Kathleen Barber of Are You Sleeping (Truth Be Told) Joins Self Indulgence Book Club - Meeting Recap

The Shelf Indulgence Book Club Zoom meeting of March 21st had the truly delightful experience of having author Kathleen Barber attend our virtual meeting.

Our book club has now read two of Barber’s books - Follow Me and Are You Sleeping (note: Are You Sleeping appears as Truth Be Told on Audiobooks). What commenced was a lively discussion covering creative inspiration, having your book become the pilot script for an AppleTV series (Truth Be Told starring Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul, Elizabeth Perkins, Mekh Phifer, Lizzy Caplan - pretty impressive cast), and how authors navigate social media. (Having a sense of humor is, apparently, quite an asset).

Barber shared her inspiration for Are You Sleeping: she became enthralled with the Serial podcast. What intrigued her, and became the stimulus for Are You Sleeping, was how a podcast can mobilize an entire virtual community in solving, or attempting to solve, true crime.

What resulted is a suspenseful story of how the “Reconsidered” podcast Barber creates is woven into her story of twin sisters and their lives following a family tragedy. The story unfolds with many voices — those of the major characters as well as the comments from the Reconsidered audience. Judging by our Club’s reaction, this interplay worked amazingly well. The reader believes she has the crime solved. But, wait. What about what this podcast listener’s take on the crime. Hmmm.

Included in our discussion was how a book gets labeled - suspense vs. thriller. Not all of us realized that suspense doesn’t require imminent threat of death, thriller does. (Take a moment for bookstore staffs here, having to decide exactly which section to place that brand new book).

Barber also gave us insight into how a writer works with an editor. That beloved dream sequence? Sigh. It’s out - per the editor’s advice. (But, is it really gone forever? Or is that sequence just waiting for a future book? Stay tuned.) Barber, the mother of a 21/2 yr. old boy and a 7 month old baby girl (who joined our discussion), graduated from law school, became a corporate lawyer, but she never stopped writing. The twin sisters in Are You Sleeping have been characters she’s developed in stories since she was in high school.

So, the corporate legal world’s loss is the suspense loving readers’ gain. Thanks for your charming, and enlightening, presence at our book club, Kathleen.

This was a Sunday afternoon pleasure much needed.

Posted by book lover: Phyllis T.