Every story begins with a message that the author wants to relay to the reader. It may be a simple, general message or one very specific to the author. Author Bill See had a particular message in mind when writing his novel, Everything That Came Before Grace: A Father-Daughter Story. Below is my interview with See about his book and his writing process.
About Bill See
Genres: Literary Fiction; coming of age; new adult romance
Author links (links will open in a new tab)
Spotify Playlist with all 137 songs name checked in the book
Everything That Came Before Grace book summary
A single father comes of age as he discovers whether it’s love or fatherhood that could save him. Haunted by his mother’s death and a series of serendipitous events from his past, Benjamin Bradford desperately tries to keep his mental illness under control while raising his daughter, Sophia. Set against the iconic streets of Los Angeles, there’s music always playing, heavy therapy sessions and private emails to discern, shattered friendships and betrayal, and the specter of a true love that got away. Think: Silver Linings Playbook meets High Fidelity with a dash of Eighth Grade. Can Benjamin find redemption? Can he escape his demons and find love again? Come along for the ride and find out.
Book excerpt
From Chapter 9, “The Only Thing That Works:”
My mom used to tell me she didn’t want to live anymore. I hated her for sharing that with me. She’d tell me she didn’t mean it, but she couldn’t unsay it any more than I could unhear it, or unfeel it.
So, I don’t throw around idle threats about suicide, but ever since Catherine was killed, I’ve had moments I just don’t want to be here anymore. It comes on late at night after I get Sophia to bed. The dark thoughts start turning over in my head. It’s like being pulled into this toxic emotional cul-de-sac. It’s hard to see beyond the moment, and suddenly everything feels unconquerable. Letting go feels like the only solution. And what an infinitesimal difference it is between riding out that moment until it passes, and it escalating a little too much at the worst possible time.
I watched American Beauty again the other night and was struck anew by the ending when Lester says, “…there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst.”
That resonated because I think I just feel too much. And it’s not that I don’t – or can’t – see the joy and beauty in the world. Sometimes, it’s just too much to bear.
I don’t think I’d ever intentionally try to kill myself. I mean, I’ve never sat there late at night staring at a loaded pistol or a bottle of sleeping pills. But sometimes, I fall into a kind of passive disregard for my safety.
Review excerpt
See carefully and skillfully balances the present and past in his narrative…tensions mount between father and daughter, and as Sophia rebels against Bradford’s moodiness and caution, readers are treated to dramatic scenes with powerful exchanges: ” An emotionally powerful but structurally awkward novel about a troubled man’s quest for redemption.” – Kirkus Reviews
Talking Shop
What do you want readers to take away from your books?
I think it’s threefold; I think it’ll resonate with down in the trenches parents who quietly struggle with trying the best they can for their kids while trying to give themselves permission to keep pursuing their dreams. I also think it’ll connect with a lot of us who are trying to reconcile the serendipitous, fate-altering moments in our lives. And finally, I think it’ll mean something to folks who turn to music or movies or the arts for comfort.
Name a fact or detail about your story that readers will never know is there.
About 90% of the things that take place in the story are real life events. It’s just not a linear or literal retelling of history. More like a big gumbo of life experiences I plucked from and sprinkled into the storyline.
What’s the best review/compliment that you’ve received about your book?
That reading my book gave them the courage to write theirs.
What famous books can you compare to your own?
I’ve kind of joked it’s a combination of Silver Linings Playbook meets High Fidelity with a dash of Eighth Grade.
How well do you handle criticism, either while writing, editing, or reviews? Do you ever use that criticism to change your story?
The thing is there’s two crucial steps before that even takes place.
1) Make sure you love and believe in what you’ve created before reaching out for criticism and
2) choose your confidants wisely. Because you don’t want to stand there holding a beggar’s bowl waiting for someone to drop some validation in there. You should already know it’s good. That being said, once I reach out to people, I trust to give it to me on the real, then yeah, I want to know what’s not working. I want to know how it can be better. And for the people I trust, they know I want to hear the real deal.
“What If” Scenarios
If your book ever becomes a movie and you get final say over the cast, which actors would you hire to play your characters?
Actually, in the book, the Benjamin character and the love interest Anna are both movie lovers, and there’s a scene where they tell each other who they remind them of. Benjamin tells her she reminds him of Ali Macgraw in Goodbye Columbus. She tells him, he reminds her of a young Sean Penn in Racing with the Moon. Then Keith, the guy who’s horning in on Anna, Benjamin thinks he looks like a young Steve McQueen.
If you could be in a writer’s group with up to four famous writers, who would they be?
J.D. Salinger, Harper Lee and Jack Kerouac.
Your favorite character that you’ve written comes to life for one day. What do you do together for 24 hours?
If I’m being honest, the chapter Benjamin meets Anna and sweeps her away for a drive up the coast is kind of a wish to have one more day with my first real love who died of cancer a few years ago.
You are transported into your book for one day. What role do you play? How do you alter the events of the story?
If I were to put on the Pop Psychology hat, I can see how alcohol played a big part in the two critical life altering mistakes the Benjamin character makes. Me being a recovering alcoholic, I’m sure that’s no coincidence. So, if I were to drop into Benjamin’s shoes and could change things, I’d hope to climb onto the wagon and save him and a lot of people some grief.
Your story gets picked up by a streaming service to make into a series. What service would you want it to be, and would you want them to follow your story closely, or would you rather see what directions they take it in?
I wrote the book I needed to write. It’s forever. No one can change that. I truly believe the soul of the characters would shine through no matter what you did with the story. So, if someone, Amazon, Hulu, HBO, etc., ever made the movie or turned it into a series, I’m perfectly fine with letting it go to someone else’s vision.
Just for Fun
One bucket list item you’ve completed and one that’s still on your list.
Visiting the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was big. Just standing inside and feeling its enormity and its essence course through my veins.
As for something still on my list, I sometimes dream of standing where Sal Paradise stood on an empty highway hitchhiking somewhere in the middle of nowhere in On The Road.
A movie or a piece of music that changed your life.
Movie: The Graduate. Music: “Bad” by U2.
A book that you recommend everyone reads.
Bird by Bird by Annie Lamont. Greatest book about writing I’ve ever read.
The topic you can’t shut up about and the topic you wish everyone would shut up about.
How absent fathers are the true evils of society. And I guess I wish people would shut up about where they are at every given moment. Getting lost is how and where we learn about ourselves.
When time travel is achieved, do you go forward or backward?
I suppose backward. I don’t think artists are revered like they once were. As a society, in hard times, we used to turn to our poets, painters, writers, singers and songwriters to help guide us and make sense of the senseless. We need to get back to that.
Buy it!
Buy a copy of Everything That Came Before Grace here, and help support local bookstores! This is an affiliate link, and I will earn a commission on any sales.
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I particularly enjoy stories with connected family dynamics. What Came Before Grace is also a title that took on two meanings for me, which I loved!
Thanks for sharing. <3
Fab interview, the book sounds intriguing too! x
All the books sound so good!
It’s so cool that a large portion of this book came from his own life events. Thanks for sharing!