10 Questions: Author, Editor Kathryn Magendie

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the charming, talented and always entertaining Kathryn Magendie. Kathryn is  a writer, editor, and co-managing editor of The Rose & Thorn Literary Ezine. She’s published short stories, essays, poems, photography and will soon be releasing her debut novel, TENDER GRACES, which hits the shelves in April of 2009. I’ve pre-ordered  my copy and am very anxious for its release!  In the past several weeks since Kathryn’s Guest Author Post here at Eazy Cheezy, I’ve learned quite a bit about her and have become a huge fan. I’m privileged and honored to share this interview, so sit back, relax and enjoy the brilliance that is Kathryn Magendie.

BM: Can you tell us a bit about your background?

KM: The thing about “backgrounds” is how many are as fishing nets cast out—first in sluggish, murky waters where all manner of useless things, garbage even, is captured within the life net; then cast to a vast ocean where experiences more interesting begin to accumulate and rearrange and the glunk is washed away; and finally, into a cold clear-running mountain creek, where dreams are found and all is clean and shiny new.

Oh, now, did you really think I’d write something simple like: I was born in West Virginia and we moved repeatedly when I was a bare-footed kid and I read voraciously because I was (am) bashful and I love(d) books and libraries were my sanctuary and my mom says I wanted to write since I was whatever cliché here about when writers first knew they wanted to write but I can’t remember that nugget of info…? That after being told I was a “gifted” writer by a teacher, I put away those thoughts for many years until I found my way again? And now the floodgates are open. Nope, not going to say all that boring stuff.

BM: What’s the main ingredient to your writing success?

KM: Success—now that’s a funny word. I don’t see myself as a “success” and I wonder if I ever will. Each goal in my writing journey is met with an “Okay, I’ve done that, but I have to do this next to be a success….” And the rungs in that danged ole ladder keep appearing ever upward. Well, maybe like the rabbit whose fur is rubbed off, that’s when he realizes he’s loved, so it is with me perhaps?—when all my fur is rubbed off, then I’ll maybe know I’m successful (loved)?

BM: You’ve published essays, poetry, short stories, photography and your upcoming novel, TENDER GRACES. What advice would you give aspiring writers who would love to mirror your success?

KM: Okay, here’s the thing: you all have heard it before—be tenacious (don’t give up), believe in yourself, write like the dickens (not Charles necessarily), etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Those old clichés are clichés for good reason.

However, I do want to say this: Do Not let someone, anyone, sway you from your dream or make you feel bad about you or your dreams. If someone makes you feel as if you are lacking or wanting or “bad,” then run from them as fast as you can. No one should have that authority, that right.

Taking critique or criticism is one thing, but having someone turn you away from what makes you happy/healthy/excited/human/loved/successful is quite another. If after a “criticism” you put away your dreams, then do not listen to that voice ever again. Ever again. Never—am I getting through? Never ever hear that voice again. Ever. Keep writing (or painting or singing or dancing or going to school or raising peacocks or knitting …), and learn from criticism or advice, listen to it from someone trusted, listen with a practiced ear tuned to your instincts. Good solid critique should spur you on to do more, not have you throw your dreams away and live life trudging on.

If you sing and you are not the best singer, but that’s what you really want to do, then do it, practice it, work hard at it; however, also be aware of when things lead you to where you were always meant to go: find your Place; you’ll know it when you get there.

BM: Your writing has been described as “poignant, tangy, sweet, loving, wanting, needing and so satisfying” by Ocean Magazine. How would you describe your writing style?

KM: Oh, that sounds so good; I don’t think I could write something better! I become a little itchy when asked to describe my work, but at the same time I have that writer’s weird pride where I want to talk about it. Lawd, it’s hard to both tout oneself because that’s what writers have to do, and to stay a bit reclusive and in one’s own head where I’m most comfortable. Besides that, it’s difficult for me to see my work objectively, so when someone describes my writing in that way, I am surprised and happy and I think, “Me? I write like that? Well, goll-dang it all, teehee and la tee dah!”

BM: Do you have any go-to sites or resources that helped you develop into the writer you are today?

KM: Here are three books to consider that I have on my shelf: The Elements of Style by Strunk & White, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, and Stephen King’s On Writing. I wish I’d have had at least the first two of these books when I first wrote that thing that became TENDER GRACES. I fumbled in the dark stumble-bumbling when I began writing seriously for publication instead of writing out of some angst (there is a difference, and when you discover that difference, the skies will clear—I guarantee it). I learned by just writing and a good bit of “natural instinct.” That said, I read A Lot—writers who do not read, well, I have a hard time understanding that but we all have our own ways.

An online site I use is Duotrope’s Digest, a great resource for finding places to submit and track work. If I could tout The Rose & Thorn, we have a Roses & Thorns blog where R&T staff gives excellent advice and guidance to writers. There are good grammar sites out there (doesn’t hurt to learn the technical rules, as I said, so you can sometimes aptly break them); and in fact in one post I write about grammar, Grammar is Our Friend, No Really It Is.

BM: TENDER GRACES is “an unflinching look at how we find our way home.” What inspired this story?

KM: Place. Family. Traditions. Home. Belonging. Friendship. Those things interest me to no end. Maybe because I was (am?) always in a search for those things and want my characters to find what I had (have?) trouble finding. I love their discoveries.

BM: How long did it take you to complete TENDER GRACES, from beginning to end?

KM: For this first book in the planned trilogy, that’s hard to pin down, for I never thought I’d become a novel writer; I thought I was a short story and essay writer! Then, because of Angie Ledbetter’s comments in the old B&N writer’s group, what was a short story very quickly became this THING of 200,000 pages—within a few months I’d completed that draft, so I guess I had stuff that projectiled out of me. I divided that THING into two pieces and began work on the first book, which would become TENDER GRACES (and I have to say here that each book will stand alone; readers can read one book or all and still feel a “completion”).

Time and circumstance went willy-nilly, until, finally, I got off my butt and said, “I want this bad enough to face rejection and scrutiny and the possibility my dream may not turn out exactly how I may imagine it…or it may, but I’m making it happen one way or another for my Virginia Kate! Ha! Yes! So there! Giddy-yup!”

However, knowing what I know now along with believing in myself (not listening to That Voice of Negativity), I would have no need to let things drag along so long. I’m lucky, I seem to be quite prolific and can slam out work in no time—so, paired with confidence and practice and stubbornness, and hope and timing and luck, and the right place and people and and, oh! … good gawd-a-mighty it’s a wonder any of us become published authors at all.

BM: TENDER GRACES will be published very soon! How has TENDER GRACES changed your life thus far?

KM: I have goals that are much more defined in ways not defined before—including those that come from outward sources (like BelleBooks Publishers). And, I feel as if a life-dream is coming true and when that happens there are all manner of strangeling thoughts and desires and fears and wants and worries that rise up and slap me silly. Maybe I will feel like an Author now? Wouldn’t that be magical?

BM: TENDER GRACES will have hidden nuggets and secrets embedded within the novel. Any hints as to what we may find?

KM: Readers may find little things I’ve hidden in there, both on purpose or those I even discovered myself that I’d written subconsciously, and if they think, “Hey! Did she mean to…” chances are that maybe I did (oh, I’m so coy!). There are some literary references, some life references, some just as little jokes or funnies or insights to family, friends, or even to strangers. And some of the secrets are Mine and mine alone—my own inside secrets that few or none may ever know. There are the more obvious ones, like the Shakespeare references that often relate to that moment or time.

I would love it if readers wrote to me, “I read this and so and found this nugget that meant thus and so to me.” I’d love it if readers wrote to me and told me how they pictured a character or place as they read. I’d love it if readers wrote to me and told me their thoughts about Katie Ivene and Grandma Faith’s “heritage.” I’d love it if readers wrote to me, like one friend did, and said they had a bit of a crush on Micah.

BM: Is Virginia Kate, the star of TENDER GRACES, based on any character that’s played a part in your personal life?

KM: Maybe she is the re-written history of someone who had a need to re-write history. She is most certainly an amalgam of Girls and Women who must find Home, Place, Belonging, Love.

But, really, TENDER GRACES is a Love Letter to all of those who read her—I know that sounds corny and silly, but she is. I wrote it thinking of all the hands that will hold the book; I wrote it thinking of who will love the characters, and how will they see them?; I wrote it hoping that I inspire emotion and love and thought; I wrote it because I had to and wanted to and needed to. For You. All for You, readers.

Maybe my fur will be rubbed all off and I will have proof at last that I am loved.

Kathryn Magendie is a writer, editor, and co-managing editor of The Rose & Thorn Literary Ezine. Her essays, short stories, poetry, and photography have been published in both online and print magazines. Her debut novel TENDER GRACES will be released April 2009. Whenever she writes in third person like this, she begins to think of herself as another person and when this happens, she says, “oh!”

To learn more about Kathryn and TENDER GRACES, be sure to visit KathrynMagendie.com. You can now also pre-order TENDER GRACES, which is due to release in April 2009. I highly recommend you read some of her previously published works and am confident you’ll enjoy them as I have. I’d like to give a big THANK YOU to Kathryn!