A Quick Chat with Deborah Clark Vance

What do you do to unwind and relax?

Various things: Watching classic movies on TV, taking hot baths, reading in the hammock, taking walks, going to the beach, walking in the woods, hanging out with friends.

Who is your hero and why?

As for a name you might know, I’m a great admirer of Vedana Shiva who is so eloquent in speaking out against those forces inflicting violence on the environment. As for names we wouldn’t know, there are people in my community who do so much, like cook meals for the homeless, fight for legal protections for the indigent, go to the bus depot at midnight to greet busloads of refugees, and try to help people talk across our differences.

**Why is Sylvie Denied a must read?**

Sylvie Denied set late 1960s early 1970s, a pivotal moment in human history, much like today. It’s a time full of possibility and can we have a choice to redeem ourselves or sink further into self-destruction as a species. There’s a great deal of awakening to injustices and how to address them, as well as creative new ways of organizing our lives, and spiritual searching for the meaning of life. This in all in the background.

The story follows the thinking of a girl growing into womanhood who searches for her authentic self in a time when women were challenging the many restrictions they faced, especially ones upheld by narrow-mindedness. We follow as she navigates her place in the world and we see how she’s haunted by a traumatic childhood incident. People – even ones who lived during that time – tend to caricature that period as all “bummer” or all “groovy.” It was a time that cracked open the culture as people reacted against too much plastic and violence and the “button-down mind.”

Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?

They’re a combination of both. I’d think about a type of person who who’d speak and behave according to the needs of the story. But to think of the type of person, characteristics of people I’d met or known about would come to mind, and I considered how they talked, their mannerisms, peculiarities of speech, etc.

Have you written any other books that are not published?

I had a rather complete unpublished novel that I cannibalized for this one, several outlines for books, and a pile of short stories

Where did you come up with your characters’ names?

I researched the meanings of names. For example, Sylvia is based on the Latin word for woods, Diana is the goddess of the woods. Some of the names are onomatopoeia.

About Deborah Clark Vance

Originally from the Chicago suburbs, Deborah Clark Vance has lived throughout the US and in Italy.

While raising her children, she earned a living by teaching piano lessons, selling her original artwork, editing a health journal, translating Italian, writing freelance articles and textbook chapters, working on a children’s educational TV series, teaching in a day treatment program for adults with mental and emotional illnesses, creating garden designs and teaching as a college adjunct.

After completing a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture at Howard University, she taught and served as Chair of the Department of Communication & Cinema at McDaniel College in Maryland.

Although she also contributed articles and chapters to academic publications, those only earned her a modicum of prestige rather than income. She’s keenly interested in the natural world as well as in social justice, spirituality and women’s issues. Sylvie Denied is her debut novel.

About Sylvie Denied

Sylvie Denied by Deborah Clark Vance
Genre: Women’s Fiction

Synopsis

As she enters adulthood in the turbulent 1970s, Sylvie thinks the way to change a violent world is to become a peaceful person. Yet she slowly sees how a childhood trauma thwarts her peaceful intentions and leads her to men with a dark side – including Enzo, the man she marries. Even as his behavior becomes increasingly volatile, she believes she can make things better with love and understanding. But finally living in terror. Sylvie must find a way to escape with her daughter and a way to claim her place in the world.

Add to your Goodreads shelf.

Purchase on *Amazon | B&N

*This site uses Amazon affiliate links.

Watch the trailer on YouTube.