Introducing Kay Honeyman...
Kay Honeyman grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and attended
Baylor University, graduating with a Bachelors and Masters in English Language
and Literature. The Fire Horse Girl (Arthur
A. Levine/Scholastic) is her first novel. She currently teaches middle school
and lives in Dallas, Texas. You can visit her online at www.kayhoneyman.com.
Kay answered a few questions to give our readers a little extra info about her. Read her responses here:
Patty Campbell talks about the germ for a piece of writing
being like the sand in the oyster. What is your grain of sand? Do you begin
with a character or setting or something else?
It takes about three or four grains of sand before I can
start turning them into a story. I usually need a character, a situation, and a
setting. For THE FIRE HORSE GIRL I knew that I wanted to write the story of a
girl immigrating to America through Angel Island (the Ellis Island of the West
off the coast of San Francisco). I also knew that I wanted her to be
strong-willed and stubborn, and I wanted her to feel out of place. I had written
several chapters before I discovered the Fire Horse women.
Women born in the year of the Fire Horse (a year in the
Chinese zodiac know for strong, bold women) are seen as dangerous, even cursed.
Birth rates can plummet in some Asian countries. The description of Fire Horse
women fits some of my favorite women, real and fictional. That was the last
grain of sand I needed.
Do you outline before you write or just dive in?
I much prefer just throwing words on a page like an
over-caffeinated monkey and then wondering why it doesn’t turn out perfectly
the first time around. It is not the most productive system, nor is it
recommended by any of the writing books I’ve read, but it does result in
endless revisions. I am working on getting better at outlining, but I am a slow
learner. I think of my first draft as a rough outline and build from there.
In high school, where did you fall? (Prom Queen/King,
Brainy/Book Nerd, Jock, Shy/Quiet Scholar, Skate Rat, Stoner, Class Clown,
etc.)
I fell in the cracks between all of these. Maybe that is why
I love to write about labels and identity.
What books or authors have most influenced your writing?
I am most influence by writers like Jane Austen and Edith
Wharton. I love they way they pick at society, pointing out people as
beautiful, ridiculous, noble, and fascinating creatures. I have read To Kill a Mockingbird every year for the
past decade. If you ask me what I’ve read recently that I love, it’s usually
the last book I read, because that is the story swimming in my head.
It’s the dawn of the zombie apocalypse, what 3 things
are a must to take with you when you flee your home for refuge from the undead
hordes?
This one stumped me, so I did what any author would do when
blocked by lack of knowledge, I googled it. Based on ten minutes of research, I
have decided to pack the following: a baseball bat (many sites chose this as
the weapon of choice), matches (fire, historically been valuable and handy),
and a tent since I will be getting out of highly populated areas. I think I
would be zombie meat against a horde, but I like my chances mono-e-mono. They
are slow moving and not known for their intelligence.
Thank you for taking a few minutes to answer our questions, Kay!
Meet Kay with the other authors at the 2014 Montgomery County Book Festival on Feburary 15th.
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