I can't believe my luck! Best-selling writers tend to be extremely busy people, so I'm very grateful that Kate Jacobs, author of The Friday Night Knitting Club and Comfort Food, took the time to do this interview with me via email right before the release of her new book, Knit Two.
1) Kate, my first question is which blog post title do you prefer, A Conversation with Kate Jacobs, or An Interview with Kate Jacobs? Or something else altogether?
KJ: Whatever works for you, Susan! Either title is just right.
(As you can see, I chose the first title, because Kate Jacobs is remarkably personable. I felt as if we really did have a conversation, because her emails to me were so warm and friendly.)
2) Were you influenced by any particular (women) writers as a child?
KJ: Well, I certainly loved to read! But I’m not sure I was influenced so much in writing style as in my awareness of the world and of ideas. That’s the great magic of books. Now I was a library kid growing up – I’m from a small town and there often wasn’t even a bookstore in town. And my mother is a big reader and we would often go together. When I was a little girl, I adored Anne of Green Gables – though that’s rather a prerequisite for a Canadian girlhood – and I also vividly remember a novel called From Anna by Jean Little. I essentially read everything I could get my hands on and continued doing that as a I got older, devouring everything from dramas to thrillers to Westerns to literary fiction. When I was an older teen, the novel that just hit me was So Big by Edna Ferber and to this day I often reflect on that novel, with its themes about the nature of success and the importance of creativity.
3) Are you on a writing schedule? Do you write every day?
KJ: I intentionally do not write every day. My overall process is that I write, and then I recharge. So I prefer to go through periods where I’m thinking and absorbing and reading and being social, and then go through stretches of time where I stay in and wear pajamas and am just focused on the story all the time. I write in bursts. That said, I am always working on a story even if I’m not always doing that work at the computer. Also, I tend to write early in the morning or late at night, blocks of time when the house is quiet and I won’t be distracted. I love distractions! If my deadline is looming, I will definitely be sorting laundry or baking. It’s some combination of procrastination and stress relief.
4) Do you drink coffee or tea while writing? (As a tea guzzler, I had to ask this!)
KJ: I do enjoy a good cup of tea. I just love a nice cup of English Breakfast with a little lactose-free milk and sugar. Or homemade iced tea; that’s great. And a cookie tucked in somewhere. However, my real secret is that I love bubbles. Carbonation, to be precise. So I drink a lot of sparkling water and -- my big vice – nice, cold glasses of Pepsi. (My husband is a Coke drinker, btw.) I try to limit my soda in general, so no pop for me if I’m not typing. But the last few weeks of working on a book are just long, long hours and I exist in an endless Pepsi haze. It’s both glorious and awful – delicious but too much sugar and caffeine all at once.
(Kate, I've recently discovered lemon-flavored San Pellegrino, Limonata. It's transcendent!)
5) Do you listen to music, or prefer silence while writing?
KJ: Both – but not at the same time. I typically prefer to work in silence because I can concentrate. It’s especially nice when my dog Baxter snoozes under my desk and so I can just hear his little breaths. However, there are moments when the characters and I need a little buoying up -- it could be a sad scene or I could just feel frustrated with the story. And so I’ll put on some perky instrumental background music.
6) What advice do you have for aspiring writers, especially women?
KJ: Believe in yourself. Ignore the naysayers. Keep at it. Tell the stories you feel you want to tell and are driven to tell. And just keep putting one word after another on the page. That’s the only way you’ll finish your manuscript!
7) You lived in NY for ten years. I grew up in NY, and feel as if you captured something very real about NY life and the cozy yarn shop which becomes an oasis for these women. Did you enjoy living in NY? Which experiences did you most enjoy? What did you dislike about NY?
KJ: Well, initially I hated New York! Too busy and too loud. Overall, it was a big change from growing up in Canada. But then, once I’d made friends, I really began to get a sense of home. That was important. And after awhile I simply couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. I didn’t always enjoy living in a small apartment, especially once I got married and my husband moved in with all of his boxes. What did I love? The restaurants. The people. The access to indie movies. The noise. I never sleep so well now as when I hear sirens and traffic, which is funny because that’s what drove me insane when I had first arrived. Of course, life is full of surprises, and change is always around the corner. I thought I’d never leave the city and now I live in southern California (because of my husband’s work). And you know what? I like warm weather. I like the people. And I love having my own washer and dryer which we were never able to have in our Manhattan apartment. So every experience has pluses and minuses.
8) Your new book, Knit Two, is coming out on Nov. 25, a sequel to The Friday Night Knitting Club. Was it harder or easier to write the sequel?
KJ: Different. Just different. Writing is always hard and it can also be wonderful. On the one hand, it was a joy to return to the characters of The Friday Night Knitting Club – to Dakota and Catherine and Anita and so on. On the other hand, I had to stay true to who they were – the past experiences, how they looked, etc – and that requires a certain discipline. But, without question, I loved writing Knit Two. I intentionally made it soothing and upbeat, because I wanted to balance out some of the emotion from FNKC, and also because it just felt right. I am so excited to share this novel with readers; I can’t wait to go out on book tour in Dec. and Jan.!
And I can't wait to read Knit Two! Thank you so much for doing this interview, Kate!
Comments are welcomed.
Ever since I was a child, I immersed myself in stories about people who rose above harsh and seemingly hopeless circumstances. Books such as The Contender and Manchild in the Promised Land drew my attention. With determination, spirit, and hard work, I realized, you could rise out of the worst possible environment, and do something constructive with your life. Such is the case, also, with the book I recently finished, The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls. The author tells the story of her young life, one that was filled with adventure along with poverty and parental neglect. At the beginning of the book, Jeannette, age three, is cooking hot dogs and is burned so severely that she needs hospitalization and a skin graft. While recovering, her father grabs her from the "sterile" hospital so that she'll be "safe" at home. This is a telling way to start her memoir. Although Jeannette Walls portrays her parents not with bitterness but with compassion, readers cannot help but judge their "fitness" as parents. On the one hand, the children learned self-reliance and coping skills; on the other hand, the parents didn't feed or clothe them or take care of them, and were often selfish and put their needs above those of their children. It's hard not to judge them, although Jeannette presents their good qualities, too, such as their resourcefulness and love of adventure. But the children, including Jeannette, paid a high price, and suffered tremendously. Unfed, Jeannette would find discarded food in the trash cans at school to assuage her hunger. Her parents were blazing nonconformists who barely managed to support their four children, who were often starving, cold, and dirty, and had to learn while very young to fend for themselves. Her mother was an artist and writer who didn't earn much money and her father, who showed brilliance at times, had a severe drinking problem--both took a great toll on the entire family. In fact, later in the book the parents, Rex and Rose Mary, both "excitement addicts", actually choose to be homeless and live on the streets, even though they could live in their Phoenix house, or sell land or possessions for cash. Odd choice. In this stranger-than-fiction story, Jeannette and her sisters, Lori and Maureen, and her brother, Brian, struggle not just to grow up in the usual sense, but also try to cope with a threadbare existence and two parents who are more interested in adventure than providing care or security for their children. Forever restless, they move to Phoenix, Arizona, then to Welch, West Virginia, and eventually to the city of opportunity, New York. A true survivor, Jeannette even manages to help the rest of her siblings. Jeannette Wall's honesty is incredible as she tells the painful yet fascinating and inspirational story of her past.
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