Diversity is in the air. It's evident in the sheer magnitude of languages I hear daily, the skin colors I see, and the variety, mix and fusion of ethnic cuisine available in Los Angeles. It didn't just happen overnight. When my friends and I were in college we questioned and challenged everything. It was an era for women asserting themselves in the work place and in the bedroom.
Is a same sex relationship easier, we wondered? There wouldn't be the same power struggles, we thought. Sexual Fluidity wasn't a term in popular use then, and bisexuality was distrusted by both gays and straights. In her debut novel, A Fitting Place, Mary Gottschalk, tells the story of one woman's journey down that path.
From Amazon:
In the wake of her husband’s desertion, Lindsey Chandler finds solace in a relationship with a woman who offers an intimacy Lindsey has never known. Before long, however, she finds herself ensnared by the same destructive inter-personal dynamics that plagued her marriage. Unable to blame her dilemma on traditional gender roles, Lindsey is forced to look in the mirror as she seeks to define what she wants from this—or any—relationship. The premise of this debut novel is that opportunities for personal growth are greatest when you step outside your comfort zone. A Fitting Place is an uplifting story of the human potential we all have.
Why do you write what you do, Mary?
You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build
your wings on the way down.” — Ray Bradbury
Taken literally, Bradbury’s quote sounds preposterously
risky, but it speaks to the potential for intellectual, emotional and spiritual
growth that occurs when you are in “free fall,” when your core beliefs and
values are being challenged.
It is this often-painful but ultimately exhilarating process
that is the central theme of both my memoir and my novel.
In one sense, I have always been a risk-taker. It’s a
behavior pattern borne out of a mélange of natural curiosity, an intense dislike
of repetition and routine, and an almost instinctive tendency to rattle
whatever cage I happen to be in.
More often than not, risk-taking had positive results by
opening a door to educational and career options I might otherwise not have
had. But all too often, those new opportunities left me no more satisfied than
I had been before I made the change. Metaphorically, I was getting off one bus with
uncomfortable seats and hopping onto the next bus that came along in the hope
that it would suit me better.
I never stopped to ask where the bus was going, or whether I
would be better off traveling by train or on foot.
Until I was 40, that is.
That was the year that I got off the bus for the last time.
That was the year my husband and I abandoned our successful careers, as well as
family, friends, or familiar support systems, to sail around the world in
37-foot sailboat. That was the year that I began my escape from a world of
other people’s expectations. For the
first time in my life, I had to decide for myself where I was going and how I
was I going to get there.
My
memoir, Sailing Down the Moonbeam
starts with my decision to trade the bus for sailboat, to step out of my
comfort zone from a professional and cultural perspective. It ends as I begin a
new, more purposeful way of life that has sustained me for a quarter of a
century.
By the time the memoir was completed, however, I realized
that “the story” was larger than “my story,” and that few people can quit their jobs and head off
into the sunset. I wanted to explore the growth that can take place when a
woman stays close to home. In my novel, A
Fitting Place, Lindsey Chandler is hurtled out of her psychological comfort
zone by the betrayal of those she most trusts. Her journey to emotional
maturity begins when she begins to re-examine her entire value system,
including loyalty, marriage and gender roles.
How does your work differ from
others of its genre?
The premise behind both my memoir and my novel is that
opportunities for personal growth are greatest when you step outside your
comfort zone. From a psychological perspective, the term “comfort zone”
encompasses behavior patterns formed during childhood, patterns which may not
be productive or healthy in adult relationships.
By
stepping outside of your comfort zone—whether by choice or by circumstance—you
exponentially increase the possibility of personal and professional
growth.
My
writing is also distinctive because I like to utilize metaphors to emphasize
the universal themes that underlie my stories:
·
Sailing
Down the Moonbeam
(a memoir) – Sailing is a powerful metaphor for everyday life:
·
It
is impossible to control your environment, whether it’s the weather or a
possible job promotion. You enjoy life much more if you recognize the your
control is limited to your own thoughts and actions.
·
Very
few things in life work out the way you planned. Expectations leave you
vulnerable to disappointment, while living in the moment opens the door to
opportunities you didn’t expect.
·
All
too often, you end up in a different place that you intended to go, both in
relationships and in careers. Our focus should be on the journey, not the
destination.
·
A
Fitting Place
(a novel) — The title is a metaphor that
applies on multiple levels:
·
A Fitting Room – A fitting room is a great place to try on a new persona. How would I look in purples? Would I feel
sexy or tart-y in a sequined dress with a plunging neckline? Some unexpected purchases
delighted me for years, but others languished in a closet until I carted them
off to Goodwill.
Lindsey’s love
affair with a woman offers an intimacy she has always ached to have, an
opportunity to try a different way of living and loving. But will that same-sex
relationship stand the test of time, or will it founder just as her previous
relationships with men have foundered?
·
The Biblical Notion of Fitting. The Biblical term “fitting” usually refers to
actions or events that are suited to the circumstances, rather than those that
are “right” in some a priori or moralistic way.
For most of her
life, Lindsey has done the “right” thing, routinely subordinating her needs to
what she assumed was expected of her. Only when Lindsey begins to take
responsibility for her own decisions and actions—to do what fits the situation
rather than what she thinks someone wants—do her stomachaches ease. It is the
beginning of maturity.
·
A Jigsaw Puzzle – We’ve all been frustrated by working on a jigsaw puzzle with
a piece or two missing. Most of us have also had the distressing sense that a
piece of information or a crucial insight is missing from your life.
For Lindsey,
the missing pieces were largely of her own making, a consequence of her
tendency to dole out only the information she thought people “ought” to know.
The pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place as Lindsey discovers that what
her friends and family really wanted from her was quite different than what she
had assumed.
Mary has
made a career out of changing careers.
She spent
nearly thirty years in the financial markets, working with major corporations
in New York, New Zealand, Australia, Central America, Europe, and now Des
Moines, Iowa. Along the way, she dropped out several times, the first time to
embark on the multi-year sailing voyage chronicled in her memoir, Sailing Down the Moonbeam.
In her
latest incarnation as a writer, she has written for The Iowan and contributed to several anthologies. A Fitting Place is her first novel.
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