Acclaimed author Sara Gruen has enjoyed immense success as her third novel, Water for Elephants, rocketed to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list and has sold over a million copies so far. Now she discusses her latest project, called Ape House, animals, Water for Elephants, and her writing routine.

Sara kindly agreed to speak with me over the phone from her home in North Carolina, though she is busy finishing up her much-anticipated fourth novel, Ape House, about Bonobo apes, which are endangered. She answers my questions in a chatty, unassuming manner that reveals a sparkling and creative personality. It is little wonder that she creates such compelling and memorable characters, such as we have seen in Water for Elephants and her earlier novels, Riding Lessons and Flying Changes.

Your current project is Ape House. Can you tell me about your inspiration to write this novel?

It was another one of those slap-in-the-face moments. My mother sent me a link to the Great Ape Trust website. I had never heard of Bonobos before…they are language competent! I had been following the story of Koko the gorilla [who learned sign language] for awhile. I think that finding out a type of ape I didn’t even know exists was so exciting that I just made up mind on the spot.

That sounds fascinating. I didn’t know there were language competent apes either. I think everyone will be very excited to read this novel. When will it be on shelves?

June 2. (Laughs) I really have to finish the ending, huh?

No pressure or anything! How long have you been writing it?

In earnest, probably about 6 months. I’ve had a lot of interruptions this year. I hurt my ankle pretty badly and we also moved from Illinois to North Carolina. I think it’s been more than 6 months since I met the apes, though.

Even with the delays, that is pretty fast.
I tend to think long and type fast.

Did it involve much research?

Yeah. I obviously wanted to include language competent apes—I wanted to know as much about it as I could. I had to read some linguistics books, and I spent three days with some linguists at York University and read lots of books by scientists as well. I got to spend time with three apes…it was life changing. Having a two way conversation with an ape is nothing short of that.

It must have been so exciting! How long did you get to spend with the apes?

4 or 4 ½ hours. I wanted to stay longer, but the caretakers wanted to get home for supper!

When I flew back to Illinois (We were still living there at this point), one of the apes asked one of the caretakers where Sara was, and asked him to build her nest. I wonder if they ever did build it for her?

I guess if they did she might have been sad when you didn’t come back.
That’s true. I send them a fruit of the month collection so that they will remember me!
What was the greatest challenge with Ape House?

Honestly, talking about the other one, Water for Elephants. I get so immersed in my fictional world. I feel like I have two realties, the fictional one and the real one where I am writing a new world.  If I go on a trip and give a speech about Water for Elephants, it takes while for me to get back into that mindset.

That does sound like a difficult transition, when you are so immersed in one particular story at the time.
And you have to actually not be in pajamas and talk to people!

How does it feel that Water for Elephants has won several awards, including 2007 Book Sense Book of the Year Award, and the ALA Alex Award?

I am really blown away by that. What a great feeling!
It really has been successful. My sister went to a trip this summer, and bought it in Greece. It was funny when she brought it back and said I had to read it but I already had my own copy. It just seemed funny to me that she bought it in Greece though—we were across the world from each other and reading the same book.
That’s great! Was it in English?
Yes.

I’ve been getting a few copies of all of the different languages it has been translated into, and it’s getting difficult to recognize them all! I don’t know if I’ve got Greek yet.

How did you become inspired to write Water for Elephants?

Like I said for the Bonobos, it was a slap-in-the-face kind of moment. That seems to be how my inspiration goes. I was going to write another book. I had just got back from a research trip to Hawaii…I was getting ready to write it when I saw this massive photograph of the circus. The piece was about the photographer of the circus who followed them in the ‘20s, and because of the large sized negatives he used, the detail in the final prints were amazing. You could take a picture of 1,500 members of Ringling and make out every face! In other pictures, you could see tattoos clearly, or all of the rhinestones in the Fat Lady’s hair. I thought, I thought, “Wow, that’s a setting where anything can happen,” which is appealing for a novelist.

Will you ever go back to your earlier book?

It’s the book I keep picking up and then abandoning. I hope I haven’t hurt its feelings. I’m not sure if it died on the vine or kept ripening. It just seems to me that I keep getting these ideas at the wrong time. Or maybe it’s the right time.

How long did Water for Elephants take to write?

I’m not sure all together. I had several interruptions. I spent four and a half months on research first before anything else. As soon as I felt I could immerse myself in the world and be there and act, my horse foundered, and then when she recovered she stepped on my foot and crushed it. It was a bad foot year! We were out collectively for 18 weeks. Then I started writing and I crashed out the first half of the book pretty quickly. Then contract from my tech writing days called me with a month long project and asked me if I wanted to do it…it turned into ten or twelve hour days for 4 months! It was all very technical stuff, and I ended up rewriting the manual for a computer program…it was as far as could be from my circus world, and I had a hard time getting back into it. That’s when I started painting the house and online shopping—I painted the family room five times! My low point came when I started sorting rubber bands by size. I decided it was time to get serious about the book, as it was 50/50 at that point. Also, I had spent so much money on the circus books; because they were all antiques, it had cost a fortune. I had my husband move my desk into my walk-in closet. I didn’t have wireless internet at the time, luckily. I covered window, and I wore noise reduction earplugs. I decided that if I stared at the screen long enough something would happen. I came out of the closet after 3 months with a book!

I’m so glad you did finish it! It sounds like you must be pretty busy with your horses. How many pets do you have?
Two dogs, three cats, two goats, two horses, and a fish.

Have you always had pets?

No. My mother feels the same way about animals as I do, but my father does not. So I had a dog and a cat growing up. That’s not a lot, just the basic pet distribution! As soon as I was on my own I got more. I can’t walk past a cat shelter and not find someone who will fit in! The fish is my writing buddy. He’s a Siamese fighting fish, and he swims up to the glass sometimes to look out while I’m writing. It’s about as interactive as you can get with a fish.

When did you begin horseback riding?

Seven… it might have been a little later. It was all part of a bargain that I made with the devil. I played violin, and apparently was talented, but really didn’t want to do it. I was absolutely horse crazy from the moment I started out in the world and my parents said I could have riding lessons as long as I continued violin lessons.

Do you still play violin?
I take it out every once in awhile and am appalled by how bad it sounds.

I guess it is one of those things that needs constant practise.
Yeah. I did half a degree in performance before switching to English. I had a terrible bout of stage fright. I ran off the stage and the morning later switched to English.

That was a lucky switch for all your readers! I read that you support a number of animal-related charities. Can you tell me a bit about these organizations?
Sure, one of my current favourites is the Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary in the Congo. The Congo is the only place that Bonobos exist in the wild. It’s their only habitat and because of the civil war and being hunted for meat, they are declining. In a blink, they’re going to be gone. It usually happens that the hunters eat the mother and try to sell the baby in the pet market. The babies are very tiny and delicate and get smuggled through airports, but what are you going to do with a Great Ape in your house? They don’t stay that small! I think Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary is the only sanctuary in the world. They take the orphaned babies and assign them a mama— there are four of them there—and rehabilitate them and eventually get them back into their natural habitat. I’ve adopted 30 of them this year. All of them are at different stages; some are right about the hit the forest again, and others are still taking bottles of milk and clinging to their adopted mama’s back.

I also donate to support the Great Ape Trust, obviously, and the Gorilla Foundation, and the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. There are a few sort of garden variety foundations too, like the SARA [Southern Animal Rescue Association] Sanctuary in Texas, which has all kinds of animals. They are on 400 acres and they have room to run, so they are not in cages. That’s where I got my two dogs.

You live in an environmentalist community, right?
I used to, before we moved from Illinois.

I had never really heard of that before. It sounds interesting.
Well, it pretended to be. The longer I lived there, the more I thought that really, it wasn’t. You can say something, but unless you’re not actually doing it, it’s not the same. Let’s just say there were a lot of Hum Vs in there. We decided once we were no longer tied to Chicago industry, the world was our oyster and we could live wherever we wanted. I wanted mountains, so we moved [to North Carolina].

Did you grow up in the city or the country?

City, I guess, but a small city. It wasn’t really small, but had a small city feel. It was London, Ontario. I was born in Vancouver. It’s not like a Chicago or a Toronto kind of city. For university I went to Ottawa and again, it has the feel of a small city; very clean, very safe. My first real experience with a proper big city was Chicago.

Has writing always been a passion for you?

Yeah. It’s always what I wanted to do. My parents thought I should be a musician; I wanted to be a writer. That’s why that switcheroo was not as major as it sounds! I had taken all my electives in English, so the switch didn’t hold me back at all.

So you had always wanted to just be able to stay at home and write books?
Yes. I work in my pajamas, who could ask for more?

Not me—it sounds great! What is your routine when writing?

I prefer to get started as soon as I wake up because I think my brain has been working on stuff while I was sleep, and the longer I wait, the less productive I get. I have a cup of tea, and start writing soon after. I have an office now, so usually I work in there. I’m not working at my desk now though. I’m on the couch…sometimes it’s nice to switch rooms and get some new inspiration, a different viewpoint. I change the walls now and then.

Any idea what your next project will be?

Not a clue. I’m waiting for the face slap! I’m waiting for it come and find me.

What are you currently reading?

I don’t read when I’m writing. I’m afraid of voice creep. I read like a fiend in between though. It’s one of the great things about finishing a book; I read everything I can get my hands on.

What are some of your favourite books?
That’s a hard question, there are so many! Life of Pi is one of favourites. I did go though a Jude the Obscure type phase for awhile. I also like Margaret Atwood.

I encourage anyone who is interested in some of the causes that Sara Gruen supports to check out her website, at www.saragruen.com This site has links to all of the different foundations she sponsors. It is also a very interesting, easy to navigate, and aesthetically pleasing webpage, with updates on Ape House, and information on Sara’s other books, as well

Written by :

Meghan

 

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