It’s not everyday we get to interview our heroes, but for this week’s KC Writes interview I was lucky enough to interview one of mine—Janet Sunderland. This multi-faceted woman came into my life seven years ago and has been a wealth of knowledge, inspiration, and fun from the first day we met. If you’re ever lucky enough to meet Janet in real life ask her about Mexico, acting with the greats—like William Peck, and how she became an ordained minister. Our conversation meandered throughout her writing life touching on:
- How keeping a diary under your pillow from the age of eight leads to a life-long writing career.
- How reading Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook helped propel Janet to the next stage of her writing career.
- What happens when you grow up in a house filled with books and poetry.
- I loved to hear that even she still feels like she’s “doing [writing] wrong,” and her solution for how to get back to doing it “right.”
- Why it’s important to learn to trust your body when it comes to your writing.
- What building a house and writing have in common.
- Why The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson gave her a new way to look at her work.
- What reading across genres has taught her about writing non-fiction.
- How she became the owner of “dwindle.”
- And finally I got to ask someone to define “literary” writing for me, because I’ll tell you that one’s had me stumped for a while.
Listen to the whole interview at: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/jessica-conoley/
Janet had a whole slew of KC Creatives to keep our eye on including writers: Annie Raab, Edwin Frownfelter, Jacquline Guidry, and our Kansas City film makers Patrick Rea, and the husband-wife team of Sandra L. Martin & Isaac Alonge.
Read more of Janet’s work at https://janetsunderland.com/ follow her on twitter @jesunderland