Day 142: Amy King

February 19, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Inspiration

“… what really inspires me is ideas.  Whether it’s some guy on the TV who wants to tell me how he built his factory that puts together coffee cans, I love watching people that work hard.  I love seeing that they put their idea — this dream for the coffee can — into a machine that makes coffee cans and now, you know, they sell coffee cans.  That, to me, as simple as that is, it’s really inspiring.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Amy, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we go into the questions, can you please introduce yourself?

Amy King: Hi, Toni.  Great to be here.  My name is Amy King.  I’m a novelist.  I write under the name A.S. King.  My first book came out in 2009.  It was called The Dust of 100 Dogs, and my next book is coming in October 2010, and you know, before I was a novelist, I pretty much did everything else from wiring houses to raising chickens.

Toni: From wiring houses to raising chickens.  I don’t think we’ll ever hear that again on the Project.

Amy: So true.

Toni: Well Amy, when you think about that word inspiration, who do you inspire and how do you do that?

Amy: I thought about these questions a lot and, you know, I think it’s because of my work.  You know, writing novels is a very solitary thing, so you tend to spend a lot of time by yourself.  So really, my life is limited to my work and my family.  So in my work, I like to try and inspire aspiring writers, because it’s a very hard journey to get published — and my fellow writers who have also inspired me, it’s a real reciprocal thing — but mostly through the work I try and inspire readers, because I think that that’s the job of a writer.

I mean, a lot times people will think that writers write to make money, and that’s a myth.  Well, I mean, a myth for most of us because most of us don’t make a lot of it.  But the reason I do it is to, you know, really get into people’s … my character’s hearts, we’ll say, so that I can inspire other people with the stories of, you know, people I made up in my head.   So with writing, I work on online forums and help other aspiring writers along with everything from the writing to the publishing and the ups and downs and just basic education.

And then in family … I have two daughters, so I like to think that I inspire them.  One’s a little too little to be inspired other than “Please be inspired to eat your lunch now,” but the other one is starting … I’m starting to see it with her.  I’m starting to see her brag about me, and that’s kind of nice in a weird way and then, at the same time I say “No, don’t brag about Mommy.”  But at the same time, I’m seeing her reach for bigger goals because she’s seen my daily reach for my goals.

When I discussed the Project with my husband he said “You have to tell them that you inspire me,” so I’m going to say that now.  But same thing – he’s watched me for around, let’s see, 17 years work toward this, and I think that that is an inspiring thing to watch someone chase something, like a crazy dream.

Toni: Well, that’s what I’m hearing.  There’s so many different things that have just come out alone and with who and how you inspire people from, you know, the aspiring writers to your fellow writers with this help and support that you provide, to your family so that they can see that you did … I mean, what a legacy to leave and to live in now that, you know, you followed a dream and you’re pursuing that.  But then I also love that you said that, you know, how you inspire others is through the stories of your characters and what’s in your head.  I think that’s an amazing thing as well and, you know, the stories of your characters, do they impact your family?

Amy: I would think that they do.  You know, it’s funny.  When you release a book, it’s a weird thing.  It’s very fast.  When it comes out, you don’t stop to think about the day that your mom is going to read the book.  I mean, when you’re writing books for 15 years you think “Oh God,” you know, “My mom, she’s going to read this sex scene” or whatever.

Now I write for young adults, so there’s not a lot of sex scenes, but one of the really … you know, it was really cool.  I never really talked to my folks about it, and soon after the book came out they came over for dinner and they said “You know, we have something to talk to you about.”  I just didn’t even think what they could say, and they said that they both read the book, they couldn’t put it down, and they really loved it.

I mean, that kind of family support is, you know, is really inspiring and then the characters did inspire them.  It inspired them to think.  You know, my daughter thought up all these crazy things.  Where did that come from?  I don’t know, it is – writing is one of those things where you do have a great responsibility and a great – I don’t want to say power because I’m not a real power person and you don’t want to be didactically right, you don’t want to, you know, preach but at the same time through a character – I mean, I’m a real humanist.

I really think that life is about other human beings so, you know, while people in the world tend to argue a lot … everybody’s arguing, everybody is right.  “You’re wrong and I’m right” and all this stuff, and I really don’t … I pulled away from that a long time ago.

And so with my characters, what I like to do is just show them, and I kind of hope that people who thought they were right about something might read it and go “Oh, well maybe I’m not right.  You know, maybe there’s another way.”  Just to inspire somebody to stop and think for me, because I think a lot of stuff these days is void of thinking.  A lot of people just listen to what they hear, repeat what they hear; and I’m guilty of it too, you know?  It’s easier.  But when you stop and really think about a thing and walk in somebody else’s shoes, to use an old saying, I think it really humbles you and kind of can inspire you to be a better person.

Toni: So what do you do then in the work that you do or even in your personal life, what do you do to help explore potential in others?

Amy: Well, that’s a good question.  You know, again, like a good writer, I wrote things down about this.  And when I wrote it down, I went through it a week ago, and then it occurred to me the other night where I really learned about how to inspire other people, and it has nothing to do with anything I’ve said so far.

I was an adult literacy teacher in Ireland for about a decade, and that was the best job I ever had.  I love writing novels, I love a lot of the jobs.  I loved delivering pizza, for that matter, but learning how to … you know, dealing with literacy students, adult literacy students who were sometimes twice my age.

In the education system, there are a lot of people in certain eras really missed out due to their financial background, due to the fact that they had to go and work on a farm so they left school.  But the literacy problems there were very … you know, for me they were very emotional, because I grew up in a nice American public school situation.  And we may put it down but, wow, when you see what’s missing from another system, you realize how wonderful you had it.

But when I worked with the students, that was an amazing experience.  I mean, to come in for literacy help usually takes, oh, from the looks of things, anywhere from 10 to 50 years.  And when someone asks for help and you give it, you know, they’re going to come up against hurdles.

A 50-year-old learning his ABCs is tough and, you know, learning phonics is tough.  But watching someone who is 50 who his whole life he was working in menial jobs and didn’t know how to read a word, learning how to read … it was, you know … yes I inspired them.

Really, I always thought that they inspired me more, to be honest, because it was amazing.  It really made me see how much I take for granted.  But a lot of times you’d hear “I can’t,” and every one of my students didn’t show up every night.  It’s a very hard road when you decide to get help.

So you know, people would say “I can’t” or “I tried that one way and I can’t.”  And I’m an annoyingly positive person, so I would say “Well, what about the 100 other ways that you could try and do that?”  And you know, that annoys my husband, it annoys my kids, it annoys everybody.  But I really do think that if one way doesn’t work, there are 10 other ways, so I always … that was a big … it was a way I learned how to inspire people, and it was a way I did inspire people.

And I know that since I’ve left Ireland, and since I’ve left those students, that the things I said to them still resonate with them, and that means a huge amount to me.

Toni: And so basically the way that you would help to explore the potential in others is the way that you allowed them — the people with the adult literacy work that you did in Ireland — was that you allowed them to stop and think as well and help them through that and that, you know … and by being very positive, you know, telling them that they can stay with it, and so that’s pretty amazing.

Amy: Most of those people, and I find a lot of people, and just … what I learned from those literacy students is that there they were, and they had a real … we can put a finger on that.  We can say “They can’t read” or “They can’t do math” or whatever their problem was, but then I go out into the real world where everybody, you know, most people can read and people have jobs and families, and it’s amazing how many people don’t really think they have potential.  It’s sad.

I mean, we all struggle with it at times but, you know, my number one thing is, well, of course you do.  I think we’re living in a very cynical world.  I don’t want to be negative about that, but it’s realistic.  I think cynicism is really seen as a very cool thing, but it knocks out your vision and it knocks out any idea that you can achieve something, and I think that’s horribly sad.

Toni: It is very sad.  It also quenches someone’s spark, which is very tragic.  Well let me ask you, when you think about inspiration, Amy, what do you need to be inspired?

Amy: When I was writing this down, my first answer was coffee, but no … you know, what do I need to be inspired?  Well, again, I think of everything with work and family, so work-wise I need things to be quiet; I’m a very quiet person.  I kind of need to be left alone.  I love nature.

And then I thought what really inspires my work and … music.  As strange as that is, art yes, but music will always spark, you know, and truly inspire me, and it’s never a particular kind.  Something can just show up and it’s, you know, the music.

Toni: Oh, I was going to ask you, you know, can you give us an example of what kind of music you like that inspires you?

Amy: Sure.  Well, let’s see.  I mean, each one of the last books I wrote had, you know, a soundtrack of just a new album that I heard, and I don’t usually listen to new stuff.  I kind of, sort of listen to old hippie music, but I’m always inspired by Jimi Hendrix, always.  I’m always inspired by Aretha Franklin.  Jeez, the last two, like I said, one was OK Go and one was Gnarls Barkley.  Both I found on ‘Saturday Night Live’ one night when I couldn’t sleep and I went “Wow, they’re good,” and I bought their album.  Next thing you know, I mean, little lines from their album started to inspire ideas inside the books.

So you know, now that I’m writing regularly, I’m finding that music is just huge.  I mean, the other day I went over to my old hometown, and I just happened to listen to “Eleanor Rigby” by Aretha Franklin for the first time in years, and I listened to it, I kid you not, probably 40 times.  And annoyingly … again I was alone, so thank goodness, but it just, you know, it really resonates and then it just creates an idea and that one idea moves to the next idea.

And that would be my other answer; what really inspires me is ideas.  Whether it’s some guy on the TV who wants to tell me how he built his factory that puts together coffee cans, I love watching people that work hard.  I love seeing that they put their idea — this dream for the coffee can — into a machine that makes coffee cans and now, you know, they sell coffee cans.

That to me, as simple as that is, it’s really inspiring.  I love hard work.  I love watching people succeed once they work hard.  I just think it’s something that again … you know, I’m not trying to put down the modern world, but I kind of wish I still lived in the Waltons, and in my head I do.

Toni: Well then what do you do to your own potential so that you can keep on writing, that you can still be inspired?  What do you do now that helps you to explore your own potential?

Amy: Well, you know, I think that the first thing that I need to even do what I do — or get up in the morning — is the loving family.  I really feel that my relationship, I’m about to hit 18 years married and, you know, it’s never easy; it’s hard work, but I feel that that is hugely important.  If there’s any conflict, I can’t work.  In my job, if there’s something in my head that’s not right, I can’t actually work, so that I need.

I have very young children, and I’m a better mother as I’m working with them, so I have to work and yet that inspires … you know, that pulls out my potential for life.  But life has to, you know, see the potential to work.  It’s sort of a funny balance.

Outside of that, I need to avoid negative people.  There’s a lot of negative people in my business.  My business can be very negative.  I mean, you can insult them publicly and call it a review.  It’s hard, you know?  So I just try and sort of steer away from all that stuff.

I volunteer locally.  That’s huge.  It makes … my business is very self-centered, so volunteering and meeting with the library board or whatever board I’m on or trying to paint the swimming pool, that helps get me out and makes me feel good because I’m volunteering again.  I think since I left literacy, I really needed to be able to help outside my house.

And I think one of the biggest things I need to explore my own potential is a sort of rebellious “Don’t tell me I can’t do something,” and in a way that’s right there.  In fact, do tell me.  Tell me I can’t do it, because then I will do it, and that’s how I got here.

I wrote seven novels over 15 years before I ever got a publishing deal, and when you work for no monetary gain, it becomes a love and it becomes a fire, you know?  And even though it’s not running an engine, you know, you still have to stoke the fire with this sort of weird defiance, and I still have to do that.

I mean, even though I’m working with Random House now, people say “Oh, you know, you’re good, you’re solid.”  That’s not true.  In this business, you can disappear anytime, but it’s that fire that sort of, it just … I have to keep feeding it with a sort of stubbornness, and that doesn’t sound like a positive thing, but it really is.

Toni: Well, it doesn’t sound as though … I might use a different word which is determination and tenacity.

Amy: Yes, thank you.

Toni: So really there has been – not always is there – but with your interview I’m just hearing there’s such synergy with what you do to inspire but also what you need and, you know, you are inspired by people who work hard and you love to watch people succeed.  And yet with the adult literacy that you did while you were in Ireland, it was one of the things that you said is that “Don’t tell me you can’t because you can.”  And yet that’s what you need for your own potential, which is “Don’t tell me I can’t, because I can”, and what you do for fellow writers to stay with it and succeed and work hard.  I can only imagine then how that translates into some of the characters that you write about that determination, tenacity, and also the fact that you just won’t give up.

I think that’s a brilliant message all through this interview, and for that, Amy, and for those who are listening who may not have that drive or determination that you do, they might listen to this and go “Wow, you know what?  I really can learn from her, and she did it and so can I.”  And so that’s very cool, and thank you for that.

Amy: Well, thanks.  You know, when I was writing … because again, I think better through my fingers than I do through my mouth half the time, but I kind of finished up when I thought about this a long time.  I’m very nice.  I’m always … I’m kind of nice to a fault.  My husband has been shaking his head at me for a long time, and my family would tell you I was the girl who would always pick the boys who needed saving, you know, that kind of thing.

But when people say “nice guys finish last,” I just don’t think it’s a race.  I think … it makes me very happy to … I don’t do this and share it and just try and bring the best out in everybody because … and I think that is my potential.  When I thought about it and I thought “Where is my potential, what is it?” and I think it lives inside that.

I think that being nice — as lame or simple as that might sound to some — I think being nice to yourself, to others, really, can allow you to do this, sort of have that determination.  And I think that’s what’s fed me all along as many times as I’ve had to defend it and said “Well, no, you know, I’m going to be this person’s friend even though.”  But it’s a matter of, you know, that’s who I am, and I’ve accepted that that’s who I am.  And it doesn’t mean I don’t get burned, but I always think of something to learn from that burning, we’ll say.

Toni: Well, I think that others will learn from it as well and that being nice is a great way to close the interview with you, because it’s just amazing.  Amy, thank you so much.  We will have a way … the link to your books, your website, at the bottom of the Project page so people can check you out and check out your work.  And thank you so very much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project today.

Amy: Thank you so much for having me.  I really love the Project, and I love the idea that you’re doing something so positive like this.  It’s excellent.

Toni: Well thanks, Amy.

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For more information about Amy King:  www.as-king.com, www.thedustof100dogs.com

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