Rosemary Graham
Interviewed by Ralph Spinelli

Rosemary Graham is the proud owner of a Ph.D. in American Literature from University of Virginia. She has published several scholarly articles on Walt Whitman. Rosemary has also published personal essays in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Santa Monica Review, and Working Mother. Rosemary's novel My Not So Terrible Time at the Hippie Hotel was published by Viking in 2003. In 2005, Viking also published the novel Thou Shalt Not Dump the Skater Dude by Rosemary. Along with being a mother, wife, and writer, Rosemary is a professor of English and Creative Writing at Saint Mary's College of California.

RS: Let me start with, how do you balance being a wife, a mother, an educator, and an author?

RG: The short answer is—badly. I sometimes think I'm a bad mother, a bad wife, and a bad teacher, but that's not quite true. I never try being all four things at a time. Certainly there are days when I'm a wife and mother at the same time. When I'm with my daughter or with my family—then I'm with my family; then I'm not writing. I try, pretty successfully, when I'm writing, to have that be all I'm doing. That means, turning off my e-mail and not doing any business; not being an employee at St. Mary's or doing anything else but writing. I don't try to write on days that I'm teaching. I do it by compartmentalizing.

RS: How did you develop that discipline?

RG: I didn't start focusing on my fiction and personal essays until after the birth of my daughter. I had twelve hours a week. My daughter was seven months old and I had a baby sitter for twelve hours a week. I wasn't going to waste the time I was paying for. Knowing I had that much time helped me to develop that compartmentalizing.

RS: Twelve hours a week sounds more realistic to someone like me, that sounds more manageable than four hours a day or something like that.

RG: I think it's a matter of being regular; it doesn't have to be first thing in the morning or last thing at night. It has to be in the rhythm of your day. It has to be the only thing you're doing. If I cheat and check my e-mail when I'm writing, then my day is shot. Because then my brain is out there in the world and not exclusively in the world that I'm creating.

RS: I think entering the Young Adult market to be a bit risky for someone with your talent.

RG: Why—because it's not real writing?

RS: No! No! I think you have the talent and ability to write prose with a lot more intensity than the YA market would demand—and—and the YA market may not be as big, commercially, as your talent could demand.

RG: I think there are two misconceptions. There may be trash in YA as there is trash in adult. There is some well drafted, literary—though I don't like to use that word—prose in Young Adult. This is where I'm writing now, but I don't know this is where I'm going to stay. Many people do write in both. There was a time, if you wanted to be a serious actor you didn't go into television, and now that's totally changed.

RS: Now they're doing commercials.

RG: Yes. There's a lot of good writing in television now, there's good material in television. It doesn't ruin your career. Today there is no respect lost. If I wrote an adult novel, having published YA wouldn't keep it from getting looked at by adult publishers.

RS: Do you intend to go in that direction? Do you have any thoughts about that now?

RG: Right now I'm writing Young Adult. I'm going to continue developing what I've started, until I come to the time I just get tired of writing about teenagers and want to write about adults. But adolescence has a strong pull for me.

RS: This is probably a good time to bring up the subject of your lovely daughter. She is approaching her teen years (she is seven years old) and I'm wondering if, when she reaches those years, that will influence what or how you write. I recall hearing you, once before, discuss your daughter's influence on your work; your comment was that sometimes she will strike a pose and that will cause me to write something. I suspect, being a parent myself, there is more influence than that.

RG: Certainly when there are younger children—younger siblings—in my books, she is very often the model. If my teen characters are recounting memories, then I might steal something from my daughter's life.

RS: Do you see yourself, sometime in the near future, writing exclusively and no longer teaching?

RG: I've thought about that and I think if I won the lottery, literally, or won the lottery figuratively, by having a best seller, I don't think I would quit teaching altogether. I might cut back on teaching and write more. I think only writing is too isolating, for me, I'd want to continue teaching. But I don't buy lottery tickets and I don't dream of best sellerdom.

RS: Do you get more influence for your writing from other aspects of your life than teaching provides for you? If you were not teaching would you spend more time traveling, backpacking, learning Russian or something that would contribute to your writing?

RG: No. I'd probably stay home and read.

RS: When that question came to me, I felt the obvious answer was you didn't earn your Ph.D. so you could write. You earned it to teach. We both know you don't need a Ph.D. to write.

RG: But—But, the Ph.D. most certainly helps my writing. My understanding of the genre and analysis of prose comes from my degree. That understanding came from reading as many books as I read in graduate school—and studying the books. I didn't know it at the time, but my literary education very much helped develop me as a writer. But you're right, you don't need a Ph.D. to write.

RS: Is there another book in the works now?

RG: Yes. I've started three books in the last year. I have put aside two, and I'm hoping that I've found the material that will be my third book.

RS: Are there any of the same characters?

RG: No, none of the same characters and a different style of writing. This book is a little darker. I'm not sure it's a book yet; I hope it's a book.

RS: Is there anything you have wanted to write—a message to send? I pick up some feminist messages in Hippie Hotel and wonder if you are headed in that direction with your work.

RG: I don't do that consciously. I'm not sure that the dilemmas my characters face are things that just happen to girls. Girls are more prone to put their own lives on hold while they pursue a guy. Hippie Hotel is more generically about confidence and letting go of ideas of people and yourself.

RS: I agree with that, but it struck me as being gender specific.

RG: Certainly the story is—and the way her insecurities play out, she has food issues and giving up on her piano playing. A boy might give up on himself in other ways. But, I hope the book is of interest to both boys and girls.

RS: Aspiring writers everywhere want to know about agents, editors, publishers and the process of getting published.

RG: I believe that thinking about the business of it before your work is ready can be a distraction and one more thing to keep you from getting your work done. So above all else, make sure the writing is ready, which means, especially for a first book, the whole book be written. With memoir, it's best to have that too. Never show your work to anyone you'd like to have a professional relationship with before it is ready. It is important to find the right agent, one that loves your work. Don't send a thing to an agent if you don't know who that agent represents. Send your work to agents that represent work similar to yours.

RS: How critical is having an agent?

RG: It is virtually impossible to get published (commercially) without an agent. You might go to a conference and meet an editor who asks to see your work, but that's unlikely to happen.

RS: I've always been a little foggy on the function of an editor.

RG: Your agent will send your work to an editor. The editor is acquiring work for the publisher and editing. When that editor buys your book, she will then edit your book. The editor will prepare your book for publication and champion your book in house, to the sales force.