Writing has been a lifelong passion of Rainbow Valley resident Kate McKenna.
As a professional in the business systems arena, McKenna found herself writing training manuals and "techy" papers, she said.
"I always knew, not so much that I would do books, but that I would write," she said, referring to her recently published first novel, Prairie Hamlet: Molly's Place.
The book is a type of writing that is different from her professional days, but a form of writing that suits McKenna well, she said.
Written at a fifth-grade reading level, the book is the first in a five-part series. It focuses on a Chicago rooming house owned by Molly Hartnett in the 1860s.
The story tells how Irish émigrés rooming at the house begin as strangers but unite as a family when challenges and obstacles cross their paths, McKenna said.
"One of the characters, Elbert Stone, he's been around for 20 years. I've been fooling around with his character off and on - never did anything with it," she said. "Now, he's a person and he's really developed here. Once you get your characters, they just take the damn thing away from you. You're sitting there, taking dictation and all of a sudden, it flows."
The writing process
Much like the characters in her book, McKenna found the writing process has a life of its own. She began writing Molly's Place on April 18, 2006. She retired from her professional career on March 5, 2006.
"I probably spent $2,000 on books about writing, only because I wanted to know I was doing the right things," she said. "I'm doing this thing and this book said do this. But, then that book says you can't do that. So, I turned to a writing group."
The writing group turned out to be less helpful than the how-to books, she said.
"The last night I was there, I came home and I was never going to pick up my computer or touch my mouse again to try to write," she said. "They defeated me. You should have come in armor. It was that awful.
"It wasn't so much critiquing of the writing; it was all they didn't know because they weren't readers. This is not a classic, but it was written in a classic style."
Pure gold
After five starts at finding where Molly's Place should begin, McKenna finished the 287-pager on Dec. 23, 2006.
She hired two copy editors to proof her work, which was written non-sequentially.
"About 75 percent of what she told me had nothing to do with this book. But the 25 percent that she hit on, it was pure gold," she said. "It was stuff I'd never seen. Never. She taught me about transitions. She taught me segues. Not that she intended to, it was her comments."
Soon, McKenna will embark on a nationwide book-signing tour. Before she does, though, she will be appearing at several West Valley locations to promote Molly's Place.
"I'm living my dream," she said. "How many people can say that?"
Her next appearance will be a book signing and reading at 10 a.m. Feb. 22 at the Buckeye Public Library, 310 N. Sixth St.
The book is published by demand and available at national online booksellers. More information is available at www.prairiehamlet.com.
Sara Bisker can be reached by e-mail at sbisker@westvalleyview.com.
