My husband helped me create his current identity, of a man who owns a bicycle shop and who, long, long ago, got lucky in a way he has spent a lifetime trying to understand and live up to. What is it like to imagine what you feel in your heart isn't true, but which you must imagine because it's your imagination that might be that child's only chance? In one of my earliest drafts, making age-progressed photos was something that Tom Clark did for a living. So many times in my life, I've wondered what it would be like to be the person whose job it is to create these hypothetical futures for children who, so tragically in many cases, have no future at all. I always stop what I'm doing when I come across one, and I study that face, try to see a childhood in it, try to see a future, and it always breaks my heart and shocks me. How did you create Tom Clark and where did his purpose in the novel come from?ĮR: All my life, I've paid attention to the age-progressed pictures of missing persons. SR: In Idaho, Tom Clark (the portrait artist) gives life to June’s possible futures through his art and serves as a source of hope, but overall a sense of comfort to the Mitchells. I've never had to "unblock childhood nostalgia" because I feel my childhood each day, not just as nostalgia but as this living realm that's inside of me, constantly a part of my present. And so it feels real for my characters' childhoods to be a part of them, too. I am obsessed with childhood because my own childhood is very much alive in me, very much a part of who I am today. Writing is more instinctive for me than that, less logical, and, in a lot of ways, simpler and messier at once. My honest answer is I don't really think about the "purpose" of something I am writing about. What is the purpose behind the obsession of unblocking childhood nostalgia and how does that lead to the acceptance of present mysteries in the novel?Įmily Ruskovich: Thanks so much for your interesting question. In Idaho, each character is engrossed in some way in the memory of their own childhood. I am grateful for the chance to discuss your current novel and writing process. Superstition Review: Thank you for doing this interview.
I enjoyed reading her poetic prose and detective-like characters in this tragic yet touching novel.” In this interview Emily Ruskovich talks about the peace Idaho has given her, the influence of age-progressed photos of missing people, and the personal connection she has with characters. Of the process she said, “Emily Ruskovich’s novel Idaho uses flashbacks to highlight the long-lasting effects of childhood. This interview was conducted via e-mail by Interview Editor Jacqueline Aguilar. “Outside of Idaho,” an interview with Emily Ruskovich
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