NEW SCOTLAND – Elizabeth Brundage wrote her first novel on a yellow legal pad when she was 12 years old. She wanted to solve the problems of her troubled brother, she said. "One way to do that was on paper."

Her first published novel, The Doctor’s Wife, came out in 2004. Her second novel will be released next summer; she has been finishing it at her New Scotland home, where she moved with her husband and three children last July.
Brundage grew up in Maplewood, N.J., and attended an "enormous" high school, she said.
In her junior year, she studied poetry and fiction-writing at Harvard’s summer school. That was when she became "turned on" to writing, she said.

She later studied poetry at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., and began writing screenplays for films in the early 1980s.

A fellowship allowed her to attend the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, where she studied for a year. She went on to work for several years at Columbia Pictures and Raastar Productions, writing screenplays at night, she said.
An agent loved her work, but told her that her sentences were too well-crafted, and that she should be writing fiction, she said. "She was right," said Brundage.

She met her husband, Scott Morris, while in college. The two were married before Brundage moved to Iowa City to study at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, while her husband finished medical school in New York.
After she arrived at the University of Iowa, she realized she was pregnant, she said. "I had Hannah by myself in Iowa," Brundage said of her now 18-year-old daughter.

Brundage studied for two years in Iowa, before she and Hannah reunited with her husband in Rochester, NY.

Complex issues in a literary thriller

While living in Rochester, Brundage got the idea for The Doctor’s Wife, she said.
She often saw protesters outside a women’s clinic, she remembered. "I thought about what it would be like to be a physician" who performed abortions, and to be the wife of the doctor, "especially if you have strong convictions about choice," Brundage said.

In the novel, which is set in and around Albany, Brundage crafts a story that intertwines the lives of four stunningly different characters, coupled with the controversial issues of abortion and adultery.
"I’m interested in telling stories that challenge people to think about things they would otherwise not think about," she said.

Brundage – whose husband is a cardiologist – worked from her own personal history and experience to convey the dynamic of the marriage between Michael and Annie Knowles – the doctor and his wife in the book.
"I’m interested in writing about complex issues within the context of a literary thriller," she said.
Brundage has always been "fascinated with Albany," she said. "It’s very old-world here."
She thought Albany "was a good microcosm and a realistic setting" for her book, she said.
"The country is in a state of complete confusion," Brundage said, regarding abortion. "We’re a very anxious society.
"It’s a very arduous profession," she said of her husband’s job. "It demands an awful lot of people" I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and how hard he works."
Brundage and Morris will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in August, she said. "It’s been challenging at times," she confided. "We’re very much centered on the family."

Their children – Hannah, 18; Sophie, 15; and Sam, 9 – are the family’s focal point.
Brundage sees similarities between her work and her husband’s. "He’ll have a patient, and I’ll have a character" We’re both like detectives trying to figure out the pathologies," said Brundage.

"Joyful affliction"
Writing novels, says Brundage, "is like digging your way out of prison with a spoon." She considers it part of what she needs to do. Writing is her "joyful affliction," she said.
"I love putting words together," Brundage told The Enterprise. "I love language, and I love the sound that words make when you put them together in a sentence. It’s a musical process for me."
While assembling a manuscript, Brundage said, she becomes so preoccupied with the story, "real people in your life sort of take the back seat" It’s really hard."
She becomes involved with the people she creates on paper. "I’m very interested in the psychology of the characters," Brundage said.

She likes characters – like Michael and Annie Knowles – who can remove themselves from places. The world, though, always floods in, she said.
"Characters cannot completely shed their past" The mistakes they’ve made have a way of informing their future," Brundage said.
"I never write directly about someone I know" It’s less interesting than creating someone else," she said with a bright smile.
"There are so many books, and there are many people who write fiction," Brundage said. It is important to be "as true to the characters as you can" and make the story seem real, she said.
Her challenge is to "tell a story that moves forward at a quick pace" and has a social context to which the reader can relate, said Brundage.
"If the work is good, it will find its way into print," Brundage said. "You have to be your own worst critic" Steady work, steady practice, you do get better," she said.

Brundage – who taught at several colleges, stopping in 2000 to focus on writing – is planning on teaching a writing workshop in the fall at the Voorheesville Public Library. She has conducted numerous workshops in the past, and she’s excited to meet local writers, she said.
"It’s super fun," she said. "It’s just a lot of fun to be with writers."
Authors are continually striving to write what will sell, she said; the reality is: "The best work comes from deep within you.
"If you don’t prove the story, then no one’s going to believe it," said Brundage. "It has to be very alive in your head, otherwise there is no possibility of reaching them."

The most difficult part of writing a book is the ending, Brundage admitted. It’s as if someone were standing on the other side of the room, whispering the words and you can’t make them out, she told The Enterprise while giving up some of her precious time from work on the finale of her second novel.
"The ending is always the best-kept secret," she said.
"When you finish a book, you’re a little bit dazed," Brundage said, clearly ready to remember the feeling again. She likened it to "coming out of a very dark room into bright sunlight."