by Rebecca Camarena
In an interview with Stuart M. Harris, he mentions writing for the theater professionally in 1991 when invited by the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York to attend a summer conference.
The experience led the native Californian to move to New York to become a playwright.
Several of his plays have been produced Off Broadway and around the country, among them:
Oona Field produced by Diverse City Theater Company and Colleen Ireland, about a 90-year-old retirement home resident and her great granddaughter, that played in New York, Spokane and other cities, including Hamilton, OH, where it won ‘Best Play’ at The Fitton Center One-Act Playwriting Contest.
The Northeast Quarter began as a full-length play developed by the Works in Progress Theatre Lab at Manhattan Theatre Club Studios.
Harris put playwriting on hold in order to weave the story of generations of Iowan farmers into his new historical novel.
He lives in Brooklyn.
An Interview with Stuart M. Harris
Q: What is one of the things you’re most thankful for as a writer?
A: That I didn’t die before now. Writing this novel has been quite an experience.
Q: If you didn’t like writing books, what would you do for a living?
A: I would probably be an artist of some kind. I would have to tell a story or communicate something in some way.
Q: Share some of your writing goals. What’s next for you?
A: Gorilla High – a play wrote in Works-In-Progress Lab. I am thinking of turning it into novel.
At the same time, I miss playwriting.
It’s been 6 years and I miss the process.
Q: How long on average does it take you to write a book?
A: It took six years to finish The Northeast Quarter. Three to write and three to edit.
Q: What does your writing process look like?
A: I usually begin with a cluster of notes about ideas, background and actions in the story.
Then I arrange them across the floor in chronological order.
Standing over them allows me to have a birds-eye view of the entire narrative.
Then I turn the order of cards into outline form and from that outline comes the first draft.
Q: How important are names to you in your books?
Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend?
A: Sometimes the names just come to me.
I pick the names based on the way they sound for each character.
For example, I chose the name Royce Chamberlin for my villain.
He’s a clerk who connives his way into becoming the most powerful man in the territory.
For me the name Royce Chamberlin suggests wannabe royalty, aspiring to the top, but always the outsider.
The Northeast Quarter Book Synopsis
Do you want revenge or do you want your land back?”
Winfield, Iowa. 1918. Colonel Wallace Carson, the ruler of a vast agricultural empire, asks Ann Hardy, his ten year old granddaughter and eventual heir, to promise she will safeguard The Northeast Quarter, the choice piece of land from which the empire was founded.
Ann readily accepts – little knowing what awaits her.
When The Colonel is killed unexpectedly the same afternoon, the world around Ann and her family begins to fall apart.
Against the background of America sliding from a post-war boom into The Great Depression, The Northeast Quarter tells the story of Ann’s struggle to keep a promise no matter what.
She witnesses the remarriage of her grandmother to Royce Chamberlin, the seemingly humble banker who institutes a reign of terror over the household and proceeds to corrupt the entire town.
Over the next ten years, she matches wits with Chamberlin, enduring betrayal, banishment and even physical violence.
She grows from a precocious child into a tough-minded young woman – watching, observing her enemy and waiting for the moment to make her move.
And when the moment comes in July 1929, life in Winfield will never be the same.
S.M. Harris Social Media Channels:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/smharriswrites
Twitter handle: @smharriswrites
Facebook: S.M. Harris
https://www.facebook.com/S-M-Harris-1076962675676927/
Linked In:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuart-harris-236b358\
You Tube Channel
http://bit.ly/TheNortheastQuarter
