THE INTERVIEW: KATHRYN MAGENDIE! (& FINAL DAY NOTE)

Kat Magendie

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As many of you know, I've been fortunate to meet certain of my regular Bloggers in-person. Deni Bonet (Last Girl On Earth) was my first, and Kathryn (I call her "Kat") Magendie became the second. We met on two occasions. Her husband whom Kat refers to as "Good Man Roger" is a warm and wonderful fellow who has begun a voiceover career. Uniquely from many of our respective locales, Kat lives high in the Carolina Mountains which is conducive to the "quiet time" she discusses with me here. She is a generous writer and a very giving person and it is with genuine pride and a thrill that I am able to present Kat Magendie from her BLOG "Howl on My Mountain".

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MM: Kat, you are in an enviable position in that you really do live in the mountains and it would seem to me the perfect setting for a serious writer like you to reflect and write in that environment. When did you know that this was what you wanted to do with your life?

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KM: Oh yes, my mountain fiction world. I am very lucky, at last, after so very long! Well, I know this sounds like a cliché, but since I was a kid I wanted to be a writer. However, books were my best friends, and I was known quite well in the school libraries (at least until high school, then I was too "cool" to be seen in the library *laughing*). I won at least one writing contest in junior high, and teachers told me I'd go far as a writer—oh, if I'd have listened then! There were a few times I wrote weird and startling stories, and the teachers called my parents to inquire as to whether I was insane and should be on some kind of medication (laughing)

But, life being what life will often be, when I grew up, I didn't pursue my dream for many many years. Now, it is all consuming, all that I want to do and be and realize. If I don't write, I become depressed, moody, inconsolable, stomping about the log house with a cloud of unhappy swirling chaotically about my brain (okay, that happens sometimes when I do write as well, but what can I say?)
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MM: There are many who are reading this interview for the first time who may not be familiar with your work. How would you best describe what you write and your writing style?

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KM: My essays are long poems, mostly nature inspired. My poems are hopeful, but not so very poet-like. My short stories free me, as they allow me to create that quirky strange world with quirky strange characters, and to do it quickly! My novel(s) will break your heart as you read them, but then at the end you sigh, because you know the heart is seared back together again, imperfect, different than before, but stronger.

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MM: Is there a central source of inspiration you draw from to create the storylines?

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KM: Not really. What happens is: A line will pop in my head, like this morning, I thought “He was Pure D crazy, which is why I set out to make him my friend…” and I thought, “who’s that talking and who is she/he talking about?” And then I squint my eyes and try to see—in this case I saw a boy standing with his arms by his sides, hard-faced, but not mean, and a girl, watching him. I have to know their names, and what will happen. So, I sit down and write that first line and then see what happens. I never have a beginning, middle, or end in mind. Or, I'll see a character - maybe it is just some trait they have, like a weird tic or walk or way of looking at the world, or I'll see their eyes or hair blowing in the wind, or their dress blowing against their mosquito bitten legs. Either way, I'll hear them say something in my ear and I must write them. I write until I get it all out, then I start the re-writes. Ninety-nine point nine percent of my stuff is character driven. I can't think of plots, they give me a headache! A character has to come to me.

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MM: What a fascinating process you follow! If a young person were reading this, how would you describe the current state of the publishing industry so that they have a realistic view of what to expect and what is required without ruining their dream with discouragement. It is a fine line, I would think?

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KM: Oh. Dear. Yes. Well. See how I write those words with one word and a period? It is because the publishing industry is a frustrating one. You must pull on a skin so thick and tough and then barrel through the process fearlessly. No matter what you write, you must think of your work as arrows, and you shoot those arrows out at your targets, again and again and again until they begin hitting, and maybe even hit that bulls eye (don't you just love analogies or metaphors and the like?) Do your homework, which means, when you are ready to submit, do a bit of research to see what agents or editors are looking for. If you send out willy nilly, you'll be wasting your time. That said, sometimes it’s hard to know just what they are looking for!

There is a bit of luck and chance and fate involved, but first, you must write, and until you do that, what’s the point? Realistically speaking, it’s tough to get some types of things published now. You can “write for the market” and perhaps have more success if you do that. I tend to write what pleases me, and then start looking, which can be a more muddied process, I suppose, but it makes me happy. Look, I’ve read a gazillion things from writers who have published successfully and they all say, “Don’t ever give up!” So, I guess I’ll leave it at that.
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MM: Ah, okay. I'm going to ask one of my favorite questions now. Among the most delightful aspects of reading an Author such as yourself, for me, is to learn about their background. Tell us about your background leading up to writing?

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KM: You make me blush, Michael! (teehee). Okay, I’ll say this, and it’s going to sound so clichéd. A lot of my writing comes from personal experience with painful things. And in those painful things, emotions were felt, things were said or done or experienced which tattooed me, branded me, made me who I am—which is kind of a sick joke life can tell you, one that allows these painful experiences to happen, but then gives one the ability to use it to create works which speak to people in a way they can think, “Oh, yes…she has read my mind.” That empathy one develops from experience that is coupled with the ability to see the world from many different angles—like those kaleidoscope toys.

Now, that doesn’t mean those who did not experience painful things (and there aren’t many of those, are there?) can’t write about them, but there’s something to be said about “writing what you know,” and think of that statement in the abstract, not so much the concrete. One thing I had to do, however, is rise above it all, make a distance from it. And from this distance I am now, which means I am safe and happy and contented, I am able to write outside of myself—meaning, I don’t write about ME but about my characters, but I use my experiences, or other people’s that I have observed, as background noise.

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MM: Are you ever discouraged by the lengthy and often expensive reality of submitting your writing to multiple publishers and being denied a break? And if I may add a Part 2 to this question, how do you overcome this frustration?
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KM: I am often discouraged. There are times I get on my red couch—I call it the Pity Pout Couch—and drink two vodka tonics with lime, and eat lots of bad, bad, bad food, and whine and sob. I allow myself no more than two days of that, and then I get up, get back to work. For I must write. I had to ask myself this: “Kat, would you write even if you knew you’d never be published again?” and the answer is “Yes, I would.” But, I’d find another way to be read—through my blog, or website, friends, family, e-zines, something, anything.

I must tell you all this: being rejected many times has nothing to do with the quality of your writing. Please remember that. I do assistant editing at Rose & Thorn Literary E-zine, and in that capacity, I have learned much about submitting and rejections. Editors/agents/publishers receive many many submissions in a short amount of time, and from those they choose the ones they are interested in, and then from those, they must choose very few, in some cases only one or two, to publish. Your material may have been one of those that was so close—always a bridesmaid never a bride (laughing).

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MM: I for one am relating to what you've just said, because last year I launched two separate mass mailings to market two entirely different manuscripts. And it was necessary to pull on the tough skin. That's for sure. Let me shift gears a bit. What is the Ideal Environment for Kat Magendie to write in?
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KM: I must have quiet. When I lived in Baton Rouge, I had a glass sunroom in our little house, and I wrote in there—for it looked like I was outside. Here, I have my mountain, quiet, secluded, serene.

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MM: Where do you see your career going at this point in time?

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KM: I will publish my novel(s), for I know it (they are) is good. I finally am convinced of that, for various reasons. If I have to eventually publish it myself and promote the hell out of it, I will do it (more and more writers are taking this route). As well, I am working with Rose & Thorn, and that is opening up opportunities to do author interviews and book reviews, etc. I’ve just begun seriously sending out my short stories and essays and am beginning to get published in that regard. Where I’ll be in my writing career a year from now, I don’t know, but I do know things are going to happen, because I’m going to make them happen (she says fearlessly!)

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MM: Has the industry changed a great deal from the time you began writing to the present?

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KM: It is always changing! But, it’s hard for me to answer this since I’ve only just began to seriously try to publish my novel, and in the last few months to seriously send out my more of my short stories and essays.
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MM: In a sea of ever-changing dynamics regarding the publishing industry, what aspects would you like to see changed?

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KM: I’d like to see editors/agents/publishers take more risks with writers who are good writers! Saying that, I know this is a business and are words are a product and they must know the product will work.

As well, I would like to see more respect given to E-zines. And, as long as their work is good, I’d like to see more respect to the author’s who take a risk and self-publish!

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MM: How do you promote your work?

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KM: I have a website, a blog, and I’m not afraid to use them (laughing). I am going to begin publishing my short stories and essays, and that gets one’s name “out there,” too. My work with Rose & Thorn helps, as I make contacts, and even if nothing comes from those contacts, the experience of it is wonderful. There are things I’d do when my novel is published, but that is different from what I do at this point.
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MM: What are some of the commonly traveled paths writers use to get their material read pending publishing?

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KM: Do you mean like writing blogs, and developing websites? Or publishing in literary magazines? Local magazines? Because that’s what I do—I write on my blog, I keep my website updated with any publishing credits.

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MM: No, no--all of the above.

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KM: I’m submitting to literary magazines, but as well, I submit to small local magazines and to e-zines. I have excerpts of my novels, even if they are drafts, on my website. I’m not sure I answered this correctly!

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MM: Yes, that's perfect. This just helped me clarify a bit more in my own mind. What is your Ideal Dream with writing?

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KM: I always have these weird scary thoughts like “Be careful what you wish for…” like if I say I want my novel to be wildly successful and a movie made of it, and blah blah blabbity blab. Then, that happens and I never have a moment to myself to write, because I am promoting and running away from paparazzi (laughing). But, I’d like to see my novels published—The Virginia Kate series, and The Affliction of Sweetie, for starters. I want to publish my collection of short stories, and collection of essays. I want to know people are holding my words in their hands, feeling the weight of them—and reading my words, finding out something about themselves perhaps, or just saying, “ahhhhhh,” when they’ve completed a book.

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MM: That's a wonderful sentiment! For my final question Kat, I always like to open the floor to my Guests and let them summarize anything about themselves, their work, their observations about life, anything that might give us a better grasp of who you are? The floor is yours!

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KM: I’m a bit chaotic. I’m a bit weird. I’m a bit moody. I like being reclusive. I have “writer’s schizophrenia” which means there are characters talking to me and I listen—which means so many times I’m in my own world, staring off, listening. My husband, Roger, is patient and supportive, for it is hard to live with a writer—we can be so self-indulgent, so self involved.

MM: Oh, yes!

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KM: I can go days and days and weeks and weeks without human contact and not care. Sometimes I suppose my poor Roger feels as if I forget him as I shamble about the house, my eyes glazed over, my head spinning with characters and what ifs and who and what and where. I know I have a gift, but where that gift takes me is yet to be seen—where it has taken me so far is only the beginning and even as I write that, I quake, for I hate tempting fates! So, I will just say, I will continue to write as long as I am able. I will write and let the words fall where they may.

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MM: Kat, thank you for your time. This visit really flew by. And I have no doubt after it's Archived in my section, "The Interview", many aspiring writers will return to your words again and again. It's been a joy, my friend. Thank you!

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Kat's interview ran from last Wednesday and concludes Sunday at 12 a.m. Kat will also be featuring Poetry Month throughout OCTOBER at her blogsite: http://kathrynmagendie.com My Thanks to Kat, a lovely lady and great friend along with her husband "Good Man Roger". For reasons unknown, Blogger would not allow Roger's painting of the photo featured above of Kathryn to stay posted. But Roger is a local actor and a fine voiceover artist as well!

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Mike Douglas with Comedian Soupy Sales

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Special Note from Michael Manning: Legendary Talk Show Host, and Singer Mike Douglas, a fellow native of Shaker Heights, Ohio died this past Friday in Florida on his 81st birthday. Since we have such a varied Blogger audience in age, I felt that it would be very inappropriate of me not to mention a word of Honor. Many of you were young as I was to recall all of it, but "The Mike Douglas Show" ruled the world of daytime celebrity chat from 1961 to 1982. "The Mike Douglas Show" was a must-visit promotional stop for top politicians like the late Bobby Kennedy and also new talent. Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, and Tiger Woods (who demonstrated his golf prowess opposite Bob Hope while he was still a tot) made their TV debut's on Mike's show! Mike's favorite Guests of all time were John Lennon and Yoko Ono and they hosted the show for one week in 1972 while Mike was on vacation. A very friendly man who began his career struggling as a big band singer for Kay Kyser's Orchestra, Mike always stepped aside to let his Guests shine. In Broadcasting, he was a Giant of a man who was easy going and kind. Mike Douglas influenced numerous followers, from Merv Griffin and Dinah Shore to Rosie O'Donnell, who paid Douglas homage by inviting him to come out of retirement for a guest appearance on one of her first shows in 1996. In 2000, Mike wrote a well-received memoir (called I'll Be Right Back, naturally). Mike was happy to spend his last years playing golf in Florida. He was very troubled by the negative garbage masquerading as "Reality TV", yet he was optimistic that this sad chapter in my profession would fade away. I wish it were so. Nevertheless, I want to share a quick story about Mike's "Class". When Mike's show was cancelled by Westinghouse (and subsidiary Group W Productions), Mikes ratings were at the top. The corporate decision makers felt they knew best. He was replaced by John Davidson (who was cancelled 18 months into his contract). While stung by this terrible development (it was kept hidden from Mike until days before the show was pulled), Mike and his staff went "Independent" and brought the show back. Again, the ratings went through the roof. After a few years, Mike went out---on his own terms. He was in my book, "a gentleman". CNN mentioned that Mike's influence lives on in the work of Jimmy Kimmel and Ellen DeGeneres. I would like to think so. But as Rosie O'Donnell told Entertainment Weekly in 1996: ''If Mike came back, he'd be The King. And I'd be back working at Yuk Yut's". I'm certain many, if not all of you will be so gracious as to remember Mike and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

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