It’s fall, y’all! Let’s have a little fireside chat with my good friend, D. Liebhart. Her work is so deeply unique and fascinating. You will find yourself in these characters as you read and, oh my, the stories she tells. Let’s dive right in!

Both your debut HOUSE ON FIRE and your latest FERAL CREATURES OF SUBURBIA are rooted in truth. Truth about some of the more difficult and less glamorous parts of life. Can you share with us your inspiration for one or both of your works?

I’ve always written from an element of truth. I’m very much on a mission to create fiction that feels real. I want readers to relate to the humanity of the characters and the complexities of their situations. A lot of HOUSE ON FIRE comes from my own family’s experience with my father’s dementia. My mother sometimes said that my father would have killed himself if he knew he was going to end up living with the condition for ten years. I took that thought and ran with it. What would a family do if they knew (or felt like they knew) that someone wouldn’t want to live the way they were living? What level of faith or belief in your understanding of another human being’s wants would allow you to go to extremes to fulfill a promise? How might different people see that situation differently? All the storylines in FERAL CREATURES OF SUBURBIA are to some degree or another based in reality, either mine or someone close to me. I had a reviewer say that these were some of the unluckiest people alive and I wonder about that. If you don’t know someone who’s had serious challenges raising children in the modern world or who’s been impacted by cancer, you should definitely count yourself lucky. But these things happen around us all the time.

You use humor in your writing and in your everyday life. You radiate positivity. Has this always been your personality, or do you think it’s developed as you’ve matured.

My mother was the ultimate optimist and I think to some degree any positivity I have comes from her way of approaching life. I’d say I’m more of a realist than an optimist though. One thing I do is to make sure the stories I tell myself about the world are positive or neutral. The world we create in our minds is the world we live in. Assuming good or at least neutral intent makes our inner world so much better and often improves how we interact with other humans. Yesterday my husband and I went to a popular restaurant in Santa Fe. There was about a twenty-minute wait so I went to put business cards for HOUSE ON FIRE on all the cars in the parking lot, and he sat at a table in the patio waiting area. Then, he decided to go into the bar to order a drink. He left his hat and glasses on the table to save the space but when we came back someone was sitting there. He assumed that they were impolite people who chose to ignore that someone was saving the seat. I assumed they thought someone forgot their stuff. Not only is it not that important, it isn’t something we’re ever going to have the true story about so why tell a story that makes the world more negative. You don’t and can’t know what is going on in other people’s minds. That idea is very much a part of FERAL CREATURES OF SUBURBIA.

Can you describe one early experience where you learned the power of language and that you recognized you had a gift to share with the world?

I wouldn’t go so far to say I have a gift. I do think I can tell a pretty good story. But it’s something I’ve worked at over the years building on a small natural ability. I’ve always written and often had people respond positively to my writing but for most of my teens and young adulthood I wanted to be a rock star. For me it was all about realizing that I’d probably be better off pursuing the thing I seemed to have some natural abilities with, rather than the thing that I seemed to have no natural abilities with. I once played a song I’d written for a singing teacher of mine and her immediate response was about lyrics not the song (or my singing). Those kinds of experiences made me realize I’d go further with writing but it was still a long road and I’d still rather be a rockstar (not really, or just maybe a little).

What does literary success look like to you?

I think one of the most dangerous things creative people can tell themselves is that fame or money is creative success. Fame in particular is a rather bizarre way to judge a creative life or work. When you look at what fame is and how it happens, it’s a terrible measure of success. But, if I’m honest, I still have this angst about fame. I’m not famous; therefore, I’m not successful. I intellectually know it to be false but still struggle with it. It’s so much a part of American culture. My favorite work of art is the Ideal Palace. It’s a l’Art Brut masterpiece created over 33 years by a man pursuing a vision inside his head. That should be one’s measure of success. Did you create the work you intended? For me, having a reader reflect back to me in a review or comment something about my book that I intended is when I feel most successful.

Coffee or tea?

Both. My mother was British so tea was always a part of my life. I started drinking coffee on a regular basis after my daughter was born and I was constantly exhausted. Whenever I stayed with my mom, I immediately went back to tea.

How did you come up with the title of your most recent novel- FERAL CREATURES OF SUBURBIA? Can you let us in on a little Easter egg in there that maybe not everyone else knows about?

The book was originally called Madhouse but I didn’t want to have a title that had house in it again nor a title that wasn’t unique. I didn’t realize how many books were called HOUSE ON FIRE until after that book was out. My friend Alan and I did a brainstorming session via text for titles. We just kept sending long lists of possible titles, many completely absurd. FERAL CREATURES OF SUBURBIA was in there somewhere. On the last beta read, one reader commented that she didn’t see the connection to the title so on the final revision, I added some stronger connections. I could see them as the writer but they needed to be more overt for the reader. As for Easter eggs, a poem by Tony Hoagland appears at the end of the book. There are references to aspects of that poem throughout the book. I don’t know if anyone has seen them but they are there.

What is your favorite thing to do to relax?

If you asked my husband, I don’t relax. I love to read. I have a hammock in our backyard and I feel the most relaxed when I’m in it looking up at the leaves in the trees, being mindful of all that beauty.

What’s the best way for us to keep up with D. Liebhart and make sure we don’t miss anything?

The best way to keep up with me is my newsletter, which one can join on my website: dliebhart.com CLICK HERE to be entered in the giveaway for a chance to win a signed copy of one of her books by October 31, 2024!