Elizabeth Rowan Keith
Southwest Minnesota
USA
Good morning, Elizabeth, and welcome to Vision and Verse. Can you tell us a little about what you've written?
Most recently I have written a piece of historical fiction that was inspired by the front porch stories told by the old women in my family, The Lie. It takes place during World War II and is about a young woman who finds herself in completely unfamiliar circumstances and must build a life for herself without knowing how. In the middle of it all she is left with a lie, which she takes on and lives with very well. At the end of her life she has to decide whether she should reveal the lie, or not.
I’ve also written a series of short stories, one each taking place on an ancient holiday. It began with a short storie that placed 1st in a competition. My author friends said “Keep going.” That’s Becoming Birch: Timeless Tales in the Wheel of the Year. The setting is uniquely grounding and calming.
I’ve also compiled a collection of short stories, many of which were originally published with the international author group Top Writers Block. Those came together to answer the call from those readers who said they wanted something that they could begin and finish in a short period of time. It’s Minutes: Conveniently Short Stories.
Before that, much of my academic work was published in assorted journals. My doctoral work was published in two segments and is available in elecronic format. It’s Essential Oil Use in Canine Veterinary Medicine.
Before that I was a newspaper journalist, writing for four separate newspapers. One of them I managed.
Throughout childhood and my teenage years I published poetry, character sketches, and short stories. I had my heart set on being a writer for a long time.
What is your favorite genre to write?
If I have a favorite genre, I don’t know it yet. I prefer to explore freely across the landscape of options. Labels have a tendency to limit and that’s the last thing I want to do to myself.
Favorite food?
A good chocolate brownie is always welcome. I enjoy exploring vegetarian and vegan food from around the world. But it’s always good to come home to a chocolate brownie.
Tea or coffee?
I deeply appreciate a good cup of coffee. In recent years I have made a dive into the history, culture, medicine, and limitless variety of tea. It’s fascinating. I’m still exploring.
Pizza or ice cream?
I see no need to choose. A life well lived is full of experiences. Have all you like of both.
Wine or beer or soda or what?
Well, we’ve discussed tea and coffee. Beyond that I appreciate clean water, sometimes flavored with lemon or lime. I’ve just discovered a product called Dandy Blend, which is a blend of dandelion, chicory, and other plants blended to make a beverage, and enjoy it very much.
Where would you like to visit?
Oh, my. The list is so long. I adore both domestic and international travel, and haven’t done nearly enough. I appreciate the outdoors more than the indoors, for the most part. But I can’t seem to ever have enough time in museums. If I could go somewhere today, I think I would head to a particular convent in Kansas, on to the Teton Range, then to the Grand Canyon, and beyond that to a coastal marina. Maybe I’d head to an island or Central or South American water community. I have stories to research.
Favorite musical artist.
In my younger years I was a musician. I feel music. Selecting a favorite artist would be like declaring a favorite child. I just couldn’t do it.
Do you listen to music when you write? What?
Sometimes I do listen to music as I write. It may be some instrumental piece having to do with the features or era of a story in the works. It might be a soft, meditative piece. Or it might be a piece of power and drive. It depends on what I’m writing. But it’s almost always instrumental. Hearing words conflicts with writing words.
What makes you laugh?
There is almost nothing better than laughter. I appreciate a witty retort or banter. Anything that brings any kind of shame or victimhood to another individual is never funny to me. I enjoy humor that brings a smile to everyone involved.
Favorite work of art or sculpture.
I’ve spent years as an artist, too. My first Best of Show was pen and ink, and watercolor. Later I moved through many mediums to high-fired ceramics. That leaves me to admire Nampeyo and Maria Martinez, along with so many others who have never been known.
I’ve been writing almost as long as I have been reading. When I was a very small girl I decided I wanted to be a writer. But I didn’t think I knew enough to be a writer. So I decided to live as broadly, deeply, and with as many experiences as I could manage. If I did that, I thought I might know enough to be a writer at about age 50. Life pulled me away from writing for periods of time. But, interestingly, age 50 is when I began to devote more time and intention to writing.
Do you plan out your book with outlines and notecards? Or just write?
I write my stories from within. Sometimes I know parts of it that may happen. Often I don’t. I begin and let the story unfold. Sometimes I know the middle of a story. Sometimes I know the end, and write backwards. It’s never the same. Once I woke from a night’s sleep hearing a woman tell me about her life. I woke and wrote what she told me. For days I waited for her to tell me the parts that she left out. I never heard from her again, so I did my best without her. That collaboration became the short story Memories and Mean Chickens.
Describe your perfect evening.
There are so many things that make an evening perfect. And there are so many options across place and time. Right now I think a perfect evening would be in front of a fire, beneath a sky full of stars, talking and laughing with my husband. He’s been gone from me for ten years, and I miss him greatly.
Sometimes I have no idea. A story enters my head, where there is a traffic jam of stories waiting to be committed to paper, electronic or otherwise, from places unknown. I suspect assorted noncorporeal writers spirit ideas into my mind so that their stories can be written. I’m also an observer of people, who make for great features in stories. And then there is Nature, where possibilities are endless. I also observe and feel the unseen realms, where there are ages and light years of possibilities. Remaining open to insights and defying limitations is the best way to understand how and when a story might want to be written.
What do you do when you get a writer's block?
As odd as it may sound, I don’t experience writers block. If the voices in my head don’t want to talk to me at the moment, they will soon. They may be off doing what they need to do. I’ll be here when they come back. It never takes long. There is always something jostling to come out. It’s always some story’s turn. Sometimes they come out in a jumble, pieces of several at a time. Sometimes a story captures me so completely that I live in it until it is done.
There are so many authors to appreciate, even if I’m not a fan of their work. The history and process by which an individual began to write is tremendously interesting and reveals so much about them. It isn’t necessarily the end result of their writing that I admire; it’s what took them into writing and kept them there. I like watching a writer evolve. Formula stories lose my attention. So I appreciate writers like Barbara Kingsolver, who is more of an explorer than most authors.
Best book you ever read.
Oh, my. This question seems almost cruel. So many books are “best” because of the time and place we find them. I’ve come across a string of “bests” because of what they meant to me when I read them. I do remember the first book I thought of as a “best.” When I was in the fourth grade I read David Copperfield. It took me into the rest of his work, and on to the classics. And then I felt betrayed because I had adopted the English spellings of words, which caused me to do poorly on school spelling tests. Neither my teacher nor my parents understood that not all English spelling is alike.
Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney.
What would you do for a living if you weren’t a writer?
I’ve already developed in many careers. I’ve been a trailblazer in many fields. I’m doing just as I want right now. But if the opportunity came, through something like a huge lottery jackpot win, I’d establish a charitable foundation and answer the call to do good with that money. I have a list of social and environmental issues in mind, as well as individuals who could compose the legally necessary board of directors.
Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?
That would be my husband. He wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t perfect. But we taught each other how it feels to be genuinely loved. That’s huge.
To select one person is difficult. I’d love to talk with so many people, from Hypatia of Alexandria to k.d. lang. But the one who would capture my heart the most would be my grandmother. She was a brilliant woman who outshined a husband who would not tolerate it. He and a willing physician applied a diagnosis that caused her to be institutionalized, and forced her into the M. K. Ultra Program. She was ostracized by the family, who believed that she was mentally ill, and made her irrelevant. She died without validation, and in poverty just as I reached adulthood. I never had a chance to really know her, or to support and defend her. She deserved better.
What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer?
The best advice I could give would be the same advice a writer gave to me as we sat next to each other on a flight across the Atlantic. If you want to be a writer, you must write. It doesn’t matter if you know where it will go, what will happen, or how the story will end. It doesn’t matter if you know where it will be published, or how long it will take for someone else to read it. Just write. Write without any other goal other than to write. The rest will come. Just write. When one piece is finished, write another. Just write.
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