Co-authors Abby Frucht (left) and Laurie Alberts met in an MFA program in Vermont.
What if two longtime friends wrote a novel together? That’s the question Oshkosh writer Abby Frucht posed one fine day in May 2010 to fellow novelist Laurie Alberts, who lives off the grid in rural Vermont. Six years later, their first collaborative effort, A Well-Made Bed (Red Hen Press) is earning praise from former Madison author Jacquelyn Mitchard, who calls the book a “modern parable” that “will make you laugh and shudder and identify, whether you want to or not.”
A Well-Made Bed chronicles the messy lives of Jaycee Emory and Noor Khan — two disparate (and desperate) women united by a childhood tragedy and, years later, thrust into a world of greed, murder and illicit drugs. Frucht will read from the book at A Room of One’s Own, 315 W. Gorham St., on Tuesday, May 17, at 6 p.m.
How did you two meet?
Laurie Alberts: We met at Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA in Writing program, where we both taught for many years. In fact, we set our novel in Montpelier because it is the only place we both know well.
Would you have written A Well-Made Bed on your own?
Abby Frucht: I would never have had the guts, not to mention the ability, to write A Well-Made Bed alone. The story — about two women who come into possession of a large amount of [cocaine], decide to sell it and then experience the consequences — struck me as being too big for me to handle. Inventing all of this with Laurie turned a lot of work into a lot of fun. Also, the heavier parts of the novel, like the questions it raises about how far people go to get what they want and how they change who they are in the process, might have remained abstract if I had asked them by myself. Together, Laurie and I were able to turn the questions into stories.
What was the collaboration process like? Did one of you write from Noor’s perspective and the other from Jaycee’s?
Alberts: I took Noor and Abby took Jaycee. But as we wrote, other characters evolved, and we began by splitting them up and then switching who wrote which characters, so that each of us had written drafts from all points of view. And every chapter has input from both of us, right down to the sentence level. We don’t remember who wrote what.
Abby, what influence does living in Wisconsin have on your writing?
Frucht: A review of A Well-Made Bed refers to the “pastoral” Vermont setting and the wily, formidable strength of Vermonters. My deep appreciation for the rural landscape and the frankness of the people who work it comes from having lived in Wisconsin for nearly two and a half decades.
What were the challenges of working with someone half a country away?
Alberts: The challenges were not caused by distance but by differences in personality, writing style, even composition process. My habit has always been to write a very loose, rough first draft to get the story down, and then develop and polish later. But Abby, I learned, discovers events and characters by playing with sentences and word choice as she goes along. I had to concede to her process because she couldn’t bear mine.
Frucht: I raised the question of writing with [Laurie] just a month after I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Although I had surgery and radiation burns, I never felt afraid, and it seems to me that maybe part of the reason is not only that I was absorbed in a creative project but that my writing partner was a woman who understands what it’s like to go through hard things, and how much it means just to trust (or to be) the presence on the other end of the phone and at the far side of the email.
Would you do another book together?
Alberts: If I ever collaborate on a novel again, it would be with Abby. We’ve talked about a sequel.
NOTE: The photo caption has been changed to correct an initial mistake, from Isthmus' print edition, where Frucht and Alberts' names were swapped.
