Author Alle C. Hall from Seattle, Washington, used to be a national sales and marketing manager and freelance writer before she became a stay-at-home mom. She started as a journalist in 1991 and, in 1998, began to write her novel, which was published this past March. Her book, “As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back,” is nominated for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Book Award and won First Place in two categories at the 2022 International Firebird Book Awards: Literary and Coming of Age. Excerpts from the novel won the 2022 National League of American Pen Women’s Mary Kennedy Eastham Flash Fiction Prize, and placed as the first finalist for The Lascaux Prize. In 2009, one of Alle’s essays won The Richard Hugo House New Works Competition. Alle belongs to The Authors’ Guild. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys making dollhouse-sized dioramas such as scenes from her book and from its backstory.
Which genres do you cover?
Alle C. Hall: In fiction, I write literary fiction. In nonfiction, I write essays and occasionally still do journalism. I also write comic haiku!
Which is the latest book you had published, and what is about?
Alle C. Hall: My fiction debut, “As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back,” is “a girl and her backpack” story with an #MeToo influence: Carlie is not merely traveling. A survivor of sexual trauma, as a teen, she steals $10,000 and runs away to Asia. There, the Lonely Planet path of hookups, heat, alcohol, and drugs takes on a terrifying reality. Landing in Tokyo in in the late 1980s, Carlie falls in with an international crew of Tai chi-practicing backpacker types. She now has the chance at a journey she didn’t plan for: one to find the self-respect ripped from her as a child and the healthy sexuality she desires.
At which book events can readers find you?
Alle C. Hall: On September 24, I will be teaching a session at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association’s annual conference held at the Double Tree nearby SeaTac (https://www.pnwa.org/event/2023Conference).
Which book event connecting you with readers is your favorite and why?
Alle C. Hall: Bookstore readings are special because the intimacy makes the audience seems aware of how vulnerable it feels for the writer to put her soul out there; that the words coming out of her mouth, in her voice, are of her creation. The audience members open to the writer as much as the writer opens to them. The bonding shimmers. The questions that come after the reading are well-informed and fascinating to answer. They make me think of things about the book, my writing, and my life that I had not previously considered.
Do you have any specific messages to your readers and, if so, which are they?
Alle C. Hall: I do, and thank you for the opportunity to share it: the #MeToo movement has done a societal-changing job of moving forward the discussion on sexual assault and sexual abuse, but the discussion of child sexual abuse is not being addressed as openly. I hope that in reading my novel, people will understand how deeply child abuse affects a survivor. For the rest of her life unless she gets some recovery going. Child abuse is a crime. It needs to be treated that way. I want perpetrators who make no effort at real and substantial change in jail for a long, long time.
Which writer(s) keep(s) inspiring you and why?
Alle C. Hall: It has to be Toni Morrison. I feel inadequate trying to describe either her work or the influence she has had on what we as a culture value in writing. More than 50 years ago, she was making us pay attention to the lives of black women, of black girls. “The Bluest Eye” changed my life. I read it about five years before I began to understand how deeply I’d been warped by the trauma in my childhood. I didn’t think of myself as I read Pecola’s story. I was too busy being in Pecola’s story. It ripped me in half. All those years later, when I was going through the heaviest part of healing, I felt the connection to Pecola like a tendon.
Do you have specific writing habits?
Alle C. Hall: I make a lot of tea. Every hour or two, or as I hit the wall. Making tea has become a ritual. No fancy, Japanese tea ceremony, here. I use a tea bag. I sniff of the tea bag as I listen to the water boil. I do a little Tai chi as the tea steeps. I don’t think about the work. Invariably, when I sit back down, I can go for another hour or two. Then, more tea. The first thing in the morning of every writing day, I like to do maybe a half-hour of Tai chi, then have a solid breakfast, then settle into my pretty little basement office with – what else?! – a good cup of tea. I like to pop my back a lot. I bend from the waist and all the little spinal bones “click click click click” into place. This is terrible for my back, but I love the sound and the feeling of those bones clicking.
What are you currently working on?
Alle C. Hall: I’m working on a companion piece to “As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back”. The first novel explores why some people move toward the light despite all road blocks. This next novel, “Crazy Medicine”, also features a young woman backpacking around Southeast Asia. She chooses the dark path. “Crazy Medicine” is the English translation for ya ba, which is the Thai name for an illegal pharmaceutical that cuts methamphetamine with caffeine. We’ll leave it at that.
Which book are you currently reading simply for entertainment?
Alle C. Hall: I can’t read much beyond the paper every day. I have two teens, a house, a marriage, and I’m writing a second novel. I do fit in reading the literary journals I subscribe to—two a year. Reading them keeps me in touch with the direction literary fiction is going. Today’s journals publish tomorrow’s authors.
What advice would you give any aspiring author?
Alle C. Hall: Never give up. From the time that I conceived of “As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back” until I had it in hand was—this is no typo—30 years. Though I published many other things, having this novel published is my whole bucket list. During those decades of rejection, a little gratitude went a long way. There are so many things about a writing career that can lead to envy. Cultivate gratitude.
You can find Alle C. Hall’s book at Amazon.
