Kate Bullard Adams on Wall Street and the magic of publishing

Kate Bullard Adams looks at writing in a logical manner. Even when providing advice for up and coming writers, she states it simply and matter-of-factly: "Do everything you can to get better. No matter how good you are, you can always get better. Read the best writers, and try to figure out how they do it." Adams took a moment to speak to Preview about her views on writing and growing thick skin.

Journals that Adams' work has been featured in can be purchased through http://www.southernartistry.org/Kate_Bullard_Adams.

Q: You have an undergraduate degree in music and a graduate degree in landscape architecture. How did you decide that you wanted to write?

A: As a child, I spent a lot of time reading novels, playing the piano and roaming around outdoors. Getting degrees in music, then landscape architecture were attempts to translate the latter two into professions, but neither was the right fit for the long haul. I think I'd always wanted to write, but writing nonfiction didn't hold my interest, and writing fiction was, I thought, magic. Finally, in my late thirties, I screwed up the courage to take a stab at it and stumbled my way through a first novel. And now I know that writing a novel isn't magic, but getting one published is.

Q: What is your fiction-writing process like?

A: For me, it's very intuitive. I'll start with a character or a situation or a line of dialogue and just go from there. E.L. Doctorow described it well when he said, "It's like driving a car at night. You never see farther than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." But, sticking with that analogy, you have to first get in the car and start the engine. Inspiration doesn't come before you write but rather while you write, which reminds me of another great quote, this one from Jack London: "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."

Q: Tell me about what you're working on now.

A: I'm working on another novel-length manuscript that's different from my others in being more current and concerned with actual events. Set on Wall Street in 2007, it's about a high-powered female executive whose career is nearing its peak just as the real estate bubble begins to burst. The subject matter is a real challenge, but I've found a lot of the research really fascinating.

Q: Many of your short stories have been published in literary journals and anthologies. What advice would you give to other writers when it comes to submitting work?

A: Persevere, and develop the hide of a hippo. For most writers of literary fiction, rejection is the name of the game, and you need very thick skin to survive. Almost every story I've had published has been rejected at least a few times, and some, dozens of times. Stories that have come close with some of the best editors in the country have earned form rejections from others. This business is very subjective. Hang in there.