What is the date you began writing this memoir and the date when you completed the memoir? I started in March 2020 and finished in June 2021. Updated the postscript in August 2021. I did not know I was writing a memoir when I began writing essays about the pandemic in NYC for The Village Sun, a local website.
I was writing to stay sane and process what was going on from my POV of living alone. I’m a very outgoing social person and my life had collapsed. So I kept churning out pandemic related essays throughout 2020 and getting great feedback from my editor and from readers.
By the time I got to December, 2020, I realized I was writing a memoir in essays. So I pitched Heliotrope Books, (small indie press), who published my debut memoir, Looking for a Kiss. The publisher liked the idea and I received contract for Behind the Mask. The book was due in June.
Where did you do most of your writing for this memoir? And please describe in detail. I wrote most of the book in my sunny loft in Westbeth Artists Housing in the West Village of Manhattan.
I also wrote some of it at the family beach bungalow at the Jersey Shore where I escaped from NYC during the summer of 2020.
What were your writing habits while writing this memoir- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day?
I’m an early riser. I write best in the morning. I have coffee, meditate, and then get to work. I write directly onto my computer, either my desktop or laptop. Then I print out and edit myself. After my own edits, I get more feedback.
I workshopped some chapters with my writing group (on Zoom) and/or I asked a colleague to look at the chapters. The writing workshop is run by author Susan Shapiro and Kate has been a member of Susan’s writing group for over 20 years. We met while both of us were teaching at NYU. Writing colleague in Florida, Erica Manfred helped with good edits. Then I rewrote and revised. I like quiet when writing
Right: Erica Manfred.
Web Logo Photos.
Out of all the specific memories you write about in this memoir, which ONE MEMORY was the most emotional for you to write about? And can you share that specific excerpt with us here. The excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer, and please provide page numbers as reference. I think I got the most emotional when writing a tribute to my favorite DJ Rita Houston who died of cancer in December 2020. Her Friday night radio show on WFUV, “The Whole Wide World”, helped me get through the pandemic, especially the lockdown. I was crushed to read that Rita had died. I tried to describe this loss and what her show meant to me and her many fans. Here is the link to the essay as it will appear in my book.
Can you describe the step-by-step process of writing about this ONE MEMORY? I listened to her last show carefully, took notes and then I just wrote from my heart. Later, I fact checked (from the station web site) the songs she played in her last show, (recorded shortly before she died). I was crying when I wrote this. I wanted it to be great because her show meant so much to me.
Kate Walter has over 30 years of diverse writing and editing experience. This includes articles for consumer and trade magazines, arts reviews, profiles, personal essays, opinion pieces, reports, newsletters and curriculums.
She writes about divorce and dating, religion and new age spirituality, urban gardening and neighborhood gentrification, and life in an artists’ housing project in downtown Manhattan.
Kate Walter has an MA in Media Studies from The New School. She taught writing at NYU and CUNY for three decades and now works as a writing coach.
Heliotrope Books published Kate’s memoir Looking For a Kiss: A Chronicle of Downtown Heartbreak and Healing in June, 2015.
