Episode 100: Pamela Stockwell, author of A Boundless Place
A special guest for our 100th episode! Pamela Stockwell joins us to chat about her debut novel, which has been described as a heartfelt, touching, and delightful "slice-of-life story".
We selected Pamela for this benchmark episode, because she represents the best of what the women's fiction community can achieve when we uplift and support each other!
Listen to the episode to hear about her kidney donation story to a fellow writer.
We are also starting a new collaboration with this episode with Book Club Bites - check out the book club questions and recipe on Book Club Bites for Pamela’s Chicken and Dumplings (that features in the book!). Along with questions you can use at your book club!
We’re doing a special giveaway in honor of our 100th episode, where you can win a paperback copy of A Boundless Place - and for every giveaway entry the podcast will donate to the National Kidney Foundation (And, if you’d like to support them yourself learn more here).
Set in 1969, A Boundless Place follows the story of 24 year old Violet, who only wants one thing: to hide from life after her husband's death. But life has other ideas when a 7 year old neighbor pulls her into life where she's moved on Magnolia Avenue, a forgotten street in a forgotten neighborhood filled with forgotten mobile homes.
In the episode, Pamela shares her experience of meeting another writer over WFWA's (Womens Fiction Writer's Association) online writing dates, and how she decided to donate a kidney to a writer she hopes to one day meet in real life!
Books & Resources Mentioned:
A Boundless Place by Pamela Stockwell (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
The Winners by Fredrik Backman - coming in October (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Book Club Bites (great recommendations for book and food pairings for your book club!)
Recipe for Pamela’s Chicken and Dumplings (on Book Club Bites)
Women’s Fiction Writers Association
More about Pamela and Kelly’s kidney donation story
Connect with the author:
Transcript:
** Transcript created using AI (so please forgive the typos!) **
Lainey Cameron
Say hi Pamela!
Pamela Stockwell
Hi, everybody!
Lainey Cameron
This is a huge episode for us. If you heard the last episode that Ashley and I did back in June, we talked about how our first episode of the fall season here would be our 100th episode. And we really wanted to have someone special on. We actually spent quite a while talking about this. And we talked about, well, we could go for like a big author, or big name, or somebody everybody's heard of. And then I thought about it.
And I thought, you know, what I'm trying to represent here in the podcast is the best of women's fiction. And that is about the writing, and it's about the books, but it's also more about the people and how we support each other as a community. In the women's fiction writer world. There is no better example of this, both a great writer, but talk about stepping up for the community than Pamela. And so I'm gonna let you explain why I know that to be true. Before we get into your book, which is fabulous. I want to have you tell people a little bit about your kidney donation story if that's okay, okay.
Pamela Stockwell
Yeah, no problem. During the pandemic, we started, the Women's Fiction Writers Association started doing these zoom writings. And I got to know a woman on there named Kelly, and gradually because you know, your risk was spending time writing, not talking so much. But gradually, I started hearing that she had, you know, I felt very bad for her. But I never thought about giving her a kidney actually. But one day, I was driving to South Carolina with my daughter, and she was driving and I was bored. So I started going through Facebook and Kelly had posted a plea for kidney and had the link to her hospitals form that you could fill out if you're interested. And I thought, why not? I'm there's no way. And apparently there was a way and I kept it there. They have a huge vetting process we have to go through. And I was very surprised every time I passed a medical test or, you know, the interview with a social worker, this or that. And I just kept moving along in the process. And the next thing I know, we're having surgery, and she has a new kidney.
Lainey Cameron
Talk about like being there for each other! Kelly is walking around with your kidney in her body in Southern California right now. And you haven't yet met?
Pamela Stockwell
I'm in New Jersey, and she's in California, we haven't met yet.
Lainey Cameron
In terms of how we build these tight connections. And yeah, we might be writers together. But we're also humans together. And anyway, I am in so much admiration and let's do something fun. For this episode, let's give away a copy of your novel A Boundless Place. For anyone who enters that giveaway. We'll put the link on the page on the website with the episode, I'll donate $1 for everybody who enters that giveaway, and we'll get some money that will raise some money for ?
Pamela Stockwell
Thank you. So kidney.org is the best one. kidney.org
Lainey Cameron
Yep. So everybody, you're gonna have a chance to win Pamela's fabulous novel and raise some money for charity here. So let's talk about the book because I'm going to start by telling you that I always go read the reviews of the books that are on the podcast I look for what are the most common words that come up on a book. It's really interesting to me after the conversation we just had, let me tell you the top five or six words that come up, heartfelt, heartwarming, all of it, the characters, hopeful, uplifting, feel good. There's a lot of consistency to those words. People love this book. It makes them feel gooey and happy and say this is what I take away from that. And so tell us about this story that is making everybody feel gooey and happy inside. Tell us more about it.
Pamela Stockwell
Well, it's funny, because this is my first book, and I was 58 when it came out last year. And I always thought I'd write like John Steinbeck or you know, something very deep and not that this doesn't have depth. But I found that my real voice I wrote like a more literary, if you will novel that's in my drawer. It may come out one day if I rework it, but I found that my voice actually is more. I like to have a lot of humor and like to make you laugh and cry. So hopefully people will do that with this. It is a very feel good novel. I get a lot of feedback, even not on the reviews that people keep telling me the same thing and like you know, they liked my characters and they really stayed with them for a long time and
Lainey Cameron
So it's set back in the 1960s and 70s right? 1969 That's right up right on the border.
Lainey Cameron
And it's one street, like tell us a little bit about the story of what happens in this book?
Pamela Stockwell
The main character is violet. And she is reeling from grief, she moves to this neighborhood she thinks to heal to get away from the memories and everything from where she came from. But what she really is doing is hiding and she tries to avoid the neighbor's thinking she just needs time to herself. But the quirky neighbors draw her into their life with the help mostly of Arabella, who's a seven year old girl lives across the street. You know, I was worried a lot of younger people would find it very odd that my seven year old character would go over to the neighbor's house and just hang out, but it was 69. And, you know, we used to run around the neighborhood and never talk.
Lainey Cameron
That's a really interesting point that this little girl plays like such a big role in the book, what made you decide to do that to lead with like a small child character is like bringing everybody else together?
Pamela Stockwell
It actually sprang from a whole different ideas, the whole neighborhood is based on my neighborhood, except we weren't quite as friendly. I made it a little Rosier, I lived on a dirt road and a trailer park neighborhood. And we were across from an Air Force Base, which this neighborhood has also, my idea at first was to have the seven year old girl who would meet the people who moved in across the way which is actually kind of what happened to me, the house across the street was always changing owners like every year too. And I thought it'd be interesting if she would learn something from each person that moved in there. So I started writing that, and Violet was the first person I put in there. And I liked her, I couldn't move her back out. So she stayed. And so my other ideas for characters just became the rest of the neighborhood, a cranky man who has a heart of gold, and you know, stuff like that. So and they all end up needing something from each other and giving to each other.
I love how like our books start with a germ of an idea. And then you think you're going to write it a certain way. And as you start working with it, it ends up to your point, like, Oh, I like this character that's working and different. I'm going through that with my current book that I'm working on, which started out as more of a thriller, and I ended up like, I dropped the crime, and I dropped all the bad stuff. And it's back to women's fiction. Yeah, we're just drawn to what we're drawn to, I guess,
you know, can't fight it.
Lainey Cameron
Can't fight it. So talk to me a little bit about how a book like this changed, right? Like, like you say, it's built, it's all around one street, you've got this neighborhood, it's got some really interesting things going on in the history element of what's happening at the same time. And 1969 didn't have to change a lot as you were editing it, or did it stay pretty pure to very the first versions,
Pamela Stockwell
it was very long. So it was 125,000 words for and for those of you who are watching who may not be writers, a really long mainstream type book is probably about 80 to 100,000, I hired a professional editor, and she gave me wonderful advice. And I ended up taking out some backstory chapters. So there was a lot of there was a lot of things deleted. And um, but it did make for a better story. So you end up, you didn't need all the backs or you have a little hints, you know, it's enough.
Lainey Cameron
How did you know which historical events were going to feature in the book and were important and which ones were kind of like, I don't need to spend so much time on that?
Pamela Stockwell
Well, the biggest event of the year of the decade of the century, maybe was the moon landing, and I remember it from I was six years old at the time. I'm not Arabella by the way. And I do have very strong memories of watching that and being fascinated by the space program and all that stuff. I can remember it being a hot July night, you know, so it stuck out in my memory.
Lainey Cameron
Well, I'm gonna read a quick review. I always like to read another writer talking about a book just so people can get a sense of it. And this is from Virginia McCullough, who's the author of Island Healing. I love her she picks up the same word that's in all your reviews. She says stockholders writing is heartfelt and touching. But her characters antics also had me laughing out loud. In the end, this late 60s and early 70s Slice of life story is all about our need for human connection. The characters will stay with me for a very long time. Doesn't that summer it up level? Just lovely.
Pamela Stockwell
I like it when they get it, you know? Yeah.
Lainey Cameron
So this is your debut. And you had some level of editing you had to do with it. What did you learn through the process? Is there anything that you would share as advice for writers as you went through this process reading you know, like you say, it wasn't your first book, but it was your debut novel that came out into the world,
Pamela Stockwell
but it's all a learning process. And but the second really big thing for me was actually making time I actually wrote in my calendar, when I decided to get serious about trying to produce a novel and get it out in the world. I'm a stay at home mom or I was I have a job now. But I spent all my time driving kids around and doing all that stuff. So I set around two hours in the morning, every weekday morning, and would make myself sit down and write edit, or even if I'm reading a craft book about you know how to improve your writing something that had to do with writing. And that really helped us just to have that dedicated time and not try to squeeze it in here and squeeze it in there.
Lainey
So I love that advice. That is great writing advice. And I hear that again and again from authors this idea of prioritize and carve out that time and take it as seriously or more seriously than anything else on your calendar and otherwise, like even training people training sounds horrible, but getting the people around you to understand that that is important to you and that that doesn't become time that they can just grab you for something else instead. That is true. So let's talk foods because we are starting something fun with this 100th episode, we are starting a collaboration with Book Club Bites, which is this really cool website for book clubs. If you haven't checked it out, go to book club bates.com. And what's really interesting is on that site, Mallory Barnes who runs it, she's also a women's fiction writer, she creates recipes, she actually replicates some puts photos up and creates a whole recipe so that a book club can create something to go with the book if they want to when they're having their book club meeting, which is really fun. Because we all know that book clubs and wine and food go together, right? So she asked you for a recipe and I know there's a post that we'll put the link to it also that it's got a recipe for dumplings, is it?
Pamela Stockwell
Can you tell my absolute favorite food growing up, it's just a comfort food, don't put it on your diet, because they're not they're not there for that. It was a recipe that my mom used to make that her mother in law taught her. So I had to really wrack my brain about how to make it because I haven't made it in a while because of the health factor. But it's delicious. And I want to make it now.
Lainey Cameron
And how did it end up in the book? Why did that? You know, why did that end up in this book? Violet is
Pamela Stockwell
making it for someone special for a special evening that kind of goes wrong.
Lainey Cameron
So yeah, okay. You've probably done some book clubs or had some questions from readers find out. Is there anything that surprised you or delighted you in the feedback about the book?
Pamela Stockwell
Actually, when they start talking about the deeper things about the characters? I'm just, I'm like, Yes, you get it. So it's just kind of it's really fun. The first time I talked to a book club, I was on Zoom. And I was very nervous about it. But it was just fun and weird to talk because I belong to several book clubs and to talk about my book and a book club was kind of strange understood the characters and their motivations. And it's just good to hear that they liked it. They liked the characters. I remember my husband telling me, it's my husband, but he really meant that he doesn't read women's fiction, if he's gonna read who he was he read like a thriller, or he loves the Martian. He read my book, though. And he like he's told me he's like a month later. He's like, you know, the other day, I was just wondering what Biola was up to like she was a real person. And I was like, the highest compliment, you know,
Lainey Cameron
oh, yeah, you created like a real character that stuck. Interestingly, they don't all these studies that show that the circuits in our brain that connection we're reading are actually the same as the circuits that connect when we're meeting someone in real life. So maybe a character in a book, if the author doesn't write like you did. It's actually not dissimilar. The process that's happening in our brains, it does feel like we met a real person is actually the same way our networks work in our brains as if we have met a real person. That's very cool. So talking of great books and characters, do you have anything to recommend for us? Can you recommend any books that you've enjoyed?
Pamela Stockwell
My favorite author right now is Fredrik Backman. I just love him. I love the way his characters are very complex. And you just peel the layer after layer off as the book goes on. And he's got a new one coming out in October. That's on presale. And it's called the winners this year. One of my favorite books that I've read is not at all like my writing. I think I like to compare myself to Frederick Bakman, you know, but I read The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr. and that is more like Maya Angelou meets roots by Alex Haley. It's about it really is just old and out there and sad. But it was a wonderfully written book.
Lainey Cameron
Awesome. I will put the links to both of those in the show notes. There's an episode page on the website at best of women's fiction.com. And you'll be able to find all of Pamela's social media, the books and the giveaway that we talked about earlier. And the recipe for chicken dumplings. Most importantly, my next book, tell us about it. And I never like to put people on the spot unless they're ready to talk about the next one.
Pamela Stockwell
Oh,yeah, I'm ready. I'm not that as it's ready. I just got the edits back from an editor. And so I'm working on that the nice thing is see, I still couldn't let go my characters. So it's still set in the same street. But I have two new characters who move in. And there are two women who they meet accidentally, actually, but they have both just done something that has blown up their lives. This is set in 1972. So it's a couple of years later, but it's about women finding their voice at a time when especially in South Carolina, they didn't really have that option. They were expected to go into this mold or that mold, and it's about them trying to help each other to find out, you know what their life's gonna be like, and some of the characters pop up in there again, that that you met in A Boundless Place. So I'm hoping next year, we'll come out
23 I hope so. Oh, that sounds fabulous. It also sounds like my kind of thing. I love books, but women's voices and finding your voice. Well, where do you like to hang out on social media? Where can people find you? Or where should they follow you like, what's the best way?
Probably Facebook and Instagram. I found Twitter is more for writers. I actually listened to one of your podcasts and somebody said that and Instagram is more for readers, you know, and I also hang out on Facebook just to keep in touch with everybody that I know and update them and give post funny cat pictures because I have a funny cat.
Lainey Cameron
Perfect funny cat pictures are the most popular thing on Instagram other than funny dog pictures. Awesome. Well, it has been so fun to have a chance to talk with you. And thank you for accepting my invitation to come on and be our 100th episode. You totally made my day week month here.
Pamela Stockwell
So thank you for having me here.
Lainey Cameron
And I'll encourage folks go read the book. It's got such fabulous reviews. Everybody loves it. Heartwarming heartfelt uplifting hopeful what more can we want going back to like the crazy work schools school is back and everything's getting nuts season than an escapist heartwarming uplifting book.
Pamela Stockwell
There you go.