Follow-up Interview with Author and Artist
Pat Lowery Collins (2004)
by Debbi Michiko Florence
What have you been working on?
A novel of historical fiction, which is taking up the biggest chunk of my time and was the catalyst for my trip to Italy in the spring.
A couple of picture books.
I'm also putting together a book of poems for adults and one for children.
What's the best thing that's happened in the last year?
Some important recognition for THE FATTENING HUT: It was a Book Sense 76 pick for 2003-2004 and received the Boston Author's Club 2004 Julia Ward Howe Award for Best Children's Book. It will also appear in paperback in the Spring of 2005 under the Graphia imprint of Houghton Mifflin.
The funniest?
It has got to be when I was signing free copies of FH at NEBA (New England Bookseller's Association> and pleasantly asking each person if he or she wanted a date written after the signature. After a while I started routinely asking "Do you want a date?" and one startled gentleman said, "Well, I do have two tickets to the dinner tonight if you'd like to go."
Any disappointments?
I had a middle grade novel turned down by my editor at Houghton. It takes me a while to recover from a rejection of something I'm really committed to. My writing friends have reminded me that not every editor wants the same thing,and so the manuscript is in the hands of someone else at present.
Do you work on one project at a time?
Not usually. I have been trying to complete some small projects so I can concentrate on the present novel. Have had to neglect it over the summer, and now want to make use of the slight momentum I've developed in the past couple of weeks. There have been constant interruptions, however, and sometimes I have to do additional research etc. I took a chunk of time in the summer for my painting, plus an open studio and a couple of shows. Visual art will be on the back-burner until I make more progress on the novel.
Do you have a ritual you follow before you're able to set down to work for the day?
I really like to just get up, eat breakfast, and write. If I have a painting in progress, it may draw me away later in the day. On my more compulsive days I get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, put a load in the washer, make the bed, do the dishes, and write. I used to write during the day and paint at night, but lately find I do my best work in either field during the day. Sort of shrinks my time for both.
What's the best advice you were ever given, and by whom?
I'm assuming you mean by a living person. (I have some quotes from people like Goethe on my website.)
A man named Don Murray, Professor Emeritus at UNH and author of the column "Over Sixty" in the Boston Globe gave me a placard for my desk after a poetry seminar we both took with Wesley McNair. The words on it are in Latin (it's around here somewhere in the mess that is my new office-in-progress) and the translation is "Perfect is the enemy of Good". At first I didn't really "get" it, but I have since come to realize how useful that saying is, particularly for people like me who have a hard time knowing when to quit and can come up with some wonderful excuses for why a particular piece isn't ready or good enough yet. It has served many times to "get me off the dime" so to speak.
What books have you recently published or will be released soon?
THE FATTENING HUT, a YA novel came out in Nov. of 2003 (Houghton Mifflin). The paperback edition will be out in the spring of 2005.
COME OUT COME OUT, a picture book illustrated by Dee Huxley (Australian), will be published by Philomel in the spring of 2005.
Any other news you'd like to share?
I have a new painting and drawing studio where I will be offering life drawing workshops. I also have a new fine arts website, which presently has examples of paintings, life drawings and portraits.
Follow-up Interview © 2004 by Debbi Michiko Florence.
See also my original interview with Pat, in 2002.
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