Interview with Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Published 2016-10-21.
Why did you become a writer?
Truthfully, what started me off as an author was simply this: As a child, about eight or nine years old (the same time I began to draw pictures in pencil and years before I began to dream about being a singer with my younger brother Jim), I began reading books, science fiction, historical romances and scary books from the library. I had six brothers and sisters and though I had a loving mother and father, a loving family, there was very little money. I can’t say we were poverty poor, but we were poor at times. Sometimes our meals were scarce and we never had extra money for many toys or outside entertainment. I think in my whole young childhood my father only took us out to eat once. Try paying for seven kids and two adults. So we learned to entertain ourselves. We played outside, climbed trees and hid in deep dirt gullies. We sang, howled really, outside at night on the swing set.
I loved to read. The library books were free and plentiful. I’d sit on my bed, especially during the long summer days and evenings (after chores were done, of course) and read one amazing book after another and if I was lucky, with a chocolate snack or cherry Kool-Aid nearby. Those books, those words on the page, took me away to other places, times and worlds. It was magical. I got lost in people-on-a-spaceship-going–to-some-faraway-planet science fiction books. There was this one horse book when I was a kid that knocked me out, made me cry, and laugh with joy at the end it was so real to me and so full of pathos because I loved horses so much. It was called Smoky. I loved that book. Sigh. I never forgot how those wonderful books made me feel…so free. So adventurous. So rich. Like I could be or do anything someday. And when I grew up I wanted to create that magic myself for others. So…that’s why I began writing. And when I get depressed over my writing at times, I remember that.
I remember vividly one day at school, when I was about 10 or so, when a big box of Weekly Reader books were delivered and we each got to pick one to read. The smell of those new books in that box as I looked at them, the excitement and awe of the other kids over the books and the reverence for those authors, and I thought: Wouldn’t it be something if someday a box of these books were mine…written by me? Oh, to be an author. People respect an author. It was the beginning.
Then there’s also a second part to the question: Why do I keep writing after 45 years of it? Because I can’t not write. I can’t stop. The stories take over my heart and mind and demand to come out. It’s sort of like birthing a baby (I have one real son and two grandchildren myself). You carry them for a while, a short or long time span, and then once they’re born (published) they go on to be their own individual entities that sometimes continue to amuse and amaze you. Or disappoint you. Whatever.
What is it like being a published author?
It’s not like anything you would imagine. There’s excitement, the passion and feeling of being right with the world, as the story is being created and the words are tumbling out into the computer; there’s the exhaustion of writing hours and hours, the doubt that your words will mean anything to anyone and why am I doing this? that creeps in but that you have to chase away; there’s the pride in seeing the finished book, either e-book or print, and finally there’s the feeling of unexplainable happiness when someone says they read it and liked/loved it. The best response I love to hear is: I couldn’t put it down. The characters were all so real. I got carried away with it. Didn’t want to leave the world you’d created. Wow. That makes the sometimes low pay and grueling hard work all worthwhile because writing is hard work, or, at least, the creating and promoting of it anyway. Hour and hour, day after day, year after year. It’s your life you’re using up, your precious time and you have to truly love it to give all that up…to strangers.
After writing for over 45 years...is it still enjoyable?
Fun? That’s a strange way to put it. Sometimes, rarely, it’s fun. Mostly it’s hard work and lots of solitary time alone. Writers live so much of their life in their make believe worlds they get lonely for the real world, real breathing people and adventures. I know I do. But the writing won’t leave me alone until I write down the words and tell the tale. The easiest way I can put it is when I’m writing or dealing with my writing I feel like I’m doing what I was born to do. Yes, I believe a writer is born to write–like an artist is born to paint and draw; a musician to write or play music. As an artist myself I know I’m not truly happy, or fulfilled feeling, unless I’m writing, drawing or singing. Creating. Though the singing and the artwork have gone more by the wayside as I’ve become older and writing mostly takes all my free time now. Yes, writing does make me happy. Grin. Except the rare times someone hates one of my books and that happens, too. I’ve finally learned that reading and loving a book or short story is subjective. Some people love my stories, get them, and others…don’t. And that’s okay. We’re all different people. That’s a lesson a writer must learn. One person’s criticism is not a blanket criticism of all your work or even that one work, it’s just one person’s opinion.
Is it lucrative?
This first part I originally wrote in 2o11… before I started self-publishing in August 2012. Now, in 2016, with all my 22, soon to be 23, books self-published I am making a good living at my writing for the first time ever. But here’s my answer from 2011 when I was still with publishers: That’s a loaded question and most writers will not talk about how much they make or a book makes. Maybe, this is just my theory, it’s because most of us make so little it embarrasses us. There’s no way we could ever live on it. It’s icing on the cake, trim on the woodwork, for the mid-level writers anyway. The top (very rare) writers like Stephen King, Dean Koontz and many other writers make a very good living, but most writers don’t. Ever. Oh, in my heyday in the 1980’s and early 1990’s I made fairly good money with Leisure and Zebra paperbacks, because back then the distribution and print runs were so large, thousands at a time. I got a smaller percent in royalties (4-6%, no joke) but there were more books out there on the shelves and in the stores selling for me.
* So far my self-published e-books and PODs (Print on Demand) don’t sell near as many copies, but I get a much larger percentage (52-70%, yeah!). So selling a small quantity each month from all my sales venues–I am what they call “wide”; now as a self-publisher I sell my eBooks, paperbacks, and audio books at Amazon, D2D (which is B&N, Kobl, Apple iTunes and a few others), Google Play (which sells all over the world), Create Space (paperbacks)–and also at Audible (audio books) sometimes adds up to a nice sum. I’m marketing (a whole new thing for me these days after all those years with publishers) a lot, seeking and getting reviews, joining reader and writer loops, guest blogging, etc. It’s never ending. Thing is I don’t know how much it all helps. Eventually, I figure, I’ll find out. I’m an optimist always.
After over four decades of being a writer do I still enjoy writing?
Sure. I love it. It’s like breathing, eating, dreaming. It’s become part of me. It’s second nature. It took me over 40 years to say: I’m a writer. And really feel like I wasn’t being a pretentious so-and-so or outright lying. It took me all that time and 22 published books (soon to be 23), 2 novellas and 12 short stories, and more to come hopefully, for me to feel deserving of the title. Even without the money, telling stories is what makes me feel…complete. Happy. Hey, look at me I’m a storyteller! Ha, ha, now I just have to figure out a way to keep writing into my old age and balance both the marketing (which takes a lot of time, too) and the actual writing. Thank you.
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Latest books by This Author
Dinosaur Lake VIII: For Love of Oscar
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
After the destructive dinosaur wars, and the close call with the planet’s near annihilation from all-powerful sinister aliens, now the telepathic benevolent dinosaur Henry Shore calls Oscar, who saved us, needs help. And Henry will do anything to help the small dinosaur–even almost die himself.
Waiting Beyond The Veil
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
The eccentric, and sometimes lovable, characters of Spookie have returned for more mysterious adventures: two town murders, an enigmatic ghost girl wandering deep in the park’s woods seeking help, and a troublesome series of fires set around Spookie’s businesses.
Love Is Stronger Than Evil
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Price:
$5.99 USD.
Words: 138,610.
Language:
English.
Published: May 23, 2023
.
Categories:
Fiction »
Horror »
Occult
About an evil demon-possessed object, and the poor innocent people who it torments…until a wife, to save her beloved husband and son, stands up to it–and defeats it with the help of a mysterious priest.
Dinosaur Lake VII: The Aliens Return
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Ex-Park Chief Ranger Henry Shore has had his share of adventures and trials. But for many years he had a good life with his wife, Ann, and his daughter, Laura, being Chief Ranger at Crater Lake National Park. His life was perfect. Then the dinosaurs came. The Dinosaur Wars began. Now, years later, his daughter and wife are dead; the dinosaurs are gone…but now there are aliens.
Echoes of Other Times
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Frank, Abigail & Spookie, have survived the last horrific 2 years. Abigail is now painting ghosts. Frank will retire from his part-time job at the sheriff’s department, after he helps the sheriff solve one last missing persons case that ends with murders. Myrtle is befriended by a strange homeless boy. Glinda has a secret. Other townspeople are here, living their lives amidst the foggy mysteries.
Dinosaur Lake VI: The Alien Connection
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Henry Shore has spent the last decade hunting for, fighting, protecting people from, and exterminating rogue dinosaurs around his beloved Crater Lake National Park; now he’ll be called on to solve another problem: Did ancient aliens originally bring those super-intelligent and destructive creatures to earth millennia ago?
Haunted Tales
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
A collection of supernatural short stories about witches, ghosts, vampires, banshees, werewolves, ancient Egyptian curses, and a demon in the woods.
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