Today my guest is Kathy Mueller, whom I’ve had
the pleasure of working with as she’s a contributing writer for CapeWomenOnlinemagazine. A part-time Cape resident, she’s written some wonderful articles for
the magazine, including a Community Action piece in the upcoming Winter 2013 Issue,
about the Eastham Dog Owners Association.
Hi Kathy, and welcome! Give us a brief bio and tell us what kind of books you like to read and write.
I live in central Massachusetts “farm country”
most of the time, and have a second home on “my favorite place on Earth,” Cape
Cod, where I try to go as often as possible. I’m in a relationship with the
smartest and most handsome guy in the world, and he tolerates our three cats
and three dogs!
We have always had many pets – at one point we
had 28 cats on our farm! We lost our beloved Hector (dog) in 2011 and still
feel the heartache every day, even though we still have his older companion,
Hobie (13 next week), and we adopted TWO (that’s right, TWO) puppies last year
– Charlie Brown and Cooper. Our three cats, Tux, Newman and Cali are great
family members as well.
I write short non-fiction essays about dogs,
cats, fibromyalgia and other topics, usually in the first-person. I am planning
to publish my dog essays into a book one of these days, headlined by the
longest essay I’ve ever written (no one has seen it yet) about our dog, Hector.
I read like a fiend and always have ever since I
can remember. Usually, I have two books going at once. For example, right now
I’m reading Steve Jobs’ biography by Isaacson, as well as a self-help book
about chronic pain. My favorite books are historical novels, anything and
everything by Ken Follett especially. Next in line would be biographies, and
then tame murder mysteries like those by Mary Higgins Clark. I don’t like
anything too violent or graphic. I visualize everything I read, and graphic
stuff can keep me upset for days!
What's your favorite part of being an author?
The feedback. I love to entertain people with my
stories. Each day at the office, I usually gather my girls in my department
together and tell them the story of the day – either something that happened
with the dogs or cats, or something that happened while I was out running my
morning errands. I enjoy having an audience and describing things that happen,
and making them laugh. I get the same thrill when people tell me that an essay
I wrote made them cry, or when they ask when is the next volume of my parents’
letters coming out.
What’s your approach to writing? Do you plot or
go with the flow?
I totally go with the flow. I will go weeks without
writing because the muse is absent. Since I don’t write fiction, I don’t follow
a plot. If something pops into my head, or if something happens worth writing
about, I sit down and hammer it out on the keyboard. I type over 100 WPM so the
fingers fly.
If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?
Well, since I am only a writer in my spare time,
the answer to this question is easy!
I would be, and am, an executive with a tour company.
We send teachers and their students on group tours, mostly to Europe. I’ve been
in the student group tour industry for 28 years and no two days are ever the
same. It is not a boring job, that’s for sure. I wear many hats, but these days
my main function is bookkeeping and maintaining the customer database
(addresses, phone numbers, names, etc.). A far cry from the creativity of
writing!
I do get to dabble in writing some marketing
prose and (more often, unfortunately) answering customer complaints! Like I
said, I wear many hats at the office.
I volunteer for two non-profits, both
dog-related. One is the Eastham Dog Owners’ Association where I am one of their
newest board members. The other is Fairy DogParents, located on the South
Shore. They assist families to prevent them from surrendering their dog to a
shelter.
If I didn’t already have all of this going on,
and could start with a clean slate, I would probably be a dog trainer, pet
sitter, or vet tech. Something where I could handle and work with animals.
Tell us about your book!
My book is a three-volume set called MORE THAN
ANYTHING IN THE WORLD. My father wrote letters to my mother during World
War II and my brother and I found the letters after our mom passed away – there
are over 1,000 letters from 1942-1945. There are a few letters written by my
mom, but the majority are my dad’s letters to her.
My dad died when I was in my twenties. When we
found the letters, I asked my brother if I could keep them because I probably
wanted to do “something” with them. I had no idea that my dad was such a good
writer. He was writing to an audience of one, of course, but his knack for
putting the reader (his wife) right in the middle of everything that happened
is superb.
I decided, instead of writing the story in my own
words, I would just let the letters speak for themselves. I have dutifully
re-typed every one of the letters, word-for-word. (Those typing skills sure
came in handy.)
My parents signed all of their letters (even
birthday cards and Valentines throughout their marriage) with the acronym
“MTAITW”. It stood for “More Than Anything In The World,” and that was the
obvious choice for the title of the books. I like to say that my parents
invented texting, ha ha. Volumes 1 and 2 are done and available. I’m working on
Volume 3, and it looks like it may actually go to 4 volumes, which I hope
pleases people instead of drives them nuts!
Okay, if you're casting the movie of your books, who would play the main characters? I know it's your parents - but think Hollywood for a moment...
If I could go back to the 1940s (my favorite
movie period – I’m a huge 1940s movie buff, go figure!) it would be Ernest
Borgnine and Lucille Ball. Mainly
because of the physical resemblance to my parents. If it was today it would
have to be Jack Black and Katherine Heigl! Although, can Katherine wear flats
so that she’s shorter than Jack?
Where can readers find your books and where can they stalk find you on the web?
My books are available on Amazon, just search
“More Than Anything in the World Mueller” and they’ll pop right up. They are
available in print and for Kindle.
Thank you so much for being here today, Kathy!
