Author Kelly Kathleen Ferguson: My Life as Laura

Last summer, my husband and I spent a week in South Dakota at our nephew’s wedding. On the fourteen-hour drive home, I pointed out that we still hadn’t been to the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites in Missouri or Kansas, or even Wisconsin (even though we once took a wrong turn going from Sioux Falls to Minneapolis and nearly ended up in Eau Claire. After we returned home, I returned to one of my childhood loves, the “Little House…” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Imagine my delight when not one, but TWO Laura-themed memoirs by women who are roughly my age were available for me to read. I devoured them both, then approached one of the authors, Kelly Kathleen Ferguson, who wrote, My Life as Laura for an interview.

Kelly’s interview was so much fun that we decided to make it a feature, rather than putting it in the blog. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and please don’t forget to check out her book, My Life as Laura.

Give us your “elevator speech” about who you are, what you do for a living, and how we should know you.

I’m a writer and a writing instructor at Ohio University. That’s Athens, Ohio. Not Greece. Not Georgia. For twenty years I was a drummer and a bartender. I grew up in Alabama and lived in Durham, North Carolina for a long time. I’ve also lived in Montana and New Orleans but that takes some explaining. I have no idea where I will be next.

Every woman has a different path to success. Tell us about your journey to where you are today.

Over the past twenty years my concept of “success” has changed, so that’s a huge word for me to digest. I was a philosophy major once upon a time. Don’t get me started! For the sake of this interview, let’s equate my current success with writing and publishing a book, which has been a lifetime goal of mine.

Here’s the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version of the past fifteen years:

1)wrote in my journal 2) wrote and published my own ‘zine 3) took a continuing education course in creative writing 4) read books about writing and magazines about writing 5) freelanced for the local weekly 6) published a few pieces in national magazines 7) paid for a professionally lead workshop 8) began an essay that might be a book 9) got in an MFA program 10) worked with amazing writers who kicked me to the next level 11) wrote five different chapter ones of the essay that might be a book 12) got past chapter one and wrote a book proposal 13) landed a big agent 14) lost the big agent 15) melted down 16) got in a PhD program 17) found a small press willing to publish my book 18) kept writing the book 19) kept writing 20) kept writing 21) DON’T ASK 22) revised the book 23) copyedited the book 24) published!

We’re strong proponents of women helping other women. Is there a role model, mentor, or other woman who helped you along the road to success? Is there a woman you act as a mentor for?

I can’t say there’s been a Ms. Obi Wan Kenobi in my life, but I have always looked to women as role models.
Obviously, Laura Ingalls Wilder has been a huge influence. I even wrote a list called the Why Laura Rules. As a kid I was drawn to fictional characters ranging from Wonder Woman to Ozma of Oz to the Bionic Woman to O Mighty Isis to Greek myths about the goddess Diana. I had one of those Scholastic Reader biographies about Nellie Bly that I read over and over.

Beginning in high school, I found scads of Southern writers to admire—Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Harper Lee, Katherine Anne Porter—the list goes on and on. Women I have admired in music include Blondie, Chrissie Hynde, Donna Summer, Aimee Mann, and PJ Harvey. When I was a drummer, I went in search of other female drummers. Sheila E. videos, especially from when she toured with Prince, continue to blow me away.

In terms of actual people I have known, from my sports teams to my bands to my writing life, I’ve always sought out strong women. Most restaurants I worked for have been owned by women, which is not the industry standard. My experience has been that seeing women do is the most powerful influence. Even now, in 2011, when I play a show someone comes up to me afterwards who says they have never seen a woman drummer before. I’ll never forget this woman drummer I saw at this random bar in Nashville twenty years ago who was very pregnant and just killing it. Killing it!

This past summer I volunteered at the Athens Rock Camp for girls. Facing seven pre-teen girls who had never even picked up sticks before and getting them ready to play a show in a week was intense. We had eight kits set up in a room (including mine) and at one point we were all playing “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes. It was like galloping with a herd of unicorns freebasing Skittles. By which I mean incredible.

Of course, as a university instructor, I am a role model, whether I like it or not! I’ll be teaching a Women and Writing course this Winter Quarter. My course theme is women subverting social norms through comedy. I just bought The Portable Dorothy Parker and I’m planning a section on the sideways blondes (Mae West, Marilyn Monroe). Remember when Melissa Etheridge gave Ellen Degeneres a toaster for coming out on her show? Or perhaps the entire course is an excuse to show 30 Rock episodes in class. I’m up for ideas if anyone would like to comment below.

Many of us have regrets about a job or opportunity we turned down. Is there a particular “road not taken” in your life?

I write in My Life as Laura about how I turned down a job as a reporter for a small town newspaper because I was afraid. That’s a regret. Mostly I regret that I was afraid, and that I was so hard on myself over my lack of a “real” job during all those years of pursuing other dreams. The problem with all of my passions was that none of them paid. I always felt like the Big American Failure as I waited tables for salary. I also wish my music life had been more successful. It would have been fun to tour more and be in a band people recognize outside of Durham. That’s part of why I started writing. I wanted to be in charge of my own success or failure.

To avoid an online tome here regarding relationships and/or children, I must defer to Chapter 10 of My Life as Laura, “Over Thirty-Five With Cats.”

Except here’s one regret not in the book: I gave my childhood copy of A Wrinkle in Time to an ex-boyfriend who I later discovered was cheating on me. I want it back!

Do you have a personal motto or mission statement? What is it?

I have two, which I write about in my book. (Sorry to keep saying, “in my book.” That’s the problem with giving an interview when you’ve just finished a memoir.) The first is “feel the fear and do it anyway,” which is the title of a self-help book from the nineties that I never actually read. My other mantra is “it couldn’t be helped.” That’s what Laura said to herself whenever she’d gotten herself in a scrape and it was time to face the consequences, or circumstances were beyond her control.

What advice would you give to other women who want to follow your career path?

All writers say this but really, you simply have to start writing somehow. Stephen King’s On Writing is the best book that I’ve read on the subject to date. There’s really no way to talk about “how to be a writer” without including memoir, because there is no universal path, no One True Way. I will say all successful writers I know: 1) read, read, read 2) write, write, write 3) revise with hatchets 4) temper isolation with community.

Work isn’t everything; other than what you do for a living, what are you passionate about?

Now that my passions are my work, I notice that my down time is spent decompressing. I play poker with the poets, have dinners with friends, and I’m always scheming for a trip, even if it’s just down the road. I practice yoga but that’s more to keep my neck from seizing into a permanent locked position than a passion, exactly.

As I write this, I realize I haven’t had a quirky obsession for a while. I used to latch on to some pursuit—graphology, Feng Shui gardening, sofa shopping, FBI profiling, Marx Brothers movies—and immerse myself until the grip lessoned. The book has been the focus for so long I’m a bit tapped out. All I want to do is watch Netflix and drink wine. That’s the downside of academic life, too. You get told who to read so much your natural enthusiasm wears out. I remember this side-effect from undergrad. Books are my life, but after my diploma I didn’t read a cereal box for at least a year. I was burnt. If I remember correctly, I need to give myself a little time, and I’ll revive.

Many of our readers are professionals who struggle to balance work, home, and personal pursuits. How do you find balance in your life?

I don’t have a family (as in a serious relationship and/or kids), so I don’t face that particular challenge. Although single life is hard in that every household responsibility is mine. Trash day goes like this, “Kelly! I thought I told you to take out the trash!” Even so, I don’t know how moms write. I’m too easily distracted and I’m pretty sure my Catholic guilt about ruining my children forever by not hand-baking bread would plague me.

The balance between writing and teaching can be hard. Teaching even one class can take over. I’ve been known the leave “the pile” in my office and forget about it for a few days. Still, when academics whine I don’t even know how to respond. It’s not as though we’re down in the coal mine.

Come to think of it, the idea of “balance” is an illusion. A fallacy. When I wrote my book, I let my dishes congeal, my students sulk, and my grades go down. I put silver tape over the dashboard idiot lights of my car. Writing was all I could handle.

Let’s talk now about My Life As Laura – buying a prairie dress and driving around the Midwest seems both fun and daunting – do you regret any of the time (or money) you spent doing it?

Not a second or a penny! For what it’s worth, two weeks in the rural Midwest costs about as much as two days in a major city. I lived large on very little. My only responsibility in life was to drive around and see places I had dreamed about since I was six. Taking two-line highways was the key. I was astounded by how different rural eastern South Dakota can be from southeast Kansas. By the end I was tired, sure, but I was in a happy place, the world was all possibility. I was a pioneer. Just like Laura.

Will you ever visit any of the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites again?

Last summer I was in Minnesota, about thirty minutes away from Walnut Grove, and I didn’t go back on purpose. For now, I prefer to keep the magic memory of the trip preserved. We’ll see. I still want to visit Malone, New York, location of Farmer Boy.

How did your friends and family react to the trip? To the book?

Let’s address family, then friends.

As for the trip, my family is pretty inured to my oddball ideas so they were all, “Well, have fun!” They have been proud of the book. My mom wrote a review for Amazon saying My Life as Laura, “was the best book ever written” so I’d say that was a positive reaction. My dad was proud I had published a book, but I don’t know that this book was what he expected. He mostly reads researched biographies and Wallace Stegner. My sister-in-law was enthusiastic and she’s a big reader, so that meant a great deal to me. I admit I was worried. My memoir is low key in terms of revealing personal information, but I do touch on adult subjects, and talk about some of the less-than-rosy parts of my childhood.

My brother and sister-in-law are Southern Baptist so I was concerned about offending them, if I was too liberal. I know the book benefited in that I wrote with the idea that my family would be reading. Spouting off the usual liberal platform is boring, anyway. What fascinates me about the Little House books is how they appeal to liberals and conservatives alike. Laura taps into universal themes that supersede politics. I didn’t want to betray that connection.

Now, to talk about friends.

True friends love you whether you are ill, unemployed and sobbing on the floor or if you are doing well. Friends who were there for the ins and outs of what it took to for me to write this book have been super supportive, purchasing multiple copies for presents, posting on Facebook, asking me to guest blog, etc. While writing, I had so many moments wondering why bother, when there are so many books already. Then a friend would tell me they couldn’t wait to read my book, and they meant it. So I kept going.

What led you to connect with Press 53?

An ex-boyfriend. He’s one of those people who makes best friends while standing in the checkout line at Wal-Mart or Radio Shack. One day in some checkout line he met Kevin Watson, the owner of Press 53. At the time (five years ago) I sent Kevin some essays and he told me that while he wasn’t ready to publish me, I should stay in touch. So I did.

In an age where many, if not most, new authors are publishing electronically, your book is only available as a trade paperback. Do you think this good or bad? Will there be a digital edition in the future?

Press 53 releases the print version for a few months before the e-book. An electronic version of My Life as Laura should be available sometime soon!

In answer to the larger question, I’ve found that it’s better to run with trends than fight them. Maybe someday I’ll be a grumpy grandma, but for now I’m Tweeting, Facebooking, texting, and whatever else comes my way. I had the experience of watching the music business transform. Music stores shut down. Digital music took over. The loss of the browsing store was sad, but that being said, once albums became obsolete there was very little charm to the Compact Disc. They were overpriced. They broke. They skipped. The art was hard to see. Three years ago I uploaded all my music and sold a bag of CDs on Craigslist for twenty bucks.

As for books, I will always want hardcopies because I am comforted by their presence. I sit and stare at the spines on my shelves to relax. Books are part of my identity. Remember, you’re talking to the person who has the same Little House box set from when she was six years old.

Now, if someone gave me a Kindle I would use it. I’m not spending $200 on one, but it’d be great for travel. Or let’s be honest, e-books are great for books you don’t plan on revisiting more than once.

Now is YOUR opportunity to tell us what we missed! What question should we have asked, that we didn’t (and what’s the answer to it)?

Q: “What would you hope that readers take away from your book?”

A: If you have ever wanted to make a change, or embark on a kooky adventure not knowing exactly why, or wondered if you would ever grow up, or had everything go kerplooey, you are not alone.

Kelly Kathleen Ferguson has a website: KellyKathleenFerguson.com. Her Twitter handle is @KellyKFerguson. She’s on Facebook and also has a fan page for the book. My Life as Laura can be purchased from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble online. Kelly adds, “Julia Roberts has yet to call about playing me in the upcoming movie, but I have no doubt she would look fab in calico.”