Kathryn Kay - The Gilder

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am deeply grateful to:

My agent, Meg Ruley; my editor, John Scognamiglio; and everyone at Kensington Books who worked on bringing this book to fruition.

Nancy Thayer, for introducing me to Meg and for her continued support and wisdom.

The members of my Nantucket writing group, for listening to this story as it evolved, and for their ongoing encouragement.

My workshop students, who inspire me with their honesty and courage.

Ariel, for being the best daughter a mother could have, and for being my first and most faithful reader.

Ted, for his invaluable technical support and for his part in creating my darling Elsie.

Tyler and Blakney, for showing me just how wide a heart can open.

Robert, for having faith that I would one day finish this book, and for loving me in spite of how long it took.

Please turn the page
for a very special Q&A
with Kathryn Kay.

I understand you once lived in Florence and Im wondering how much of this story comes from your own experience living there?

Yes, like Marina, I did live in Florence when I was in my early twenties, but I stayed for five years. And like her, I did take a restoration course, but I specialized in fifteenth-century inlay techniques, although gilding was a component of the course. I had a friend there, a man, who apprenticed with a master gilder, and I found it fascinating. I did live in Via Luna and my landlord was a poultry broker, but as far as I know, his son was not a transvestite. I do remember seeing the transvestites in the doorways, as I described them the night Sarah and Thomas take Marina for a walk, but I didnt know any personally. The list goes on and on. As in any fiction, there are bits and pieces of me, my experiences, the people I know, mixed in with the fantasy. Just to set the record straight, I was not seduced by my best friends husband nor did I have his baby. In fact, it was something I worried about regularly while I was writing the bookwhat if readers, especially people who know me, imagine I did these terrible things?

The relationships between the female characters in the novel are quite complex. Can you say something about that?

Yes, I think relationships between women can be quite complex, and I found that I had to be careful not to go off in too many directions since I had not only the central relationship between Marina and Sarah, but also the lesbian relationship of Lydia and June, their relationship with Marina, and the question of her sexual preference, and then there was Sarahs deep friendship with Marcello / Marcella the transvestite.

The original inspiration for Marina falling in love with Sarah came from a story that a good friend of mine (an older woman) once related to me. She told me that when her children were young, shed had a good friend, someone shed known for years, a woman with whom shed raised her children, who one day confessed that she had feelings for my friend and wondered if there was any possibility of a more intimate relationship. My friend did not share these feelings and, while not offended, their friendship was never the same. I qualify that she was older only to point out that women having crushes on or falling in love with their female friends is not peculiar to contemporary generations. The more I delved into this subject with women, the more I realized how common it is and how little it is spoken about, and so I wanted to bring it out into the light and see what would happen. Its a very particular type of relationship. Its not about becoming a lesbian; its about straight women and what they do with these feelings. I created the lesbian relationship between Lydia and June to better help Marina (and the reader) understand her own sexual orientation. What can I say? Its a complex topic with amorphous boundaries.

The other major relationship, of course, is between Marina and her daughter, Zoe. I understand that you were a single parent who raised a daughter. How much did that inform your characters?

Although my daughter did have a relationship with her father, whom she saw regularly, I raised her predominantly on my own and with very little financial support. She and I had (and still have) a lovely and very close relationship, but I did not hide behind it the way Marina did to avoid intimate relationships. Certainly, the love and emotion Marina feels toward Zoe are informed by the feelings I have for my daughter, and I can imagine the fear she feels when Zoe runs away and the terror at the thought that she may have lost her daughters love. I know other women who are single parents, and Im sure bits and pieces of them have crept into Marinas story.

Many if not most of the characters in your book are artists or are creative in some way. Is that because its set in Florence, or is there another reason?

Florence does lend itself to artthat goes without sayingbut my life has always been filled with creative people. My father, who was a businessman, was very creative and could paint and draw and make just about anything you might imagine, and was a good storyteller, too. There are six children in my family, and every one of us is artistic in some way.

When I lived in Florence, most everyone I knew was an artist of some sort, and I continue to be surrounded by creative people today. My husband is a businessman (who says we dont marry our parents?), but hes also a musician, and he paints and writes beautifully as well. I suppose its true that we do write about what we know.

Your main character, Marina, struggles with forgiveness. Is this a concept you chose to explore for a reason?

Actually, I was about three-quarters of the way through writing the book before I realized that forgiveness had become a predominant theme. The concept of forgiveness is something Im curious about. Intellectually, I understand the theory that if we do not forgive (give back) the injustice that is done to us, we are the one who suffers, not the one at which we direct our silent rage. But its a concept I struggle with in spite of having had some modest success in that arena. Once I realized the theme was there, I began to work with it on various levels with each character. It makes sense to me that Marina might be able to find a way to forgive herself for her transgressions against Sarah, but perhaps find it more difficult to forgive herself for hurting her daughter. I could imagine Zoe forgiving her mother but perhaps only as a means to survive. After all, shes only fifteen and Marina is the only parent she has. Although I couldnt imagine how Sarah might find a way to forgive Marina, its not beyond the realm of possibility, and I chose to leave that in the readers hands.

Was there a particular, specific inspiration for writing this book?

There were a number, including the topics weve already touched on, but I also wanted to explore what happens when a good person makes a bad mistake. I wanted to create a sympathetic character who did something so bad it was unforgivable... and, yet, was it? In Marina, I created a character who made a terrible mistake when she was very young and then chose, out of fear and navet, to cover it up. Very quickly, it took on a life of its own, and before she knew it, shed built a life on a foundation of lies. The thing is, shes not a bad person, but how does she survive a life like that and what can she do when it begins to unravel? Ill be very interested to know if the readers will forgive her.