Best-selling author Lydia Netzer shared her approach to writing and discussed her book, “Shine Shine Shine,” at the Auburn Public Library on Thursday, April 23, as the conclusion to the second annual One Book, One Village community reading program.
Netzer was raised by her grandmother, who encouraged her to read mostly classic literature as a child. She discovered her love of more modern fiction from authors such as Judy Blume after befriending the librarian at a local library when she was young.
Netzer said, as someone with an abnormal upbringing, she enjoyed stories about normal people who lived charming lives, which was one of her main inspirations as a budding writer.
“I filled notebooks up with these stories about really the most normal family ever,” Netzer said. “I just wrote reams upon reams of the most boring material you could ever imagine because I wanted to live in that world.”
With so much emphasis placed on books while she was young, Netzer decided to pursue a degree related to writing in college and graduate school. Netzer said she became sure of herself and what she wanted out of life during this time in her life, but came to the realization it doesn’t always work out the way one intends, but can still be “absolutely perfect.”
Netzer went through several drafts for her first novel, “Shine Shine Shine,” which she spent more than 10 years writing. She said she has never had a schedule she follows when it comes to her writing. She realized the only person pushing her to finish books was herself, and everyone else was going to be supportive along the way.
Netzer said experiences with married life, raising a son with Asperger’s syndrome and losing her grandmother to cancer provided inspiration for several characters and plotlines in her stories.
“Shine Shine Shine” features autistic characters, and Netzer said it was important to her to represent these characters as much more than being autistic.
“A lot of what I wanted to do in the book was represent autistic people as not just autistic people,” Netzer said. “This is a person with a whole life and a functional mind and heart and a full range of relationships.”
The majority of the audience agreed they loved that Netzer’s novel was interesting and kept them guessing, and audience member Carol Whatley said she loved Netzer’s talk.
“She was very animated and so easy to listen to,” Whatley said. “My instincts about what was going on [in “Shine Shine Shine”] were generally right, and it’s always fun to hear you were thinking with the author.”
Chris Warren, director of the Auburn Public Library, said One Book, One Village strives to bring the community together by choosing books that inspire conversation and spark dialogue.
“The thing about reading is that it’s pretty much always a very solitary act, it’s something you do on your own,” Warren said. “But every now and then, something is so good, so insightful, so fantastic, that you recommend the book to other people, you’re reading passages out loud that really struck you for whatever reason, and that’s what One Book, One Village is all about.”
Originally from Detroit, Netzer now resides in Norfolk, Virginia, with her husband and two children.
When Netzer is not writing, she teaches literature at a homeschool co-op, travels and plays the electric guitar.
Her other novels include “Everybody’s Baby: A Novella” and “How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky,” both published in 2014. The New York Times named her debut novel, “Shine Shine Shine,” one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012.
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