Book Club Discussion:
DeLaune Michel

July 16, 2008. Queenie D Chats with DeLaune Michel about her fiction novel,
The Safety of Secrets

Book Club Discussion with DeLaune Michel

Are either Fiona or Patricia based on you?

Neither Fiona nor Patricia is based on me, nor on anyone that I know. But I did give Fiona my acting career – I just lifted it whole cloth from my life and put it on her, and I think it worked for what I needed. Besides, I had a great time getting to send up some of the ridiculousness of the entertainment industry.

Book Club Discussion with DeLaune Michel

Where did you get the idea for a story about female friendships and what it means to be loyal?

When I finished my first novel, Aftermath of Dreaming, which was about a young woman's relationship with a much older man, I wanted to explore the relationships that are just as important to me and those are my friendships with women. They really are the bedrock of my life. I wanted to explore betrayal in a lifelong friendship. And it occurred to me that the currency of intimacy in a best friendship is secrets, so I wanted to see what would happen to that relationship when its most powerful secret is given away, and given away thoughtlessly, like so many pennies dropped on the floor.

I was interested in the way that secrets are used to ally and/or alienate ourselves from those that we love. There is such stark and deep knowledge of one another in an ages old friendship that I wondered about how some secrets are used as a mask to hide and protect ourselves, or are used to continue to be that person that we think our best friend needs, or to try not be that person anymore, even when we still are. All of that layering and hiding are essential tools in Hollywood. I think one trait that distinguishes stars from other actors is their ability to appear completely exposed while in fact they presenting only and exactly what they want us to see. I felt there was a mirroring of Fiona and Patricia's friendship's emotional landscape with their careers in Hollywood.

Book Club Discussion with DeLaune Michel

Has Patricia really become as shallow as she seems through Fiona's eyes or is Fiona too jealous to be happy for her friend?

I don't think of Patricia as shallow. I do think she has gotten caught up in the world that Hollywood creates out of lights and cameras. But, in a sense, that world is real, too, and the way that Patricia is works for that world, so it's helping her. I try not to judge my characters while I'm writing. I loved Patricia and thought she was great fun. As a friend of mine said – the only person who read the novel while I was writing it – whenever Patricia enters a scene, the excitement jumps up. I think Fiona is absolutely jealous of Patricia (even though she doesn't completely want what she has), and Patricia is jealous of Fiona. I wanted to explore that issue because that happens so much with women, and setting the novel in the dog-eat-dog world of LA I felt would up the ante to an interesting notch.

Book Club Discussion with DeLaune Michel

Both girls had mothers who lacked the "motherhood gene." How did this shape the women they've become?

We are our mothers, isn't that the old saying?

Whether we act the opposite way or just the same, it is always a response to that powerful relationship in our lives, even after therapy! I think Fiona and Patricia are just as affected. Their relationship was based on a mutual clinging to each other that might not have happened if their mothers had been there for them more.

Book Club Discussion with DeLaune Michel

Fiona mentions that "Hollywood isn't the only place where people act like stars" when referring to her mother. Did her mother's grand behavior have anything to do with Fiona wanting to become an actress?

I think it did. But more so, the lack of love and approval that Fiona got. Hollywood is littered with people who are dying for that big, fat universal love to make up for what they didn't get at home.

Book Club Discussion with DeLaune Michel

Why does Fiona's father take such a back seat in raising his daughter? Is he, too, scared of his wife or does he just figure it's women's business so he'll stay out of it?

Fiona's father is a man who doesn't involve himself much in the childrearing. It is his wife's area. He runs the bank; she runs the house. I found him to also be very tired. He just didn't have the energy or patience to fight with Fiona's mother when he disagreed with what she did. He gave in. He was fighting his battles at the office; at home, he just wanted to have his drink.

Book Club Discussion with DeLaune Michel

When Fiona finally has it out with Patricia she says "acting as if the same thing happened to both of us, as if yours was some big horrible thing." Does Patricia feel like it happened to her too because she views she and Fiona as two parts of one whole? Or does she just want to be the victim?

Patricia is one of those people who are innately extremely dramatic. She can't imagine that anything that happened to her was not important and earth shattering because to her, it all is. So she doesn't have a clue that what happened to Fiona was worse than what happened to her. As much as Patricia loves Fiona, Patricia is the most important person in her own life and mind, and that is never not there.

Book Club Discussion with DeLaune Michel

I like the title, The Safety of Secrets. It suggests to me that even when we think we really know somebody and that our "secrets are safe with them" so to speak, we may not really know them at all. At any given moment humans are capable of hurting each other in the quest to save themselves. What were you thinking when naming the book this?

Pretty much exactly what you said!

I wanted it to express the irony of believing that we can ever be safe when we have secrets, and yet, we still tell someone a secret, or feel we have to keep a secret because we are afraid.

Book Club Discussion with DeLaune Michel

I also found it interesting that the secrets in this book are two-fold. One meaning would be for the secrets that Fiona and Patricia keep. But on a whole different level there are the secrets that Fiona keeps from Neil, even if harmless in her mind. It says a lot about the pecking order of female best friends and husbands. Do you believe that most women probably tell their best friend everything - things they would never tell their husband?

I'm glad you found that interesting. That triangle aspect of the relationship was an area I really wanted to explore. I think it is so fascinating to have a best friend forever, and then a boyfriend or husband comes along, and the we have to decide what secrets does he get to know? I think this is a tricky area that women work out for themselves, and I think it can change moment to moment, depending upon the secret or topic.

Book Club Discussion with DeLaune Michel

You've grown up in a family with some well-known writers. Has this put any pressure on you? Were you influenced in your decision to become an author from this in any way?

Growing up with all those writers was a wonderful experience. I learned firsthand what a dinner table is truly for, and that is telling stories. It was heaven to sit around and hear all the relatives painting pictures in the air with their words, all the while knowing that someone else at the table was just waiting to jump in to tell their own even more fascinating tale.

So it could be a bit competitive, but only in the most fun kind of way. Dinner lasted for hours. In a sense, it was a relief once I finally started writing because I knew no one could interrupt me! But my family, all of them, has been nothing but completely supportive and encouraging. I sent the first two stories that I wrote to my Uncle Andre (Dubus, who wrote the story, Killings that the film In the Bedroom was adapted from), and he wrote me back and said that he wouldn't change a thing. That I used the word "which" more than he preferred, but so did Dick (Richard) Ford, and look where he was. Then my editor felt that way, too, so maybe Andre was right!

Book Club Discussion with DeLaune Michel

What projects are you working on right now?

I have started my third novel. All I will say about it is that it doesn't take place in LA! But it is set in the other La – Louisiana, and I am enjoying getting to be there in my imagination for awhile, or a long while considering how long novels take!

And my other more important project is spending as much time with my two young sons as I possibly can. I am very aware that I'll never get these years with them back, so my writing happens around them.

Book Club Queen: Thank you DeLaune and Good Luck!

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