An Alternative Author Interview:

TCL’s Countdown Questions.

These are the questions I’m asking authors to answer, as I think they’ll give insight into them as people, as well as who they are as writers:

• If you could visit five (5) places you’ve never been, where would you go and why?
• Name four (4) foods or dishes that you enjoy so much that they’ve practically become part of your personality.
• There is the past, the present, and the future – if you could choose, which of these three (3) would you prefer to live in, and why?
• Best and worst – you choose which – name two (2) of either your best moments of your life, worst moments of your life, or one of each.
• Name one (1) book you’ve read in the past year (or so) that you wish you had written, and why.

This week I’m featuring author and poet Kathleen Rooney.

One of my favorite novels of 2017 was “Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk,” which also got onto my top five list for that year. It was such a charming novel, it immediately made me a fan and I had to follow her on Twitter. When I saw that she’s coming out with a new novel soon, I asked her to participate in this little meme of mine and she graciously agreed. (Who knew social media would help us book bloggers be in such great contact with these amazing authors, right?) So, Kathleen… what are your answers?

• If you could visit five (5) places you’ve never been, where would you go and why?

First, Scotland, but soon, I will have been there because my spouse, the writer Martin Seay, and I are going there this summer. Second, Greece, because ever since childhood, thanks to D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, I’ve been fascinated with the country and its ancient stories. Third, Berlin, because it seems like a fantastic city to flâneuse around in. Fourth, Argentina, because I also want to walk all around Buenos Aires. And fifth, the Moon because outer space is so mysterious.

• Name four (4) foods or dishes that you enjoy so much that they’ve practically become part of your personality.

First, the quesadillas my spouse makes whenever we need a late-night snack: an El Milagro tortilla topped with pepperjack cheese sprinkled with salt and garnished with jalapeno slices, all melted in the microwave and rolled up and devoured. Second, anything with rhubarb—my parents have always grown it and still do and it’s one of my favorite signs of spring, and it’s great in breads, crisps, pies, crumbles, compotes, jams, you name it. Third, kale—I sincerely love how it tastes and would eat it every day (either in this goes-with-everything salad or just sautéed with garlic and olive oil and lemon juice) if I could. Fourth, I love to bake (it’s my most soothing means of procrastination) and my go-to fall recipe is for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, which make your house smell spicy and autumnal and are fun to give away to friends.

• There is the past, the present, and the future – if you could choose, which of these three (3) would you prefer to live in, and why?

As a writer who often turns to real life figures for inspiration—from the poet Weldon Kees, to the painter René Magritte, to the ad woman Margaret Fishback, to the World War I heroes the pigeon Cher Ami and the soldier Major Whilttlesey—I have to say the past. History contains endless unsung people with fascinating stories whose lives have much to teach us about how we live today. Also, lately (especially since I read Moby-Dick for the first time earlier this year) I’ve been thinking indulgently, foolishly, how wonderful the past would have been because—no matter how bad other aspects of life might have gotten—at least they didn’t know about global warming  and have to come to terms with the knowledge of the utter destruction of the planet and all the creatures living on it on daily basis.

• Best and worst – you choose which – name two (2) of either your best moments of your life, worst moments of your life, or one of each.

I’ll go with two of the best, and those are the days that my niece, Rose, and my nephew, Luka, were born, respectively. I neither have nor want children of my own, but aunthood is my jam and they are two of the smartest, strangest, funniest, most curious people I know.

• Name one (1) book you’ve read in the past year (or so) that you wish you had written, and why.

I wish I could have written The Dream Collector by Arthur Tress. Back in the 1960s and early 1970s, he interviewed children about their dreams and nightmares, recording their responses and then having them pose in staged photographs that acted out features of those dreams. The results, shot in black and white, are beautiful and weird and haunting.

“It may seem strange,” he said, “but I just have this strong conviction that children might be able to see certain things in the presence of certain things. Things that adults are no longer aware of. Children have a way of listening to ‘muses,’ they’re aware of them, because they haven’t been educated out of it. They haven’t closed their minds to the possibility. And I feel that if the photographer is very sensitive, he can do this too. He can hear the vibrations of the invisible.” Tress captures the vibrations of the invisible.

Thanks Kathleen! (Wow… “the vibrations of the invisible”!)

Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, a nonprofit publisher of literary work in hybrid genres, as well as a founding member of Poems While You Wait, a team of poets and their typewriters who compose commissioned poetry on demand. She teaches in the English Department at DePaul University, and her most recent books include the national best-seller, Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk (St. Martin’s Press, 2017) and The Listening Room: A Novel of Georgette and Loulou Magritte (Spork Press, 2018). Her criticism appears in The New York Times Magazine, The Poetry Foundation website, The New York Times Book Review, The Chicago Tribune, The Paris Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She lives in Chicago with her spouse, the writer Martin Seay. Her World War I novel Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey is forthcoming from Penguin in 2020. Follow her at @KathleenMrooney