Steven B. Sandler
Author Interview - Steven B. Sandler
Author of The Education of Crazy Jane
In my new novel, set in the Sixties, a college student named Sam falls in love with Jane, who is an ardent anti-war protester. Sam wants to support her activism, but he also wants to keep her safe. The two of them struggle to survive as a couple as they deal with her arrest, her trial (inspired by the trial of the Chicago Seven), and the police violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
This is a story of romantic negotiations and political debates running side by side, all of it building to a confrontation on the streets. My fictional characters must grapple with the historical realities of the late Sixties: women’s liberation and shifting gender roles, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the anti-war protests on campus. It’s not hard to find parallels to current events today.
Author Interview - Steven B. Sandler
Author I draw inspiration from:
I was a big fan of William Faulkner in college, and I still find his work inspiring, even though I have trouble with some of his references to Black characters. His novel Absalom, Absalom! is a masterpiece of great story telling. The author tells us in the first 100 pages where the plot is heading. Then he backs up in time and builds to the climax. The reader is on pins and needles, even though we know what's about to take place.
Author Interview - Steven B. Sandler | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book:
Anyplace is a great place to read a book, right? But I like a quiet spot in the house, often our finished attic.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with:
Sydney Carton from Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. He is the self-loathing, hard-drinking barrister who turns out to be the hero of the day. I suppose I'm drawn to him because I'm a psychiatrist, and I get great satisfaction from helping people like Carton: the talented young people who are troubled by poor self-esteem, depression, drugs/alcohol, etc. A ride in an elevator wouldn't be enough time to fix his problems, but maybe I could talk him into a course of psychotherapy. I would happily waive the co-pay for a Dickens character.
Author Interview - Steven B. Sandler | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author:
I was 15 years old when I turned to my friend Jeff and told him I was going to be a writer one day. He offered some overwhelmingly supportive comment like, "Yeah, okay. Whatever." In college, I majored in English and took a wonderful course in creative writing, but my first effort at a novel was not so great. A second attempt was likewise disappointing, so I put the whole idea aside for many years. I wish I could have had Anne Lamott's wisdom from her book, Bird by Bird, in which she states that all first drafts are shitty. If only I had known.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook:
I grew up when the only choice was between hardcover and paperback. I have yet to read an eBook or listen to an audiobook. While I can appreciate the value of the newer technologies, I am drawn to libraries and bookstores. I don't even want to imagine a future without them.
The last book I read:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. It was my second time reading this book, and I enjoyed it again. I admire Kundera's ability to shift into the narrator's philosophizing about life without disrupting the story. I love his riff about Totalitarian kitsch, a great phrase referring to the sentimentality of government posters and movies that champion their utopian vision of communist Soviet dominance.
Author Interview - Steven B. Sandler | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer:
I always start with paper, often sitting by a pond at a nearby environmental preserve. And I carry with me pen and paper to jot down notes as they occur to me. Then I open the laptop and start setting up word files, one for each chapter. I am a "plotter" rather than a "pantser." Early in the writing of a novel, I spend a lot of time mapping out the plot. And I typically write the first couple chapters, and then the last chapter, even though that last chapter will go through many revisions when I come back to it later.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with:
I'm not sure about a book character, but I would have loved to meet the poet William Carlos Williams. He was a pediatrician --my profession before I switched to psychiatry. And he wrote his poems in between seeing patients in his office.
Author Interview - Steven B. Sandler | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a:
I've been a psychiatrist for many years, and I think my writing has benefited a great deal from my work in the office. I do more psychotherapy than medication management, so I am privileged to get a direct view of human nature and the struggles that people endure.
Favorite decade in fashion history:
I suppose I'd like a chance to live in an era when men wore hats. Maybe the nineteenth or early twentieth century. Over the course of the last century, men have lost their hats, their vests, their neckties, walking sticks, and pipes. What will replace these marks of character? Tattoos?
Place I’d most like to travel:
Amsterdam. I was there a few years ago for a conference, and I would love to go back and spend more time there. The canals, the museums, the people--it was a great place.
My signature drink:
I don't have any regular connection to alcohol, but an occasional Guiness is fine with dinner.
Favorite artist:
Paul McCartney's songwriting is exceptional in my opinion. Melodically, he does things that no one else does. He puts a note into a chord that seems like it shouldn't fit, but it does. Hey Jude, Eleanor Rigby, Yesterday, Blackbird. All worthy of a musicologist's study.
Number one on my bucket list:
I'd like to learn a foreign language, preferably either Spanish or French. The best way to do that, of course, is to spend some time in a foreign country and immerse yourself in the language day and night.
Find more from the author:
Facebook: Steven B. Sandler
Instagram: stevenbsandler
website: stevenbsandler.com
About Steven B. Sandler:
Author Interview - Steven B. Sandler
Steven B. Sandler is a psychiatrist and writer, author of the forthcoming novel, The Education of Crazy Jane. The theme behind his fiction is the theme of his psychotherapy sessions: seeking a better appreciation of who we are and why we behave as we do. His characters are often struggling to navigate the challenges of a close human relationship. A young therapist tries to forge a bond with Freud and win his approval; a man tries to find his missing mother who abandoned her family years ago; a young couple on campus try to create a lasting relationship amidst the social and political turmoil of the sixties.
Dr. Sandler teaches psychotherapy at Albany Medical Center, where he has repeatedly earned the Distinguished Teacher Award. He has lectured on psychotherapy in the U.S, Canada, and Europe. He began his writing career with Remembering with Emotion, written for professional therapists. In the interest of explaining psychotherapy to the general reading public, he next wrote Tea with Freud: an Imaginary Conversation about How Psychotherapy Really Works. His third book was the novel, The Age of Worry. His new novel is The Education of Crazy Jane.
Having raised three children, he and his wife live in Upstate New York where he maintains a private practice in psychiatry.
