“You’re gonna be a writer anyway.”
Those fateful words uttered by her mother shocked Kristin Hannah at the time. Hannah was in her third year of law school, studying entertainment and anti-trust law.
While her mother was battling breast cancer, she brought up the idea of the two of them writing a book together. As Hannah sat with her mother during the last couple months of her life, she began researching for the book. Her mom had wanted to write a historical romance. Hannah wanted to write horror. Bowing to her mother’s wishes, Hannah spent her spare time researching life in the 18th century.
Hannah, a California native, stopped writing the novel when her mother passed away. She stored all of the research and notes in a box and tucked it away in her closet.
Several years later, bedridden due to pregnancy, Hannah decided to give writing a shot. She pulled out the box of research she started with her mom and drafted a story. Her goal was to get it published by the time her son was in kindergarten. Then she would decide if she would become a career novelist, or just write as a hobby.
It wasn’t an easy start. Rejection after rejection came, but Hannah persisted. And it paid off. Her son was only 2½ when her first book, “A Handful of Heaven,” was published.
Nearly 20 years and 17 novels later, Hannah is the writer her mother predicted.
Yesterday, Hannah read from her newest book at Borders at Redmond Town Center. A line formed afterward of fans wanting to meet her and purchase her book and have her sign it.
Many of her novels portray women in the modern world, focusing on the relationships between women. Her two previous novels, “Firefly Lane” and “True Colors,” were about best friends and sisters, respectively. “Winter Garden,” her newest novel, is “a departure for me,” she says.
Hannah started to think about the kinds of secrets women keep.
“What if,” she said, “your mom has a secret life!”
Winter Garden is a story of a distant mother and her two daughters, attempting to connect and make a bond. The only way the mother can communicate with her daughters is by telling them Russian fairytales that she used to recite to them long ago, but this time, she’ll finish the tale, thus exposing a lifelong secret. Hannah switches from past to present, fairytale to reality, intertwining these two parallel stories into the novel.
Hannah read an excerpt of the fairytale at yesterday’s book reading and signing at the Borders in Redmond Town Center, leading the audience into a land of princes, dark knights and peasants.
Not all of her books have a fairytale form. But they do have some sort of important message for women.
“The older I get, the more I feel compelled to make a positive difference,” Hannah says.
She recently paired up with Trish May, CEO and founder of Athena Partners, to inform women, specifically in the Pacific Northwest, of inflammatory breast cancer. Women don’t know enough about it and they need to know more, she says.
Athena Partners is a non-profit corporation “passionately committed to eliminating women’s cancers by advancing research and education,” according to its Web site. One hundred percent of the funds from the water bottles and chocolates go directly to “finding a cure” for women’s cancers.
As a novelist, she can “reach women in a way that’s visceral and informative at the same time.” It’s complex and emotional, she says, but the things we say, do and read are important.
“Winter Garden” is currently No. 4 on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestsellers list. “True Colors” is No. 10 on the paperback bestsellers list, and “Firefly Lane” is at 25.
“I love being a writer,” Hannah said. “It allowed me to be the mom I want to be.”
Mother knows best.
Sarah Kane is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.
