It's Hard To Tell What People Will

The Best Moment In Writing Any Book Is When You Just Can't Wait To Get Back To The Writing, When You Can't Wait To Re-enter That Fictional Place, When Your Fictional Town Feels Even More Real Than The Town Where You Actually Live.

There Is This Split Between The Haiti Of Before The Earthquake And The Haiti Of After The Earthquake. So When I'm Writing Anything Set In Haiti Now, Whether Fiction Or Nonfiction, Always In The Back Of My Mind Is How People, Including Some Of My Own Family Members, Have Been Affected Not Just By History And By The Present But Also By The Earthquake.

There Is A Frustration Too, That At Moments When There's Not A Coup, When There Are Not People In The Streets, That The Country Disappears From People's Consciousness.

I Was Able To Not Fold And Go In A Corner Because I Had My Writing As Therapy, But Also As My Tool For Struggle.

Salt Is A Powerful Symbol In Haiti, As Elsewhere. Salt Of The Earth, For Example Is An American Phrase. In Haiti, Myth And Legend Has It That If You Are Turned Into A Zombie, If Someone Gives You A Taste Of Salt, Then You Can Come Back To Life. And In The Life Of The Fishermen, There Are So Many Little Things About Salt That I Wanted To Incorporate. The Salt In The Air. The Crackling Of Salt In The Fire. There's All This Damage, This Peeling Of The Fishing Boats From The Sea Salt. But There Is Also Healing From It, Sea Baths That Are Supposed To Heal All Kinds Of Aches And Wounds.