Costco Connection - January 2010

book pick

Out of this world
Inner voices inspire a haunting novel
By J. Rentilly

IF RONLYN Domingue’s debut novel, The Mercy of Thin Air, burns with the ephemeral melancholy and inchoate sensuality of a remembered dream, it is no accident. Based on a short story the author penned some 15 years ago, Mercy—the tale of a woman whose unexpected death leaves her walking, ghostlike, through lost love, shattered hopes and entangled lives—was almost literally dreamed by its author.

“Ronlyn is an extremely intuitive writer,” says close friend and Wait author Mary McMyne. “She dreams characters and scenes whole, intact, as if they already existed in another world. She does not invent. She discovers things, hears them. Mercy doesn’t feel forced or crafted. It feels dreamed, and that’s because Ronlyn writes like a medium, not a craftsperson.”

Domingue, who resides in swampy Louisiana, known for its spiritual vibe, confesses to feeling “split between worlds” when she is writing, going “deep into the characters’ realms, as far as they allow or drag me,” she says. “When the work is going well, I’m in what [psychology professor] Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls ‘flow.’ I enter a mystic’s ecstasy on the best days.”

Ronlyn Domingue

COSTCO HAS 50 copies of Ronlyn Domingue’s The Mercy of Thin Air with signed bookplates to give away. For a chance to win, send an e-mail with your name and mailing address to giveaway@costco.com, with “Ronlyn Domingue” in the subject line. Or print your name, address and daytime phone number on a postcard or letter and send it to: Ronlyn Domingue, The Costco Connection, P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA 98124-1088. Signed book giveaway

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN THIS SWEEPSTAKES.

Purchase will not improve odds of winning. S weepstakes is sponsored by Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10020. Open to legal residents of the U. S. (except Puerto Rico) who are age 18 or older at the time of entry. One entry per household. Entries must be received by February 1, 2010. Winners will be randomly selected and noti;ed by mail on or before March 1, 2010. The value of the prize is $14. Void where prohibited. Winners are responsible for all applicable federal, state and local taxes. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. Employees of Costco or Simon & Schuster and their families are not eligible.

Mercy is a critical and commercial success. But less than a decade ago, the 40-year-old Domingue, then working as “a journalist, grassroots organizer, project manager, teacher and grant writer,” was plagued by deeply disturbing, recurring dreams of pregnancy, abortions and stillbirths. “Though all the jobs I had were about writing in some way, I wasn’t writing fiction, which is what I had wanted to do since I was 8 years old,” Domingue tells The Connection. “I realized these dead babies were my unwritten books, so I immediately started scribbling away and haven’t had another dream like that since.”

SUSAN SHACTER

Domingue began the four-year journey of penning Mercy, working through “long incubation periods with little or no prose writing,” listening to the characters and the story as it revealed itself in “flashes.” Then came the morale-testing process of submitting her book to agents and finding a publisher. Though it took time, Domingue knew that Mercy would change her life forever. “I knew the book would not only be published, but also be embraced by readers,” she says. “This deep inner sense can’t be explained, but it was real and it sustained me through a long, often discouraging search for an agent.”

Ultimately, the book landed at Atria Books, where it was acquired and edited by Sarah Branham, who was sparked by the novel’s “true tenderness.” Branham says, “I’m amazed by Ronlyn’s ability to set an entire novel on that thin line between life and death. This is truly one of those novels that sticks with you for a long, long time.”

And that’s probably a good thing. For even as Mercy enjoys continued life five years after its initial publication, Domingue is dreaming her follow-up. “Novel number two does not want me to talk about it,” she laughs. “I haven’t a clue when I’ll be finished. This one is far deeper and darker than Mercy, but also more beautiful and transcendent. I believe it’ll be worth the wait, for readers and me.”

FRANCE FREEMAN

In the meantime, Domingue is enjoying the dream fulfilled that is Mercy’s powerful success. “Readers have told me that Mercy has made them feel renewed love for the people they care about. Some even found comfort as they grieved over those they’ve lost,” she says. “I’ll take their word for it, with gratitude.” C

FIRST-TIME novelist Ronlyn
Domingue isn’t the only
author to write about a
character caught between
this life and the next. But in
The Mercy of Thin Air,
Domingue is able to put her
own touch on the topic,
handling the subject with
such skill that the story has
haunted me since I read it.
When Raziela Nolan
dies in an accident, she
leaves behind the love of her
life. It is from a place
between the two worlds
that she narrates the story
of her lost love and the
young couple, Amy and
Scott, whose house she
haunts. She soon realizes
she has a closer connection
to the young lovers than she
could have imagined.