Welcome to BookEnds, Lindsey Godfrey Eccles!

I’m so excited today to welcome Lindsey Godfrey Eccles to the BookEnds family! Lindsey’s lush, literary fantasy imagining the history of the Pacific Northwest felt both believable and otherworldly, and I loved following her characters along on their journeys to figure out their places in the world. I can’t wait to share it with all of you.

Welcome to BookEnds, Lindsey!

What book do you wish you had written, and why?

Lonesome Dove.  It made me cry so hard for so long that I’ve only read it once.    

If you’re not reading or writing, what would we catch you doing? 

With any luck I’m outside, enjoying the natural splendor of the Pacific Northwest.  But since I work as an attorney practicing litigation, there’s a good chance I’m defending a deposition or something like that instead. 

Where can readers find you on the web and social media?

The best place to find me is on twitter, @LGEccles. 

What’s the last book you read?

I recently re-read Lily King’s Euphoria, which I love for many reasons, but especially for the way she does historical fiction as fever dream.  To me it reads like literary fantasy even though it reflects actual events.  

If money were no object, what would be your dream writing location?

This may be hard to believe, but my favorite place to work is at the kitchen table with my family scattered around me doing their own things: my youngest building legos, my daughter drawing comics, my oldest playing the cello, and my husband wrangling a project outside.   It doesn’t always work (especially if the older two kids are fighting), but when it does, I feel confident and safe enough to take on anything.

What’s your favorite quote about reading or writing?

Willie Nelson says he catches songs as they fall from the sky.  When it feels like that you know you’re doing it right. 

What’s your favorite piece of writing advice you’ve received?

I recently took a revision workshop with Lauren Groff, who warns us that words are seducers.  I think this is a much more helpful version of the oft-repeated admonition that we must “kill our darlings.”  She also says that after she pounds out the first draft of a story she puts it away and never looks at it again.  As an obsessive indexer, note-taker, and cross-checker, I find this idea very freeing. 

What excites you most about joining the BookEnds family?

Oh my goodness – as Russell says at the end of Almost Famous, everything. 

What advice would you give to other authors in the query trenches?

There is one thing that separates writers who break into this industry from those who don’t: irrational, doglike persistence.  Learn everything you can from anyone who is willing to help you and don’t give up.  It will happen.