The Lovely Lynda Cohen Loigman....plus a book giveaway

We are thrilled to have Lynda Cohen Loigman back at CLC today to celebrate the publication of her sophomore novel, The Wartime Sisters. Melissa A loved this novel and is excited for you all to check it out. Check out her review! Lynda has one copy to give away, along with copy of her debut, The Two-Family House.

Lynda Cohen Loigman grew up in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. She received a B.A. in English and American Literature from Harvard College and a law degree from Columbia Law School. Lynda practiced trusts and estates law in New York City for eight years before moving out of the city to raise her two children with her husband. She wrote The Two-Family House while she was a student of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. The Two-Family House was chosen by Goodreads as the best book of the month for March 2016 and was a nominee for the Goodreads 2016 Choice Awards in Historical Fiction. (Adapted from Lynda's website.)

Visit Lynda online:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram

Synopsis:
Two estranged sisters, raised in Brooklyn and each burdened with her own shocking secret, are reunited at the Springfield Armory in the early days of WWII. While one sister lives in relative ease on the bucolic Armory campus as an officer’s wife, the other arrives as a war widow and takes a position in the Armory factories as a “soldier of production.” Resentment festers between the two, and secrets are shattered when a mysterious figure from the past reemerges in their lives. (Courtesy of Amazon.)

"A stirring tale of loyalty, betrayal, and the consequences of long-buried secrets.”
—Kristina McMorris, New York Times bestselling author of The Edge of Lost and Sold on a Monday

What is something you learned from writing The Two-Family House that you applied to The Wartime Sisters?
So many things! Writing The Two-Family House and seeing the story make its way from my laptop to readers was a tremendous education – not only about writing, but the publishing process as well. In terms of the writing itself, I’m hoping to improve with every book going forward. I’m hoping to write better characters, more relatable moments, and to focus in on my voice. I’m trying to push myself so that I can match my writing to my ambition. By that I mean that I have a lot of ideas for stories in my head – ideas that will involve a lot of work and time, and that I’m not sure I’m a good enough writer to pull off. But I really want to make each book a broader achievement than the last. In many ways, The Two-Family House was a very small story. It involved one family, one house, and one setting. With The Wartime Sisters, I tried to expand the world of my narrative. I dug deeply into my research, and I think the result is a more complex story.

In terms of one specific lesson I learned, publishing my first book taught me about the danger of confusing readers. People say not to read reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, but I honestly read as many as I can – good or bad, I find them incredibly helpful. With The Two-Family House, the most consistent criticism came from readers who said they figured out the “secret” right away. I had always assumed the secret wasn’t a secret at all, and that readers would guess it just from the book jacket. But somehow, that wasn’t what several readers thought. They assumed the big secret was exactly that, and that making it obvious was a flaw in the story. As I wrote The Wartime Sisters, I tried to be very careful to reveal information to the reader in a much more controlled way in order to avoid that kind of confusion a second time.

What is a favorite compliment you've received on your writing?
One of the best things about writing The Two-Family House was receiving emails from readers. People wrote to tell me how the book brought back memories of their own childhood, how the characters reminded them of their own relatives, and how they could see themselves and their families in the pages. I found those comments to be particularly moving because it meant that the story truly resonated with them. Knowing that people connected to my characters was incredibly special.

If you could cast The Wartime Sisters as a movie, who would star in the leading roles?
I just finished watching the second season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, so it won’t surprise you to hear that I would love to see Rachel Brosnahan as Millie. She’s been a redhead before, and I think she’d be fantastic. Elisabeth Moss (from The Handmaid’s Tale) would be a perfect Ruth because she’s able to go to a very somber and serious place with her acting. I’d love to see Michelle Williams as Lillian, Broadway star Lindsay Mendez as Arietta, and Kate Bosworth as Grace. Darren Criss would make a wonderful Lenny, and I’d pick Max Irons for Arthur.

What is a new year's resolution you try to stick to every year?
Aside from diet and fitness goals, I always promise myself that I’ll be more present with the people I love and try to worry less. I’m still working on all of that!

What music are you currently listening to on repeat?
I love musicals, so whenever I’m in my car, I usually tune in to the Sirius radio Broadway channel. If you had asked me this question in 2016, when The Two-Family House was first published, I would have said the Hamilton Broadway album. If you had asked me a year later, I would have said the soundtrack for Dear Evan Hansen. Since then, I haven’t found a new musical that has held my attention in quite the same way. I’ve gone back to a lot of older musical albums – ones I haven’t listened to for a long time. I can’t say I’m listening to anything on repeat, but whenever I need creative inspiration, I always go back to the music from Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday In The Park With George. The songs are all about the artistic process. My favorite is called “Putting It Together.”

What is your favorite day of the week?
Nothing beats Sunday mornings. If I’m lucky, somebody else gets up to walk the puppy, and I get a few extra minutes to read in bed. There is always a lot of coffee and I don’t get out of my pajamas until the afternoon.

Thanks to Lynda for visiting with us and sharing her books with our readers.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

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Giveaway ends January 27th at midnight EST.