Daniel Mason talks new book 'Country People'

[00:00:00]Now with our GMA Book Club pick for July, it's Country People by Daniel Mason [music] about a family who moves from California to rural Vermont and encounters a group of people who believe the earth is hollow and contains an underground kingdom. And [music] congratulations are in order because it is an New York Times best seller.

[00:00:19]Congratulations, Daniel. Thank you so much for joining us. Tell us a bit about the book and it's actually semi-autobiographical.

[00:00:26]>> Yes. So, thanks so much for having me.

[00:00:29]The book was inspired at first by a year that my family spent in New England when I was writing my last novel which was called Northwoods.

[00:00:38]And after I finished it up, I still kept on thinking about the area and particularly about all the sort of comedic elements of a family from the city picking up and moving to the countryside.

[00:00:49]And so, it's the story of a family of four who move to the small town in southern Vermont for a year so the wife can work at a college there. But but really about the the husband is sort of the central character cuz he's a man who's also an academic, but he's 12 years late on his PhD dissertation on Russian folk tales. He thinks maybe going to the countryside can help him figure out how to write about Russian folk tales, but he has this kind of amazing capacity to just fall in love with sort of anything that he encounters and so, immediately gets gets off track.

[00:01:19]>> And one of the things we were talking about this before, too, one of the main characters inspired by your dog, Figaro, and we see the the pictures on on on the cover here. Tell us about that.

[00:01:29]>> Yes. So, well, the book has has as like I mentioned some autobiographical inspiration, but the the true most true-to-life character in the book is the dog in the book. And this is a dog it's a breed not too many people know about this breed, but it's a breed that's bred for truffle hunting.

[00:01:47]We don't have any truffles where where we are and certainly there weren't any in southern Vermont. But the fascinating thing about the dog is the dog is um >> Wait, is this your dog?

[00:01:57]>> This this >> is him.

[00:01:58]>> Oh, what's his name?

[00:01:59]>> Figaro. His name is Figaro.

[00:02:00]>> It is Figaro. We call him Figgy. Um and it he's just wonderful to have as a companion. He's the I was about to say he's the person. He's the individual I spend probably most of my time with during the day. You know, he reminds me to take breaks. Sometimes I write with him on my lap.

[00:02:14]>> Aw.

[00:02:15]>> But but most of all for he notices the world in this very different way. Um and he's always sniffing, always noticing stuff that I can't see, which is just a wonderful thing for a writer cuz it reminds you that you can always look elsewhere um for inspiration.

[00:02:29]>> that.

[00:02:30]>> Well, and what I love, we were talking about this because your background, you're a professor, you're a psychiatrist. So so you have this medical background going on and I wondered how that turned into a fiction writer and you said the fiction actually came first. That was your first love.

[00:02:44]>> Yeah, they they I mean, when I was a little kid, I wanted to write from very early on. Um but but I didn't know how to be a writer and um I liked medicine, so I sort of went that route, but uh I think there's a lot that's similar between the two professions and there's a long history of doctors who become writers.

[00:03:01]Um I think that there's sort of a shared similarity and kind of the curiosity about what makes people tick um that that that informs both of the professions.

[00:03:11]>> We were also talking earlier a bit about your own process, about how you sort of jump in there and see where, you know, the storyline takes you. What advice do you have for other writers who especially those who may be sort of trying to get into this?

[00:03:21]>> Um Oh, there's lots. I I recommend reading. You can always find inspiration there. Um sort of going along with the story, getting a dog.

[00:03:30]>> [laughter] >> Always yes, advocate of that.

[00:03:33]>> A truffle hunting dog.

[00:03:34]>> hunting dog. A dog A dog that can see the parts of the world that you can't.

[00:03:38]>> Yeah.

[00:03:38]>> What would have like third best >> Yeah, yeah, exactly. [laughter] No, I I heard about that. That's amazing. Yeah, you can you can just start writing.

[00:03:46]>> we're quickly running out of time, but the the underground hollow world, like what that that element in the book, where did that idea come from?

[00:03:54]>> Yeah, so so I just I just um this my main character Miles is traveling around he meets he meets this man who seems quite strange at first thinking that the earth is actually hollow and that there's an underground kingdom.

[00:04:05]Um and it was just this like sort of small idea I encountered but the more I read about it the more I realized that the belief that that um there exists this other world beneath our feet it's it's a very old one. Um it's almost like the belief in other worlds um and other planets. You know the possibility that there's other civilization you can think of Dante, Alice in Wonderland it's sort of this core part of our literature and so I was really fascinated by that and that became this sort of central theme um in the book and and a big plot point.

[00:04:33]I mean I have a dog that digs, right?

[00:04:34]You can kind of imagine what what happens.

[00:04:37]Um and at first our characters are skeptical that this could this legend could possibly be true.

[00:04:43]Um but as the story progresses it seems like there might actually be something there beneath the green grass.

[00:04:47]>> So cool.

[00:04:48]>> Well Daniel congratulations and thank you so much for sharing the story with us. We can't wait for everyone to check it out. Country People is out now.