Katherine A. Sherbrooke is the award-winning author of three novels: the New York Times notable Leaving Coy’s Hill, which was a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award; Fill the Sky, finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year and winner of an Independent Press Award, and The Hidden Life of Aster Kelly. Her work has also appeared in Cognoscenti and Zibby Magazine. She served as Chair of the Board of GrubStreet, the nation’s premier creative writing center, from 2013-2023 and lives on the South Shore of Massachusetts.
About This Much is True
A mother faces an impossible dilemma as her daughter’s future hangs in the balance.
On her fifty-eighth birthday, Veronica Harmon feels blessed—with a fulfilling veterinary career, a wonderful marriage and three grown children, her youngest newly engaged and celebrating her first solo art show that very night. But when Veronica meets her daughter’s future in-laws, Ted and Belinda, who’ve flown across the country for the show, she is shocked to recognize Ted from an incident during high school that changed the trajectory of her life. Having never told a soul about that night, Veronica’s past reemerges like a live grenade.
Over the course of a pre-arranged weekend at the Harmon’s home intended to better acquaint the two families, Veronica unearths troubling memories, questions her own recollections and grapples with the impossible. If she quietly welcomes this man as a permanent part of her family she will be forced to live with a devastating lie, but if she reveals their shared history, she will expose her private shame and destroy her daughter’s future. Just when she thinks there is no viable solution, she has an epiphany that flips the script on what it means to be a survivor and the choices that are hers to make.
Enter to win a copy of This Much is True using the SweepWidget form below!
The interview
Why do you write in the genres that you do?
I write both historical and contemporary fiction, in great part because that’s what I most enjoy reading. I’m drawn to books that make me think, that introduce me to a place or time I may not be able to access otherwise or explore a thorny issue with no obvious right answer. I suppose you could call my genre “book club fiction,” the kind of books that are surprising in some way and leave you plenty to discuss (and disagree about!).
I hope my books fit in that sweet spot between what the industry might call “literary” and “commercial.” I’m a storyteller first and try to use beautiful prose to transport the reader to that imagined world. That’s what I like to read, so that’s what I try to write.
Do you keep a notebook of ideas?
I do! But I wish it were as organized as one notebook. I have a tiny notebook I carry in my purse, a larger one on my desk, a folder of ideas in a drawer (full of newspaper and magazine articles that knocked something loose in my brain), and I have a long stream of ideas that I dictate into my notes app on my phone when I’m out walking.
Are you more of a fan of plot-driven stories or character-driven stories?
I’m a character-first kind of gal. The stories I love the most get right under the skin of each character. You feel what they feel, you want what they want, and you root for them to get it. But the truth is that a story is only interesting if the protagonist doesn’t get what they want without facing some serious head winds. That’s plot, at least the kind of plot that interests me.
A great plot in my view isn’t series of ticking time-bombs, but heart-rending issues that threaten the protagonist’s deepest desires. Ideally the obstacles that stand in any character’s way (and the path they find to get around them) are not things they or the reader see coming (plot twists!) and getting through it all drastically changes who that character understands themselves to be.
Ultimately, it’s the connection between character and plot that really makes a story sing for me—when we love a character so much that we desperately need to know what’s going to happen next
Fill in the blank: “People will like your book if they like stories about…”
Women in impossible circumstances who find a way to upend the limited choices offered by society, all while staying true to themselves and those they love.
What are your thoughts on typewriters?
I love typewriters! I was required to take typing in middle school on a real typewriter—well, an IBM electric, but still one that required white out to fix a typo (yes, I’m that old!)—and I had to type all my English papers on it, carefully cranking the rollers to load in one page at a time.
As time-consuming as it was, I think the process of typing all those papers made me aware of the space of language in a way that can get lost on a word processor. You begin to intuit the length of a line; how many syllables can fit before needing to hit “return.” I think it helped me learn the rhythm of prose.
It also made me a fast typist, which is an incredible asset now that I spend most of my days tapping away at a keyboard!
I’m also a romantic for old-fashioned typewriters. I have Remington in my office. It has a piece of paper loaded up onto which I’ve typed “Keep Writing.” It reminds me that even on the hard days, I have it much easier than all those writers who couldn’t insert a new paragraph or swap out a word without beginning the page anew. I must admit it would be hard to go back!
Would you rather own a bookstore or run a library?
Both are holy places, but I have a long-standing dream of owning a bookstore. You can learn a lot about a town by walking into the local bookstore. It’s a place like no other where community and stories connect, and I’d love to play a part in creating something special like that.
And… I have a book buying problem, so am honestly a little addicted to bookstores. It started young.
I have a vivid memory as a child of the annual book fair that came to my school. The kids in each classroom had a designated time to go the library (ironically) where all the new books were on display. We could each pick a certain number of books to order (how the money worked, the elementary school me was blissfully unaware). I just remember being mesmerized by all those shiny new books. And I know I used every second of the time allotted to carefully make my selections. The wait for the ordered books to arrive seemed endless but taking them home knowing they were mine to read and reread was a thrill.
What are your passions/obsessions outside of writing?
Food and wine with family and great friends—oceans of laugher required.
Have you made any public appearances to promote your book?
Yes! I’ll be making lots of them. Please check my website for the most up-to-date information on where I will be appearing to talk about This Much Is True! The chance to bring friends and family together or meet with avid readers in a space that celebrates stories is one of my favorite parts of the publication process.
I see introducing someone to my book as an invitation to take a tour of the world I’ve been living in for the past several years. Having the chance to do that in person is very gratifying.
Public appearances (which now include podcasts, zoom events and the like) also offer an opportunity for me to talk a little bit about the inspirations behind the book, the themes I was interested in exploring, my writing process, and more. It’s a thrill to be able to finally share all of it!
Who is on your Mt. Rushmore of greatest/inspirational authors?
Shakespeare. He told just every story there is and inhabited them with some of the greatest characters of all time.
Jane Austen. I love that she persisted in a time when women weren’t “supposed” to write literature. And her stories have stood the test of time. She has rabid fans, and new readers discover her stories every day.
J.K. Rowling. Say what you will, but the Harry Potter series is genius in every way. It was seminal for an entire generation of readers. And I take inspiration from remembering how many times she was rejected before that incredible story finally found a home.
Margery Williams. She wrote my favorite book of all time, The Velveteen Rabbit. It changed my view of the world and how to live in it. That’s enough for me.
What is your favorite bookish possession?
When I got engaged, I was lucky enough to have some generous friends of my mother-in-law offer to throw me a bridal shower. I was enormously uncomfortable asking people to show up with a stack of kitchen items or other housewares (let alone sit around and watch me open them), so instead I asked for a “book shower.” Everyone brought a classic book, and that collection is a treasure to me.
What is the most unique way that an idea for a piece of writing has come to you.
I was working on a much earlier version of This Much is True (this is almost ten years ago) and got entirely stuck. I could not envision a way to get Veronica (my main character) out of the jam I had put her in with the premise of the book—what could she possibly do to remain intact in her own heart without destroying her daughter’s future? I could not figure it out.
So, I did what a lot of us writers do, namely avoided the main problem by researching random things that might be useful to the book. This is also called “wasting time while stalling.” On that day I had decided that Veronica would have three daughters and she would name each of them after an extraordinary woman in history who was nonetheless little known (not of this made it into the current version of the novel but stick with me).
Whatever it was that I Googled for that search, the very first name that popped up was Lucy Stone. I liked the name and read a little more, and then a little more, and then I was obsessed with her story and shocked that I hadn’t ever heard of her.
Before I knew it, I was writing a different novel, called Leaving Coy’s Hill, which came out in 2021 and is closely tied to the amazing real life of Lucy Stone. Quite the detour, but I feel blessed for having stumbled into it, and equally delighted that I did eventually make my way back to This Much is True and finally found Veronica the resolution she needed!
Are you a big reader? Do you own a large collection of books, or are you more of a borrower?
I’m a huge reader, and as strange as this may sound, I don’t lend or borrow books. Books are precious to me, and my favorites need to stay close, like friends I can visit. In fact, there are more than a few books that I have read on my Kindle or listened to and loved so much that I purchased them in print just to have on my shelf.
The greatest compliment you can pay an author of a book you love is not, in my view, to lend it to a friend, but to tell that friend to run right out and buy it! I’m a strong believer in patronage of the arts, and every book purchased is an investment in an author and in literature as a whole. It shouldn’t be any different than patronizing a restaurant.
No one walks into a lovely bistro and expects the chef to loan them a meal. If you can afford to buy a book, I honestly don’t think there is any excuse not to.
How do you measure the success of your writing career?
The number of genuine connections I make with readers who have been touched in some way by one of my books. There’s nothing like it!
Enter the giveaway!
Author links
Links will open in a new tab.
Pin it to Pinterest!
