Above is the episode where Cate interviews Kit. Below is a cleaned up version of the transcript. It’s not exact, but it’s still got the basics! In our next episode, Cate gets interviewed. Interested in more about Kit? Read her review of The Uncanny Counter. Or check out her writing stats.
Cate: Welcome to the Writer at Work Podcast, I’m your Co-Host Miss Catherine MH. We’re starting out this podcast with a bit of an interview for everyone to get to know us before we start putting out our other content. With that, let me introduce my oldest friend Kit Boyer. How are you doing?
Kit: I’m doing great.
Alright. So, are you ready for all of the deep insightful questions we have?
I’m ready.
Ok. Age and location in the world?
I’m 31 and I live in Arizona.
What’s your genre of writing?
I write a lot of poetry, especially these last few years. That’s been my main thing. But I also write fiction, short stories, young adult stuff, and fantasy. I like rewriting fairy tales, modernizing or changing them.
What do you do now for a living?
Eat, breathe oxygen, drink water, shelter, stay away from bears. But what I do for work is part-time transcription and full-time momming. I homeschool my kids. It can be a lot. It’s definitely work.
What made you want to be a writer?
I would always write when I was little. Sometimes I’d have a stack of books as high as my bed and I’d have my dad read them to me. Even after I learned how to read them for myself, he would read to me every night. But I was always a storyteller. I always loved it. Maybe it’s genetic. One of my kids is a really good storyteller, too. Probably will be better than me by the time he’s my age. Haha.
What authors do you admire?
Oh, so many. The ones I’m going to say are just the ones I’ve got at the forefront of my mind right now. I love Yangsze Choo, she wrote The Ghost Bride and The Night Tiger. I love J.R.R. Tolkien, he’s a master of the craft. We’re actually reading Lord of the Rings as a family, and I will say that it’s brilliant, but there is a lot of boring walking. And I love Kristin Cashore, who wrote the Fire series. It’s really good. I don’t want to give anything away, but you should read it.
What books do you love?
I love those books I mentioned. My husband got me a book of poetry by Louise Glück. I’ve been working on that. I haven’t been reading too too much lately, so there’s nothing just burning right now. A book of short stories that I like is My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me. It’s by a bunch of famous writers. You might like it, too, Cate. It’s a collection of retold fairy tales, but kinda weird and kinda dark. It’s got a strange vibe that I really like.
Why turn writing into a full-time job?
Writing is work. It’s life and breath, but it’s also work. So becoming a full-time writer would just be formalizing what is already there. Like getting married. If you don’t get married, it doesn’t mean you don’t love the person or you’re not serious, but getting married kind of tells everyone else. You know? It’s just a signifier to the world that, you know, this is my main thing. I know in some ways I might be unhappy turning what I love into work, but I also think it would be really satisfying to get my stuff out there, to see what people think of my world, interact with them, see what their ideas are.
What is the greatest achievement of writing so far?
Oh, gosh. I did finish 50k words for NaNoWriMo a few years ago. And I wrote a children’s story for my children. I did the art for it, too. It’s a lift-a-flap book. You can see some pictures of it on my Instagram (@reyobtik). It’s not published, but my kids can enjoy it, so that’s what matters to me.
What is your greatest failure in writing so far?
I am sitting on so many unfinished books. I’ve got plots worked out, worlds built, characters made, but I just haven’t finished them. I really wanted to get this one series made before my kids got too old, I wanted them to kind of grow up with the characters. But I don’t see that happening and it makes me really sad. But maybe even if I had published it, my kids would never have enjoyed it anyway. *sigh*
What is the most difficult thing about writing?
I’m tempted to say finding time to write, but probably the most difficult thing in my lifetime of writing is finishing an idea. You mentioned in a different episode something about the idea of resistance and writer’s block, and it really clicked with me. So sometimes there’s resistance, and I think that must be the hardest part for me.
What is the easiest thing about writing?
I love just writing. Poems are great because I can be super quick. I write my poem down, I think about if there’s anything else I want to add to it, anything I want to emphasize, and then I bring it to workshop. Then I get feedback on it- sometimes I change it based on the feedback, sometimes not.
Where do you see your writing career taking you?
Maybe this is super ambitious, but I have a nine book series I want to publish. Truly, I just want to publish as much of my work as I can. Get as much of my stories out there as possible, because I have a lot. I’ve got another three book series, too. And some short stories and poems. Actually, what I plan to work on most this year is a chapbook.
What road of publishing would you like to travel?
I think traditional publishing for my novels and series. For the short stories and poems I want to put them in literary magazines or journals. And of course I want to publish some chapbooks on my own, with my writing group, or through a local press.
What is one fun fact about you?
Noooooo. Haha. Ok, I guess an interesting fact is that my typewriter is an Olivetti Lettera 32 in light blue, which is the same typewriter Cormack McCarthy used to write all of his big, important works. My husband got it for me our first Christmas together and it has been my favorite thing to type on ever since.
The final question: What does the statement “Writer at Work” mean to you?
I guess it means that I am writing while working on my other life stuff. Like, I raise my kids and homeschool and run our household, so I’m writing during all of that.
Alright. This has been our interview of Kit Boyer. We hope you guys liked getting to know us a little better. Stay tuned for Kit’s interview of me.
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