Author Q&A With D.E. Carr

D.E. Carr grew up as the middle child of seven in Indianapolis and went on to earn degrees in history and psychology from Ball State University. Her career has taken her from managing a neuropsychology department in a Texas rehabilitation facility to championing health equity as a community consultant and advocate at the University of Michigan’s Institute of Clinical & Health Research. A former marathon runner who has completed 15 races, including Boston twice, she knows Ann Arbor’s streets and historic charms by heart. She lives in Ann Arbor with her husband, Brian, and three rescue dogs, and feels blessed that their adult daughter and partner live a short drive away. In 2017, Diane lost her brother Rick to suicide. Writing was her catharsis, and her brother is the inspiration for the wisecracking younger brother of her protagonist. When Squirrels Fly is her first novel. Meet: D.E.:

You are an author, but is it your day job? Being an author is my day job now. But it wasn’t when I first started writing my book. At that time, I was working full-time in the recreation, health, and wellness industry. But the year was 2020, and the world was struggling through the COVID pandemic, so I,e in the community service industry, had a lot of forced downtime like many people. In the early months of 2020, I was just beginning to see the light at the end of a long tunnel of depression that I had slipped into following the worst year of my life, 2017. In the Spring of that year, I lost a younger brother to suicide. Several months later, I lost the job I’d held for 21 years that had defined my career. The isolation of the pandemic provided too much time to think. I realized that while I had once been an avid reader, in the three years since my brother’s passing, I couldn’t find a book that inspired me to get back to my former voracious habit. I was avoiding reading anything that could elicit strong emotions for fear of again slipping into the hole I felt that I had just managed to climb out of. So instead of reading in my spare time, I decided to write. And because I was still avoiding weighty emotions, I chose to write a cozy mystery that included a character who reminded me of what I missed most about my brother, his unique sense of humor.

Did you always want to be an author? I have always wanted to write a novel, but I am a master procrastinator. I obtained a bachelor’s degree in history with minors in journalism and psychology from Ball State University while also working for the student newspaper and magazine. I continued my education while there, earning a master’s in clinical psychology, and later worked in neuropsychology for 7 years. I briefly tried to make a living as a freelance writer in the late 90’s before transitioning to a steady paycheck, driven by a passion for community health and wellness. In 2010, I completed a graduate certificate in public health at the University of Michigan to help me better understand health equity. Throughout my working life, I have always found ways to write, often through newsletter articles, development of program marketing materials, and research and program grant applications. Writing a novel was an aspiration, and now it is a dream come true, but it has been a long time in the making.

What is your most recent book, and what inspired you to write it?

When Squirrels Fly is my debut novel. It was inspired by my desire to remember what I loved most about my brother and by my need to read something that could make me laugh during a very trying time.

How do you hope your book will uplift readers?

We have been living in polarizing times for more than a decade. Very few families and communities have been left unscathed by this. The main character in my book holds a very different worldview from her brother, and while such dynamics have torn apart many, there are families and communities that have weathered these disparities and held fast to a loving bond that cannot be broken. I touch upon this a bit in my book, without making it a central theme.

What are you most excited about with this book? I dedicated my debut novel to my late brother, who left this world much sooner than he should have, and while the ultimate success of a debut novel is based upon a lot of unknowns, I do know that my love for my brother and this dedication to him will live on with my book long after me.

How did writing a book help your career take off? Since this is my debut novel, I cannot really answer this as of yet. But I will say that, for me, getting this book published has been a significant accomplishment. My friends have suggested that I am in my “writing era”. My goal is to make that era last for the rest of my life.

What advice would you give someone wanting to succeed in your professional industry? I think success should be measured individually. If you determine your own success based upon what you think depicts success in others, you could be setting yourself up for disappointment. Set your personal writing goals one day at a time. Make time to write each day. Find your support network and let that network help you pursue your passion. And, as hard as it has been for me to read at times, I do find inspiration in reading authors that I believe are much more gifted than me.

How do you handle setbacks and criticism? I try not to take criticism personally. I’ve learned something about my writing and about myself throughout every step of the writing process. It has been humbling, to say the least. But it has also made me a better writer and brought me to the point where I am proud of what I have accomplished.

Being an author today is like running a business. How do you manage your publicity and social media and maintain engagement with readers? I know my strengths, but I also know my challenges. I’ve been fortunate to hire a publicist and rely on friends and family to help me develop a website. I also live in a college town, where I can work with very talented marketing students in a mutually beneficial way. But I will admit that the business aspect of writing is all new to me, and I’m sure I will learn things with the launch of my debut novel that will hopefully make the road toward novel #2 a bit easier.

What do you find most fulfilling in the career that you’ve chosen? I like knowing that my writing is a culmination of my life experience and, as such, will always be unique to me.

What book uplifts you? I tend to be uplifted by most books I choose to read, especially the ones I read through to the end. I buy a lot of books, both paperbacks and eBooks. But for various reasons, I don’t finish all of them. I did recently finish reading Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt and am nearly finished with The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. Both of these books remind me to be less judgmental by inspiring a greater capacity for empathy.

Anything else you’d like to share with your readers and other writers? You are the only person who can truly understand your view of the world, but you are not the only person who can learn from it. Get it out into the world for the rest of us.