Author Interview ~Kathleen Popa

Kathleen Popa did most of her growing up in the deserts of Arizona and Nevada where she learned to love the uncluttered beauty of the American Southwest. After fifteen years in California ’s Silicon Valley, she now lives with her husband and youngest son in a small mining town in the high desert of Northern California , in a century-old, book-cluttered Victorian house, where she feels very much at home. She keeps a blog for writers and book lovers, titled Reading , Writing, and… What Else Is There? at http://www.kathleenpopa.typepad.com/. To learn more about her first novel, To Dance in the Desert, visit her website at www.kathleenpopa.com.

What book or project is coming out or has come out that you’d like to tell us about?

I’m so glad you asked. My first novel, To Dance in the Desert just released on May 1.

When the story opens, Dara Brogan is reeling from a traumatic experience in which she witnessed the violent deaths of both her husband and father in one terrible day. Now she has moved to a lonely house in a remote desert valley, determined to live alone, where no one can hurt her.

But she looks out her window, and there is this crazy woman, dancing on the edge of a cliff. The book follows Dara as she gets to know this woman, responds to the Spirit’s gentle wooing, and finds the mother who abandoned her long ago.

Tell us about your journey to publication. How long had you been writing before you got the call you had a contract, how you heard and what went through your head.

Honestly, I remember “writing” my first story before I learned the alphabet. I’ve always written, and I’ve always wanted to be one of those wonderful people who write stories that make us feel that there is something wondrous at the heart of things.

But I spent most of my life wringing my hands over the whole matter, rarely trying to publish anything. I got a lot of encouragement from teachers and family, and without that, I doubt I would be talking with you about To Dance in the Desert.

Finally, in 1999, at a friend’s urging and my husband’s insistence, I attended my first Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, and I haven’t missed one since.

In 2003 I brought a very long short story I’d written, and asked author Gayle Roper for advice. She told me I was writing a novel, and should finish it. That was the start of To Dance in the Desert. A year later, in 2004, I was still working on it, but I got brave and discussed it with Jeff Dunn, who was then fiction editor at Cook Communications. He asked me to send him the manuscript. I did that the following September. I really thought, this is my first novel, I’ll get my first rejection, and it will all be a good experience.

One day in January of 2005 my husband and I returned from a day trip. I went upstairs to check my email, and there was one from Jeff, to tell me he was putting together a proposal to take my book to committee. I did the logical thing: I screamed. I screamed so loud my husband thought I’d just found the biggest spider ever, and my son thought I was perhaps dying. They both came running, and we had ourselves a little joy dance right there in front of my laptop.

The book went to committee the following month. In March I tracked Jeff down at Mount Hermon. The red letter day had come and gone and I was dying to know. He said, “Oh yeah, we’re buying it.”

And I did the least logical thing: I stood there, calmly asking, “What do I do next?” on the outside, while whimpering What do I do now? on the inside. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to scream? But I was in shock. My hands didn’t stop shaking for a month.


Do you still experience self-doubts regarding your work?

Some days I think I’m made of self-doubt. Any novelist who cares about what she’s doing knows she’s attempting the impossible: to transmit the beautiful vision she sees to the reader on a piece of paper. The best she can do is come close, and to do that, she has to pull her material from the profoundest, most personal part of her soul, and then send it out among strangers to see what they think. It’s nuts.

What mistakes have you made while seeking publication?

Not trusting God. There are big faith issues involved in the call to write.

Do I trust that this thing I’ve wanted to do all of my life is actually something I should do? I used to think that anything this time consuming had to make good financial sense, unless it was some form of ministry. And the stories I wanted to write wouldn’t be like that; they wouldn’t have altar calls at the end. They would ask questions I didn’t necessarily have answers for, just questions I loved. So for years, I almost felt I should rebuke the muse and be done with it.

Now, after publication, I have a whole new set of faith issues. Do I trust God enough to peel my tight little fingers off the book and give it back to him? It’s not as simple as just letting go and walking away—that would be easier. But it’s part of my job to publicize this book. I have to care how it sells, and do my best to help it sell better. And then, having done that, I have to open my hands, and leave the results to him, believing whatever happens is good. What a strange balance that is. I’m working on it.

What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?

Go to a writers’ conference, and not just to get published. Writers need writer friends who will take them seriously, and who will know how to pray. Ever go to a non-writer and ask for prayer for the novel you’re working on? It’s the strangest feeling in the world. You feel like you just asked for prayer because (Sniffle!) you can’t decide which color to paint the bathroom!

You also need to get around real editors and agents and big-name authors and see that they are ordinary people too—or was I the only one who had to be shown?

What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve heard?

I once read a book on scene building, that had a pretty rigid formula for scene structure. I tried to write using the formula to the letter, and my writing suffered. It looked like I was jerking my characters around to fit the form. I still love books about writing – even that one. I read them for general principles, or for help when a scene isn’t working. But when I write, I just write.


What’s something you wish you’d known earlier that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

To Dance in the Desert is the first novel I ever wrote, and the first publisher I showed it to bought it. Frankly, I expected more frustration. But if I could go back and whisper in the ear of my young self, I’d tell that girl to get herself to a good conference like Mount Hermon. That might have gotten me published sooner. Or maybe not. Really, I have no regrets.

Is there a particularly difficult setback that you’ve gone through in your writing career you are willing to share?

I haven’t been at this long enough to have a setback. Give me time…

What are a few of your favorite books? (Not written by you.)

The Book of the Dun Cow and The Book of Sorrows by Walter Wangerin, Jr.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Walking on Water by Madeleine L’Engle
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

Do I have to stop now?

What piece of writing have you done that you’re particularly proud of and why?

What other piece, besides To Dance in the Desert?

One night a couple of years ago, in a philosophical mood, I wrote a blog-post titled, What I Really Think. It’s a meditation on the nature of the artistic impulse, and the faith it takes to follow it. I’m still proud of that piece. It’s the best thing I could tell another writer, or any other artist.

Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

Not too many peeves. I would love to see a renaissance among Christian artists and writers, a deeper spirituality and a greater artistic freedom than we’ve had in recent history. Dick Staub outlines something like what I mean in his newest book, The Culturally Savvy Christian, where he says, “Your truest art will be both authentic and original and will flow from the combination of your deep faith and your artistic vision.” I dearly want that for myself, and I want it for all of us. I think the new renaissance may have already started to begin. I hope so.

Take us through your process of writing a novel briefly—from conception to revision.

My ideas come slowly, and build over time. To Dance in the Desert started with an image of an older woman dancing—well, in the desert—and the rest of the story was culled from spiritual issues I was working through at the time. The second novel seems to be going much the same way.

I’ve been blessed with a great writing buddy, my dear friend Sharon Souza whose debut novel, Every Good and Perfect Gift, releases next January. She and I exchange chapters by e-mail on a regular basis. Neither of us has ever been able to follow the rule that a writer shouldn’t edit as she writes. We edit a lot as we go; our chapters are probably in the second or third draft stage when we exchange them.

I love the final editing process. I tend to cut a lot of words at this stage, and I like the way the writing sparkles when I’m done.

Do you have a dream for the future of your writing, something you would love to accomplish?

I want to be the Elisha to some of the Elijah’s I have read. My favorite authors have written things that startled me with a sense that Heaven had pushed through the curtain to touch me. Try reading the dolphin alleluias in Madeleine L’Engle’s Ring of Endless Light and not be changed forever. Likewise, Chanticleer’s challenge to God in Wangerin’s Book of the Dun Cow. It’s been years, and I still haven’t recovered from the last paragraphs of Mariette in Ecstasy.

I want to give that magic to my readers. I told you: we attempt the impossible.

Was there ever a time in your writing career you thought of quitting?

In the middle of writing the book, much as a mother screams “no more children” when she’s in the midst of childbirth. But of course, when she holds the baby in her arms, she starts talking about the next one.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of being a writer?

My favorite part is a good writing day, when I know what happens next, and next, and next, when I speak the dialogue as I go and it comes out exactly right, when my body twitches with the movements of my characters like I’m possessed by them, and my fingers can hardly type fast enough. There are few things better in the world.

My least favorite part is a bad writing day, when I have no idea what happens next, no idea at all.

How much marketing/publicity do you do? Any advice in this area?

I am right this moment marketing my first novel. So I’m looking for advice, not giving it.

Have you received a particularly memorable reader response?

I’m just beginning to hear from readers, and it’s all wonderful. Several people I went to high school with are reading my novel. A friend of mine in her 80’s read it in two days, and I don’t even read that fast.

When someone who doesn’t know me buys my book, I’m still amazed. A lady in Lodi, California who works in a Christian bookstore said that of all the new books that had come in, mine was the one she chose—first because of the beautiful cover (which was designed by Jeff Barnes), and then because of the back cover copy. She said she loved To Dance in the Desert, because it was unlike anything she’d read before. How delightful.

I love hearing from readers, and by the way, I answer my emails. If a book club decides to read my book, I’d love to join one of their meetings by telephone. Readers can contact me through my website, www.kathleenpopa.com.

Parting words?

Thanks so much for talking with me. You’ve interviewed some amazing authors here, and I’m honored to be in such company.