Set against the backdrop of Chicago in the 1950’s, Atomic Love is a captivating story of romance, discovery and espionage featuring a fearless and passionate woman determined to succeed in a man’s world, on her own terms.
We had the pleasure of chatting to author Jennie Fields about Atomic Love, writing advice, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Jennie! Tell us a bit about yourself!
Atomic Love is my fifth novel. I was born and raised in the Chicago area, went to the University of Illinois and got my graduate degree from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. I moved to New York and lived in Brooklyn for decades while I was a creative director at a number of large New York agencies, and also raising my daughter. In the wee hours, I wrote novels and published my first in 1992. I now live in Nashville with my second husband and am writing full time.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I’ve been writing fiction since I was six years old. I read the book ‘Twig’ by Elizabeth Orton Jones about a poor little girl who lives in a tenement. She finds a tin can in an alley. Because it’s cut right up the side, she believes the cut will serve as a doorway and it will make a fine little house. She sets it out in the weedy backyard of her building to attract an elf, which, of course, she does. I was so enamored with that book, I sat down to write about Emmy, a poor little girl who lives in a tenement and how with the help of simple found objects, she creates magic. I guess we all learn by imitating!
With the current state of the world, what are you doing to cope with the changes we’ve had to make with our day-to-day?
I’m incredibly lucky because my life hasn’t changed tremendously. If a pandemic had happened when I was a creative director in New York City and raising a daughter as a single mom, and writing fiction at one in the morning, it would have been impossible to juggle. I feel for people trying to home-school and work simultaneously. But now, I have very little to complain about. The hardest thing for me is to send my book out into a pandemic world and hope the world discovers it.
Atomic Love is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Emotional, feminist, page-turning, atmospheric, steamy..
What inspired you to write Atomic Love?
After World War II, my mother was a scientist. She was expected to give up her job doing cancer research when she married my father. She regretted that choice all her life. I wanted to write about a female scientist from that era. And I wanted to address the issue of women being forced out of admirable posts so those jobs could be handed to returning G.I.s after the war.
At the same time, my mother’s cousin, who was also her best friend, worked in a secret project which she refused to tell my mother about. It upset my mother until she learned years later that her cousin had been an office worker on the Manhattan Project, in the very place where they created the first nuclear reaction. When I looked up that phase of the Manhattan Project, I realized that there was a single female physicist, Leona Woods. She was the youngest member of the team at the University of Chicago, and also a key member. Knowing she existed allowed me to create Rosalind Porter, the main character of my book with confidence.
What kind of research did you have to conduct?
I read a number of books about the making of the atomic bomb including Richard Rhodes’ masterwork: The Making of the Atomic Bomb. I also read the memoirs of Leona Woods, the young female physicist I just mentioned. One of the most interesting lines of research were the oral histories of men who had been imprisoned in Japanese camps during the war. I love oral histories because they’re always vivid and memorable. These were wrenching and sometimes shocking but tremendously helpful in describing Charlie Szydlo’s experience in the camps. I read a number of books about real atomic spies, some of whom were never caught but proven to be spies later when information from the Venona Project was declassified and published in 1995. I also read a number of magazines and newspapers from the era. I always do this as it’s a wonderful way to understand attitudes of the times. The ads are just as informative as the articles.
Were there any challenges you faced while writing?
I don’t generally write plot-based books, and while I still consider Atomic Love more character driven than plot based, the plot was important here and the book needed the forward motion of a thriller. This was a learning curve for me: how to keep twisting the plot so the reader keeps reading forward to see what happens.
Without spoiling too much, is there a favourite moment that you really enjoyed writing in Atomic Love?
Yes, I loved writing the scene where Charlie walks a very drunken Stash Majewski home at two in the morning and encounters Stash’s wife, his old girlfriend, Linda. She’s been the villain of his past. Facing Linda and hearing her reason for rejecting him is the key to his ability to move forward. For me, this was a touching scene, and I enjoyed bringing it to life.
What piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?
I always say the only difference between a writer and a non-writer is that the writer actually sat down and did it. A lot of people talk about all the great ideas they have for a book, but if you don’t sit down and put the idea on paper, it’s a pipe dream forever. Also, editing is just as important as writing. I rewrote Atomic Love ten times. And that doesn’t include the edits I made each time I read through it. Every time you cut something superfluous, your words sparkle more. Think of it like cutting a diamond.
Lastly, what are you currently reading and do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I just finished Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach. Some books I enjoyed this past year have been Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers, Margaret Renkl’s Late Migrations, Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, and William Boyd’s Restless.
I just got it! Love the style and subject matter.