In Circling Flight received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Jane Harrington.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
In Circling Flight (Brighthorse Books 2022)
What’s the book’s first line?
“Dear John, I’ve fallen for a dog.”
What’s the book about?
In this contemporary novel set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southern Appalachia, the lives of two young women are knit together when one is left alone on a farm after the sudden loss of her partner and the other is displaced by mountaintop removal coal mining. An embedded historical plot line follows the exodus of ancestors from Ireland during the Great Hunger to their homeplace in the Appalachians, a tale of oppression and migration that mirrors the current circumstances. In Circling Flight is as much a story of love and loss of the human kind as it is a treatise to the elemental relationship between people and their land.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
Some ten years ago I settled in the Appalachians, a place of breathtaking beauty and heartbreaking sorrow. So the stories I’ve crafted since then have tended to be of that weave. I’ve set part of this novel in a landscape similar to the one I see from my writing desk, and other settings of the story have risen from research and travel. The plot and the people who live in the pages are entirely imagined.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
For pleasure and good company! The characters are very cool people.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
The main character, Leda, possesses stellar survival skills and a keen sense of irony. She sprang from my imagination fully formed, although I didn’t model her after anyone in particular. Maybe she’s an alter ego.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
I have written four books prior to this one, all for young readers. This is my first for adult readers.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I teach creative writing and literature at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
My publisher is very small and hands-off, which is great in many ways. I had more control over how this book looked in the end than I ever did with my prior books, which were with larger publishers. But I’m pretty much on my own when it comes to promotion. Given the limitations of time and money, I’m missing opportunities to get this book in the hands of readers.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
I love to write fiction. To me, there is no better escape.