There's a bit of magic in Eleni Gage's life. She's willing
to follow her instincts, and those of trusted others—so much so that she picked
a wedding date a year ahead of time, before even meeting her eventual husband.
Oh, yes, she did. They married on 10-10-10. More about that
later.
Gage has pursued a busy freelance and full-time career at
magazines and is now executive editor of Martha Stewart Weddings, mother of two
small children, and an author. In May, St. Martin's Press published "The
Ladies of Managua," her second novel, third book.
Born in Greece, she grew up in Athens and North Grafton
(where her parents, Nicholas and Jane Gage, still live). She is named after her
grandmother, Eleni Gatzoyiannis—executed by Communist forces for whisking her
children out of Greece to keep them out of Communist "training"
camps. The children settled in the Worcester area, and one of them, Nicholas, became
a New York Times reporter who researched
his mother's death before writing an award-winning book, "Eleni." That
book became a movie starring John Malkovich and Kate Nelligan in 1985.
With creative parents (Jane has turned to photography and
art), and her brother Christos a screenwriter, she may have been destined to write
as well, but she didn't plan it that way.
"I wanted to be a teacher. I saw my parents writing,
and from the perspective of a child it looks fairly boring—you sit at the
computer a lot. But it was a way of looking at things and observing things.
Mom's not Greek, and she was always pointing out to me, 'Look at that ritual or
celebration," "Isn't it interesting the way this is cooked or this
holiday is celebrated?' So when I went to college, I studied folklore and
mythology, because I became so interested in ritual and cultures—in what makes
up a person's identity." That is what she has written about in her books
and many of her travel articles.
After graduating from Harvard, she landed a role as editorial
assistant (later associate editor) at "Allure" magazine. She moved on
to "Elle" and "InStyle," later becoming beauty editor at
"People." But with a solid career—still not teaching—she wanted to do
more.
On a visit to Greece, she began writing a travel memoir,
"North of Ithaka." She credits the elder residents of her grandmother's
small village, Lia, who sat outside for part of each day and shared stories, for
the memories and traditions that fed into her writing. "We were there overseeing
the rebuilding of my grandmother's house, which had fallen into ruin after the
Greek civil war," she said.
The memoir drew fans, but presented her with another
problem. "A lot of people loved it, but I also got, from relatives, why
did or didn't you do this?" She began to think writing fiction might be
better.
One doesn't just sit down and become a novelist, however.
She pursued an MFA (Master's degree in fine arts) from
Columbia University and achieved another goal: "I taught while I was
getting it." She also wrote the draft of a novel. Later, she re-entered
the freelance world, successfully publishing articles in travel and lifestyle
magazines. (She has also contributed to The New York Times, Parade, and The American Scholar.)
She was researching a novel, when an Indian astrologer
predicted her marriage to "a soft-hearted businessman" on 10-10-10,
she chose that date for her wedding. She did, indeed, meet that businessman, a
Nicaraguan coffee trader named Emilio Baltadano. "Other Waters" is
about an Indian-American psychiatrist convinced her family is cursed. Its
themes revolve around multi-cultural identity and conflict. The novel was
released to good reviews in early 2012.
It was through her husband that seeds were sown for
"The Ladies of Managua." The couple brought their first child to meet
her Nicaraguan family. "We lived there for seven months between 2012 and
2013, in Grenada. He told me about his grandmother, who had gone to convent
school in New Orleans during the late 1940s to '50s." His grandmother's own
star-crossed romance as an adolescent led Gage to imagine one of the three
characters who narrate the latest novel—her favorite, as it turns out. Her
first draft took shape.
"I learned about the things girls learned in these
schools: how to set a nice table, how to get into a cab properly." This
set the character of Isabella in the novel, mother to the revolutionary Ninexin
and grandmother to Maria Vazquez, who returns to Nicaragua for her
grandfather's funeral. "I loved writing about her (Isabella); I feel like,
as women we're always trying to figure out the rules of the world around us.
We're raised to listen to the rules of society, as opposed to men, and I sort
of realized by the time you figure out the rules, they've all changed. Older
women carry so many worlds inside them—both the societies that don't exist
anymore, and themselves at a younger age. I like how they (older women) are
kind of uncensored. People of that age stop worrying about what others
think."
She studied the revolution from the writings of a prominent
Nicaraguan writer-revolutionary, Gioconda Belli. "I read a lot of books
and articles by her; she wrote about coming across her daughter's college
entrance essay (her daughter was raised in the United States, as is the
character Maria). In it, her daughter wrote that she wished her mother had been
around more. Belli felt badly when she read the essay, but her daughter told
her it was alright, saying, 'You couldn't have been a good revolutionary and a
good mother.' That inspired me for the conflict between daughter and mother.
Guilt is hard to escape, especially for women. You're expected to do certain
things. Raise your kids a certain way. Ninexin wanted to change society and was
a little more fearless in that way, but the judgments of the people she loved
weighed on her. She had this secret about Manuel (Maria's father) that she
couldn't reveal because he was a national hero, and was a hero in his
daughter's mind."
Their secrets, and their passage across years of disappointment and misunderstanding to find each other again, is what makes "The Ladies of Managua" a deeply satisfying novel. "They're all intelligent and I think they're all pretty passionate about things—but the difference comes in that they're all passionate about different things."
Their secrets, and their passage across years of disappointment and misunderstanding to find each other again, is what makes "The Ladies of Managua" a deeply satisfying novel. "They're all intelligent and I think they're all pretty passionate about things—but the difference comes in that they're all passionate about different things."
She wrote the novel in three voices, as "a way of
exploring how much we can misunderstand even the people closest to us. Often, they
don't know what we're thinking. So that was a really fun exercise."
She read a lot about women in Nicaragua and the revolution,
while there. "There are not many novels written about that period of
history in Nicaragua. But if you think of World War II, and about our own Civil
War—how many books have been written about that?"
In September 2013, she became executive editor at Martha
Stewart Weddings, living in New York City. "I have a great day job for a
writer. You are exercising the skills that you use in writing; I'm writing and
editing all day long, so that is really nice, and I enjoy the people I work
with, but I do feel like there's never enough time in the world to do the
things I want to do."
She finished working on "The Ladies of Managua" over
the course of 18 free Fridays. With kids you have to plan carefully. She did a
brief book tour during maternity leave
for her four-month-old. "It's a little crazy bringing the kids, but a lot
of that is done digitally these days. You can blog or Skype with book clubs, or
things like that. I try to fit in events when I'm going to places anyway. I was
in Miami for my husband's work, and I did a reading there."
She hopes to do another book, when time allows, setting it
in Greece again. But at present, she's enjoying the release of her newest, busy
mothering her 4-year and 4-month-old children, and working full-time. She has
learned to write whenever she can, wherever she is. "If you've got 20
minutes, sit down and write. You can edit it later. You can't wait for those
magical moments when you'll have all the time in the world.
The author blogs at theliminalstage.com. There, she writes about
themes of identity, family and cultural differences.
