The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Canine Muses: Although Laurel Doud has a cozy studio next to her house where her dogs Oberon and Compton often come to visit her, she says she wrote the first draft of 'This Body' in longhand, sitting out in the sun.

Glen novelist explores the roles of the body and soul

Laurel Doud plans to speak on 'This Body' at WG library July 14

By Rebecca Wallace

In Laurel Doud's first novel, This Body, Katharine, a strict and mildly neurotic middle-aged mother of two, dies in her sleep and wakes up in the body of 22-year-old Thisby, a painfully thin and rebellious drug addict.

Katharine and Thisby seem to dwell at opposite ends of the spectrum, and yet Katharine finds a kinship with the woman who inhabited this body, becoming a mixture of both people--much like Doud herself. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it is that life comes in many shades of gray.

"In general, I'm more Katharine. I tend to be self-righteous, conservative in some ways--the feeling that I'm right," says Doud, perched on an exercise bicycle in her Willow Glen studio. She has just walked through her kitchen, where photos of her teenage son Will and daughter Danner, a college student, cover the refrigerator.

And yet Thisby appears in the dark tattoo peeking out from under Doud's sleeveless shirt, in her hair dyed brilliant hues of red and gold.

"Katharine thinks she's all good, thinks Thisby's all bad," says Doud, her two dogs vying for her attention. "She's wrong. It's the balance that you have to deal with."

Katharine finds a lot to deal with besides dying and waking up in someone else's body: Thisby's drug-dealing boyfriend and her troubled family relationships; finding out what happened to Katharine's husband and children, now that they think she's been dead for a year; and learning that nervously imposing rules on her children isn't necessarily the best way to raise them.

It's a lot packed into a compelling first novel. Variations on this story are common, but Doud's intriguingly flawed characters draw the reader in. Even the photographer who is taking Doud's picture during a Resident interview asks to see a copy of This Body.

And Doud is loving every minute of the book promotion, which has included a review in The Wall Street Journal ("entertaining" and "amusing") and a profile in July's literary issue of San Francisco Focus. Published by Little, Brown and Company, This Body was released this month.

Doud will discuss the book and sign copies at a free reception at the Willow Glen Library at 1157 Minnesota Ave. on Tuesday, July 14. Co-sponsored by Willow Glen Books, the event runs from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Doud says she's an example that the publishing system works, even for a neophyte writer who lacks the right connections. About a year and a half ago, Doud sent 60 unsolicited query letters to literary agents. Her agent said This Body was the first one she'd accepted cold.

A research librarian and Willow Glen native, Doud had been writing for years before she worked up the courage, with the support of her writing group, to pitch the book. Like many working moms, she faced the challenge of finding time to write.

"I never had writer's block--I couldn't afford to," she says wryly. "If I had an hour, I had to take it."

Body or soul?

One of the questions that captivated Doud when she was writing This Body was where a person's essence really lies.

"I had a lot of fun trying to figure out--with no scientific basis--what controls you, mind or body?" she asks rhetorically.

Katharine thinks she can beat Thisby's substance addiction because she's not mentally addicted, but doesn't living inside Thisby's body factor in somewhere? And can she control whom Thisby's body is attracted to?

"Part of Thisby's soul comes across in her body," Doud says.

Thisby and Katharine are both reflected in the tattoo Doud got shortly before the book was published: two women--one dark, one fair--joined back to back, just like the one Katharine gets in the book.

In This Body, the tattoo artist asks Katharine, "Opposites, then? One dark, one light? One Jekyll, the other Hyde?"

"No," Katharine responds, horrified. "Not opposites. Just different." She thinks, "Because if we're opposites, who has to be Mr. Hyde? Am I so sure that it's Thisby?"

If Doud bears similarities to her characters, are Doud's own children reflected in Katharine's children, Ben and Marion? Doud appears apprehensive.

"I'm nervous," she says of the prospect of her children reading This Body, which they have not done yet. "Ben and Marion are not my children, but they have certain attributes ..." She laughs. "Will's girlfriend called up [after reading the book] and asked, 'Did this really happen?' 'No,' I answered. 'How about that?' 'Well, yes.'

"If I died like Katharine, I wanted to leave something behind for my children," Doud says of her book. "Parenting teens is not easy. This is a plea for understanding. My audience was my children."

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