- What’s the worst thing about writing?
The worst thing about writing is that failure is built into the process. What’s more, you don’t know exactly how a draft has failed. Much of one’s task as a writer is to figure it out. That’s harder than fixing it. Fixing it can actually be fun.
- What helps your writing the most?
What helps me the most, as a writer, is having reliable, smart writer friends to read my work. These people can locate the weak spots much more quickly than I can.
- Describe your thoughts on writing (either your own or in general) using only adverbs.
Aboard already — diligently, truthfully, wickedly
- What is it about your discipline (fiction/poetry/nonfiction/other) that draws you to it?
Fiction affords the opportunity to “become” someone else. That’s what made me a reader as a kid. What was it like to be someone who wasn’t me? How did that person think? And what accounted for thinking that way? What was it like to have a body other than my own? How did people respond to physical appearances different from mine? Did any of this shape a person? Or was a personality inborn? Etc. Writing fiction became a natural way to engage with those imaginative processes even more deeply than I had as a reader.
- What would you like to promote the most? Can you describe it in Victorian English? If not, can you describe it like a normal person?
In Victorian English, the term “bags o’ mystery” referred to sausage. But I think we should reclaim “bags o’ mystery.” I think, when we host readings, we should say, “You folks are in for some bags o’ mystery tonight.” So if my appearance at Writers & Words promotes one thing, I’d feel pretty good if it were that.
If nothing else, the literalists will cross the street to Parts & Labor and miss the reading. They always laugh in the wrong places anyway.
Bonus question: Max Scherzer struck out 20 Tigers on 5/11/16 in a 3-2 complete game winning effort. How does this make you feel?
As someone who grew up in the DC suburbs with NO baseball team at all, I feel pretty good about it. Not only does DC have baseball now, it has good baseball. However, as an Orioles fan, I feel like Max Scherzer is the North Dakota oil boom. I mean, I know he exists and that his existence is a very good thing for someone. It’s just that it’s not me.
To learn more about Kathy, visit her home on the web at www.kathyflann.com.
