1. What was the motivation behind Under the Kaufmann’s Clock? How did you pick the pieces that are in the book?
A year ago, while looking over my full-length poetry manuscript, I realized that I had enough poems
set in the Pittsburgh area for a chapbook. Then I decided to mix things up by adding my flash fiction pieces inspired by Pittsburgh. Then I had the idea of bringing in photographs. (Rebecca Clever is a local photographer who is also a writer and editor. She ran the journal Blast Furnace for five years.)
Dividing the manuscript by season--spring, summer, fall, and winter--gave the book an organic flow. It also allowed me to pair haiku and another short poem with the season subheads. The completed product--I wrote and published a few Pittsburgh pieces after I got this idea--has 30 poems, nine pieces of flash fiction, and 16 photographs, not counting the front and back covers. The book is in 8 x 10 format to do the photographs justice, like a coffee table book. (Many collections of poetry and short fiction are in 5 x 7 format.)
The title piece--a story whose narrator is definitely not me, but a Yinzer guy--first appeared in The Holiday Cafe. (Thank you again, Nicole.) That title is part of a legendary Pittsburgh phrase, and the clock itself is a Pittsburgh icon, captured gorgeously by Rebecca Clever on the front and back covers of the book.
Although I write in different forms, I like to think I'm an accessible writer. There is something for everyone interested in Pittsburgh Under the Kaufmann's Clock. I also want to give a shout-out to my editor and publisher, Nathan Kukulski of Six Gallery Press, for allowing me such freedom in putting this book together.
2. What is your writing process? How many hours a day do you write or is it that you write when you feel inspired?
I don't have a set number of creative writing hours--it could vary from an hour to 12 hours--but I do creative writing and/or something related to my creative writing almost every day (an interview, a submission, a letter, a meeting, sending out review copies, planning/doing/attending a reading or presentation or discussion, publicity via social media). And I read. Regularly reading other people's work, contemporary and classic, is essential to being a writer.
3. What advice do you have for fellow writers?
Read a lot...and don't feel guilty about it. Haunt libraries and bookstores and coffee shops. Join a book discussion group. Seek out literary journals and websites, including local ones. Make time for writing...and don't feel guilty about it. Write because you need to write for yourself--because the act of writing and what you write about compels you, absorbs you, delights you, frightens you, enlightens you, expands you, frees you.
Take classes and workshops, attend presentations, readings, and discussions, join a writing group (or more than one), and ask writers who have published and whose work you like for advice on your work and on publishing. Learning to handle and benefit from criticism, to reflect and revise, are integral to publishing your writing. Pittsburgh is an intensely literary city, with a lot of great activities available for a modest fee or for free. There also are many good groups and resources online.
And when you get frustrated, tired, and hurt--when your writing seems bad or stupid, when you feel blocked or ignored or put down, when you get rejections, when you do get published and have readings and it doesn't seem to matter much--don't give up. Even if you go through a long period where you don't write or can't write, never give up. And whatever other passions you have--for music, film, painting, sports, whatever--don't give those up either.
4. Who is your favorite author/Who inspired you to become a writer?
My mother recited poetry to me from the cradle. (The daughter of Italian immigrants, she was schooled when learning to recite poetry was part of education, and was a champion reciter and a natural actress.) This poetry ranged from nineteenth and twentieth century stalwarts--Longfellow, the Brownings, Stevenson, Frost, Yeats, Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen--to writers no one reads anymore. There always were books in our house, including a big dictionary, and without formal training I was reading fluently by age four. We often went to the local library--I think a library card was the first card I ever carried--and when I was old enough for school, I was a school library regular. I soaked up fairytales and folk tales, classic children's literature, the daily newspaper, the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and biographies of famous women. By ten, I'd discovered my father's college Collected Works of William Shakespeare, and then I moved on to adult novels--there isn't a great leap between Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess and Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. English (and its companion, history) always were my best subjects in school. I earned a B.A. in English Writing from the University of Pittsburgh, with enough credits in English Literature to be a double major, although I didn't declare one. Lines from authors throughout centuries run through my head continually, and are like lines of prayer to me in times of trouble.
But although I always wrote poetry and fiction, I didn't publish any of it for years. I worked as a student journalist and editor, as a business and technical writer and editor, as an academic editor, and as a peace educator. My first book, Dealing With Differences, was cowritten with an education professor, originating in a high school pilot curriculum that we developed.
What made me a published writer of poetry and fiction (and literary reviews) was the combination of a shattering breakdown and then, my divorce from the man who'd been both my college boyfriend and my husband of over 20 years. My life imploded. I had nothing to lose.
5. What is up next for you? (are you going to be reading anywhere?)
I have to take a break from readings for a while, but I'll be doing events again starting in late spring or early summer, including different types of book launches. (Stay tuned!) I'm slated to read in October for the Versify series, curated by poet Bob Walicki, at Bloomfield's White Whale Bookstore.
6. Where can we find your book?
Under the Kaufmann's Clock--my fourth book--is available through Amazon:
I'm working on getting the book into several local stores and into the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and Pitt's Hillman Library.
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