Virtual Memories Show 421:
Kate Maruyama
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“We’re all dealing with this, but I think we’re all processing what this new reality means, how it’s changing everything.”
Author, editor and activist Kate Maruyama rejoins the show to celebrate the publication of her wonderfully creepy new novella, Family Solstice (Omnium Gatherum). We get into why she wrote a haunted house story at a time when everyone’s stuck in their homes, how she pushed herself to finish the book during the early months of the pandemic, and how Family Solstice celebrates the great (and maybe a little haunted) home she grew up in. We get into what Kate’s mother, the late, great Kit Reed, might have made of This Whole Situation we’re in, the positives of holding a virtual book tour (including the launch in a virtual version of her childhood home), what her and her students’ pandemic-era fiction looks like, the joy of getting her first Asimov’s publication last year, and more! Give it a listen! And go read Family Solstice!
(And go listen to my 2019 conversation with Kate and our COVID Check-In podcast from May 2020)
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Kate Maruyama‘s first novel was Harrowgate. Her short works have appeared in Asimov’s, Controlled Burn, and Stoneboat; on Salon, Duende, Entropy, The Rumpus, and other journals; as well as in numerous anthologies, including Winter Horror Days and Halloween Carnival 3.
Kate edited Nicole Sconiers’s speculative short fiction collection, Escape from Beckyville: Tales of Race, Hair and Rage, has been a jury chair for the Bram Stoker Awards and was twice a juror for the Shirley Jackson Awards. She is on the Diverse Works Inclusion Committee for the HWA. She teaches at Antioch University Los Angeles in the BA program, as well as for inspiration2publication.com and Los Angeles Writing Classes. She writes, teaches, cooks, and eats in Los Angeles, where she lives with her family.
Follow Kate on Twitter and Instagram.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded remotely via Zencastr. I used a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone
