An Interview With Debut Memoirist Laura Gaddis

I’m thrilled to introduce to you to a bright new voice in nonfiction. Author Laura Gaddis and I first met at IUWriteCon, a writers’ conference held at Indiana University. She and I were fortunate to have been assigned to the same nonfiction critique group moderated by award-winning author, Kiese Laymon. At the time I was editing my first memoir, Twice a Daughter (She Writes Press, 2021) and Laura was crafting material that found its way into her new book, Mosaic, “a tale that is composed of both painful and beautiful moments, all intricately connected.”

Tell us about yourself?

I came to writing a little bit later in life. I have always liked language and creating stories—I even made a book about dinosaurs when I was eight and tried to publish it. But ultimately, I studied psychology in college and went on to get a master’s degree in clinical psychology. For fourteen years, I worked various jobs in the psychology field before I started to feel the burn out. I loved learning about mental health and helping people, but it was hard. It took a move to a new state for my husband’s job for me to be jobless and a bit aimless. It seemed like a sign to go back to writing and teaching in a full-time way. I don’t regret the psychology part of my life at all, though! I’ve always been an observant person, and that skill worked well for my prior jobs, and it works well for writing.

How would you describe the story you tell in Mosaic?

It is the story of persevering through difficulties in starting a family. It’s about how navigating the world of modern medicine, especially as a woman, can be challenging and traumatic, and that we need to have the autonomy to do what’s best for us. It’s about how mental health can affect, and is affected, by difficult life circumstances. It’s about becoming a mother, and how reinventing the relationship with my own mother taught me how to be a better version of myself. Put all of this together and it becomes a book about loss, grief, resilience, and hope.

Tell us about your publishing path?

Mosaic is published by Unsolicited Press and releases March 4, 2025. Unsolicited Press is an independent traditional press out of Portland, OR. It is woman owned. They champion voices that are often marginalized in the publishing world. What drew me to them (in addition to following a traditional publishing model) was their commitment to well-written books that deserve to be heard. Their cover designs are beautiful, they work hard to publicize and tell our stories, and they do it without the resources of the Big 5 publishers. While I know there are other models of publishing that are available to authors who struggle to get a big book deal, those just didn’t seem right for me. The traditional model allows for the author to put faith in the publisher since the only person losing money without sales is the publisher. Another benefit to a smaller press is the personalized attention. I email directly with my publisher and editor, and I know many of the other authors being published in 2025 (and a few from other years as well). My book is currently available in paperback and eBook and will eventually be in audiobook format as well.

What prompted you to write this book? 

I started writing about the elusiveness of motherhood and my pregnancy losses after I lost my first baby, Sophia. It was the biggest trauma on my journey as she was born at 20 weeks and lived for a short while. She was born with fetal anomalies. After it happened, I had difficulty processing what had just happened to us. Going into that pregnancy, we had no idea anything would (or could) go wrong. I began writing a blog to document the events. People read my blog posts, and I began hearing from others who had their own experiences. It gave me a sense of gratitude that I could connect with others, and that maybe my writing was helping others. A couple years after my daughter Evelyn was born, I decided I wanted to write about the troubled pregnancy with her, her premature birth and five-week NICU stay, and her genetic condition that was like that of my first baby. I was able to incorporate pieces that I wrote all those years earlier and it all came together into a book. It finally felt like a complete story. 

Sharing this book with the world is a dream. Not only have I wanted to publish a book since my childhood book about dinosaurs, but sharing this story with others is huge for me. Loss and grief, in many forms, is part of being human. It’s a way we can connect with each other. And I think a little more connection––and sharing common ground––is something we could all use right now. 

Why did you choose the book’s title, Mosaic? 

This book was originally called “Rainbow Road.” The previous first essay of the book was called the same thing, and it was about how my daughter born after loss was considered a “rainbow baby.” I loved the metaphorical elements of that essay, but when I showed it to a writing mentor, she suggested it might be written in a way that was too ephemeral. It wasn’t grounding enough for the reader. When I cut that essay, I immediately thought of how the rest of the book was written. I write in fragments, episodes, vignettes. And like the pieces of a mosaic, they were coming together in a way that created a bigger picture. But also, each piece held a story on its own. It didn’t take me long to settle on Mosaic as the title and I couldn’t be happier with all the ways it brings meaning to the story. Mosaics are beautiful in their own, broken ways. 

What are the main themes of the book?

I had a writing professor once tell me that no matter how much we try, writers often come back to writing about the same 3-4 themes. I have learned over time how right she was. Mosaic is about loss, grief, mental health, and finding one’s identity.

Were there any characters, scenes, or chapters that were difficult to write? 

The hardest parts to write were not because of the emotional nature of the book. I find writing about my experiences quite easy to do. The hard part in memoir, for me, is remembering enough of the details for each essay and scene to make it come to life on the page. Writing memoir isn’t unlike writing fiction in that way—except that we can’t make anything up. So, I’d have flashes of memories or events that I knew I had to write about. Fleshing those moments out took me longer.

What do you hope readers take away from your story? 

I want people to understand that it is human to have terrible things happen in life. It will literally happen to all of us. We all lose loves, feel deep grief, and feel hopeless at times. But life never leaves you in one place for more than a moment. Sometimes the trek forward feels glacial. But it is impossible for life to pause. Situations cannot pause. Our emotions cannot pause. And nothing exactly repeats. Understanding this leads to hope. And from hope can come good things.

When did you begin writing this book?

I started it in Fall 2019 when I began my MFA in a creative writing program. I finished a draft of it for my thesis in July 2021. I then worked a bit more on it, adding a few more essays that I felt were missing. I officially began looking for a publisher in October 2021.

Can you describe where you did most of your writing for this book?  

I don’t have many great writing rituals, which probably IS my ritual! I don’t have a spot I always write in. The whole thing was written on my laptop, so that was consistent. I worked on my couch, on my bed, in the architecture library at Miami University (which was underused by undergrads and super quiet), my office at school, at my kitchen counter. I am the kind of person that can’t force writing every day at a certain time and at a certain place. I write when I get an idea and have a few minutes to spare. I do like to listen to music, but it cannot have lyrics or else I get distracted and begin to sing along. Ambient music (like meditation-type music) or classical/instrumental only.

What were some satisfactions and challenges in writing this book? 

The biggest challenge was creating the final mosaic. I had all the essays and then I had to put them together. I didn’t want them to necessarily be in a chronological order, although, for the most part the book does follow a timeline. Some pieces stuck out more than others, and I struggled to figure out how to make them fit. But the whole time, I knew they could fit. I just had to figure it out. I made outlines and pulled essays into pieces to string them throughout the book. I wanted the pieces to reveal the final picture while also maintaining the through-lines of themes. And because some essays come out-of-order, I had to make sure that the reader was never confused about what point in time they were and which pregnancy I was talking about. All of this was not an easy task.

Is there anything you would have done differently, either in the research, writing process, or publication process?

I honestly don’t think so! I’m so happy with how well the book came together, and the community of writers that I connected with while writing it. While I had initially looked for an agent, memoir was a hard sell due to not being the biggest money-making genre (unless I had been a famous person!). So I am thrilled to have found a press that appreciates memoir and creative nonfiction. My publisher got my vision for it immediately and didn’t change much about it. That is such a gift to find.

Which authors inspire you?

Joan Didion! Number one, she was a big influence when I was writing Mosaic. I had quite the reading list of memoirs, many written by women. Sarah Manguso (The Two Kinds of Decay), Lydia Yuknavitch (The Chronology of Water), and Elizabeth McCracken (An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination) were also on that list. I learned a lot from these authors about how to write about difficult topics with authenticity and raw honesty.

What 3 tips of advice do you have for aspiring debut female authors?

• Listen to your instincts! If you have something on your mind that you just feel like you need to write about, do it. That is the writer’s instinct, and you need to trust it. Don’t question why others would care about it or if it is not good enough to write about. 
• Good writing comes from curiosity. You must be almost obsessive about understanding something that you will write and research about for a long time. 
• Writing takes time. Thinking about ideas, getting a first draft down, editing—no part of this can be rushed.

What are you working on next?

Mosaic is my first book, but I have numerous essays and articles (and even a couple poems) published with literary magazines and websites such as Scary Mommy, Tiny Buddha, Still Standing Magazine, and The Mighty. After Mosaic was written, I started writing a historical fiction about Gertie, a young German woman born between the two World Wars. It is based heavily on my own grandmother’s experience, and I have done a lot of research (both from her documentation and general historical research) to fill in the story of displaced people in war. Just like Mosaic, it is about loss, grief, resilience, identity, and hope.

Follow Laura Gaddis:

www.lauragaddis.com

Instagram @lauragaddiswriter

More About Laura:

Laura (she/her) is an author/educator from Oxford, Ohio. Her memoir “Mosaic” (Unsolicited Press) delves into loss, motherhood, and parenting a child with disabilities. She has been published in Thin Air Magazine, 805 Lit + Art, Stonecoast Review, Brevity Blog, and elsewhere. Laura’s essay “Well Meaning People” was Pushcart Nominated. She has been awarded a teaching fellowship for the Desert Nights Rising Stars Writers’ Conference with the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University. 

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March 5: Julie will make a return appearance as a guest on Simon Benn’s “Thriving Adoptees Podcast”. Stay tuned for the link.

March 6: Julie will be Irene Weisberg’s guest on the Grief & Rebirth Podcast.

March 8: Julie will guest on the “Who am I really?” Podcast with Damon Davis.

March 11: Virtual Author Panel: Inside the Adoption Experience: Expert Authors Discussing Adoption’s Impact featuring Julie McGue, Diane Wheaton, Simone Knego, Laura Engle, and moderated by Diane Dewey at 4PT/5 MT/6 CT/7 ET Free via zoom with registration, here.

March 14-16: Julie will attend the Tucson Festival of Books. You can find her in the Adoptee Authors booth where she will be signing her books on Sunday March 15th from 3-5.

March 21, 1-4 PM ET: Julie will be signing and selling her books to benefit the Longboat Key Library at J McLaughlin’s on Longboat Key. Come out and show your support at this popular “Sip ‘n Shop” event.

April 8 & 29 from 1:30-2:30 ET Julie will teach a webinar for the Author Learning Center, titled “How to Write Memoir That Reads Like Fiction.” You can sign up, here.

April 9: Julie will talk about her new book Twice the Family to the Longboat Key Club Book Club from 12 noon to 1:30 ET. Members can sign up on the club website.  

April 17: Vine & Verse: A Night of Wine & Words from 6-8 at Lum’s Cellars in Maplewood NJ. Julie will join fellow authors, Laura Gaddis (author of Mosaic), Kathleen Somers (author of Barely Visible) and Joanne De Simone (author of Fall and Recovery). At this event each author will discuss their book, do a short reading, and participate in a Q&A. Books will be available for purchase.

Follow Julie by visiting her website, subscribe to her bimonthly newsletters, and listen to previous podcast recordings where she discusses topics like adoption, identity, family relationships, sisterhood and belonging.

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