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An Interview with Marilyn Whitehorse

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In the topside world, Marilyn Whitehorse teaches academic writing at a community college in Honolulu, Hawaii. In the river that flows beneath, she is a writer, collage artist, and photographer.



Tell us the story of your book title. Was it easy to find or did it take forever?

I knew I wasn’t satisfied with the working title, but the right idea hadn’t come to me yet. I do some of my best thinking in water: in the pool, lake, ocean, or even the shower—seemingly the absence of pen and paper gives me the space to let ideas float in and out. The day that the title presented itself I hadn’t even been specifically thinking of “title.” Rather, it was as if the title swam up and met me while I was swimming at Ala Moana Beach, acting somewhat like the green sea turtles do. It had simply surfaced in front of me, and I was no longer “In a Pickle” about the title.

How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?

When the idea for the title finally came, I knew I wanted to incorporate a pickle jar full of money. The idea was so prominent in the book that I was compelled to include it. I had a $100 bill stashed away in a drawer, so I took it out, scanned it, and then copied it on my printer many times. I opened the refrigerator and ate the last pickle in the jar. I played around with the idea after I arranged the copied bills in the pickle jar in different incarnations and took several photos. I sent the idea and my photos to Ronaldo Alves, who had designed the cover for The Church of Unrealized Fantasies. I was on a vacation at my friend’s house near Lake Chelan, WA, when Ronaldo sent me several cover designs he’d worked up. Something just wasn’t quite right, and I fussed a bit until my friend Ron, a painter and graphic designer, looked at the cover. I told him I wanted a pickle jar full of money and he came up with the idea of the placement of the pickle jar at the bottom of the cover. Between the two graphic designers, the cover was born.

Who/ What made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/ works/ art forms that influenced you?

I’ve written since I was old enough to hold a piece of chalk. I was a precocious little girl and would get up early to be with my father while he ate breakfast. He taught me the alphabet from the shredded wheat box, and how to write letters on my chalkboard. I wanted to learn how to print but also how to write cursive because both my parents had beautiful handwriting. My mother gave me a Schaeffer fountain pen, a bottle of ink, and all the paper I wanted. The first stories I remember writing were about my grandmother’s chickens.

I learned to read years before I went to school and have read voraciously ever since. Kurt Vonnegut is a favorite, but really I can learn from any author. I read fiction, non-fiction, biography, history, politics, philosophy, anthropology, archeology, mythology, psychology… “Curious” could be my middle name. My undergraduate degree is in English because a professor grabbed me after class and took me to meet the English department chairman, thus introducing me to who I was. My graduate degree is in Linguistics, where I had the opportunity to delve into language deeper, and I’ve studied mythology extensively to learn stories from many cultures.

What makes me want to write? I’m a writer. It’s what I do—it’s what I’ve always done. There are several ways to look at it: nature and nurture. Astrologically, it’s my Gemini rising sign and I’m happiest following my star. Creative writing classes along the way—some helpful, some not…

Years later, I took a screenwriting class from Danny Simon. It was in that class—at one precise moment—when he opened the door about characterization for me and the whole thing started to make sense. That was it! It has forever changed the way I observe life, about writing stories, and how I’ve carried on…

I always feel better when I’ve written, so most days it’s the first thing I do while I sip my morning coffee. A couple hours of writing makes the rest of the day so much more digestible.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

As a writer, I’ve had to do all kinds of things to keep food on the table. I’ve been a painter of walls (white mostly), a custodian, a secretary (briefly), a nude model for art classes, a dog and house sitter, a nursery manager, a frame shop manager, a filler of cream puffs, a dishwasher, a potato shed worker as I stood on the vibrating machine and threw rotten potatoes into the garbage so they wouldn’t end up in the fryer at McDonald’s, and standing on another vibrating machine in the middle of the night, tossing out rotten asparagus for the Jolly Green Giant (who never sleeps!). I’ve been an orchardist, a raiser of sheep, a picture framer…

I’ve also been a fine art photographer, showing in art shows and galleries in the Pacific Northwest. During one of the hardest times of my life, I picked up a pair of scissors and some rubber cement and became a collage artist. I still occasionally have photographs and collages published in literary magazines—too many to name.

For regular monetary gain, however, I’m an ESL teacher, thus affording me the opportunity to have a roof over my head, food in my belly, and ink in my pen.


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