Non Fiction / Memoir
Date Published: December 18, 2013
Everybody needs to run away from home at least once. Susan Corbett told people she was out to save the world, but really she was running — running from her home as much as to anywhere. Like many women, she was searching for meaning to her life or for a good man to share it with. In Africa, she hoped to find both.
Compelling and compassionate, In the Belly of the Elephant is Susan's transformative story of what happens when you decide to try to achieve world peace while searching for a good man. More than a fish-out-of-water story, it's a surprising and heart-rending account of her time in Africa trying to change the world as she battles heat, sandstorms, drought, riots, intestinal bugs, burnout, love affairs and more than one meeting with death. Against a backdrop of vivid beauty and culture, in a narrative interwoven with a rich tapestry of African myths and fables, Susan learns the true simplicity of life, and discovers people full of kindness, wisdom and resilience, and shares with us lessons we, too, can learn from her experiences.
Interview
Is there a message in your novel that you
want readers to grasp?
Probably the main
message of In the Belly of the Elephant is that we have to leave home to truly
understand it, and in the end, to truly appreciate it. I really want my readers to grasp the
incredible beauty, wisdom, and resilience of the African people I met while
living there. I also hope to inspire readers to go out and discover the world!
Is there anything you find particularly
challenging in your writing?
The biggest challenge
for me is to actually sit down and WRITE! Writing is a creative process, but
first and foremost, it is a discipline. The discipline of writing 3-4 hours
every day can be hard to do (especially if you have a day job,) but is
essential if you're ever going to finish the book. And, I have found, the more I write, the more
my creative juices get flowing. Regarding my memoir, In the Belly of the Elephant was hard to write at times because I felt
I was exposing my soul to the world. Not always an easy thing to do.
How many books have you written and which
is your favorite?
Well, my first book
was a fantasy story that took place in the 12th century in Africa. It's still
sitting on a shelf. It's often said that your first book should be written then
tucked deeply away.
My second book was a
fictionalized version of my memoir. A potential agent told me if I ever wrote
the true story, she would be interested. So, I wrote the true story and my third
book is my memoir, In the Belly of the
Elephant which is of course, my favorite.
If you had the chance to cast your main
character from Hollywood today, who would you pick and why?
Oh boy, what a fun
question! Well, first off, they're all
too pretty, but OK. She would have to be around 25 years old and willing to
spend a lot of time in the heat and dirt of Africa. I guess I'd say, Shailene Woodely. I really liked her in The Descendants and she
shows her toughness in the Divergent Series.
When did you begin writing?
I've been
writing in journals since I was 10 years old. I kept detailed journals the five
years I lived and worked in Africa, not thinking I would write a book, just
needing to write down my feelings and what I was experiencing. When I came home from
Africa in 1982, people would ask me, "How was it?" How do you explain five years of an
experience that changed your life in one brief conversation? In 1991, after I
had married and had my 2 boys, I quit working full time to be with my small
children. I started reading my journals again and realized I wanted to share my
story with the world. So, at the ripe old age of 40, I took every local writing
class I could find, joined a critique group, and started going to writing
conferences. It took me ten years to
write In the Belly of the Elephant.
How long did it take to complete your first
book?
The first book that is
still under my bed took about two years to write. But, In the Belly of the Elephant took ten years. I wrote Belly while raising
my two young children and working on lots of non-profit boards and committees
on women's health, homelessness, and immigrant issues.
Did you have an author who inspired you to
become a writer?
I have read and loved
almost everything Barbara Kingsolver has ever written. Also, Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a
Thousand Faces sparked my desire to write a good story.
What is your favorite part of the writing
process?
I
really enjoy structuring a story, figuring out the story arc and plotting it all
out. I have flip charts all over my house outlining chapters, events, and
characters. Then, once I get myself in front of the computer, I love the actual
act of writing, just spilling my heart and creative soul into the words.
Describe your latest book in 4 words.
Mexico Skeletons
Friendship Forgiveness
Can you share a little bit about your
current work or what is in the future for your writing?
My latest book, The Ghosts of Santa Maria Del Mar is the first in what I
hope to be a mystery series. During the feast of the Virgin of Guadeloupe,
young girls begin to mysteriously go missing, and someone is leaving long dead
skeletons all over town while a mismatched crew of five American women
(Melissa, Liza, Josie, Tina, and Sam) are on vacation in Mexico. Unresolved guilt from a thirty year old
murder of a high school friend sets the group on a series of misadventures.
They grapple with the town's handsome police captain, a troubled street youth,
the Catholic priest, the town's pot dealer, a seance medium, a rich landowner,
and the local ghost to unravel a mystery that goes farther back in time and
place than December, 2015 and the small town of Santa Maria Del Mar.
These books will be full of
my life experiences, my perspective, my love of place and travel, and the
lessons I want to share with the world. They have strong characters and sense
of place with a historical unsolved mystery woven throughout. I have chosen the
fiction/mystery path because it is easier on the body and soul to write than
memoir and more fun.
A writer, community organizer, and consultant in program management, micro-enterprise development, family planning, and HIV/AIDS education, Susan Corbett began her community development career in 1976 as a Peace Corps Volunteer, working in a health clinic in Liberia, West Africa. In 1979, she joined Save the Children Federation as a program coordinator for cooperative and small business projects in Burkina Faso. In 1982, Susan returned to the States where she has worked with local non-profits in drug and alcohol prevention for runaway youth, family planning, homelessness prevention, and immigrant issues.
Susan has traveled to over 40 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Caribbean, and Central and North America and has lived and worked in ten African countries over the past thirty years (Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, The Gambia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mauritius, Tunisia, Nigeria, and Liberia). She lives in Colorado with her husband, Steve, her sons, Mitch & Sam, and her dog, Molly.
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