Local Author Spotlight: “The Falling Woman,” by Richard Farrell (interviewed by Robin Kardon)
LOCAL AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT JANUARY, 2021
“The Falling Woman,” by Richard Farrell
Imagine what it must be like—there you are, strapped into your passenger seat on an airplane bound for a destination that will take you away from all of the responsibilities and challenges you face in your daily life. Then the unthinkable happens—the plane begins descending out of control, and you are propelled into the air, still strapped to your seat. You’re falling, falling, falling…
As part of a National Transportation Safety Board investigating team, Charles “Charlie” Radford is assigned to determine the facts—or confirm the myth—of this so-called “Falling Woman,” who was found alive, taken to the hospital and treated. Then she disappeared.
Was she real? Why did she run? In his debut novel, Richard Farrell examines the parallels between Charlie and the woman he’s chasing.
Here is my interview with him:
Q1: The main character in The Falling Woman, Charlie Radford, had unfulfilled aspirations of being a pilot. Did your own experience in aviation inform this character? In what way(s)?
A1: In many ways, I tried to give Radford the same ambition and passion I once had for flying as a young kid. Our origin stories are similar: A Blue Angels airshow led to an all-consuming obsession with flight. (In aviation, they used to call it ‘getting the bug.’) As a kid, all I dreamed about was flying, and like Radford, my flying career was short-lived because of a medical condition. Also like Radford, I ended up working in an aviation-related job in Washington D.C., though my job was far less exciting than an accident investigator. Given the parallels, part of what made Radford interesting for me was thinking about what may have happened had I stayed working in that job. I wanted him to reconnect with his passion by the end of the book, and I think he does. For me, writing the book was my way of reconnecting.
Q2: If you had to pick one word to describe Radford’s motivation to find the so-called “Falling Woman,” what would it be and why?
A2: Ambition. In the beginning, Radford is an opportunist; he’s out to make a name for himself. I think characters need to possess a deeply-lodged misbelief at the beginning of a book, a weakness that they are unaware of, a weakness that may even masquerade as strength. For Radford, that weakness and misbelief was his faith in career success. So, despite the risk to his reputation, he accepts and then seeks the opportunity to track down this mysterious woman because he believes it may set him apart from the other investigators. When I first conceived of Radford’s character, I imagined him as an older, more seasoned veteran. In fact, I saw him as Dickie Gray, Radford’s mentor in the book. But in earlier drafts, that character really had no reason at all to pursue this mystery. So, after some serious revising, Radford became inexperienced, ambitious, and hungry. This offered the necessary motivation for him to take the risk on.
Q3: What would you say was the most difficult part of the book to write?
A3: The most difficult part of the book was making the story seem plausible. First, I had to conceive of a plane crash in an era when commercial airliners are extremely safe. I leaned on some old accidents for this part, but it still made it difficult to make the exploding plane seem plausible. Then, I needed to make Erin’s fall seem plausible too. And that really stretches the imagination. To help, I researched the five incredible cases of actual people who fell out of airplanes from high attitude and survived. Their stories were all remarkable, and what’s more, they didn’t talk about the incidents much. This offered me an opportunity to imagine such a story today, in our hyper-sensationalized world. And then I thought about a character, Erin, who maybe wouldn’t want to be part of the media circus that would inevitably follow her around. In order for that to make any sense at all, I had to give Erin a terminal disease that suggested maybe she just wanted to disappear.
Q4: Please describe your approach to the use of dialogue in The Falling Woman.
A4: I love writing dialogue! In stories, dialogue is a place to manifest tension, subtext, and reveal character. It is not simply how people speak, but a complicated and important tool in the writer’s kit. So, I studied a lot of technique. Some of my favorite examples came from Douglas Glover’s book, Attack of the Copula Spiders, which I highly recommend for aspiring and experienced writers alike! Doug was my mentor in graduate school. In his book, he shares a few secrets to writing good dialogue scenes, and breaks the technique down into digestible parts. For me, I want the character’s dialog to have some tension in it all the time. I want the scenes where they speak to be important enough to justify that speech.
Q5: The Falling Woman, your debut novel, was released during the COVID pandemic. Please discuss any obstacles that created for you, and how you overcame them.
A5: The first obstacle was the launch date itself, which became a moving target as it approached. So much time and energy goes into the writing of a novel, and the pre-publication rollercoaster was intense and exciting and confusing all at the same time. When the pandemic first started last winter, my launch was scheduled for May. I thought, surely this mess will be done by May! Then they moved the date to June, and again I thought, surely by June we will be clear! I had a book tour cancelled, had trips and events cancelled. But, on the plus side, the setbacks forced me to think about why I write in the first place. In some ways, being forced to stay home kept me grounded in the work, and for that I was grateful. The pandemic kept my ego in check too, and forced to get working on the next book!
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Robin “R. D.” Kardon is a bestselling, award-winning author based in San Diego. Both of her novels, Flygirl and Angel Flight can be purchased at our bookseller partner, Warwick’s. Robin lives in North Park with her beloved rescue pets. Learn more about Robin at www.rdkardonauthor.com.
