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 Neela Sakaria: Please tell our readers a little bit about your personal and professional background. This is your first book, correct?
F.K. Ayre: For many years I have been a newspaper writer, byline and first page (front page) contributor. I am also a 25-year Charter member of RWA; and a member of Published Authors Network, among others. I am published in women’s fiction and romance books. As a former designer, I have also written a fashion book. Although this is not my first book, I had to employ private lessons to develop a mainstream style of writing for Beyond Tomorrow.
Neela: How did Beyond Tomorrow come about? It began as a project with your husband, correct? Can you tell our readers how you came upon the former president's books? Why did you decide to write your own book?
FKA: I didn't want to do the book. I was going to help with the book, and in my grief, I didn't feel up to it. But family convinced me that I was the only one left who knew all of this. President Arthur, a reformed former lawyer and accomplice of corrupt Senator Conklin and followers,wanted his books and past burned before his death. His son, Alan, hid the books, built a large fire seen from his father's window, and claimed he had burned the books. He hid the books until his own death at age 91. Grandson Gavin in the 1950s or so, loaned the books to a Santa Barbara college professor, but the man deceived him and wrote a bunch of political hogwash. In the latter 1960s, we--my corporate executive husband (tired of golfing and hunting, and with a new all-terrain land cruiser, showed interest in ocean-front sand dunes) and I rented a weekend home--a part of a dismantled mansion near the ocean. The living room was a former library with hundreds of 8 1/2 by 10 leather books. An immigrant couple who loaned money to home owners down on their luck, had recently foreclosed on the mansion owned by Gavin--Chester Alan Arthur III, President Arthur's grandson. They had cut it up and moved it around and made 4 rentable quarters.
Neela: Tell us more about Chester III, or Gavin. What was he like? Would he have been pleased with this book?
FKA: Gavin used the books as a whip. He was a suave, interesting, well-read, extremely lovable,--hypocrite if he didn't like you--and even though he died seemingly a failure, he always claimed he had a handle on things. He cleverly, in his most enchanting manner, really screwed the immigrant couple who (he claimed) stole his property. I could write a book about Gavin, about the small, poverty-recessed town by the ocean where everyone knew everyone--blessings and/or sins.
Neela: The book reads more like a novel than a biography per se. Was that your intention? Why did you make that choice?
FKA: BEYOND TOMORROW does read like a novel, because the President's life seemed like a well-planned fiction,except THAT IT IS POSITIVELY TRUE. We had a small afflicted child, and while the men were out, I stayed home with Salina--the afflicted child. She found a metal toy. I took it away and tossed it in a cabinet under the books. All cabinets had weird mythological, scary figures carved in the doors. When I threw the toy in, the floor made a hollow sound. I investigated,and found parts of several torn, aged, hand written journals, some lettering quite elaborate, with ink that was faded or fading. They were in a sub floor that had been weakened in moving the building around.
Neela: You include some very detailed dialogues in the book, between the president and his colleagues etc. Where did that dialogue come from?
FKA: All the dialogue I assumed. It is what he would have said or should have said. I wanted the work to feel like show, instead of 'tell'.
Neela: Did you do any additional research when writing this book, aside from Arthur's own journals, records, etc?
FKA: You bet I did a lot of research. I looked in hundreds of books and material, and never did find out if President Arthur's eyes were blue or brown. And he would mention things, by a name, and sometimes it was days of searching before I found out what building he meant, or what the Burro Express was, or even a milk train when his wife was dying. The greatest challenge in writing the book? Imitating Kenneth's voice. As I had been his secretary before marriage, and had 26 years together before his death, I thought it would be a breeze. But I must have succeeded, as I get pleasing endorsements from people of worth who think Kenneth did it before his death.
Neela: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?
FKA: Anything else I could share? Enough to fill three books. I took a trip to the little town last summer. I found many old people who had always lived there, who remembered Gavin. I went for a walk near the Temple of the Dead. I joined another lady, old, full of yesterday. We talked about the town, and who else--Gavin. Yes, she remembered Gavin well. I talked to the lady who owns the post office. Yes. Absolutely, she recalled Gavin. I haven’t had time to try to sell the books, they sell themselves. I do hope you enjoy this.
Beyond Tomorrow
ISBN: 0974203505
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