Linda Stewart Henley

Linda Stewart Henley is an English-born American. She now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband Vince. She learned to write fiction by attending Vince’s fiction writing seminars, eighteen-week classes that he teaches every year. Waterbury Winter is her second novel.

Instagram: @LindaStewartHenley

Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?

I love most of Edgar Degas’s work. Of special interest to me, though not as widely known as his paintings of ballet dancers, is his portrait of his cousin and sister-in-law Estelle Musson. The painting hangs in the New Orleans Museum of Art. I wrote about it in my first novel Estelle. Degas painted it while visiting his French Creole relatives in New Orleans in 1872-73 and I describe the situation in which he does so. The painting depicts Estelle engaged in the process of arranging flowers., so I imagined the circumstances surrounding it. The story of how the Museum obtained it is interesting in its own right: the painting, which was in France, came on the market in the early 1960s, and the Museum did not have the means to buy it. The Museum directors believed it should be displayed in the city where it was painted. Also, they liked the fact that it represented Estelle, a member of a prominent New Orleans family, and they initiated a fund-raising campaign called “Bringing Estelle Home” to buy it. At the last minute, a donor came up with the final amount needed, and the painting was sold to the Museum. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m planning a trip to New Orleans this May, and I look forward to seeing it then.

Do you collect anything? If so, what, why, and for how long?

I’m not a collector of things, but I could claim that I collect plants for my garden. Especially unusual ones. If I could, I’d fill my whole garden with native plants, and I have some, but sadly, they don’t all thrive there. Wildflowers are choosy about where they live and the conditions have to be exactly right. I have many cultivated plants like roses, spring bulbs of all kinds, rhododendrons (they do well in our Pacific Northwest climate), camellias, honeysuckle, iris, and lilies. How long do they last? I try to have something in bloom at all times of the year, but in winter only snowdrops, hellebores, and winter jasmine provide color. I mention snowdrops in Waterbury Winter: “Bold flowers, blooming in blizzards.”

What’s the difference (at least for you!) between being a writer and an author? How do you shift gears between the two?

Everyone can be a writer. Most people do write, in one way or another. Journalists are writers. Letter-writers, too. But in my opinion, I only became an author when I published my first novel. I felt uncomfortable with the term at first, but now, after publishing my second one, Waterbury Winter, it seems fitting.

Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?

I love all the arts, and have dabbled in several. I think the artistic principles are the same, regardless of the medium. For example, in writing, painting, and music, composition is a key element. So is drama or contrast (tension in writing, dynamics in music, and values in painting). I have spent time developing skills playing the piano and painting. Watercolor paintings of wildflowers are probably my most successful efforts, and I regularly sell and exhibit them. Both of my books, including Waterbury Winter, portray artists’ struggles to create successful works of art. Barnaby Brown, the artist protagonist, has allowed his career to lapse, and the story tells how he overcomes problems that stifle his creativity and reclaims his life as an artist.

Do you speak a second language? Do you think differently in that language? Does it influence your writing?

I was a German major in college. We read German literature, and the 19th Century novellas of that time impressed me. I also admired Thomas Mann, his books Buddenbrooks, and Death in Venice. I can’t say that knowledge of German has affected my writing, but since I studied French as well, I felt confident using French phrases in my first book Estelle (though I did have a native speaker check them). I didn’t use any foreign phrases in Waterbury Winter. It’s an all-American tale.