Interview With Author Kathryn Brown Ramsperger
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a journalist, humanitarian reporter, bestselling and award-winning author, creativity coach, and mom to adult children. As a researcher and writer for National Geographic and Kiplinger, and later, working 25 years for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, my work took me throughout E. and W. Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. I met some of the most courageous people I’ve met along the way, and my novels are my tribute to them, facing insurmountable odds and full of kindness. I’ve written three novels: THE SHORES OF OUR SOULS, A THOUSAND FLYING THINGS, and MOMENTS ON THE EDGE. I’m finishing up my fourth book. My husband of four decades and I now live in Maryland. I love music, nature, cats, coffee, and meeting new people everywhere.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest book, which is now entering its second edition is A THOUSAND FLYING THINGS. When 9/11 happened, I wanted to write about the people that some people were fearing based on my experiences with them in my career, my travel, and my romantic life. The title is inspired by a Sudanese proverb: “Better a bird in the hand than a thousand flying things.” I wanted to create full, rounded characters in both books, characters with diversity, strengths, and weaknesses, and have readers walk with them for 300 pages or so. I was hoping my books would offer some understanding and healing, but unfortunately, they’re more timely now than ever.
I lived and worked all over East and West Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and I collected the stories of people I met and reported on during my 25 years as a humanitarian journalist, working for the International Red Cross, and my previous writing for National Geographic publications. I focus most on my time reporting on Rwanda, Bosnia, and Beirut. But I also bring in the themes of ways love can heal people from war zones and international adoption. (My daughter is adopted from China.)
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t consider any writing habits unusual. It’s whatever works for a writer.
Maybe some would think my (figuarive) Greek chorus in the window by my desk would be unusual. I have tiny stuffed animals of Thing One and Thing Two from THE CAT AND THE HAT and a few of Sendak’s WILD THINGS gazing at me as I write. I include Thing One and Thing Two in A THOUSAND FLYING THINGS. I also have a portrait of Faulkner peeking out at me over the computer. I rest my laptop on books by Eudora Welty and Barbara Kingsolver.
I surround myself with symbols from my books: a dental utensil from my first novel, a vase of ceramic poppies from my second novel, and blue feathers and origami herons from my third novel.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I get inspired every time I read another good book. My early influences:
1. Piet Worm (Three Little Horses)
(The first book of any length I read myself. It’s full of imagination about things not appearing as they really are and what really brings happiness)
2. E. L. Konigsburg (The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler)
That book inspired me to set THE SHORES OF OUR SOULS at the Met.
3. Daphne du Maurier
I’ve read everything she ever wrote that I could find.
4. Eudora Welty
(I loved to hear her speak as well as write. She was brilliant and Master at Southern Gothic, though she was born in Ohio, ironically.)
5. John Steinbeck
(He wrote my favorite novel, EAST OF EDEN.)
6. Barbara Kingsolver
(When I read her fiction, I realized my life had led me down similar corridors, and so I write about similar themes. She’s my current favorite author.)
7. Charles Dickens
(His writing taught me about plot and pacing.)
8. George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans, who had to publish under a man’s pseudonym.)
9. E. M. Forster (who showed me you could write about your travels in a deeper way. Both my published novels pay homage to him.)
10. Annie Dillard (whose Pulitzer made me choose Hollins University, and
11. Richard Dillard, who was my mentor there … he was also hers.)
12. Khalil Gibran, author of THE PROPHET, and many more books that hold a special guiding place in my heart. He was Lebanese.
I could continue, but that’s a start.
What are you working on now?
I am almost finished with a memoir of my late teens and 20s, which takes place from 1978-1981. It was an era where women were finding their footing in the workplace and in love. It’s working title is MY FIRST FIANCE: My Early Misadventures in Love, Squalor, Misogeny, and Mayhem. We still haven’t broken the glass ceiling, but if we forget where we were as women, we will never do it. We are so close. That’s why I’m writing this book. I also have begun the third book in my Bridge Between Shores series, which includes two of my novels.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The website that has taught me the most about writing, as well as the person it’s named for is https://janefriedman.com. You can find nearly everything important and everyone who has good advice by going there. I’ve followed her for an incredibly long time. You can trust her advice.
As far as promoting: I think all the places online that feature my books add up. There’s not one I value over another. I love conversations of any type, anywhere. I’m not able to do a physical book tour all the time, and so I’m thrilled for the virtual opportunity to do so. I love appearing with book clubs, libraries, adult literacy programs, schools, and just with a neighbor I meet on a walk. I love podcasts, and I have one myself, interviewing authors from all over the world.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read in your genre. Read your contemporaries.
Believe in yourself and your books.
Befriend other authors. Support them, and they’ll support you when your time comes.
Never give up. Resilience is key.
Don’t believe that little voice in your head that tells you you can’t do something. You can do anything you set your mind to.
You’re going to get a lot of advice, most of it conflicting. Just follow your heart. Listen to what your intuition is telling you to do first, not me. Be ready for a challenging road, but know it’s worth it. Your story is both unique and important. It will expand Humanity’s Greater Story.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
My mother advised me to be myself, not to hide my authenticity. She’s also the main reason I write.
My father taught me that life was full of problems, but that it’s what you do in response to them that makes life “rich.”
My grandmother taught me to be kind to everyone. But that didn’t mean giving them their way all the time. It meant trying to understand their hardships and their triumphs, and responding with calm clarity, listening before an impulsive answer or judgment.
As you can see, I got some great advice from an early age.
What are you reading now?
I just finished Mimi Herman’s THE KUDZU QUEEN and Saborna Roychowdhury’s EVERYTHING HERE BELONGS TO YOU. I’m just starting Alice Hoffman’s WHEN WE FLEW AWAY: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary. They are all mesmerizing. I try to mix newly published authors from every part of the world with the authors I’ve known and loved for decades.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to ride on the momentum that A THOUSAND FLYING THINGS has brought me. I’ll publish my memoir next, but I’m also working on a third novel in my Bridge Between Shores series, based right before 9/11. I have many books in the works: a series of memoirs, a series of time travel books, a series of psychic detective novels, and an anthology of modern-day fairy tales, which I add to regularly.
And I’d love come talk about any of my writing with readers. Any time. At bookstores, libraries, book clubs. I love conversations, and that’s a primary reason I write.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d bring a book about the island I’m stranded on or a book that taught me how to build a boat. But if those aren’t really options, I’d bring:
1. The top book in my To Be Read Pile right now: THE COVENANT OF WATER by Abraham Verghese,
2. Along with the one I’m reading now … Alice Hoffman’s book about Anne Frank, WHEN WE FLEW AWAY. I have to know the ending, right?
3. My latest book I’m reading for research for my fourth novel (in case I get off the island). Right now that would be: LEBANON: A COUNTRY IN FRAGMENTS by Andrew Arsan, c. 2018. It’s a nonfiction book about the history of Lebanon in the 21st century.
4. The Bible, which is full of stories and allegories and gorgeous language. Plus it’s from my parents with my maiden name embossed in gold. It would comfort me if I got hungry, thirsty, or had to run from wild animals.
And I’d bring my kindle for as long as it would stay charged. Although that’s a lesson in the reason print books exist. They LAST.
Author Websites and Profiles
Kathryn Brown Ramsperger Website
Kathryn Brown Ramsperger Amazon Profile
Kathryn Brown Ramsperger’s Social Media Links
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