Logan Steiner is the award-winning and USA Today bestselling author of "After Anne," which tells the story of "Anne of Green Gables" author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Steiner also writes a weekly Substack newsletter called The Creative Sort. After graduating from Pomona College and Harvard Law School, she clerked for three federal judges, spent six years in Big Law, and served for three years as an Assistant United States Attorney. Steiner now specializes in brief writing at a boutique law firm. She lives in Denver with her husband, daughter, and a Russian Blue cat named Taggart.
SunLit: Tell us this book's backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate?
Logan Steiner: I've always been drawn to learn the life stories of writers whose work means the most to me. Lucy Maud Montgomery (who went by Maud) has been a favorite author since I was young. I read her books cover to cover and watched the Kevin Sullivan ("Anne of Green Gables") miniseries so many times with my grandma.
Learning about Maud's life story for the first time late one night in bed, I got chills. I had to know: Who was this woman who edited even her private journals for later publication? What drove her to develop such life-affirming characters but to write at the end of her life, "My position is too awful to endure and nobody realizes it"?
SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you select it?
Steiner: This is an early scene where Maud writes the first lines of "Anne of Green Gables" and is interrupted by a visit from the man who will become her husband. It's the part of her life many of us know -- that she wrote a world-famous book. And it sets up the rest of the book, which focuses on everything that came after.
SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write?
Steiner: This book was eight years in the making -- a true labor of love. L.M. Montgomery's fiction was my first and continuing inspiration. Her published journals, biography, and the treasure trove of other materials about her were invaluable as well. And I couldn't have done any of it without the daily support of my husband and best editor David, and of my parents, who have always encouraged my creative dreams.
SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?
Steiner: Writing this book helped me understand my own creative "whys" at a deeper level. I learned not to rush the process. Taking on a real life subject -- especially a creative life -- can be intimidating. For me, it was important to go through as many drafts as it took to allow Maud to be felt on the page.
SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?
Steiner: The hardest part was also the best part: each time I got feedback that drew me back into the manuscript for another round of revisions. It was hard to tune out my own inner critic. But each time I revised the book, I not only grew as a writer but took something new away from Maud's story.
SunLit: What's the most important thing -- a theme, lesson, emotion or realization -- that readers should take from this book?
Steiner: My writing focuses on the creative life. My deepest hope in doing so is that people read and feel moved to create themselves.
From Maud's story in particular, I hope readers feel how it's possible to be so well known and so unknown at the same time -- to achieve external success and still feel alone. There are echoes of Maud's story in our current social media-driven culture. Writing this book has driven home for me the importance of creative outlets and of sharing our deepest selves with our most trusted people through the hardest parts of life.
SunLit:: What inspired you to take this path, and what else have you done along the way?
Steiner: I have been a practicing litigator for the past 14 years. I really enjoy my job focusing on the writing side of law as a brief-writing specialist at a boutique law firm.
I went into law knowing that I also wanted to write fiction, but I didn't want to put the pressure of making money on my creative dreams. Early on, my law career took my full attention. The deep pain of losing my younger brother Ben unexpectedly to a brain aneurysm motivated me to stop putting my creative dreams on hold.
SunLit: Tell us about your next project.
Steiner: It's contemporary fiction focusing on themes of creative dreams realized and thwarted, the corrosive power of shame, and the healing nature of truth.
A few more quick questions
SunLit: Which do you enjoy more as you work on a book - writing or editing?
Steiner: Definitely editing.
SunLit: What's the first piece of writing - at any age - that you remember being proud of?
Steiner: A sixth-grade spring-break "book" project.
SunLit: What three writers, from any era, would you invite over for a great discussion about literature and writing?
Steiner: L.M. Montgomery (of course); Liz Gilbert; Anne Lamott.
SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing?
Steiner: "Things take the time they take. Don't worry." - Mary Oliver
SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you?
Steiner: That I am a neat freak! And that I love many books but treasure a few.
SunLit: Soundtrack or silence? What's the audio background that helps you write?
Steiner: It depends. I often start with music that captures the mood I'm trying to create on the page. But at some point, the music becomes a distraction, and I pause it or turn it off.
SunLit: What music do you listen to for sheer enjoyment?
Steiner: Playlists with a lot of throwbacks.
SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer?
Steiner: I've wanted to be a writer since I first read books that made me feel more at home in my own deeply feeling skin, including the "Anne of Green Gables" and "Emily of New Moon" series.
Steiner: In the thick of it, with a good cup of coffee, writing into some understanding of the world, other people, or myself that I didn't have before.