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I am a psychiatrist and Associate Professor of Psychiatry on the faculty of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque. For the past seven years I have been the medical director of the Continuing Care Clinic at the UNM Psychiatric Center. My jobs include administration, teaching and patient care. As of this summer, I am also a published novelist. My book, which was published on three continents, is called A JOURNEY, A RECKONING AND A MIRACLE.

Thank you Kathryn for taking the time to answer some questions for us!  To start, please tell us about the latest project you've worked on. 

My novel A Journey, a Reckoning, and a Miracle is a direct result of the 2004 election.

There are three strands in A JOURNEY, woven together in each chapter: Lucy, an evangelical Rapture-believing teen, decides to spend the summer of 2009 visiting places where people have died unnecessarily as the result of violence, such as Waco and Columbine. As she makes her pilgrimage, the reader is introduced to a slew of characters who will help to influence the insights she gains traveling through the country at turns on foot, on bicycle, by canoe, on a Swift boat, in the sidecar of a Lesbian friend's motorcycle, in a broken down car with some nuns, and on a horse belonging to Native Americans.

Judith, a young black soldier who leaves Iraq blind and limbless, remains well loved, by both her boyfriend—whom she met in Iraq before the explosion—and her family, particularly her voodoo-practicing grandma. As she recovers in rehab, she realizes that in spite of all that has happened to her, she is still funny, and her goal, over the summer of 2009, is to become a stand-up (well, she can't really stand up) comedian and to get people to laugh (and cry) about the war in Iraq and thereby begin the healing process.

With his term over, a fictional George Bush plans to relax and have fun and do some fundraising. But his plans go awry when he begins to have nightmares in which he is visited by a host of ghost-types, including zombies, Mother Nature, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Alice from "Alice's Restaurant," Machiavelli, and several others. All of these entities begin the long hard task of making him understand the magnitude of the atrocities that he committed as president.

A JOURNEY illuminates books, songs, poems, events and persons that have  become meaningful to our culture. Parts are, I hope and I am told, very funny and entertaining, but it is also the kind of book that makes the reader uncomfortable in places (for instance, one of the groups of people that Lucy meets in a campground consists of Iraq War vets who are planning to commit collective suicide either because they can't deal with what they did in Iraq or they can't deal with the mental and/or physical disabilities they’ve had to endure since). Ultimately, it is a book about healing.

You can read more about it at my website at www.jrmstory.com.

Have you received any awards for your work?

Not yet. The book officially released on July 31, 2009. However, I’ve received some very gratifying reviews.

Do you also do speaking engagements, or seminars?

Yes, as a psychiatrist I do speaking engagements regularly. I also have a one day workshop I am developing called "Creative Responses to Distress and Despair: Inspiration for Your Creative Work.” The first one will be held at the Crossings Retreat in Austin, TX on Fri Oct 30, 2009. (See www.thecrossingsaustin.com for more info.)

How has your education, profession or background helped you in your writing career? Or conversely, how has you writing success helped you in your  profession?

As a psychiatrist I do a lot of writing as part of my job. I work at a medical school and do patient care (outpatient and the psychiatric emergency room), teaching and administration, so I interact with people from all sorts of backgrounds, which provides me with many seeds for stories. Even if I didn't do this sort of work, however, I think all my daily interactions with people and listening to and reading stories from the media would inspire my writing.

I’m not yet sure how my writing will help me in my profession. I am just now letting my co-workers know about my novel.

What kind of other works (books, scripts, poems etc.) have you had published?        

Previously I’ve published an article in a medical journal, contributed to a book chapter on ethics in HMOs, written a case report on a remarkable patient (with his permission), and published a small piece on suicide prevention in one of our local newspapers.

Is there any aspect to your profession that gets you in touch with your readers directly?

I think people are curious about psychiatrists and perhaps when they read my bio and the description of the book, they will want to read the book to find out what a psychiatrist thinks about. I am trying, however, to keep the psychiatrist in me separate from the novelist. I do have a psychologist and a couple of psychiatrists (one of whom plays a crucial role in the development of one of the characters) in the book. But I can’t imagine that I would ever write a book in which a psychiatrist was the main protagonist.

My next novel, however, will include a female ob/gyn as one of the main characters.

What will your next project be?

My next novel will be a to a project I started in 2001. The book includes two stories: The first one is set in 2001 in Albuquerque and is about a 44-year-old twice divorced Catholic ob/gyn who is struggling to remain sober as she deals with spiritual issues - everything she has done is denounced by Catholicism but she wants to remain Catholic—and whether to try to have her first child after many years of delivering other women’s babies.

The second thread is set in 1901 and the main character is inspired by one of my great grandmothers. In reality this great grandmother died of alcoholism in her 40's in England, but in my story she escapes west in steerage on a ship to America and has all sorts of adventures before she ends up in New Mexico. The novel explores the use of DNA science and the contrast between women's lives today and how they were a hundred years ago. The two stories connect by the end. The underlying theme of this book is what it means to find a home.

Who inspires you on a personal or business level?

Frequently my patients inspire me as many of them have very few resources but manage to do wonderful things with their lives, often after great struggles. I am lucky to be a witness to their successes. Living people who inspire me include Nelson Mandela, Susan Doyle (from “Britain’s Got Talent”),  Michelle and Barak Obama, Bill Moyers, and Chris Hedges. In my personal world, I am inspired by the minister at my church, my co-workers and my husband.

What type of work is the most rewarding or satisfying for you?

I am greatly rewarded by those "ah hah" moments that occur sometimes in conversations with patients (and others) where we’ve made a deep connection and something has been revealed which could lead to something new. This can happen in writing too, and I hope all my readers will have some ah hah moments as they read my book.

What can you recommend for writers who are just getting started and are trying to make a name for themselves?

If you feel passionate about something, then go for it, create it, and hopefully others will notice. It does seem helpful to have a website and keep it updated and work with publicity people who know where to send your work so that it gets visibility. As I have a career and identity apart from being a writer, I feel as though I have a secure base from which I can explore the possibilities of working in writing. I think it is probably more difficult to decide to be a writer and not have another career to fall back on—unless one has a trust fund. I also think there is a value in working in various fields to give one material to write about. I don’t think I would have had much to say in my early 20s, though others may.

How did you get started as a writer?

I have always loved books. Every week my mother would take the five of us to the Green Hills Library in Nashville, TN, where I grew up. I'd get the maximum number of books (ten) and have them all read by the end of the day. My love for reading, particularly fiction, continued throughout my life, but it wasn't until I got divorced in 1992 that I wrote my first creative work, a story based on a first trip to New Orleans. The other unpublished works were done in response to wanting to find a home and to deal with my feelings over the death (from cancer) of a best friend's husband (and deaths of other loved ones). My current novel was inspired by my deep disappointment over the Iraq War and the 2004 election. I write creatively to deal with feelings.

Which is your favorite book/work published? Is there a favorite?

If I think back to books I've read several times over many years they would include Dorothy Bryant’s THE KIN OF ATA ARE WAITING FOR YOU and Leslie Marmon Silko's CEREMONY. The book I open the most (although I haven't read it cover to cover) is actually the Universalist Unitarian hymnal, SINGING THE LIVING TRADITION. I love singing in church (just as a congregant, not in the choir), and this hymnal has many beautiful hymns.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

I wake early and usually write in the wee hours of the morning. Around 6:00 a.m. I have to start getting ready for work and getting the kids (ages 10 and 12) to school or camp. I work part time (20- 25 hours/wk) at my job as a psychiatrist. I also make time for errands and exercise when I can before picking up my kids for their after-school activities. I’m usually asleep by 9:00 p.m. 

Have you ever had a mentor, or someone who sparked your passion for writing?

The authors of books I’ve read and enjoyed feel like mentors to me. I also was inspired by a friend who started writing in mid life (as I did) and finished a work and got it out into the world. It’s one thing to write, and I think many people do& that, but it’s good to finish something and follow it through to publication. I attended the 2003 one-week UNM Health Professionals Writing Workshop lead by Julie Reichert and David Morse. That was the first writing class I'd attended since college, and they were so nice and encouraging. I kept in touch with Julie and she introduced me to Joan Schweighardt, a writer, editor and former publisher, and she helped me edit my book. She liked it well enough to agent it and found a publisher in only two months. She was extremely encouraging. I’m not sure I would have gotten my book published without her help. So thank you Joan and Julie!

Who is your favorite writer/author?

I like so many, I couldn't give just one.

Finally, a most important question: what was the last song you sang out loud when you were by yourself?  

I do sing in the car to songs that come up on radio but can't recall the last one. However, the last song I sang in church last Sunday was WAKE NOW THY SENSES, which is a song that also plays an important part in my novel. I used it in the novel with the permission from the lyricist, Thomas Mikelson. Beautiful song and melody.

Thank you Kathryn! We wish you great success with your current and future novels!