Cinthia Ritchie is a former journalist who lives and runs mountains and marathons in Alaska. Her work can be found at New York Times Magazine, Sport Literate, Water-Stone Review, Under the Sun, Memoir, damselfly press, Slow Trains, 42opus, Evening Street Review and over 45 literary magazines. Her first novel, Dolls Behaving Badly, released Feb. 5 from Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group. 

Welcome to the blog. Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I live in Alaska and I suppose that’s the most defining thing about me. I’m also a mountain runner and spend a good part of the summer out on the trails, dodging moose and bear scat. I love running in the evenings when the light is silver and the sky feels quiet and there’s nothing around but me and the dog.

I’m also a vegetarian (almost but not quite vegan), mother of an awesome college-aged son, a huge animal lover, and while I don’t like to cook much I do love to bake bread. There’s something about kneading that is so elemental and female that it never fails to soothe me. Often, as I make bread, I feel connected to the generations of women who came before me. It’s a simple yet powerful feeling.

What made you want to become a writer?

I grew up in a Pennsylvania farming community, our nearest neighbours almost a mile away. Since there wasn’t much to do, my sisters and I read. We read all the time, and books were my closest friends. I still feel that way. I can’t imagine life without books. It’s inconceivable. So yes, I always knew I’d be a writer, I knew this instinctively before I knew it consciously.

I’ve been writing for decades. I worked as a journalist for over 13 years, which offered the chance to hike over glaciers, fly in float planes and hang out in prison with women murderers, yet it also severely subtracted from my “real” writing time. I was never satisfied with journalism. It wasn’t personal or raw enough. It didn’t come from deep inside of me.

The main reason I write is because is to release feelings I have no other way of releasing. Maybe I’m replaying old situations, righting old wrongs, or maybe I pick up on cues that others ignore—I don’t really know, except that writing is as essential as breathing. If I go a few days without writing, I feel lonely, not for other people but for the sound of my own voice.

Who are your favourite writers?

Oh, there are so many! I read mixed genres so I’m always reading poetry, nonfiction, fiction, romance, erotica, cookbooks, all mixed up together. My favourites vary depending on my mood and time of day. Right now I’d say Margaret Atwood, Richard Siken, Lauren Slater, Kathryn Harrison, Meredith Hall, though if you asked me again tomorrow, I’d probably say something else altogether.

Why do you choose romance as the genre within which you write?

Well, I write in a variety genres: Poetry, creative nonfiction, literary fiction. Dolls Behaving Badly is classified as romantic fiction, though I didn’t choose the genre. It chose me. I initially set out to write a book without romance, but it didn’t work out that way. Romance intruded upon my book and probably this is because I grew up reading romance and gothic novels. I love Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Kate Chopin. I think my whole life would have been different if I hadn’t of read Wuthering Heights when I was young. It turned me into a hopeless and brooding romantic, though I secretly prefer it that way.

What’s the most rewarding element of writing for you?

The unknowingness, and the mystery. I love sitting down to write with no idea where my characters might take me. It makes everything in my life richer and more wondrous.

What’s the most challenging element of writing for you?

The editing. It’s brutal. Cutting out chunks of my own prose is like cutting out chunks of my skin. It hurts that much. Sometimes it almost feels like an amputation. I often get so caught up in myself and my words that I over-write. And while I may love writing a 400-word description of the sun setting over the mountains, I doubt many readers would enjoy reading it. Trimming is a necessary evil. I’ve come to terms with that but don’t think I’ll ever be happy about it.

At what point did you think, ‘I’ve done it – I’ve become a writer’?

Well, I worked as a journalist so I always knew I was a writer; I just wasn’t the type of writer I longed to be. I knew I had “made” it when an editor from New York Times Magazine saw an essay I had published in a literary magazine and requested that I write a column for her. That was about six years ago. A short time later I found an agent (Elizabeth Wales), and I finished Dolls Behaving Badly about two years ago. It was picked up shortly after that by Grand Central Publishing. It’s been an unbelievable experience.

 Can you share a little about your writing process?

I’m a night person and I write mainly at night, and often all night. I find that when I’m slightly tired my mind opens up and my inner-editor fades, and it’s almost as if in the safety of darkness (though granted Alaska doesn’t offer much darkness during the summer months), I can open up places I normally keep closed, veer off in directions I wouldn’t consider in the harsh glare of daylight. I sit at my desk, in a room surrounded by birch trees, and I listen to music and write. Usually I write for three to five hours a night. I don’t work from an outline. I write totally blind; I have no idea where my characters might go or what they might do. Once a week I sit down and edit everything I’ve written, decide what to keep, what to delete (I don’t actually delete anything, I simply save it to an “extra” folder), and order it into some semblance of understanding.

I edit a lot. I’ll rewrite and edit one chapter five or six times before I’m satisfied. I’m very picky about my writing.

What’s your most recent book about?

Dolls Behaving Badly is about a divorced mother in Alaska who makes doll art for extra money and avoids romantic love at all cost. She’s visited by the ghost of her Polish grandmother, who offers oddball advice and recipes for Polish baked goods. When a tall, blond anthropologist enters her life and begins leaving her gifts of ancient bones, it turns her world upside down.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was a single mother working two jobs, and late at night I’d sit in the bathroom and read novels (the bathroom, you see, was the warmest room in the house in the winter). One night it hit me: There are very few single mother heroines in contemporary fiction. I decided to change that. I wanted my protagonist, Carla, to be strong yet imperfect. It was important to me that she be flawed because face it, we are all flawed, we all have baggage, and we all fumble through life making mistake after mistake.

The oddest thing is that as soon as Carla’s love interest, Francisco, entered the picture, I met someone, and our relationship began as odd and wonderfully as Carla and Francisco. At times I almost felt as if I were writing my own future and maybe, in a way, I was.

How did you decide upon the title?

Well, I didn’t. My editor chose the title. I’m horrible when it comes to titles. I still haven’t chosen one for my second novel, and I’m on the last chapter.

What message would you most like readers to take away from the book?

To never give up on your dreams, and to know that you don’t have to be perfect to deserve love. We are all so careful, we plan and organize and try to keep our lives so neat, so groomed, yet it’s only when we let in the mess, when we stop trying to hide our flaws and imperfections, that we are truly alive.

If a movie was made of your book, which actors would you cast in the leading roles?

I have no idea. I love Laura Linney and I can imagine her as my main character, Carla. As for the others, I don’t watch enough movies or TV to know most actors by name. Usually, I read. Though I doI imagine my main character’s love interest as a blond Captain Wentworth (from Austen’s Persuasion).

When you’re not writing, what do you most like to do?

Run. I’m a long-distance runner and I’m a bit obsessed. I love talking about running, researching training methods and browsing gear and shoes. I’m currently training for an ultra-marathon race. I’m not very fast, but I love to run. I love everything about it. I often write in my head as I run. Some of my best ideas come during my long weekend runs.

What, for you, is the very epitome of a romantic moment?

An ordinary moment interrupted by the unexpected. Most people assume that romance has to involve candlelight, silk slips or frosted wineglasses, but I say: Nonsense! Some of my most romantic moments have happened when I was at my worst. Likewise, in Dolls Behaving Badly, Francisco, my protagonist’s love interest, leaves gifts of bones (he’s an anthropologist, you see), lovely wrapped with a single ribbon, and to me that’s so romantic that I get chills whenever I think about it. Because he’s giving her a part of himself, the very thing he loves and cherishes. If that isn’t romantic, nothing is.

What’s next in your writing career?

I’m currently working on a second novel, though it’s not a romance–it centers around a woman trying to come to terms with the loss of her stillborn daughter. After that, I hope to write a horror novel. I have the book outlined (which is odd since I don’t usually outline before I write), and it’s set in rural Alaska, in a town isolated by water and mountains. It’s very moody and romantic and scary. I can’t wait to begin. I so loved being scared.

Thank you, Cinthia – it’s been wonderful learning more about you and your writing, and I’m looking forward to reading the book.

You can connect with Cinthia at www.cinthiaritchie.com; http://www.facebook.com/#!/cinthia.ritchie and http://twitter.com/cinthiaritchie1.

Purchase links: 

Amazon; Barnes & Noble; IndieBound