Laura Whitfield Interviews Kathleen Rodgers

Laura Whitfield Interviews Kathleen Rodgers

L: All of your books have elements of the military in them, especially the Air Force. Can you tell us about that?

K: Thank you for asking, Laura! Except for my fifth novel, which I’ve recently completed, my other novels include military families who are dealing with many of the same issues we all struggle with in the civilian world. I’m an old military spouse turned military mama, and I decided decades ago that I wanted to “elevate” military families into the mainstream by including them in my work as a magazine writer and later as a novelist. The late great Pat Conroy served as one of my “mentors” although I never got to meet him in person, only through his writing. His novel, The Great Santini, taught me that a writer could pen a novel about a dysfunctional family with a fighter pilot as head of the household, and set it against the backdrop of racism in the deep south. I’ve read the novel at least four times, along with many of his other books.

My husband flew fighter jets in the Air Force before he retired and became a commercial airline pilot. Those early years as the wife of a pilot informed so much of my work as a frequent contributor to Military Times and other publications. One of those cover stories for Military Times helped me get my foot in the door at Family Circle Magazine, where my work was read by millions of readers over a ten-year period.

When my youngest son graduated college and became a young Army officer who served in combat, I wrote straight into the fear with my second and third novels.

My fifth novel does not contain any aspect of the military. As a writer, I never want to be pigeonholed so it was time to spread my wings. Stay tuned…

L: Asking an author if they have a favorite character is like asking a mother if they have a favorite child. Is there a character (or characters) that has stayed with you?

K: At the moment, my favorite characters are the ones I’ve spent time with in my fifth novel. Part coming of age, coming to terms, my latest is a multigenerational tale grounded in reality and swimming with magical realism. The novel celebrates authors and books, indie bookstores, and public libraries, while illuminating the art of storytelling through the oral tradition and the written word. I can’t wait for my readers to meet Letty Hubbard and her three daughters, Clover, Marigold, and Tansy, and their two best friends, Melody, and Ruthie.

L: How do you nurture your creativity?

K: I look for magic in ordinary things. I get excited about embracing those small moments that might get overlooked. I give myself space and permission to daydream. It’s not always easy, especially when I see so much sorrow and struggle in the world.

L: Do you have a writing space? Could you describe it?

K: When my two sons were young, I couldn’t wait to have a “room of my own” to call my writing studio or sanctuary. Today I have a beautiful home office with custom shelves and a corner desk. But guess what, half the time I come into the office, pick up my laptop, and plop down at the kitchen table to work. I love being in the kitchen, the center of my home, where I’m surrounded by two rescue dogs, good energy, and memories of my life as a young mother. I’ve been known to write anywhere and on anything. I started out writing by hand and on a manual typewriter. Some days the best ideas come when I’m standing at the kitchen sink or running an errand. I still love mechanical pencils, index cards, and sticky notes.

L: Do you have a process for writing a book? Or does it vary depending on what you’re writing?

K: It’s messy. For me, it’s like making meatloaf. I don’t outline, but I always have bits of dialogue, or an idea scribbled down, and I take it from there. I usually have some idea about the ending. So, I write toward that scene in my head. Sometimes it changes, but then I change and grow with each novel I’ve written. I’ve become a braver person because of my writing.

L: Where are you most happy?

K: When I feel safe, but especially when I know my loved ones are safe.

L: You’ve written four award-winning novels. Any advice for those who are thinking about writing fiction?

K: You must want it more than you want to be known as a novelist. In other words, you must sacrifice something in order to write fiction. Me, I don’t watch daytime television unless something major has happened and I turn on the news.

L: What is one of your favorite memories of being a Pulpwood Queen?

K: Meeting so many wonderful writers and readers these past few years. That’s where I met you.

L: Many writers have said they knew at age ten that they were born to write. Did you have a defining moment like that and when did it happen to you?

K: I declared myself a writer at the age of fifteen when I started writing for my high school newspaper in Clovis, New Mexico. Looking back, I don’t recall that I ever wrote anything school related. Mr. Bill Kopf, my sophomore English teacher and the sponsor of the high school newspaper, let me write about UFOs, Bigfoot, home remedies, and things of that nature.

L: Did you have a mentor(s) when you started your writing journey? If so, how did they influence you?

K: Mr. Kopf, who I mentioned above, encouraged me my senior year to enter a statewide writing contest for high school students sponsored by New Mexico Press Women. I ended up winning first place for feature writing. That state award, along with Mr. Kopf’s encouragement, gave me the confidence to pursue a writing career that’s spanned decades. Another early mentor was my aunt, Kay Lamb. She gave me my first subscription to Writer’s Digest when I was still in high school and read some of my first attempts at creative writing. Bless her!

Mike Slinker was my boss at ENMU’s Information Services where I worked as a student writer my freshman year in college. Mike believed in me even when I had so much selfdoubt. He’d read about my first-place award in state and hired me at the ripe old age of seventeen. Bill Southard, former managing editor of the Clovis News Journal, hired me to write headlines, first birthday writeups, and obits when I was only nineteen and taking college night classes. Within a week of working in the newsroom, Bill let me start writing feature stories, take photographs, and develop my pictures in the darkroom. Besides herding a newsroom full of small town journalists, Bill was writing western novels for Bantam Books under the pen name, W.W. Southard. He’d get up at the crack of dawn, write for a couple of hours, then head to his day job as a newspaper man. Bill modeled what it meant to be a working writer. He taught me that a kid from a small town could grow up to become an author. ☺