Marbleheaders meet local literary lioness

By Benjamin Amirault
Correspondent

Tue, May 13 2008

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MARBLEHEAD — Literary fans in the Marblehead High School auditorium last night met author Sandy Brunonia Barry, a local woman who parlayed her self-published debut novel into a $2 million payday.

In a forum set up like an episode of "Inside the Actor's Studio," with English teacher Patrice Clough playing the role of James Lipton, Barry answered questions about the writing process and self-publishing her book "The Lace Reader."

True to her English-teaching vocation, Clough asked Barry, a Marblehead High alumna, about themes, metaphors and the ever-important symbols.

"No, I never said that I need a symbol," Barry said when asked if those in the book were intentional.

That comment is in line with Barry's seemingly spontaneous writing process. She spoke at length about how themes are largely the creation of the reader and how characters take on lives of their own.

Marblehead junior Morgan Ford said that hearing an author talk about how unintentional writing can be is a stark departure from what she has heard in English classes.

"The way it is taught, you think that the writer is planning everything to torture you and saying, 'Can you find the hidden theme?'" Morgan said.

The idea for "The Lace Reader" came to Barry in the most unintentional way — in a dream.

Barry said one night she dreamt that she looked through an old piece of lace, which allowed her to see through a wall in her house. She saw a field of horses on the other side.

"It was a very anxious dream because I am very allergic to horses," Barry told the crowd.

That wall happened to be scheduled to be knocked down the next morning. Just before the contractor began, he said to her, "Man, I hate these horsehair plaster walls. The hair gets everywhere."

She immediately told him not to knock down the wall.

That incident inspired her to write the short story that would eventually become her debut novel.

But turning the short story into a full novel didn't happen overnight. It took more like five years, during which time Barry surrounded herself with index cards that she used to piece the story's complex puzzle together. It took a lot of planning, but Barry said sometimes the planning went out the window once she started to write.

She would start with an outline, but many times a character would take her down a path she hadn't anticipated. When she arrived at the story's end, she was a little disappointed with how it turned out, she said, but she had to keep it — everything fit.

"The characters tell you who they are," Barry said.

Self-publishing her book was a lot like the writing process. Barry didn't know how it was going to turn out.

After she finished the book, she and her husband, Gary Ward, decided to publish the book themselves rather than chase the big publishers. Barry joked that she and her husband said to themselves, "How hard can it be?"

The couple sold their software company and invested their savings in the project. They found a distributor, a public relations firm, and hit almost 100 independent bookstores in the region hoping they would buy the 1,000 copies they printed.

That went well for a while, and Borders even picked up the book nationally, but only one or two copies were carried in each store.

Coming from a screenwriting background, Barry sent her book to a friend in Hollywood and asked if she thought it would make a good movie. She did, and so did other Hollywood executives, but they told Barry she needed to sign with a major publisher and sent the manuscript to New York.

The couple found themselves amid a bidding war for the novel. Barry said it took three days of endless phone calls, ordering out for pizza and listening to offers from five major publishers before she signed a deal with HarperCollins that was rumored to be worth more than $2 million. Barry wouldn't say the exact amount.

The book is going to be released nationally on July 29 and is also going to be made into a major motion picture, Barry said. She said she is writing the screenplay and said many of the scenes will be filmed in Salem.

Barry is also working on her second book, which she is contractually obliged to finish in just one year.

"It terrifies me," Barry said.

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