I began research for the book in the 1990s but once we went to war after 9/11 the focus on the soldier deepened. The idea that he had stories in his body that were unleashed by Honor was really a way of exploring the central theme of the book: that every life contains a multitude of stories, that to understand ourselves and not mindlessly repeat the past we have to understand those stories, and that this same idea holds true for a country and its history. There's a line early on: "A soldier's body is a work of art that contains his country's history." Milo and Honor's shared vision is a metaphor for the idea that every soldier's body exists as the result of a long, storied cultural history, and that we are all connected through this, all a part of it.

JH: Have you ever had visions during a massage?

JM: No, I've never had visions during a massage, although I do believe that we hold emotions and memories in our bodies and that this comes through in the way we carry ourselves, where we have aches and pains, and what sense memories we experience. I've studied the Alexander Technique, which is a movement technique that is nothing like massage, but deals with the relationship between the mind and the body.

JH: Why did you set this novel in 1930s New York?

JM: Well, for some reason I seem to be drawn to the 1930's. I Was Amelia Earhart was also set in the 30's. Perhaps it's because that's when my parents were born and so the era possesses a certain mystery and magic for me. But for American Music, which actually takes place during many different time periods spanning the Twentieth century, the 30's became the setting for the emotional center of the book because that was when Swing music began. Music is another theme of the book, and one that emerged when I heard that there was to this day a secret formula for making cymbals that dates back centuries. This idea intrigued me- first of all the simple pun that there could be a secret formula for making cymbals/symbols, and second, more significantly, that the cymbals, so central to Swing, a seemingly quintessential American music, actually would not exist without this secret formula created by an Armenian in Turkey in the 17th century. I was researching both the war veteran idea and the cymbals idea in 2001 and after 9/11 the strands wove together.

Through my research I learned that Swing really came about when drummers started keeping the beat with the cymbals, and I found it fascinating and ironic that the so-called quintessential American music owed so much to a discovery by an alchemist to the Sultan in Istanbul in 1623! Thus, the Swing era, and then specifically Count Basie's debut at the Roseland Ballroom in 1936, became the central period in the book.

JH: There are a number of mysteries that revolving around interwoven love stories. Which of these stories did you create first, and did the others evolve from that story?

JM: The soldier's story and the cymbals story were the originating tales for the book. Eventually they wove together and in so doing other stories emerged that connected them. Iris's story in the 60's, which touches on Vietnam, and Pearl's in the 20's, which takes place on the set of De Mille's Ten Commandments, and then the stories reaching up to the present all came out of those first two to show how these characters and their stories, and the stories of America in the 20th century, were all related.

JH: Music is a big part of this novel. Is there a particular era of music that has played/plays a big role in your life? Did you listen to music for inspiration while writing this novel?

JM: Oddly, Swing music has actually played little or no role in my life. Although I do think it's fun, I grew up with the idea that it was unsophisticated, not real jazz. Now I think it's very rich. It's interesting the things we learn about and discover while following the trail of a book idea. I did listen to Count Basie while writing the book, and also to Billie Holiday who has always been a favorite of mine. The fact that she sang briefly with Basie was a nice coincidence. I do find her singing inspirational and a line from her autobiography is one of the epigraphs to the book.

As for the music I listened to while writing the book, that was a real mix. I had two babies during the time I was writing and so the music I sang to them played over and over in my head. I used to sing "Make You Feel My Love" by Bob Dylan as a lullaby. (Now it's been covered by Adele and I hear it again everywhere!). Also we listened to the kids' singer Dan Zanes and so I had his version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" stuck in my head for years. Another song I was in love with while I was writing the book was "Hummingbird" by Wilco. I think on some level the lyrics are about writing and music.

JH: How was this novel different to create than your first novel, "I Was Amelia Earhart? What themes do the two novels share?

JM: Since I had children this time around American Music took much, much longer to write! That's the first difference. And then the experience of having children influenced the novel. American Music is very much about families and generations and what gets repeated and what can be changed. But both books-American Music and I Was Amelia Earhart-- deal with American myths and peeling away their layers. Also both books take a premise that is somewhat fantastical-- what happened to Amelia Earhart after she disappeared? What if a soldier's body contained stories that someone else could apprehend? - and use that premise as a way of getting at and talking about emotional truths, which are sometimes best explored through unconventional or indirect or metaphorical means.

Another aspect the books share is a deep interest in human psychology. It's wonderful to be in Psychology Today, in part because I come from a family of psychiatrists. My father and a cousin are both psychiatrists, my brother just began his residency in psychiatry, and my sister-in-law is a psychologist. I think about things from that perspective. I have great respect for the unconscious. I'm very impressed by its power and by the mysteries of human behavior.

JH: What's the one true thing you learned from Honor during the time you spent with her?

JM: The question of what I learned from Honor is a wonderful one, but also almost feels like a trick question since of course I learned it from myself while writing her. Ironically, that is a description of what I learned: that we discover so much about our own stories through others, through our relationships with others. She learns her story through Milo. Her hands on his body are like the writer's hands on the page, and then the reader's hands on the book. Our stories move through us, through one another.

Jane Mendelsohn is a graduate of Yale University. She is the author of two previous novels, including the New York Times best seller I Was Amelia Earhart. She lives in New York City with her husband and two children.