Reclaimed Baggage

My most recent book, Reclaimed Baggage, was 20 years in the making. I wrote Unclaimed Baggage many years ago and while I was in the query process, an agent told me she’d be interested in the story of Jenna’s mother.
 
This surprised and confused me. Unclaimed Baggage is Jenna’s story. She’s the likeable heroine overcoming challenges that are, for the most part, created by her mother, Barbara.
 
I had conceived of Barbara as the villain, which might have been true from Jenna’s limited perspective, but gets a whole lot more complicated when you step back and look at the broader picture. It took me years of living to see the shades of gray in that picture.

Also, when I was in my 20s, I couldn’t imagine writing from the mother’s perspective. It took me nearly 20 years to write Reclaimed Baggage, to understand how to explain why Barbara did what she did, and how she changed.

-Deborah Kalb Books