Featured Interview With Kathleen Gamble
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born in Burma, now called Myanmar. By the time I was 18 I had lived in Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria, Switzerland and the US. When I was 13 I went to boarding school in Texas and later I was in boarding school in Switzerland. As an adult I continued to travel and ended up living in Moscow, Russia for 9 years during the 1990’s. It was a very interesting time to be there. After Russia I came to Washington DC to find work and I have been here ever since.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
Growing up we rarely had a TV and even if we did, there was usually not much on. If we got really desperate in Lagos, Nigeria, we could pick up old The Fugitive re-runs. It hardly seemed worth it. So we played cards, talked and read. We read a lot. As a teenager I would get so involved in the book I was reading I would often stay up very late to “just finish one more chapter”. I started writing poetry in high school and short stories. Then in college I had a creative writing teacher who suggested we keep a journal. I have kept journals off and on ever since. My book, Expat Alien, is a product of those journals.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I like to read non-fiction and historical fiction. I read all of James Clavell’s books about Japan. I also like mysteries and detective stories. And I find Gertrude Stein very entertaining. I think she had a fascinating life. Lately I have been reading memoirs, many expat memoirs, and spy novels. I want to write a novel but I want it to have a spy in it so I have started reading spy novels for research. I just read one by Charles Cumming called The Spanish Game which I liked. I find that if a book holds my interest and is well written, I can whiz through it in a couple of days. Sadly, over the past decade I have started many books that I could not finish. Other favorites are LeCarre, JD Salinger, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Agatha Christie, Daphne du Maurier, Tolkien, and T. C. Boyle.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My book, Expat Alien, is a memoir. It takes the reader through the ups and downs of growing up without roots. We moved often and traveled constantly. I was always saying goodbye to one group of friends and re-inventing myself in a new environment. When I went to college in California I suffered severe “revers” culture shock. I had no knowledge of popular culture and my fellow students could not relate to me or my background. I looked like them, I talked like them, but I was nothing like them. I overcame it and adjusted and that is really what my story is about. Constantly adjusting and having the resilience to do so. Later I married a Russian American and went to live in Moscow. I watched it go from a Soviet state with no color to a vibrant Cosmo city. But life was a challenge there as well.
Writing a book is a gargantuan task. It is one of the scariest things in the world. Not only is there the fear of failure – “even if I do finish it, will anybody want to read it?”…. but, there is also the fear of losing a part of yourself. Every writer must give a piece of themselves, a part of their soul.
Will it be enough? Is it noteworthy? Why is it necessary? Somebody I know once told me it is a form of immortality. All humans strive for immortality and writing is the way to achieve it. Maybe. But is that why we do it? Really?
The only thing I ever really wanted to do was to write a book. But I thought I would never be able to do it. I was not a good writer. I didn’t have any writing training. I was sure to fail. And yet, I started writing a journal just for myself. I kept all my stories in my journal. I rewrote them. I expanded on them. I wrote them again. I read more books. And then I decided, I would write my book.
Eighteen years ago I wrote my first draft. Ha! I read an article recently on how the more revisions you have the more you are apt to succeed. I think I must have the most revisions ever. This book and I have grown up together. I have made peace with many things. I have cried over many things. I have been touched by many things. I have learned many things. And I have let go of many things. It has grown and shrunk. And I could probably go on revising it for many years to come. But I will not. It is done.
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