. (smile)

Mellificent: How did you find out what you know about alcoholics?

Louise Redd: I was married to one in my early 20s. I wish I could say I had to do lots of research, but I learned about it first hand.

Morgana: Is there a favorite part for you in the book?

Louise Redd: Well, by the time I finish working on a book I'm so sick of working on it, that it's hard to have a favorite part or even know what's good or bad about it. I do like the parts of the book that remind me of Austin. I wrote it there and I miss it. I like the parts about baseball, because I'm a big baseball fan. I like to read about it even when it's things I wrote. (smile)

Rogherio: So, since you think garlic can cure anything, do you think garlic wine (there is actually one) would cure a hangover?

Louise Redd: Ooooh, I've never heard of garlic wine! Interesting question, maybe one of my readers will let me know if that works or not. Can't try it now myself, I'm nursing a newborn baby and have had to give up all my vices.

SHEDAISY311: how long did it take you to write the book?

Louise Redd: It took about 2 years and a lot of drafts. I wrote a couple of very distinct drafts that I would almost call different novels. In one of those drafts, the book was about a woman who was trying to grow the world's largest tomato. I was writing that in the summer of '97 when I had an amazing garden in Austin and I was completely obsessed with my tomatoes. I started corresponding with a man in Oklahoma who held the record for the world world's largest tomato, and he helped me with my plot. I ended up having to make that story line a much smaller plot in the book. The publisher wasn't as enchanted with it as I was. My editor told me I needed to zero in on the part of the book which was about the woman and her alcoholic husband. I end up writing so many drafts I'm not sure how many there truly were.

RudeBoy182: What inspired you to write this book?

Louise Redd: I originally wanted to write a mother-daughter story. That's an interesting relationship to me. My mother is one of my most favorite people in the world. The book didn't end up being a mother-daughter book, but that was the inspiration. Often the starting point of a novel is just that, a jumping off place, and the book doesn't usually end up where it started. That's one of my favorite things about writing fiction, the process. When I first wanted to be a writer, I thought getting published would be just so wonderful, but it's ended up that the process of writing itself has become the pleasure.

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