By Madison Butkus
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Sponsored by the Friends of the Ashland Public Library, the Needham Free Public Library (NFPL) shared an online Q&A event with author Nan Fischer. Here to discuss her most recent book, “The Book of Silver Linings,” Fischer answered any and all questions that attendees had.
Fischer has quite the impressive and interesting resume to say the least. She graduated from Cornell University with an English degree but had no idea what she wanted to do with it. She ended up becoming a traveling writer for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. This led to a career writing sport autobiographies and even some Star Wars books.
Fischer’s passion always stemmed around writing fictional books so that is exactly what she gravitated towards. She has written many Young Adult novels but prefers writing Adult novels more. In regards to this, Fischer mentioned, “I loved all these different jobs, I loved learning how to write certain things, but ultimately for me, once I started writing my own fiction, that was it for me.”
Ironically, while Fischer always knew that she could write, she never originally considered a job in writing. She stated, “I always knew I could write, but for me, it was kind of before the internet, dating myself, but I really didn't know a lot of the careers that were out there for me. So I kind of thought I’d end up in advertising. I never dreamed big enough to think that I would actually be an author. I knew that I could use my writing for different jobs, which I did, but I never, until the person/opportunity presented itself, and it was a surprise to me, thought about being an author.”
What sets Fischer apart from other authors is that she often puts parts of herself into her stories. For instance, she is an avid supporter of animal shelters so she made sure to include within “The Book of Silver Linings” that the main character, Constance, worked at an animal shelter. By doing so, she really wanted to shine a light on them and just how important they are for giving pets their forever homes.
Fischer further stated, “For “The Book of Silver Linings,” I am donating a percentage of my first month sales to the Pixie Project which is an unbelievable shelter in Portland, Oregon that really works hard to find animals their forever homes. So I am hoping that this book actually has some ripples that feed out into the universe and more than one dog or cat finds a home because of it.”
To find out more information about Nan Fischer’s new book, as well as her other works, please visit the Needham Free Public Library.
