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Hi Sarah,

Funny coincidence, I was telling a friend about the book at dinner Friday and then came home to find an email from Patrick! What a lovely surprise.

Hi Sarah,

The Postmistress is a beautifully written, multilayered novel. I loved it, as I did Grange House. I was particularly struck by two themes in Postmistress:When is denial necessary in order to be able to still be a loving and creative person. 2) Values which we swear are "true," that we try to live by, can be destructive in certain situations. I am confused though, why did Harry have to die? His death seemed excessive.
Lynne

Hi Lynn,
Thanks for your thoughtful response--the latter paradox in particular is something I wanted to animate in the book--what are the consequences of truth, and when do we find that some truths ought not be told..
You are not alone in your reaction to Harry's death (or that it seems excessive). When I was working on the novel, I was always heading toward the image of Iris cutting down the flagpole--an image of what I saw as her grief and her atonement--so I felt that that image was earned only by Harry's death. Perhaps now, two years after having handed the manuscript in, I might have seen a way to spare Harry, but at the time I didn't.

Cheryl wrote: "Hi Sarah,

Funny coincidence, I was telling a friend about the book at dinner Friday and then came home to find an email from Patrick! What a lovely surprise."

I love coincidences like that--it makes the world small and correspondent.

Hi Sarah, thanks for hosting this. I first read The Postmistress as a part of the First Look group at B&N.com, unfortunately they have disbanded that forum but hopefully will come up with something similar in the future.
I loved The Postmistress and I have to admit that Harry's death effected me deeply, but I also understood the timeliness of it and the response that Iris had made perfect sense to me. I now moderate the General Fiction Book Club at B&N.com and at the end of a featured read I often ask the members to fast forward and tell what they think the future holds for the characters in the novel. I ask that question because of the amount of emotion it took to read your novel and it's the first time I ever wondered that. I also host my own blog and The Postmistress was one of my top 20 of 2010 picks. It's one of those epic tales that just really stays with you long after the last page has been read and is a definite re-read too.

Deb

Thanks, Debbie--
I've been asked about what I thought was next for these characters--what happens to Iris, whether Emma and Otto get together, whether Frankie goes back to reporting, and I have to say it's so wonderful to hear how alive they've become in people's minds--alive, and to a certain extent, so far gone from me. When I'm asked whether I miss them, (now that I'm no longer writing them) I have to admit that I don't miss them, that I'm so glad they finally made it onto the page and are fully themselves now, up and running.

One of the great pleasures of working on a novel is following characters you don't know, writing to get to find out who they are--and that's where I am with my new novel. It's flying blind for a long period of time. By the end of the eight years it took to write The Postmistress, I just felt I knew the characters so well I was ready (nay, eager) to let them go!

Sarah

Hi Sarah.Im a young student. Actually im a 10th grader in highschool. I began reading your book.At the begining i had a hard time understanding but after a while i was able to understand the whole scenerio you created. I think its so crazy how you can make this book feel so realistic.there is so much small detail that i love. Im doing a book report and must give an oral presentation on this. Its suppose to be 7 minutes long but ive practiced several times and it feels impossible.I just wanna say everysmall part of the story to my class!I hope on becoming a talented writer like yourself. Something i enjoy doing alone in the quiet.

Oh yes, my question is how do you come up with the characters?Do you become influenced by people you know? Also ive always wondered when you are chosing a name for your characters how do you select the right name for people? for instance "Frankie"?

Hi Yajaira,
Thanks for writing! I'm so glad you've liked The PM--my characters often seem to spring up out of nowhere--Iris, for instance, arrived not so much as herself as a woman who slips a letter into her pocket rather than delivering it. Then, I had to ask myself, well who is this woman, where does she live, and most importantly WHY does she doe this thing? Answering the why often leads into the who. I don't know how I got the name Frankie, I just loved it--and I knew I wanted a character name that was a woman's name but whose nickname was masculine: Frances to Frankie, for instance.

Good luck on your oral presentation. Those are hard!

best,
Sarah