​Kari sat down for an interview with Appalachian Shine recently. We asked her to do a Q & A for the blog, and we appreciate her sharing her work with us!

What is the most challenging thing that you face running Spiral Publishing?
The hardest thing by far is time, but not in the way I might have expected a few years ago. I realized back in December of 2018 (oh such innocent days on Planet Earth) that the publishing side wouldn’t last long without making sure I took care of the production side. And since my husband Jason A. Adams is a writer with a day job who greatly prefers to write short stories, production means me. I started writing at least 250 words every day that December to make sure there would always be books in the pipeline.
Not everyone has to write every single day by any means, but it works better for me than anything else. For example, Jason tends to write his short stories in one day, and that’s usually the day they’re due. Too stressful for me! So since I’ve boosted up to 1000+ words a day for the last year, the production side of the time equation is handled.
The time problem is in wanting to try new things! Hearing about a new online sales channel, or a new publishing format, or the possibility of learning how to produce audiobooks, or a new type of promotion. On and on and on. This is a tremendously exciting time for indie publishers to be sure.
But going back to that production side, if I jump in and put time and mental energy and possibly money into learning ALL THE NEW THINGS, I won’t get the writing done. Then the whole business grinds to a halt. And the writing is the most fun for me anyway. So I have to decide whether each new opportunity is worth the effort as they come along.
Pretty often, the truth is I’d be better off writing the next story and keeping an eye on how the exciting new thing is developing. Always write the next thing.
 
In normal times, how many festivals do you attend a year? Any favorite festivals or functions?
We decided in 2019 to try going to some sort of event each month, and that year we did do that and more. Again, back in those days of innocence. That ranged from the wonderful Cooks and Books event right here in St. Paul that we attend each year, to RavenCon in Williamsburg, MystiCon in Roanoke, RobCon in Kingsport, and all kinds of smaller events in between. And the truth is for me as an introvert and pretty much a hermit, it was exhausting! Fun, and exciting, and great to meet readers and other writers. But it drained me something awful.
So once we’re in the clear for travel, I’ll probably only do Cooks and Books and a couple of others, especially if they’re for a great cause like that one is.
MystiCon in Roanoke was our first convention as guests after years of attending the writer panels at DragonCon when we lived in Atlanta, so getting a badge that said “Guest” was quite a thrill. As it turned out, they asked me to moderate a panel. So it ended up that my first ever panel at my first ever con as a guest was as moderator, and it started less than an hour after we arrived at the hotel. Major stress and major fun at the same time. J
Then at the last panel for that con, as we finished up, a big gaggle of readers came charging up toward the front. My first instinct was to look behind me to see who they could possibly be interested in! It was bizarre to realize they were from our local area, and they wanted to hear more about the fantasy stories I write set here. Quite a moment.
 
You finished a book in what we movie fans know as the Stanley Hotel...in the infamous room 217. What was that experience like, from Transylvania to the haunted hotel made famous by Stephen King and The Shining?
I had no plans of starting a novel on the first trip to Transylvania back in 2015. I just wanted to have the fantastic travel experience, spend time with writer friends I’ve known for years, meet new friends, and learn as much as I could. What I didn’t count on was how much being behind the old Soviet Iron Curtain for the first time would hit me. As a Seventies and Eighties kid who always paid a lot of attention to world events, I was surprisingly moved by the whole experience, especially talking to people our age and older who lived through it all.
We spent several days before the workshop in Bucharest, Romania’s capitol, doing typical tourist things. But with four writers traveling together, it all got...interesting. We toured a Romanian folk museum with examples of houses and villages from their history, and toured the parliament building, built not long before the fall of the USSR and at a terrible cost to Romanians.
Much to my surprise, once we got back from that trip, I kept going on the assignments during the workshop. Many of the things from the whole trip found their way into my novel Until Death, along with all kinds of Romanian and Eastern European folklore. We stayed a few miles away from Dracula’s Castle in Bran, Romania, so yes, of course the story includes a form of vampire.
By a purely lucky stroke of timing, I went to a horror writers retreat in Estes Park, Colorado, the next year, and stayed at the fabulous Stanley Hotel. It’s a wonderful town and the hotel is spectacular, but the knowledge that a certain famous writer got the idea for a certain famous haunted hotel story while staying in one of the rooms was on my mind.
The organizer of the retreat also stayed in room 217 (the most haunted room from the book, changed to 237 for the movie), and he offered writers a chance to work in that room for four hours. I absolutely jumped at the chance! I finished Until Death during my time in room 217, but I have to admit nothing particularly spooky happened there. The best part was when groups of tourists would come by to peer at the door, and I naturally yanked it open. Got some pretty impressive jumps out of them!
I’ve also been lucky enough to visit the Timberline Lodge in Oregon where exteriors from the movie were filmed, and to stay at the magnificent Ahwahnee Lodge in Yosemite National Park, where the designs for the movie interiors came from. Inside the Timberline is tiny compared to what you see in the movie.
On my last visit a couple of years ago with Jason, we drove from a warm, springlike day up to the Timberline, where it was pouring snow! If you’ve seen The Shining, you might remember how the weather was a character in itself. Being up there with snow piled many feet high against the lodge was surreal to say the least. Sadly there’s no hedge maze, but I admit I glanced over my shoulder a time or two, watching out for a guy with an axe.

Over the years, what have you learned most about yourself by jumping wholeheartedly into writing as a career? 
These are all specific to me, because we’re all so different as writers and as people. Comparing ourselves to others is one of the worst ways to set ourselves back.
The big one is I’m so much better off writing every day. Now that I’m halfway through the third year of my writing streak, it’s become almost an ordinary thing in a strange way. Kind of like brushing my teeth. It’s just something I do.
And that’s in turn made me much, much less picky about what I write. I know I’ve got to write something, because a long streak like that exerts its own positive pressure. So I don’t wait for inspiration or A Great Idea or anything like that. I just get started. That’s really freed up how I feel about different topics, different genres, different story lengths, everything.
I can also write pretty much anywhere, anytime because of that streak. I once wrote on a bus full of ten-year-olds on a field trip with my nephew’s class on the way to Washington, DC, with Finding Nemo playing full blast over the speakers! It’s a real game-changer for me as a writer, and it carries over to other things in my life that simply need to get done. I just get started.
I’ve also gotten into the habit of publishing something major (novel, novella, collection) each month, and publishing a short story each week this year (a challenge from a friend that I couldn’t resist!). That’s entirely eliminated any lingering fear of publishing I might have had.
The truth is there will be stories people love, and others will hate those same ones. There will be stories that sell well, and stories that never sell a copy. Some will work, others will fall flat. And ALL of that is okay. As long as I do the best I can in the moment I’m writing, and as long as I keep learning, I’ll be on the right track.
And last of all, I’ve learned that I truly enjoy teaching. One-on-one, online, or occasionally for groups. I’ve been fortunate to have had some wonderful writing teachers since 2015, and a bunch of writer friends who love to try new things and let us know how they work. I’m also a computer and software nerd going back to the 1980s. Putting all of those things together means I have a lot to share. It’s a real treat to see people’s eyes light up at something when I explain it well, and even better when they tell me how they’ve used it in their own writing and publishing.

In this Author Spotlight, we talk with Tammy Robinson Smith. Tammy recently came onto the Appalachian Shine podcast to talk about her writing career, her influences, and her efforts to promote Appalachian women writers. She took some time to field a few questions from us here at the AAG.
 
Q: The Ivy Creek Sewing Circle, was there anything in particular that influenced you to write that book?
A:  The primary inspiration behind my writing The Ivy Creek Sewing Circle was the main character, Emmybeth. She first came to me as an inquisitive nine-year old girl who loved to listen to the adults talking and try to figure out what was going on in their lives, some of which directly or indirectly affected her. I realized as I wrote there was a lot of me in Emmybeth. I'm not sure why, except that I've always been inquisitive, but, even as a child I liked to listen to what the grownups were talking about. I realized if I was quiet and didn't bring attention to myself, I got to "stay in the room." Maybe I was just nosy. Lol.
 
Q: In the past you've been a champion of Appalachian women writers. Can you tell us about establishing your own publishing house and what led you to do that? 
A: Well, first of all, I appreciate you calling me a champion of Appalachian women writers. It means everything to me to have you say that. I began writing my first novel in 2003. I tried to shop it to a couple of traditional publishing houses, but, it just seemed overwhelming, and I didn't get the feeling there was a lot of interest in publishing a book that by definition had such a narrow appeal. Perhaps if it were southern fiction or general women's fiction, it might have been different. Once I self-published, I realized there were probably other Appalachian women writers who were in the same position I had been in and I realized I could help them publish their work. It was a fulfilling part of my life for a long time.
 
Q: When did you first consider writing? Were there any writers in your family? 
A:In elementary school, I loved it when the teacher would task us with writing a story. Then, in junior high I won an essay contest sponsored by a community civic group. I guess from there it just grew. I majored in Broadcast Journalism when I was in college and have made my living writing professionally whether reporting, public relations, or marketing for more than 35 years. Since the early 2000s, I've added fiction writer to the mix. And, yes, there are and were some talented writers in my family. Namely, my great-aunt, Bess McReynolds Becker. She was a regionally known poet and I am proud to admit I have an unpublished 600 page manuscript she wrote in the late 1940s which details my mother's family trip to work and live in Lake Tahoe, California for a year. The entire family went on that adventure and it's a fascinating story I hope to get published one day.
 
Q: Having worked in publishing, promoting, and marketing other writers, you now find yourself jumping into your creative side. After experiencing all of that, what advice would you give to new writers?
A: Honestly, just start. Start today, but also realize it is work. One needs to study, take classes and seminars, work with coaches, and surround one's self with other writers who are dedicated to their craft. Most of all, recognize some days will be hard. However, on the successful days, it will be worth it!

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