Editor’s Note: This exchange is part of a series of brief interviews with emerging writers of recent or forthcoming books. If you enjoyed it, please visit other interviews in the I’ve Got Questions feature.
- What’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?
The Changing of Keys (literary fiction, Sept. 17, 2024, Regal House Publishing)
- In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?
With his father dead, a young pianist is sent by his controlling mother to study music in the U.S. Away from her and his Caribbean home, he defies her plan, leaping into the world of opera, where his ambition fires both his brilliance and his dark distrust of women, threatening his career, marriage and the daughter he never wanted.
- What’s the book’s genre (for fiction and nonfiction) or primary style (for poetry)?
Literary fiction
- What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?
“Carolyn Jack delivers a powerful story of family and the trauma of familial dysfunction that can span generations. In beautifully rendered prose, she reminds us of the essential role of the arts and creative expression in making us fully human. This tale of love, loss and human frailty will stay with you long after the last page.” – John Grogan, international bestselling author of Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog and the memoir, The Longest Trip Home.
- What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between? [Is your book like Moby Dick or maybe it’s more like Frankenstein meets Peter Pan?]
Like Ann Padgett’s Bel Canto, my novel is about music as a force that can create and affect human relationships; like Andrea Buchanan’s Five-Part Invention: A Novel, my story involves an emotionally troubled pianist whose situation is unintentionally made worse by a wrongheaded family member.
- Why this book? Why now?
The Changing of Keys, which took me 15 years to write (in my off-moments, while being a full-time journalist and co-raising two children), started with my lifelong questions about why my father couldn’t seem to get over his childhood trauma and stop being his own worst enemy when it came to dealing with other people. Though the story I wrote is completely fictional, it is my attempt to find answers to those questions.
- Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?
I’ve had a couple: theater critic for The Palm Beach Post, which brought me into contact with some of the most amazing theater artists on the planet; arts reporter for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, which allowed me to help inform a large community about the value of arts and culture and the societal, political and educational issues they generate. But maybe the very best was, oddly, an unpaid one: singing for 10 years with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. That was magic. Sometimes dark magic, but magic, nonetheless.
- What do you want readers to take away from the book?
An understanding ofhow important it is to show kindness and unconditional love to children and help them learn how to give it in return. For a child to be raised withoutthat love and emotional security is a disaster, not only for the child, but for the people and nations who will be affected by them over time.
- What food and/or music do you associate with the book?
My book is full of music. It’s mostly classical, ranging from Beethoven to Bizet and Duruflé, but some rock music sneaks in with mentions of Jimmy Page and Hendrix and others. Food? A wild array, from tropical seafood to Southern fried chicken to Welsh rarebit, depending on where my widely traveled character is at any moment.
- What book(s) are you reading currently?
I’ve been working on a history book I’ve long wanted to read: John Julius Norwich’s The Normans in Sicily. But I’m also simultaneously dipping into Thomas McGuane’s collection, Gallatin Canyon, and starting Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song. I kind of like to read several things at once.
Learn more about Carolyn on her website.
Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
Buy the book from the publisher (Regal House Publishing), Amazon.com, or Bookshop.org
