Nan Fischer Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

Nan Fischer discusses Some of It Was Real, her first novel for adults about an ill-advised romance between a psychic-medium and the journalist who sets out to reveal her as a fake.

Some of It Was Real has such an unusual premise. What inspired you to write about a psychic who is unsure of her own abilities?

When I'm writing a book, I just take all the things I'm obsessed with and weave them together. I've always been kind of obsessed with psychics. I met a psychic once on a flight from Denver to Aspen. I have a weak stomach--I always look for the barf bag on flights. So I turned to the elegant, gray-haired woman next to me and apologized [for that], and she asked for my palm. It turned out she was a semi-famous psychic on her way to a fancy party in Aspen, and she spent the next hour reading my palm.

Finally, toward the end of the flight, I asked her one last question: "Am I ever going to get married?" She turned to me with this twinkle in her eye and said, "If you want it enough." This famous psychic basically told me I controlled my own destiny. It gave me the invitation to choose my own path. I wasn't sure what I was going to do next, and I kept hearing her voice all winter, telling me anything was possible if I wanted it enough. I moved to San Francisco and got my next writing gig, and I kept what she said in the back of my mind as I moved from experience to experience. Having a psychic as ...