Can you, for those who do not know you
already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
I started writing
poems in high school. I rode an orange Schwinn to school, which most
kids recognized because I parked it by the flagpole. A boy I liked
started leaving me poems on my bike’s book rack, and I wrote him
poems back. That is how I started with poetry. I explored fiction in
my MFA program, writing a collection of short stories as my final
thesis. A novel was always an aspiration, and I started and stopped
many over the years. I loved the world I created with The Fergus,
and it kept me engaged despite the time it took to complete.
What is
something unique/quirky about you?
My kids tell me I
have a very distinctive laugh (which they used to be very embarrassed
by).
Tell us
something really interesting that's happened to you!
My life has had a
few twists and turns. When I was in college, I got a job for the
summer at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. At the time, the park
liked to hire young adults who represented every state in the union,
so I was there on behalf of Wisconsin. It was a summer of discovery
for me. I met kids from across the United States. I interacted with
tourists from around the world. I immersed myself in outdoor
adventure and was the fittest of my life. I climbed mountains, I
canoed rivers, I biked lonely highways for miles, and I hiked. I
count that summer as one of my life’s idylls.
What are some
of your pet peeves?
My biggest pet
peeve is when people say they are going to do something, and then do
not. Why say it, then?
Where were you
born/grew up at?
I was born in
southern Wisconsin and moved to Green Bay when I was 5. My parents
built a house in a new neighborhood within blocks of Lambeau Field.
They were season ticketholders. Football is like a religion here, and
the arts have struggled, although that is slowly evolving. My parents
instilled in me and my sibling very Midwestern “work-hard-play-hard”
values.
If you knew
you'd die tomorrow, how would you spend your last day?
If I were
capable, I would get up early and write a draft of a “last day”
poem. Something to leave behind. Perhaps engrave on the memorial
bench I have told my kids I would like them to find me somewhere
overlooking a pretty or meaningful view. Then a strolling walk with
my husband. Or perhaps a meandering trek through the woods on a
4-wheeler or snowmobile. (He likes his toys.) And lastly, a lingering
dinner with my kids, my brother, my sister, father, and their
families. Either out at a favorite restaurant or a potluck at home. I
would feel some anticipation because I would be joining my other
sister and my mother, who have already left us, which I would think
about while drifting off to sleep, spooning with my husband.
Who is your
hero and why?
Georgia O’Keefe’s
work and life inspire me — her singularity of purpose, her
attachment to the land, her very individual approach to painting. A
few years ago, I did a writing retreat in Santa Fe and rented a car
to Ghost Ranch. It is well named. Breath-takingly beautiful but also
haunting, as if spirits truly lived there.
What kind of
world ruler would you be?
Having been a
manager for a good chunk of my career, I can say that I am a very
hand’s on leader. I like to know how things work, how one person’s
work affects another’s. I also endeavored to make sure everyone
understood the vision and was supported in doing their absolute best
work, incentivizing where appropriate to ensure we were all on the
same bus, going in the right direction.
What are you
passionate about these days?
I have been
working at home since March, so between that and writing I spend an
inordinate amount of time in my own head. I am obsessed with golf and
power walks and trees. I have also been immersing myself in goddess
myths and teaching myself meditation and gardening. I am kind of all
over the place.
What do you do
to unwind and relax?
I still live on
the outskirts of Green Bay but in a more rural neighborhood on the
Suamico River, near the county zoo. From my office I can look out
onto our pond, where duck, geese, and heron visit. We are on the
Wisconsin Rustic Road system, so I enjoy walking and biking
How to find
time to write as a parent?
When my kids were
small, I used to get up early and write before they woke. There was
something about writing when the whole house was asleep that was
intimate and inspiring. Now I am an empty-nester, and I still prefer
to write in the early morning, although perhaps not *quite* so early.
Describe
yourself in 5 words or less!
I have taken many
(many!) personality tests over the course of my career. I find the
Clifton Strengthsfinder most relevant and akin to how I regard
myself. My top five strengths are:
Intellection (or
introspective)
Connectedness (or
conscious; I believe all life is connected)
Input (I
accumulate ideas and artifacts)
Learner
Responsibility (I
take psychological ownership of what I say and do)
When did you
first consider yourself a writer?
I wrote a bio
with “writer” in it after I published my first poetry chapbook.
There is something about the physical fact of a book in your hands
that is emboldening, that feeds your confidence.
Do you have a
favorite movie?
I do not know if
I could pick just one, and I have noticed my top pick movies change
over time. Right now:
The
Replacements (I mentioned I grew up in a football town, right? I
cannot help a football fascination, so football, underdogs, Keanu —
need I say more?)
Hidalgo (Omar,
Viggo, native memory, and a woman challenging her culture’s
expectations)
The
Hundred-Foot Journey (the comparable Helen Mirren and sumptuous
food)
Which of your
novels can you imagine made into a movie?
So far, I have
only written the one but feel it could make a new kind of ghost
movie.
What literary
pilgrimages have you gone on?
I have visited
the Brontë moors, Virginia Woolf’s Bloomsbury, and Bath, that
recurring destination in Regency Romances (Georgette Heyer is a
not-so-secret indulgence, all in England. I have also traveled to
Abbotsford in the Scottish borders, home of Sir Walter Scott. Edna
Ferber grew up in Appleton, which is only thirty minutes away from
Green Bay. She is the Pulitzer prize-winning author of So Big,
which was my mother’s favorite book.
As a writer,
what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
Can I choose a
spirit plant? Tomatoes are meaningful to me because of my childhood
and this quote by Erica Jong: “If a woman wants to be a poet, she
must dwell in the house of the tomato.” I commissioned a designer
to create one for me for blog site I had for a long time, now
defunct.
