Kim Davis   by   Daniel M. Jaffe    How much training, experience, persistence, and overall commitment must a writer possess in order to develop a literary career? Kim Davis, an author of various literary forms, shares her thoughts and experience.      Kim has been studying writing for years and achieving publication of short works while developing her artistry. “I had a couple of short stories in The Beacon Street Review, which is a small literary journal affiliated with Emerson College. Then my short story ‘Spice’ was among the prizewinners in Literal Latte’s Annual Fiction contest, and was published there. I was also able to place a poem in the Iowa Review, amazingly. That’s a really good journal and I was thrilled. I haven’t published anything in the past three years because I have been hard at work on two book-length projects—a first novel that grew out of ‘Spice,’ and a creative non-fiction book about dog training. However, I’m now back to writing stories and poems, and I’m presently circulating two short stories and two batches of poems to literary journals—so wish me luck!”  (After our interview, Kim learned that she has successfully placed three poems with Nimrod International, which will publish them this year. Another notch on her writer’s belt.) Kim’s first novel, Love Is A Little Life Threatening, has found an enthusiastic agent, a key step in the publication process. “I think it’s extremely difficult getting an agent these days,” explains Kim, “which I think is partly a reflection of the market. It is my understanding that there are really only a few thousand novels published each year in this country by the big presses, and that includes all the genre mystery, science fiction and romance stuff, so you can see that the market for literary novels really is very small. Agents won’t take something unless they really love it, which is basically a matter of personal taste. I approached approximately 40 agents before I found someone who really loved the novel. Love Is A Little Life Threatening is a light contemporary take on themes of high romanticism, and features a young librarian seeking love in the shadow of her father’s death. My hope is to appeal to smart young women who want to read something funny, intelligent and a little darker than what they’ve been offered by the so-called ‘Chick Lit’ market. I should note here that, based on my friends’ experiences, increasingly talented new writers seem to be breaking in through small and mid-sized presses. They allow direct submission, don’t require an agent, and are much more likely to take a flier on someone new.”      Kim wrote seriously and studied writing for years before entering the MFA Program at Emerson College in Boston. She found the pursuit of an MFA “very helpful to my development as a writer. I had a small child at home, and Emerson provided a way to get out of the house and escape to a community of other writers. I attended Emerson part-time, so I was able to make this support system last for four years which was just wonderful. My writing changed the most when I took Pam Painter’s class my first year. Pam is a real craft-wonk and an incredible writing coach. She made me more conscious of the options available to me as a writer. I think having an improved understanding of craft helped me finish my novel, which otherwise I might never have done. Emerson also gave me deadlines since my thesis was the first draft of my novel. I think most writers would agree: There’s nothing like a deadline.” Writing is Kim’s second career; previously, she worked as an attorney. “It was good to hold down a professional job for a time, because it taught me what it was like to put in a full day of work. It’s very hard to stay motivated when you work by yourself at home all day. On the other hand, legal writing was very bad for my literary writing style. I had to learn to stop using a lot of subordinate clauses and trying to tell the whole story instead of dramatizing.”      When Kim sits down to write, whom is she trying to please? "With my prose, I tend to proceed on the theory that, if it interests me, it will probably interest the reader,” she noted. “So I write what interests me. Sometimes, though, it’s hard to get the thing that you intended on the page. That’s where my writers group has proven very helpful over the years. If they are left scratching their heads saying, ‘I’m not sure what you were trying to do here,’ then I know I have to go back to the drawing board. My poetry is much more personal and tends to be about translating emotions to a physical level, through the senses and through imagery. I feel like I’m writing on my own body, and I never have any idea of what I’m communicating to the reader. When a poem reaches someone I’m never sure why. Poetry is still a complete mystery to me.” And how does the writing of fiction and non-fiction compare? “The process is very similar in many ways. With both art forms, you are dramatizing scenes and trying to provide some sort of narrative perspective on the story, however that comes out. The difference is that, with fiction writing, you are, at least in theory, making the whole story up. Of course we fiction writers all know that we carry far more from our real lives into our fiction than we care to admit, right? Still, the fact that you are fictionalizing gives you freedom to change and tailor real life events, to make things up whole cloth, and generally to invent. In a way non-fiction is easier because you are telling a true story and so you don't have to make everything up; this takes some of the pressure off you as a storyteller. On the other hand, the hard part of non-fiction writing, I am finding, is that you still have an obligation as the storyteller to shape the story in a way that maximizes its impact and interest for the reader. Often this means making yourself invent scenes that didn't really happen, or that happened in a slightly different way, or condensing a period of time.  I find that every time I depart from the exact truth this way, I have to fight off the ‘thought police’ in my head telling me, ‘Well, that's not really what happened, now is it?’ I have to remind myself that I am taking poetic license (I want one of those to frame on my wall someday), and that everything I'm saying is ‘true’ in the sense of the heart. I'm simply re-creating the circumstances that will make the reader feel what I felt at the time.  Still, I do think it's hard to tell the lie that tells the truth.  You always feel like you're going to get caught making something up.” (Note: Our interview took place before James Frey, Oprah Winfrey, and TheSmokingGun.com brought this issue to everyone’s attention. I found that Kim articulates the issues extremely well, and shows a certain prescience.) Finally, I asked Kim whether she sees any thematic continuity in her writing, even across genres. “There are two themes that seem to recur in my work,” she answered, “regardless of what I'm writing. The first is the notion that there are passions lurking inside civilized humans that often surprise them when they least expect it. My characters often think they are doing one thing but they are really doing another. In my novel, for example, my main character thinks she’s just going out on dates and looking for love, but she's really coming to terms with the loss of the first significant male figure in her life, her sainted father. The second theme I find recurring in my work is a notion of sublimity, that there is some larger encounter with reality that we all secretly fear and crave, a deep desire to find awe and connection in the world around us. I guess you could call this spirituality, but sometimes, with my characters, it seems more like their desires get projected upon the world, rather than them finding spirituality in the world, per se.”      Short stories, poems, novels, non-fiction. What are Kim’s long-term career objectives? “My goal at the moment is to publish one of these two book-length projects I have in the works. I would of course like to gain a readership for my work, but I recognize that this may be a very long-term goal. I’m proceeding on the philosophy that you have to stay in the game until something hits. The trouble is that each book takes two to five years to write, so even after you learn how to write well, which itself can take years, one has to recognize that becoming a writer can be a lifelong commitment.”             Indeed. And Kim Davis is just the person for the job. Dan is the author of The Limits of Pleasure. He regularly publishes short stories and personal essays in literary journals and newspapers, has compiled and edited an anthology, and translated a Russian-Israeli novel in addition to teaching fiction writing for UCLA Extension. Dan can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and his web site is: http://danieljaffe.tripod.com