Editor’s Note: This exchange is part of a series of brief interviews with emerging writers of recent or forthcoming books. If you enjoyed it, please visit other interviews in the I’ve Got Questions feature.
- What’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?
The New Town Librarian, Fiction, NineStar Press, January 31, 2023
- In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?
She’s here, she’s queer, she’s the new Town Librarian — but is it too late to make a fresh start? Queer middle-aged librarian Nan Nethercott, a wisecracking hypochondriac with a lackluster career and a nonexistent love life, needs to make a drastic life change before it’s too late. When she lands a job as librarian in a seemingly idyllic small town in southern New Jersey, Nan quickly discovers unforeseen challenges.
- What’s the book’s genre (for fiction and nonfiction) or primary style (for poetry)?
Genres: Contemporary, humorous, LGBTQ, women’s fiction, feel-good fiction
- What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?
Lucy Jane Bledsoe, author of Tell the Rest, called it “laugh-out-loud funny.”
- What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between? [Is your book like Moby Dick or maybe it’s more like Frankenstein meets Peter Pan?]
Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge meets Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary
- Why this book? Why now?
Older women in books and on screen are often relegated to the dreadful D plots: depression, divorce, dementia, death. We deserve books that celebrate older women leading full-spectrum, pleasure-filled lives! And queer older women are almost invisible in books and on screen, in our youth-obsessed culture. Since female Baby Boomers are a major demographic in the US, they are way overdue for more representation in books and popular entertainment.
- Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?
Librarian in small-town public libraries
- What do you want readers to take away from the book?
It’s never too late to get the life you want. Public libraries are the best places in the universe and librarians are invincible forces for good in the world.
- What food and/or music do you associate with the book?
Italian deli food and homemade red wine
- What book(s) are you reading currently?
Next up in my library book haul: Love Marriage by Monica Ali, Collected Works by Lydia Sandgren, and All the Secrets of the World by Steve Almond
Learn more about Kathy on her website.
Follow her on Facebook and Twitter
Buy the book from the publisher (NineStar Press), Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop.org.
