Authors Answer: Sandra Freels
Authors Answer Q&A #582
Author interviews almost always focus on questions regarding an author’s latest publication (and that’s great because it’s how readers discover new books!) but sometimes it’s fun to ask authors to talk about their lives beyond the book they’ve just written. Authors Answer (started as a blog in 2020, moved onto Substack in 2025), is an attempt to give authors space to wax eloquent about the other influences on their writing. The questions posed here move beyond the formulaic classics like, “What books are on your nightstand?” or “What book inspired you to be a writer?” and even “You’re having a dinner party….which three authors (dead or alive) do you invite?” There are 20 standing questions. Authors pick FIVE that they want to answer.
Are you an author? Visit the Questions page to learn more about participating.
Today’s post features Sandra Freels.
Sandra Freels majored in Russian at Indiana University and completed a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Stanford University. The author of three textbooks, she headed the Russian program at Portland State University for many years. An interest in genealogy led her to the Council Records of New Netherland and the delicious stories of the people who once lived there. She claims descent from Anneke Jans and sixteen other major and minor characters in Anneke Jans in the New World. At present, Sandra lives with her husband Joel and their two cats in Portland, Oregon.
Not all books are for all readers… when you start a book and you just don’t like it, how long do you read until you bail?
When I was much younger, I would read one book at a time from beginning to end. I always assumed that if I didn’t like a book the fault was mine so I just needed to keep trying. Now, I’m happy to say I’ve outgrown that attitude. I feel fine about reading three–four books simultaneously, and I feel fine marking a book unread and setting it aside. If a book is sloppily written, I’ll drop it after a page or two. If I have no reason to immediately stop reading, I’ll read until some point—usually about halfway through—when the author begins to actively irritate me and then put it aside. There are three great books that, to my shame, I have never managed to finish: James Joyce’s Ulysses, Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, and Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano. There the fault is definitely mine.
Vacation druthers… City or Rural destination? Why?
I enjoy both. In a perfect year I try to take two trips—one to a place I’ve never visited before with museums and sites of historical interest and another to a place of great natural beauty. For sheer rest and relaxation, nothing beats sitting on the lanai in West Maui listening to the surf, admiring the everchanging cloudscape, and waiting for humpback whales to breach.
Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?
When I was a girl, I played violin in the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra. We played Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker every winter and one year even played a White House concert for JFK. Then I left school and, like so many other young people, stopped playing. I never lost interest though, and many years later after my children were grown, I took the instrument up again but transitioned from classical sheet music to playing by ear. I have a wonderful teacher, Betsy Branch, who is a brilliant performer and a wonderfully analytical (and patient!) teacher. I’ll never go on stage, but I get great pleasure from fiddling around most days of the week.
What piece of clothing tells the most interesting story about your life?
When I was a graduate student in Leningrad, I bought a mink hat shaped like an onion dome at one of the infamous foreign-currency stores. I would never buy anything made of fur today, but back then it seemed like a reasonable thing to do. I wore that hat all winter long along with a bright magenta North Face down jacket, which made me remarkably easy to follow. I finally stopped wearing the hat after my husband told me I looked like I had a cat on my head, but it lives in my closet to this good day as a memento of a very different bygone era.
Do you speak a second language? Do you think differently in that language? Does it influence your writing?
My native language is English, but I speak Russian with a high degree of fluency. I wouldn’t say that I think differently in Russian, but I do express myself differently if only because each language has its own tropes and conversational gambits. I am fascinated by the linguistic diversity of New Netherland, where my novel Anneke Jans in the New World is set. I’ve tried to convey a little of that hodgepodge of languages by sometimes translating foreign idioms directly into English.
Endnotes!
This newsletter is a passion project started by me, Elizabeth Rynecki, to try to help shine a light on new-to-me authors. I am also an author (and a documentary filmmaker and podcaster) and if you want to learn more about me, you can visit my website or read my personal newsletter, Ink Trails: A Chronicle in Creativity.
I’ve never made Authors Answer specific social media accounts, but you can find me on Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky.