Today, my friends, we are chatting with Karin Gustafson, who blogs at ManicDDaily. We last spoke with Karin, whom you have likely come across here or at our sister site, Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, in 2014, so I thought it was time to see what she has been up to in the meantime. Rumor has it she has a new book out, so let's order coffee all around, and settle in.
Sherry: Yay! I am so happy to be chatting with you, after all this time. I have been following your progress with interest. Karin, for our newer members, would
you give us a little snapshot of your life in the Catskills, and commuting into New York for work? You have the best of
both worlds. What are the joys?
Karin: Dear
Sherry, First, thanks so much for having
me back to the wonderful site that is Poets United.
I do split my
time between the mountains in Upstate New York and midtown Manhattan. I am not
sure I have the best of both worlds though! I am truly based in the country and
my once-a-week trip to the City takes nearly four hours each way! I then
typically spend three days and two nights down in Manhattan, where I stay with
a good friend.
The joys of the life? Well, it enables
me to live most of the time in a somewhat remote and magical area of the
country (which also happens to be where my husband is based) while still
keeping my day job! The bad parts—it can
get very discombobulating to drag around so much!
That said, there
are, of course, many joys—my train ride along the Hudson River is one of the
most beautiful in the world—the banks of the river are full of hills and cliffs
and mountains and mist and is just lovely every time of year.
Sherry: I envy you that lovely train ride!
Karin: I tend to be pretty busy with my job in the City so don’t get to go to as much
City “stuff” as I’d like, but my dear friend there twists my arm to go to music
performances every so often. Then,
usually my husband comes down too, and we go to the opera or Carnegie Hall,
where I am always just astonished by the level of musical genius in the world.
The
place where I really do get a certain “bestness” is the country. I work some
days a week from upstate, and try to spend a great deal of time outdoors even
when I am working, talking on the phone from the driveway, etc! I feel just tremendously lucky to be able to
be there while also keeping up a pretty urban type of job.
Sherry: It does sound a magical mix! Especially your cottage in the country. Would you bring us up to date with what’s going on in your life since we
last spoke?
Karin: The very bad
news has been the death of a close work colleague. This brought not only his
loss, but a great deal more work and responsibility. So, it’s been a sad and
rather stressful time with regard to my work life.
Sherry: I am so sorry to hear that, Karin.
Karin: The good news is that I did publish a new book called Dogspell, a children’s
novel about a girl and her dog that I also illustrated.
Sherry: I have a copy, have read it and enjoyed it very much. Not only are the illustrations adorable and amusing, but the story has a very good message in it for middle school children. It is enjoyable for adults as well, especially those of us who find dogs and kids irresistible! (It is available here, kids, and is a delight!)
Speaking of dogs, I am wondering if you might have added another
dog to your life? Or is it still too soon after Pearl? Her passing was so sad, and I still think of her every time I come to your site.
Karin and Pearl
Karin: We’ve thought
about getting another dog! Anyone
reading Dogspell will know that I heavily relied on direct canine
contributions for that book! Right now,
all my travel to the City would make getting a new dog a bit difficult, but it
would still be pretty nice.
Sherry: All that puppy-love on your return home! Visitors to your blog enjoy your
wonderful sketches as much as your poetry. Would you tell us a bit about your journey
through art and writing? I remember you began very young.
Karin: I’ve wanted to
be a writer my whole life. Though,
unfortunately, it’s never been my “day job,” it has always been my star.
I became very
interested in drawing and painting in high school, but never took my own art
work seriously (perhaps because I was close to people who were extremely
dedicated visual artists.) But then,
years later, when I had my children, I found myself making little playdoh
sculptures for them, especially little playdoh elephants. This led me to do my first book--a children’s
picture book called 1 Mississippi, which features a lot of watercolors of
elephants.
1 Mississippi (available here), led me to start my blog--initially as a way of
promoting the book! That didn’t work out
so well--I’m not a great self-promoter--but it did lead me to do a lot more
drawing and painting to use with my blog.
I am hoping, if I can ease up in my job life, to spend a lot more time doing
illustration as I would love to do more children’s picture books.
Sherry: That would be wonderful. Tell us about Dogspell, won't you?
Seemie and Sally
Karin: I am honestly quite
proud of my latest book, Dogspell. It is
a book that I started years ago, when my own children and our beloved dog Pearl
were young. As a result, it’s a book
that has been in my life for an embarrassingly long time!
It is the story
of a girl and her dog. Or, maybe I
should say it’s the story of a dog and his girl. But really it is a story about friendship,
with the added sweetness of dog friendship.
I did a large
number of illustrations for the book. On
one level I am not completely happy with the illustrations, as I would like to
have used “higher tech” means of inserting them into the text—they are a little
clunky—but even so, I think they are one of the nicest aspects of the book.
Illustration
(for me) is a thorny issue as my best drawings are done in pencil with a rather
sketchy quality. This does not always reproduce well on paper. In the case of
Dogspell, I finally gave up on the idea of re-doing all the drawings
digitally, but I have thought a lot about trying to get better with digital
media, as it would certainly make it a lot easier to get to a final product.
Sherry: I think your illustrations are delightful! You have other books, as well. What do you love about writing books for children?
Karin: Ha! I actually
have four other published books (five in total) - 1 Mississippi (little
children’s counting picture book written and illustrated by me); Going on Somewhere – a book of my poetry illustrated by Diana Barco and Jason Martin;
Nose Dive - a young adult novel written by me, but illustrated by Jonathan
Segal; Nice – an adult “literary” novel written by me and cover by me; and now
Dogspell, a children’s novel written and illustrated by me.)
I love writing
books for children, in part, because I have a bend in my work towards the
“cute” which may be more acceptable to a young audience, but mainly because I
also just love children and love children’s books! The experience of reading as
a child, or being read to, are to me among the most important of a lifetime.
The main problem
for me in writing books for children is that it is an incredibly difficult
commercial market, particularly for an unknown writer.
What also makes it a bit hard to self-market is that many adults immediately
assume that a book written with an eye towards children or young adults
wouldn’t be interesting to them. As a
result, a lot of my adult contacts won’t even open a book like Dogspell or Nose
Dive! (Even though I think that adults
would actually find my books fun. I hope
anyway!)
Sherry: I certainly did! I enjoyed every page and smiled all the way through. You captured the tone of a conversation between a child and her dog to perfection, I thought. In your interview in 2014, you were at
work on the novel titled “Nice”. Tell us about that one.
Karin: Nice has been
out for some time! It has a rather dark
subject matter - child sexual abuse as well as the types of societal abuses
going on in 1968. I love the book and was happy with the final version. One annoying issue for me has been that many
people reading Nice have assumed that it is autobiographical. While 1968 was certainly a time I knew (and
the book reflects my experience of the era), it isn’t autobiographical. That
said, I think it’s my strongest book, and would urge you all--especially those
who don’t like children’s books--to read it.
Sherry: It does sound like a deep read, and certainly topical for these times. Are there two or three of your poems
that you would like to share with us?
Karin: Here are a couple of poems. I chose the first “June Upstate” because it describes the glory that is the shared experience of a children’s book, and the second, “The Year of Weeping Dangerously” because I know that you, Sherry, personally like it! Thanks again so much for having me.
June Upstate (Beginning of Vacation)
I call it spring,
because my children were
still lamblike
and we uncurled on a wool blanket
edged by grass that sprouted as wisps
rather than blades
and their hair downed
my arms, their heads resting so they too
could see the book, which I sometimes held aloft
like our own cloud, but more
like our own sun--what we
revolved around
as we moved the blanket about
an apple tree, in and out
of heat and cold,
brightness and wind,
the way the sky itself moved--
sometimes holding
our breath--for it was an exciting book,
a novel--
sometimes not speaking
in a way that was different
from listening, even me not speaking,
who read aloud---for it had sad parts
too--
afterwards,
after words,
in a stiff unfold (as if our spines
had become the book’s spine),
our skin prickling (as if just then feeling
wool’s scratch),
and blinking at the overclouding blow
of afternoon,
we pulled ourselves back
into this single, unpaged, world, kneeling
as we rose.
***************************************
The
Year of Weeping Dangerously
It
made it hard to see
where
she was going,
harder
to see
where
she’d been.
When
she walked, she seemed
to
squeegie,
shoe
leather sodden,
even
rubber soles
losing
their grip.
Old
friends stayed out of her way,
only
animals
never
strayed,
liking,
she assumed,
the
salt.
These
things tend to come in waves,
maybe
because we’re part sea
and
Time part sand (the other part tide).
But
caught in that divide,
she
cried,
sometimes
beside
herself,
sometimes,
like
a small animal,
beside
herself.
**************************
Oddly,
I think each poem was written during the 30 poems in April period—so they each
kind of show how you can come up with material when pushing yourself.
Sherry: Both are wonderful poems. I love the children's heads "downing" your arms. I do especially like "The Year of Weeping Dangerously". I resonate with the tone, and with the weeping. Smiles.
Tell us what you love about blogging, won't you?
Karin: Well,
I love the camaraderie, the sense of sympathetic readers that one has whenever
posting. This has been a great help to
me in getting work done, and in particular, in thinking of myself as a writer,
i.e. in feeling some kind of claim to that identity. Of course, I wrote for many years before
blogging, but even with six or seven manuscripts stacked up, it’s hard to feel
like a writer if you don’t feel anyone else granting you that role. Blogging—the camaraderie with other writers,
the sharing of material, the back-and-forth—has just been terrifically helpful
in feeling more publicly myself.
Sherry: That is a wonderful description, "feeling more publicly myself". I love it! Is there anything you’d like to say to Poets United?
Karin: Thank you! You are always (all of you over here) kind, welcoming, creative, accepting. It is such a pleasure and comfort too that you exist!
Sherry: Thank you, Karin, for this opportunity to catch up with you. And for all of the wonderful illustrations!
Wasn't this fun, kids? It inspires me to get more of my own books on the go. Do come back and see who we talk to next. Who knows? It might be you!
