Ahoy, salty WEbookers! July 4th slowed me down, but not even the start of the first ever WEbook voting cycle (now accepting submissions – voting begins July 18) can make WEbook of the WEek walk the plank.
“Hey, Melissa, what’s up with the pirate slang?”
Good question. I’m
blogging like a pirate in honor of today’s WEbooker
of the WEek KateGray. I was taking a look at the Top Writers page the other day,
when I noticed this funny avatar:
I clicked on it, and discovered KateGray. Now, KateGray readily admits that she is not the brains behind this clever graphic. (If someone knows who made this image, let me know, so I can give them credit!) However, she does like pirates! That’s enough to encourage me to take a look at her writing.
It turns out that KateGray is a writer of many talents. She has contributed poetry, non-fiction, a novel, and stories both short and long to a total of eight WEbook projects. It’s an impressive body of work, but the thing that really earned KateGray the title of WEbooker of the WEek (no, it wasn’t the pirate avatar) is her project Shorts, only halfway pulled up, a group of unfinished stories, sketches, fragments, and bits of fiction that KateGray isn’t too happy with.
“Wait a second, Melissa, you’re rewarding someone for not finishing her stories?”
As a matter of fact, I am. These Shorts showcase KateGray’s strengths: Her vivid imagery, her confident narration, and her command of the language. But even more important than the stories' potential is KateGray’s courage and resourcefulness. She’s got some beginnings she cares about; she doesn’t know what to do next; so she posts them on WEbook to get help with her next big idea. Now that’s putting the WE back in WEbook! Get over to Shorts, only halfway pulled up, and help KateGray take these stories to the next level – but first, let’s get up close and personal with our newest WEbooker of the WEek.
KateGray was born on Friday the 13th. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in classical archaeology, and confesses to “dreams of going overseas and spending a lot of time being dusty and extremely studious.” Instead, she became an officer in the Marine Corps, where she met her husband. When she’s not writing, she’s busy raising her two sons, ages two and seven. The oldest is autistic (read about it here), and the youngest is “like a bottle of nitroglycerine.” In case that doesn’t tell you enough about KateGray, I asked her a few more WEbooker of the WEek questions.
Q: KateGray, what are three verbs that best capture your
essence?
A: My husband’s
response was in adjectives, despite my directions, so I had to modify them into
verbs. Withheld (shy), contending (stubborn), roused (passionate). I figured
he’d be more objective than I could be about myself.
Q: What is your most professionally useless area
of expertise?
A: Running with a jogging stroller. It’s not as easy as it sounds, especially if you have a child riding who likes to heave his body side to side while imprecating you to TURN AROUND, GO HOME!!!
Q: What is the longest flight you’ve ever been
on?
A: Seoul, October, 2001. I was all set to teach English overseas. When I arrived after three movies and eighteen hours, I found that my employers were in breach of contract over nearly everything. They even told me that they needed my passport for an unspecified period of time! I quickly went back to the airport, as they’d given me an open-ended return ticket, and got the first standby flight out of there. I got home to New England some thirteen hours later.
When you’re done checking out KateGray’s Shorts, be sure to vote on her novel, Sleep, currently in contention to become the next published WEbook.
Happy writing!
-- Melissa
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