I’m excited to interview Kathie Giorgio today! Kathie is the author of seven novels, two story collections, an essay collection, and four poetry collections. Her latest novel, Hope Always Rises, was released on February 28, 2023.

She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize in fiction and poetry and awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, the Silver Pen Award for Literary Excellence, the Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence, and the Eric Hoffer Award In Fiction. Her poem “Light” won runner-up in the 2021 Rosebud Magazine Poetry Prize.

In a recent column, Jim Higgins, the books editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, listed Giorgio as one of the top 21 Wisconsin writers of the 21st century. Kathie is also the director and founder of AllWriters’ Workplace & Workshop LLC, an international creative writing studio.

MC: Welcome Kathie! Hope Always Rises is such a beautiful story. As I was reading, I kept thinking what a perfect title you chose. What is your process for choosing titles? Do you usually know them ahead of time or not until the book is finished?

Kathie: I rarely have the same title for a piece, whether it’s a short story or a novel, at the beginning. Often, it’s just got a placeholder, something unimaginative like Untitled. My first novel, The Home For Wayward Clocks, is the only book I’ve written that I had the title all the way through. My second book, a short story collection called Enlarged Hearts, was originally called Morbid Obesity. What a horrible title!

Often, a title will come to me within the book itself. With Hope Always Rises, I originally just called it Hope. But there’s a scene in the book, where Hope remembers interacting with one of her high school art teachers. The teacher notices Hope’s artwork, which she says is darker than most, but so beautifully done. She asks Hope if she’s okay. Hope admits that she gets sad a lot. The teacher says, “I want you to remember something. Always paint. It helps. Whether you end up with a show in the Guggenheim or only in your living room, always paint. It’s you. It’s who you are. And it’s what makes you, or will make you, okay. And remember this too. Your name. Hope. Hope always rises.” I remember very clearly sitting back and thinking, There it is. That’s who this book is.

So my titles usually show up somewhere within the writing.

MC: I loved the names you chose for the characters in Heaven: Faith, Joy (Joyce), Joe (because he works at the coffee shop). Even Hope’s name seems to have so much meaning when thinking about the overall story. Do you spend a lot of time researching names before you start writing? How do you normally choose character names?

Kathie: I’m not sure why it is, but my main characters usually show up for me with their names intact. Hope was no exception. But the secondary characters usually take me a while. I was lucky with Hope because two of the other main characters are God and Virginia Woolf. I couldn’t change those names!

Faith came along and I liked that God thought Faith and Hope would get along because of their names. I nearly called Joyce Joy, but then like in the book, my reaction was, “Oh, come on.” And so that became a joke. Joe was a placeholder, so that I would remember the coffee guy’s name. But then it stuck.

A challenge for me in Hope was the naming of Sarah, the star of the chapter called “The Fat Girl Takes The Long Way”. This is an insider thing for my regular readers, so you’re being let in on a secret! “The Fat Girl Takes The Long Way” originally appeared in my collection, Enlarged Hearts. That is a linked collection, where all the stories feature a woman who is either working in, has worked in, or wants to work in a large woman’s clothing boutique called Large & Luscious. But all of the main characters in the stories are only called The Fat Girl. No names. In Hope Always Rises, I brought that story back, and Heaven gave her back her real name and her identity…and I had to come up with it. I think I tried on about 20 before I hit on Sarah. And that was perfect. It’s a lovely and gentle name, lyrical, and so befitting of this amazing character.

MC: You’ve been fairly consistent, publishing at least one book per year, sometimes more. Do you have any tips for developing a consistent writing practice?

Kathie: Time is always of the essence when it comes to writing. Finding time is a challenge. I always tell my students and clients to throw away the concept that writing has to be done in long chunks of sitting down. That’s just not reality. We grab time where we can.

The first thing to do is sit down and take a long hard look at your schedule. For me, I’m an afternoon writer. I meet with clients in the morning, which gets me jazzed because I’m talking and talking about writing. Then I take that jazziness and sit down to work. I’m usually at my desk from about 1:00 to 4:00. I start in again with evening clients and classes, and finish my day with reading student manuscripts. I don’t write on the weekends.

The second thing is to try to come up with a place that is all your own. I learned early on how distracting it can be to write at the kitchen or dining room tables. Too many distractions! Especially that couch in the living room which is in view and just begging for me to take a nap on it. So wherever I live, I have my own spot, usually with four walls and a door, that is all mine. Even when I go on retreat, the first thing I do is set up a writing space. Nothing else happens there, but writing.

And finally, develop a ritual. I know some writers who have talismans on their desks, and they pat each of them before they start. Others have to play a game of solitaire first. Or they meditate. For me, with books, I assign each book a song. Every day as I sit down to write, I play that song. And just like Pavlov’s dogs who drooled at the sound of a bell, I get transported immediately back into the world I’m writing about. For Hope Always Rises, I listened to Lady Gaga’s song, “Shallow”.

MC: I love that talking about writing and working with your clients gets you excited to write. Could you tell me more about how you help other writers?

Kathie: I've been teaching writers for 28 years. I began when a local Park & Rec department contacted me, to see if I would step in to their creative writing classes when their current teacher took off for Ireland. My first thought was, They teach creative writing at a Park & Rec? And my next was, I don't wanna teach. But I tried it, found I loved it, and by the end of the year, when word got out that I was now teaching, I was at it 65 hours a week in community and continuing education in Wisconsin and Illinois and online.

In 2005, I incorporated and formed my own small business, AllWriters' Workplace & Workshop LLC. I wanted to create not just place of education, but of community. I chose the name deliberately, as I wanted all writers to be welcome, no matter what they wrote, no matter their age, no matter their level of experience. I pictured writers with a dozen books out workshopping alongside writers putting down their first words. I especially wanted to make sure that the criticism part of critique was not only earned, but also not the only thing. Students here were to leave knowing what they needed to improve on, but also what they were doing right.

18 years later, and that community is international and it's thriving. My youngest student is 13; the oldest is in her eighties. They write in all genres, and often, they rub off on each other. People who come in wanting to write fiction will suddenly burst out into poetry after hearing the poets in their workshop. It's an amazing process to see.

And for me, there are incredible benefits. First off, I honestly feel that to teach writing, I have to be writing. I used to take courses in writing, only to find out that the teacher hadn't been published in over ten years. At AllWriters', where I have a faculty teaching alongside me, anyone who teaches has to be published within the last two years. I also make sure they are teaching what they write - fiction writers teach fiction, poets teach poetry, memoirists teach memoir, and so on. Writers here learn from those who are doing exactly what they want to accomplish. So being the leader here keeps me motivated for my own writing. I wouldn't feel qualified to teach writers if I wasn't a writer myself in every sense of that word.

The students also keep me fired up. I am constantly surrounded by new ideas and new ways of using the language. I'm often exhausted after teaching, it's a big expenditure of energy, but I also can't wait to get to the computer and do my own.

Watching my students become successful is the biggest high ever. When they place their books in my hands, it's like holding a grandchild.

My enthusiasm for writing is just boundless. I am fully immersed in the writing life. If I'm not writing, I'm editing. If I'm not editing, I'm teaching. And if I'm not teaching, I'm advocating. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Thank you for joining me today, Kathie, and congratulations on the release of Hope Always Rises!

Enjoy the following excerpt from Hope Always Rises.

I never knew God slept. I certainly never expected him to wear pajamas or have rumpled hair. But if he looked like the God I always imagined, the God with long white hair and a beard and a mustache and a serious, serious face, I never would have been able to rest my head on his shoulder, like I was able to do now.

I was very glad he wore blue flannel pajamas.

“You knew you couldn’t expect them to be happy, right, Hope? You knew that,” he said, and wrapped his arm around me. “It was part of your choice to end your life.”

I turned my face into his chest and wept.

It had been my choice. I didn’t expect them to be happy.

But I never thought I would witness their sadness.

For the first time, I regretted Heaven. I wished for the black void that I thought death might be, that day that I swallowed each pill with a gulp of wine.

“It’ll be okay, Hope,” God said. Not a booming voice from a burning bush or a dark cloud. A soft voice that soothed me as I cried.

More About Hope Always Rises

In Heaven, there is a gated community for those who end their lives by choice. This is a complete surprise to Hope, who ends her life one morning on the banks of the Fox River in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Hope has always dealt with deep sadness. From childhood on, she visited therapists, doctors, alternative medicine practitioners, Reiki artists, etc., to no avail. In Heaven, God reassures her that he knows what caused the sadness, but he won’t reveal it yet.

All community residents are required to attend weekly group therapy. Hope’s first group is led by Virginia Woolf. Several of the book’s chapters tell the stories of other members of this group.

Filled with many moments of striking humor, uplifting realizations, and difficult challenges, Hope finds her way in Heaven. She meets many people like herself, who help her restore her forgotten artistic talent and passion, and God himself, who is amazingly human in the most inhuman of ways. Hope finds understanding and forgiveness, and most importantly, friends.

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

ISBN-10: 1685132421

ISBN-13: 978-1685132422

ASIN: B0BV36PQKL

Print length: 342 pages

"Hope Always Rises is a beautiful, heartfelt, and surprisingly funny take on the normally uncomfortable topic of suicide. Kathie Giorgio manages to balance Hope’s newfound peace and the harsh reality of the pain she left behind, so that the reader is happy to be pulled into the ups and downs with her.
– Nora Murray, author of Kingdom Come

Purchase your copy of Hope Always Rises by visiting Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Bookshop.org. Make sure you also add Hope Always Rises to your Goodreads reading list.

Follow along with the Hope Always Rises blog tour below:

April 24th @ The Muffin

Join us as we celebrate the blog tour launch of Hope Always Rises by Kathie Giorgio. You'll have the chance to read an interview with the author and win a copy of the book.

https://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com

April 26th @ Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews

Stop by to read Lisa's interview with Kathie Giorgio.

https://lisahaselton.com/blog/

April 27th @ A Storybook World

Join Deirdra as she features Hope Always Rises.

https://www.astorybookworld.com/

April 29th @ The Faerie Review

Join Lily as she shares a spotlight of Hope Always Rises.

https://www.thefaeriereview.com

April 30th @ Madeline Sharples' Blog

Stop by Madeline's blog to read a guest post from Kathie about selling 14 books to traditional presses in 13 years.